[1X20]

I do not own any characters/plot from this show apart from my own!

{Riley tries in vain to patch things up with Emily. Meanwhile, Eldon is forced to decide whom he loves more, Michelle or Emily.}

❝Who even talks like that?❞

It was another day at the studio for the dancers, Eldon was running slightly late due to the fact he was having a catch-up with his girlfriend, Emily, and Maxie and Stephanie were in the corridor.

"Remind me what we're doing again?" Maxie asked the girl who was pacing and kept constantly looking down at her phone, awaiting an important call.

Steph sighed, this was the third time she had told Max, "Waiting for a call from my agent? Gosh, Maxie, how many times do I need to tell you," she sighed, exasperation evident on her face.

"I know we are," the British girl smirked, "I just like annoying people."

The moment was immediately cut short when the monotone ringtone blared from the girl's phone, catching both of their attention.

Stephanie stood there with wide eyes, frozen to the spot, almost as if she didn't want to answer the call.

"So?" Max poked her arm, "Are you gonna answer that, or what? Because if we've been sat here for the past fifteen minutes for noth-"

"Hello!"

Maxie's rant was immediately cut short by Stephanie answering the call, causing the girl to huff in annoyance and slouch back onto the bench.

A few minutes had passed, and her attention had been pulled back to Stephanie on the sound of someone hanging up the phone.

"Yeah, just give me a call if you find anything else, okay? Thanks. Bye," she breathed down the line, pressing the end call button when she was done. She looked like she was about to say something to Maxie when Tiffany came walking in.

"Who's that?" Tiffany immediately questioned, jumping straight into the conversation.

"Oh hello Maxie, hi Stephanie," Maxie grumbled, "What happened to manners these days? Huh?"

Steph threw a reassuring glance to the girl before turning back to Tiffany, "Oh, it's just my agent."

"Okay, and..." Tiffany pushed, trying to pry for more information.

The girl then went and sat down next to Maxie, not trusting her legs to turn to jelly out of fear as she responded with a shrug, "I don't know, he has an audition for me to go to but I don't... I'm not interested."

"What? Steph, that's awesome!" Maxie grinned, pulling her into an awkward side-hug.

Tiffany nodded, "Yeah, why would you say no to that?"

"I don't know," she muttered, avoiding eye contact with the other two, "it's a random role. I don't really want to do it."

"Yeah, no." Maxie deadpanned, standing up and pulling Stephanie with her, "You're not missing this opportunity just because of some idiot directors in your last one."

Tiffany chimed in, "Yeah, Steph, call them back, tell them you're going to take it."

When Stephanie gave both the girls hesitant looks, they both began encouraging her over and over until the ebony-haired girl finally gave in.

"You're good," Tiffany said, grasping her arm, "You've just gotta believe in yourself."

"Tiffany and Maxie have a point," the girl sighed, "I have to be able to take this stuff. This is what the industry's all about. And... Maybe I'll get this one, maybe I won't but I can't give up trying."

Upon finally coming to the conclusion that Stephanie was in fact good enough for her audition, both Tiffany and Max joined the rest of the group in the studio, giving the girl some privacy to call back her agent to accept his offer.

Later on in the day, the troupe had finished the first run-through of their new routine and were having a small break. Eldon was sat alone on the far bench, Giselle and Daniel on the other, and Chloe and West were grilling Maxie and James about his date with Riley.

"So, man, how was that date with Riley?" West smirked at his friend.

"Yeah, Maxie, did you see them kiss?" Chloe grinned at her.

Before the girl could let out her exclamations of disgust at what she would call the 'lovey-dovey ridiculousness', James responded, "It was cool, man, it was all right," whilst crossing his arms over his chest.

The boy shrugged, "I don't want to tell anyone about my date with Riley. Because Riley is different. I don't want everyone to know. It's special. And I certainly do not want Maxie running around telling people, the way she says it makes it seem like I forced her to be there. Which I did, to be fair, but no-one needs to know that."

As they continued to question the two, James occasionally having to nudge Max harshly so she didn't say anything, Giselle began letting out strangled laughs, causing the others in the room to laugh.

