"I can't believe we've been paired up for Math!" Michelle dropped her textbook on to the desk. Emily scowled and fixed her gaze on the whiteboard to her right.

"I was blissfully unaware that you went to school here until this point in time, and now they're asking me to tutor you. Imagine how I feel!" Michelle rolled her eyes.

"I asked you if you wanted to be co-captains. What else could I do?"

"Oh I don't know, not go behind my back and steal dance captain?"

"I had to!"

"Oh I'm sorry-"

"-Apology not accepted." Emily narrowed her eyes and finally turned to face Michelle.

"And what apology do I owe you?"

"How about the fact that you didn't even give me a chance! You just left." Michelle shrugged and dropped her gaze to the floor.

The Elite dancer twisted her lips and leant over the table, opening Michelle's textbook to page 47.

"Plotting yx graphs." She tapped the page lightly with her nail. Michelle slid slowly to the edge of her chair and looked over the page, hair covering her face.

Emily sighed, her face brightened for a split second.

Michelle took a deep breath and looked at her ex-teammate.

"Alright."

"Hey, Emily!" Emily looked over at the assistant co-captain.

"What can I do for you Shantel?"

"You know you can mark your lines if you need to, right? It's not that different from The Next Step. Well except the superior routines, fantastic studio and better dancers."

"I'm fine." Shantel raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Well, it's still not that."

"It can't be. Saying something like that normally increases your productivity." Emily inclined her head towards Shantel.

"I've never had that reaction before." The corner of Emily's mouth twitched. "Normally people roll their eyes at me, or get angry for no reason. I just can't understand it."

"No, no. I... I know. Back when I was dance captain-" Emily sucked in a breath.

"You'd better not be gunning for dance captain, I'll have you know myself and Tess are first in the line-"

"-I'm-I'm not. I promise. I just had it 'snatched out from under me', I know how it feels."

"Is this to do with that girl you're tutoring?"

"Hmm? What? How do you know about that?"

"Tess felt it was important to make sure it wasn't another trick, you know?" Emily slowly nodded her head.

"But no, I don't think this is even about Michelle, annoying as she is... My sister and I are on good terms again, thank God. But, well, it's reminded me about how I treated my best friend. I'm not exactly proud of it, let's put it that way."

"How did you treat her?"

"Why are you asking?"

"Like I said earlier, we all need you to increase your productivity, so..."

(Earlier in the week)

"We need to change the routine!" Michelle looked up as Stephanie stormed up to her.

"What? Why?" Stephanie paced back and forth.

"Why? Emily is at Elite! And probably telling them our routine right now!"

"What? Even if she did, why would they listen? Wouldn't that severely like dent their reputation as the best dance troupe around here? Taking someone else's routine?"

"Michelle, you're our dance captain right now, but you have like no experience with us, let alone Emily! And let alone Elite! Now, do you trust me on this or not?"

Michelle was silent for a moment.

"I'm sorry. I never meant for her to leave." Stephanie rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. That's nice, but that's also not the issue! We need a new routine."

"Okay, okay. You're right. What do you have in mind?"

"Well, first of all, we should talk to Miss Kate, see what ideas she's got."

"Good point. You know you'd make a good dance captain." Stephanie looked pointedly at Michelle. "Or y'know, I could live up to the trust everyone- almost everyone -has in me. You would still make a good dance captain though."

"Just, ugh, be quiet and be useful. I'm not doing this for you." Stephanie smiled at Michelle's shocked expression. "What? You think that just because my best friend abandons me and I've got no-one to talk to as soon as I get home, I'm going to forget what makes a good dance captain?"

"The team voted for me."

"Yeah cause they've never had you!"

"Excuse me?! They voted for me because Emily is practically a dictator! I had a routine that included everyone, and the dancers feel like they can trust me."

"Oh, so because Emily acts like a dictator..."

"Yes!"

"...you asked her to help you with dance captain?"

"Exactly! Wait, no."

"Whatever reason you tell yourself you are our dance captain, Michelle, and you need to step up." Michelle nodded.

"I will."

"Good."

"So as dance captain..."

"Why are we still talking?"

"It's my job to make sure the dancers are okay. Why don't you talk to Tiffany, or Riley, or Chloe?"

"I don't know if they want to talk to me."

"Well you'll never know unless you try, right?" Stephanie contemplated the idea for a few moments, then gave a way grin.

"I almost can't believe it, but she was right. Out of everything, she was right about you."

"That doesn't sound great."

"It's no-"

"Hey Burps!"

"Well, that's me. Thanks for the talk Shantel." Shantel nodded slowly.

"Let's never do that again." Emily nodded quickly.

"Agreed."

You passed.

I didn't think you were talking to me.

You're my student.

I see you learned English in my absence.

Ha. Ha. ...Thank you.

As much as it pains me to admit this: you did work for this, so I guess you kind of deserve it. Although you don't deserve it.

I'm sorry about co-captains.

Co-captains?!

Well I couldn't help the fact that you didn't believe me!

You could have.

how?

You could have talked to me, rather than just about me.

No. I'm not doing this. I'm not feeling guilty for being the one that you wanted gone.

I didn't ask you to leave.

Like you're not revelling in the fact!

I'm not!

Michelle threw her phone on the bed and groaned aloud.

"At least we have a different routine for Regionals now, Stephanie was probably right about Emily after all."

"What?" Riley asked.

"Michelle." Emily rolled her eyes.

"What'd she, wait, you're talking to her?"

"Unfortunately. Blame that stupid mentoring programme!"

"H-h-how'd it go?"

"I just told her she passed."

"And you already found something to fight about?"

