Keep Your Shirt On, Noah 2

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better

"Shall we start?" Jacquie asked everyone, bluntly as she quickly walked into studio 1. Everyone turned their heads to her while they sat around stretching, questioning what was happening. It wasn't even time for rehearsal to start yet, there were still four minutes to go.

Lola watched Jacquie walk to her starting position, and eventually broke the silence, "Shouldn't we wait for Noah?"

"No."

The instant reply from her, kept everyone in silence. By now everyone knew that Jacquie and Noah had broken up, but the way Jacquie had responded had caught them all off guard. No one moved from where they were stretching and they all let Lola be the designated speaker. Lola looked at Josh for back up but he gave a small shake of his head. He was not getting involved.

Jacquie was still looking at the wall opposite her, waiting for everyone to get in their starting positions. Lola stood up and walked over to her hesitantly. She didn't like Jacquie because of what she did to Richelle, but her behavior was a little concerning. Lola couldn't help being a nice person, so she felt inclined to ask, "Jacquie, is everything okay?"

Jacquie nodded, re-asking everyone loudly, "Shall we start?"

Lola looked as everyone started getting up and walking to where in the room they needed to be to start the dance. They all looked hesitant but not willing to question Jacquie. Lola looked back at her and gulped, asking for the second time, "Do you not want to wait for Noah?"

Jaquie sighed loudly and turned to Lola, making her take a step back. "Noah's not coming. He's in studio A."

Josh was stood over by the door but overheard them talking, "Oh... Well Jacquie, do you want me to get him?"

"No." Jacquie walked over to the stereo in frustration, put the song back to the start, and pressed play, turning up the volume to try and drown out everyone talking about Noah. She went back to her place and sighed, expecting Lola to go to her place as well, but she didn't move. After a few seconds of waiting, she demanded, "Lola, go to your place." She hated when people didn't listen to her.

Lola laughed awkwardly because she knew Jacquie was being unnecessarily aggressive towards everyone, "Jacquie, you're not the dance captain. Also... We need Noah, it isn't safe to do some of the lifts without him."

The music had reached the point where the dancing should have started, but everyone was frozen and listening to Jacquie and Lola's conversation. Jacquie put her hands on her head and turned to face everyone. Through gritted teeth she announced, "Noah's moved to TNS West."

There were a mixture of gasps, jaws dropping and people just generally not sure how they were supposed to react, in the room. Jacquie turned back to the front, ready to rehearse without Noah now that the secret was out, but after processing what Jacquie had just told them, Lola jogged over to the stereo and paused the track. 

Jacquie raised her eyebrows but Lola had an excuse at the ready, "We need to re-choreograph without him then. But first I need to fill up my water bottle, is that alright?"

Jacquie went to respond but Josh did first. He crossed his arms and reminded her, "She's not the dance captain, Lola."

Lola hesitated but Josh was right, she'd even said this herself a few minutes ago. Jacquie was just naturally intimidating. Although Jacquie was frowning at her, Lola jogged out, picking up her empty bottle that was under one of the benches, on her way. Instead of going to the locker room that had the water fountain in though, she walked straight past and headed to studio A.

She needed to warn Richelle that Noah would soon be spending more time with her than she would like.

Once nearly there, Lola realised from the sound of no music being echoed through the corridor, that TNS West's rehearsal didn't start for another 15 minutes. She questioned leaving again but she also knew that Richelle always did half an hour of stretching before rehearsal, so she was probably somewhere to be found.