Living the Dream

One - Piper

I stood in the studio amongst everyone else who was auditioning. I was ditching my other team just to be here for today's auditions at the newest dance studio and I couldn't stop biting my nails in spite of the lilac acrylics I had just got done over the weekend with the girls.

My head was spinning all over the place as I stood in line in my joggers and hoody, my dance attire the layer beneath it all.

Everyone here looked grand and sophisticated. Their eyes were like predators while I was their prey and just looking around at the number of girls with their beady irises in here was enough to make me feel sick to my stomach, my heart beating rapidly and flaming like a grill.

It was supposed to be quite cool and misty but I was already building up a sweat. Albeit, that was probably because of the number of layers I was currently wearing.

I hadn't met or seen the studio owner anywhere yet. The only people I had seen were those also auditioning today and the administrator, who had introduced herself to me as Monica.

My phone must have been blasting with texts from everyone at The Next Step but I didn't care less. I'd rather be here, auditioning for the benefit of myself and my future rather than whiling away time at a place the team to go to Nationals changed every day. I was hesitant at first, but this is the sort of opportunity I just can't miss out on.

I knew Finn and Any would feel no less betrayed than anyone else on that team. They might be the two people who would hate me most for doing this but it was something I had to do to get myself away from the inconsistency of it all before the passion I saw as sunshine turned into nothing more than a grey cloud in the back of my head.

"You into music or something?" a voice behind me says with the feel of a nudge against my shoulder. I turn my head around to meet a pair of wide eyes looking down at me with pure enthusiasm.

I wasn't sure what he was talking about until he glances down at my feet when I had been bouncing up and down unknowingly. I hadn't realised the sound my bare feet were making against the smooth flooring but it must not have sounded pleasant at all.

"Strangely, no," I say through gritted teeth as I inhaled a breath of air.

I looked around me at the painted walls and framed photos which decorated them, trying to seek some source of comfort from the glittered images of professional dancers and the graffiti marking their presence.

I wanted nothing more than to become one of those dancers on the walls sometime in the future but until then, I had to sustain being a recreational dancer before I took it any further.

"You've never played an instrument before?" I don't know why he was asking me such irrelevant questions but it would be rude to stop replying.

"No," I mumble. "Unless you count punching a few keys on a piano out of frustration with my brother as an interpretive form of music."

He smiles at the sound of my words but doesn't respond. I focus on my feet, bringing my feet and legs to being as still as I could muster.

The doors open and everyone comes to a halt, their chatter pausing and lips aligning while all heads lift up and eyes fall in the direction of the four people to enter the room. One guy holding a clipboard, another girl holding a clipboard who also wore glasses on the tip of her nose with her dark brown locks curls which dropped past her shoulders.

In between them was the studio head, Riley, and next to her was . . . my brother?

He frowns when he sees me and it causes me to shake my head in disbelief and confusion. What was he doing here?

"Okay, everyone, thank you all for coming here to audition. There is quite a large turnout as I'm sure you have realised from looking around at those surrounding you so I want to make this fairly quick and easy," Riley starts off by saying, glancing around at every single one of us.

I doubt she had noticed me yet. She and I already knew each other but we hadn't spoken in years. I'd be surprised if she even remembered me.

I still had no idea what James was doing here but I wasn't too sure of how to ask him either. He had left home months ago and barely kept in touch with either one of us. Sometimes I wish he had never left home to begin with.

He originally left to go on tour with the band who had finally named themselves 'Lost And Found' after the first ever song they put together.

He posted on Instagram quite a lot so we could keep up with him and what he was doing, but I never heard or saw anything about him moving to New York, or working together with Riley. I had no idea the two of them were even in contact again.

"There are going to be three rounds to this," Riley starts. "If you're coming from a past competitive studio like I'm sure a few of you have, you may be familiar with it. The first round will be a freestyle round. I want to see what you're capable of," she says before James interrupts.

"Wait, what?" he questions as he wore a ridiculous cap backwards on his head. "I thought we agreed to do a contemporary round and a hip hop round."

"Yeah, well, this is my studio so we'll be doing what I say. Got it?" Riley bites back, smirking at him.

He rolls his eyes at her before she continues talking. "Now, before I was rudely interrupted, I was saying there would be a freestyle round followed by a choreo round and in the end I would like you to get into partners. I don't care who with, I'm not entirely fussed, but make sure it's someone whose style you think would greatly compliment yours, and then from there you'll have an hour to put together a duet and we'll perform it for the next hour."

"I hope you have your water bottles filled up because this is going to be a long day for you all," the blond guy stood on the other side of Riley chips in, making her chuckle.

"Although, we probably should introduce ourselves first," she adds. "I'm Miss Cassidy, but you can just call me Riley, the studio head, as you should all know by now. This is Nate, he'll basically be the assistant studio head, helping me around here and there," she says, smiling at him. It makes me wonder if there was something going on between the two of them, but I couldn't be too sure.

"And this pretty lady is Monica, she's the administrator who will be dealing with finances and paperwork and whatnot. She is younger than me, but that doesn't give you permission to try chatting her up. This dance studio is strictly professional, got it?" Riley warns, causing all of us to nod our heads.

I don't know when she got so strict and austere but it was definitely working when it comes to keeping everyone under control.

"Uh, I think you forgot to introduce somebody," my brother chimes, raising an eyebrow, causing Riley to sigh.

"Everyone, this is James, the guy who just showed up out of the blue for whatever reason."

James scoffs, about to add more, but she continues talking to stop him from doing so. "Now can you all start warming up. I want to see what you've got in ten minutes from now. Monica, could you get me my paper, clipboard and pen from the office for me, please?"

"On it," Monica says before turning away to do as Riley had said.

She glances over at me and offers me a supportive smile, one that reassures me and calms my nerves down a little. I don't want to be seen as a favourite but to know she had my back made me feel a little more secure.