Jorge paced back and forth, toying with her necklace and fidgeting with her clothes. Her costume was too tight and her wig was itchy. She was a ball of nerves. She thought it would be fun, ya know? Going out as one of her disguises and doing something like this. She could use it to help her organization. It would certainly pad her persona if there was a ribbon under her belt. She looked down at her glittery poofy dress that a saleswoman had somehow convinced her to buy. Layla was eyeing the dress with a similar look of discontent, but was more annoyed at the glittering collar wrapped around her neck. The bell dangling from it made a pretty tinkling sound when the Vaporeon moved. Jorge thought it was cute, but Layla wasn't a fan of it yet. Layla did seem to like the bells that hung from her tail though. Jorge caught her playing with them when she came back from getting ready.
The Team Aqua trainee took a deep breath and puffed her red wig's bangs out of her eyes. She could totally do this. They had rehearsed by the lake countless times and Layla knew what she was doing. Layla was so much better at this than Jorge was. And it wasn't like they could sneak out of the contest hall... Jorge had tried that already and it had not worked out. An employee had laughed at her nervousness and ushered her back into the contest hall despite Jorge's stuttering protests.
A voice came over the intercom calling for them, and Jorge held her breath, staring down into the deadpan stare of her Vaporeon, who really just wanted to get this over with.
"We can totally do this! ... right? Right yah we can do this!" exclaimed Jorge, the queen of motivational speeches. "Okay, go kick some butt, Layla!"
Together they walked into the spotlight. Jorge set down a large glass bowl filled with water and moved off to the side, while Layla sat perfectly still behind the bowl. All was quiet, until Jorge ripped a bell from her side and tossed it up into the air over Layla. The lilting tune of a violin started up as water from the bowl shot upwards to meet the bell, cradling it. Layla gracefully jumped around the stream of water to the tune of the music, the bells hanging off of her tinkling sweetly along with the notes of the violin. As she moved, the stream of water holding the bell spun, catching the light as droplets flew into the air. The music picked up and so did Layla's speed in both her movements and how she was manipulating the water. The size of the stream grew and danced along with her, the bell rolling and bouncing in the water's embrace. The final, crescendo of the violin blared through the speakers and Layla's eyes glowed as the water spun violently along with the screeching of the violin. Layla took a running leap and jumped into the cyclone, earning gasps from the crowd as she completely disappeared and melted into the water she was manipulating. The volume of the music reached it's highest point and the water stream suddenly froze completely, becoming a pillar of ice that stuck to the stage. Layla appeared on top of it, balancing the bell on her nose as the music faded away to silence.
Jorge was bouncing on the balls of her feet. To her, that was the best the dance had ever gone, but she wasn't sure how the audience would react. What if they hated it? What if - Her nervous musings were cut off when the audience roared with applause. Her mouth dropped open. Did they.. did they do good? The pillar of ice melted back into the bowl and Layla stepped around the bowl to take a bow. Jorge could barely keep the giant grin off of her face as she joined her Vaporeon and took a bow of her own. They did it!
