The Callback

by Maddie Ziegler

“Hailey, I think you’re taking this too seriously,” I said.

  “But it’s called Hailey on the Daily for a reason. Will you help me film something else today?” Hailey asked.

  “I have to eat and get to dance class,” I said.

  “Come on, Harper. I have to sit around and wait at your studio for your class tonight, so I won’t have any other time.” Hailey kept on asking.

  “Sorry,” I said. Then I realized I was going to ask my mom and Hailey to stay even longer, so I could do the group rehearsal Megan set up, and I felt bad. “All right, let’s film something quick. How about we do something with no prep. Weird facts tag?”

  This was something I’d seen online that looked kind of fun. I pulled up the questions on the kitchen tablet and angled it on the counter so we could read it.

  “Okay.” Hailey shrugged, setting up her camera on its little tripod feet. “That works.”

  “Hey, I’m here from Hailey on the Daily, and today we’re doing . . .”

  “Weird facts tag!” we both said into the camera.

  “Nobody really tagged us, but I’m making Harper do it anyway,” Hailey said. She read off the questions.

  “ ‘Number one: What’s a nickname only your family calls you?’ ”

  “Harper-roo,” I said.

  “And we call you Harper-potamous,” Hailey said, cracking up.

  “Nobody calls me that,” I protested.

  “ ‘Number two: What’s a weird habit of yours?’ ”

  “Hair twirling,” I answered. “It drives my mom crazy when I twist my hair.”

  “ ‘Number three: Do you have any weird phobias?’ ”

  “Arachnophobia,” I said, shuddering. “Fear of spiders. That’s so legit me. I have this fear of waking up at night and a tarantula is crawling on my face.”

  “Ack!” Hailey shrieked a little. “Gross.”

  “I know,” I said.

  “ ‘Number four: What’s one of your biggest pet peeves?’ ”

  “When you’re eating and the fork scrapes your plate.” I cringed. It made me hurt just thinking about it.

  “ ‘Number five: What’s one of your nervous habits?’ ”

  “Biting my nails.”

  “ ‘Number six: What side of the bed do you sleep on?’ ”

  “So in my old bedroom I slept on the right side of the bed,” I said. “But here in Florida, I sleep on the left side.”

  “ ‘Number seven: What was your first stuffed animal and what was its name?’ ”

  “A teddy bear named Teddy?” I couldn’t really remember.

  “ ‘Number eight: Do you have any weird body skills?’ ”

  “My thumb is double-jointed!” I held up my finger to the camera. “Look, I can bend it weird.”

  “ ‘Number nine: What’s your favorite comfort food?’ ”

  “Frosted cereal flakes. Oh, and mini chocolate chip muffins. Yum,” I said. I wondered if there were any mini muffins left.

  “ ‘Number ten: What did you used to wear that you thought was so cool, and now you don’t?’ ”

  “I used to think all my outfits were pretty cool,” I laughed. “I literally wore pink sparkly tank tops with matching skirts and matching shoes with a headband. I was so extra!”

  “And that’s Harper’s ten weird facts!” Hailey said. She ran over to turn the camera off.

  “That went pretty well, right?” I asked her.

  “Yup!” she said. “Thanks!”

  “Harper!” My mom walked into the kitchen. “Are you ready?”

  “Oh, no!” I looked at my phone. It was time to leave for dance! I stuffed two of the cheese wedges I’d gotten out earlier in my face, but was still starving, so I ran back to the pantry and grabbed a pack of mini muffins. Then I ran to my room to get my dance bag ready. When we got in the car to go to dance rehearsal, I settled in the front seat and opened the muffins. Hailey was already in the backseat with headphones on, car dancing in her seat.

  “That was very nice of you to spend time with your sister,” Mom said. “I know you’re busy.”

  “Mmmf,” I said, with my mouth full of muffin.

  “How was play practice today?”

  I swallowed my muffin.

  “It was good!” I said. “We rehearsed the dance, and I got it almost right away. Then I had lunch with the cast and they asked me to help them with their dance moves. Oh! Is it okay if I go over to Ariel’s—that’s the girl who plays Ariel—house Saturday to teach the people some dance technique? Some of them have never taken dance before!”

