CHAPTER 2

(A/N) Hooray! I'm actually updating even though I should be revising for exams! What?! I actually wrote this chapter a couple of days ago, I just hadn't posted it up or added the AN. Anyway,

Guest: Thanks for reviewing, I probably will do Daniel!

Thanks to Tani Cullen and .9279 for the follows and favourites. On with the story!

DISCLAIMER: Blah, blah, blah, you know the drill. I don't own the Next Step, I only own Ivy.

"Um, Emily?" I said cautiously. You see, I don't particularly want my head bitten off, so I'm gonna be as careful as humanely possible.

She turned around so fast I thought her head would come off (you've probably heard that thought plenty of times…wait, you can't hear thoughts…Anyway). I immediately saw her face change and she actually SMILED at me!

"Hey Ivy, is everything okay?" She asked, her tone sweet.

"Uh, yeah. Well…everything's fine with me…but…Emily are you okay?" I said worriedly. Because honestly speaking, it's sad to see her all depressed. It makes Riley upset, which makes James upset, which makes Daniel and West upset, which makes me upset, which makes everyone upset cause I am loved and adored by everyone…oops. Got slightly carried away there…heh, heh…sorry. Anyway,

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine!" She said cheerily, her voice a little too high-pitched.

"Are you sure?" I asked worriedly.

"Yep! Absolutely, positively sure!" But as she said this, her voice cracked slightly and I realised she was about to cry. I quickly grabbed her arm and dragged her out of Studio A, hoping no one would follow us, and she followed me.

We went into studio B and I made her sit down. By this time the tears were pouring down her cheeks and she was sobbing hard.

"Emily?" I said gently, "What's wrong? You know you can tell me, right?" She nodded and tried hard to stop crying, hiccupping slightly. After a little while, she managed to stop and looked at me, her face looking surprising vulnerable, so different to the Emily I know.

"I…It's Eldon." She began. "He…he broke up with me, just…just before *hiccup!* we performed in the finals!" She started crying again and I out my arm around her shoulder.

"B..but that's not all! *hiccup!* He… he broke up with me so that…so that he… he could…!"

"So that he could?" I asked quietly.

"SO THAT HE COULD BE WITH MICHELLE!" She exclaimed, bursting into another tirade of tears.

"Oh Emily," I said, hugging her, "That's terrible!" I honestly couldn't believe Eldon would do something like that. I mean, I know Emily used to be really mean and she turned him down plenty of times, but he should have just left her alone. You can't force someone into a relationship, and I know that from experience. If she said no, why did he keep pushing? And when she finally said yes, he turned her away for someone else. How do we know that when someone new comes along, he won't ditch Michelle and go fall in love with them? My opinion of Eldon has dropped dramatically.

I said all of this to Emily, giving her time to calm down.

"Thank you Ivy." She said at last, wiping away the last of her tears, "I'm really grateful." I smiled, she was actually quite nice when she wasn't being an over-dominating control freak.

"Hey," I said comfortingly, "We're friends now okay? And I'll stay by your side!" This caused her to smile gratefully and hug me.

"Come on," I said, standing up and stretching, "Let's get back to Studio A, the others will be wondering where we've gone."

"Okay." She said, standing up. As soon as we got to Studio A, I immediately realised something was happening. Everyone was sitting around and Miss Kate and Chris were standing beside them.

"What's going on?" I asked. Kate smiled,

"We were just waiting for you two! We have a visitor that we need to introduce to you!"

"A visitor?" Emily said immediately.

"Yeah," Chris said, "Girls, meet Mark, he's going to be staying for a while!" At this, I noticed a tall, dark-haired boy sitting next to Daniel. His dark brown eyes were cheeky and had a mischievous air about him. He walked up to me.

"Mark, this is Emily and…"

"I know who this is." He interrupted Chris, he came closer so that we were almost touching. I couldn't help taking a step back. "Ivy Woods." He said, smirking. And I swear I felt like breaking his neck.