Falling From Cloud Nine (Third Book in The TNB Series)

Chapter 4 ~ Little Mix Versus One Direction

This chapter starts on the Monday after the last chapter (which finished on a Friday in this stories world).
Also, you guys should know that Lucas Tanner WILL NOT be singing. He's a non-singing character. Because that can happen.
Enjoy!
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The mud splashed onto Ryder's face as he went under the ropes. During his first two weeks at the training base, the training was so hard and tough.
He hadn't talked to Ryley for a few days now since their talk on the phone. He missed her like crazy. He missed seeing her smile. He missed kissing her, hugging her and just holding her hand.
"Come on, Lynn! Push yourself!" The general in charge shouted at him.
The army wasn't as amazing as he thought it was going to be but he's not going to give up. He's going to return to Lima as a war hero. He'll be Ryley's hero. He just hopes she hasn't fallen for that Lucas guy just yet.
Ryder pushes himself through the muddy puddles and gets up onto his feet. He runs through the rain and to the wooden climbing wall. He climbs up it and back down the other side. He runs ahead with people behind him and in front of him.
He climbs across the monkey bars, almost slipping. He does slip on the last bar and falls into the puddle underneath.
"Get up, Lynn! Don't be a wussy!" The general shouts.
Ryder pushes himself out of the puddle, officially drenched in muddy rain water. He then runs over hurdles and makes his way to the end of the course.
"You did that in a slow time, Lynn," The general says, "Next time, don't fall over."
Ryder has the urge to say "Next time, make sure it isn't raining" but he doesn't. He just wipes some of the dirt of his face and heads back to the barracks to hopefully have some sort of shower.
Jason walks up tot Ryder from the side, having just done the course too, "You did well for your first proper attempt at the course. General does it normally on a raining day just to torture us all."
"Thanks. How many times have you done the course?" Ryder asks.
"A lot. It's never going to be fun, just so you know." Jason says.
"I can tell." Ryder says.
Ryder then heads off to the bathrooms and takes a quick shower to wash the mud off himself. He then puts on a new change of clothes.
As he shuffles through his bag to find a clean shirt, he comes across a photo. It's folded up so he unfolds it. It's a picture of him and Ryley during the summer. He was holding the camera and took a picture of them while at the Lima swimming pool. They were just so happy on that day.
Ryder puts on a shirt then tucks the photo into the back pocket of his pants then heads out to the cafeteria for lunch.

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Ryley sits in a seat at the back of the choir room seats. The rest of the club sit in the other seats. Finn stands by the whiteboard, writing LM VS 1D on the board.
"What does that mean?" Gabe asks.
"We are having a girl vs boys competition but the girls have to sing Little Mix and the boys have to sing One Direction." Finn says.
"Yes!" Ryley shouts, fist pumping the air.
"Now," Finn gestures for them to split, "Separate!"
The girls go to one side and the boys go to the other side.
"I say we should sing Salute. It's like a girl power anthem." Ryley says.
"I agree. That song is like amazing." Angie says.
"Are we all in agreement?" Hailey asks.
All the girls nod and then make plans about who's going to sing what. The boys are having an easy job too.
"Better Than Words." Troye says simply.
"What's that song?" Noah asks.
"I don't know that song." Gabe says.
All the boys don't seem to know the song so Troye takes out his phone and plays the song for the boys. The boys just nod in agreement that they'll perform it and Troye happily takes over to plan who sings what.

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Ryley sat in the auditorium, waiting for the girls to do their rehearsal. She lightly plays Your Song by Elton John on the piano. Technically, this song is the first song Ryder sung to her. He sung it to her when she wanted a song to sing for Glee Club for the Romantic theme. It felt like so long ago.
"You ready to rehearse, Ryley?" Abbi asks, walking onto the auditorium stage with Hailey, Natalie and Angie with her. Samantha - in her new Cheerios uniform - and Lucy follow behind the four, talking about something between the two of them.
"Uh, yeah." Ryley says, getting up from the piano.
Samantha takes over for choreography for the girls, putting some of her dance skills to work. Lucy seems to be struggling with the moves, falling over once or twice.
"You sure you're okay with these moves? I can change them up if you want me to." Samantha says, helping Lucy up for the third time in an hour.
"No. I'm good." Lucy says, returning to her feet.
"Let's continue then." Samantha says.
After a few more times of messing up (not just by Lucy), the girls have nailed their dance to Salute. They begin to work on their vocals next and after they've got the vocals done, they put the dance with the song.
They run through the dance and song a few times and once they've done it really well, they hear an applause from the seats of the auditorium.
"Lucas, how'd you get in here without us hearing you?" Ryley asks Lucas as he finishes clapping for them.
"I'm like a silent and deadly ninja." Lucas says with a smile.
"I can tell." Ryley says. She feels a little awkward talking to Lucas. Especially after what he told her last week.
"Think we'd better get going." Abbi says. Hailey, Lucy and Samantha agree so the three leave.
"I can just see the awkwardness in the room between these two." Angie says, looking around the auditorium. Natalie drags Angie out of the auditorium to leave Ryley and Lucas alone.
"Well..." Lucas starts.
"Well..." Ryley starts.
Lucas goes down the auditorium steps and goes to Ryley on the stage, "Did you ever hear that song by The Eels from an episode of Chuck in season one called Fresh Feeling?" (A/N: Check out Fresh Feeling by The Eels. Really good song). The two are really close now, standing at least a metre away from each other.
"Yeah. Of course. I love that song. It was a sad scene though." Ryley says.
"Agreed," Lucas says, "But that song always applies to how I feel when I'm near you."
Ryley stays silent but then speaks up, "I'm half expecting you to sing it now."
"I would but I'm terrible at singing." Lucas says.
Ryley laughs a little, "I could sing it?"
"Not now. You seem tired and you have to beat the boys in your Glee Club tomorrow with that awesome song you guys just rehearsed." Lucas says.
"Bye Lucas." Ryley says.
"Bye Ryley." Lucas says.
Ryley leaves the auditorium first, leaving Lucas alone on the stage.