“Now you two should remind yourself that you’ll be sharing a stage soon, so you better start acting like the teammates I know you are.”
At least she didn’t force us to apologize to one another, as if we were toddlers. I retreated to the farthest corner from everyone and threw on my earbuds. My plan was to zone everyone and everything out—Megan’s wrath, Lily’s disappointment, Trina’s sympathy, Riley’s judgment, Eliza’s expectations. For the next half hour, it was just me and the music on my favorite playlist.
Someone tapped my foot, and my eyes flew open.
“Harper,” said Riley’s mom. “They’ve given the fifteen-minute warning. Let’s head to the stage.”
The girls were already out of their track suits and rocking their shiny silver-with-crochet-trim bodysuits. I stepped out of my track suit fast and walked with the group to the real backstage.
It was showtime.
* * *
It was just us and Vanessa backstage. Finally. The moms had gone to their designated seats in the audience to watch and film our performance.
The roar of the crowd sounded arena-size. We listened offstage, absorbing all the pumped-up energy that came with it.
This was nationals.
We were here. This was what I needed to focus on.
After speaking to the woman with the clipboard, Vanessa turned to us. We huddled around her and hung on to her every word.
“Okay, girls, this is the moment you’ve been training so hard for. You belong here. And for the next five minutes, that stage out there is all yours. So just have fun and let your talent and love for dance shine, inside and out.”
At the end of her talk, I noticed for the first time that we were all holding hands. Trina was on my right, Riley was to my left, and directly across was Megan. She and I caught each other’s eyes and held them for a moment, connecting in a more peaceful way than the scene ten minutes ago.
Had Vanessa witnessed that, she would have been livid. I thought of her special request that we conduct ourselves as professionals. I hoped to make that up with a flawless routine now.
“DanceStarz on three!” I called out with my hand in the center of the huddle, palm faced down.
Lily was the first to stack her hand on top of mine. We looked at each other and smiled. Megan was next, followed by Riley, Trina, and Vanessa.
“DanceStarz!” we all shouted.
The group onstage ended their routine in a pyramid pose—which was tricky to hold for as long as they were currently doing. They waited for the applause to pick up before coming out of the pose to wave at the crowd. They exited to the opposite end of the stage.
The MC jumped into action, excited. His words reverberated throughout the ballroom. “Let them hear how much you enjoyed that!”
Riley made a strange sound that was a mix of a gasp and one of her cat’s furballs getting stuck in her throat.
Vanessa went into EMT mode. “You need water? Are you okay?”
I patted Riley’s back. The rest of the girls looked at each other in panic. Oh, no. This was not a good time for an emergency. But Riley nodded and shooed us back to give her some room.
“The MC,” she said between breaths, her hand on her chest. “I recognize his voice. It’s… it’s Trey Thompson!”
I shook my head. “Seriously, Riley?”
“It is?” Trina asked, intrigued. She tiptoed near the stage curtain to steal a peek at him. Then she looked back at us and nodded. Whoa!
“I WAS RIGHT!” Riley said, beaming. “My Trey-dar was going off!”
“Riley, you scared us half to death,” Vanessa quietly scolded her. “Now, I don’t know who this Trey Thompson is, but I’m sure he’s not worth your distraction right now.”
“TREY THOMPSON is worth everything!” Riley shouted. Then she caught herself. “Yes, Vanessa.”
As we waited for the MC—that is, the one and only Trey—to announce us, I subconsciously started jumping in place, Jackie and Miguel style. It was surprisingly a good way to stay pumped yet focused, and work off the false alarm about Riley. Riley joined in, because she no doubt needed to do the same. Trina, Lily, and Megan also joined in, and then pretty soon we all were doing the Jackie and Miguel. Vanessa included!
“All the way from Florida, please welcome, from DanceStarz Academy, central Florida regional champs… the Squad!”
WOO HOO!!! THAT’S US!!!!
“Watch your feet,” Trina whispered.
“Be high energy,” Riley said.
