The Next Step: Season 7 Rewrite

Chapter 18: Pre-Dance Stress

Piper:

Today's the day of the solo and duet rounds. After thinking about it, I decided that I'm not going to panic about the duet. I've got Amy by my side, and we've prepared so many resurrection duets during rehearsals. We can easily do the contemporary one, since it's our best one out of all the ones we've choreoraphed. And since the solo rounds are in the morning, and the duet rounds are in the afternoon, Amy gets time to rest and we get time to rehearse.

This is good. We've got this. All we need now is good organisation and preparations. I tell Amy, and she agrees. This is going well so far. She's got solo rehearsals before her performance, so I'll just mark the choreography without her for now.

Soon, it's time for the solo rounds. I head to the auditorium bleachers, knowing that my best friend will be amazing and kill her routine.

Henry:

The team's just talking amongst themselves while we wait for the cameras to be ready to film Amy's solo. The previous troupe had a great dancer, so they'll be hard to beat. They scored an average score of 91, so that's a high standard. But Amy's a strong dancer and I know she'll do great.

We hear the commentator introduce her, and she gets into position as the music starts up. Amy's solo is amazing. She's got the tricks, the technique, the sass. I can hear the audience admiring her solo. The next step has got this round in the bag.

She finishes with a huge smile on her face. I stand up, clapping and shouting the loudest I can. She gets a standing ovation by the judges, and I'm so proud. The judges then state their comments and scores.

"Amazing routine. Clean technique and great facials. 93"

"Brilliant. Such a strong dancer with powerful tricks. 94"

"Packed full with jaw dropping moments. 92"

"This means that Amy from the next step scores an average score of 93, placing her in second place behind Jones from J cruise, and only behind by half a point. The next step is guaranteed a spot in the duet round!"

We all cheer for Amy, and she runs off the stage to meet us. We all give her hugs, and I press a celebratory kiss to her cheek.

Another two solos perform, and the producers usher us out so they can do who knows what. 3 groups have been eliminated, leaving 7, the highest scoring eliminated solo, and the highest scoring eliminated duet will battle it out for resurrection.

Piper:

Amy and I are celebrating her win in our hotel room with room service. We don't know where Lily is, but she's probably gone out with Kingston somewhere. I treat her to ice cream, where she tries to insist she pays me back, but I refuse. She's the one who's helping me with the duet round after all.

I see Finn's text when my phone's finally not dead. I text him to not worry, as I'm going to dance with Amy instead. He doesn't reply, so I assume that he's either on the plane or doesn't have is phone on him.

After a nice lunch, Amy and I go find Ms Angela in her room. We tell her that we're going to be doing the duet instead of Finn and I, and she agrees. The next step gets a rehearsal session at 2-3, so Amy and I head down early. We're only about half an hour early anyways. Since there's nobody down there, the security people let us in.

Honestly, the contemporary duet is a really good one. We're dancing to our favourite shared song, 'Speechless'. Amy and I love Disney movies, so it's a great song.

Nick:

I've grabbed Kingston and Lily from their date since Emily's told me that they boarded the flight this morning. There's only about two and a half hours before the duet round, and I don't think he's going to make it in time, so Kingston and Lily will have to do the duet instead.