Coming Home? The Next Step

CHEERING

# Today I travelled to parts unknown

# Left it all behind. #

We are officially back from nationals

and I still can't believe we won.

-CHEERING

-Yes! Yes!

With the momentum that we're gaining right now -

we won regionals, we won nationals - I think TNS is ready to

take on internationals.

Whoo!

# So I'm coming home

# Yeah, I'm coming home

-Guys, guys.

-Whoo!

# I'm coming home. #

Michelle's not here now, because, unfortunately,

her parents are getting a divorce and she is helping her mum

find a place in Madison.

And Emily's still recovering from that knee injury

that took her out of the finals.

# I'm coming home

# Coming home, coming home

# I'm coming home, coming home to you

# I'm coming home. #

Emily just needs to rest up and we're waiting to see

if she can even dance at all.

The recovery is going well, but we'll see.

# I'm coming home.

# Yeah, I'm coming home.

Hit it!

# I'm coming home, coming home, coming home

Whoo!

# Coming home to you. #

'The duet that Riley and I did at nationals,

'I felt made us closer and am hoping that'

we get to do another one this year.

# Ooh, coming home, home.

Hey!

# Coming home to you. #

'We're just kind of celebrating our nationals win.

'We all heard some bad news that'

we're going to be evicted from the dance studio.

I just really hope that this doesn't jeopardise our chances

of going to internationals.

'We started packing up our stuff and I really don't know what this means

'for The Next Step at this point.'

Right now, we don't really have a place to practise.

Well, you don't have a place to dance right now, I do.

Elite And The Next Step

merge for internationals.

# So yesterday I travelled far from home. #

Right now I don't exactly know

where I stand with The Next Step.

'I came here undercover for Elite, trying to bring them down.

'I didn't want them to go to nationals.'

-I'm really sorry, for everything.

-CHEERING

But, when I got there, I realised that it was wrong.

It looks like we have to officially...

..not forfeit.

'Emily hurt herself,

'so I stepped in and helped them win.'

'I totally betrayed Elite. I think that proves'

that they can trust me.

-CHEERING

-Whoo!

# I'm coming home

# Coming home

'I feel like we have a better chance than ever. We just came off'

a huge hot streak at nationals. I think we're going to win.

# I'm coming home

Whoo!

# Yeah, I'm coming home. #

Yeah!

Going to The Next Step was probably the best decision

I ever made in my life.

I can't wait to go to internationals with my team.

-Yeah!

-ALL:

-Oh!

-Hey!

-Whoo!

-Hey!

# Coming home, coming home

# I'm coming home

# Coming home to you

# I'm coming home

# Oh, I...

# Yeah, I'm coming home

# Coming home, coming home

# I'm coming home, coming home to you

# I'm coming home.

# Coming home, coming home.#

# We, we are gonna show the world

# Everything we're made of

# We're gonna tear the roof off this place

MUSIC BUILDS

# Stand up! #

BASS STARTS

MUSIC BUILDS

SONG ENDS

I've been gone a week and Culture Shock has changed?

What's going on? THEY LAUGH

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it went bankrupt

and then Hidalgo's bought it.

-Actually, I think it's

-Hidolgo's.

-I'm pretty sure it's

-Hidolgo's.

-Yep.

-HE MIMICS HER:

-I'm pretty sure it's Hidalgo's.

MICHELLE LAUGHS

'The pronunciation of the coffee shop

-is clearly

-Hidalgo's.

-OK? I don't know what the girls are saying.

How did it go in Madison?

It was...it was all right.

My mum and I looked at 24 different town houses

-and she didn't like one of them.

-Wow.

It's so annoying, my parents are driving me insane.

'Since the win at nationals,'

my parents have actually been going through a divorce.

I can't deal with them any more.

'And my mum really needs me to be there for her right now,'

because she's moving back to Madison.

'I've honestly never been through anything like this before and...'

it's very hard.

Well, at least you'll have two bedrooms now.

And you'll get to celebrate your birthday twice.

And I know when my friend's parents got divorced,

she got a whole two new wardrobes.

-Oh!

-And she got a puppy.

-THEY LAUGH

-Come on, Amanda. We have an Elite meeting.

-No, thanks.

-I'm with The Next Step now.

-What are you talking about?

I'm talking about I'm with The Next Step now.

I hope you realise that there's going to be consequences.

That's fine.

Come on, Tess.

-TESS SIGHS

-Chantelle, let's go.

'If Elite is questioning what team I'm on,'

I'm sure The Next Step is, too.

Do you ever miss your old team?

Miss that?

Erm, no. But it definitely is awkward.

