btw the time stamp for the part of the music video that you need to see for the plot is around 2:20. it should be linked above :))

*flashbacks*

𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐠𝐨

stella was practicing a dance that she had seen in one of her favorite music videos. she insisted that she had to know how to do it.

since conrad was her best friend, he had told her that he'd learn it with her since it required two people. unfortunately for stella, conrad hadn't thought ahead. he had football practice, meaning he couldn't stay home and help her learn that dance.

"i forgot!" conrad threw his hands up in the air lazily. "just ask jere to help you or something."

jeremiah looked up cluelessly from the game of chess that he had been watching between andy and steven. "huh?"

"see? he's so excited," conrad said sarcastically. he readjusted his football bag on his shoulder and shrugged. "can't wait to see it when i get back."

"dude," stella groaned, crossing her arms and turning away from her best friend who was already out the door. her eyes shot to the table of three boys. "alright, who's learnin' it with me?"

"not me," andy replied quickly. "you suck at dancing."

stella rolled her eyes. "shut up, andy."

"i'm about to beat andy's ass in chess," steven said, keeping his eyes trained on the board. he glanced up at the girl. "again."

"you're just getting lucky," andy insisted. "i'm so much better-"

"you're both bad. andy's just a little worse," jeremiah let out a suppressed giggle.

steven smiled cockily while andy turned his nose up, saying, "dude, shut up. how 'bout you go learn that stupid dance since you're just sitting on your ass talking trash?"

"my pleasure," jeremiah replied spitefully before sending him a teasing look.

stella grabbed the remote and rewinded the music video. the dance that they were trying to learn was from the music video for "treat people with kindness" by harry styles.

she had insisted that she wanted to do harry styles's part in the music video, so that left jeremiah to do the other part.

she pressed play where the dance started. instead of rewatching the dance for the hundreth time, she found herself watching the boy next to her. his eyebrows were furrowed slightly while he studied the video.

his eyes would widen at the parts of the dance that looked difficult and the corners of his mouth would start to turn up if he saw a part that he thought he could do easily. once the video was over, stella turned to jeremiah.

"can you do it?" she asked hopefully.

his eyes widened, making him look alarmed. "wait, like, right now?"

she let out a laugh. "no, stupid. after we learn it."

he sighed a sigh of relief and relaxed his shoulders. stella rewinded the video once again to where the dance would start. and for the next two hours, they paused and played the video over and over again until they finally knew the dance. kind of.

they finished up their last practice run before conrad would get home from football practice.

"that was it! that was it!" stella cheered in the middle of their mini routine.

jeremiah smiled at her excitement before picking her up for the next part of the dance. when it was over, stella was laying back in his arms.

they heard the door slam shut. stella knew it was conrad. "connie! you have to come see this!"

"you finally got it down?" he greeted her, putting his bags down near the door.

"yes and you have to come watch right now," she said excitedly, pulling her best friend into the living room and sitting him down on the couch.

long story short, they nailed the dance.

*flashback ends*

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

stella had actually put on a dress for once and it was those dance classes that she had to take for the debutante ball. her and isabel weren't exactly informed that you needed to bring your escort to practice the dance moves.

nicole had kindly volunteered to help isabel but that still left stella by herelf. she quickly pulled out her phone and texted her best friend.

conrad

get your ass over here
i didn't know i needed to bring
an escort today
read 11:33am
pls

tf- of course you need an escort
i just woke up
i'll get there asap
read 11:34am

stella tucked her phone back into her pocket and looked around the room awkwardly. everyone was paired up and busy practicing some simple dance moves.

"hey, stella!" a voice caught her attention.

she turned around and found steven and his date, shayla, walking towards her. "oh, hey."

"i didn't see you much at the fourth of july party," she said, still holding onto steven's arm. "i don't think we crossed paths much."

"oh, yeah, sorry 'bout that," stella chuckled softly. "i was with connie and j. making... whatever-"

they were cut off by the woman that was running the debutante ball. she got everyone's attention and introduced the waltz instructor, ms. covington.

"please join your partners now," the older woman, ms. covington, said. "come on."

