The Competition

by Maddie Ziegler

  “New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey,” said a voice I easily recognized. Oh, cool! It was Eliza’s.

  “Let me guess, is that the local section over there?” Jackie asked.

  “Yes.” Eliza laughed and joined us.

  Miguel pointed at me. “You should be sitting over there with them!”

  Lily and the girls gave me another weird stare. What’s up with them?

  “Let’s get some of your girls from Florida to engage in a friendly competition,” Jackie adds fuel to the fire. “Local girls versus out-of-towners!” Despite the weirdness, I was super proud that in this room of about one hundred dancers, my past and present friends were up here together. It felt amazing.

  Miguel chose Megan and Trina and started the music. This should be interesting.

  After a few minutes, Eliza and I were cheering our victory. The crowd had chosen us as the champs! And we’d scored apple key chains as parting gifts. Not bad for one class. Also, maybe a good souvenir gift for Hailey for her backpack. At the end, everyone gave our instructors a huge round of applause to show our appreciation.

  “That was so fun!” said Eliza after I hugged her good-bye.

  Isabella came from nowhere to stop and stare at me and Eliza. This class was so huge, she’d been here the entire time and we hadn’t noticed. No sooner had Eliza walked away than Isabella intercepted me halfway to the Squad. “Aww, you two—super sweet,” Isabella cooed and pursed her lips into a pout. “Harper, congrats on your acceptance into a Connecticut studio! The DanceStarz didn’t deserve you.”

  I stared blankly at Isabella, though I had her all figured out.

  “You know I’m still with DanceStarz,” I said finally.

  “Oh, really? It didn’t seem like it,” she said and continued down her own path.

  When I chatted with the Squad, their mood was less jubilant. Apparently, they’d overheard my whole exchange with Isabella.

  “Um, wasn’t that amazing?” I asked the Squad. “Didn’t you just love it?”

  “It was the best,” said Riley, cheerily. “Up until the part when you jumped ship and joined the competition.”

  “Hey, that was only for fun!” I chuckled, even though I wasn’t entirely sure she was joking or not. I looked at everyone’s faces for clues. They all looked happy, but also like they kind of thought what Riley had said was true. Why wouldn’t they lighten up? Did they want me to change who I was? I was proud to be close to home, with my old friends. I knew that I could have friends in both worlds—but did they?

  CHAPTER 12

  The walk back to our hotel was way more low-key than it had been when we were heading out to the surprise hip-hop class. We walked back across Times Square with way less enthusiasm than when we first saw it as a group. The flashing lights and all the flair might as well be dulled out by a dense gray fog. Even Riley kept her camera phone in her pocket most of the way—apart from the time she thought she saw Trey Thompson. (Spoiler: It wasn’t him.)

  “Well, that was kind of… funny,” said Megan’s mom to no one in particular. “Seeing Harper competing against her Squad members like that.”

  Megan pursed up her lips and puffed out a sigh.

  “Nothing like a little fun competition to shake things up before our big day tomorrow,” said Vanessa cheerfully. “Besides, it didn’t mean anything. They were learning something new and having fun.”

  You would never catch Vanessa saying anything negative about competition and today was no different. She was the type of person who relished any opportunity to perform or watch a performance, in whatever form they came in.

  Megan’s mom wasn’t going to let this go. “The day before nationals, I’d prefer more team bonding than in-team rivalry, but I guess that’s just my preference. After all, team bonding is half the battle.”

  I knew this was just a dig at my hip-hop fun, and it wasn’t fair. Here was the same woman whose daughter had thought nothing of acting like a rival to her teammates at regionals.

  “Mom,” said Megan, apparently issuing her mother a hint to cool it.

  Wow. I hadn’t seen that coming.

  Even though I hadn’t done it out loud, I instantly felt bad about dragging Megan like that. I had to admit, she’d been supportive and cool since regionals, and that went a long way.

  I knew the Connecticut name drop was a fail, but I had been so swept up in the moment. It was like I’d forgotten that the portion of my life involving moving out of Connecticut and starting up a new school and a new dance studio had even happened. The same thing happened when I got sucked into the world of a good book or a cool movie. I’d get a little lost in it, and when I’d come out, it’d take half a second for the details of my real life to come rushing back in.

  I was in New York, trying to help my new squad to victory, but that didn’t mean I should feel bad hanging with my old friend.

  And sorry, but today was super fun!

  Megan and her mom—and whoever else had a problem with it—would just have to accept that.

  * * *

  That night in our hotel room, Lily and I started prepping for the next day. I definitely didn’t want to forget anything! Lily started gathering up her things as I brushed my hair out postshower. Our favorite baking show was on in the background too.

  “It’s kind of ironic,” said Lily as she packed her competition bag on her bed. “Today’s dance-off between locals and out-of-towners kind of had a double meaning.”

  “Oh, really? How?” I asked.

  I stopped brushing my hair, turned down the volume on the hotel TV a bit, and plopped down on my bed.

  “Well, you could read that as your old life in Connecticut competing with your new one in Florida.”

  “Okay.” I thought about it. “When you describe it that way, I guess I can see what you mean.”

