The Audition

by Maddie Ziegler

  I waited and pushed open the door. Lily stepped back away from it. Megan and Trina went out ahead of me, and Megan put her arm around Trina affectionately.

  “How did you know I was eavesdropping?” Lily waited for me. We followed the other two down the hallway.

  “I could see your eyeball,” I joked. “You could have come in. You’re part of the team. I wanted you to hear that, anyway.”

  “No way. I was terrified.” Lily laughed. Then she got serious. “I hope we can dance. The only thing more humiliating than dancing badly is to not be allowed to dance at all.”

  “Lily’s right.” Megan turned around. “Let’s make this happen.”

  Lily and I grinned at each other.

  We went back to the changing room. And Riley was there!

  “Riley!” We all rushed at her. Megan and Trina went to hug her.

  “Careful of the hand!” her mother cautioned us. Riley held up a hand wrapped in a bulky tan bandage wrap.

  “You know that was an accident,” Megan said. “And I’m sorry. About everything.”

  “Oh,” Riley said. “Oh, good! That’s good.”

  “May I hug you too?” Lily asked her. Riley nodded. Aw. I joined them in a big group hug.

  “Team hug!” Trina squealed. “I am so emotional right now!”

  “Gross. Hugs,” a voice said behind me.

  I broke free to see my sister standing behind me. Riley’s sister was next to her.

  “Stop the hugfest and let’s focus on the real issue,” Hailey said. She held up a pair of scissors.

  And before I realized what she was doing, she cut off one of my ribbons. Everyone gasped.

  “HAILEY!” My jaw dropped. “What are you doing?!”

  “We had a brilliant idea,” Hailey said. “Don’t worry, Vanessa told us we should do it. Trina, don’t move.”

  She clipped off one of Trina’s side ribbons as Riley’s sister, Quinn, explained.

  “Riley, we know how much you love your costumes,” she said. “So we want to cover up that ugly hand thing. You can wrap the ribbons around your hand and it will match!”

  That was so sweet! Riley looked touched. She hugged her sister. Then she hugged mine: a huge, smothering hug. Hailey’s face looked desperate.

  “Your sister’s being squashed,” Lily whispered to me.

  “Hailey’s not a big hugger,” I said to her, and we both cracked up when Hailey poked her head under Riley’s arm and mouthed to me: Help!

  “Riley,” I said. “We should get ready.”

  “Okay,” she said, letting a relieved Hailey go. Hailey grabbed Quinn’s wrist and they raced out of the room.

  We all helped Riley prop up her arm and wrap the ribbons around her hand. Megan took over at the end and tied the ribbons together around her wrist with an adorable bow.

  “This actually looks cute,” Riley said.

  “Maybe you can add it to your fashion line,” Lily said. “Dance gloves by Riley.”

  “Super cute,” Megan said.

  “Now we just need Vanessa to tell us we can dance.”

  “But I can’t do all the moves,” Riley said, worried.

  “Here’s the plan,” I said. I told them how Vanessa had suggested Lily do the hand-walking instead. Lily apologized to Riley for taking her trick, but Riley looked relieved. And then I told them my other idea. “Instead of Riley and Megan’s partner trick, Riley, you’ll join the trio and Megan and I will do our partner trick.”

  As I explained, I could tell Riley felt a little sad.

  “As soon as you’re better, you can do your partner trick with Megan,” I reassured her.

  “Thanks.” Riley seemed to appreciate it. “Actually, this is kind of good. It’s something the Bells haven’t seen before, unlike Megan’s and my trick, which Isabelle actually taught us in the first place.”

  “Oh!” Megan said. “That is true.”

  “And it’s something they can’t do—because the Bells can’t pirouette nearly as well as Harper,” Riley said. “So that’s a good idea.”

  Lily caught my eye and smiled at me.

  “Let’s walk it through. If we can do this, Vanessa will have to let us dance,” Megan said. She got up, took a deep breath—and went back into queen-bee mode. She went to a corner of the room where some dancers were sitting and waiting. I don’t know what she said, but they jumped up and moved and she had commandeered a space for us to do a run-through. She started giving us orders.

  We walked through the dance. Where Riley and Megan’s partner section originally had been, Riley was now going to take my part and move to the back. Lily, Riley, and Trina would pose off to the sides, and Megan and I would move to the front of the stage.

  I would be doing my turn series. Megan would do a high jump and then slide right toward me. At the last minute, she would go right into an arch, and I would straighten my leg as I turned to kick right over her.

  It was going to be tricky to get the timing right.