We all gathered around in a tight circle to do the ritual we’d made up as a squad.
“Dance!” Trina led the cheer.
Lily, Megan, Trina, Riley, and I all did a little dance move.
“Starz!” Trina continued.
We fluttered out fingers like sparkling stars. Then we leaned into a huddle and said:
“Squad!”
I guess we were riding on the coattails of the group we followed, because the applause was still going and more energized than I’d expected. But it only served to pump us up even more!
In a straight line, we strutted out, spotlighting with our profiles to the huge audience. We proceeded, each with one arm extended and held straight in the air above our heads, keeping our index fingers pointed to the sky. Our other hands rested steadily on our hips, our elbows pointed outward. Step left, step right, step left, step right.
The illuminated stage backdrop came into full view. It was a beast—larger than life. It was possibly three stories high or more. The image spread across the massive stage was a sophisticated illustration of New York’s world famous buildings. Above that was the official event logo, followed by—in fancy lettering—
WELCOME TO THE 44TH ANNUAL NATIONALS!
Awesome! Vanessa couldn’t have dreamed this up better herself. The backdrop was perfect for our dance, and we hadn’t even planned on it! So lucky!
Because our new dance theme was: NEW YORK, NEW YORK!
When we reached center stage, one arm still in the air and the other still on our hips, we pivoted in sync and faced forward. I caught a glimpse of the size of the crowd. Whoa! I didn’t know if I had ever been in front of such a huge audience! EEP! Thankfully, I immediately recovered from my surprise and flashed a broad smile. There were stage lights in our eyes, but the sea of people seemed to go beyond the horizon line.
The crowd cheered out of sheer curiosity. That’s when we lifted our other arms into the air too, and began to join all our sky-high hands to form differently shaped peaks. In each peak, the taller person kept their finger pointing up. When it registered with the audience that we in our shimmering slate-silver bodysuits and tall arm peaks were New York’s skyscrapers, they roared with applause. We held the pose until the bass dropped and started thumping.
The music mix was filled with city sound effects that weren’t overpowering but were just so catchy when woven together the way they were. Horns blaring, people shouting, trains screeching—all to a steady beat you wanted to get up and dance to. In fact, a part of the crowd could be heard clapping along.
We took long, rhythmic strides past, between, behind, and in front of each other, like we were trying to tie the air into a big messy knot. Then we broke away, each of us bursting into different styles of dance, mimicking what happens every day on New York’s sidewalks. Riley leapt in the air, one arm high, as if hailing a cab. Megan swayed side to side to the music, as if trying to keep her balance on a fast-moving subway. Lily, Trina, and I made like we were holding an animated conversation on the street. Our backs arching, heads bobbing, arms flailing with every change in tempo. Riley was especially on fire. She must have been working extra hard for that first-place photo op with Trey Thompson. Hey, whatever motivated her.
Finally, we all gathered in a line across the stage and pretended to turn and jump in a giant double Dutch rope, our moves alternated between windmill arms for the turners and the acrobatics and fancy footwork of the jumpers inside the imaginary two egg-beater ropes.
<
br /> There must’ve been a large local crowd here, because they sounded like they recognized so much in our movements and were celebrating every city slicker we had met so far!
Vanessa really knew what she was doing with this choreo!
As the music wound down, we went back into our frenzied city walking we did earlier in the dance. We added extra-special drama with leaps and one nonstop, warp-speed spin, performed by—ahem, ME! The music evolved into jazzy sounds that played out in cool chaos. The horns went all high-pitched and whiny, while the piano keys sounded as if a cat was walking across them. And then, slowly and steadily, we became one giant knot, bunched up and tugging, grabbing hold of each other’s hands. As the strings took over, we kept our hands together, but untied ourselves into one straight line across the stage. We lifted our arms into the air, the peaks once again on display. We had become the New York skyline once more.
The crowd was on their feet, whooping and shouting their love for our routine.
YES! A clean routine!