I don't know if I'll ever fully trust her.

If you betrayed us once, why wouldn't you betray us again?

We've seen kind of two sides of Amanda

and we don't really know what to think about her.

It's different now and I'll do anything to prove that to you guys.

I can even spy on Elite, if you want.

Let's not stoop to their level.

-Yeah, you're right. Scheming days are over!

-Yeah!

-Good.

You know what you can do, though?

You can go around and spy on some people here

-and figure out what the proper pronunciation of

-Hidalgo's

-is.

-Whatever makes you happy.

-Or not.

THEY LAUGH

-Yo, check this out. Bam, bam, bam, bam. Oh!

-Seriously?

Yo, I wonder where internationals are going to be held this year.

Hopefully it's Barcelona, because I have been working on my Spanish.

HE SPEAKS SPANISH

I'm pretty sure you just said I look like a potato.

Don't even bother. We're probably not even going to make it

to internationals this year.

'We don't even have a space to rehearse right now.'

-How are we going to come up with a dance that's

-so

-amazing

that it's going to win internationals?

We'll figure it out, we always do.

I'm not so sure.

-James!

-Yo!

-We've got practice, man!

-For what?

-We've got to get ready for upcoming gigs.

-We have a gig?

Not yet. That's why I said upcoming.

'Luke is the lead singer of this new band I'm a part of.

He plays drums, I'm the lead vocalist and I also play guitar.

We've been practising a lot lately

and we're starting to sound pretty good.

-Come on, man! Hey, Riley.

-OK.

-Hi.

Oh, yo, you want to come to Aunt Kathy's later?

-Why?

-Oh, you'll see.

OK. Adios muchachos!

What?

Seriously?

-Hey, man.

-What's up, bro?

# Don't want to make your heart break

# Whoa, oh, oh, whoa, oh, oh

# Whoa, oh, oh, oh-oh!

# Don't want to make your heart break. #

KATE SIGHS

-Kate?

-What?

Would you sit down? You're stressing me out.

'Now, Phoebe and I are in Hidalgo's

'waiting to meet the new owner of the building.'

We are just crossing our fingers

and hoping that the owner will give The Next Step a reprieve

and allow us to stay in the building for at least this year.

-Listen, do you have a plan B?

-No, I don't have a plan B.

'Having a plan B is always important,'

because plan A tends to fall through.

A lot.

-Do you have a plan B?

-Yes, Kate. You know I have a plan B. I always do.

And that is to move to Tennessee and become a horse whisperer.

You can't talk to horses, Phoebe.

You don't talk to them, you whisper. They have very sensitive hearing.

OK, that doesn't really help us,

because we still don't have a studio.

I know, I just hope that whoever this owner is,

he's a kind and gentle soul, because, if we don't have a studio

to rehearse in, we're not going to be ready for internationals.

-Thanks for stating the obvious.

-You're welcome.

-Ladies!

-Oh, great! What are you doing here?

We've already told you, we have zero interest in merging with Elite.

-Don't you want to meet the owner of the building?

-Yes, we do.

We're waiting for him, so you should probably go.

Sorry I was late, I just had to stop

and get the keys to my new studio!

-That's right.

-I

-bought the building.

-Oh, no.

'I'm shocked.'

I can't believe he would do something like that.

Actually, that's a lie. Of course I can.

Phoebe and Kate are always one step behind me

and I'm always five steps ahead of them.

And Kate has no choice but to merge with Elite

and I go to internationals.

What more do you want? I already gave The Next Step a week extension

before I shut the place down. Wasn't that nice of me?

-That was nice of you.

-No, Phoebe, it was not nice!

That was not nice of you.

SHE WHISPERS: It was nice.

This is ridiculous! You're making an impossible situation

even more impossible.

After that? Mm.

DRUM BANGS

'Luke and I have been hitting the music room pretty regularly.'

'There's something really cool about the vibe'

when we play together.

'I love working with James.

I think he's a great drummer. He finds it a little hard to balance

between the band and dance, but he finds his way.

THEY TALK

'We see Luke and James in the music room

and they're jamming, so, of course,

what do we do? Go in and jam with them.

'Watching the guys dance just reminds me

'of how long it's been since we've all just hung out and cut loose.'

CHEERING

'Leading up to nationals,

'we used to hang out all the time. We were bros and...'

now he's spending a lot of time with the band and...

I mean, it's all good, but...

I kind of miss it.

MUSIC QUICKENS

'James has been spending more time with the band,

'but that's his focus now and,

'as his friend, I have to let him go do that.'

I just hope he's ready to balance music and internationals.

SONG ENDS

-Whoo!

-Yes!

