CandiceB's Story - Time After Time

At a sprint, Martha made her way almost completely to centre stage, and jumped. Flailing her arms in hopes of creating some spin, she assumed she looked like some freakish figure skater.
“NO!” Mia’s voice boomed from the front row of seats. “Don’t do that with your arms! Remember what we went over earlier? Extend them all the way out to your sides, and then bring them in fast and tight!” She instructed, demonstrating the arm movements to Martha as she spoke. Travis, Ivan and Benji were sitting on the stairs at stage left, chatting like they use to on elimination nights when they had been on Season Two together.
“What the heck was that supposed to be?” Benji asked with his eyebrows scrunched down in confusion.
“I have NO idea. She told me she wanted to try some things she’d seen at some shows in New York.” Travis answered. After the buzz from Season Two died down, Mia had invited him to dance with her company—just as she had said she would—an offer that he quickly accepted.
“Was she watching Stars On Ice or something?” Ivan laughed, watching Martha try the jump/spin again. This time, she over rotated on the landing and went over on her ankle. The three boys winced as Martha fell hard. They heard Mia sigh loudly and then reluctantly get onto the stage to see if Martha was ok.
“So, when is everyone else supposed to get in?” Ivan asked. The ‘everyone’ he was referring to was the rest of the Season Two cast. Nigel had called them all up about a month before Season Three was scheduled to begin airing, asking them all if they wouldn’t mind doing a reunion special that would kick-start the new season. Surprisingly, everyone had agreed. So far, the only people who hadn’t made their grand re-appearance were Donyelle, Heidi, Musa and Ashlee; all four dancers were scheduled to arrive later that day.
Even without the last four members of the group, Nigel had insisted that they begin rehearsals for their group and ensemble performances. Mia had been given the task of choreographing the big ensemble performance, and was devoting the entire day to rehearsing it with the dancers. She had been working individually with the dancers all morning; Martha was the last one to get the one-on-one.
“Try it again!” Mia yelled to Martha, who was visibly frustrated.
“Go Miz Marf!” Travis hollered to her. Martha smiled. She made her way back to stage right. Standing straight and stiff, she counted off in her head. One, two, three…go! She ran to her mark, jumped, and couldn’t help but smile as she completed her rotation, extended her right leg back, and landed on her left foot.
“YES!!!” Mia screamed, clapping and jumping. “That’s what I want!”



That evening, Musa was the first of the four late ones to arrive at the swank hotel Nigel had set them all up in. The dancers had all agreed to stake out the lobby for their friends—even if it meant staying down there until 2 a.m.
“What’s up y’all?” He greeted them, dropping his duffel bag on the floor near the chair Jason was sitting in.
“We’re all waiting.” Natalie spoke, sitting on an ottoman with Allison. “Ashlee, Donny and Heidi still have to show…” she stopped mid sentence.
“Hi Guys!” Heidi screeched. She waved frantically at the group as she ran over. Benji got up and hugged his cousin. “Are you guys excited or what!?!” She grinned. Natalie laughed and hugged Heidi as well. During competition there had been times when Heidi’s perkiness had gotten on her last nerve; but, she had to admit she’d grown to miss Heidi’s cheeriness.
“Is it just Donny and Ashlee now?” Heidi asked, taking quick inventory of her former cast mates as she looked for a spot to sit. She settled for a patch of floor beside Ryan.
“Mmmm hmm.” Martha answered, flipping absent-mindedly through a magazine.
An hour passed, and neither Ashlee nor Donyelle came into the lobby. During that time, Musa and Heidi checked into their rooms and put away their luggage. Dmitri and Natalie started to practice some steps to a salsa routine they were working on for competition, and Allison fell asleep sprawled out on the ottoman.
After another hour passed without their friends showing up, Benji headed to the restaurant with Jaymz and Ben in search of snack foods and beverages for the group to consume while they waited. Their arms loaded with pretzels, chips, peanut m&m’s, sodas and water, the three made their way back to the lobby.
“Dang, guys. Did you buy the whole store?” She got up to help they boys arrange everything on the coffee table.
“Thanks guys.” Allison said as she yawned, grabbing a bottle of water. Joy and Aleksandra followed suit, deciding to share a bag of pretzels. Jessica made a grab for a bag of m&m’s, while Dmitri ripped in to a bag of Sour Cream & Onion chips.
“Wow, did you start the picnic without me?”
They all turned to see a familiar person sporting her signature hat and suit.
“Ash!” Ben jumped up and gave his old partner a big hug. Ashlee dropped her bag on the floor and made her way through the group, making sure to hug each and every one of them.
“My flight was delayed.” She explained her lateness, taking a pause to chew a couple of m&m’s. “The weather is really intense up there right now. I’ve never seen it snow like that before!”
They all managed to keep themselves occupied for another two hours before signs of boredom and fatigue began to rear their heads. It was now 1 a.m. and Donyelle still hadn’t shown up.
“Guys, I’m so sorry, but I really have to go to bed.” Allison said, yawning again. Her eyes were struggling to stay open.
“Yeah, me too.” Martha, Ben, Heidi and Musa echoed. The five of them said their goodnights and made their way to the elevators.
By the time two o’clock rolled around, Benji, Ivan, Travis and Joy were the only ones who were still in the lobby.
“Should we phone the airport?” Joy asked, twirling a piece of her long blonde hair around her finger. “Maybe her flight got cancelled.”
“That’s a good idea.” Travis agreed, and went outside to make the call.
He came back about five minutes later.
“The airport said the flight left late, but its coming. The person I talked to said it might be another hour.”
Ivan yawned. “I can’t make it another hour.” He admitted. “I’m gonna call it a night.”
“Yeah, I think I’m going to too. I’m not sure I’ll be able to function tomorrow if I stay up that long.” Travis added. Joy nodded along.
“Ok. I’m going to stay down here for awhile longer.” Benji said, stifling a yawn. “Have a good sleep.” He watched the three of them shuffle towards the elevators, and then turned his attention to the hotel entrance.
3 o’clock…no Donyelle.
4 o’clock…no Donyelle.
As it became closer and closer to the time he would have to be out the door for rehearsals (5:30 am), Benji began to lose hope. Although he didn’t want to go to bed yet, he forced himself to get up from the comfy leather chair he’d been sitting in for the past..oh, 8 hours..and make his way to the elevators. His pointer finger was on the up arrow button when he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder.
“You’re not going up there without saying hello to me, are you?”
Benji turned, and felt all his exhaustion disappear.
“Hi Donyelle.”

*

Donyelle put her purse and suitcase down on the floor, and gave her friend a hug.
“I haven’t heard from you in awhile.” She said, looking Benji in the eyes.
“Yeah, it’s been pretty crazy since I got the call from Nigel. I had to move a lot of stuff around to be able to get here.” He smiled. “What have you been doing since we talked last?” Benji picked up her bags just as the elevator doors open. They stepped inside; Donyelle hit the button for the 17th floor as she got in.
“Shane’s had us all pretty busy.” She started. Like Travis, when she finished So You Think You Can Dance, she was offered a job dancing with one of the show’s choreographers: Shane Sparks. “We just finished another video for Missy. It was great working with her again.” Donyelle smiled, pushing a lock of her curly brown hair behind her ear. “Tahir’s been having a good time with it too. He’s been able to network with a lot of the music industry people while I’m on set.” Donyelle managed a small smile, neglecting to look at Benji.
“That’s great!” Benji said, trying to force enthusiasm.
“How’s the movie going?” Donyelle asked, trying to steer the conversation to a happier subject for her friend. She watched as Benji immediately perked up.
“Shooting’s going really well. The director has me working with some of the other dancers to make sure the technique is nailed down. Nigel’s bent on making the whole thing look realistic. He’s even brought my parents in a couple times to teach the routines to everyone.”
“That sounds like fun.” Donyelle giggled. “Oh, I heard through Heidi that Lacey went through with it and decided to audition for this season of the show? Is that true?” Donyelle asked. She was on fairly good terms with just about all of the dancers and had made a point to keep in contact with all of them, no matter how busy she got.
“Yeah, she did.” Benji grinned, obviously proud of his little sister.
“And?” Donyelle asked, leaning in.
“Well...I can’t tell you officially, but...” Benji leaned in close to whisper in Donyelle’s ear. “She’s in the top 20!”
“Oh my gosh, that’ so great!” Donyelle hugged Benji again. They were interrupted by the elevator doors sliding open to the floor they and the other dancers were staying on.
Donyelle yawned, covering her mouth. “As much as I want to talk to you some more Benji, I have to crash. I didn’t get a chance to sleep much on the plane.” She smiled, taking her purse and suitcase from his hands. She genuinely looked apologetic that she had to sleep.
“Go ahead, I totally understand. I should probably try and sleep too.”
“Ok then. I’ll see you at rehearsals.” Donyelle smiled and waved before making her way out of the elevator and down the hall to her room. Benji watched her leave; before he even realized what was happening, the doors to the elevator closed and the elevator began heading down to the lobby.



Heidi was beside herself with laughter, holding her stomach and shaking a little. “Awww Benji.” She giggled. “Did the flashing buttons confuse you?”
Benji could only laugh at himself. He had just finished telling his cousin the story of his awesome early morning elevator ride. All of the dancers were waiting for the shuttle van to come and take them to the studio where the tapings were normally done. They were supposed to be running through the ensemble number a few times and then try some run-throughs of the group performances; Donyelle, Musa, Ashlee and Heidi were all going to be spending a half-hour each with Mia to learn their parts for the ensemble number and then they would be integrated into their groups and have to learn that choreography on the fly. They still had a couple days before the taping, so they had plenty of time to get the moves right.
“You must be tired, man.” Travis said. “Martha was saying that Donny didn’t get in until around 4:30 this morning.”
“Yep, that’s true.” Benji nodded, yawning.
“Did you sleep at all?” Travis laughed.
“No. When I got to my room I just showered and got ready to leave.” Benji adjusted his messenger bag holding his practice gear on his shoulder. “By the time my elevator ride was over, I only had about forty-five minutes to get ready.”
“Glad to hear I’m not going to be the only one dragging butt today.” Natalie smirked.