  “Sure,” my mom said. “I’m happy to hear you’re meeting some people at school.”

  “Yeah, they were nice,” I told her. “So in my dance, I’m surrounded by ocean creatures, and I get to pop out of a giant oyster! So everyone’s calling me Pearl—how cute is that?”

  “Very cute,” Mom agreed. “And Vanessa said the schedule works out with your dance team?”

  I obviously hadn’t told my mom that I hadn’t told Vanessa.

  “Oh, sure. I’m sure it will work out.” It was all working out so far. There was probably no reason to make her think I wasn’t focused.

  “And your grades?” Mom asked. “Are you keeping up your grades?”

  “I got an A on my math quiz,” I told her proudly. Just don’t ask about how my book report is going and we’ll be just fine! I’d get it done, though. I leaned back, a little stressed out now. I had to finish that book report, and then I had a science quiz—a real one, not a fake one—coming up and—

  “Harper, please don’t twist your hair,” my mother said. “It drives me crazy.”

  CHAPTER

  8

  The next day, I realized I hadn’t told Mom about the extra practices Captain Megan had now declared mandatory. After dance class, I went to the lobby to check with Mom. She was on the couch with Megan’s and Riley’s moms. My mom wanted me to make more friends in our town—but I knew she wanted to make some too. She was getting to know the dance parents, but Lily’s parents were always at the shop. So it was mostly Megan’s and Riley’s moms she got to talk to at the studio. Those two had been best friends since forever.

  But this time, she was sitting off to the side on a bench with my sister and neither of them looked happy.

  “Noooooo,” Hailey groaned. “Quinn’s in ballet, and I’m sooo bored.”

  “Your sister was ‘soooo bored,’ she decided to hide behind the couch and secretly film me talking to the other mothers,” my mother said. “So we are ready to go.”

  “But, Mom,” I said, “Megan is seriously on this mission, and I can’t be the only one to miss it. Can Dad pick me up after?”

  “Honey, your father is working really late,” she said. “You’ll have to tell Megan no.”

  I texted Megan:

  Hey, sorry, Mom needs to leave with Hailey. Can’t make it.

  She was not going to be happy.

  “I need to go apologize to the other mothers, and then we’ll leave.” My mom sighed. “Harper, please watch your sister.”

  I turned to my sister.

  “Thanks a lot,” I snapped. I saw Megan quickly coming into the lobby and spotting us. “Oh great, here comes Megan. Now I have to hear about how I have to miss important practice.”

  “Hi, Megan!” Hailey brightened up. Little kids loved Megan, for some reason.

  “Aw, look how cute your pigtails are,” Megan said sweetly to Hailey. She turned to me. “So, wait, you have to go?”

  “Yeah,” Hailey said. “I got in trouble for filming the moms. They were talking about getting new curtains, so it was not even worth it.”

  “Oh, really?” Megan looked like she was trying not to laugh.

  “Yeah, I’ve been taping for my new channel,” Hailey continued. “Hailey on the Daily, soon to be an Internet sensation as soon as my mom lets me post things, in like a zillion years.”

  “Hey, do you want to shoot a video for me?” Megan
asked her. “I mean, for the Squad? Of our routine?”

  “Sure!” Hailey said. “I mean, I’m not a professional or anything.”

  “That’s okay—it’s just for us to watch,” Megan said. “You can capture our mistakes so we can critique them later.”

  “Cool!” Hailey said happily.

  “Oh wait, you have to leave,” Megan said. “We were going to rehearse, but—”

  “Let’s ask my Mom!” Hailey grabbed Megan’s arm. Not that I particularly wanted my little sister following me around “capturing my mistakes.” However, I saw where Megan was going with this, and it was kind of genius. While Hailey dragged Megan over to the moms, I followed.

  “MOM!” Hailey practically jumped on my mom. “We have to stay! I’m going to film! I need the video camera back!”

  “Excuse me,” my mom said to the other moms. Then she turned to Hailey. “As we discussed—”

  “I’m sorry about filming you!” Hailey said to the other moms on the couch. “I just thought you’d be interesting!”

