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Micki suffered a complete and total brain freeze.
Josh tugged at her hand and when she stared at him hopelessly, all the steps gone from her head, he slid out into the spotlight and began dancing a solo.
This was a disaster.
She took a deep breath, said a prayer and began tapping her toe. Like a miracle muscle memory surged in and took over and she was off, adapting her own choreo on the fly to make it seem the beginning was intentional. Josh played along, pantomiming scolding her for being late as they came together and danced. He did a credible job with the steps and thankfully didn’t stumble once, although he missed an entire sequence and ad-libbed. They managed to strike their cute end pose together, unfortunately one beat after the music crested and ended.
The applause was polite. The co-hosts took pity on them and said blandly nice things.
The acerbic judge ripped into Josh for skipping the one sequence and upbraided Micki for choreographing a dance where the partners didn’t begin together as the conventions required. “The dance must be respected,” she said in acid tones.
If she only knew, Micki thought. I was lucky to dance at all.
Their scores weren’t the worst but the numbers certainly weren’t tens. The trideo star had scored all tens and received a lot of airtime full of fawning compliments from the co-hosts and the judges. Kumisarc had nearly fallen and the couple had stopped dancing for several beats while he recovered but their scores weren’t as low as Micki might have hoped. She wanted the other billionaire gone from this competition desperately but she expected the showrunner and producer wanted both men to stay in to keep the audience interest high.
All the couples stood in the line and the winner was announced. The trideo star humbly thanked the audience and accepted a huge bouquet of roses the co-host said was sent by one of her biggest co-stars. The show played a quick holo of said costar congratulating her on all her fabulous performances and wishing her the best on winning.
The elimination went surprisingly quickly, without all the usual suspense building. A young woman who’d been featured on several reality shows was the unlucky contestant to float away in the antigrav bubble this time. Micki had no idea what the other celebrity had done badly enough in her performance to lose but cynically she knew the show desperately wanted to keep certain contestants as long as possible. Lucky for her, Josh was one of them.
The show had a mysterious ‘algorithm’ which wasn’t discussed much but which supposedly weighted past performance scores in an obscure fashion and were an extra factor in the final tally.
Show business bullshit was Micki’s silent opinion but it worked in her favor, especially with two wins under their belt and two sets of perfect scores.
Still the show didn’t end. The co-hosts were talking and Micki paid renewed attention, puzzled by this unrehearsed deviation.
“We told you there’d be twists this season,” the woman said with glee.
“Right, Suzi, and this week we’re pulling one out of the hat,” her husband pronounced with devilish enthusiasm. “For the week five dance we’re changing partners!”
The audience gasped, as did the dancers. Micki didn’t have to fake her dismay.
“When I call your name, dancers, please go stand beside your new partner,” the co-host said.
In a state of shock Micki heard her own name called and she was instructed to join Andrus Kumisarc for week five, His partner Elsara was sent to stand beside Josh. Reeling, Micki didn’t resist as Kumisarc grabbed her hand and pulled her close.
This was a disaster.
“Don’t worry, I’m a much better dancer than he is,” Andrus said in her ear.
She kept her smile plastered on and stood motionless until the show mercifully ended a few seconds later. “I’ll give you my best effort, Mr. Kumisarc, same as I’d do for anyone on the show.”
“I expect nothing less,” he said, squeezing her.
Micki got herself loose as Josh came barreling up to them, leaving his new partner standing alone. Micki could tell he was furious at this change and she wanted to get him off the set before he said or did something which would create trouble. Generational billionaires weren’t used to be being thwarted and the fact she’d ended up assigned to his rival added fuel to the fire. She interposed herself between the two men, feeling as if she was standing between two supernovas, scorched by the heat of their immense dislike for each other.
“I’m sure Elsara will design a good dance for you,” she said to Josh. “It’s only one show—the AD promised we’d be back to normal on episode six.”
“If we survive elimination,” he said with barely controlled ire. “If I go, you go and Elsara gets to return next week with Kumisarc. Come on, let’s get out of here. I’ve had enough for one night.” He grabbed her hand and stalked off the set. Backstage he was silent, shedding the pieces of his costume and shrugging into his rehearsal clothes while she did the same in a small space they’d found out of public view. Leaving the costumes in a heap, he escorted her into the corridor and walked quickly to the crew gravlift door, ignoring comments from lingering crew and fans.
Micki triggered the access for them and finally was able to heave a huge sigh of relief once she was in the gravstream with a few uncaring Nebula Zephyr crew members going about their own business.
“If I had had any idea Eddie Bevnar was going to pull a stunt like this,” Josh said, enunciating clearly in his anger, “I’d have had it written into my contract we were exempt.”
“They did it once in season twelve,” she said. “It didn’t go well. For what it’s worth, Elsara is a professional so she’s not likely to sabotage you.”
He looked at her with raised eyebrows. “She isn’t you. We don’t know what Kumisarc may have promised her if she does.”
“I’ll help you in the evenings in your suite,” Micki promised. “Once she begins teaching you the dance, I’ll go over it with you.”