Dragging butt was an understatement. Mary was getting angry at Benji, Natalie and Dmitri. The three of them were working with Heidi, Aleksandra and Jaymz on a ballroom performance for their group routine. Heidi, ever the spit fire, had picked up the choreography quickly and executed the technique with ease; Although they already had a day of practice behind them, Benji, Natalie and Dmitri were moving too many beats slower than their other group members.
“Guys, come on! Get with it!” Mary snapped. “This is what you guys DO. I know you can perform better than this.” She finished, her eyes landing on Benji. She had always been hardest on Benji. “Take a fifteen minute break, and then I want you guys to nail it.” The group obediently headed backstage to the craft services table.
“Group two, let’s go!” Shane Sparks yelled, cuing his group to get on the stage for their practice time. The choreographers had decided to rotate stage time so that everyone would get equal practice time. Ashlee, Musa, Ivan, Donyelle and Joy all made there way to their marks.
It was fairly obvious that this time around the producers and choreographers had put the dancers into routines that fit their dance style. Just about everyone was getting a chance to dance their specialty.
Ashlee adjusted her hat before taking her position; She, Donyelle and Joy all took their ‘Diva’ stance and Ivan and Musa froze mid crip-walk.
“Have you seen them do this yet?” Dmitri asked Benji, his mouth full of half-chewed bagel.
“No.”
“Ok, you seriously have to watch it.” Natalie chimed in. “It’s cRaZy good.” The three of them (and Heidi) watched as Shane flipped on the music.
Expecting to hear some crazy hip-hop, Benji was shocked to hear Spoken blast through the stereo; rock music.
The five dancers remained frozen as the music stared. As soon as the vocals kicked in, Ashlee and Ivan began some of the smoothest popping any of them had every seen to—
“Time After Time?” Heidi squeaked. “Isn’t this a Cyndi Lauper song?” She whispered. Natalie nodded her head yes, as Joy smoothly made her way around Ashlee and Ivan (who were popping and locking with movements to match the lyrics) and Musa and Donyelle (who were still frozen), off stage. As the chorus kicked in, Ashlee and Ivan changed from mellow to intense, their movements becoming faster and more violent. As the chorus ended, they froze again, Ashlee mid step as she walked away from Ivan—his hand frozen over her shoulder.
As the second verse began, Musa and Donyelle began dancing as if they were having an argument on the street—only Donyelle was the aggressor. Their movements were fluid and definitely showed the emotion of the song. Just as the beat for the chorus began to quicken, Musa grabbed Donyelle’s arm and threw her. As she landed, she became in line with Musa’s position, and the two began to—
“Are they..?” Benji stuttered.
“Krumping.” Dmitri said matter-of-factly.
Benji watched in disbelief as Donyelle’s face changed to an expression of complete anger; he swore that as she moved closer to Musa for their freeze-frame, she looked at him. Donyelle froze with her chest popped and her face still contorted in an expression of frustration; Musa mirrored her stance exactly.
With both couples frozen, Joy came back on stage and began a series of movements that were lyrical and jazzy, unfreezing the couples one person at a time, and dancing them into position for their last couple of steps. The routine ended with them all walking in opposite directions off stage, but turning to look behind them as they froze for the last time.
Benji jumped as Heidi screamed.
“Oh My Gosh you guys! That was AMAZING!” She yelled, clapping at the same time. Dmitri was coughing—evidently Benji hadn’t been the only one she startled.
“Isn’t it great? Shane did some amazing stuff.” Joy said, her accent strong and voice straining. She started to make her way back stage when Shane called her.
“Joy, c’mere for a sec, we need to go over something again.”
“All of us?” Musa asked.
“No, the rest of y’all can go take a break. I just need to see Joy.” Shane answered, as Joy jumped down from the stage.
Ashlee and Ivan were all smiles as they joined the first group at the table and looked over the snack selection. Musa pulled out his cell phone and started to make a call—most likely to his wife.
Donyelle on the other hand, walked right past the group, her expression still one of anger. Just as she was about to go off stage completely, she turned and looked at Benji, motioning with her head for him to follow her.

*

Benji was worried. He had never seen Donyelle look so angry before. He squeezed past Dmitri and Natalie, slowly walking towards Donyelle.
“Benji! Where are you going? We have to rehearse some more.” Mary’s voice echoed from the audience. He looked away from his friend, seeing Mary walk down the centre aisle of the auditorium and heading towards the front of the stage.
“I’ll be there in a minute Mary.” He excused himself, quickening his pace to get to Donyelle.
“Whatever it is can wait Benji.” Mary got up onto the stage. “I want you guys to get the steps right before we leave for the day.”
Benji wanted to go talk to Donyelle. He was torn. He looked back at Donyelle, who was still waiting.
“Ok. I’m coming.” Benji agreed, turning away from Donyelle.
From the craft services table, Ashlee watched the scene play out in complete shock. She looked at Heidi, Dmitri and Natalie to see if they felt the same but the three dancers just shrugged it off and headed over to Mary. She rolled her eyes and shook her head before turning to see Donyelle going out the door to the dressing rooms. Ashlee dropped the muffin she had been eating onto the table, and ran after Donyelle.
“Did I miss something?” Musa asked, flipping his phone closed and walking over towards Ben.
“Drama,” Ben said. “Lots of drama.”

On stage, Mary was verbally taking the group through her routine again. She was making them dance some weird medley that incorporated the three ballroom dances that had made the dancers nervous during their season: the Quickstep, the Foxtrot and a Contemporary Waltz. Benji and Heidi would start out with the Foxtrot, while Natalie and Dmitri would begin with the Quickstep, and Jaymz and Aleksandra would start with the Contemporary Waltz. They would then move through the routine by switching styles according to cues in their music. Once each pair had completed all three dance styles, they would all begin Quickstep in unison for their finale.
“Ok guys, I know you can get this.” Mary encouraged, heading over to the stereo controls. “Remember your cues and you’ll be FINE.” She said. “Positions please!”
The three couples took their marks.
As Chris Martin’s eerie, rain-like piano playing came over the speakers, the couples began to move. Mary had chosen ‘Clocks’ as their music. Oddly enough, there was enough beat and melody for it to suit all three dances.
“What did Donyelle want?” Heidi whispered as she and Benji took their first few steps.
“I don’t know, Mary interrupted me before I got a chance to go talk to her.” Benji answered.
“She looked mad!” Heidi hissed as Benji turned her so she had her back to Mary and the audience.
“Are you kidding? The girl was pissed!” Natalie added as she and Dmitri breezed by.
“Yeah man, what did you do?” Jaymz asked as he and Aleksandra turned behind Natalie and Dmitri and ended up on the other side of Heidi and Benji.
“Switch!” Heidi pinched Benji’s arm. He had missed their cue to start the Quickstep.
“I don’t know what I did!” Benji answered. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to her since last night!”
“Maybe that’s the problem.” Heidi whispered back.
“But she told me she wanted to sleep.”
“Are you kidding? She would have traded an hour of sleep to talk with you.” Heidi answered.
“Really?” He asked.
Natalie gave him a small smack upside the head as she and Dmitri made their way past again. Luckily—or not so luckily—Mary was watching Jaymz and Aleksandra very closely, so she had missed the slap.
“Dude.” Jaymz laughed in disbelief at Benji’s clueless-ness.
“Switch!” Heidi pinched Benji again so they could start the Waltz.
“Really?” Benji asked.
Aleksandra nodded fiercely as Jaymz lead her away.
“You’ll just have to talk to her later.” Heidi tried to ease Benji’s mind. “Maybe after lunch?” She suggested.
“Be careful Natalie, you almost tripped Dmitri!” Mary hollered. Seconds after the words were out of Mary’s mouth, there was a resounding thud as Aleksandra hit the floor.
“Ok. I see we’re going to have to put a lot more effort into this.” Mary sighed, getting frustrated with her group. “You guys are supposed to be working with Mia after groups two and three have their second run-throughs, but after lunch I need you guys back here. We’re doing this until it’s perfect.” She said.
Benji turned to Heidi and Natalie, who were standing to his right. Dmitri had gone over to help Jaymz and Aleksandra.
“Does she have it in for me or something?”



Ashlee had managed to catch up with Donyelle just as she made her way into the costume room. She got in the door just as Donyelle sat down at one of the seamstress’s stations and burst into tears.
“Donny…what’s wrong?” She asked, sitting on the floor in front of her friend.
“I’m just…angry.” She answered, wiping a tear from her cheek just as another fell.
“I can see that.” Ashlee smiled. “We ALL saw that.”
Donyelle paused.
“Did I make an ass out of myself?” She asked, looking at Ashlee with tear-filled eyes.
Ashlee laughed. She’d never heard Donyelle swear before.
“No, you didn’t. Trust me, everyone could see that you were angry, but nobody thinks less of you for it.” She answered. “I think less of Benji for not coming after you, but that’s just me.”
“For a couple seconds there, I did too, but Mary really needed his attention and...”
“Donyelle?” Ashlee cut her friend off.
“What?”
“Why are you angry at Benji?”
Donyelle inhaled deeply before she began to explain. Ashlee put her hand on Donyelle’s leg as a gesture of support.
“Ok. You know how when we finished the show we all said we’d keep in touch?”
“Yeah.”
“Then we had the two weeks before the tour started, we all did a lot of promo appearances and that?”
“Yeah.”
“And then the tour started…which was just…craziness. I got to know everyone in the top ten a lot better, even Benji. But when it was over and we all went our separate ways again..” Donyelle trailed off.
Ashlee nodded for Donyelle to continue.
“Do you know how many times I’ve spoken with him from the time the tour ended until yesterday?” She asked Ashlee, a new batch of tears running down her face.
“No, how many?”
“Three. Times.” Donyelle answered, straining to keep her anger from entering her voice. “I spoke to Stanislav more than that, and I barely knew him.” She pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped her eyes and nose. “I know he must have been busy, but I thought we were friends. BEST friends.” Donyelle finished.
Ashlee looked up at Donyelle, her expression one of understanding.
“Donyelle, you know that Benji loves you, right?” She asked.
“Yes.” She answered, yet another tear streaking down her face.
“Not just friend love. He LOVES you.” Ashlee continued. “I don’t know if you know that or not, or if you’re ignoring it, or what.” Ashlee said, trying to choose her words carefully. “Benji loves you a lot. It must be hard for him to talk to you knowing that you’ve got someone else in your life, in the position he wants to be in.”
“Tahir?”
“Yes, Tahir.”
“I love Tahir.” Donyelle said almost defensively.
“I know you do. Benji knows you do. That’s why he probably hasn’t talked to you much.” Ashlee explained. “The boy doesn’t want his heart to get stomped on.” She stood up. “I’m sure it hurts him enough to just think about the fact that you’re with Tahir and not him.”
“Really?” Donyelle asked, her eyes beginning to clear.
“Yeah.” Ashlee smiled, hoping she’d given her friend something to think about. “Are you going to be ok now?” She asked.
“I think so.” Donyelle smiled, looking for a box of tissue on the seamstress’s desk.
“Ok.” Ashlee turned and headed towards the door. She put her hand on the knob, but paused.
“Donny?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you love Benji?”

