The place was open and airy, with high sloped ceilings and more than enough space for all of the competitors. People were conjugating around the center of the large room, hanging around the central couches and charging station. Actually, there was so many people around the charging station that Kai could barely see the sign for it.

There were a few people who weren't in the ocean of desperation that was the center of that room, Kai and Nya included. A girl Kai vaguely recognized was leaning against the wall to his far left, tapping away at her phone, a bright white suitcase and carry on sitting neatly next to her. Her metallic silver hair (an impressive dye job, Kai couldn't help but think, you couldn't tell what her original hair color was if you tried) was pulled up into a sloppy bun, reminiscent of the generic female roblox hair. Sitting on the floor about ten feet away from her was a toned black guy leaning on a dirty grey carry on, he had an expensive pair of headphones on, his head bobbing to an unknown beat. His hair tucked into a loose ponytail, but even then stray hairs constantly fell into his face, barely contained behind a dark green headband.

Nya wasn't scanning the room as intently as her brother, but there was one face she immediately recognized. She lightly tapped her brother's shoulder, readjusting her dusty red backpack as she did so, and when Kai turned to look at her inquisitively, she gestured toward a tall man with slicked back blonde hair, so pale it almost looked white, and soft ice blue eyes, he was dragging a pale blue suitcase behind him. Kai rose an eyebrow before his eyes widened a bit in shock.

"Is that-"

"I think it is." Nya answered before Kai even got to complete his sentence. It was Zane Julian, famous for his waltz performance.

"Now that just isn't fair, that guy's a pro!" Nya says.

Kai scoffed at his sister's complaint.

"He might be a pro, but he ain't never met m- the both of us before." Zane was far enough away from them that he shouldn't have been in earshot, but he has a superb sense of hearing, and heard every word of their conversation. The man gave Kai a disapproving glance, Kai made him uncomfortable, and he wasn't impressed by his terrible grammar. He shifted a little bit farther from the siblings, choosing to disregard their existence. Kai looked at Zane with disdain, who does this pompous bastard think he is?

"Superstar over there thinks he's too good for us." Nya says, popping her gum

"Took the words straight out of my mouth" Kai whispered back with an agitated tone.

"What is he even doin here for? It's not like he needs the money." Kai grumbled

Kai remembered back when his parents had disappeared, him and Nya had to fend for themselves in an unforgiving world, they had nothing. No money, a shit-hole of an apartment, nothing. Kai struggled with getting enough food for them to eat day to day. He had to drop out of school, but was persistent on keeping his younger sister in school long enough to graduate. If the wrong people saw both kids had dropped out, bad things could happen, and Kai couldn't let the current situation get any more worse than it already was. He took a job at a nearby fast food joint, and he honestly doesn't even remember why they hired him. Maybe it was that he was willing to work long shifts and clean three times a day, or maybe it was that he reeked of pure desperation, one of the two. It didn't matter then and it doesn't matter now. All he cared about was Nya and keeping the job. During this poor time, Kai noticed Nya letting herself go. Her grades dropped, her hair was constantly unbrushed and oily, and she just stopped being the lively ball of energy Kai had grown up with.

It was an especially blustery fall day, one of those late fall days where it's basically winter. The once colorful dry leaves were brown and rotting on the city streets. One could see their breath fog in the numbingly cold air. Kai had just arrived home, earlier than usual that day. His boss insisted he come home early- to the point of threatening to fire him if he didn't take the rest of the day off. Kai knew that his boss had his well being in mind, but that only made him angrier. That guy couldn't even begin to know what Kai needed, if he did, Kai would be working overtime.

His head was swimming with these grievances when he had entered their dark, dusty apartment. They had a window, and it had a glorious view of a dirtied brick wall. A worn book bag thrown on the couch let Kai know that Nya was home, but it was strangely quiet. He had casted that thought aside as he did to his work shoes by the door, and headed to the kitchen for a glass of water. His hand was only a few inches away from a glass cup when he heard something. It was soft, quiet, a sound close to that of a dejected puppy, whimpering for someone, anyone, to help it. He had slowly retracted his hand from the cup and padded along their creaky floorboards to follow the source of that sound. It was coming from his sister and his shared room.

