“Definitely,” I said, standing up. “I was starting to feel kind of inferior to all of you talented people.”
“What? It’s your talent we need here,” Ariel said.
Everyone moved to the empty part of the basement and got in formation. It looked like everyone in the basement was in this dance. Ariel pulled out her phone and turned on some music. The finale song came out all over the room. They walked through the steps, in time with the music. Ariel introduced King Triton to Prince Eric, and then everyone came out to dance with them, getting into couples and doing a waltz around Ariel and Drew in a big circle.
Then they all paused, and Drew put a ring on Ariel’s finger. Then they leaned in—for the kiss? Okay, I have to admit that I got very distracted. Thoughts raced quickly through my head. Was Ariel was going to kiss him, like in the movie? That would be weird, having to kiss someone onstage. I don’t know if I’d want to do that!
But, if I did, I’d probably okay with it being Drew. Ack! My face turned red. Then I started to look away so I didn’t have to watch them kiss. But I didn’t have to worry.
Drew swung Ariel out into a twirl. There was no kiss. Ha! I laughed out loud.
Then they grasped hands and began to waltz in a circle, with the rest of everyone. It was lovely, until—well, Drew missed a count and sailed into another waltzing couple.
“Oaf!” It was like a domino effect. All the waltzers knocked into each other.
“Okay, okay, stop!” someone else said. The music stopped.
“See the problem?” Zora said. “We’re always running into one another.”
“Ham,” I said. “What does Mrs. Elliott say?”
“She says things like, watch your footwork,” Scuttle said. “But I tried to watch my feet and I practically smacked my partner in the face.”
“That’s true,” his partner said, and everyone laughed.
“Mrs. Elliott makes me nervous,” Courtney said. I noticed a lot of people nodding.
“Yeah, if we can fix this, she’ll be really happy with us,” Ariel said.
“Maybe we if try it slowly,” I said. They tried again. “Eight counts . . . one, two, three! Four five six . . . !”
Yeah, their timing was WAY off. There were too many couples trying to keep up, and trying to be on the same beat. Hey, I’d been there. When I first tried to learn the Squad’s group routine, it had been way faster than I’d been used to, and I couldn’t keep up. This routine was far slower and, to be honest, seemed pretty easy to me. For a minute, I wasn’t sure if I could teach something that came so naturally to me.
But I’d been dancing since forever. They hadn’t. And I thought about what had helped me in that instance.
Or rather, who.
Trina had a special way with teaching footwork and timing. Vanessa had her teaching some of the Tiny Team and beginners, and when I couldn’t master the footwork, she had asked Trina to help me. Trina was an understanding teacher.
I should ask Trina if she can help. I was confident she could really help them out.
Then I realized why that probably wasn’t a good idea. I hadn’t told anyone other than Lily that I was even dancing in the school musical. If I told Trina, then the Bunheads would find out, and Vanessa would find out. I just had to hold on a little longer until Vanessa assigned the solo. So no.
“Harper,” Drew said. “Can you help us?”
He looked at me, and his hair flopped over his eye so adorably. So yes.
I could ask Trina not to tell anybody yet. Trina took pride in not embarrassing anyone who needed help, and hadn’t told anyone that Vanessa had asked her to help me last time. That was nice of her.
“I have an idea,” I told them.
CHAPTER
11
Trina said yes! Yes, she would help The Little Mermaid cast with dancing, and yes, she would keep it totally a secret.
I had told Lily, though. I didn’t want her to think I was keeping secrets from her again. I’d even invited her to come with us. Everyone was going to meet at Ariel’s house later that evening.
But first I had to go to a semiprivate lesson. Megan and I were going to work on our partner trick with Vanessa. I walked into the studio and passed Trina with the Bunheads on the way to her class.
“Harper!” Trina whispered loudly. Then she gave me a huge wink.
Subtle, Trina.
Megan gave her an odd look, but didn’t say anything.
“Harper!” she said urgently. “Are you focused? We need to get this down perfect, you know.”
“I know.” It came out more like a sigh than I’d expected it to.
