Lol, I never gave names to the dancers on D.A.N.C.E yet. cx

Chapter 23

       For some reason, Zayden was late for dance rehearsals. He even told me to catch a ride with Dad because he might be running a bit late. I had no idea what he had to do that was more important than dance rehearsals, because dancing was his life.

       However, as soon as he showed up, he had a huge smile on his face. "I have the best idea ever," he announced, which made Dad look at him with a raised eyebrow.

       "That's nice, but you couldn't have been on time?" Dad asked.

       "Nope," Zayden said. "I had some business to take care of. So, I have connections everywhere in the dance world, and I was told that everyone thought that at the duet competition, it was me dancing and that I normally wear contacts, but I decided to wear my glasses instead. I don't think there's anybody at our school that's on another dance team to know that it was really my twin brother."

       "Okay, so....?"

       "So, rarely anybody who's going to be watching the state competition knows I have a twin brother, not even the commentators and the MC," Zayden said. "They're all probably going to think it's me dancing when it's really Rhys, so I was thinking we could confuse everyone, then blow their minds."

       "And how would we do that?" Dad asked.

       "During the final dance, Rhys and I can be on the stage at different times without him wearing glasses so everyone thinks it's me," Zayden said. "You know, give everyone that wow factor in our dance."

       I honestly think that would be really cool. Zayden was highly known in the dance world, but they didn't really know much about his personal life which was why not many people knew he had a twin brother. It would probably confuse people to see two Zaydens on the stage.

       "Okay, so how would that work?" Dad asked.

       "Well, I'm the only one without a partner during the second chorus," Zayden said. "So, I could be off the stage then and maybe at the beginning, Rhys is off the stage."

       "Oh, I got an idea," Kingsley said. "After the first chorus, Zayden, Echo, Calliope, and I could get off the stage and come back on shortly before the partner work with Rhys in Zayden's place since Zayden doesn't have a partner."

       "Ooh, and then I come back in right before the guitar solo since I'm dancing alone for a bit before everyone else slowly joins," Zayden said. "Just think of all the confused faces. And it's not like we'll have to rework the choreography. We just take some of us out."

       "I think that will work," Dad said. "Is everyone else okay with it?"

       "Uh, yeah," one of the dancers, Calliope, said. "It will make us stand out more, and we all really want to get to Nationals this year." Everyone else agreed with her, so we tried the final dance with the new suggestions.

       Honestly, I think it might make us stand out a lot more, which might allow us to go to Nationals.

       That was if we made it to the final round. There were four rounds to move on from, and there was a chance we might not be able to.

       At least we were going to be really prepared if we did make it to the final, because I was feeling really confident with the dance.

       After running the routine with the new changes a few times, Dad said we could take a five minute break. I got my water bottle before sitting on the bench beside Echo. I first took a huge sip out of the water bottle before asking her a question. "How far has D.A.N.C.E usually made it in the past state competitions?"

       "I think....The furthest we make it is to the fourth round," Echo said. "We never make it pass the fourth round, and once in a while we don't make it pass the third round."

       "The fourth round is the duet round, right?" I asked, and Echo nodded, which made me sigh. "Great, now I'm going to feel a lot more pressure for it."

       "Don't worry, we'll do fine," Echo said. "Your dad has seen our duet, and he thinks we have a chance to make it pass that round."

       "Yeah, but only four teams make it to the final," I said. "And how many teams are in the duet round?"

       "It doesn't matter how many teams are in the duet round," Echo said. "You feel strong about it, right?" I nodded. "That's all that matters. We'll do great. Just....focus on how we felt during the past duet competition. You didn't worry about it too much then, right?"

       "Yeah, you're right," I said. "Sorry, I'm just the type of person to worry a lot."

       "So am I," Echo said. "I actually found out that my sister will be down here during the state competition, so she's going to be watching it with my parents."

       "That's....good, I assume?"

       "Good and bad," Echo said. "I love my sister a lot, and she's always been supportive of me, but her being there will make my parents compare me to her even more. She even tries getting them to stop, but they kept telling her that they just want what's best for me."

       "I'm sorry," I said. "That your parents are working you really hard."

       Echo shrugged. "It's okay. I'm used to it, I guess. And it won't be long until I'll be heading off to university. That's if I get into Julliard. That's the only school my parents want me to go to."

       "Is that where you want to go?" I asked.

       "I don't know," she said. "I still have my junior and senior year of high school to decide what I really want to do. I really love dancing, a lot, but....I don't know. I just don't want to think about my future right now."

       "Well, whatever you choose, you'll do great in," I said.

       Echo gave me a smile. "Thank you, for being such a supportive boyfriend. I don't know what I would do without you."

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The state competition will start next chapter. :O I got so tired of writing about dance competitions during Ryder's books, but writing Jerlan's books made me not tired of it anymore. cx

And now here is a gif of my baby Rhys:

I'm waiting for more Ozzy moments from TNS to be on YouTube so I can gifafy it. (gifafy is a word, don't deny it)

Omg and here's a gif of fetus Nolan, only because when I was getting the gif of Rhys in my gif folder, I saw my cinnamon roll Nolan:

Jerlan <3