A/N: I do not own The Next Step that belongs to the creators.


Amanda's point of view

I stare at my phone screen. I can't believe what I'm watching. Eldon and Hunter are having a dance battle to see who gets to date Michelle. And I have the whole thing on video. What to do, what to do?

Restarting the the video I listen to the rules of the dance battle one more time. Hunters voice comes out of the speakers "Rule number one, whoever loses has to back off Michelle. Rule number two, Michelle cannot find out about this." Eldon nods and they move to opposite ends of the studio. I pause it, that's what I'll do. I'll show this to Michelle after all she is the co-dance captain the perfect person to have on my side.

Michelle's point of view

I'm sitting in the chairs in culture shock drinking juice when Eldon comes through the doors. I smile he's so cute I'm so lucky he choose me over Emily. My smile turns to a frown, Emily… I hope she she gets over him and we can be friends again.

Eldon buys a drink and then looks around for a place to sit, that's when he sees me. Putting on my best smile I wave and call his name. "Eldon come sit." He looks like hes about to walk over when he falters, turns around and hurries out the door. My frown returns to my face, did I do something wrong? I thought things were going pretty well between us. As I ponder this Hunter comes to sit beside me.

"Hey Michelle hows it goin?" His smile is as big as the Cheshire cat. "Hey Hunter" I offer a half hearted smile "I'm fine, you?"

"Oh I'm great." He replies.

"That's nice." We fall into an awkward silence after that. I took a sip of my juice and tried to think of an excuse to leave. While he never stops smiling its creeping me out. Hunter said he was fine with just being friends but I still feel like he wants to be more. Looking over to the dress rack I see Amanda waving me over. I have no clue what Amanda wants but right now I'll take any excuse I can get.

"Sooo…" Hunter starts to talk but I cut him off.

"I have to go."

His smile fades but he nods "Oh sure, see you at rehearsal."

I nod "Yeah see you at rehearsal, bye." I walk off a little faster than needed.

When I get to Amanda she grabs my arm and starts to pull me towards the door to the studios. "I need to show you something." is all she says.

She leads me into studio B and closes the door. "What do you need to show me?" I ask.

"This." She takes out her phone and hands it to me with a paused video on the screen. "Play it." I do as she says. I can't believe what I'm seeing Eldon and Hunter are having a dance battle to see who can date me. What the hell. Don't I get a say in who I date? At the end of the video I see that Eldon lost so that's why he didn't sit with me and why Hunter was smiling so much."I thought you should see it." says Amanda.

I look up at her. "Thank you" I give her back her phone then take mine out as I started out of studio B to studio A. In studio A I start dancing to the song me and Eldon did our duet to. After a little while Eldon comes running through the studio A "Michelle what's the matter you said it was an emergency!"

"I lied, I just thought it was the only way to get you here. You've been avoiding me." I decided not to come right out and confront him maybe he'd tell me himself.

"Oh yeah sorry about that… Were you dancing to our duet song?" He changes the subject.

"Yeah it is... do you remember it?"

"I don't know lets see." He smiles and comes to stand beside me. I star the music over again and we begin to dance. We both remember every single step and its just as emotional as it was before maybe even more emotional. At the end of the dance he dips me and when I come back up neither of us moves away from each other we just stand there facing each other his arm around my waist.

I put my arms around his neck and start to lean in but he let goes of me and starts to walk toward his stuff.

I can't help the heartbroken feeling that washes over me in that second.

"I'm sorry, I cant."

"Eldon…" He cuts me off.

"I'm really sorry but I can't and I can't tell you." He continues toward his dance bag.

"Eldon I know about the dance battle." He freezes and slowly turns toward me. On his face I see regret and guilt.

"Michelle I…" But its my turn to cut him off.

"What could you possibly say hmm?" My tone comes out a little harsher than I meant it to be. Crossing my arms I stare at him waiting for an answer. But he seems to be at a loss for words.

Finally he says, "I'm sorry."

"Yeah you should be sorry. Don't my feelings matter at all? Don't I get a say in who I date?" I couldn't get rid of the hurt in my voice.

He must have noticed the hurt as well because he winces and the guilt returns to his features."Of course…"

"Oh really because it sure didn't look like it to me when you agreed to back off of me if you lost the dance battle." I was starting to get mad.

"Michelle I'm sorry I didn't think I'd lose. And you weren't supposed to find out."

"And that's supposed to make it okay?" The disbelief was clear from my expression.

"Well...no but…"

"But what? What could you possibly say to make this right?"

He shakes his head. "I'm sorry."

I throw my hands up in the air in frustration. "Stop saying you're sorry!" The look on his face made it hard to stay mad at him but sure did try. I wasn't letting off the hook that easy. "Why, why did you do it?"

He stops to think about his answer. "I don't know… James and West told me I should so… I did." He scratches the back of his neck looking very ashamed. A bitter laugh escapes my mouth, I should have known.

We stand there in awkward silence for a while. But I have to ask him one more question.

"Do you want to break up?" Shock is all I see on his face. "Because I don't understand…" Tears of frustration, anger and most of all hurt started to form in my eyes. "After all we went through to be together and what happened with Emily," The tears start to fall and I look down at my feet, "I don't know I guess I just thought we had something stronger." I look into his eyes, "I want to be with you Eldon not Hunter." The tears are flowing down my cheeks now and I can't stop them.

Eldon just stands there for a moment then he does the thing I definitely wasn't expecting. He walked toward me closing the gap between us in 3 big steps and kisses me.

It was short but passionate. "No Michelle I don't want to break up." His tone is firm yet comforting, and he smiles as he wipes my tears away with the pad of his thumb. "I want to be with you to." This makes me smile and I lean in to kiss him again this time the kiss is much longer and we don't break apart until the other members of A troupe start to enter for rehearsal.


Review, Review, Review. Tell me what you think. Did I get the characters right. I tried hard to capture what I think Michelle would have been feeling.