  “She means like a documentary on the interesting lives of moms,” Megan saved her. “She thought you had star quality.”

  “Oh!” Megan’s mom bought it. “That’s so sweet. Really, no apology necessary.”

  “Mrs. McCoy.” Megan turned to my mom sweetly. “I hope it’s no trouble, but Hailey could really help out the Squad rehearsal if she could stay and film our routine.”

  “Please!” Hailey begged, dancing around her.

  “It would be great if I could rehearse,” I added.

  “Fine,” my mother said. She handed Hailey the video camera. “Use this for good, not evil.”

  “Yay!” Hailey said. She grabbed Megan’s hand. “Let’s do this!”

  I had to give her credit, she was taking charge of this. And when we ran through our group dance, Megan also remained in charge.

  “Five, six, seven, eight . . . ,” she counted off, and we danced. Hailey filmed quietly, running around us but surprisingly not interfering.

  “All right,” Megan announced. “Let’s watch it.”

  Hailey propped up the camera on the table, and we all crowded in to watch on the screen.

  “Agh, I hate watching myself back,” Lily said. She half covered her eyes.

  “It’s so awkward,” Trina agreed.

  “So cringey. It’s like you zoom in on anything you do and think it’s bad.” I said. I hated watching my footwork, my leg extensions weren’t high enough, I felt like I didn’t draw the eye like Riley did, and—

  “But that’s the point!” Megan said. “Because we want to step it up or we’re not going to get first place. So here are my suggestions. Our timing is off, our spacing is bad, half of you have dead face, and people aren’t pointing their feet.”

  “Gee,” I said. “Is that all?”

  Everyone started protesting.

  “I thought you guys were great!” Hailey said loudly.

  “Well, thank you,” I told her, suddenly appreciating having my little sister in the room.

  “But sometimes boring.” Hailey added on that last statement unexpectedly.

  “Hey!” I said.

  “Wait, we don’t we don’t want to be boring!” Riley said.

  Which was true. We needed to capture the audience’s—and judges’—attention.

  “This is something I was thinking. We have to have a serious discussion,” Megan said. “How can we make this routine more exciting?”

  “Shouldn’t we ask Vanessa?” Trina asked.

  “Yes,” Megan agreed. “But I think she’d be open to our ideas. We all know we’re not doing everything we can with this dance. Riley, we need to kill your solo combo.”

  Nobody was expecting that.

  “Wait. What?” Riley said. “WHAT? Kill my solo?!”

  “Hailey.” I gestured for her to leave the room. I didn’t want her to see what might happen. Fortunately, Hailey didn’t seem to want to see it either. She shot me a scared expression and ran out of the room.

  “Sorry, yes,” Megan said, without flinching. “We need to go back to plan B, what we did in the competition. The turn series–kick over.”

  The turn series–kick over was something I’d invented at the last minute.

  At our first competition, Megan had stepped on Riley’s hand, and we’d had to change the choreography. Riley and Megan’s partner tricks and Riley’s hand-walking had to be switched out.

  And that’s when I had my shining moment: I got to do a really cool turn series. Two pirouettes, a kick spin, and then Megan leapt at me, sliding forward under my leg and daringly melting down into a hinge. I twirled over her and she popped up and then ducked down as I twirled over her.

  I’d promised Riley when her hand healed, we’d go back to the original. So we had. Part of me was relieved, because our substitution was really hard and really risky. One miss in timing, and I’d kick Megan in the face or fall over on top of her.

  “So we want to win,” Megan said. “What’s our most impressive trick? It’s the partner trick that me and Harper did. Riley, we have to cut your hand-walking. It’s not that great. The replacement combination was better.”

  “What?!” Riley said. “Oh, fine. That is a cool combo. I’ll do it.”

  “I didn’t mean you would do it,” Megan said. “I meant Harper would do it. Again.”

  Riley gave me a side eye.

  “I don’t know,” I told Megan. “I don’t want to take away from Riley—”

  “What do you mean ‘take away from Riley’? How about giving Riley something—a win!” Megan shouted. She went up to Riley and started shaking her hand like she had a bell in it. “Do you want the Bells to think they did the right thing changing studios? Do you want them to beat us again?”