“TBH,” Megan said, “I’m not really so excited about this either.”
“It was your idea,” I said, going into the studio.
“Actually, I was going to try to come up with a cool trick for me and Riley to do instead,” Megan said. “But after that last competition I realized Riley cracks under pressure, so what could I do? Wait a second. You don’t crack under pressure, do you?”
“No,” I said firmly. Then I went to the barre and began doing stretches. Megan joined me a few feet away.
“Good, because wait until you see what I’m thinking,” Megan said. “You can handle a few new tricks, right?”
“Uh, yeah?” I said. “Depending on—”
“Hello!” Vanessa came in. “Megan, you told me earlier you had some ideas. I’m open to hearing them.”
“I was thinking that Harper does two more turns over me and then I do a side split while she does an aerial.”
Wait, what?
“That sounds a bit ambitious,” Vanessa said.
“Harper said she’s up for the tricks,” Megan said, shooting me a side eye.
Vanessa looked at me. While I had technically said that I was up for a few new tricks, Megan hadn’t specifically said which ones.
An aerial? That was crazy hard for me, especially after I’d already been twirling. I could completely get knocked off my feet on that one. I was still working on perfecting my aerials.
“Have you rehearsed this?” Vanessa asked.
“Not yet. I thought we could try it here first,” Megan said.
“Okay,” Vanessa said. “Let’s do it. Start at the combination before. Five, six, seven, eight . . .”
I had no idea how this was going to go. I took my prep and went through the first eight counts. Then Megan and I ran to the center of the room near each other and did the initial partner trick. One, two, three, four—I managed to get my two spins in and kick over her, but this time, having to add on the aerial threw me off, and I stumbled a bit, adding two extra steps.
Meanwhile, Megan was doing her little side split, and she looked fantastic.
“Megan, very nice. Just watch that arm. Harper, no, no, watch your timing. I want to see you hit the floor on five,” Vanessa said, “or you’re going to be off balance every time. You might even run into Megan, and we don’t want that. Let’s try that again.”
Megan looked at me and shrugged.
Hmm.
We went through the routine again, and pretty much the same thing happened. I couldn’t get it together. And not just the new move—I was messing up the simple step combos, too. I glanced over at Vanessa’s face, and she looked concerned.
“While I’m pleased to see you both taking on a challenge, I’m afraid I can’t approve these moves for a competition,” Vanessa said. “It’s too much.”
“Hmm,” Megan said, obviously disappointed. “I’m sorry. I thought it would work. Harper is usually so good at turn series.”
Excuse me?
“We’ll just go back to the partner trick we did at the comp.” Megan sighed. “I’m sorry we disappointed you.”
“You didn’t disappoint me, Megan,” Vanessa said.
I looked at Megan. I could see she was holding back a smile, and I realized my hunch was right. Megan hadn’t disappointed Vanessa—but maybe I had. Megan had set me up to fail and herself to look good. I squinted my eyes
and gave Megan a look. She widened her eyes and smiled back innocently.
“Vanessa, maybe we can at least add an aerial to my solo?” Megan asked.
“How about you work on your current partner trick and see if we can get that solidified first,” Vanessa said. “Five, six, seven, eight—”
I was off my game the rest of the lesson. Any time Megan came near me, smiling, I got mad. I was mad at her for trying to make me look bad, and at myself for actually looking bad.
“Kick higher, Harper!” Vanessa called out. “Turn quicker on the second count—”
When our half hour was up, I was so ready to be done.
“Thank you, Vanessa!” Megan said. “That was awesome!”
Yeah, awesome. For her.
CHAPTER
12
I love your striped top!” Trina’s sister, Alexis, said, as I climbed into the passenger seat of her white car. I’d started to sit in the back, but she and Trina had insisted I sit up front.
“You’re our guest!” Trina said cheerfully.
“You’re the ones doing me a favor, though,” I reminded them. “Thanks again, Trina, for helping teach. And Alexis for driving us.”
“So why I am driving you to whose house?” Alexis asked me.