  In the silence that followed, I picked up my brush and started plucking the hair strands from it.

  “I guess if I’m honest, a part of me is being tugged in a different direction. It’s been hard, since I want to hang with Eliza but do fun things with you guys too.”

  “I can see that,” said Lily, refolding her hand towel to better fit in her bag. “Like when Eliza’s around, I feel like you would rather hang with her than us.”

  Ouch.

  “I don’t do that,” I said. Do I?

  “Well, you may not think so, but that’s how it looks from here.”

  I let out a slow sigh as what Lily had said sank in. I realized this was coming from my best friend on the Squad, and not from Megan, who did things just to rile people up. Or even from Riley, who could be a little extra. Lily had never told me anything to rile me up or cause drama. She did things that brought us closer. For once since we’d first met, it felt like she and I had slipped a little further apart these past few days.

  It had happened right under my nose, and I hadn’t even noticed until now. It was an issue that needed and, of course, deserved my attention. But right now was not the time. My brain was on overload. I was exhausted. We only had room to focus on one thing right now, and that was tomorrow’s group competition.

  “Lily,” I said. “Can we talk about this later?”

  “Sure.” She sighed. “Later.”

  CHAPTER 13

  We got this! Go big or go home!” Megan barked, her voice bouncing off the rows of closed hotel room doors.

  She was not wrong.

  Today was day one of the competition. If we didn’t make it past this first round of group performances, that would be the end of the line for the Squad’s chances at nationals.

  But we were hours away from our performance. We were on our way to breakfast.

  “Whoa, Megan,” said Lily. “That’s a lot of pep talk for someone just hoping to get their key card working again.”

  “In Riley’s defense, those key cards are super touchy sometimes,” said Trina. “The struggle is real.”

  Riley ignored us and kept trying to get the light on the door’s s
afety lock to stop flashing red. She’d waved her key card this way and that. It was tough to watch.

  “You seem to have everything you need,” I gently told her. “You sure you have to go back in right now?”

  Riley didn’t turn around, which made her voice sound even more panicky. “But I need it! It’s my lucky ring!”

  “I thought you said you got it from a gumball machine,” said Megan, totally unsympathetic. We could almost hear a record scratch when Megan’s words flew out of her mouth.

  Poor Riley. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this freak-out moment was not just about a lucky ring. This was about the competition today. I was used to competing. We all were. But for me, competition days usually played out the same way. I got quiet and focused, I usually worked off my nerves by feeding my team with extra encouragement, hoping some of that pep talk would also indirectly boost my own confidence. Lily zoned out to her music. And after competing with the Squad, I’d come to recognize how they take on preperformance jitters.

  Right then, just as I thought we’d be there forever, we finally heard a soft click, and Riley opened her door. She was out of her room before you know it, and sporting a tiny heart ring around her right pinkie.

  At last, we could meet Vanessa and the moms down the hall at the elevators. There was a cushioned bench right by the elevators they enjoyed sitting on to chat and strategize as they waited on us to be ready. To our surprise, they were still standing when we got there.

  I guessed we weren’t the only ones managing our worries about today.

  “Eat something,” Riley’s mom told us a few minutes later as we wordlessly pushed food around our plates but did not eat much.

  Riley sat back in her seat, one hand laying a fork down flat and spinning it against the table. “I’ll be fine. I’m just not that hungry.”

  “Well, you girls have to eat something if you want to perform with any oomph,” said Megan’s mom.

  This was getting hopeless. All of our positive vibes were draining from us, and I couldn’t let that happen. I leaned forward in my seat and made eye contact with each girl.

  “The best fuel we could use right now is our Squad cheer. Who’s with me?” I ask, a little louder and punchier than expected. I guess it’s true that we have to fake it till we make it.

  “Let’s do it,” said Trina. She nudged Riley next to her.

  “Fine, it couldn’t hurt,” said Megan, whose response surprised everyone.

  “Lily?” I said in a small voice, nervous that my good friend was still being kind of weird. After she’d brought up how she felt I was trying to pick Eliza over the Squad, we had left things at that and gone to bed. We wanted to get ready early and gather everything we couldn’t pack the night before, so there wasn’t more discussion this morning, either. Okay, maybe we had time but we didn’t want to face it.

  At least I didn’t. But now I had some regrets about that decision.

  Lily looked down at her plate, picking at her food, ignoring me, and all of our stares.

  “She’s ignoring us,” Megan said. “Who made Lily so mad she’s not speaking to us? I’ve never seen her like this before.”

  Huh? This is bad. Super bad.

  “Lily?” Trina reached across the table and touched Lily’s hand.

  “Wha—?” Startled, Lily almost jumped out of her chair. She reached under her curtain of long hair and pulled out her earbuds.

  “Did you say something?”

  We all cracked up. It was like unleashing a flood of relief, jitters, resentment, and annoyance all at once. The more we laughed in a chorus of wacky, loud, and quiet snickering, the more contagious the laughter became. Riley was cracking up so hard, she was tapping on the table and gasping for air.

  “What happened to those pink headphones you’re always wearing?” I asked her.

