iii. new rules

                                    

                                          
    A-troupe was stretching, a smile plastered onto each of the eleven dancers as the tensions were rising. Each dancer was angered unconditionally to each other; Piper to Amy and Josh; Josh back to Piper; Amy at Piper; Lily at Richelle and back; Jacquie was secretly angered by Noah gaining the solo, though she'd rather not say it to threaten their relationship; Noah at Richelle.
                          
    Noah glanced back at his former friend, the two had yet to speak for a while and it felt a little insecure, they were dangling, the burning emotions like pyre. Emily turned to view the dancers stretches as they all felt disconnected. This was not good.
                          
    "Michelle, we have a problem." Emily stormed into the office to see the five other TNS faculty members, sitting together. 
                          
    "Yeah, we've seen. It looks horrid." Chloe intervened into the conversation that was not meant for her in the first place. "What are we going to do?"
                          
    "Well, it looks like the people needing the most repair are Piper, Josh and Amy. And there's an upcoming trio competition, what if we send them to the trio competition? We force them to dance their emotions out and if they don't want to do it, they could easily just walk out." Giselle interjected with the perfect solution.
                          
    The other fives who were not the aforementioned faculty member all expressed concurring with curt nods, "alright. Let's do it!" Thalia stated and then headed back off. She perambulated into the centre of studio A, all members of A-troupe had their eyes fixed on her. "Alright, we have an announcement. There is an upcoming trio competition. Me and the others have decided the best people for the dance would be Josh, Amy and Piper."
                          
    Neither of the three agreed. Their chemistry would be off and they'd surely loose. They all began to disagree with the solution to the chemistry issue, but Chloe walked in and shook her head. "I am sorry, but this is non-negotiable. We've seen the horrendous competitive nature, and right now it looks like we're starting to bring some of that negative energy here because the chemistry with the overall vibe of the team is horrible, and we need to tone it down."
                          
    "Gosh, you sound just like Phoebe." Piper rolled her eyes; she had no clue who the person she'd just referenced was, though, she'd heard about the person through talks wth James. Phoebe was a legend to the studio with her antics.
                          
    "I know, she's amazing." Thalia stated, unhappy with how the person she was inspired from and motivated by was being demeaned by the likes of a hero's sister. "Anyway, you three will do the trio. No ifs, ands, or buts." She stated, and the three sighed, they knew that they'd hate this. But if they had to, they'd be forced to make it work. Despite their distaste for the idea.
                          
    Piper was the one who hated the idea the most, first, she was going to talk to someone who hated her, dance with her, ad dance with her crush that she was (still) trying to get over, could this day get any worse? It already happened.
                          
    "And we have eleven dancers, we just need one more dancer to fill the twelfth spot for our twelve dancer Nationals team, if anyone knows anymore, please, speak up. I will keep in touch with all dancers I know, and same with anyone else the staff knows." Thalia stated.
                          
    Thalia walked out and Noah glared over at Richelle. "Can we talk?" Noah asked.
                          
    Richelle gave a calm nod and then hauled Noah over to the side, where the cubbies were. "What about?"
                          
    "Why are you still dancing? Aren't you injured?" Noah asked.
                          
    "I was injured, key word, was. I am all good to go, I have a clean bill of health and I can dance once more."
                          
    "Look, when I was getting over my back injury, it took weeks to recover, so perhaps you should just take three weeks to slowly ease into dancing?" Noah suggested.