Chapter 47

       "I have a few announcements to make," Dad said once everyone was in the studio for rehearsals. "The first is that since we will be heading to Internationals, I want us to be fully prepared. We may have a strong team, but we don't know what can happen. There can be a serious injury or someone can get really sick, so I've decided to bring in an alternate for the team. I've already held auditions, so I'd like you all to meet the newest member of D.A.N.C.E."

       A girl walked into the studio just then and right as she came into the view, Echo said very quietly, "Oh, no."

       "You know her?" I asked, my voice soft enough for only her to hear.

       "Unfortunately, yes," Echo said. "She's my step-cousin, and we're going to need a lot of luck getting along with her."

       I didn't get to ask Echo why we would need a lot of luck to get along with her step-cousin because Dad started talking again.

       "This is Yvonne," Dad said. "I hope you all make her feel welcomed on this team. Now, the next announcement, again, has to do with Internationals. I was finally told the location of the competition."

       "Well, don't stop there," Kingsley said. "Tell us where it is."

       "I'll give you all a hint," Dad said. "One of my sons decided to recently run away there."

       "Quebec?" Zayden asked. "Oh, wait, my bad. That was you."

       Dad gave Zayden a mocked laugh before saying, "That was different."

       "You keep saying it was different, but the only different part was the countries you visited," Zayden said. "You still took off without telling your parents."

       Dad completely ignored Zayden this time, mainly because he knew Zayden was right. He really was. The only difference between me taking off and Dad taking off was that Dad visited Canada and I visited England.

       "Anyway," Dad said. "For those of you unaware where my lovely son decided to run away to, it was London."

       "In England," Kingsley said. 

       "Is there any other London?" Zayden asked.

       "Yes, actually, in Canada," Kingsley said. "I should know. I'm Canadian."

       "Since when?" Zayden asked. "I thought you were Spanish."

       "I was, but then I got adopted, and one of my parents is Canadian."

       "That's... not how it works."

       "Show me the rule book."

       "I don't even know why I bother."

       "Like I was saying," Dad said. "The International competition this year is in fact in England. Now, I have to finish up some paperwork for the competition, so you can all introduce yourself to Yvonne, get to know one another, and run by some ideas for the semi-final and final dances."

       After Dad walked into his office, Yvonne looked over at Echo. "Echo, it's so nice to see you again," she said, giving her a smile.

       "You too," Echo said, but I could hear annoyance in her voice.

       "You two know each other?" Zayden asked.

       "Yes. I'm Echo's wonderful step-cousin. So, I'd love to know all of your names," she said before looking at me. "Especially yours."

       "This is Rhys," Echo said. "My boyfriend."

       "Oh, such a shame," Yvonne said. "He's pretty cute."

       "What am I? Chopped liver?" Zayden asked.

       "Not everything is about you, Zayden," Kingsley said. "Get over yourself."

       "Uh, sorry, but if my identical twin gets a compliment on his appearance, I'd like one too," Zayden said. "I'm the single one, yet he gets hit on. Anyway, I'm Zayden, the dance captain." He then went around, saying everyone's names so Yvonne could know them.

       "So, which one of you actually ran away to England?" Yvonne asked.

       "It wasn't technically running away," Kingsley said. "It was an unexpected trip."

       "Was it you?" Yvonne asked.

       "Oh, no," Kingsley said. "It was Rhys. I just accompanied him since I am the best cousin ever. I was just happy I didn't get punished for it."

       "Why not?" Yvonne asked. "My parents would kill me if I went to another country without telling them."

       "Who said anything about not telling them?" Kingsley said. "My dads are cool. I just told one and he was okay with it."

       "Dads?" Yvonne asked. "So you have two?"

       "Yes," Kingsley said. "Is there a problem?"

       "Kind of," Yvonne said. "Does that mean you're gay?"

       I now knew what Echo meant when she said we were going to need a lot of luck to get along with Yvonne. She seemed okay at first, but saying there was kind of a problem with Kingsley having two dads was quite rude, especially when his dads were the most loving parents ever.

       "Are you just going to keep asking question after question?" Calliope asked. "Oh, by the way, I'm Kingsley's girlfriend so no, he's not gay."

       "I'm bisexual," Kingsley said. "But who can blame me? There are a lot of hot guys out there."

       Yvonne raised an eyebrow. "Interesting..."

       "Okay, I think it's time to get started on running a few ideas for the semi-finals and finals dance," Zayden said.

       "Wait, first, I just want to know which dancer is part of which round," Yvonne said, so Zayden told her the dancers for the male solo, female solo, group, and duet. "Wait, hold on. Are you sure it's smart for Echo to have such a huge role? Duets are quite hard. They need a lot of chemistry."

       Was... was she serious?

       Was Yvonne one of those people that liked undermining their relatives? Because it definitely seemed like it.

       "Oh, shush, you're an alternate," Kingsley said. "You don't get a say it in."

       "Excuse me, but alternates play a pretty large part on the team," Yvonne said. "They have to learn every single dance, and everyone's blocking in the dance. So, I do think I should get a say in it. And I really don't think you should give Echo such a huge role."

        "Okay, I get that you two are step-cousins that apparently hate each other, but you really need to know what everyone on the team is capable of before you start throwing your opinion around," Zayden said. "Echo and Rhys are perfect for the duet. Literally perfect. Want to know what their score was for the duet round at Nationals? One-hundred. Perfect."

        Yvonne didn't say anything else, thank goodness. I was really going to get sick of her, and sick of rehearsals if she kept this up.

______________

I'm sad. I watched a new episode of TNS today and my poor baby Ozzy was sad... So I'm sad because he's such an underrated cinnamon roll.

But at least it gave me a father-son moment to gifafy:

YEE.

Still waiting on those Piper/Ozzy moments I can gifafy for Recho's sake.

THREE CHAPTERS LEFT and then we move on to Zayden's book, and he'll finally get a girlfriend I can ship with him because for some reason, I just wasn't feeling him with Eleanor and Desiree.