Everybody's Changing

She was okay. She was okay. She was okay, she repeated herself as Kate shouted angrily at her. She closed her eyes for a moment. God, could she be more humiliated?

"I'm sorry, but we can risk it" Kate finished. "You can't compete for the Next Step"

Emily stood still for a moment, trying to repress the anger. How can they do that to her, when she had sacrificed everything for the studio? She turned back slowly to look at her sister who looked completely mortified.

"Thank you", Emily said.

She hoped that the others didn't notice the shaking in her voice. Riley couldn't respond and Emily huffed. Riley never could take responsibility for the consequences of her actions. Without adding another word, without looking at her old team, she stormed out. If she would just glance at them, she knew she would break.

She got to the locker-room to change clothes. She tried to control the shaking of her hands. She couldn't even believe that Riley told Kate. Wait, on a second thought, that was totally like her. What she couldn't believe was that Stephanie told Riley. She thought she could trust her. That was the reason she picked her to go with to the doctor. Stephanie always had been on her side, she had even considered the fact that she could betray her like this.

She should have picked someone else. Someone she had never doubted and he had never doubted her, even in the worst moments. When she took the role to bring Amanda down, he was the only one who stood beside her until that awful day at Culture Shock.

Emily closed her eyes one more time and swallowed. She couldn't afford to think of him that way. Not anymore, now she had broken things – terribly, horribly – with him. Hunter was in her past now, and she needed to accept that. She took her bag and made her way to studio B. She knew what she had to do. She would lie if she said that she hadn't thought about who would replace her. That had been keeping her awake at night. Her choice was almost too obvious for someone who knew her, but she was certain that the dancer she chose was perfect. Even if she didn't make the team, it would be a great experience for her. But come on, Richelle was the best dancer in J Troupe, without a doubt, and better than most of the B Troupe dancers. So, Emily made her decision. And now that she was out of A Troupe, she had to act on it.

Inside, J Troupe was warming up. Emily scanned the room until she found the now-brunette she was looking for. She was standing next to Noah and was glancing at him now and then, a little smile on her face. When Richelle noticed her, her smile faded a little and stopped the exercise. She approached her:

"Hey Emily, what's going on?"

"I didn't mean to interrupt you. Could you come to Hidalgo's when the rehearsing is over? I have something for you."

Richelle frowned a little.

"Can't you just tell me now?" the little dancer asked.

"No" Emily answered with a smile. "After your rehearsing, without all J Troupe around"

Richelle grumbled something about not wanting to wait, but she went back at her place and went on with her warm-up. Emily smiled. That was the only good thing to come out of this situation. Even if Richelle was arrogant and somewhat hypocrite, she was a very good dancer and she deserved a chance to get in A Troupe. The blonde waved at the others dancers and walked to the elevator. She would have taken the stairs, but now that the truth had come out, it was useless to pretend.

A heavy sigh came out of her lips and she tightened her fingers around the bag. Now, she was to supposed wait until Riley finished. Until A Troupe was recomposed. A part of her was happy that The Next Step had to compete against Elite. It was comforting her, even if she knew that was pitiful. She shouldn't feel that way about her old team. It was immature. She could almost hear her mother saying in her ear to grow up. But she was eighteen, and she wasn't an adult yet. So, Emily decided that it was okay to feel this way for a little while.

"You okay?"

The voice made her shudder and she didn't react right away. Hunter. She had successfully avoided him until now. At first, they were all too busy to win Nationals so that had been pretty easy. But after that… That had been a totally different story. Emily always had found someone to save her before he could approach her. Sometimes it was Riley, but most of the time it had been West. But as she glanced around the room, she realized that this time, no one was here to save her. So she turned and faced him, putting her best smile on her face. She saw his eyes, warm and full of concern and she felt her heart starting to race in her chest.

"Yeah, of course" she responded. "Why you're asking?"

"Kate has been pretty rough with you. I just wanted to check on you", he shrugged.

His eyes betrayed the tone of his voice, she noticed. His hands were deep into his sweatpants' pockets and he looked relaxed. He raised his eyebrows. She swore silently. He always read her too well for her own taste.

"You know I can tell you're lying, right?"

"I'm not lying!" she snapped a little too quickly.

He smirked and Emily felt the heat rising to her cheeks. God blame his cockiness. He made one step closer to her, all serious suddenly, and for a moment, it looked like he was about to take her hand in his. Her breath got stuck in her throat and her smile faded. But he didn't do anything and Emily forced herself to breathe again.

"Look, you're sure you're okay?"

"Hunter, I promise you I'm fine."

He sighed and his head popped down. Emily bit her inferior lip. He wasn't going to believe her, not matter what she was going to say. The smile she made wasn't happy at all, but she did her best.

"Look, you don't have to worry about me" she tried to reason him. "You have a big competition tomorrow, you should focus on that."

He tilted his head to the side and she could see his eyes sparkling. Of course he didn't focus on tomorrow. His confidence flirted with arrogance, just like hers. She sighed and before she could add anything else, a sound came out of the elevator and the doors opened. She quickly got inside and turned back to watch him. Hunter seemed wanting to go in but he did nothing. He just stared at her and he looked a little pissed. The girl pressed the button and watched the doors close. When it started to go down, she leaned herself against the metal wall. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. Goddamn it Hunter, she was supposed to focus on her injured knee, get through the reeducation and start dancing again, not on Hunter and his half-crooked smile he did when he was nervous. They were thrown the moment she chose the team over him.

She had wondered if she had done the right thing a lot of time since. What happened earlier in studio A earlier was just a reminder that maybe the team didn't need her as much as she thought. She walked up in Hidalgo's and sat down on the couch. She took her tablet from her bag, sand started to look for something to do. She had four hours to kill until she could go home with her traitor of sister.

There were a stretch-up, a compilation of the best solo she ever watched. Only things that she used for dancing, nothing else.

And now, her career was kaput.