"hey," nicole said to stella. "you wanna just form a group of three for now?"

"yeah, i guess so," stella replied. she stood next to nicole and isabel who were already practicing one of the dance moves.

stella slouched after a minute. she was already kind of bored of this dancing thing.

i really wanna sit on the floor, she thought but knew that she wouldn't be allowed to here.

her attention was caught again when she heard her best friend's name.

"conrad actually, um, he- he left me on-on read last night," nicole told the other two girls. "and i was wondering if you've seen him at all today."

"um..." isabel started to reply but hesitated.

stella thought about last night. how she had found isabel standing out by the water with conrad. stella also wasn't a snitch though, so she wasn't going to say anyhting unless isabel did.

"no, he- he was still asleep when i left," isabel finally replied.

nicole looked to stella next. "i mean, he's your best friend. has he told you anything?"

stella didn't really know what to say. conrad hadn't really told her about any girl problems this summer. "no, sorry. nothing."

nicole nodded disappointedly. "oh... okay."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

𝐣𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐚𝐡

jeremiah was supposed to go with stella to the country club this morning, but he had decided against it for two reasons. reason number one was because he hadn't gotten ready fast enough because he was thinking about his overnight realization. the realization being that he liked stella... as more than friends.

which leads us to the other reason. reason number two was because he didn't know how to act around her now. he didn't know how to stop his face from turning red if she accidentally brushed by him. he didn't know how to stop himself from staring at her when she would laugh or talk.

but his feelings for stella were providing him with some sort of adrenaline.

he walked down the stairs and into the kitchen with a little hop in his step. he was looking abnormally joyful this morning. he found the coffee maker with one more cup's worth in it. he poured that into a mug.

moments later, conrad also entered the kitchen. he saw that jeremiah had poured the last of the coffee into that mug. "dude, seriously?"

jeremiah glanced down at the mug before sliding it across the counter to his brother. "you can have it."

"thanks." conrad took the cup hesitantly. "what's with the good mood?"

jeremiah's smile immediately faltered. it's a little obvious, jere, he thought. tone it down.

he cleared his throat before replying nonchalantly, "nothing much. i guess i just woke up on the right side of the bed."

"okay, well, don't you have a pool to vacuum?" conrad said carelessly.

jeremiah pouted his bottom lip slightly and checked the time on his phone. once he realized how late it already was, he started to grab his things frantically. "shit. i'm already late."

"if you wait a minute, i'll take you. i'm heading over there," conrad mentioned, watching his brother down the milk from his cereal.

jeremiah shook his head and put his finished bowl in the sink. "there's no time."

conrad had a cringed look on his face from his brother drinking the milk from the bowl. "seriously, you gotta stop with the milk thing. it's disgusting."

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚

"now that we have the steps, let's pick up the pace," the dance teacher instructed.

stella's eyes widened. "dude, i don't even have the steps!"

"hey, you'll get it," nicole said supportively.

isabel let out a small laugh. "the only time i've ever seen stella dance well was when her and jere were doing that routine in that harry styles music video."

stella smiled proudly at the thought. she let a smirk take over her face. "yeah and it was great," she said playfully.

while they continued practicing, isabel stepped on nicole's foot."oh, i'm so sorry!"

"no, it's okay," nicole insisted.

stella was this close to sitting on the floor. she watched isabel apologize repeatedly. "okay. are you sure you're okay?" the girl said.

stella chuckled softly and shook her head. she hadn't gotten any dance practice done since she had gotten there. "i'm totally not going to be prepared for the ball."

she started to wonder what was taking conrad so long to get here. she hadn't expected him to teleport here, but still.

as if on cue, another person appeared next to the trio, but it wasn't conrad. it was jeremiah. "hey, ladies. mind if i have this dance?" he held out his hand to stella.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

author's note

so yeah, i definitely took wayyyyy too long to write this chapter. if it was boring, pls let me know. also, sorry if there was nothing cool going on in this chapter. it was kind of a filler chapter... if that's what i can call it. :)

pls vote, comment, etc. if you want :)) THANK YOUU

if you guys have any ideas, pls comment them down below!! :)

[ unedited ]