“Ariel’s,” I said. “She’s a girl in my grade who’s playing Ariel in The Little Mermaid. They’re having problems with the group dances. Some people haven’t ever taken dance before.”
“Oh, that happens in cheer sometimes,” Alexis said. She was the cheer captain at her school. “Hey, I teach the dance moves for our freshman tryouts. Do you want me to come in and help too?”
“Oh, I don’t want to bother you—” I said.
“It would be fun!” she said. Trina was nodding.
“It’s, um”—I paused—“kind of a secret from everyone at DanceStarz that I’m doing this. I, um, don’t want to embarrass the cast.”
“No worries,” Alexis said.
We pulled up to Ariel’s house, and I remembered the last time I walked up here with Drew. I hadn’t seen him, except once in the halls when we both said hi. They’d been rehearsing other scenes, not the one I was in. I felt a little left out, so I was excited to be part of things again. We rang the doorbell, and when Ariel’s father answered, I introduced her to Trina and Alexis.
“I was told this was a special occasion that required special snacks,” her father said. “So make sure you try the tot-chos. It’s a tater-tots-and-nachos mash-up.”
“Dad . . .” Ariel came into the kitchen. “Let them go. Quick, escape him.”
“Oh, my feelings.” Her father clutched his heart. “The pain!”
They both cracked up.
“Actually, tot-chos sound awesome, thanks,” I said, and Trina and Alexis nodded.
“Hey, everyone!” Ariel yelled out. “Harper’s here!”
“Hi!” I called out. Everyone said hi, and I realized Ariel was waiting for me to introduce Trina and her sister.
“So, this is Trina,” I said. “She’s on my dance team, and she’s a really good teacher. She made my dancing so much better.”
“Aw, thanks.” Trina smiled.
“And her sister, Alexis, who is captain of West High’s cheerleading squad!” I said. I punched my fist in the air, and then realized that looked kind of dumb, not spirit-y.
“Oh, cool!” Everyone looked super impressed.
“We can show you our hardest dance, the finale,” Ariel said. Everyone gathered in the middle of the basement, in their waltzing duos and their little huddles of sea creatures and humans. Then music began, and they all started dancing.
The dance went well for the first few minutes, but then the same thing as before happened. Someone missed a step, the timing went off, and people knocked into one another. Trina and Alexis jumped right in to help. Trina immediately took Zora and her urchins off to the side. Alexis worked with the bigger group.
I smiled. I watched for a few minutes. Then I had really nothing to do, so I went to the table that had the snacks. Mm. Ariel’s father really had gone all out on those. I made myself a plate with some cheddar chips, a mini chocolate chip cookie, and yes, some tot-chos. I watched the dance, munching. I felt mostly happy, but a little left out in a way. It was hard for me to watch a fun dance and not want to jump in myself.
But—OKAY—I also especially may have been watching a certain prince. He danced with Ariel, twirling her around and then moving around in a circle as he reached out to the other dancers, who danced around them.
“All right, I see a major problem,” Alexis said. “Everyone come over here. I mean everyone!”
I got up and joined everyone over toward her.
“Let’s try this in small groups,” Alexis called out. “Humans and Ariel, stay with me! Everyone else can sit out.”
The sea creatures all went straight to the snack table. Zora came over with a bowl full of BBQ chips first.
“Wow, that really helped,” Zora said. “Trina broke down the steps into mini steps for me, so I actually understood.”
“She has a gift for that.” I nodded.
“Those sisters are amazing,” Flounder said, coming over with an overflowing plate. “Also amazing are the tot-chos.”
They were really good. I took a big bite of tot-chos, just as I heard Alexis call my name.
“Harper! I need you to dance with Drew!”
I nearly choked on my tot-chos.
“Ack!” I coughed.
Zora pounded me on the back, until I stopped coughing. I thanked her with a wave, and stood up. Pull yourself together, Harper, I told myself. I cleared my throat and went over to Alexis and Trina, who were standing with Scuttle, King Triton, and Drew.
