20
Before a competition is always chaos. Younger kids go earlier in the day, when things are quieter, but by the time I walked in with my mom, it was chaos. Other dance companies were arriving like us, with their giant duffel bags taking up half the hallways. Or they were running through the halls to get to the stage to compete.
“Where is registration . . . ?” My mom looked around. “Oh! There’s your team. Go on. I’ll see you in a minute.”
I saw the Bunheads together, wearing the same team jacket and warm-up pants that I had on. I dreaded facing them.
“Hi,” I mumbled.
“Harper!” Megan said. “You’re here. Where’s Lily?”
“She’s on her way,” I said. “She just texted me. Look. About that video—”
“We are not going to talk about that video,” Megan said through clenched teeth. “We are not going to think about that video. They wanted to shake us up. We will not let them.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said. But Megan was obviously shaken. I looked at Riley and Trina, and they both looked away.
Lily ran up to us.
“How are you?” she asked me.
“Not thinking about that video,” I whispered back.
Vanessa came up to us.
“You have a few hours until call time,” Vanessa told us. “I’m going to go look at the stage setup, and I’ll find you in the dressing room.”
“Let’s try to get a small room,” Megan said. Sometimes you can find an empty smaller room to get ready and zone out in peace. We looked into two rooms that were full and then into a third one that was really full: of Energii.
It seemed like every single one of them looked at us and smirked.
“This room is taken,” one of them called out. None of us wanted to deal with that now. We backed away. But we were too late.
“Don’t fall off the stage!” one of them yelled.
“Isabelle,” Megan whispered. She looked at me. My face flamed red.
“That is so not cool,” Lily said.
“We are not going to let them affect us,” Megan repeated.
I twirled my hair and tried not to let them get to me. We went to the big room backstage where most of the teams were preparing.
“Grab a corner!” Megan hissed to us, and we all looked around wildly for some space to claim for our team. People were racing around in costume or in half of their costumes looking for the rest of their group or looking for their mothers to do their hair. Some people were practicing their moves. When a coach called to her team to go to the stage, we quickly moved in and took over their space.
We had a lot to do.
The moms came in with the competition stuff: the booklet to show who was performing when. Riley took it and flipped through it quickly.
“Small group juniors category.” Riley showed us in the booklet. “DanceStarz Squad! There we are!”
“And there’s Energii.” Megan frowned, pointing at their names. “They’re in small group juniors too. Doing a lyrical routine.”
I put my stuff down on the floor next to the mirror. The moms, plus Trina’s sister, got to work doing our hair. We had to have our headpieces pinned in. The headpieces were white lace with gold and pink jewels sewn in. They were super pretty and somewhat painful to put on. My mom crisscrossed bobby pins to hold it tight to my head and in front of my bun.
“Ow.” I winced.
“Sorry,” my mom said.
“I know,” I told her. I knew she had to do it. Once, my headpiece had flown off. I’d kept dancing, but I’d had to keep making sure I didn’t slip on it. Plus, as I later saw on the competition video, my hair was then sticking up ridiculously.
So I let Mom stab at me with bobby pins. When she finished, I admired her work in the mirror. “It looks great, Mom. No wispies.”
She leaned down to give me a hug. I expected her to say something warm and fuzzy about not worrying because it was my first time.
“This is your first time with DanceStarz,” she said. “We want to show them what you can do. You need to prove yourself.”
I was a little surprised at how fierce she sounded. But I knew she only wanted me to do my best, because she knew that I’d be happy about it later. I was a perfectionist at competitions, and afterward I got really picky about my dancing and dwelled on my mistakes. The best way to avoid this was to nail it.
“Okay.” I nodded. Dancer beast mode, on.
My mom sprayed me with about half a can of hairspray. Then she got a text.
“I’m going to go grab good seats. Break a leg,” she said.
A group came in wearing large costumes. And by “large,” I mean really large because they were dressed as giraffes. Their giraffe heads bobbed on long necks a foot higher than their real heads.