"More like we haven't stopped fighting, you know what? Let's not talk about it. So, how's life at the studio?"

"I, I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell you... What about you? How's Elite?"

"I can't tell you either."

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Hey, here's an idea. You can teach me about robot-police dramas set in space." Riley said.

"What is that? It sounds terrifying. Why would I know about those?"

"You know all about that kind of thing! You know, like that silly thief movie you showed me."

"...Hey! Ocean's Eleven is a classic!"

"Classic piece of trash, yeah."

"Why are you insulting my second-favourite movie of all time anyway?"

"James showed me one, forever ruined the genre for me."

"What? It's not even the same genre!"

"Eh." Riley waved her hand. "Police are involved, same thing. Besides, don't you always find more plot-holes in it each time you watch it?"

"Yeah, but I still love watching it."

"You love watching Emma Roberts act in it." Emily shrugged.

"Same difference, she's talented at what she does."

"You said it didn't even feel like a thriller the first time you watched it."

"Why are you questioning my love for my second-favourite movie ever made anyway?"

"Just revelling in the fact that I'm clearly right for once." Emily's smile fell and she walked over to the bedroom door.

"I just remembered I've got some homework due tomorrow. See you in the morning Ri."

"Night Em."

"No helicopter lift!" Miss Kate exclaimed, and walked into her office.

That's odd, Michelle thought. They knew what they were doing and they had experience doing it, maybe not having faith in the dancers was more a studio-taught thing than she'd first assumed.

Michelle gave Giselle a sympathetic smile.

"Well I guess that's that," Tiffany said. Michelle nodded.

"Alright everyone, back to work." She called.

The following four hours were full of partnering hip-hop with contemporary, something West and Daniel were the most experienced, hence, they got to lead the two 'gangs'. There were a few kinks to iron out but overall Michelle felt it looked good, and everyone was picking it up great.

"It's just a shame about the helicopter lift." Michelle thought aloud.

"Did you say the helicopter lift?" Giselle asked her.

"Oh yeah, I'm sorry I shouldn't have brought it up that was really insensitive of me and-"

"Michelle. Breathe... I have kind of an idea about that."

"Really? You do?" Michelle hoped her relief didn't show on her face.

"Yeah, let's go talk to Daniel."

"Let's do it!"

"No, Daniel knew he was hurt-" James started.

"What?" A few people asked.

"He should have said no to the lift!" The room erupted with people talking over each other, trying to work out how their teammate was lying in a hospital bed with a potentially career-ending injury.

"Okay stop! It's nobody's fault alright, this was an accident!" Miss Kate pronounced, and left again for the office, to inform Daniel's parents of the accident.

"It is. It's Michelle's." Stephanie said.

Giselle and Michelle found themselves alone in Studio A.

"I can't believe what I did to Daniel.

How could I make him feel like he couldn't trust me? I'm his best friend." Michelle put a hand on Giselle's bicep and squeezed gently.

"I'd bet any money part of the reason he did what he did is because you're best friends. Sometimes the pressure you put on yourself comes from you trying not to let down the people you most care about.

Well? What are you waiting for? Daniel's in hospital without his best friend.

West has probably bought flowers for him, but he still needs to know he didn't let you down." Giselle stared at Michelle, stupefied.

"My best friend from back home... I was so scared to tell him that I was leaving neither of us ever said goodbye. We talk over the phone and everything, but it's just not the same.

Don't lose your best friend because of one mistake." The dance captain released Giselle and exited the studio.

I heard what happened to Daniel. Emily pressed send before she could reconsider her decision.

We're talking now? :)

Emily seethed at the screen and stabbed out her reply.

Michelle, focus!

How is he?

This was ridiculous. She should ask Riley. What business did she have contacting Michelle, the dance captain of the studio she'd turned her back on and that had turned her back on her. Pathetic. ...Except Stephanie got back in, and they'd both thought no-one cared. Stephanie's 'audition' was one of the first things Riley had told her about when they'd started to mend their fragmented relationship; it sounded humiliating... and just like that she was angry again.

She was about to tell Michelle exactly what she thought of what she'd put Stephanie through, when a new text popped up on her screen.

Daniel's not good, he's out for Regionals. But. Doctors gave him a recovery period. In theory, he'll be good for Nationals.

So he's going to have to re-audition for next year's Regionals is what you're saying. Great! *sarcasm*

What do you mean? You've won Regionals before, you're always so confident about it.

Emily rolled her eyes.

Not since Miss Kate was still on the team. Besides, I wasn't exactly the best judge of things, evidently.

Don't give up on the team yet.

Oh, just myself?

Three hours later Emily closed her I.T. book and cursed the person that thought high school students learning the ins and outs of publishing software was a good idea and not just a venture for nerds - not average consumers of pop culture who spoke things like Klingon and Elvish (she's never admitting the biggest influence for the E-Girls contract and her interest in maybe being a lawyer came from Artemis Fowl, no-that-secret-is-going-with-her-to-her-grave-thank-you-very-much), the creative ones.

One thing she never predicted about Elite, Lucien ran it like a scholarship, an academic one at that. She had to maintain A's around the board, minimum.

She unlocked her phone to see the time and was almost glad when she saw 23:15, it didn't leave her enough time to think about the last unanswered text she'd sent, why she was waiting for a reply, why she'd sent it and why-

"Night Em." Riley's voice drifted under the door that connected their bedrooms.

"Night Ri. You shouldn't be awake."

"You shouldn't think so loudly."

"You're one to talk. I can hear you worrying about Daniel from here."

"I know we're not as close friends as we used to be, but I still care about him despite all that, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah..."

"Sorry Em, sleep well."

"You too Ri, sweet dreams."