Hello everyone and welcome to my first official fanfic! I'm so excited for all of you to read this, I hope I did a good job! This fanfic is based around season 2, so the next step has just won regionals and is about to go to Nationals... Or are they? Read on to find out! Hope you enjoy!

"'I'm here to audition,' no, that won't work, uhm... 'I heard you won regionals,' no, that sounds to... Scheming... Oh I don't know" I muttered to myself as I walked through the Dolce Vita building where The Next Step Dance Studio was located. They had just won regionals and my team had just lost. I used to dance with Annex Dance Academy, but after seeing The Next Step's vibrant and heartfelt win at Regionals, it was clear that they weren't just dancers, they were a family, and that's what I wanted to be a part of. At Annex, no one really got along, we just did the dances and hoped we could win, but there wasn't the obvious team chemistry there that there is at The Next Step, so I guess it's time to take the next step to The Next Step. The news just came out that The Next Step was holding 'the challenge' to invite dancers from teams who lost regionals to try to get on a team going to Nationals. And that's what I was planning to do

I arrived where the auditions were going to be held, Studio A, I believe. A tall, blonde lady greeted me as I walked in and introduced herself.
"I'm Miss Kate, I am the studio head at The Next Step," she said, offering me her hand to shake
"It's lovely to meet you, Miss Kate, I hope I end up on your Nationals team" I said, shaking her hand, I then walked in and began warming up with everyone else in the room. All of the original dancers were there, fighting for their spots on the team. I was stretching beside a ginger girl who quite happily introduced herself
"Hi, you must be new, I'm Giselle" she said, with a bright smile on her face.
"I am new, and my name is Leora, it's nice to meet you" I replied, smiling back. It was my first five minutes at this studio ad I was already making friends! Maybe this place was better than I thought.

A few minutes after, two blonde girls walked out. I presumed they were dance captains of some sort.
"Hello. I am Emily and this is Michelle. We are the co-captains of The Next Step. We will be assessing your dancing along with Kate and Phoebe, studio head and head choreographer." One of the girls said. We all immediately cleared the space and waited for further instruction. First were the freestyle solos. Before we started the solos, we were asked why we danced. My answer was simple:
"I dance because it's a way to express myself without words. I feel so free when I dance. That's why I dance" was my answer. I performed my solo, they looked very impressed, so I was excited! You'd better make it, Leora I thought to myself Sara will never let you back at Annex if you don't, and dad can't drive me to any other studios. My family situation isn't... The best situation. Mom has a health condition called ME which basically means she is constantly fatigued and finds it hard to move a lot, not because she feels tired but because her muscles are too tired to move, so I spend a lot of my time looking after her, I dance to de-stress and forget about everything. Mom still works in coding websites at home, and dad is a teacher. He drives me and my little sister Poppy around to places, he likes spending time with us when he can, so he doesn't mind.

After 30 minutes of waiting (mostly chatting to Giselle, who is really nice) we hear that the 20 dancers who will be going to the choreography round have been announced. We all rush into Studio A at once. Emily and Michelle stand before us.
"The 20 dancers proceeding to the next round are..."

Thank you for reading! I know it's only a short one, but I hope you enjoyed it! I should be posting the next chapter in a few days, so keep your eyes peeled! What did you think of this chapter? Who do you want to see more of? Who should make the team? Leave a review with what you think, I can't wait to see what you have to say! Thanks again!
Have a lovely day/ night

-Whinnie :3