“That’s . . . creative,” Lily mumbled to me.
“That stunk,” one of the giraffes grumbled.
“I never, ever want to dance in a giant giraffe head again,” another one said.
That sounded reasonable to me.
It was time to do makeup. We all sat cross-legged in front of a dressing mirror. I put on my makeup carefully, making sure it was intense enough to be seen out in the audience.
“Sunshine Dance Studio, five minutes!” somebody called out.
The dance team next to me all shrieked a little and started rehearsing their dance aggressively. So aggressively one of them kicked super close to my head!
“Excuse me!” I said.
“Sorry.” The girl smiled apologetically.
I did not want to be kicked in the head right before my dance. I had enough problems: nerves. Stomach butterflies. Megan. The Bells. My first time dancing onstage in Florida.
Deep breath. I had to think positive. I was going to only surround myself with positivity.
“Oops!” Someone tripped over my foot. I pulled back, thinking it was an accident, until I saw the look on Trina’s face.
It was Bella, with Isabelle.
“Don’t you have your own room?” Lily asked them.
“We just came out to wish you good luck,” Isabelle said. “I know that’s bad luck, but if I said break a leg I’m afraid that one would take it literally and fall off the stage.”
I stood up.
“I know you posted that video,” I said.
The Bells cracked up.
“Could have been anyone.” Isabelle shrugged, grinning. “There were hundreds of people there watching that humiliating dance of your so-called Squad.”
“Go back to your new team,” Megan said. “Traitors.”
“I’m a traitor? You’re the traitor,” Isabelle said.
“How am I the traitor?” Megan asked. “You ditched us for Energii!”
“Well what did you expect us to do?” Isabelle challenged her, hand on her hip.
“Be on the Squad?” Megan replied.
“Yeah, ha-ha,” Bella said. “After Vanessa told us we might not be a ‘fit’?”
Oh. OH. That explained a lot.
“It’s not like you even cared,” Isabelle continued.
“Wait, what?” Megan jumped up and faced Isabelle. “I didn’t even know.”
“Nice try,” Isabelle said. “And then you were all like, Yay me! Go Squad!”
“I thought you were going to be on the Squad! How was I supposed to know you weren’t?” Megan half wailed.
“From when we texted you?” Isabelle said. “Helloooo? Earth to Megan?”
“You never texted me!” Megan shook her head.
“Don’t act all innocent! We signed up for Energii right away, and texted you to come, and you texted back no way, you were not coming with us!”
“What are you talking about? I never texted that!” Megan said.
The two of them were so locked in eye contact, they didn’t even notice Bella was slowly inching backward.
“Bella texted you. I told Bella to text you,” Isabelle said slowly.
Everyone turned toward Bella.
>
“Oh,” Bella said. “Huh. Maybe the text didn’t go through!”
“But you said she answered,” Isabelle said, “that she said no way would she come with us.”
“Uh,” Bella said. “Heh. Uh. Well! I just thought because she didn’t answer, she didn’t want to come with us. By not answering, that’s an answer! Yeah.”
“You never texted me, did you?” Megan went up to Bella’s face.
“I think I did?” Bella said.
“You didn’t want me to come with you!” Megan accused.
“Um,” Bella said, and looked around wildly. “Gotta go.”
Bella scurried away. Isabelle turned to leave too.
“Isabelle! Wait! See? It wasn’t my fault,” Megan said frantically. “None of this is my fault! You can’t be mad at me!”
Megan’s voice was rising. People from the other studios were turning to look at us.
“It was a misunderstanding!” Megan said. “We can go back to the way it was!”
The girls around us started giggling.
“Fight!” one of the giraffes called out.
“Megan, you’re causing a scene,” Isabelle said calmly. “You know I hate any drama before I dance. It takes me out of my zone.”
“But you started the drama!” I jumped in.