  “You do know if you miss the timing, you’ll kick me in the face,” Megan said.

  “Yeah,” I said. “So it’s a win-win.”

  It took everyone a second. Then I started laughing.

  “I’m joking!” I said.

  “You better be,” Megan said, but she was grinning too.

  I was happy to lighten the mood for a second. Because soon, it was going to get intense. Just this partnering trick alone was a challenge.

  If it worked, it was going to be really impressive. But if it didn’t . . . I shuddered. I didn’t want to think about that. We ran through it a couple times. There wasn’t enough space to actually do it, but we talked through our timing the best we could.

  And when Vanessa came in, she looked at us and we knew she agreed with our decision.

  We were going to dance.

  CHAPTER

  22

  C  ALL TIME!

  There would be two more dances and then—we’d be on. We waited silently off in the wings.

  Energii was onstage now, but Megan had instructed us to face the other way so we couldn’t sneak peeks. She didn’t want us to be intimidated by their dance. After they were done, the crowd cheered super loud.

  Uh, yeah, that was intimidating.

  Then Energii came running out, excited, right past us. Isabelle stopped near Megan and opened her mouth to say something.

  “DON’T EVEN.”

  To everyone’s surprise, that was Trina. Trina had gotten right in Isabelle’s face.

  Isabelle obviously was surprised too. She stepped back and smirked, but then continued on without saying anything.

  “Nice,” Megan whispered to Trina. “Let’s huddle.”

  We huddled in a circle.

  “Okay,” Megan said. “Remember the corrections Vanessa gave us.”

  I thought about my most recent corrections: Don’t tense up my face. Really stretch through my feet.

  “Remember to connect with the audience,” Trina whispered.

  “And watch your feet,” I whispered.

  “Be high energy,” Riley whispered.

  “And powerful,” Lily said.

  “Okay! It’s our first time dancing together at a competition,” Trina said. “That’s really special. We’ve learned to work together as a team. . . .”

  She paused and looked at Riley’s hand.

  “We’re learning to work together as a team.” Trina changed it. “We’re here to represent Vanessa and DanceStarz Squad. Let’s be thankful for this opportunity to dance! Let’s tell our story in our dance.”

  And we all did our new ritual.

  We’d made it up as a team. No Bells, no Bunheads, and definitely no plugging your nose and making swim movements. Hee.

  We whispered:

  “Dance!”

  And did a little dance.

  “Starz!”

  We fluttered our fingers like sparkling stars.

  Then we leaned into a huddle and whispered:

  “S
quad!”

  I stepped back. I wanted to have a few seconds for myself, to get into my zone. I closed my eyes. I could feel my heartbeat, my adrenaline racing. I closed my eyes and tried to picture myself dancing perfectly. I would hold my head high. I would point my toes! I’d loosen up my face and stretch through my feet! I’d be perfect with my leap! My turns! My . . . my . . . my . . . my . . .

  And suddenly, I couldn’t remember my dance.

  I couldn’t remember my dance! I couldn’t remember my dance!

  The dancers who were on before us came running off the stage. It was our turn! We were up next and I couldn’t remember my dance!

  “I can’t remember my dance!” I whispered.

  Of all people, Megan looked at me.

  “Me neither,” she said. Then she looked hard at me. “We’ll be fine.”

  The announcer’s voice boomed through the backstage.

  “Please welcome to the stage, DanceStarz with the contemporary routine: ‘Awaken’!”

  I felt my adrenaline practically burst through my body, and I walked onstage in a line with my team.

  I took my place in the formation. My heart was pounding. I took a deep breath. And the music began.

  And I danced.

  Most of it was a blur. I didn’t pay any attention to the audience, or the judges in front of me making notes, or anything except my teammates and the dance. I just let my body feel the music and do the steps we’d be rehearsing, letting my muscle memory take over. But just before we got to the part we changed today, I jumped into focus. This was it.

  As we planned, Riley took a few steps back. I went up to center stage to prep for my turn series.

  At first, it was a normal turn series. I did a pirouette and then another. Then I did a kick spin. This was where we had to get the timing PERFECT.

  Megan did a leap toward me. Just like in our lyrical improv, it looked like she was going to crash into me. I actually heard the audience gasp. Then Megan slid forward on the ground so that she was right underneath my leg. Just as my leg would have hit her, she melted down into a hinge.

  I twirled with my leg horizontal over her—and then she popped up. Then I twirled back over her, and she ducked down, over and over again. I finished with a turn holding my leg high and straight, with Megan underneath me, and held it for a few seconds.

