Chapter 41

       Zayden had been practicing his solo a lot, more than he usually practiced a dance. He was always so confident with his dances, but he kept saying he wasn't ready to perform, even though his performance was in less than twenty minutes.

       Everyone on D.A.N.C.E was in the audience, but Zayden was never with us. He was supposed to be sitting with us until he was called to get ready backstage.

       I was starting to get a bit worried that he will wear himself out before he even got to perform, which would ruin his whole performance, so I told Dad I was going to check on him.

       I found him in one of the rooms the dancers could use to practice, and he was going full out. He could exhaust himself, and we would be eliminated the first round.

       I waited until he finished his song, though, otherwise he'd probably kill me. "How long have you been doing this for?" I asked him when the song ended. "You're going to be out of energy before you perform."

       Zayden had to catch his breath before replying. "I have to get it perfect."

       "I've seen it plenty of times," I said. "There's no way you won't get eliminated this round. You know, unless you keep practicing full out. What's going on?"

       "What do you mean?"

       "You're always so confident with your dancing," I said. "You never practice this much before your performance."

       Zayden sighed. "You know how this round, two teams are paired up against each other, and the higher score moves on?" I nodded. "Yeah, well, this year they decided to do it state wise. Meaning I'm up against the other studio from Florida, also known as Nonpareil."

       "Okay, but you've always beat them out during the male solo qualifier," I said. "This isn't like you, being too worried about it. What else is going on?"

       "Everything."

       "Everything? Way to narrow it down."

       "Guess who is single once again?" Zayden asked. "Me, that's who, so that's fun."

       "What happened?" I asked.

       Zayden sat down on the floor, leaning his head against the wall. "After we got here yesterday, she decided that she didn't want to date someone on a different dance team, especially one her team is going against in Nationals. She'd rather focus on dance."

       "That's....pretty stupid," I said, sitting down beside him. "When did she break up with you?"

       "About an hour ago," Zayden said.

       Oh....

       Dang.

       "Zayden, I really don't want to say this because it might make you mad," I said. "But....What if she was only dating you because she was planning on breaking up with you before the male solo round, knowing it was going to mess you up? If she really cared about you, wouldn't she have done it way earlier, or at least after this round? Not so close to you performing?"

       "If she really cared about me, she wouldn't have broken up with me at all just because we're on different teams," Zayden said. "I should have known, anyway, considering who her parents are. I just....I'm tired of my relationships being a complete fail."

       "We're only seventeen, Zayden," I said. "You can't expect to find the girl you're going to end up with right now."

       "Why not?" Zayden asked. "Everyone else in our family pretty much did. You're probably going to end up marrying Echo. I wouldn't be surprised if Kingsley ends up marrying Calliope."

       "Would you stop comparing your love life to our family?" I asked. "You can't expect to find someone this young. I was just lucky I was able to find Echo, and even though I love her, our future isn't guaranteed."

       "Blah blah blah, I'm in love," Zayden said. "That's all I hear."

       "You know what?" I asked. "Stop pitying yourself. You know what you're going to do? Destroy the male solo round. You're going to prove to your ex, and Nonpareil, that it's going to take a lot to shake you."

       "You are absolutely right," Zayden said, hopping to his feet. "I am Zayden Tony Prince, after all. I will not let some dirty team take me down so easily."

       "Good for you," I said. "I know you're going to destroy the competition. But seriously, don't overwork yourself."

       "I'm not," Zayden said. "No more practicing for me. I'm saving the rest of my energy for my performance."

       It was a good thing he did, because he really did destroy the competition. He danced his hardest, and I could tell he was using all his energy and emotions from being broken up with into the dance.

       I had never even seen him dance this hard before.

       Nonpareil went before he did, so once Zayden was done, their male soloist came onto the stage so the results could be announced. The dancer from Nonpareil looked way too confident, which made things even better when he scored a ninety-three and Zayden scored a ninety-six.

       D.A.N.C.E cheered loudly when Zayden was announced to move on. It definitely made Dad feel a lot better about what Raphael said yesterday. Nonpareil couldn't even make it passed the first round because they went against us.

       If that didn't say who the better team was, then I didn't know what did.

       Seeing Zayden's dance definitely made the rest of our team feel more confident. This was our first time at the national competition, and Zayden had already set the bar quite high. If the rest of us kept this up, there would be no way we would be going home so early in the competition.

       It was hard to say for later on, though. The more people that got eliminated, the harder we would have to dance.

       Which was going to be hard for me. I was still new to both performing and competing, and by the time it was the duet round, there would be eight teams left. Eight out of one hundred teams. If we got lucky enough to get that far, it was going to put a lot of pressure on me.

________________

The song attached is what Zayden dances too. It reminds me of my new child that I adopted not too long ago. <3

I adopted why too many children OOPS.

So I have a problem. I CAN'T SHIP ZAYDEN WITH ANYONE SO I BREAK HIM AND HIS GIRLFRIEND UP. hahahahah oops. Don't worry, his next girlfriend should be his last. cx Hopefully.

And gif time:

Aww, when Ryder stands up to Echo's mom for her. <3 THAT'S RIGHT RYDER. SAVE YOUR FUTURE DAUGHTER IN LAW.