James, who was the only one who didn't find her amusement at all funny, huffed, "Why are you laughing?"

The girl stood up from her seat, her face still scrunched up with laughter, as she explained, "You're like, 'Yeah, man, it was cool, yeah, whatever, like, it was just cool, mate.' then poor Maxie keeps stumbling over her feet because you keep shoving her," she chuckled, her fog-horn-like noises sounding through the room again.

Everyone else, including Michelle who had just walked in, were now laughing at both her laugh and her impression of James. Well, everyone except James himself.

"When Giselle mocks me, it's fine, I know she is just playing around," James tells the camera.

Maxie tried to contain her laughter as she spoke, "Not even gonna lie, that was a pretty spot-on impression."

As they all nudged James, he decided to fire back and mimick her laugh.

Everyone sat there in complete silence and stared at him, making James begin to believe he had crossed the line. Until they all just burst into laughter once more, purely at how ridiculous he looked.

Giselle grinned, "It's only fair that James got to make fun of my laugh."

"I can to a good impression, too. Look, look," Maxie waved her hand at the camera, before putting on a deep voice, "Yo, man, what up, yeah, uh-huh, Riley this, math that, Beth this, and my sister is so annoying blah blah blah," she mimicked him.

"Who even talks like that?"

After a while of talking, Michelle and Eldon got up to show the rest of the troupe their duet to get their opinions on it.

Maxie perched herself down next to Giselle on the bench as she watched and gave the girl a welcoming smile.

"So, how do you feel being back in A-Troupe?" she whispered, not pulling her eyes away from Michelle and Eldon on the dance floor.

The ginger-haired girl responded with a grin, "Honestly? On top of the world. It feels so good to be back and I'm gonna work twice as hard to make sure I don't get moved down again."

"Sounds good to me," Max shrugged, turning to face the girl, "How about we make a deal. We both help each other work and improve to stay in the troupe. Sort of like a friendship-style mentor-mentee type of thing," she finished, sticking her hand out.

Giselle shook the girl's hand and nodded, "Good idea, it'll be nice knowing we have each other's backs."

"Exactly," the British girl grinned, turning back to continue watching the duet.

Just then, Riley walked into the studio. She took one look at Eldon before her brows furrowed and a look of confusion mixed with worry swiped across her face.

"Eldon..." she called out, causing the dancers to stop and everyone to look in her direction, "Forgetting something?"

An awkward silence filled the room as Eldon dumbfoundedly shook his head.

The girl continued, "Emily, date. Ring a bell?"

At those two words, the boy began frantically scouring the room for his shoes and bag, before dodging straight through the doors to his supposed date.

"I got a little too distracted with Michelle," he cringed, "And I am so in trouble."

Maxie scowled, "Yeah, he's in trouble with me. He took my shoe."

While the rest of the room discussed what had just happened, Maxie grumbling to West and Giselle about how she'll have to get the bus wearing one shoe hers and the other shoe Eldon's, Riley pulled James to the other end of the studio.

"I pulled James aside because I need to ask James where we are in our relationship," she explained.

Not even two minutes later, everyone's attention was pulled to the pair as James runs into a back handspring flip, leaving Riley blushing and the rest of the room laughing.

Maxie looked up in thought, "If I remembered correctly, a back handspring flip was James' happy move," she gasped, "Oh, god, don't tell me they got together. That just means even more flipping third-wheeling. Ridiculous."

James simply just smirked, "We're together now."

A/N

omg yay finally finished this chapter.

it's quite an uneventful one and nothing really happened but i was just procrastinating it. anyway, i'm off to scotland for a week now so that's fun. i'll hopefully bring my laptop with me but if i can't then bare with me. i recently finished watching jane the virgin and i am like obsessed with petra-

also, thinking ahead, for nationals i'm definitely gonna give maxie the solo. but then i'm torn between having her in the small group with the guys or not. so your suggestions would be big time helpful.

so thank you for over 4k reads already! that's such a big milestone for me gosh.

enjoy reading and stay safe <3