*

The day had been horrible, all around. When Donyelle finally left the costume room, Mia’s jazz/contemporary group had gone through their routine a couple times and Shane was waiting with the rest of their group. He was hard on her the rest of the morning as they ran through their hip-hop routine three more times. The contemporary ensemble routine that Mia choreographed was intricate and fast—with all the other things weighing on her mind, Donyelle had forgotten just about everything Mia had taught her that morning. By the time they finished for the day, Mary was still working with Benji and the rest of Group 1 on their choreography. Donyelle managed to snag Ashlee and Martha away from everyone else and they waited with her at the back of the auditorium for Mary to finish for the day. By dinner, it became abundantly clear that Mary was hell-bent on making the routine perfect, so she and Martha left to go eat. Ashlee stayed behind.
“Pivot Jaymz, pivot!” Mary screeched. She was beginning to lose her voice from all the yelling she had been doing that day.
“My knees are throbbing.” Heidi told Benji. “She’s going to drive us into the ground trying to make this look good.”
“Jeez, I wish she’d just let us go. We haven’t eaten yet, and it’s almost nine!” Natalie agreed. She was struggling too. Her footwork was getting sloppy because she was putting so much weight on her other leg—the one she wasn’t scheduled to have surgery on in a month.
“Natalie, you’re not sharp enough.” Mary commented.
“My knee hurts.” Natalie snapped back. She immediately regretted her words. She’d broken the cardinal rule of professional dancing: don’t complain about your injuries when you’re being paid; just do what you were hired to do.
“Mine do too.” Heidi chimed in.
“I can’t feel my ankles.” Aleksandra admitted.
Mary ran her hand through her already mussed-up hair. She hadn’t been dancing at all, but her muscles were tense and stiff.
“Ok. We’ll leave it at that for tonight; you guys are no use to me if you’re all injured.” She decided. “I’ll see you all bright and early tomorrow.”
“It’s a bit too late for that.” James muttered once Mary was out of an earshot.
Aleksandra immediately dropped to the floor, frantically trying to remove the high-heeled shoes she had been wearing all day. Jaymz tried not to limp as he headed backstage to the dressing rooms; on one of his pivots, he had twisted his ankle. Dmitri picked up Natalie and carried her backstage so she could rest her knee before they went back to the hotel for dinner.
“Are you going to be ok, or do you want some help?” Benji asked Heidi, who had removed her high-heels and was stretching her legs out.
“No, that’s ok. I’ll be fine.” She answered.
As Benji turned to go backstage and change, he heard someone call out his name.
“Benji!” Ashlee was making her way onto the stage. “Can I talk to you for a minute or two?”
“Yeah, sure.” He answered.
“Come with me.” Ashlee grabbed his arm and lead him back stage and out into the hall.
“What’s up?”
“You remember this morning, when you and Donyelle were going to go talk, but Mary cut you off?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, after you ditched her, I went and talked to Donny for awhile.”
“I didn’t ditch her.”
“That’s not the point.” Ashlee said, lowering her voice as someone walked past them. “She was really angry at you earlier. She mentioned that she hadn’t heard much from you since you finished the tour.”
“No, I’ve been really busy. I’ve had competitions, and the mov—“
“Benji, don’t lie. I know the movie got cancelled.” Ashlee interrupted.
Benji didn’t fight it. He was lying. The movie had been shut-down before the tour had even begun; he was scheduled to work on another one that Heidi was going to co-star in with him, but filming hadn’t started yet.
“I also know why you don’t want to talk to her more than you need to.” Ashlee continued.
“I don’t—“
“Just let me finish.” Ashlee said, even though she had been the one doing all the interrupting. “I know you have feelings for her. Hell, ALL of the dancers know you have feelings for her.” She smiled. “I know that whenever you talk to her, you automatically think about how you wish she was yours and not Tahir’s. I get that. I’ve been there.” She smiled, putting her hand on Benji’s shoulder. “It sucks.”
She looked Benji in the eyes. He was smiling a little.
“I know it might not be obvious to you, but you’re not alone in how you feel.”
Benji felt relief flood over him.
“Donyelle does love you, Benji; Even if she’s in a relationship with someone else right now, she still loves you.” Ashlee finished. “She just loves Tahir too.” She added, laughing a bit. She was relieved to hear Benji laugh too.
“Thanks, Ash.” He said, giving her a hug.
“No problem.” She said. “Want to go get dinner?”

*

Travis, Ivan, Ben and Martha all sat in a row on the stage. It was day three of their rehearsals, and they were devoting the whole day (well, until 3, anyway) to the ensemble performance. Mia’s rehearsals were getting to be a pain in the butt.
“She’s on crack.” Martha said, referring to Mia, as she watched Heidi and Ashlee get thrown into the air from opposite sides of the stage by their partners: Ryan and Jaymz respectively.
“I think she has been watching Stars On Ice.” Ivan added, as Heidi and Ashlee landed, spinning.
“Did they just do an assisted double axel?” Ben asked.
Martha, Travis and Ivan all looked at him with raised eyebrows.
“What?” Ben asked. Martha laughed.
“So. Anyway. Does anyone know what music we’re doing this to?” Ivan asked, changing the subject.
“Nope.” Martha answered.
“She hasn’t said anything to me.” Travis admitted.
“Travis and Martha, come here for a minute!” Mia waved the two of them over. Reluctantly, they got up and joined Mia. Joy and Stanislav took their places, sitting on the edge of the stage.
“I have no idea where she’s getting all this, but does it seem to anyone else like we’re supposed to be doing this on ice?” Joy asked.
“Thank you!” Ivan said, laughing. “I’ve been saying that since Mia was teaching Martha that spin-thing the first day of rehearsals.”
“I want go know when we will get our music.” Stanislav added. His accent had mellowed slightly from when he had been with the group those first few days of Season Two. Like Dmitri, once the show had ended he had moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career. “How does she expect us to perform this properly if we don’t rehearse to music?”
The group paused their conversation and watched as Benji and Dmitri both launched Martha into a mid-air somersault. She landed flat-foot, knees together.
“If she would have done that in a cheerleading competition she’d have gotten a good score.” Joy said. The group laughed.
“This is insane.” Allison said, joining them with a muffin in her hand. “Do you know that she wants us to do this to a Fleetwood Mac song?” She asked, sitting down beside Ivan.
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Ben gaped.
“Which one?” Joy asked.
“Umm…I think it’s called ‘Go Your Own Way’”. Allison answered, her mouth full.
“I’ve heard that song before. There is no way that she can get the choreography to match the rhythm of the song.” Stanislav said in disbelief.
“Fleetwood-freaking-Mac?” Ivan repeated. “She could’ve chosen something a little more current.”
“She said something about the lyrics ‘making sense to where we should be in our lives as dancers and as people.’” Allison explained, using air quotes.
The group stopped chatting again, watching as Musa flew through the air with the assistance of a single-man tramp(oline).
“Oh My God, it’s Mighty Musa!” Travis shrieked. All of the dancers cracked up.
“I meant to ask this earlier,” Ivan spoke, leaning in closer to the group. “Did you guys hear about what happened with Benji and Donyelle?”
“Yeah. Ash was talking to me about it earlier today.” Ben answered.
“Natalie mentioned a couple things.” Allison added. Stanislav nodded as well.
“I saw it.” Joy giggled.
“I feel so bad for him.” Allison said, balling up her muffin wrapper.
“Really? I feel bad for her.” Ben took a sip of his water. “I think she’s confused.”
“I think they’re both confused.” Ivan agreed. He leaned in closer to the group. “I still have to talk to everyone else, but I’ve got a plan.”

*

Ivan’s plan was simple—for the most part. If Donyelle and Benji couldn’t realize their feelings for each other by themselves, then they were going to get help—and lots of it. During the rest of Mia’s ensemble rehearsal that afternoon, Ivan managed to get a chance to talk to everyone (except Benji and Donny, of course) about his plan. He managed to arrange things so that Natalie would take Donny out shopping after practice, and Heidi would take Benji out to visit his sister in pre-Season Three sequester. Since both Heidi and Natalie were able to pick up new choreography quickly, they would be able to learn the new routine the rest of the group was working on later that night. The tricky part was getting Nigel on board. Travis and Allison had gone up to see him at his office as soon as they were finished with Mia. The group had voted, and since Travis and Allison had definitely been the judges’ favorites during their season, the group thought they would have the best chance at getting Nigel to let them work their magic.
“Hello guys, how are you both?” Nigel asked, seated behind his polished mahogany desk. His office was large but modest. Giant posters from Seasons One and Two were framed and hung over a large natural-suede sofa against the left wall. Nigel’s desk was in front and to off-centre to a large window. A photo of the Season Two top-twenty dancers was sitting on his desk in a polished gold frame.
“We’re doing well, Nigel.” Allison answered, trying to sound as formal as she could in hopes of impressing him. “We’re really looking forward to shooting the reunion tomorrow.” She smiled.
“That’s good to hear. My receptionist said you called in earlier this morning wanting to talk about it; should I be concerned?” He asked. Allison’s stomach flipped in nervousness.
“No, definitely not.” Travis smiled, moving closer to Nigel’s desk. “We actually want to talk to you about adding a routine to the special.” Travis smiled, even though at this moment, he wanted nothing more than to throw up.
Nigel didn’t say anything. Travis pushed forward before Nigel could stop him.
“We, and the rest of the top-twenty, have been working on a routine of our own. We’ve been choreographing it in the evenings, to keep ourselves busy.” Travis lied. The group hadn’t actually choreographed the routine yet. They were going to be doing that when he and Alli got back to the hotel.
“It’s pretty good. We’ve all contributed something to it.” Allison added. “Honestly, we think it would be a great addition to the broadcast.”
“It would give America a chance to see what we can do on our own, without the professional choreographers like Tyce or Brian or Dan.” Travis finished. If that line didn’t get Nigel to let them do it, Travis doubted there was anything that he or Allison could say that would get him to agree.
Nigel smiled.
“That sound impressive guys, but I only have two hours of time slotted for the broadcast. We’ve lined up two celebrity music performances, and the rest of the production team really wants to work in some teaser footage of the new season.”
Allison let out a defeated sigh.
Damn it. Travis thought to himself. I thought we had him.
“I think we can sacrifice the teasers for your routine.” Nigel added.
It took a few seconds for Travis and Allison to realize what he had just said.
“Thank you so much Nigel.” Allison gushed, going over to the man and giving him a hug in his seat.
“Yeah, thank you so much. We promise you won’t be sorry.” Travis agreed.



Natalie and Donyelle were making their way through the mall. Even though it was only supposed to be a ‘fake’ shopping trip and she hadn’t planned on buying anything, she was already holding three bags of new stuff. Donny had managed some restraint, and was only carrying one bag. They stopped walking as Natalie’s cell started to ring.
“Hello?”
“Nat, it’s Travis. We got it.”
“Awww. I miss you too, honey.” Natalie cooed. She had agreed to pretend she was talking to Dmitri whenever any the group called about Operation Champagne and Caviar (affectionately named by Jason).
“Can you keep her busy until around six or so?”
“Yeah, I’ll be back in time for dinner.” She agreed.
“Ok, have fun!”
“If you’re a good boy, I’ll pick you up something sweet…black lace or red?”
“Ew. Nat, that’s gross. I did not need to hear that.”
“I love you too, bye.” Natalie flipped her phone closed, and giggled.
Donyelle shook her head, smirking slightly.
“I still can’t believe you guys are together.” She said.
“Why?”
“It just seems…weird.”
“What, the tall dark and Russian hooking up with the tall dorky and Greek?” Natalie laughed. “Believe me, the feelings took me a bit by surprise at first too, but there was also something that felt right about it.” She smiled. Boy did it feel right.
“I’m glad for you. You’re lucky to have found something like that.”
Natalie looked surprised at Donyelle’s statement.
“Girl, of all people, I thought you would be the one who would understand what I mean the most.” She said.
Now it was Donyelle who looked confused.
“You. Benji. The most odd of odd-couples? Key word there being ‘couple.’” Natalie continued.
“We’re not together, Nat. You know that.”
“Oh yeah, I know. What I don’t know is why not. And don’t you dare say Tahir.”
“Ok, I won’t say it; but that’s the reason.”
“You’re frustrating sometimes, you know that?” Natalie laughed, plunking her butt down on a bench.