  “No,” Riley said. “But I want a solo—”

  “Sorry!” Megan said. “The best people for it are me and Harper. Harper can pirouette, and she has the timing. We need to do that.”

  “But we did that move last time and we didn’t win,” Riley protested.

  “And you had a busted hand in it,” Megan said. “And we hadn’t rehearsed that, which screwed us up. Now everything can be perfect. With the new moves, not yours.”

  “Oh, come on! Who made you boss?!” Riley said.

  “You did,” Lily and I both said.

  “You did vote her captain,” Trina pointed out.

  “I take back my vote,” Riley said. “I’m voting for Trina.”

  “Yay!” Trina said happily. “I got a vote!”

  “Well, we have to ask Vanessa anyway before we make any changes to the routine,” I said. Plus, part of me was secretly hoping she’d say no. I had enough going on without having to worry about doing this move again.

  “I want to bring her a united front,” Megan said. “Everyone in favor of asking Vanessa if we can have the best routine for the competition, raise your hand.”

  Everyone raised their hands. Even Riley grudgingly did too.

  “That means we’ll tell Vanessa we all—and I mean all—think Harper and I should do the partner trick,” Megan said. “I’ll go see if Vanessa’s around.”

  She ran out the door. We stood there in silence. Riley sat down on the floor and glared at me.

  “Personally, I think Vanessa is going to say no,” I said. “If that makes you feel any better, Riley.”

  “And you still get to do your hand-walking, which is really cool,” Lily said.

  Vanessa walked in the room.

  “I hear you’re doing extra rehearsing on your group dance,” Vanessa said. “I’m pleased to hear this. Megan says you had a few concerns.”

  “We want to step it up, up our game, go for the win,” Megan said. “May we use the same routine we did in competition, with Harper and me doing the partner trick?”

  “Hmm,” Vanessa said. “It definitely was an impressive move that caught the judges’ eyes. However, it’s a risky one. Is everyone on board with this?”

&n
bsp; “Yes,” all of us answered, three of us confidently. Riley and I glanced at each other. For once, we were on the same page. Hesitant.

  “Harper and I will rehearse it like crazy,” Megan promised.

  “That sounds fine,” Vanessa said. “I’ll want you to set up some more one-on-ones with me or one of the assistant coaches. Carry on.”

  More privates? I barely had time for this. I had an inner freak-out as Vanessa left the room.

  “Yess.” Megan jumped around. “Woo! I talked her into it! Seriously, aren’t you all glad I’m captain? What are we all standing around here for? Let’s get practicing! Chop chop! Harper! Get your sister back in to film again.”

  Sigh. Megan was on a serious adrenaline rush and power trip. I went out into the hallway to get Hailey. Hailey happily came back in. Megan put on our music, and we all got in formation.

  Lily ran over by me.

  “Psst,” she whispered. “Congratulations! I think? How do you feel about this?”

  “I . . .” I was about to whisper something back, but remembered Hailey had the camera. I forced a smile on my face. “I feel great!”

  “Five, six, seven, eight . . . !” Megan yelled.

  We ran through the dance one more time.

  “Sloppy!” Megan yelled. “We’re not in unison! Again!”

  “Again?” we all groaned.

  “Picture that platinum number one trophy in my hands,” Megan said. “I mean, our hands. All over social media, everyone liking it and the Bells being super jealous. This is our motivation to win!”

  “I’m kind of tired,” Trina said. “I already did lyrical class today, you know. And I taught some little kids to do their heel stretch turns before that.”

  “Five, six, seven, eight . . . !” Megan called out. And we did the dance again.

  First, Trina wobbled on a leap. Then, Lily missed a count. And when Megan and I did the partner trick, she slid toward me. I kicked over her, and that part went totally fine, but then she scowled at me—so when I went to do the leg hold at the end, I wobbled over her. And fell on her.

  “OUCH!” Megan yelped and rolled out from under me. “What is everyone’s issue?!”

  I rolled over too, on my back on the floor. I lay there panting.

  “Megan, you’re wearing us out,” I said.