-THEY LAUGH

-OK!

-Wah!

# Woah-oh, oh, oh, oh

# Woah-oh, oh, oh, oh

# Woah-oh! #

THEY TALK

-There's no way that Lucien bought this building.

-He went bankrupt

-a couple of years back.

-I heard one of his students bought it for him.

-How did they have that much money?

-THEY TALK

Yo, take in that Lucien actually bought this place.

-Wow! He straight bought it out?

-Just bought it!

No, dude, I heard he bought all the studios in the city.

Dude, not even just the city, the region.

Oh!

All I know is that Lucien bought all the studios in the country

and he's trying to turn them into ice cream shops.

-All right, everyone gather round.

-THEY TALK

'I think it's time that the dancers know the truth.

'They've heard so many rumours and it's my duty'

to set them straight and let them know what's happening.

-Lucien has bought the building.

-What?

-He actually bought it.

-How can he do that?

-He's insisting that we merge with Elite, otherwise

he will shut the studio down and The Next Step

will not be able to compete at internationals.

-Wow.

-Are you kidding?

-THEY TALK

-No! There

-has

-to be another way.

-There is no other way!

We have no time to find another way!

'I'm in shock. I didn't think he would go this far.'

This is our home, he has no right to be here.

No!

'We're in the middle of the dance season, there is zero time'

to figure this out before internationals.

You guys! You guys! Look what just came in the mail.

-It's from The International Board.

-Ooh.

-And I'm so excited to read it.

I'm just...

-SHE CLEARS HER THROAT

-That was rude.

You guys?

Internationals is in Miami!

CHEERING

'I can't believe that internationals are being held in Miami.'

'Now that's a nice spot to have some internationals.'

Sweet! That means I can drop some of my Spanish there.

HE SPEAKS SPANISH: Tu ves patata.

THEY TALK EXCITEDLY

-Guys!

-There's an exchange programme. Someone gets to go to Sweden.

-THEY TALK

-Does that mean that someone

-from another country gets to come to The Next Step?

-Yes!

Guys, I wouldn't get so excited.

At this point, we're not even going to internationals.

'We don't even have a studio to rehearse in.

'I really hope The Next Step finds a way to get to internationals,

'but, as of right now,'

it doesn't look like we're going.

# How could someone be so low?

# How could you be so low? #

'I have no idea why James brought me to Aunt Kathy's.

'I'm a little uncomfortable, because I've never been'

to Aunt Kathy's before and I don't even know if she knows

that I'm here.

OK, Ja...!

SHE GASPS

Now, Riley! Oh-ho!

Oh!

-Well, what a very sweet surprise!

-Oh!

Aren't you just as adorable as ever?

Put that down, James. Come, come. I need your help here.

HE SIGHS

SHE SIGHS

Yes. I've got a mess on my hands.

-Congratulations on the engagement. Let me see that bad boy.

-Ooh!

-You like that?

-So who's the idiot?

-I mean lucky guy.

-Mm-hm.

-When will we get to meet him?

-When will

-you

-get to meet him?

-When will

-I

-get to meet him?

-THEY LAUGH

-Oh, man!

What, you haven't even met him yet?

W-Well, of course I've met him!

-Er, Riley, sit down.

-Y-Yeah. Make yourself comfortable, honey.

-Yeah.

'Aunt Kathy can be summed up in two words - '

"koo" and "ky".

Hey, how's your knee?

It's getting better.

That's great. So, tell me all about nationals.

It was...spectacular. Like nothing you've ever seen.

But wasn't it kind of weird that you weren't able to dance

with your team in the finals?

Er, yeah, it was weird,

but I'm just focusing on dancing at internationals.

Well, I hope you go.

But, if not, just know that you were such a great dance captain.

-I'm not dead yet.

-Oh, come on, look at your knee.

Every dance captain's career has to come to an end at some point.

All right. Thank you.

No problem.

'My career is definitely not over.'

110% of me will be dancing at internationals.

-The seating plan.

-The seating plan.

Your mama and I have worked at this for two solid weeks and I believe...

-we have something good to present to you.

-Let's check it out.

Wait, present? Why do you need to present it to him?

Oh, well...James has a gift, you see.

He has this uncanny ability to know

who should be seated beside him.

'James is gifted at seating arrangements?'

Like that's a thing? Really?

Uncle Maurice, he cannot be to the right of Aunt Betty.

-He has to be on the left. He'll make fun of her glass eye.

-Ah, of course!

'This plan is a mess. It was put together by amateurs.'

-This is going to be a

-long

-day.

We'll put Wilma next to Ingrid, which is perfect,

cos Wilma has been studying Italian. Ingrid speaks fluent Italian. Boom!

