Thank you to @Jasmine63 for the pretty cover at the top!!❣️

Chapter Fifty-Six: "Backstage."

"I NEVER GOT to ask you a question." I said to Zen, walking through the rows in the large auditorium. I zipped down my team sweater at the heat in the room. One full day in Rosario, Argentina was pretty cool for everyone after opening ceremonies. We got the chance to explore a bit of the city last night, looking at the architecture and thanks to Ravi, being dragged to try different foods.

Eduardo had been able to use his advantage in the Spanish language to 'connect with his Argentinian roots'. And some of his family members specifically his cousins which whom one of them looked to be exactly like Octavia had asked for, came to watch us yesterday and for the days the competition lasted.

"You're about to ask me a question as you walk into the same room where you're going to perform?" He drawled and the sound of something playing on a screen was in the background but I didn't ask about it.

"In like three hours," I told Zen with a roll of my eyes as I took a seat next to Eduardo and Winifred. "Now, Octavia?"

"What about her?"

"You asked her to prom?"

Eduardo leaned in so that he could speak loud enough for Zen to hear. "I want to know about that too."

Ravi sat down on the other side of me, grabbing the phone from my hand and tapping the screen to put it on speaker. As if we weren't in a room with what felt like a thousand people in it about to see the next performance. "Same."

"Who is that?" Zen asked, sounding highly confused.

"It's just Ravi."

There was a pause. "Who the hell is Ravi?"

"I go to your school," Ravi exclaimed. "I've been in at least one of your classes every single year."

"...What do you look like?" Oh my God.

My jaw dropped and Eduardo started laughing hard. Ravi on the other hand looked very annoyed. "I'm shorter than you by a bit. I swear you asked me for a pencil last week in our English class."

I could imagine Zen snapping his fingers when he realized. "Oh, that Ravi."

"How many Ravi's do you know?" Ravi asked flabbergasted.

"This is getting sad," I took the phone out of my friend's hand, taking it off speaker and holding it close to my ear. "You didn't answer my question."

"Maybe because I didn't have the chance to."

"Would you like to answer it now?"

"It's not like I like Octavia in that way. I only asked her because she's my friend and she was going anyway and I figured she'd want to have a date. I mean, it's Octavia. She wants to have someone walking her into the banquet hall that night."

"True." I could hear voices in the background and there was a voice I could pan out from the rest. "Is that Lucas?"

"Yeah. We were in the middle of a game when you called. He's playing against Joey right now and Joey is definitely losing bad."

"Shut the fuck up." I heard someone yell and Zen only laughed.

"You're at their house?"

"Actually, they're at mine. My foster dad was wondering why I never really invited anyone over and with Eduardo gone, the first person that came to my mind was Lucas since Greg had told me that he considers himself the 'video game legend' and I wanted to test the theory."

"How did Joey end up at your house then?" At that sentence, Eduardo whipped his head towards me in confusion.

"Because he was in the room when I called Lucas and now there are like ten different guys from school in the basement and my dad just ordered pizza."

"Wait," I adjusted myself in my seat, leaning back in it. "So it's a Saturday and you, my amazing nocturnal friend, are not sleeping but instead you're actually engaging in social interaction that isn't from behind your computer?"

"Shut up."

"But am I wrong?"

"No." He sounded like a little kid when he said that word. "Also, Devin is here too and apparently, Jane is coming over."

"You're going to put Jane in a room full of all of you boys?"

"Only because Lucas said that Jane is almost as good at video games as he is."

"He's right," I admitted. "She's really good."

"I'm not sure if I can take your opinion into consideration because according to Lucas, you suck."

My jaw dropped. "He did not say that."

"I was only telling the truth Syd." Lucas suddenly said. "Call me before you go on okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." I muttered and despite hearing him say that I smile at the sound of his voice.

"Are you actually mad?"

"No."

There was another sound of shuffling in the background and Zen was back on the phone. "Ya-da-ya-da-ya-da he says he loves you and all that shit. Now, you see how that girl on your team Hailey is talking to Joey?"

"Yeah."

