Chapter 5

The week passed easily enough.

Every day in English class Jett and I would talk for a couple of minutes before the bell would ring and the teacher would demand for silence. He never came into the coffee shop again all week but that was okay because Annie cooled down with the teasing for a while. I was starting to get to know Jett a bit and we were slowly on our way to becoming friends this year.

I did not inform Piper or Blake that Jett happened to be in my English class because them, as well as Annie, would be teasing me and joking around that we were perfect for each other.

I still didn’t get what they were getting at, I mean, sure, Jett and I clicked that first day at the coffee shop but other then slowly becoming friends I don’t really think that there’s anything between me and him.

Other than that nothing exciting has happened all week; I worked a couple times, hung out Piper once after school while Blake went to the gym with some of the guys he hangs out with and I had a ton of homework.

Tonight was Friday and I had already finished my calculus and English homework but I had left my biology report for later this weekend as I was going out tonight.

I had just finished showering and was currently straightening my hair as best as I could. Usually I could get it to go pin straight but today just wasn’t a good day and my hair was not cooperating with me. After an extra fifteen minutes working on my hair I had finally got my hair to look somewhat good-looking and worthy enough to go out with.

Now that my hair was finished it was time for an outfit. With my bright red hair a lot of colours just did not look good on me. I usually stayed with the lighter pastels but every now and then I would go a little bit edgier and wear some red, black or white.

Tonight just happened to be a night that I was deciding to go a little bit edgier as it was a special night for Piper and she liked when I dressed that way.

In case I forgot to mention it Piper is an amazing dancer. She has been dancing all styles of dance since she was about four years old and was really fit because of it. For the past couple of years Piper has been trying to perfect her hip-hop, jazz, and contemporary routines while also teaching her own weekly class at a dance studio a couple of blocks away from her house. Tonight was the mid-year recital for her dance level and Blake and I always went to support her. Her and her dance partners were always amazing and always came up with the most eccentric and exhilarating routines that had everybody out of their seats.

I chose a pair of tight fitting white jeans from my closet as well as a red V-neck long sleeve shirt, my black leather jacket and a pair of black ankle boots with a two inch heel. I knew that it was not something that I would ever wear to school or basically out anywhere but Piper had took me shopping last year and insisted that I buy it because I looked ‘totally hot’ wearing it. Since it was Piper’s night I could put a side my taste and please her for the next few hours, and besides, if any guys gave me trouble for dressing like this Blake was always right there beside me.

After I got dressed I headed back to my en-suite to add my usual clear gloss and mascara before putting on a spritz of perfume and heading downstairs.

 Another unfortunate thing happened this week that did not please me in the slightest. My car, for some odd reason, didn’t turn on this morning so I had to call Piper to tell her she had to drive us. It felt weird knowing that my car was going to be in the shop for the majority of the weekend to be fixed but I’m just lucky that although my friend didn’t normally use it, she did own her own used car.

I grabbed my phone off the living room table and headed to the foyer to wait for Piper. This weekend, whether she liked it or not, Piper was the driving monkey instead of me.

After a couple of minutes of waiting, checking my phone apps for updates and playing quick games, I heard a horn blast a couple of times to announce that Piper was now waiting in my driveway.

Nobody else was home at the moment so I took my keys and locked the door while heading out quickly to Piper’s car. The weather wasn’t horrible it was just cold and thank god it wasn’t snowing tonight because I worked to long for my hair to be ruined.

Yes, I know that I sounded like quite a diva but I wanted to look good tonight for the recital. A lot of high class people and professionals went to these recitals and I didn’t want my hard work all to be for nothing.

I opened the passenger door to Piper’s car and quickly slid into my seat, closing the door and buckling my seatbelt.

When I turned to greet Piper, I stopped and raised an eyebrow as she was staring at me with a weird look on her face. “Everything alright Pipe?” I asked her, slightly confused.