  “I didn’t have room in my bag, so I switched things up,” said Lily, still confused by what all the fuss was but laughing anyway.

  “Well, guess there’s no need for that team cheer anymore,” said Riley. “I think I got the emergency mood transplant I needed.”

  With that, she picked up her fork and dug into her eggs and fruit salad. And a bagel with cream cheese and her first-ever lox.

  “Yum,” she said, grinning.

  * * *

  There were throngs of people making their way to the performance ballroom. I thought it had been as crowded the last time, but day-before-showtime crowded is another thing entirely than hour-before-showtime.

  We all stuck close together. When we finally got off the elevator, we tried to beat the crowd for the sign-in desk. Vanessa said something to Lily, who turned to me to repeat it.

  “Psst… She’s about to pass out the credentials,” said Lily.

  “Somebody passed out? Who passed out?” Riley’s mom had already reached into her large handbag and pulled out her first aid kit.

  “No one,” I reassured her. “Everyone is fine. Vanessa is just about to give us our performer IDs we need to flash as we come in and out of the dressing rooms.”

  As soon as we wear the passes around our necks, we’re allowed to veer away from the slow-moving crowd of vendors, yet-to-be registered performers, their families, and early bird audience members and gain access to the equivalent of a backstage pass.

  “Whew, there’s room to breathe back here,” said Riley when we stepped into the spacious room—or “chill zone,” as Trina started calling it—we were to share with other performers. Several dance groups were already here, doing warm-up stretches or just lounging around. One section was partitioned and repurposed as private changing rooms. The carpeted floors gave it a cozy but elegant vibe, and people felt comfortable enough to sit on the floor. We could hear the music from the grand ballroom from here, but it was muffled down to a distant hum.

  Lily gasped. “There’s one last free corner!” We couldn’t believe our luck. As fast as our legs could carry us—the speed walk was something we learned to do since arriving here—we claimed that corner by dropping all our bags.

  With help from the moms, we began doing our makeup and hair. Whichever one of us was free would head to the neighboring room to run through a super-low-impact version of the dance. Vanessa’s last-minute feedback went a long way in preparing us and encouraging us to dig deeper.

  On my way back to rejoin the Squad, my name rang out as soon as I stepped foot into the chill zone.

  “Harper!”

  I turned to the source of my shout-out and instantly cracked a smile when I saw who it was.

  “Eliza!”

  Wow, who would imagine the both of us—Eliza and Harper—together on the big stage? We even got a chance to dance together at the hip-hop class yesterday. But today was a day we’d both talked endlessly about: the chance to compete at an event as huge and respected as nationals. Here we were. rival dance troupes but still teamed up in a lot of ways. I was rooting for her, and I was sure she was rooting for me.

  We gave each other a double fist bump and then a high five in greeting, already in game day mode. Much like a basketball player at the free-throw line, Eliza had a focused look in her eyes. Her hands were at her hips, and her stance was wide and stabling. Her track suit jacket was half zipped, so her navy-blue, sparkly performance bodysuit stayed visible. She looked like a temporarily benched player, ready to jump in at the first whistle.

  “Ready to start off strong?” she asked.

  “Always.” I looked her square in the eyes. “We all are. You?”

  She nodded sharply. “All day.”

  “I know it. You were born for this.”

  “You were too, girlie.” Eliza gave me another high five. “Let’s show them what we’re all about.”

  “Good luck to you and Dance City!”

  “Good luck to you and DanceStarz!”

  Members of Eliza’s squad had been too busy sprucing up or warming up to notice or care about our chat. But when I turned around and headed back to my camp, it was an
entirely different story. Busted, my Squad sprang into action, doing stretches, texting like normal, as if they hadn’t been doing anything else but staring and trying to lip-read my short conversation with Eliza.

  “So,” said Megan a snarky tone. “Did she talk to you about the routines she’ll do?”

  “What? No, of course not. I would never ask her that.” I frowned at her.

  “Oh,” she continued, pretending to be confused by my defensiveness. “Well, did you tell her anything about what we’ll be doing?”

  Okay, now I was really annoyed.

  “Who would even do that? You and I must not have met before.” I rolled my eyes, offended.

  Looking around, I didn’t see Lily, or Trina, or even Riley making a move to intervene. “You guys don’t think I would do that, do you?”

  “Of course not,” Lily said. “But…”

  But? But what?

  Megan’s voice rose inches higher than your average speaking decibel. “Well, maybe we just know the Florida Harper and not the Connecticut one all that well.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, both mad and upset.

  “It means you’re different here,” Lily said, her eyes looking down.

  “I’m the same me I always was!” I protested. “I mean, I’m the old me, which is still the new me! I mean—”

  Our squabble drew the attention of a few performers in the closest spot next to us. Thankfully, the performances had begun, and aside from the music, the din of the crowd and the announcer’s voice filled the air with buffering sound.

  Megan’s mom set down her sparkle eyeshadow case, paused from doing Trina’s makeup, and walked over. “Okay, girls, there’s no need bickering about this now. Harper is allowed to say hello to a friend—even if it’s a rival performer right before you’re about to dance at highest level this Squad has ever competed on.”

  Thanks, I think?