Heidi and Benji were pushing a shopping cart through a supermarket. They had decided to surprise Lacey with a sequester care-package. As usual, while she waited to move into the Dance Manse (a nickname that had been created by the top twenty of season one for the mansion they were put up in during competition), Lacey and the other dancers were forced to live in exile from the outside world in separate hotels. Only immediate family could visit, so Benji and Heidi were going to take advantage of that and hope to cheer up Lacey out of her boredom.
“Animal Crackers or Teddy Grahams?” Benji asked, holding the boxes up for Heidi to choose. The pair jumped as the shrill ring of Heidi’s cell blared from her pocket. She pointed at the Animal Crackers as she answered.
“Hello?”
“Heidi-ho, it’s Travis.”
“Oh, hello.” Heidi covered the speaker of her cell. “Telemarketer.” She whispered to Benji.
“Nigel agreed.”
“I’m sorry; I already have a credit card.” Heidi continued her act.
“Natalie is going to keep Donny busy until six, and then they’re coming back to the hotel. Can you keep Benji busy that long?”
“I’m actually on my way to visit my cousin. Can you call another time?” Heidi answered, trying to make it clear to Travis that yes, she could keep Benji occupied.
“Great! See ya!”
“Thanks.” Heidi ended the call and shoved her phone back in her pocket.
“Why didn’t you just tell him to take you off their call list?” Benji asked, tossing a bag of giant marshmallows into their cart.
“Oh. I feel bad for the people that have to call. They get paid per call, and I would feel horrible knowing that I was denying someone their pay.” Heidi hoped that was a convincing story.
“I guess so.” He answered, adding a four-pack of fat-free chocolate pudding to the items in the cart.
“So, did you ever get a chance to talk to Donny?” Heidi asked, picking up a box of Kool-Aid, pretending to read the nutritional information.
“No, I didn’t. But apparently, Ashlee did.”
“What do you mean?”
“When we finished with Mary last night, Ashlee came and talked to me for awhile. She told me that she talked to Donny when I ditched her for Mary.”
“And?”
Benji’s face transformed into that of a lovesick puppy.
“She loooooves me.” He said.
“Well duh!” Heidi threw the box of Kool-Aid at Benji, grinning right along with him.


“One, two, three and four and five, six, seven, eight!” Martha called out.
Musa, Stanislav, Jaymz, Ryan, Dmitri, Jason, Ivan, Ben and Travis all danced in unison in a line. By some miracle, Allison and Travis had also gotten Nigel to book one of the hotel’s formal dining rooms for them to use as a practice space that night. They had pushed all to tables and chairs out of the way, and it actually made a pretty decent rehearsal area.
“These counts are messed up, Travis.” Ivan said, stumbling.
“No more messed up than Mia’s.” Ben laughed. “But, you do dance with her.”
“Cheap shot.” Travis said, grinning. To some degree, Mia’s choreography was a little odd. However, that was also part of what made her so amazing.
“Come on guys, we don’t have a lot of time.” Martha said, slightly impatient. She was actually very excited, but wanted to make sure they got the routine to look killer before they performed it. “Try it again?” She said.
The guys nodded, and she started the count.


On the other side of the room, Allison was taking what was left of the girls through another section of the routine. Travis had suggested that the whole routine start off as a ‘battle of the sexes’ type of deal; it was popular with the fans and definitely supported the reason for the routine in the first place. The girls and guys would learn their parts for the ‘battle’ separately, rehearse it together a couple of times and then join together to figure out the rest of the routine. They were giving themselves and hour to finish off the separate battle sequences before they’d move on.
“Am I getting this right?” Joy asked, re-dancing the steps Allison had just shown them.
“Yeah, that’s the jist of it.” Allison answered. “Just keep your arms a bit closer to your body when you do the spin and it’s good.” She nodded.
Ashlee jotted something down on a piece of scrap paper on the floor.
“What’s that?” Aleksandra asked.
“Oh, it’s just a list.”
“Of what?”
“Stuff we still need to do before tomorrow.” Ashlee answered, adding another item.
“What do you have so far?” Allison asked. She almost regretted asking, knowing that it was only going to mean more stress and less sleep.
“Well, we have to talk to the lighting guys, we don’t have any costumes, what we’re going to tell the other choreographers, an—“
“Don’t worry about that one.” Allison interrupted. “Nigel said he would take care of that.”
Ashlee crossed that off on her list.
“Getting concepts to make-up and hair and of course there’s teaching Donny and Benji the routine.”
“Ok.” Allison tried to keep calm. “Well, we can get our concept to make-up and hair after this practice, before dinner. I’ll talk to them. That way they can have the night to figure out what they’re going to do.”
“I think we should just wear street clothes for our costumes.” Joy added. “We want people to see the real us, so it makes sense.”
Aleksandra nodded. “We’re going to be up all night practicing this thing without them.” She said, referring to Benji and Donny. “The taping isn’t until five tomorrow, and that’s plenty of time for us to show them the choreography—even with the dress rehearsal after lunch.”
Ashlee crossed everything off on her list.
“Ok. That’s everything. We got it all, right?”


Across town, a standard black airport limo was pulling out of the airport parking lot. Heavy bass riffs vibrated the car. The driver shook his head. He hated rap music.

*

For the second time since they started shopping, Donyelle and Natalie were interrupted by the sound of a cell phone. This time it was Donyelle’s. Natalie surveyed the crowed milling through the mall. Thank God for benches…her knee was killing her, and she’d forgotten to put on her brace before they left the hotel.
Donyelle checked the caller ID and flipped it open.
“Hey T.” She said.
Natalie’s attention snapped to the phone conversation.
T? Why would Travis be calling Don---Oh crap. She sat up straight in her seat, panic starting to set in. She quickly grabbed her bags and stood up.
“Did your flight just get in?” She heard Donyelle ask.
Natalie poked Donyelle’s arm.
“Donny? I forgot something in one of the stores we were in. I’ll be back in a minute, ok?” She said.
“Ok, I’ll wait for you here.” Donyelle answered, covering her phone as she talked to Natalie.
Natalie smiled in response and quickly turned. She began speed walking—almost running, and as soon as she turned the corner she went into the nearest store. She made her way through the aisles and displays, grabbing random items as she made her way to the dressing rooms. Struggling to balance all of her stuff, she pulled her cell phone out of her purse and started to navigate through the menus to her phonebook. A flash lit up the dimly lit area where the dressing rooms were as Natalie accidentally took a picture with her phone.
A woman coming out of one of the dressing rooms sneered at her as Natalie rushed past and in into the nearest empty dressing room. She dropped all of her stuff on the bench in front of the mirror. Only then while she was listening to the dial tone did she realize she was in Victoria’s Secret—on her way to the dressing rooms she’d grabbed a corset, a negligee and a pair of red fishnets.
“Travis!” She whisper-yelled as soon as she heard him pick up.
“Natalie?”
“Yes, it’s me. I need help!”
“Whoah, settle down. Is something wrong?”
“Tahir is here!”
“At the mall?”
“No, not at the mall you doofus!” She snapped. “He just called Donny on her cell from the airport or something.”
“That’s not good.”
“I know it’s not!” She hissed. Another flash went off in the dressing room.
“Damn phone!” She snarled.
“What?”
“Never mind! What do I do?”
There was a knock on the dressing room door.
“Miss, do you need help with anything?” A store clerk asked.
“No, I’m fine.” Natalie answered.
“Are you sure?” Travis asked.
“Not you, some store woman.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m in a dressing room.” As her fingers slipped to grip her phone, another flash went off.
“Oh my GOD!!!” Natalie screeched, getting nauseated from all the flashes.
“Nat, calm down!” Travis yelled.
“Travis, what do I do?”
“There’s not a whole lot you can do right now. Just go back and find Don—“
“Miss! Can you come out of the dressing room please?” The woman’s voice asked. Natalie didn’t hear what Travis had said.
“What?” She said.
“Miss, I need you to come out of the dressing room or I’m calling security.”
“I’m not done yet!” She yelled at the woman on the other side of the door.
Another flash went off. She wanted to throw her stupid phone against the wall.
“Nat, just come back to the hotel with Donny, ok?” Travis told her.
“Ok. I’ll see you in a bit.” She said, turning off her phone and throwing it into her purse with anger as another flash went off. Natalie ignored it and picked up her bags and opened the dressing room door.
A mall cop, the store clerk, and what appeared to be the store manager stood on the other side.
“Oh crap.”


“Guys, we have a tiny problem.” Travis said, turning to see the other dancers behind him.
“Did something happen to Donny?” Jason asked.
“No, not really.” He answered. “I guess Donny invited Tahir to come and watch the taping of the reunion special tomorrow because Natalie said he just left the airport.”
“How is that a tiny problem?” Ivan asked. “That’s a BIG problem!”
“Not necessarily.” Ashlee disagreed. “Our conversation a couple of days ago was pretty intense.”
“You think she might end it with him?” Martha asked.
“It’s a possibility. The girl told me plain as day that she loves Benji.”
“Hi guys! We’re back!”
The whole group turned to see Heidi and Benji come into the dining-slash-rehearsal room.
“You guys did that all at the same time. It was kinda creepy.” Benji laughed. He looked around at the makeshift dance studio, getting confused. “What are you guys doing?”


“I’m so sorry Donyelle; I didn’t mean to make you late for your dinner with Tahir.” Natalie apologized as she and Donyelle entered the Hotel lobby.
“That’s ok Nat; I know you didn’t do it on purpose.” Donyelle smiled. At least I hope you didn’t do it on purpose. Ewww. She thought to herself. She still wasn’t sure what exactly Natalie had been doing with her camera phone in the dressing room at Victoria’s Secret, but if it was enough to get her phone confiscated and a harsh police warning, it couldn’t have been good.
As they made their way further into the hotel, Donyelle saw Tahir waiting for her at the bar in the lounge.
“Nat, thanks for taking me out today. I needed the break. Tahir’s here, so I’m going to go for dinner, ok?”
“Yeah, go ahead. Have a good time.” She grinned. “Oh, but don’t forget we’re having the group practice at nine in dining room 4, ok?”
“Yep, I’ll be there.” She waved goodbye and headed over to greet her boyfriend. Crazy white girl! She laughed to herself.