“Isabelle!” Megan said softly.
Isabelle softened for a minute.
“Megan. It’s my first competition with Energii,” she said. “Okay? It’s done. They’re my team now. We need to focus on the competition.”
She turned around and left. We all stood in silence, watching her.
“Um.” I tried to break the awkward silence. “Whew. That was a lot.”
Megan stood there looking furious. Then she looked at us looking at her.
“What?” she snapped. “You heard her. Focus on the competition. Get in the zone. Let’s stretch!”
I cringed but followed her lead as we dropped down on the floor to stretch. Megan stuck her legs out forward, pulled on her feet, and laid her face down on her knees. We all followed her, although there wasn’t much room as other dance teams came in and squashed the area.
“Well, I’m glad that’s over!” Riley said with an awkward little laugh.
Megan whipped her head up.
“Do you even understand what just happened? Bella sabotaged me!” Megan spat.
“I get it.” Riley leaned back. “I just meant—”
“Bella never sent the text. She didn’t want me to know they were going to Energii!” Megan continued. “She was jealous of me because I was becoming a better dancer than she was! She thought I would take her place in the Bells and be Isabelle’s best friend!”
Maybe that was true.
“Or maybe she just doesn’t like you,” Riley said.
Trina gasped.
“I mean, I don’t know!” Riley backtracked. “Just saying. But what difference does it really make? You wouldn’t have gone with them anyway.”
Megan opened her mouth—and shut it again.
“You wouldn’t have gone with them, would you have? I mean, we’d already made the Squad. The Bunheads made the Squad.” Riley’s eyes narrowed as Megan didn’t respond. “You would have gone with the Bells?”
“I didn’t say that!” Megan rolled her eyes.
“But you didn’t NOT say that!” Riley said. “Did you want to go with them? Did you want to take Bella’s place in the Bells and be Isabelle’s best friend?! Instead of mine? She was right! You would have ditched us!”
“I-I didn’t say that!” Megan stammered. “I didn’t—I mean I don’t even! I’m going to the bathroom!”
Megan jumped up. Just as a team of dancers passed by after their musical theater routine. Megan knocked into one of them, who stumbled back—and stepped down with her high heels . . .
Right on Riley’s hand.
CHAPTER
21
Why did it have to be a character shoe?” Lily moaned. “That heel must have really hurt!”
“I know,” I said miserably.
Riley had let out a scream that stopped everything in the entire room. Her mother had raced over and whisked her out the door, and Vanessa had followed them. We’d been sitting on the floor ever since.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Megan said.
Nobody responded. We halfheartedly stretched in silence.
Then Vanessa came back in the room. She came over to us.
“The good news is Riley’s hand will be okay. It’s bruised and painful,” she said. “But she’s cleared to dance.”
We all exhaled with relief.
“Riley assured me it was an accident.” Vanessa paused. “But sometimes carelessness is an issue. So it might be best to pull the number.”
“NO!” Megan and I both shouted.
“It’s our first chance to perform,” Megan said. “We really want to dance.”
“I don’t know,” Vanessa hedged. “Riley cannot put pressure on her hand. And that’s part of the choreography. The other option is we run the number without Riley.”
I thought about what Vanessa had told me. Speak up! Step up to the plate.
“Vanessa, we only want to dance as a team,” I said. “We should only dance if you’ll let Riley do it.”
“Well—”
“We’ll rechoreograph it!” I continued. “Trina can teach it to her quickly. You know Trina is a good teacher.”
“Well,” Vanessa said. “That would mean taking out Riley’s hand-walking, and we have to replace Riley and Megan’s partner trick. Hm. Lily may be able to fill in for the hand-walking.”
Lily made a panicky face. I knew she could do it, though. She was athletic and even stronger than ever.
“What is most problematic is the partner trick,” Vanessa continued. “It’s a highlight of the dance.”