"Tell her that her man is totally a sore loser. He just stomped off to the comer like a baby."

The lights dimmed and the main lights turned on in the center of the stage. "Zen, got to go. One of the first production numbers are going up. I'll text you."

"Adios." He said and I hung up, my attention caught to the stage as a group of dancers came out.

"What country do they represent?" I heard Winifred ask. My eyes drifted over to a girl I recognized. One who was known here. I think everyone here knew who the hell she was.

"They're Poland." I whispered.

"How did you know that?" Ravi asked me. Well, almost everyone.

Isaac, who was sitting the seat in front of me, in between Andrea and Matilda turned around to us. "It's the girl in the blue, isn't it? That's how you know who she is."

"What about her?" Ravi asked.

"She's the World Female Soloist. She won last year." I told him.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, they gave her a trophy and a nice-looking tiara and everything. She's one of the best dancers I have ever seen in my entire life."

"The fact that you're saying that means a lot."

"But you could've beat her last year." Eduardo said.

"It doesn't matter." I told Eduardo. "That was last year. This year is a whole different thing. It's a whole different challenge," I glanced at Matilda whose eyes were trained on the girl we were talking about but I was certain she was overhearing our entire conversation.

And even though I would never be on good terms with Matilda, I said my next words because I believed they were true. "But I think we can overcome it."

In the evening of that day, Ravi took a peak past the curtains. "How many people are we competing against?"

"At least 1800." Isaac told him, patting him on the shoulder. We were all in similar costumes for our studio production number. The main reason for the production number was for the strongest teams to gain a five-point advantage. Mrs. Yousiff had flown in our B team along with other dancers that were in the senior grades.

"Why are you nervous," Andrea asked Ravi, his accent evident. "You were out there not even over two hours ago."

Ravi shrugged. "I don't know. I'm weird like that." The small group dance we had done beat out team Jamaica, Malta, France and Norway. At that time, I wasn't nervous and neither was Ravi. I think the idea of dancing with other people made the pressure easier because even though they were relying on you, it wasn't just you they were relying on.

"At least half of the countries are gone so fast." Hailey whispered.

"At least after these are the trios." Winifred said.

"Then the second small group." Andrea mentioned.

"And then the duets." Madison added.

"And then the solos between the top two teams." I said quietly, stretching my arms up.

Ravi sat down. "This is going by way too fast. I still haven't even found my Spanish girl."

"Hispanic." I corrected.

"And you have more than enough time to find the soulmate of your life." Hailey told him.

"You say that now but I'm old, I have white hair, and I'm living with my twenty-seven cats."

Eduardo whistled. "That's a lot of cats."

"I'm sorry," Ravi started and I knew he was getting irritated that Eduardo didn't get the point of his short-lived rant. "Did you completely miss the part that implied I would be lonely?"

Isaac clasped Ravi's shoulder as the announcer introduced out school name. "Ravi, zip it. Everyone, let's go."

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"Eduardo, take a picture of us on the statue." Hailey handed Eduardo her phone and I laughed as she pulled us along to pose nonchalantly but Ravi butted in, photobombing what felt like every single picture Eduardo tried to take.

We continued walking and ended up in a store when Ravi made a face. "I didn't come here all the way from Canada to go shopping."

"Clearly because we came here to win," Hailey rolled her eyes, looking at a shirt and holding it out in front of her. "Does this look good?"

Eduardo moved on, grabbing me by the arm. "Don't ask me." Eduardo looked down at a dress holding it up with one hand before letting it go. He glanced at me. "Do you think Mary Anne would like this?"

"You're buying her dress?"

"What did you think? That the dress is for me?" He scoffed. "I don't think so."

I smiled. "If you can find one that's in a light green color than yeah, she would definitely like that."

"Okay, help me look." Eduardo and I spent at least fifteen minutes looking for a dress for Mary Anne and I found a pair of sunglasses I knew she would love when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"Sydney Acosta, right?"

I stared at the girl with the heavy accent. The same one that won the title of female soloist at World's last year. "Um," Before I stuttered, I collected myself by putting on a genuine smile. "Yeah, you're Sasha, right?"