Natalie watched as Donyelle hugged Tahir and the two made their way into the main dining room. Once they had been seated, Natalie ran to the room where Travis and all of the other dancers were.
Dmitri and Ivan saw her as she came into the room, and rushed over to her.
“Are you Ok? You look upset.” Dmitri asked, taking the shopping bags Natalie was carrying and setting them aside.
“I’m ok. A little sore, but I’m ok.” She answered, looking past Ivan and Dmitri at the rest of the group. She leaned into them and lowered her voice. “Are Heidi and Benji here?”
“No. I mean, yeah they’re here at the hotel but they went up to their rooms a couple minutes ago to change for dinner.” Ivan answered.
“Good.”
“Do you know how late you are?” Travis asked, coming over with the rest of the group.
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry.”
“You should have called.” Dmitri said.
“Actually, I couldn’t. My phone was taken away.”
“By who? Did it get stolen?” Dmitri was starting to get concerned.
“No, it was confiscated by a mall cop.” Natalie answered, sheepishly.
“A mall cop?” Allison laughed. “Natalie, what the heck did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything! There was a misunderstanding between me and some of the Victoria’s Secret staff.” Natalie defended, realizing how ridiculous she sounded.
Ivan started to laugh.
“When I heard Donny on the phone with Tahir I panicked and went into a store. I didn’t know which one I was in until I got into the dressing room and I saw what I grabbed when I was going through the store. I was on the phone with Travis and my phone kept taking pictures when I was talking. I guess the clerk and some customers saw the flashes and I was being loud, and when I went to leave, the mall cop took me to his office and that’s when he took my phone.”
Ivan fell to the floor, unable to stop laughing. Martha was close to joining him.
“Did you get arrested?” Dmitri asked.
“No, But they took a record of it. They gave me a big warning and everything; apparently I could have been charged with,” Natalie paused as she rifled through her purse to find the copy of the report the mall-cop had given her. “Intent to publicly commit a lewd or pornographic act.’” She read.
“Bomp chicka bow wow! Chicka chicka bow wow!” Ashlee started simulating porn music. Almost the whole group was laughing themselves to tears at this point.
“Awwww. Poor Nat-Nat the porn star.” Allison grinned, hugging her friend.
Natalie laughed; it was pretty funny. Plus, the look of shock, slight disgust and dirty thoughts on Dmitri’s face was priceless.
“Anyway, guys, Tahir is with Donyelle having dinner right now in the main dining room.” She said, running her hand over her hair, which was falling out of her messy ponytail. “I told her to meet us back here at nine.”
“Ok. That sounds good. That’ll give us enough time to eat and for Allison to run down to the studio to give our info to the hair and make-up people.” Travis looked at his watch.
Allison nodded, heading over to the area where everyone had thrown their street shoes and bags, fishing her slightly ratty messenger bag from the pile.
“I’ll call when I’m on my way back.” She said, waving to the group as she headed out.
“We’re going to go get something to eat.” Martha said with Ashlee, Musa, Jaymz and Ben with her.
“Ok, everyone, remember to be back here for nine. If anything happens to any of you, please call someone!” Travis called out to the rest of the group as he jogged out the door to catch up with Martha and the rest of her dinner crew.
“Marf! Wait up!” He called out.
She and the rest of the group slowed down for him to catch up.
“So, where are you guys going to get dinner?” He asked.
“The main dining room.” Musa answered, winking.

*

Heidi, Benji, Joy, Dmitri and Natalie all sat on the floor of Heidi’s hotel suite. Two room-service carts were nearby, one loaded with appetizers, entrees and main courses, while the other was completely desserts.
“This is so good.” Heidi said, stabbing another piece of steak with her fork.
“Slow down, Heidi! You won’t have room for your shrimp cocktail!” Natalie laughed. Heidi looked dismayed.
“Oh…I forgot about that.” She reached over to the first food cart and pulled off the shrimp cocktail she had ordered. Rather ravenously, she plucked a shrimp from the arrangement and dunked it into cocktail sauce and bit the meat off to the tail. She dropped the tail onto her plate and grabbed another piece of shrimp.
“For someone so small, you have quite a big stomach.” Dmitri laughed, watching his former pro-dance partner eat her shrimp.
“Your girlfriend isn’t doing too badly, either.” Benji commented, drawing Dmitri’s attention back to Natalie. Natalie had managed to polish of a garden salad, a bowl of beef stew, three dinner rolls and was now working on a piece of barbequed boneless chicken. She didn’t even look up from her meal as Benji spoke.
“So, what are we doing at this practice at 9 tonight?” Benji asked, taking a drink of his Pellegrino straight from the bottle.
“Oh, we just want to run through some of the choreography from Mia’s routine. She called us all up to the studio when you were gone this afternoon and had us try some new lifts she added. She wants us to go through them with you guys tonight so she won’t have to teach you tomorrow.” Joy lied. In actuality, they were going to test-run some lifts with Benji and Donyelle that they would be using for Operation Champagne and Caviar. Stanislav and Dmitri had both come up with the lifts, and it was essential that Donny and Benji practice them at least a few times before the rest of the group did the secret rehearsal later that night without them.
“It’s not more of that figure skating stuff, is it?” Benji asked, almost whining.
“No.” Joy answered. “It’s something completely different.”


Martha, Travis, Ben, Ashlee, Musa and Jaymz sat a large table near the back of the hotel’s dining room. They all had plates of steaming hot food in front of them, but they were too focused on Tahir and Donyelle to eat.
The couple was sitting at a small table near a window, on the front-left side of the room. Tahir had his back to the group. Thanks to a rather large party of loud customers, the group could see Donyelle but she could not see them.
“Can you make out what she’s saying?” Ashlee asked Musa, who was trying to read Donyelle’s lips.
“She’s chewing.” He answered.
“Dang, this steak is good.” Martha said, putting a forkful of the juicy meat into her mouth.
“Oh! I think she just said ‘I’m sorry’.” Ben said. “That or ‘I’m sore.’” He tried to get a better view of Donyelle.
“Stop fidgeting!” Ashlee hissed at him from across the table. “She might see you!”
“I think it was ‘I’m sore’.” Musa confirmed.
“He’s really short.” Jaymz commented about Tahir. Because of the angle of his seat around the table, Jaymz was the only one of them who could actually see Tahir as well as Donyelle.
“He’s only like, two inches taller than me.” Travis said.
“What’s your point?” Jaymz retorted, biting into a breadstick.
“I may be short but I got skillz, man. I move faster than you.” Travis smiled. Ashlee and Jaymz laughed. They had all joked together like this constantly when they were on the show together.
“I think they’re arguing.” Musa updated. The group trained their eyes on Donyelle.
They all watched as she became more animated. Her mouth began to move a lot faster, and Jaymz could see that Tahir’s hand and arm gestures were getting more animated. They were either arguing or having a very passionate discussion.
“Can you make anything out, Musa?” Martha asked, putting another forkful of steak into her mouth, her eyes unmoving from Donyelle.
“No, she’s talking too fast.” He answered.
The conversation between Donyelle and Tahir seemed to get more elevated. Ben strained to hear anything:
“…relationship…great…happy…tired…you know?” He heard Donyelle say.
“…fun…important…changed man…happy too…” Tahir responded.
He relayed the conversation snippets to the rest of the group.
Martha looked disgusted.
“That doesn’t sound good.” She said, reaching for her glass of ice-tea.
“No, it doesn’t.” Travis agreed. They all sat in silence for a minute.
“Well, we should probably eat dinner.” Jaymz said, looking at his un-touched plate. “or in your case Martha, finish dinner.” He smiled at her, trying to lighten the mood. They all began to eat.
Musa looked up from time to time, checking to see how things were with Donny and Tahir. Somewhere between eating his mixed vegetables and his chicken, they had left the dining room.
“They left.” He said softly.
The mood of the table sank even lower as they all finished their food.



Back upstairs, Natalie and Heidi had passed out on Heidi’s bed. Dmitri and Benji were watching an old Seinfeld episode and Joy was reading the newspaper. She flinched, startled, as her cell phone rang.
“It’s me.” She said, as Dmitri and Benji looked over. Heidi and Natalie didn’t even stir.
“Hey Joy, it’s Jaymz.”
“Hi Jaymz.” Joy said, stopping to yawn. “Can you hold on a minute, I’m just going to go into the hall so I can hear you better.” She said, heading towards the door of the room. She slipped out as quietly as she could so she wouldn’t disturb the others and started to walk towards the elevators.
“Ok. You can talk now.” She said.
“We may have our work cut out for us.”
“What do you mean?” Joy asked, slightly confused.
“I’m down in the main dining room with Ashlee, Musa, Martha, Ben and Travis. We were spying on Tahir and Donyelle while they ate dinner.”
“Jaymz! That’s rude!” She said. She paused. “What did they say?”
“We weren’t close enough to hear much. Musa and Ben tried to lip read, but we didn’t get much from that either.”
“Ok.”
“We did see them have an argument though.” Jaymz stopped himself. “Well, we thought it might have been an argument. Now we’re not so sure.”
“Why?”
“Ben heard a few things. It sounds like they might have actually…” He stopped. Joy heard him sigh, obviously a little annoyed.
“What is it?” She pushed.
“Well, based on what Ben heard, it sounds like they’re more committed than ever.”


After she got off the phone with Jaymz, Joy went back to Heidi’s room and pulled Dmitri aside, telling him what Jaymz had said. When Benji left the room to use the restroom, Joy and Dmitri woke up Natalie and Heidi and let them know. Joy then slipped out and tried to find the others and tell them.
By the time the 9 pm rehearsal rolled around, all of the dancers seemed to be much more subdued and a little cranky. The lift test-runs went off without a hitch and after an hour, all of the dancers lied to Benji and Donyelle and told them that was it for the night, returning to the dining room one by one minutes after they had left.
“This is crappy.” Allison said, her back against the wall. The group was having a sit-down meeting of sorts.
“Do you think we should still go through with the plan?” Ivan asked.
“We have to.” Travis said, tightening the wristband on his watch. “We told Nigel we were going to do a routine, and he’s got the whole staff prepped for it.”
“I was listening to the radio at dinner, and they’re even running special commercial spots about our routine.” Allison added.
“Someone’s cell is ringing.” Ryan commented, hearing the faint melody of ‘Dance Dance’ by Fallout boy. The group fell silent.
“That’s me.” Ashlee said, heading over to the pile of peoples clothes and bags, sliding her cell phone out of her sweatshirt pocket. The caller idea glowed blue.
“It’s Donyelle.” She said to the group.
“Hey Donny.” She answered.
“Hi Ash. Where are you?”
“Oh, I’m just at the dining room grabbing a coffee.” Ashlee lied.
“Do you mind if we have another chat?” Donyelle asked. Ashlee could hear strain in Donyelle’s voice.
“Yeah, sure. Are you in your room?”
“Yep.”
“Ok. I’ll meet you up there in a couple minutes.” Ashlee agreed, terminating the call.
“Guys, don’t go anywhere. Donny wants to talk to me; hopefully, about what happened at dinner.” She explained, grabbing the rest of her belongings from the pile.
“Good Luck, Ash.” Martha said. “We’ll be waiting.”
Ashlee left the room, trying to push everything she’d seen and kind of heard during dinner out of her mind. She couldn’t help but feel a little hopeful.



Upstairs, in the hallway outside her room, Donyelle was standing alone nervously wringing her hands. She was trying her best to stay calm. Donyelle knew that Ashlee was going to be shocked by what she had to tell her; she just hoped that her friend could also find some way to be happy for her, too.