She shook her head and sent a smile in my direction. “Nothing, it’s just you look really good in that outfit. Too bad Jett wasn’t going to see you tonight because he would flip out… you look hot girl.” she replied cheekily while putting her car into drive and heading towards Blake’s house.

I rolled my eyes and leaned back into my chair. “You helped me pick out this outfit a couple of months ago and I thought I’d finally wear it tonight. Plus, Jett doesn’t care what I wear, like I told you before, he isn’t interested in me.” I said, switching her radio channel from a country one to the greatest hits channel.

“First of all, just because y’all aren’t totally into each other at the moment doesn’t mean that it restricts any kind of lovey dovey feelings down the line and second of all, you’re lucky I like this radio station or I would hurt you for touching the music.” she replied.

I didn’t really have a good reply to that so I just stuck my tongue out in her direction, which received a chuckle in return, while relaxing as we made our way to Blake’s house.

A couple minutes later Piper pulled her car into Blake’s driveway and honked the horn a couple of times to alert him of our presence.

Blake came strolling out of his house in a pair of low-rise jeans, a tight white V-neck that showed off a lot of his obvious muscles, a black hoodie and a dark green Celtics snapback. He definitely looked good.

As he climbed into the backseat of Pipe’s car he sighed, obviously frustrated.

“First, you look hot Blake and second, what’s with the tude?” Piper asked, pulling out of his drive and heading to the auditorium that her recital was taking place at.

He buckled up and leaned forward to answer. “Well, to reply I must say thank you because I know I look good and would totally bang you guys if I swung that way.” he said, obviously smug but received a slap to the head from both Piper and I, which he replied to by chuckling. “And secondly, what’s with the teams… Sophie gets shot gun in this car and Piper get shot gun in Sophie’s car. I sense some favouritism here and I am not happy about this in the slightest.”

Piper and I chuckled at his whining. “Well, you live the furthest away so you don’t get a chance at shot gun Blake, that’s just the way things go, oh, and are you possibly dressed nicely to try and find a guy at Piper’ recital tonight?” I asked.

He smirked back at me in reply. “Possibly.” he said while Piper and I laughed at his obvious flirtation techniques.

Every single time Blake and I went to one of Piper’s recitals, Blake would get himself all good looking hoping to score himself a date with a ‘hot piece of man candy’ as he would say. I actually did understand why he would do this because quite a few of the dancers that performed at these recitals were indeed gay so Blake would have a chance. I think he actually scored a date one time with this hot guy but the guy ended up being a real douche-bag so that relationship didn’t go anywhere.

The rest of the ride to the auditorium was pretty much silent as we listened to the radio, occasionally singing to familiar songs even though we weren’t actually using our real voices, we were using the worst voices you could ever think of. Think of a dying walrus, a hungry monkey and an angry hawk singing together and we were probably singing worse than that.

When we arrived at the auditorium we were slightly early because Piper had to be backstage half an hour early as she was one of the first dancers.

Piper quickly jumped out of the car yelling quick goodbye over her shoulder before heading backstage to get ready for her first dance. She had previously informed us that she was performing three times tonight; one hip-hop duet, a contemporary solo and a jazz group routine. She had also told us that she had choreographed a majority of all three dances herself and I was immensely proud of her. Piper really loved dancing and I loved seeing her so happy and passionate about her dancing.

Both Blake and I had paid $10 for a ticket each for the show tonight which was actually slightly cheaper than usual. I guess since it was only the advanced dancers in the show tonight the ticket cost had decreased.

Blake and I handed in our tickets at the door before hanging out a while in the lobby. The doors to the theatre didn’t open until ten minutes before the show started so we just went to the snack bars quickly to grab a drink and a couple of snacks. I bought myself a water and a bag of gummy worms while Blake, the pig, grabbed a bottle of water, a bag of ketchup chips, a Twix bar and a bag of gummy bears.

“Pig.’ I muttered, as we stood in line to pay for our food.