They're just going to be speaking it up the whole time.

At my family weddings, we just do it the old-fashioned way.

You sit beside each other and you make small talk.

No-one has to get along.

-OK, now, the rest of number nine.

-HE SIGHS

-Mm.

-Wait, erm, how...how long is this going to take?

Oh, are you in a rush, honey?

Yeah. Well, you know what? She's right. This going to take a while.

You know what would be great?

-Some sandwiches.

-For you, anything.

-Oh!

This is going to be a long day.

DANCE MUSIC PLAYS

No, listen, you talk to your own hand.

VOICE TALKS ON PHONE

I will not speak to your hand like that. I...

How dare you! You own a yoga studio. You should...

PHONE GOES DEAD

Right. She hung up on me.

'Right now, Kate, Phoebe and I are trying to figure out'

where we're going to rehearse

and what to do about this eviction.

That was the last yoga studio in this city.

'I've been on the phone all afternoon,

'calling these yoga studios.'

It may not be a dance studio, it doesn't have the mirrors,

but it's a great open space that we could rehearse in.

They don't want to rent to us.

She said, "I don't want The Next Step in here.

"I don't want your bad vibes in here."

And I said, "Listen, lady. I will cleanse the space.

"I will cleanse the aura of the space."

And she was like, "You are not a good energy healer.

-"You don't know how to cleanse..."

-Phoebe? Phoebe?

-We were here. We heard it all.

-Yeah, but you did not hear the other side.

Look, it doesn't matter, because every single dance studio

I have called will not rent to us either.

It's like Lucien got to them first and warned them not to help us.

'At this point, I don't think there's anything else we can do.'

We've run out of options.

-PHOEBE SIGHS

-I hate to say it, guys.

I don't even want to say his name.

But I think Lucien has won.

We only have one option.

We have to merge.

'I feel like merging would just be the worst idea.'

I just don't think it would ever work out.

'It's unbelievable. We're going to have to meet with Lucien'

and listen to his terms.

Right now, I'm at the ballet bar.

I just find it a really safe place for me to just

put pressure on my knee and try to strengthen it

and work through the injury.

SHE SIGHS

'When I see Emily in the studio, erm...

'it's kind of awkward, cos we kind of...'

kissed at nationals.

Er, I just kind of don't really know where we stand.

-Hey.

-Hey.

-How's the knee?

-Erm...

Honestly, a little stiff right now.

-But it's getting better.

-Cool.

'After my injury, there's been a lot going on'

and my mind just isn't on him right now.

Will it be good for internationals?

I think so.

I mean, I've been going to physio twice a week and my doctor says

I'm making good progress, so I really don't see why not.

-So you can stay?

-Yeah.

Er, why don't I, er...

-keep you company?

-Sure.

'I realise now, that with all the drama that's happening with her

'and with the troop,'

I know that there's really no hope for this relationship.

But I still really want to be friends,

so I'm not really sure what to say to him.

All I know is that Emily needs a friend

and I'm going to be the best friend that I can be for her.

We're going to need to work on that turned-out toe.

Really? OK.

'I think we both understand what's going on.'

We're friends and that's it.

My goodness, I got it. Ricky...

..moves to table one.

-Next to Manny.

-SHE GASPS

-Hallelujah!

-Yes, that's it!

-Done!

-You have done it, sir!

-Done!

-All right! Now...

-for the groom's side. Yeah!

-Groom's side, let's do it.

RILEY MUMBLES

RILEY SNORES

The last thing I remember before I fell asleep

was that Ricky is sitting next to the sea captain.

It was brilliant.

..cos of nationals.

THEY CHATTER

-So keep me posted?

-Yes, I will.

-THEY FALL SILENT

-What's going on?

LUCIEN APPROACHES

Erm, you should probably go.

Kate, it's been a week since I gave you that extension.

What's your decision?

-We should go speak in my office.

-Fine.

-Phoebe?

-Let's go.

What's going on?

'When Lucien is involved, it's never, ever a good thing.'

So why is he here?

'It boils my blood.

'He makes all of us angry,'

just because we know what kind of person he is.

I have no idea what's going on in Miss Kate's office,

but all of us are freaking out.

It can't be good news for us.

Are you ready to make a deal?

Time's up.

'I can see the aggression in his face'

and it's not OK.

We've lost and Lucien has won.

There's no way around it.

The Next Step will have to merge with Elite.

# We, we are gonna show the world

# Everything we're made of

# We're gonna tear the roof off this place

# You, you can never fade us out

# Don't even ask the DJ

# Everybody knows we own this land. #