*

Ashlee stepped out of the elevator, her sweatshirt draped over her right arm, her purse falling off of her shoulder and a coffee clutched in left hand. She spotted Donyelle standing in the hall outside her room.
“Hey Ashlee.” She heard Donyelle say as she made her way over.
“Do you want to talk in my room or yours?” Ashlee asked, her hot coffee starting to burn her hand through the cardboard.
“Mine’s closer.” Donyelle answered, leading her to room 1710. She swiped her key-card and opened the door for Ashlee, who scurried in and set her coffee down on the small side table near the door.
“Just put your stuff anywhere.” Donyelle said. Ashlee looked around the room. Donny’s room was immaculate compared to hers. Ashlee had clothes and shopping bags all over the place, and her room currently smelled of grapefruit juice—which she had spilled all over the carpet earlier that morning when she was eating her breakfast. Ashlee just dropped her stuff on the floor near the door, and picked her coffee back up.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” She asked.
Donyelle ignored Ashlee’s question.
“You can sit down.” She said.
Ashlee obediently sat in one of the Ikea-looking lounge chairs near the window.
“Am I sitting because you’re about to give me bad news?”
“No.” Donyelle answered. “Well, maybe.” She changed her mind, looking at the floor.
“Donny, maybe you should sit down too.” Ashlee laughed. Donyelle took a seat on the end of her bed.
“I had dinner with Tahir earlier tonight. He’s visiting, and coming to the taping tomorrow.” She started to explain.
“Is he staying here with you?” Ashlee asked, looking around the room for extra luggage.
“No. He has some friends in town, so he’s staying with them.”
“Oh, ok.”
“Anyway, we had a really good talk at dinner about our relationship.” Donyelle smiled.
Here it comes. Ashlee prepared herself.



Erin, Travis, Martha, Jessica, Ben, Stanislav, Allison, Jason and Ryan were going through the contemporary group routine Mia had choreographed for them. Ashlee had been gone for a little over half an hour, and the group was itching to get moving with the choreography for Operation Champagne and Caviar. The dancer’s who weren’t rehearsing other routines had been brainstorming ideas.
“What if we did something like this?” Heidi asked, performing a box-step and then pulling some crazy-leg swing move that made Natalie nervous just watching it.
“How will we fit that in with the rest of the routine though?” Joy asked. The majority of the choreography they had come up with so far was hip-hop, jazz and lyrical—all of which they had managed to blend together well; they were also lucky that at least one of those three types of dance was each dancer’s strongest. There were only a few of them who were comfortable doing Latin steps.
“We could put it in with some of the steps after the first set of lifts.” Heidi suggested.
“It might work.” Dmitri jotted the step down on a piece of paper.
“Whoa whoa whoa!” Martha stopped dead in her tracks, causing Ben to careen right into her as he came out of a spin.
“Watch it Marf!” He yelled, trying to regain his balance.
“Oh, sorry Ben,” Martha said earnestly. “but I just had an idea that might help us come up with something new for the routine.”


“Are you serious?” Ashlee asked, her face burning as she smiled.
“Yeah. I am.” Donyelle answered, also smiling.
Ashlee got up and gave Donyelle a huge hug.
“I’m happy for you.” She smiled, looking Donyelle in the eyes as she released her.
“Thanks Ash. You have no idea how worried I was to tell you.”
“Are you kidding, Donny? That’s great news.”


Benji stared at the ceiling. He had been trying to sleep since he finished the rehearsal with the rest of the group and he wasn’t having any luck. He knew that it was mostly because he was excited to perform tomorrow. He loved to dance for an audience, and he could never fight the excitement that ran through his body whenever he knew he was going to be on stage. His family was going to be at the performance tomorrow—even Lacey. Nigel had told all of the dancers on the first day of reunion rehearsals that there was going to be a meet-and-greet breakfast the morning of the taping so that the Season Three contestants could meet the Season Two contestants; They would get a chance to talk to them about their experiences and they were even going to be at the taping. In all honesty, Benji was even excited for the meet and greet; he was happy to get the chance to meet other young people who shared a love for dance—especially the girls; he was single, after all.
Benji’s whole body flinched as he heard a loud thud in the hallway outside his room. He quickly got out of bed and opened his door.
“Hey Benji!” Martha said, on her hands and knees on the floor.
Benji squinted as his eyes adjusted to the bright light in the hallway.
“Hey Martha, are you o…are you wearing leather pants?”
“Um, they’re pleather, actually.” Martha answered, slowly getting up. “The girls and I are going for a drink at the bar.” She lied. Kind of.
“Oh. Ok. Well, have fun.” He smiled. “Are you ok?”
“Oh yeah, I’m great.” Martha laughed. She had tripped and fell when her heel got snagged on the carpet in the hall.
“Ok. Don’t stay out too late!” Benji said cheerily, closing the door.
“Damn, Martha.” Natalie whispered, trying not to laugh as she came out of her room. “Are you ok?” She asked, the rest of the girls following her out into the hall. They had all been making their way to the elevators when Martha fell, and had bolted into the nearest room when they heard Benji opening his door.
“I hit my knee, but it’s nothing.” Martha answered, as they all continued their way to the elevators. “Are the guys ready?”
“Yeah, I just talked to Jason, and they’re waiting for us in the lobby.” Erin answered.
“What about Ashlee?” Joy asked.
“We’re going to call her when we get downstairs.” Heidi pulled out her cell phone from her tiny handbag.
As they made there way past Donyelle’s room, Allison heard Ashlee and Donyelle talking.
“Guys, I don’t think we’re going to have to call her.” She said, watching the crack at the bottom of the door as shadows moved closer.
“Come on!” Erin hissed, pulling her key-card from her pocket and rushing everyone into her room. The door closed just as Donyelle’s opened.
“Thanks so much, Ashlee.” They heard Donyelle say.
“Don’t worry about it Donny. That’s what I’m here for.” Ashlee laughed. “Besides, I’m happy I got a chance to know you better.”
“Me too.”
“And don’t worry about tomorrow. It’ll all be fine.” Ashlee added. “Have a good night.”
“You too, Ash.”
The girls waited as they heard Donyelle’s door click shut, and heard Ashlee make her way past Erin’s room.
“Ashlee!” Joy whispered. “Come here!”
“Joy?” Ashlee said, walking backward a couple of steps so she was face-to-face with a very made-up Joy.
“Yeah. Come in here for a second.” She said, reaching her arm out and pulling Ashlee in.


“We’ve got two hours, and then we should go back to the hotel to finish things off.” Travis said, straining to be heard over the unbelievably loud techno music that was booming throughout the club.
It was a lost cause. Ivan, Musa and Jaymz were already dancing. Erin, Heidi, Jessica and Aleksandra had found an unwitting group of guys to tease, and the rest of the group had made there way to the centre of the club, mingling with the other people dancing.
This may or may not have been a good idea.


Donyelle was still nervous. Her discussion with Ashlee had gone really well, but something still didn’t feel right. She looked at the glowing red numbers of the alarm clock sitting on the night stand: 11:47 p.m. It was late, and she was tired. She needed to talk to him, but it was going to have to wait until tomorrow.
She got into bed and starting flipping through a copy of the itinerary for tomorrow’s activities.
Screw it. She thought. There was absolutely no way Donyelle was going to be able to sleep without talking to him. She shoved her key-card in the pocket of her monkey-print pajama pants and grabbed the white hotel-issue robe from the back of the bathroom door. She slipped the white terry-cloth over her bare shoulders, leaving the robe un-tied.
Donyelle made it to the door before realizing that she wasn’t wearing a bra. She quickly took of the robe, then her ratty old tank top, throwing on the sports bra she had worn during practice earlier. It smelled a bit nasty, but it would work for now. She got dressed again, and slipped into the hotel’s quiet hallway. The plush carpet felt great on her still-healing toes as she began walking.
What am I doing? She though, stopping dead in her tracks. Come on Donny, it’s late. Just go back to your room and go to bed. You can talk to him tomorrow. He’s probably asleep anyway. She told herself. Her head was saying one thing, but her feet refused to move. Just turn around and to back to your room. Do it. Turn. Around.
Donyelle’s feet finally obeyed. Caught between her head and her heart, Donyelle went back to her room.


Benji was still awake. His run-in with Martha in the hall had left him slightly concerned for his cousin; he had tried calling her room, but she didn’t pick up. Since he couldn’t sleep anyway, Benji decided to stay awake until he heard everyone come in. Even though he trusted Heidi and knew she was old enough to take care of herself (heck, she was older than him), he was still concerned for her and would wait up for her to make sure she got back to her room alright.
He sat at the foot of the bed, debating turning on the TV. Ivan’s room was on the same wall as Benji’s TV though, and he didn’t want to risk waking Ivan up with the noise.
Benji noticed a shadow passing by in the hallway. Thinking it might be the girls, he opened the door.
“Donyelle?”

*

The sound of his voice made her freeze where she stood. She had almost gotten back to her room.
She turned around slowly, hoping she hadn’t imagined hearing his voice.
“Benji?”
“I thought you would have been out with the girls.” Benji said, un-moving from his doorway.
“What?”
“I ran into Marf in the hall earlier. She said she was going to a bar for a drink with the rest of the girls.”
“Oh. She never mentioned anything like that to me.” Donyelle answered, fiddling with one of the ties from her robe.
“Oh.”
There was silence between them again--uncomfortable silence.
“Um, Benji, you actually caught me coming to talk to you.” Donyelle squeaked, struggling to get the words out.
“About what?”
“Do you mind if we go into your room? The halls have ears.” She smiled, gesturing to their cast mate’s rooms surrounding them. They had no idea that their cast mates ears were presently in a club down the street.
“Sure.” Benji held the door to his room open as Donyelle made her way inside. “Take a seat.” He pointed her to the bed, and took a seat beside her.
“Ok. Before I start, I want you to know how much you mean to me.” Donyelle began, feeling the butterflies in her stomach start to flap their wings. “Benji, you know that during the show you were my best friend. We talked about just about everything, you helped me deal with my homesickness…you were just always there for me. That means a lot to me.”
“I can say the same thing about you Donyelle.” Benji smiled, putting his hand in hers, gripping it tightly.
Donyelle’s eyes fell, looking at their clasped hands with trepidation.
“I had dinner with Tahir today.” She mumbled. As she had expected, Benji’s hand loosened in hers. She felt the sting of tears begin to build in her eyes.
“How is he?”
“He’s fine.”
More silence.
“I wanted you to know…” Donyelle stopped and took a deep breath.



It is too early to rehearse. Heidi lay awake in her bed. Sunlight was starting to peek through her closed curtains. She rubbed her eyes, and sat up. She looked at her bedside clock. It was almost five, and she had to be downstairs in half an hour for the big Operation and Champagne and Caviar rehearsal with Donny and Benji. The meet-and-greet breakfast with Season Three was at 8, so they would have lots of time to make sure Benji and Donny were comfortable with the choreography before the big pre-taping dress rehearsal later in the day. Heidi’s knees were stiffer than ever. All the dancing she had been doing was starting to aggravate them again, and she was starting to feel like she had when she was on Season Two. In a way, even with the pain, it was a good feeling. She pushed herself to stand up, and grabbed her suitcase as she headed to the bathroom to shower.
“Heidi?” She heard her cousin’s muffled voice through the door as he knocked.
“Hold on, Benji.” She yawned, dropping her suitcase and un-bolting the door.
“You look too perky for five a.m.” She croaked, her voice still suffering the effects of yelling in a club.
“And you look like you got hit by a truck.” He laughed. Heidi’s hair was all over the place, and her eyes had bags under them. A smear of glittery teal eyeliner she’d missed when she took off her makeup streaked down the side of her face. She also had a new bruise planted on her forearm.
“What’s up?” She asked, ignoring him.