She nodded. "You have made to Worlds, I see."

"Yeah, I saw you perform with your production number. You were really good."

"Thank you. As were you. Do I finally get the chance to," She paused, trying to find the right words. "Go against you if we make it? Is that how you say?"

"Yeah," I laughed and she smiled. "But, um, no. I'm not doing the solo if we make it."

At this, Sasha furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What? Why not?"

I shrugged. "I'm not sure but the person who got it deserves it."

Sasha stared at me. "If I were you, I would have fought to get that spot. You are a...a team player."

"I guess you can say that."

Some girl eagerly tapped Sasha on the arm and they conversed in what I could only assume was Polish before she gave me a quick smile. "I'll see you later."

"Bye."

When she left, Eduardo slung an arm around me. "Like I said you're famous."

"I'm not famous." I said. He has said this at every single dance competition we went to together.

"Yes, you are." Ravi said with a bunch of clothes on his arms.

"What happened to you not wanting to go shopping?" Eduardo smirked.

"Don't question me," Ravi narrowed his eyes at Eduardo before looking back at me. "And yes. You're famous."

"Sydney's not famous." Hailey said.

"Thank you." I said with a relived sigh.

"She's just well-known." The boys agreed and I shoved the sunglasses in Eduardo's hands. "Let's go. You can practice your Spanish at the front."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sorry I didn't call you last night," I told Lucas. "But everything has just been really hectic in the past couple of days."

"I know. Also, your Instagram account is turning into a photography account."

"There's a lot of really cool tourist attractions around here, okay? Don't judge me."

"I wasn't," Lucas laughed. "You're about to go on?"

"Really soon, yeah," I took a deep breath, walking slowly through the large center. "I still can't believe Mrs. Yousiff went with me and Eduardo's solo instead of Eduardo and Isaac's."

"Why? You and Eduardo dance great together anyway."

"I don't know. I thought she would go with what seemed to be the stronger dance in my opinion."

"I saw you guys practice it that one time. It seemed really strong to me." I neared the door to the backstage area, ready to show security my ID badge when I noticed a couple of people talking to Eduardo. "...Sydney?"

"Sorry. I was just distracted and-holy shit."

"What? What?"

"His parents and sister are here." I said in surprise watching Eduardo bid them goodbye.

"Who's? Eduardo's? They flew all the way?"

"It seems like it, one second," When Eduardo came over to me with a bright smile on his face I nodded to where his family was. "That is your dad, right?"

Eduardo nodded eagerly. "I'm as shocked as you are."

"Isn't that the same dad that didn't support you in dance? At all? Even though you've been doing it since you were a kid?"

"Yeah, it is. And you see how I'm going to that dance school after high school? My mom was talking to my dad about it and even though he was mad that that was my decision, I think he's finally accepted it. He's to see us win."

"I think he's here to see you win, Eddie. This is great" I nudged him with my elbow and he let out a relieved sigh.

"I'm not going to lie but I really needed to see them all-even my annoying sister. I was a second away from freaking out."

"You're going to do great. You always do." I assured him.

He looked down at my phone, snatching it out of my hand. "Lucas, buddy, how are you doing?...We just need to win this one and if we score high enough we'll be in the finals. There's team Russia left, team Ireland, and team Poland...You should have seen your girlfriend last night when we all went to dinner. She stuffed herself like a-"

"Eddie." I warned him and he zoomed towards the door, quickly showing the security guard his ID before sprinting inside with my phone.

I shook my head, glancing over to where his family was walking in the direction of the auditorium. If my mom had never supported me in dance I'm not sure what I would I have done. A smile came to my face and I showed the security guard my ID badge, sprinting inside to find the idiot with my phone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"FINALS!" We cheered for the seventh time tonight.

Ravi and Eduardo cupped their hands. "Say what?"

"FINALS!"

"Say what?"

"FINALS!"

"Eduardo, that was so amazing!" I shook him in excitement and he laughed.

