Even When You're Gone

Nineteen

AN: I will be taking the next two weeks off posting as I'm right in the middle of finals and need to focus on school work. See you all in June!

Thursday morning Richelle is second guessing the story she chose to put into her dance. Not that she has any time to change it.

Five minutes before they're supposed to be on the bus to go to the studio Richelle calls her sister in a panic.

"I think I made a mistake, Nat. I don't know if I can do this." Her sister has barely answered the phone before she starts talking.

"Are you safe?"

Richelle takes a couple of deep breaths, "Yes."

"Okay, good. Do you want to start over, a little slower this time."

"My dance I'm doing today, it's about us. And getting to live with you and being free to be myself around you. But I'm worried about what Mom and Dad are going to think when they see it. Especially since I talked a lot with the costumers and my costume is going from tight and restrictive to loose and flowing, and it doesn't feel horrible which is nice, as the dance goes on."

Natalie is quiet for a long minute on the other end. "Are you proud of your dance?"

"Yes, but—"

Her sister cuts her off, "And do you like how you feel doing your dance?"

"Yes."

"Then it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Even Mom and Dad. You're going to kill it, like you always do. And I'll see you tomorrow okay?"

Richelle blinks tears out of her eyes, it's starting to hit her how much she really misses her sister, "Okay. Thank you Nat. I love you."

"Love you too Riche."

Richelle sits on her bed and wipes her eyes. She'll have to go downstairs in a minute but for now she needs to regroup. I can do this. She's almost late by the time she finally makes it to the lobby but she just needs to make it through today. Natalie, Noah, and Emily are going to be here tomorrow and everything is going to be okay.

When Jacquie asks her how she is she answers a little louder than she anticipated and everyone else on the bus turns to look at her, apparently deciding that she's not as fine as she's claiming.

"I'm fine," she repeats quieter. "I just really miss Natalie and my dance today is about us so everything's just right there."

Aside from leaning into her, Jacquie leaves her alone for the rest of the bus ride. Which is just what she needs, she doesn't need more questions or reassurance.

***

Richelle isn't performing until the end of the night, second to last. She doesn't mind being in her costume before then, but she's putting off getting the final pieces on for as long as she can.

In the meantime she pulls Alex and Stevie over to play Kings Corner. Jacquie watches, and points out moves, but since TNS is going on earlier she doesn't have time to play. When J-Cruise comes back to the green room they pause their game to watch A-Troupe on the tv.

They're dancing to "Shadows", which is one of the dances Richelle choreographed before she left. She had a lot of fun working on it, but like all the dances they've done so far she's intrigued to see how the formations changed and if any of the story elements changed. It looks more or less the same, her story about a couple being torn apart hasn't changed. And she hates to say it, but honestly most of their dances look better with ten dancers than they did with eleven.

By the time A-Troupe makes it back to the green room The Lionettes have to go to the staging area. Richelle cleans up their game and then goes to see the costumers to get the last pieces of her costume on. And then the commercial break is ending and Tink is welcoming everyone back.

As she dances she thinks about how freeing it was getting to spend weekends at Natalie's apartment and then getting to move in with her. "Empire" plays over the speakers while she sheds the outer layers and wrappings on her arms and legs. It's the most vulnerable she's felt on stage in a long time and tears sting her eyes when she's done.

And like she did Tuesday night Tink ambushes her with a question. "Richelle, that looked like a really emotional dance. Can you tell us about your inspiration?"

"I live with my sister," Richelle starts slowly. "I don't have the best relationship with my parents and so my dance was about my relationship with my sister. And what it was like growing up with my parents and eventually moving in with her."

"Thank you for sharing with us." Richelle heads off stage as Tink turns back to face the camera, "Our last performer of the night is Mel Andersonn."

When Mel's dance is over they all assemble on the stage again to get their scores. They're down to 31 people which is still probably a fire hazard. But The Lionettes press themselves close to Richelle on one side while she presses herself close to Jacquie on the other. Richelle doesn't know if they've seen her and Jacquie hold each other while they announced the scores the previous nights or if they're just more comfortable around them now and terrified of what's to come. Right as Tink is making her way back out to the stage Alex reaches her hand out so Richelle grabs it and squeezes. They'll make it through, Richelle thinks, she doesn't let herself think anything else.

They come back from the commercial break and Tink re-reads out the current leader board. "At the top we have J-Cruise with a 96 followed by The Next Step with 90. And at the bottom is Caroline Garcia with 86 and Dance Lab with an 89. Let's get the rest of our scores."

Alex squeezes her hand a little harder as Tink gets ready to announce their scores.

"The Lionettes, with their highest score of the competition so far, a 92!" Richelle sees both of them relax and Alex's hold on her hand loosens, they're definitely not in the bottom two and won't be going home this week. "Richelle Wilson, just behind J-Cruise, earned a 95." She made it too, they all made it to the semi-finals.

AN: For clarification, Richelle is dancing to Empire Pt. 3, but for this being slightly more based in reality that's a completely ridiculous naming convention so it's just referred to as Empire.