Obviously Blake had heard me because he started chuckling and bumped his shoulder against mine in a teasing manner. “I’m hungry so shut it.” he replied and I shook my head.

We both paid for our food and by that time the theatre doors had opened and we headed in. From experience we knew that the seats in the middle were always the best. If you sat in front you were too close and had to look up at the stage, also looking back and forth to see each side of the stage, however, if you sat too high in the auditorium you had a hard time seeing the graceful and explicit movements of the dancers – the middle was the best option.

About ten minutes after we had taken our seats in the middle of the auditorium, the lights dimmed to darken the room and a spotlight was pointed in the middle of the stage.

The first couple of dances were really good. There was a mix of ballet, jazz and Broadway dances that were all well-choreographed and danced beautifully.

“And next up we have Piper Simmons and Jay Lewis dancing a hip-hop duet choreographed by the dancers’ themselves.” the announcer declared and the audience erupted in applause.

The applause dimmed as the music to ‘Church’ by T-Pain started. Piper and Jay were always partnered together for hip-hop because they were comfortable with each other’s dance styles and fit together really well. As usual, I didn’t know that name to any of the moves that either of them were doing but I was blown away. They would start dancing together, perfectly in sync in some parts so fast I couldn’t stop to think about how they pulled off the coordination while in other parts it was as though they were having a dance battle on the stage. The routine was amazing and as it ended Blake and I, as well as a majority of the audience, stood up in their seats to give them the standing ovation that they deserved.

Piper didn’t come back out until plenty past the middle of the show, but this time she was alone. She had choreographed her own intricate jazz routine to the song ‘Sweet Dreams’ by Eurythmics and I was stunned. I knew she choreographed a bunch of her own stuff but this was absolutely amazing. She danced, did tricks, and jumped so gracefully and powerfully that I couldn’t believe it was my best friend on the stage. Her jazz routine was by far the best routine that had been performed so far tonight and she received another standing ovation but this time everybody was out of their seats jumping up and down cheering her name and screaming in applause.

After the reaction to Piper’s jazz performance had settled down a couple of dances past. They were still good and I loved them but Piper’s was by far the best, at least in my opinion.

“Now, for our final dance of the night we have a group of four dancers dancing an intricate contemporary piece to ‘No Air’ by Jordin Sparks. Please welcome back to the stage Amelia Denzil, Matt Rupto, Jay Lewis and Piper Simmons.” the announced declared and the crowd applauded.

I had no idea that Piper’s dance would be the finale. She had never gotten herself a finale spot before and I was really happy for her. The finale was always given to the dance that deserved it. It was rarely a solo piece and usually belonged to a group. It was an honour that Piper’s group had gotten the spot as I knew that they all deserved it for working their ass off almost daily in rehearsals.

The dance was amazing and totally deserved the finale spot. Piper and Amelia were in sync for all of their dancing as well as Jay and Matt. The girls were basically fighting with their guys and had the whole dance mapped out beautifully. Sometimes each couple would come up and do their own unique moves while the other group did their own thing in the back but all put together it was a dance I was honoured to be able to watch. It was graceful and all perfectly in sync. You could tell by their dancing that they had worked endlessly until the routine was perfected and it just made the audience love the routine even more.

When the dance was over, all four dancers came into the middle of the stage to take a bow together and the audience, once again, gave them a standing ovation with cheers, whistles and a bunch praise.  

After the four of them finished taking their bows, they headed off stage and the announcer thanked the audience for coming and cheering on the advanced dancers from the studio while the lights came back on.

With the rest of the audience, Blake and I slowly made our way to the auditorium lobby to wait for Piper. They were selling small bouquets of flowers in the lobby so Blake and I pitched in to buy Piper a dozen red roses for her great performances tonight.

After talking with a couple people we recognized from previous rehearsals, we saw Piper coming this way. We broke away from them and rushed towards Piper, who was getting praised by a bunch of fans as she walked towards us.