We lowered our arms and took a slow, grateful bow. Overwhelmingly happy with the crowd reception, we bowed a second time. Well, all of us, that is, except Riley—who froze in place when she saw Trey Thompson make his way back to the stage.
“Representing DanceStarz Academy in Florida, ladies and gentlemen, the Squad!”
As the crowd cheered, Trey turned around and looked at us.
“From Florida, really? Don’t they look about ready to enroll in NYC High?” he asked the crowd.
“YES!” Riley couldn’t help herself around Trey Thompson, and she shout-answered him.
The crowd raucously applauded their agreement.
We trotted offstage feeling light and airy. My most pressing issue was I wanted to burst into wild, messy cheers, but I had to keep my composure as I exited the stage. It felt like holding my breath underwater. When we were finally out of sight from the audience, we screamed! We jumped into Vanessa’s waiting arms for a group hug! Yes, Vanessa was pumped up too!
But this group seemed a little small. Wait a minute—
“Where’s Riley?” I asked.
We didn’t see her anywhere.
“OMG, look!” shouted Lily, who pointed back to the stage, where Riley stood alone and in a daze, staring at the back of Trey Thompson’s head.
“Somebody should go get her,” Megan said. She touched her nose. “NOT IT.”
Trina and Lily touched their noses in a not it signal. Okay, I was IT. I got to be embarrassed. Fine. I spun onto the stage as if this were part of the performance. When I got to Riley, I took her hand and spun her around once, before I walked her off—pretty much dragged her off—with our arms linked.
“Let’s go, city girl,” I said. “You’ll have plenty of opportunity to see dream boy at NYC High.”
The rest of our hours in the chill room were just that—chill. We were proud of our performance, so we had no trouble eating lunch when it was brought in for everyone.
“Maybe we should grab an extra bottle of water,” I said. “In case Riley here chokes on a furball again.” Everyone cracked up, teasing Riley about all her drama.
“Good thinking,” said Trina.
“This time we’ll have to keep a close eye on her.” Megan rolled her eyes, but in a joking way.
“How’d it go?” Eliza asked me as she passed me by on her way to her lunch line.
“I think okay?” I said. She gave me a thumbs-up and said, “Same.”
It seemed there were strong performances by many, if not all of the teams who returned to the chill room, relieved and congratulating one another. I hated to admit it, but Megan’s mom was right. This was a level of competition we were not used to. There were no amateurs here. We weren’t the only ones who’d had a good day. Now came the tough part—finding out if it was our last day here. If we didn’t place high enough, we were out.
EEK.
“No matter what the results are out there, you should be so proud of yourselves. You owned that stage today,” said Vanessa before she led us to the designated area in front of the stage for all contestants.
Arriving at the grand ballroom on floor level gave us a different view of the crowd, the stage and its huge skyline backdrop, and, of course, the MC himself.
“There he is!” Riley grabbed Megan’s arm. “TREY!”
“Pull yourself together, girl,” Megan said. “He’s a human being like the rest of us.”
Mesmerized by Trey Thompson, Riley was back to her antics. She cleared her throat. Loudly. And then she tripped over her feet because she wasn’t looking at where she was going. We all just shook our heads and guided her for her own sake. We were shuffled to the middle of the pack, but we had decent sightlines.
“Ladies and gentleman, was that an amazing morning of excellent performances or what?” Trey hyped up the crowd.
“Yeaahhhhh!” One cheerer was way louder than everyone else. I grinned at Riley. I actually appreciated her enthusiasm for Trey—it was cracking me up and taking the edge off my nerves.
“Performers, you hear that applause? That’s every one of us in this place saying that you all are winners.” The applause grew in intensity as Trey pumped his fist. “Let them hear it, yes?”
“Aw, thanks, Trey!”“ Riley called out, as if they were the only two people in the room.
“Without further ado, we have the envelope with the judges’ tallies and the three top-scoring teams who will return tomorrow for the final round of group competition.”
The mood changed. There were audible gasps as all the dancers got serious. This was it.
