Page 34 of Take the Lead

‘What a fantastic response from the judges – and the audience,’ Kimberley beams. ‘And what a different story to last week. But is it enough to get Kate and Aleksis through to the semi-final? Audience, it’s time for you to submit your scores.

Did you feel the love on the stage tonight?

Or was it all a bit too staged for your liking? Let’s find out!’

The dial on the scoreboard leaps up the chart then wavers for a few seconds before finally settling on 9.

1. A huge grin takes over my face, and Aleksis picks me up and spins me round before setting me down and kissing me full on the lips.

But I’m so blown away by our near-perfect score that it barely has time to register.

‘Another superb result!’ Kimberley cheers.

‘That puts you just a tenth of a point behind Merle and Emilia this evening. Congratulations! That’s enough to get you through to next week’s semi-final.

But let’s not forget, there are still two more couples to dance tonight, so there’s still time for someone else to steal that top spot.

Could it be Dean with his cheeky cha-cha?

Or Theo, who’ll be raising temperatures with his fiery Argentine tango?

Ladies and gentlemen, let’s find out, but first let’s hear it one more time for Kate and Aleksis! ’

And our moment in the limelight is over for another week.

I’m so elated about scoring 9.1 that I’m not even upset about finishing behind Merle and Emilia.

I can’t believe we got so close to them.

I don’t know how much of an influence our fake romance has had, but it can’t all be down to that.

Perhaps Aleksis was right – maybe I have finally found my feet on the dance floor.

Being guaranteed a place in the next round doesn’t stop me feeling nervous watching Theo and Dean dance, though.

I’m desperate for Tammy to stay in the competition – we’ve been supporting each other since day one.

To my relief, neither of them beat her 8.

6, but it’s Theo and Daniele who come off worse, bagging just 6. 2 in the audience vote.

‘Ah, that’s too bad,’ Kimberley says at the end of their dance. ‘Come on over and tell us how you feel.’

‘I’m obviously gutted, but there was always a high chance this would be the week that did it for me,’ Theo says.

‘Yes, the Argentine tango is definitely getting a name for itself as the great eliminator,’ Kimberley agrees. ‘Theo, we’re so sorry to see you go, but it’s been fantastic having you on the show. We hope you’ve enjoyed it.’

He plasters a smile on his face. ‘I’ve loved every minute.’

‘And that’s all we’ve got time for tonight,’ Kimberley says, turning back to the audience.

‘Theo and Daniele are out of the competition and now only four couples remain. Can anyone knock Merle and Emilia off the top spot? Aleksis and Kate certainly came close today. And let’s not forget Tammy and Elijah were only half a point behind them.

Can Dean up his game and upset the pecking order next week?

Find out next Saturday, when we’ll be back with more Fire on the Dance Floor ! ’

And that’s another show done.

As Olivia leads us back through the corridors to the reception room, I hear Theo mutter something to Dean about some of us having had an unfair advantage this week.

I’m pretty sure he’s referring to me, but I don’t react.

I don’t doubt I’d feel exactly the same way in his shoes, but I’m not going to allow him to burst my bubble.

Aleksis grabs us a glass of wine each and raises his glass. ‘Well done, you,’ he beams.

‘Was that real?’ I gasp, still in disbelief. I don’t think I’ve blinked once since we came off the stage. I’m referring to the whole evening – to our dance, to the judges’ comments – but Aleksis thinks I’m just talking about our score.

‘The score was definitely real this week.’ He grins. ‘I didn’t want to worry you before we danced, but they told me earlier that last week’s arrangement was a one-off.’

I want to fling my arms round him and squeal. That means we did it, just us, exactly like we wanted. But I’m distracted by a flurry of movement as Beth and Liam come bounding towards us.

‘Surprise!’ Beth says. ‘Hey, Tammy, get over here! You guys were both amazing tonight. We loved your bachata, Kate, and your salsa was so energetic, Tammy.’

‘Thanks,’ Tammy beams. ‘I’m still on a high. I just love it. I don’t want it to ever end.’

‘Yeah, I haven’t come back down to earth yet either.’ I give them both a hug. ‘It’s great to see you guys.’

‘Olivia told us we needed to come back here after the show tonight,’ Beth explains.

‘I think she’s got something to tell us.

It’s kind of weird being back in this room again, though – it brings back all the excitement of being on the show.

And the terror. I’m so glad I can just live that part vicariously through you guys now. ’

Olivia bangs her clipboard and asks for our attention.

‘Hi everyone, if I can just have a few minutes of your time, thank you. Firstly I just want to say well done to everyone tonight – and commiserations to you, Theo. But there’s also good news for you, in that we want you back on the show next week. All of you, in fact – so you too, Beth and Liam.

‘As you know, we’ve been planning to feature all the professionals in a showpiece on next week’s Fire on the Dance Floor .

But we’ve been monitoring the comments about the show on social media, and what the viewers want is to see more of the contestants dancing, too.