Down the hall, Martha and Ashlee were sitting on the floor of Donyelle’s room.
“So you told him?” Ashlee asked. Donyelle was pulling her hair back into a ponytail in the bathroom. She came into the room and sat down beside Martha.
“Yes.”
“And?” Martha asked.
“I got the reaction I was expecting.” Donyelle smiled weakly.
“Is that a good thing?” Martha was confused. She hadn’t been privy to the previous discussions about the Tahir and Donny situation.


Mere minutes later, Martha was sprinting down the hallway to Natalie’s room. She pounded the door with her fist.
“Good grief, who is it?” Natalie’s voice yelled. Martha could hear her coming to the door.
“Nat, it’s Martha. Let me in!”
“Hold on.” Natalie unlocked the door and opened it. Martha pushed her way in and closed the door. She was grinning from ear to ear.
“She did it. She broke up with Tahir.”
Natalie’s eyes widened, and her face lit up with a big smile.
“Opa!”
Martha started to laugh.
The two stopped as they heard a familiar scream coming from down the hall. Seconds later, they heard feet pounding the carpet, and someone knocking furiously on the door across from Natalie’s.
Martha opened the door, and she and Natalie both saw Heidi rapping her knuckles on Travis’s door.
Heidi turned and saw the two girls staring back at her.
“Did you guys hear the news?” She asked, her voice bubbling with uncontainable happiness.
“Yes!” Martha yelled, going into the hallway and joining Heidi.
The door Heidi had been pounding opened, revealing a bleary-eyed Travis.
“What? Did someone die?” He asked, squinting.
“Travis! Donny ditched Tahir!” Natalie answered.
“Are you serious?”
All of the girls nodded their heads.
Travis jumped into the hallway, hugging Heidi.
“This is amazing.” He said. “Tell everyone.”
“Tell everyone what?” Allison came out of her room, dressed for the day and wide awake.
Natalie walked over to Allison and whispered in her ear. The rest of the group watched as Allison’s face went from curious to ecstatic.


Ashlee was still sitting on the floor in Donyelle’s room. She was smiling, shaking her head. Judging from the sounds coming from the hallway, Martha was spreading the word.
“Do you think I did the right thing?” Donyelle asked her, pouring boiling water into her travel mug. She dropped a tea bag in.
Ashlee stood up and walked over to Donyelle.
“I do.” She answered. “You weren’t being fair to Tahir, or to Benji,” Ashlee picked up her purse from the chair at the table. “or to yourself.”
Donyelle snapped a lid onto her mug.
“I feel like I made the right decision too, but I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen now.” Donyelle looked out the window, at the busy street below.
“You made a big change to your life, Donny. It’s natural to second guess yourself. Just don’t let the ‘what-ifs’ control what happens now.” She swung her purse onto her shoulder. “Be open to the possibilities you’ve just created for yourself.”
Donyelle nodded, picking up her own purse and grabbing her mug of tea.
“Now come on, we have a rehearsal to get to.” Ashlee smiled.

*

Explaining to Donyelle and Benji the reason for a new routine took much more energy and lying than Ivan was comfortable with. It took him almost half an hour (and a near argument with Donny) before they accepted they had to learn a new routine in the space of a couple hours. Ivan let Nigel take the fall for it, saying that Nigel had told them that he and the other producers had added a spot for another ensemble routine and they were forcing the dancers to create the routine that would fill that spot.
“I just don’t think it’s fair that you guys have known about this for the past couple of days and you didn’t tell us.” Donyelle fumed, taking off her street shoes.
“We only finished the choreography last night, so you’re actually learning it at the same time as everyone else.” Erin defended. She wasn’t actually lying, either. The choreography was done, but they had only gotten to run through the whole thing two or three times before they went to bed.
“Just think of it as an audition.” Heidi suggested. “That always helps me focus and process the steps faster. Forcing the pressure on myself like that gets me in the right frame of mind.”
“What’s the concept of the routine?” Benji asked, lunging to stretch out his legs.
“We start out in our original pairs from the show; the routine is kind of all teasing: girl leads guy on, guy leads girl on…it flips between the two. We end with a ‘battle of the sexes’ dance-off.” Travis explained. “There’s a lot of hip hop and jazz in it, but we also have some lyrical stuff and a teeny-tiny bit of disco.”
“Sounds fun.” Donyelle cracked her toes on the wooden floor. Her big toe still looked a little odd; but at least it didn’t really hurt anymore.
“Are we ready to start?” Musa asked, plugging in the boom box that sat on the floor.
“Yeah, I guess so.” Ben answered, looking around the room for anyone who disagreed. Nobody objected.
“Ok, then.” Musa smiled and popped the CD they were using into the machine and cranked up the volume.


The Operation Champagne and Caviar rehearsal went without a single problem. Ivan was pleased with himself. His plan kicked ass. Donyelle and Benji had both loved the routine and didn’t have any problems learning it.
“Do you think it’s going to work?” Allison asked as they both made their way out of the elevator and to one of the private dining rooms. They had finished their rehearsals and had all gone upstairs to change for the meet-and-greet breakfast.
“I don’t see how it can’t.” He answered honestly. “That part at the end is going to seal the deal.” They entered the dining room, seeing that the majority of their season was already there, seated around an enormous round table. The judges, choreographers and a couple of producers were at a smaller one right beside it. There were place cards for each person. It appeared that a Season Three person would be seated between two Season Two people.
“Ok.” Allison smiled, making her way to her seat. “I trust you. It is your plan.”


“Did you see how crazy it is out there?” Jaymz asked, referring to the enormous studio audience that had come for the taping.
“There’s even more people there than there was in New York for the tour.” Natalie agreed.
“Did anybody get a chance to talk to Cat?” Heidi asked. Since it was a reunion special, their old host from Season Two, Cat Deeley was hosting the show.
“No, but I did see her outfit. They actually dressed her in something normal this time.” Martha laughed.
The door to the green room opened and a stage director peeked his head in.
“Dancers, positions for intro, please.”


Mia sat front and centre in the judges stand. Just like they had during the competition, Nigel and all of the other judges were seated at the big, long silver table with glasses of questionable liquids in front of them. The only change this time was that a second big long silver desk was a level right below them, and all of the choreographers sat there. The dancers had been informed that the judges and choreographers were going to be giving their critiques after each dance like a competition show too.
“She’d better freaking like this.” Martha said between gritted teeth, taking her position for the ensemble lyrical routine Mia had choreographed.
The music started, and the routine was executed with Kurt Browning precision.
Once the applause from the audience had died down, Cat made her comment about the dance and then passed it on to Nigel.
“I feel as though I’ve just been to the Ice Capades.” He spoke. Martha had never loved Nigel more than at that exact moment.


Mary’s group routine to ‘Clocks’ was up next. Jaymz, Dmitri and Benji were all in white tuxedoes with white shirts underneath and a silvery-aqua tie. Aleksandra, Natalie and Heidi were all in identical ball-gowns that matched their partners’ ties.
They were just about to start their group Quick-Step when the heel of Heidi’s shoe broke off and they had to start again.
Once they had finished, Tyce was the first to comment:
“I wouldn’t have thought a Coldplay song would have worked so well with those dances; but it did. You guys were all on point, and it was just magical.” The audience roared with applause.
“I agree. That’s definitely one of my favourite routines that I’ve seen on this show…period.” Brian smiled. This got another roar of applause from the audience.
“Honestly, I don’t think I could have asked for more.” Mary smiled. “You guys really struggled in rehearsals, but you managed to pull through, with great results.” The audience went nuts for Mary’s comment.
“Awww! I thought we’d get a Mary scream!” Natalie laughed as she and the group made their way backstage.


Once the audience heard they were getting a Shane Sparks hip-hop routine with Ashlee, Ivan, Donyelle, Musa and Joy, they went nuts. They were already screaming and applauding before the music started to play.
When Ivan and Ashlee started to pop and lock, the got loud; but as soon as Musa and Donyelle started to krump, they got even louder.
“So what do you think, Mia?” Cat asked, once all of the noise had died down.
“That was crazy. For you guys to do all of that to that particular song…it was just phenomenal. You could really tell that hip-hop is what you guys specialize in. Even you, Joy.” Mia laughed.
“You guys were moving so fast to keep up with that song.” Dan commented. “I was almost expecting one of you to trip up or miss a step, but you didn’t. You all hit each movement on time and in unison and hard. It was great.”
“I agree. Well done, guys.” Nigel smiled.


Mia’s contemporary group routine was received much better than her lyrical. The crowd lit up and cheered when Allison took centre stage, and Martha’s leaps got the expected sighs of awe that she so deserved. Travis’s footwork was as flawless as ever, and Ryan’s flexibility was finally showcased properly.
“Are you crying again, Mary?” Cat asked once the routine had ended, referring to Mary’s habit of crying after Mia’s contemporary routines from Season Two.
“I am.” She answered, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “That was beautiful.”
“I’m glad we finally got to see all of the lyrical dancers together like this. You all flowed together so well.” Doriana added.
“Excellent. Your technique was perfect. I can’t do the routine justice with my words!” Jean-Marc smiled.