We all held one another’s hands and sat closer together.
“Our first nationals results,” Megan whispered fiercely.
“From Trey Thompson.” Riley sighed happily. Megan shot her a look that definitely tried to put her priorities straight. The top ten teams were announced. We were not numbered ten through four. So that meant we’d either placed or were completely shut out. And gone. And sent away. Okay, Harper, pull yourself together, I told myself.
“In third place, hailing all the way from Arizona, the Scottsdale Steppers!”
The group leapt up from their spot and didn’t stop jumping until the trophy was in their arms. It was such a display of pure emotion, you couldn’t help but smile and feel happy for them. They accepted their day one qualifying medals and posed for a photo with Trey.
“I almost started jumping up and down with them!” he said. That guy was all in. I was starting to appreciate him. Not as much as Riley did, though.
Two more slots to go.
“Let’s keep this celebrations going, shall we?” He flashed a dimpled smile, which of course was followed by low-key swooning. “In second place, representing Florida…”
“Florida!” Trina burst out. “We’re from Florida! Is anyone else from Florida?”
We gripped each other’s hands and practically bit our tongues not to cheer prematurely, just in case those medals were meant for another lucky team from Florida that we didn’t know existed.
“… the Squad, of DanceStarz Academy!”
AHHHHHHH!!!
We placed! At NATIONALS! I could see Vanessa and the moms standing up and cheering for us wildly.
We all jumped up and went to get our trophy. The crowd cheered with so much gusto, we felt the need to wave our thanks to them when we got onstage.
Megan held her hands out to take the trophy, but Riley basically tripped her to get to Trey first.
“The pull of Trey is too strong,” I whispered to Lily, who giggled as Riley grasped the trophy but didn’t take it out of Trey’s hands, trying to prolong the moment. I think he was used to dealing with fans.
“Your performance was one of my faves,” he said with such honesty.
“Thank you,” said Riley, all heart-eyes. “Thank you, Trey Thompson.”
When we posed for a photo with him, you don’t have to guess who stood right next to Trey.
“And you guys mad
e fun of me for saying I would meet Trey!” Riley suddenly turned on us.
“They did?” Trey said. “Well, let this be a lesson that dreams can come true.”
“You’re right, Riley,” I said seriously. “We were wrong.”
“Also, we should probably announce the winners,” Trey said gently. Oops!
We grinned and said cheese and floated off the stage in a state of euphoria. Dragging Riley with us. As we sat down onstage, I realized there was one name I had yet to hear. I hoped I would hear it now, for first place.
“And now, our top spot,” Trey announced. He paused, dragging out the suspense. “Come on up, Dance City of Connecticut, and get your first-place qualifier medals and trophy!”
Wow. Eliza and the team actually did it.
“Whooo!” I shouted, clapping for my good friend. Her team had come with their A-game and nabbed the top prize. I was impressed.
If only my teammates were half as impressed. They clapped politely. Megan looked pointedly at me cheering loudly for Eliza.
“The competition is not over,” Megan muttered. “We still have the chance to knock Dance City out the top spot and be the overall winner tomorrow.”
I just ignored Megan and kept on clapping, But I did agree with her that it wasn’t over. We’d gone big, so we were not going home… yet.
* * *
After the competition, Vanessa had another surprise in store.
“Girls, I have a treat for you,” Vanessa said. “This is not only a reward for all of your hard work, but it’s inspiration and motivation.”
“I wonder what this could be,” I said. “Maybe we are going to see Hamilton? Or Dear Evan Hansen?”
Lily laughed. “I wish! Those tickets are super hard to get right now!”
“Hey, we can dream!” I said.
We walked for a bit until we saw the famous sign: RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL.
“Ooooh, are we going to see the Rockettes?” I yell. We all start cheering.
The Rockettes is one of the most famous dance companies in the world. Just seeing Radio City Music Hall was an inspiration.
Vanessa laughed. “Even better. You are going to dance with them!”
The Competition Page 7