Nobody's POV:

It had been two months since Piper's dad got arrested and things had been going pretty smoothly.

Lily took a break from dance and had gone to live with her grandparents as aunt Cathy happily invited her niece and nephews to live with her.

Since Angela was arrested, The Next Step had been closed for about a week or so, as Miss Kate tried to find a replacement; luckily for the team she finally re-hired Michelle and Emily.

Things had been pretty good at the studio and for the first time in a long while, Piper and Lily were both truly happy.

Piper's POV:

Right now, I'm at the studio, and we're all sitting down, quietly as we take some compatibility test. Michelle and Emily still haven't told us what we're doing this for.

"Kingston, what'd you get for number 8?" Ozzy asked, not so quietly, clearly not understanding that there was no right or wrong answer.

For number 8, I would've picked sushi because I absolutely love it but if I could only eat one meal for the rest of my life, I'd have to pick golden doodles; though it doesn't sound as fancy and sophisticated.

"Okay guys, that's it! Press send." Michelle announced. "We are going to pair the dancers with the most compatible answers together and you guys are going to do a duet. Michelle and I are going to pick the best duet and whoever wins gets an amazing prize." Emily explained, enthusiastically as we waited in excitement to find out what we'd win.

"The prize is-" Emily started but Michelle interrupted her. "To be Leon Blackwood's assistants at the Absolute Wild Styles Dance Convention!" Michelle finished off excitedly as Emily frowned at her.

Leon's assistant? That would be such an amazing experience; I hope I can win this.

"Alright, the results are in. The first pair is... Piper and Finn!" Emily said happily as I groaned. How are Finn and I, in any way, compatible?

"Did you copy my answers?" I asked him as he shook his head. "No, I was sitting all the way over there." He replied.

It's not like I don't want to be his duet partner, it's just that I know he's gonna say something stupid like-

"Piper, we're meant to be, I mean, look, we're wearing the same colours." He added as I rolled my eyes and groaned.

You see, this was exactly what I was worried about. I knew I shouldn't have answered number 8 with golden doodles; it sounded just like something Finn would've put!

Emily and Michelle carried on naming all the other duets and by the end of it, Richelle was a lot more annoyed than I was, being paired up with Ozzy. But I think she should give Ozzy a chance, he can be serious sometimes.

During our rehearsal, Finn listed all the cool things that we'd have the opportunity to experience if we won and it made me realise that there was a lot more riding on this duet than I thought.

That's a lot of pressure and I don't think I can handle it, so I decided to do something about it.

"Hey Summer, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked her as we said goodbye to Noah. I figured since she's already performed her duet with Kingston, maybe she wouldn't mind partnering up with Finn; they'd have a better shot at winning than Finn and I. Luckily for me, she agreed.

Since I didn't have to rehearse a duet anymore, I went to Shakes and Ladders to grab a much-needed juice. "Hey Piper." Finn called out to me as I turned around to face him.

"What are you doing?" He asked, unimpressed. "Getting a juice." I replied, with a sheepish smile, as he confronted me on why I bailed on the dance; I honestly didn't think he'd mind.

"Look, I did my best and now you get to dance with Summer." I said optimistically but he shook his head. "I don't want to dance with Summer, Piper, I want to dance with you." He responded as I sighed.

He's checking in on me, maybe I should open up to him. I explained to him how I didn't like the spotlight or feeling like all the pressure's on me, since those awful times where Angela embarrassed me for not being able to do an aerial and he managed to get me to finally move on from Miss Angela and the things she did at The Next Step.

We ended up ditching the duet altogether, just lounging around and talking; luckily Summer didn't seem to mind at all.

"Ooh, look, let's play checkers!" He shouted out suddenly, walking over to a table in the corner of the room. "That's chess but sure." I agreed happily. "Chess, checkers, they're all the same thing." He replied nonchalantly as I laughed at his lack of knowledge of board games.

"Ha, in your face, Summer!" Richelle yelled happily as Michelle and Emily told her and Ozzy that their duet had won. Summer just laughed and rolled her eyes at Richelle's competitiveness.

Rehearsals ended strangely with Amy and Henry giving each other weird looks, as I made a mental note to talk to her about it later, and Richelle continuously smirking in Summer's direction as you could see the poor girl beginning to lose her patience. But nonetheless, the day had been good.

》》》

"Geez, where have you been?" James asked as soon as I stepped into the house. "Sorry, I lost track of time with Finn." I replied, shrugging my shoulders as he rolled his eyes.

"Oooh, who's Finn?" Daniel asked, wiggling his eyebrows as I rolled my eyes. "He's my best friend." I said simply at the same time that James said "her boyfriend", as I groaned at him, causing them all to laugh.

"Oh, by the way, did you happen to leave the front door open last night?" Ethan asked me as I gave him a confused look. I'm the responsible one out of all of us so it obviously wouldn't be me.

"The door was open all night?" I asked cautiously, as my brothers shrugged. "It was just wide open when I woke up." James explained.

Why would the door even be open anyways? What if someone had broken in? How are they being so calm about this?

Imagine if it was dad though or some unwelcome- wait, no, no negative thoughts, I cannot jinx this again and I have got to leave him in the past where he belongs...

But like just imagine if it really was-

My train of questioning thoughts were cut off by the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway.

That's weird, aunt Cathy and uncle Arthur were still at work, so it was just me and my brothers chilling in the house.

"Hey kids! I know it's been a couple of months; but in my defense breaking out of prison isn't as easy as it looks on tv!" We heard a disgustingly familiar voice say as we all groaned and turned to face the door to see an unwanted person.

"So, did you guys miss me?"

I really hate how I always manage to jinx things.

THE END!

》》》

Thank you guys so so much for reading, it was a lot of fun to write this and I hope you enjoyed the book! Thank you to all the people who read and voted on this, it really meant a lot to me. Ily all so much and I'll see you guys later in another book or something!❤❤❤