That was the challenge. Megan and Riley’s partnering section was one of the most impressive, showiest parts of the dance and would get us points for performance and difficulty. I knew we needed something that would be as, if not more, showstopping.
And I had an idea. I thought back to that first class we’d taken, when I’d had to do the lyrical freestyle competition. The one where Megan had rolled under me and I had spun and kicked right over her. The one that had made everyone gasp and resulted in my winning the freestyle competition.
I quickly explained what I was thinking.
“You know, that could work,” Vanessa said, nodding. “I’m not saying yes. But I’m not saying no. Let me go see when Riley’s hand will be bandaged and ask her mother.”
She left.
“Okay! So it looks like—”
“I have to go to the girls’ room!” Megan said. She fled.
“Do you think we should help her?” I asked.
“Help her go to the bathroom?” Trina asked.
“I think it was more than that,” I said. “I think we should go check on her.”
We all went down the hallway to the bathroom. When we got there, a girl was running out, looking terrified.
“I wouldn’t go in there,” the girl warned. “This girl in there? Hissed at me. Really scary.”
“Uh-oh. Megan.” Trina shook her head. “I’m not going in there.”
“I will.” I sighed. I pushed the door open. “Um. Megan? It’s me.”
Megan groaned from inside a stall. “Just leave!”
“Look. I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s going on.”
“Didn’t you hear Vanessa?” Megan spat. “She knows. She knows I caused it.”
“Megan, she said she thinks it was an accident. It really was an accident,” I said. “We all know it.”
“You all know that if Riley and I hadn’t been fighting, it wouldn’t have happened,” Megan said. “It’s like everything is going wrong on this team.”
“We know,” I said. “Riley is okay. We all will be okay—if you get up and dance.”
“We’re losing two of our most impressive
moves,” Megan said. “Our routine will be weak. Vanessa’s probably right. We shouldn’t perform. We’re just going to humiliate ourselves in front of . . . everybody.”
At that moment, the door of the girls’ room flew open.
“By ‘everybody,’ you mean the Bells.” Trina had come in. “That’s all you care about. Seriously, if you want to go join Energii, just go already. They’re right down the hall; go join them.”
“It’s not that . . . ,” Megan said, almost crying. “Well, maybe that’s a little true. I don’t want to go with the Bells. I want to stay with this school! We’ve been here forever. And I want to stay with the Bunheads!”
I felt bad.
“And you want to stay with the Bells, too,” I said. Then I realized something. “You’re actually a loyal person, aren’t you? You wanted everyone together. Look, I know you feel abandoned. But we’re still here for you.”
“I just wish . . . I wish everything could be the way it was,” Megan said softly.
“I know what you mean.” I leaned against a sink. “Change is . . . weird. I left my team and my friends, and I have to start all over on this team. I have to be honest, it’s not going so great so far.”
“I knew it! You’re ditching us! You’re going to join Energii too, aren’t you, Harper?” Trina moaned.
“What? No!” I said. That thought hadn’t even crossed my mind! Well, since after the parade, when I confirmed their auditions were completely closed. “You know what? There’s only one reason I will ditch. And that’s if we give up. What’s the point of being on a competition dance team if we don’t compete—or dance?”
The door to the bathroom stall swung open. Megan came out. Her eyes were red, but she wasn’t crying.
“That actually is a good point,” she said. “I do not give up. We’ll dance. We’ll compete.”
“Yay!” Trina clapped her hands.
“Well, if Riley will dance,” I added. “She was pretty upset. And her whole hand and everything.”
“I’ll just tell Riley she has to dance,” Megan said fiercely.
“I don’t know that Riley is going to take your orders just like that anymore.” Trina crossed her arms. Yowch. Looked like Trina wasn’t going to take it anymore either.
“I’ll ask Riley to dance,” Megan amended. Trina nodded.
“Let’s go find Riley,” I said. “Lily! We’re coming out. Move away from the door!”
The Audition Page 13