“Okay, so we are going to waltz to show them the footwork Trina taught them,” Alexis said. “Harper, just stay on the beat, and twirl on five. Partner up.”
Alexis held her arms up to King Triton. Trina held her arms out to Scuttle.
And Drew held his arms out to me. Gulp. I had to hold his hand and then put my other hand on his shoulder.
I hoped my hands weren’t sweaty.
“Sorry if my hands are sweaty,” Drew said, as if he were reading my mind.
“You’re good,” I squeaked. Okay, at least if we were sweaty he’d think it was him.
“When your left foot goes forward, Prince, Harper’s right foot will be going backward,” Alexis explained. “One, two, three, and one, two, three—okay, freeze. Down, up, up, and . . .”
Drew stepped on my foot.
“Sorry, sorry,” he said. I could see he was legit embarrassed.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I get stepped on all the time. And worse—one time I basically kicked my dance partner in the head.”
He cracked a small smile. We all started dancing again, and this time Scuttle and Trina came too close to us.
“Okay, Scuttle is stepping too wide.” Alexis was calling out directions so we didn’t step on our partners or run into one another. “One, two, three! Rotate, two, three!”
We awkwardly moved around. I noticed what was going wrong. He noticed me noticing.
“I know, I stink,” he said.
“No, no,” I reassured him. “It’s just . . . you keep pausing before you turn, and then you’re off a half beat.”
“Just push me where I should go,” he said.
Okay. I took the lead on the dance, and kind of pushed him so he could get the timing right.
“Just don’t overthink it,” I told him, giving him advice my dance teacher told me for years and years. “Just relax and one, two, THREE!”
We danced around a little bit.
“Hey, okay, better, right?” Drew said, sounding relieved when I nodded. He grinned at me. I grinned at him.
“Looking good, Drew and Harper!” Alexis called out.
And that’s when we realized the music had stopped. Everyone else had stopped dancing. Except the two of us.
Uh. We immediately stopp
ed and dropped each other’s hands. I was about to be super embarrassed, but he leaned into me.
“Thanks,” he said. “That was cool.”
Eee.
“Erk,” I said, my face turning probably purple. I apparently lost my ability to speak.
I raced off to the snack table and grabbed some water.
“Okay, what’s the most important thing to remember about dance?” Trina called out.
“Your timing!” “Foot counts!” people yelled. You could tell they’d been listening to Trina.
“NO,” Trina said. “Dancing is fun.”
Alexis said something to Ariel, who turned on some new music that wasn’t from the show. It was a new song I’d just put on my playlist. Ariel dimmed the lights, and it was suddenly like a dance party.
Everyone started dancing around silly, laughing and having fun. I danced around in a little circle with Zora and some of the seaweeds. Then I danced with Ariel and Trina. Then I spun around and found myself dancing with Drew. This time, we were being awkward on purpose.
It was fun.
CHAPTER
13
Guess what?” Lily said excitedly. “My dad hired someone for the store! Finally, one of my parents will be home, and I can have someone over. Can you come over this weekend and swim?”
We were standing in the dance studio hallway. I was heading into my private lesson with Vanessa to practice my solo. Megan was in with Vanessa now. Lily had finished hers before Megan, and we’d agreed to meet up to hang out. If ten minutes in a hallway could count as “hanging out.”
“Oh, that sounds so fun,” I said. I thought about how fun it was to go over to her house and swim. Back home, summer was totally over, but here, even though it was fall, it was still hot enough in Florida to swim. Lily had these mermaid tails we could wear and—wait! Mermaids!
“Actually, sorry, I can’t,” I groaned. “I have Little Mermaid rehearsal on both days. There’s only two weeks until the musical.”
“But aren’t you only in one dance?” Lily asked.
“Yeah.” I nodded. I didn’t have to be there for every rehearsal, but I’d found that when I didn’t go I felt left out. I really liked being a part of that. “But I’ve ended up helping with all of the dances. It feels like I can be helpful when I’m around. Even Mrs. Elliott asked me if I could come. How cool is that?”
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