He let out a breath, grabbing the water. The look on his face showed pure happiness and he was restless, bouncing on his toes from a job well done. "That was mind-blowing. I want to go back out there."

"Well, you can't." Isaac told him with a smile. "But it's so obvious that you won that."

"You really think so?"

"Yes." Most of us in the room said.

"Thanks guys," Eduardo patted his chest. "That means a lot." He went to the side to talk to Mrs. Yousiff for a couple of minutes and I took a seat next to Hailey, texting Mary Anne. My eyes caught sight of Isaac and Matilda talking.

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Matilda said confidently, looking at herself in the mirror.

"Okay, guys, let's start going." Soon everyone was heading out of the room and Matilda was right behind me. I shoved my phone in the pocket of my tracksuit when we reached backstage and on the other side I could see Sasha with the rest of the Poland team and they all looked in the zone as if all of them were about to perform.

"Where's Matilda?" Isaac asked and I stared at him in confusion, taking my eyes off the other team. Just when I thought she was behind me, she wasn't. It was like she had suddenly disappeared.

"I'll find her," I told him. "Be right back." I went in the direction of the dressing room. When I opened the door, Matilda was there but she looked to be in a state I didn't expect her to ever be in.

Matilda never showed how nervous she was. She was confident in her ability to dance and that was something I admired her for. No one could tell her anything. No one could bring her down especially since she knew she had talent. And she had a lot of it.

But watching her with her hands on her face, sat on a chair ad bent over made me think that she was feeling the pressure of this entire competition. Especially because it was between her and Sasha.

While Eduardo had danced beautifully and we were certain that his dance had raised us a few points higher than Poland now despite us not knowing the score. But in the end, it really did fall to Matilda. Depending on how she did with this dance, it would let us know if we win or if we lose.

And she knew that because when I closed the door, her head shot up and I could see her wipe the tears of frustration from her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

I walked towards her and she grabbed tissue, trying to fix her makeup but I grabbed it from her doing it myself. There was a second of silence between us and I spoke up, breaking it first. "You know you're going to do great."

Matilda's eyes locked on mine. "Why do you think that?"

"I know that in your mind you've conjured up some idea that we're rivals but I think I'm allowed to be honest with you and not try to talk you down."

There was a ghost of a smile on Matilda's lips.

"There's a reason Mrs. Yousiff picked you for this. I don't know what it was but I'm sure I have a pretty good idea of why."

Matilda sniffed, taking the tissue from me and bowing her head. She let out an exhale and I leaned against the dresser. "She should have picked you. You led our team to win the solo in Regionals and Nationals and I've never done it for Nationals so I don't understand why she picked me. I don't get why didn't even pick you to be captain. It's obvious that you're a much better dancer-"

"You can't keep doing that."

"Doing what?" She spat out.

"You can't keep comparing yourself to me. That's not what this is about. So I didn't get the solo. It doesn't matter. You did. That's what matters. That's what has mattered in the months we've been practicing for this. You got this because Mrs. Yousiff believes in you. We all believe in you Matilda."

"You believe in me?"

"Of course. We're on the same team. I'm not going to sit in the sidelines and hope you lose. I'm going to sit on the sidelines and hope you try your best. That's what matters. That you do your best out there. Forget about the competition between us or the competition out there or that the girl out there won last year. That doesn't matter. This year, right now, you're going to go out there and you're going to do your absolute best. Got it?"

Matilda stared at me before reaching for the mascara and applying some. I pushed myself off the dresser, watching her collect herself as she stood. "I'm ready."

I let out a dramatic exhale. "Thank God."

Matilda rolled her eyes at me and we both walked out of the room. "Oh Sydney?"

"Yeah?" I asked, pushing the door open to backstage.

She took a moment to say the next two words but when she did, she smiled. At me. "Thank you."

"Good luck."

When we returned backstage, Eduardo eyes flickered between Matilda and I. "What? Are you two friends now?"

"Me? Friends with Matilda?" I looked at her where she was about to go on, shaking her hands before stretching her arms and legs. "Nah, but I think we consider each other tolerable."