Fight Song

Chapter 22

Joe's PoV
"So, what now?" I asked the Internationals official, who's name turned out to be Liz.

"Well, Britain automatically gets their place in the semi final," Liz said. "However with Canada it's a tougher situation."

"Tougher how?" Briar looked concerned.

"Well," Liz started, "the semi finals only accommodates four teams, all of which have already been selected. South Africa seemingly won based on the fact Canada was sabotaged by Estonia. So, I'm leaving it down to your two teams. You can have a rematch, or South Africa can remain in the competition and Canada be sent home."

Briar looked crestfallen. She didn't want Caspar to have his victory taken from him, of course, but I could tell she also really wanted the rematch to win.

"Okay," Briar nodded.

"You have an hour to decide," Liz said. "If you choose a rematch, it's unlikely an audience will be present and it won't be televised, but the judges will be fair. If you choose South Africa to remain victorious, then all stays the same. Come and find me when you've decided."

Briar nodded. I stood awkwardly, not really knowing what to do. Liz walked away, leaving me standing with Briar.

"Joe, I don't know what to do," she said. "I saw Caspar's face when he won. I can't take that away from him. But at the same time, my team will kill me if I don't allow a rematch."

"Well," I said, "it's a tough decision, and either way someone will be disappointed. But you have to talk to Caspar. He has as much say in this as you do."

Briar nodded sadly, and we headed back to the others.

"Joe!" Dianne grinned and ran into my arms.

"Hey, Reddo," I chuckled, hugging her.

"Did it work?" she asked hopefully.

"Kind of," I said. "Estonia got disqualified, meaning Britain is officially in the semi finals..."

"That's amazing!" she grinned, but then immediately said looking worried "and why aren't you smiling? Joe, you're in the semi finals and Heidi got caught, what's wrong?"

"Canada and South Africa still have to decide which one of them is going through," I sighed. "They can either have a rematch or decide South Africa remains in the competition."

Dianne's mouth formed an 'o' shape as her arms fell from around my neck. We both looked over to see Caspar and Briar talking, both of them looking understandably upset.

Briar's PoV
I drew Caspar aside when we got back.

"We need to talk," I said.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned. "Did Heidi not get sent home?"

"No," I bit my lip, "no she did, Estonia is disqualified and Britain is in the semi finals, but..."

"But what?" Caspar frowned.

"But Canada and South Africa now either have to have a rematch or we can decide to let you have the win," I sighed.

"Rematch," Caspar said immediately, without even looking concerned. "I had a feeling that would be the case, and I don't want to win because your team were sabotaged, I wanna win fair and square. I messaged my group chat and they all said the same. We don't want to win this way."

"But what if you lose?" I said.

"Then we lose," Caspar shrugged. "But at least it will have been a fair fight."

I nodded. "Okay, if you're sure."

"I'm sure," he said. "Let's go tell the board."

We walked back to Liz's office, where she looked surprised to see us too soon.

"We want a rematch," Caspar said. "As soon as possible."

"Well, I must say I didn't expect you back here so soon," Liz said. "But okay, let's get your teams to the stage now and we'll start the rematch. The judges will probably still be there."

We walked back with Liz to the theatre, texting our teams to meet us there as soon as they could. It was rematch time.

Dianne's PoV
We didn't really know what was going on. Caspar and Briar had been gone long enough to have figured out they were having a rematch, but we had no clue who was going to win. We'd gone and sat in Britain's changing room on the sofas scattered around the room. I felt so bad for them both. I couldn't imagine being in this situation...

"It's okay," Joe drew me closer to him, planting a kiss on my forehead.

"Is it though?" I sighed, leaning into him. "One of them, if not both of them, will be absolutely crushed with this result."

"True," Joe sighed, "but at least it's fair. They'll know who the true winner should've been. They both deserve at least that."

"Yeah," I closed my eyes. Joe started stroking his hand up and down on my arm to calm me, and it was working. I sunk deeper into his chest, but I still couldn't smile. All I could think about was how awful it would be to face Joe, and knowing that it was going to happen eventually...

Joe's PoV
Not knowing was killing me. I laid my head on top of my girlfriend's, both of us cuddling against each other on the sofa in our dressing room. I looked around the room, and everyone else looked equally as nervous. Without intending to, we'd formed quite the group over these past few days. A friendship like no other, and now it was being tested in an awful way. What made it worse was knowing that I would have to face Dianne sooner or later, and one of us would beat the other. But in this situation, I don't think there could be a winner. I suppose at least facing Dianne would be different. One of us wouldn't have already won when we faced each other. I supposed all we could do now was wait and pray...but pray for what? We wanted them both to win, but they weren't going to. I closed my eyes.

Briar's PoV
Canada and South Africa had both performed, and neither of us had messed up. The audience members who were still there, including the rest of our teams, had cheered for us and the judges looked pleased. It was time for the winner to be announced.

"Thank you to South Africa for having the sportsman ship to want to win fair and square," one judge said. "And thank you to Canada for not being rude about it."

Caspar and I smiled at each other. I wanted to win so badly, but at this moment I wouldn't be too disappointed if we didn't.

"Based on difficulty alone, we have chosen the rightful winner of this round," another judge said. "I can now announce, that the winner is..."

Oops. Also sorry for the late update and short chapter, I've been SO busy with university deadlines and rehearsals (I study theatre) and I've got a really busy week ahead of me too. I'm seeing Dianne, Chloe and Amy at Here Come The Girls in three days! Then I go to my favourite convention for the weekend the day after, it's gonna be wild. I'll update when I can - B x