I jumped onto my best friend, giving her a humungous hug. “I’m so proud of you. You are the best dancer I have ever seen and I can’t believe you choreographed those routines! Those were definitely the best routines I have ever seen you perform in your career!” I screeched, unraveling my arms from around Piper and stepping back slightly.

Piper just laughed at me. “Thanks guys, I really love it that you guys are always come here to support me so thank you.” she replied, addressing both me and Blake and pulling us each into a hug.

As she pulled back, Black handed her the bouquet of roses that we bought her. “Here, we bought these for you because you were the best dancer tonight and you definitely deserved them.” Blake said.

We stayed talking for a couple minutes when Jay came over and threw his arms around Piper’s waist, leaning his head on top of hers. “You were great tonight princess.” he said, kissing her hair and she relaxed back into him.

She leant her head upwards and kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks, but you were just as amazing.” she replied, wiggling herself out of his hold. Obviously Jay didn’t want to separate for her because he still threw an arm around Piper’s shoulder.

“Well, my favourite girl, I don’t care what you say you were definitely the best dancer tonight, even your friends agree, right?” Jay asked, facing me and Blake, who were standing there with smirks on our faces looking at the cute dance couple.

Both of us nodded in response to Jay. “See, we all think it. But hey, I have to go see my parents so I’ll see you during the week okay, oh, and don’t forget about next weekend princess.” he said, kissing her on the cheek before giving Blake and I a quick wave and heading off in the opposite direction.

When Jay was out of sight Blake and I turned to Piper, who was slightly blushing, with smug looks on our faces. “Next weekend?” Blake asked Piper with a smirk mirroring mine plastered onto his face.

Piper ducked her head smiling slightly. “He asked me to the movies next Saturday night.” she whispered, obviously happy on the inside.

A scream erupted from my mouth and I hugged my best friend. Both me and Blake knew that Piper had liked Jay for ages but they both just remained really close friends and dance partners. “I am so happy for you.” I exclaimed, stepping back from Piper slightly.

“Yeah, congrats on finally telling him how you feel.” Blake said, giving Piper a friendly punch in the arm.

Piper shook her head. “He didn’t ask me out and he didn’t mention it as a date, he just asked if I wanted to see a movie next Saturday and I agreed. I’m pretty sure we’re going as friends.” she explained, looking a little down.

“Hello,” I said, waving my hand in front of my best friends face, “you’re going alone to the movies, at night, with a guy. It’s a date.”

Piper shook her head but smiled anyways. “It’s not, but anyways. I just have to change and I’ll be right back. You guys need a ride right?” she asked sweetly.

Blake nodded in confirmation while I shook my head, denying the offer. “I like the fresh air so I’m going to walk. I don’t need the ride so don’t pester me because I love to walk in the night time and since it’s not extremely cold I’m going to take advantage of it. I’ll see you guys by Monday at the latest.” I said, smiling and saying goodbye to my best friends before heading towards the door of the auditorium.

I loved to walk during the night time with the breeze. Tonight wasn’t extremely cold so it felt good to just take a walk and take my mind off of everything. From the auditorium it was approximately a forty minute walk back to my house but I didn’t mind I the slightest.

After ten minutes I came to a street that had a bunch of busy coffee shops, bakeries and bars. It was bustling with the usual people wanting a great Friday night out.

As I was walking by I was looking into all of the shops, but when came to a local café I had never set foot in, I step froze. There, getting up onto the stage was Jett.

I stepped up to the door and saw a sign that read ‘KARAOKE NIGHT – OPEN MIC’.

I knew that Jett played guitar and loved music but I never would have guessed that he actually performed his music in front of a crowd. I don’t know, I guess because of his shy personality around school I thought he might have stage fright, which is evidentially not true.

As I saw Jett adjust his guitar and mic, I didn’t give a second thought about opening the door to the café and walking in.

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Super long chapter! It was really fun to write and I would love to hear your opinions on Piper, Jay and the dancing scenes. I would also appreciate your votes on this story!

Next Update: Wednesday

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