He slowly opened the door, ignoring its high pitched groaning when he did so. What he saw left him at a loss. Nya was curled up into a tiny ball in the corner of the room, whimpering, shaking, sobbing. Her hair was an unkempt mess shattered across her head and face. Kai immediately went over and took her in his arms. Her tears staining his shirt as she buried her face into his chest. It had become too much for her. She was normally strong, she normally was at her best when under pressure, but everyone has their breaking point. At that moment he concluded that he was going to fix this situation, by any means possible.

$300'000.

That was the prize money, that was the thing that could change their life for the better. And he definitely was not going to let some spoiled rich brat take it away from them. Nya saw Kai getting tense, and gently placed her hand on Kai's clenched fist. Smiling when she started to notice Kai start calming down, his body becoming less stiff.

"Don't let him get to you like that" Nya says,

"We are definitely going to kick that rich boy's ass, and we'll smile as we do it" Nya finishes with a smirk. Kai grew a little bit of confidence on winning the Tournament, all the other dancers look like they can barely walk right. If they get pompous boy out of the tournament, the money is as good as theirs.

Kai glared envious daggers at the pale man, thinking a whole bunch of curses and profanities that he wished he had the nerves to say. What was the guy even doing here? It's certainly not like he needs any money. Maybe he knows that Chen guy? Probably, it makes sense that two money hungry douches know each other.

More people filed into the room, the room growing more and more.packed with opposing competitors. Nya saw a slightly tanned guy walk in, his auburn hair slightly slicked down and parted to the side. He had bright, electric blue eyes that absolutely captivated Nya's attention. He set his gray carry on by a loveseat then continued to sit down, taking up the entire thing. He absorbed the new smells and sounds that he was just submitted too. He looked around curiously, fascinated by the variety of dancers that surrounded him, knowing that all but one of them will lose. He wasn't sure if he could out dance them all, there was few very famous dancers here that he recognised in the room, but he had confidence in himself. Both his parents were great dancers, so he took on after them, by being a salsa dancer.

Nya kept on staring, intrigued by the stranger's good looks, his bright electric blue eyes had yellow swirl-like patterns in them, his skin was slightly tanned, giving way to a possibility of latin descent. His hair was definitely something she'd never seen before, it was a bright shade of auburn, and it had gel like residue in it. It was delicately parted to the left, and wasn't too long, or too short. His overall appearance was stunning to her, she kept her gaze locked on the attractive man until her brother nudged her shoulder.

"Whatcha lookin at?" Kai asked

"Oh- nothing." Nya responded, hoping her brother didn't catch her stutter.

"It didn't seem like nothing… " Kai trailed off, speaking partially under his breath.

"And you know this how?" Nya popped her gum again, it had long lost its flavor.

"Don't act like you haven't been caught staring into space." She continued, smirking when her brother's shoulders tensed a bit from being called out.

"I wasn't staring into space," He huffed,

"I was being observant" Nya rose an eyebrow at this statement, and was about to respond when their conversation, along with the rest of the chatter in the room, was interrupted by a loud, booming voice.

"Welcome Competitors!" The room fell silent as a man in an unusual dress walked through huge ornate double doors on a split level terrace above the main room, he was being filmed, his likeness being projected on to huge wall sized screens so all in the room could see him. He wore outlandish colors, bright red and gold, with a huge overdone headdress made of what appeared to be peacock feathers. A necklace with a huge diamond pendant hung around his neck, a cocky display of wealth as so it seemed.

"To Chen's Leap for Life dance competition!" His smile was huge, plastic and glossy like all showman personas. To Kai it was a bit unnerving, but he shook it off, the false glamour was intimidating at best, but what could this showboat actually do to him?

"As hopefully you all know, I am your gracious host and Number one judge, Chen!" A Barbie like giggle escaped the man's lips at this, as if he had said the most amusing thing.

"Twenty five will compete. But only one." Chen raised his pointer finger, he was wearing metallic gold nail polish and way too many jeweled rings to be put on one finger.

"Only one, will make it to the end and win the grand prize of $300, 000 and a personal apprenticeship with me to help begin your career, all along with one, more personal prize. You all know what the prize respectively is, I believe. If not you will know soon enough." He clapped his hands twice in excitement. The crowd murmured, personal prize? Kai definitely wasn't told of this, he glanced at Nya with a questioning gaze, Nya simply shrugged in response, she knew about as much as he did in that regard. Chen cleared his throat, the crowd going silent at the sound, and spoke into the mic for a final time

"Now, without further ado." His grin gets even wider, if it were possible.

"let the best dancer win!"