Chapter 28

                                    

                                          
Time skip to Easter half term, Dianne has a dance competition all week 
                          
{Diannes POV} 
D- FaceTime me while I do my makeup? 
J- Yeh ok 
I rung him immediately, propping my phone against my mirror as I set to work transforming my face. His face on my phone screen, I could see Joe watching my every move in wonder. 
"Woah what's that?!" He asked as I pulled out my eyelash curler, bringing it to my eye. 
"What are you doing?!" His voice sounded. 
"Curling my eyelashes?" I said as I carefully clasped the metal around my lashes, holding it for a few seconds before releasing and switching to the other eye. 
"What do you do that for?" 
"So that when I put falsies on, my real lashes aren't as noticeable" I laughed at Joes curiosity as I dug around my makeup bag, finding a brand new pack of eyelashes. I loved getting a new pair. They look so much nicer when they are fresh from the box. Joe watched me intently, his face almost pressing up against his phone. 
"Done" I said a couple of silent minutes later, blinking a little to make sure they would stay on, "see, I look so different now."
"You are still gorgeous" Joe said softly, moving back away from his screen and sitting up properly. I could feel myself blushing underneath my caked on makeup. 
"Why do you wear so much makeup anyways?" 
"Because on stage your face just looks like a blur if that makes any sense. So you need to contour and make your eyes look bigger, stuff like that, so your features are more defined and people can see your face properly from the back of the room. Does that make any sense?" I laughed. 
"A little" Joe shrugged, "What have you got today?" 
"My duet with Aj, that's it I think" 
"All that makeup for a two minute performance" Joe smiled. 
"I guess. I need to go now baby. I'll messaged you after my competition and let you know how it goes" 
"Okay, good luck gorgeous." I ended the call and chucked my phone into my dance bag after checking I definitely had everything I would need for later. I grabbed my costume out of my wardrobe and left my room, rushing down the stairs and pulling my shoes on. My mum and I left quickly as Aj and I wanted to have plenty of time to rehearse before hand. 
                          
"Act number 10, Dianne Buswell and Aj Pritchard." Aj and I made our way onto the stage and got into our starting positions as a small round of applause echoed around the room. The music came on and we both sprang to life, dancing in perfect sync. Everything was going perfectly until I felt my heel stuck in my skirt. There was no way for me to easily get it out. Heat rushed all over my body as panic set in. Aj, realising what was happening, lifted me up differently to what he was supposed to which gave me a chance to kick my leg and unhook my self. It didn't really work but I managed to stretch the material enough so that my foot could actually go on to the floor. As Aj put me down, he smiled reassuringly at me before we carried on for the last eight counts, finishing our performance on the beat. I dropped into a small curtesy, Aj bowing his head as the audience clapped for our routine. We gave them one last smile before walking off. As soon as we were off and out of sight, I dropped Ajs hand and sat down on the floor to unhook my shoe. Once I had managed to get my foot free, I sat on the floor in defeat. I had ruined it. Our chances of winning. If we won this with a certain mark, we would be through to all England's but that's not going to happen now. All because I lifted my leg a touch too high. 
"Red, stop beating yourself up." I blinked myself away from my thoughts, looking up to see Aj stood over me with a sympathetic smile on his face. He held his hands out for me and, as I took them, he pulled me up and straight in for a hug. 
"I'm sorry Aj. I ruined our chances of winning" I muttered, desperately resisting the urge to cry. 
"Hey, hey. You didn't. That wasn't your fault and you handled it so well. Who cares if we win. There's always other competitions we can go to" 
"But I know how badly you want to get to all England's"
"I'm not bothered over that, I'd much rather we performed to the best of our ability and if we don't win then it's not the end of the world. Besides, I'd rather you weren't beating yourself up about it."
"Sorry..."
"I don't wanna hear it" Aj silenced me, a finger to my lips, "we need to go on for adjudication now." I picked up our number from a table and joined the line of duets waiting to be judged. We all trailed onto the stage, smiled plastered onto our faces, to get the results. 
After a couple of minutes of standing on the stage, getting sweaty in the beaming stage lights, the adjudicator got up from her seat and walked up the steps and onto the stage. 
"Well done dancers. This was a very hard section to judge as you are all incredible. So you should all be so proud. But there can only be one winner. With 90 marks, number 10!" I could feel Aj tug on my arm slightly as I just stood there in shock. We'd won! Even after my heel got stuck! I walked forward with Aj to collect our medals and trophy. 
"Well done" she said to the pair of us as she passed over our medals. 
"Thank you" I said shakily, dropping into the smallest curtesy whilst Aj was given his medal, bowing his head slightly in thanks. She ran through a couple of notes she had about our dances before announcing second and third. 
                          
"We are through to all England's!" Aj exclaimed excitedly as we ran off stage. He picked me up and spun me round whilst I laughed at him. 
"Are we?!" I didn't actually know what mark you had to get to get through. 
"The pass mark was 85 so we were 5 over Di!" I squealed slightly and threw my arms around Ajs neck. 
"On a more serious note" Aj frowned as we pulled away, "will you stop beating yourself up now please?" 
"Yes" I giggled, "we are through and I haven't let you down." 
"Good, lets go outside." Aj and I went outside the back of the theatre, immediately seeing our parents and dance teacher stood by the entrance to the back. We ran into their arms whilst they cheered for us. After I had hugged my mum, I went over to Miss Kim. 
"Well done" she beamed, pulling me into a hug, "it doesn't matter about your shoe. You both carried on perfectly" 
"Thank you." 
"Oh, I got a call from Strictly. I've been given another opportunity for one of my students to perform on the show. How about you and Aj do that routine?"
"Oh my god, yes!" My dance teacher smiled again before going to tell Ajs mum. I ran over to Aj and jumped onto him. 
"We are going to be on Strictly!" 
                          
I'm gonna be following Diannes dancing more than school because of the story plan I've got going on, just so you know x