“And now, we’ve got a special treat for you all.” Cat spoke, standing centre stage to introduce the finale performance. “Our dancers have been working all week on a routine they have choreographed themselves.” She paused, allowing the audience to oooh and aaaah. “The dancers didn’t have any input from the judges or choreographers. In fact, Nigel, correct me if I’m wrong, but this is the first time that our judges and choreographers have heard of this routine?”
“That’s right Cat.” Nigel grinned. He loved being sneaky.
“Are you all excited to see the routine?” Cat asked the judges and choreographers. They emitted a chorus of yes’s, yeah’s and uh-huh’s.
“What about you all?” She asked the audience. They screamed in response.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, dancing to ‘Let Me’ by Melanie Durrant featuring Kardinal Offishall, the dancers of So You Think You Can Dance Season Two.”
There was a pause for audience reaction and the lighting cue. The dancers were in their couples, frozen in identical positions.
The music started, and the girls began to move in unison, backwards towards the audience and away from their partners. As the first verse of the song began, they spun and faced the audience. The boys all stepped forward and tried to grab their partner’s arms, but only grabbed air as the girls made another step forward. The girls stood to face the person beside them and grasped each others hand with one arm, switching places. They repeated this with speed until they were all in the exact opposite positions to the ones they had started. Erin, who had been on the end of the line at the left, was now on the end of the line on the right. The girls turned to face the audience again, extending their right arms behind them and started to dance further forward, but were all abruptly pulled back as the boys switched places with them, now in front of the girls and facing the audience. The boys began a series of aggressive hip-hop steps, moving forward every four beats as the girls danced seductively behind them attempting to get their attention. The second verse started just as the boys all lowered themselves to the floor, each locking their body into their own original stall. On cue, the girls leapt over them, regaining their position in front. The audience cheered in reaction. As they landed, they all turned to the left, pumping their right arms as they all jumped forward at the same time. They did three of these jumps before turning to face the boys and shaking their booties for the audience. Since the girls were standing with their legs apart, the boys grabbed the girl in front of them just below the knees, lifting them over their heads and dropping them behind them as they again took the front of the stage. The lifts got another scream from the audience. Leading with their right legs, the boys all did a heel slide forward, followed by a heel slide leading with their left leg. They then turned to face the girls, shaking their booties for the audience. The girls dove through the spread legs of the guy in front of them, and all stood quickly, beginning to move in a group to the left side of the stage as the boys all grouped together and moved to the right. The rap portion of the song began and Joy, Erin, Aleksandra, Natalie and Jessica took centre stage and did (in complete unison) an arabesque, did a half spin en pointe, and a plier before jéter-ing away to left again as Dmitri, Stanislav, Benji, Jaymz and Jason responded with salsa steps that were reminiscent of the ones Dmitri had always done for his solos during competition. They all slid backwards as Heidi, Martha, Donyelle, Ashlee and Allison hopped forward, popping their chests and crouching into the Westside walk, while doing individual krump moves. Standing again, they snap danced back to their group as Travis, Ivan, Ryan, Musa and Ben rocked and leaned to center stage. Standing with their knees bent out, they began shuffling around doing the penguin, and popped straight up into the air. Upon landing, their feet moved slowly but fluidly on the floor, turning themselves around in a circle slowly while doing crazy renditions of the robot with their upper bodies. They rocked and leaned back to their group. Just as the chorus went into its repeat, signaling the end of the song, the girls pushed Donyelle forward, dancing in a tight cluster behind her, forcing her to move closer to the boys. The boys did the same to Benji.
What in the hell? Donyelle thought as she was again bumped forward by the girls. She caught an expression of confusion on Benji’s face as he was pushed forward again too.
“Fight for your space!” Ashlee hissed into Donyelle’s ear as she and the girls pushed Donyelle again; this time, she crashed right into Benji.
“Be aggressive! Get her!” Travis told Benji, as he and the boys pushed Benji into Donyelle again. They had given the two of them contradicting messages on purpose, in hopes of creating a good ending.
Donyelle responded to Ashlee by getting right in Benji’s face, and pushing him back. As the last couple beats of the song drummed through the speakers and just as Donyelle was turning into a spin, Benji grabbed her arm and guided her spin forward. He slid up beside her and grabbed her as she came out of her spin, holding her as close to him as he could. She turned her head and came face to face with Benji. Her lips were dangerously close to his. He could feel her heart beating against his chest. Without giving it a second though, Donyelle pressed her lips to his, feeling her body tingle with heat. The rest of the group clustered around them and struck a random pose.
The group watched as the audience went absolutely wild. Some of them were standing as they applauded and screamed. Donyelle pulled out of the kiss, cuing the rest of the dancers to un-freeze. Benji was stunned.
“You ok man?” Ivan laughed. His plan had definitely worked.
“Uh, yeah.” Benji answered.
The group made their way to the front of the stage. Breathless, tired and happy, they waited for their critiques.

*

Brian was the first one to speak.
“When we finished the show last season, we knew that a lot of you had more in you than what you showed us.” He started. “Because of the way the show works, some of you never got much of a chance, outside of your solos, to show us your specialty and really make us see your full potential. A lot of you were injured after the first three weeks, too. I have to tell you all, this dance blew me away. The fact that you all contributed something to it makes it even more amazing. You could actually pick out some of the styles of dance that you learned on the show, and you executed them all really well.” He paused. “Could you guys do this at my birthday party, too?”
The crowd screamed. The dancers could only smile and laugh.
“I am just shocked right now.” Mia smiled. “My crazy yearbook couple surprised me.” Mia laughed. Benji and Donyelle blushed as they smiled sheepishly, holding each other in a sideways hug. The rest of the dancers laughed. “I thought the routine was great. There was a lot to watch, and there wasn’t a part where any one of you wasn’t moving. Nice work.” She smiled.
“Can we take a minute and just go—“ Mary let out an ear-piercing scream. The audience applauded and a lot of people screamed right along with her. “That’s all I have to say.” She laughed. “You all know you’re great.”
“Nigel?” Cat prompted.
Nigel paused for dramatic effect.
“Let me just tell you that when Allison and Travis approached me with this idea, I was a little nervous about what you would give us.” Nigel started.
“What is he talking about? I thought he approached you guys?” Donyelle asked Travis, who just kept smiling and ignored her.
“I thought we would see some crazy, unorganized mess.” The audience booed Nigel. “After watching that performance, I now know that I had no reason to worry. I apologize for not trusting you all. You have all made the transition to professional dancers, and this routine was proof of why. Absolutely brilliant!” The crowd cheered in agreement.
“Did you all like it?” Cat asked the crowd. They kept right on screaming and cheering. “I liked it.” She smiled at the camera, before beginning her end of the show speech.
As the credit music began to play in the auditorium, the dancers did their familiar end-of-the-show credit dances. All except for Benji and Donyelle, who had switched from sideways hug to full-on embrace; Benji’s hand was laced in with Donyelle’s thick curls, and Donyelle’s head was resting blissfully on Benji’s shoulder.
“That was…amazing.” Benji murmured.
“Uh-huh.” Donyelle responded, her tone of voice matching his.
There was a thick pause between them.
“Did you know they were going to do this?” She asked him, lifting her head to look him in the eyes. He smiled at her.
“Heidi told me this morning.”


After they had all changed and gotten back to the hotel, they all went to their rooms and began packing their things. Musa, Heidi and Ashlee had the first flights out, leaving at eleven that night. Since they had all waited in the hotel for each other to show up, they thought it was only fitting that they all go to the airport together and say their goodbyes as each flight came and went.
The dancers took up almost all the seats in the departures waiting area.
“Are you mad at us?” Ivan asked Donyelle, who was reading the flight schedule board.
“No Ivan, I’m not.” She answered. “How could I be?”
“Well, we kind of sprung it on you guys pretty forcefully.”
“Yeah, but it needed to happen.” Donyelle said. “I don’t think Benji or I would have made any kind of progress relation-ship wise had you guys not forced us to.”
Ivan smiled as Donyelle said ‘relationship’.
“Is there a relationship between you guys now? Like, a real one? Not just friends?”


Heidi, Benji and Travis had opted to stand by the windows instead of sit on the uncomfortable plastic airline chairs.
Heidi watched her cousin, who was currently watching a conversation between Donyelle and Ivan.
“You’re going to miss her, aren’t you?” She said.
“Yeah.” Benji answered, redirecting his attention to his cousin and Travis.
“I don’t mean to pry or anything,” Travis started. “but did anything happen last night after the show? I don’t mean physically.”
“We talked for a really long time.” Benji answered. “She told me about everything she was feeling when she was with Tahir, after the show and the tour.” He explained. “She says she’s happy that it’s over between them, but there’s still a bit of hurt there.”
“That’s understandable.” Heidi defended Donyelle. “She was in a pretty serious relationship with him.”
Benji nodded before continuing.
“She told me that she is definitely committed to a relationship with me.” He smiled. Travis and Heidi beamed. “But right now, she wants a bit of time to readjust to things. Since she broke up with Tahir here and not at home, she knows she’s going to have to deal with her friends and family before she can even introduce me to them again—this time, as her boyfriend.”
“That’s a good thing, Benji.” Travis smiled. He could tell by the look on Benji’s face that he wasn’t sure how to react to what Donyelle had decided. “It means that she’s really serious about your relationship.
“Yeah.” Heidi agreed. “It’s going to be hard on you both for the first little while, but the payoff for waiting is going to be amazing!” She grinned. She could see it now: Mr. and Mrs. Benji and Donyelle Schwimmer.
“Thanks guys.” Benji smiled.


As it got darker, the dancers numbers began to dwindle. First it was Musa, then Heidi, then Ashlee, Martha, Allison, Natalie, Ivan, Ben, Dmitri, Erin, Joy, Aleks, Jaymz, Jessica, Stanislav, Ryan and Jason.
By the time the sun rose, Donyelle, Travis and Benji were the last three dancers to leave.
As the boarding call for Donyelle’s flight was announced over the P.A system, the emotions of the past week finally came to a head.
Travis hugged Donyelle. As he released her he whispered into her ear: “If you break that boys heart again, I will hunt you down and kick your ass.”
Donyelle laughed.
“I love you too, Travis.”
Travis smiled and grabbed his bag. He pretended to be interested in a display of brochures about Antigua, leaving Benji alone with Donyelle.
She looked up at him, a weak smile on her face.
“You know this isn’t goodbye.” She said, hugging him tightly. She could feel him start to cry, as his chest shook as he struggled to take a breath.
“I know.” He answered, letting a tear drip down his face.
“Be my big strong man,” She smiled, feeling her eyes begin to fill with tears as she looked at his. “If you don’t stop crying, I’ll give you the Vietnamese Fighting-Waltz choke hold.” She threatened. She was relieved to hear Benji laugh at her attempt to lighten things up.
“I’ll call you when my flight gets in.” She promised, reaching her hand up to move a piece of Benji’s hair from his face. Her fingers lingered, cupping his head in her hand as she gently pulled him forward, meeting her lips with his. Just as the kiss began to intensify, Benji pulled away.
The payoff for waiting is going to be amazing. Heidi’s words echoed in his ears. He definitely wanted it to be amazing.
“I love you.” He said to her, watching as a tear streaked its way down Donyelle’s face.
“I love you too.” She smiled, wrapping him in her arms for one last hug.
As the final boarding call for Donyelle’s flight was announced, she reluctantly let him go, picking up her bags. She slowly began walking to her gate, blowing him a kiss before she went through.
Travis waited a couple minutes for Benji to collect himself before he re-joined his friend. They were booked on the same flight out to Los Angeles.
“Are you ok?” He asked; as they both sat down to wait for their flight.
“Yes.” Benji smiled.
“She looooooves me.”

**The End**


Lyrics to ‘Time After Time’ by Cyndi Lauper

Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick and think of you.
Caught up in circles, confusion is nothing new.
Flashback, warm nights, almost left behind.
Suitcase, memories,
Time after…

Sometimes you picture me, I’m walking too far ahead.
You’re calling to me, I can’t hear what you’ve said.
Then you said, go slow, I fall behind.
The second hand unwinds.

If you’re lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you I’ll be waiting
Time after time
If you’re lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you I’ll be waiting
Time after time

After my picture fades, the darkness has turned to grey.
Watching through windows, you’re wondering if I’m ok.
Secrets stolen, from deep inside.
The drum beats out of time.

If you’re lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you I’ll be waiting
Time after time
If you’re lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you I’ll be waiting
Time after time

You said go slow, I fall behind.
The second hand unwinds.

If you’re lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you I’ll be waiting
Time after time
If you’re lost you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you I’ll be waiting
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
Time after…







~ Moose ~