So the showpiece will now feature all of you – professionals and contestants – and the dance we’ve selected is the rueda. ’

There’s a collective murmur around the room.

‘For those of you who don’t know what a rueda is,’ Olivia raises her voice to make herself heard, ‘it’s a partner dance that is danced in a circle – a wheel – with a caller calling out instructions for you to follow.

A lot of the steps are similar to what you’ve been learning over the last six weeks, so you’ll have most of the basics, but there will still be a lot to learn and there isn’t much time.

So we’re going to need to ask you all to give up a bit of your personal time to come in for rehearsals, so we can make it look really good by next Saturday.

‘We want to get started on it straight away, so we’re proposing that everyone comes back here tomorrow and we’ll practise right here on set.

It’s bigger than most of your individual studios so it makes sense to do it here.

I know Sunday is usually your day of rest, but we don’t want to eat into your personal rehearsal time too much.

We’re proposing a full day tomorrow, starting at nine a.m., then three evenings next week – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with each of those sessions starting at five p.m.

‘It’s a lot of extra hours, but we think it will add another great element to the show.

And for those of you who are still competing next week, you’ll still have plenty of time to practise your individual dances, so there shouldn’t be too much of an impact on that.

This is going to be really exciting for everyone and for the show, and we think the viewers are going to love it. Any questions?’

‘Did you say nine a.m. tomorrow?’ Tammy checks.

‘That’s right. We want to make this look perfect.’

‘There goes the big night out at the pub,’ Tammy groans quietly.

‘We can still go for one,’ Liam says.

‘You’ll come for a quick one, won’t you?’ Beth asks me. ‘I know we’ve got an early start, but it would be great to have the whole gang there again. You could come too, Aleksis. We can squeeze an extra chair round the table.’

‘Sure, why not,’ he replies, surprising me, because I thought he’d want us to go somewhere where we might get photographed, even if we do have to be up at the crack of dawn.

I know Lucy will be delighted to have the chance to suss him out. I might even be a tiny bit delighted myself, that we’ll get to toast tonight’s success together, and that he’s willing to hang out with my friends.

Inevitably one drink turns into two as we get stuck into discussions about our performances this week and what’s coming in the week ahead.

We watch clips of people dancing the rueda on YouTube to see exactly what it is we’ll be doing, and it does look like it’s going to be a lot of fun.

But with the couples swapping partners after virtually every move, I realise this means I’ll be dancing with Merle again tomorrow, albeit in brief spurts, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

It’s not until I catch myself stifling a yawn that I look at my watch and realise it won’t be long before the landlord’s calling last orders. I show Aleksis the time. ‘We should probably get going soon if we want to be fit for tomorrow.’

‘Yeah, I’m ready to call it a night,’ he agrees. ‘We’ll need extra energy for all the additional rehearsals this week.’

‘I’m trying not to think about it,’ I admit. ‘But I’m still glad we came out. I would have been too hyped up to sleep if I’d tried to go straight to bed. I hope you didn’t get too heavily grilled by Lucy. She can be really nosy.’

He smiles. ‘It was fine, we had a good chat.’

She must have been on her best behaviour for once.

My thoughts drift back to the week ahead. ‘I hope we’ve got an easyish dance for our next individual performance, with all the rueda moves to learn too. Have you looked yet?’

He taps his pocket. ‘I’ve got the envelope in here. Do you want to look now?’

I nod and he slides the card out, making sure no one is watching.

‘The cha-cha,’ I read quietly. ‘Is that good for us, or bad?’

He thinks about it for a moment. ‘It’s challenging, but I think we’re up to the task. We’ll just have to work really hard if we want it to look spectacular.’

‘We’re going to need it to look spectacular if we haven’t got time to be seen out and about this week. We’ll no longer have that advantage.’

‘I’ll come up with something good, don’t worry. And we’ve still got Monday and Friday nights for going out. Plus, if we keep up with the Instagram posts we’ll hopefully stay on everyone’s radar.’

He gives me a quick hug, then seems to remember the rest of the gang might be watching and kisses me full on the lips for the second time this evening. And this time it definitely registers. It makes my heart flutter.

‘I’ll see you bright and early,’ he says with a smile, before heading for the door. I can’t take my eyes off him as walks away.

‘I saw that,’ Lucy teases, snapping me back to attention.

‘Just making it look realistic,’ I tell her, although I’m no longer sure I believe it.

‘It was cool of him to come to the pub with us,’ she says. ‘I didn’t expect him to be so down to earth. I thought all professional dancers might be dickheads like Merle, but he blended in really well.’

‘He’s very easy to be around.’ Easier than I ever could have imagined, in fact.

‘Well, that should help you with getting out of bed for your early start tomorrow,’ Lucy laughs.

I feign a look of horror at the reminder. But I’m not at all horrified to be getting a bonus day with Aleksis. Even if Merle is going to be there, too.