  We did it!

  I grinned and then moved to the next combination 500 percent full-out. We were really connecting as a group and I felt our energy. I did the jumps and the poses and the moves.

  This was why I danced! I felt like I was showing my passion for the audience, for the judges, and for myself. I was in the zone!

  Then the music ended. I dropped to the floor and held my final pose.

  And we were done!

  I was breathing hard as I jumped up. I placed my hands behind my back and walked out in line behind my team. From the corner of my eye, I could see Hailey giving us a standing ovation, and parents smiling and applauding. I looked for Vanessa, but I couldn’t see where she was with the lights shining on me.

  When we got offstage and into the back room, we all exploded.

  “We did it!”

  “YESSS!”

  We were all jumping around, throwing our arms around each other. “That was so good!”

  “DanceStarz Squad!” Lily cheered.

  We went into our ritual, ending by blowing a kiss to one another.

  “I messed up a step.” Megan frowned.

  “I bobbled on my turns,” I said at the same time.

  No matter how well I did, I always found myself critiquing what I could have done better afterward. Looked like Megan was the same way.

  “But you guys killed it on your partner section!” Lily said.

  Megan and I lit up.

  “I know. I was like this!” I lifted my leg.

  “And I slid so close to your leg perfectly—one more inch and I’d have knocked you over!” Megan said. “And then I hinged just in time—”

  “So when I kicked over you—”

  “I popped up at exactly the right time!” Megan said.

  We grinned at each other.

  “And Riley, I can’t believe you danced so amazingly with an injured hand!” I said.

  Riley smiled too.

  “And Lily rocked her handstands! And we couldn’t have done any of this without Trina and her choreo!”

  “Aw!” Trina said. “And you guys executed my new choreo perfectly! We were really in sync.”

  We all just stood there. I savored the moment, sinking in that we had just performed. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

  This was what it was all about. It didn’t even matter if we won or what place we came in. This feeling was everything, and we didn’t even need to know.

  CHAPTER

  23

  JUST KIDDING!

  I totally wanted to know!

  After you dance at some competitions, there might be a lot of time, and you can go chill in the dressing room or sit in the audience and watch the other dances. But today, we were one of the last teams to perform, so we waited offstage.

  The judges would be tallying their score sheets. A table would be set up onstage with all of the trophies.

  But it wasn’t long before a voice came over the loudspeaker through the building:

  “Dancers, you are now welcome to join us onstage for awards.”

  We all went onstage. Lily started to go to the front of the stage, but Megan and I looked at each other knowingly, and I held her arm to wait. Rookie mistake. Everyone wants to be in the front, especially the little kids and the bigger studios, who would end up all crowded together. We waited until it calmed down, and then found a spot where we could all still see what was going on, but had room for us to stretch our legs out. I had a spot between Lily and Riley, with Megan and Trina next to us.

  We had just settled down when a large group filed in and started to plop down right in front of us.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Megan muttered.

  Yes, Energii. The Bells not-so-coincidentally sat right in front of Megan and Riley.

  “Hey!” I protested as Bella sat down practically on my legs.

  “Oh, sooorry,” Bella said fakely. “Just making sure I didn’t crush Riley’s hand—like her own teammate did.”

  Megan froze.

  “Ignore her,” I whispered in her ear. But I stretched my leg out a little farther, giving Bella a tiny kick. Oopsie!

  Fortunately, music came on to get everyone pumped up for the awards. We all started floor-dancing along to the music. I waved my arms in the air, then caught a glimpse of my sister, Hailey, in the audience, standing up and dancing around. I waved to her and she waved back.

  “I’m so nervous,” Lily said.

  “It’s intense,” I agreed. “But so exciting that these are your first awards ever!”

  The awards started!

  Awards are announced by category. First, the little kids went, so we all applauded for them. Then it was time for our category!

  “Put your hands together for our junior groups,” the announcer said.

  Different dance competitions have different awards they give out. But in most of them, they first announce each dance style and the winners in that category. Then after each category has been announced, the top scorers in each genre compete for the top three.

  The first junior category was hip-hop. We cheered as teams were given bronze, silver, gold, or platinum awards. The next was musical theater. We cheered for them, too.

  Then they announced lyrical. In front of us, the Energii dancers all grabbed hands and squealed when their name was called:

  “. . . Energii! DOUBLE PLATINUM!”

  That was the highest you could get. It was really impressive. We all were applauding as one of their teammates went to collect a really big trophy.

  I looked over to see how Megan and Riley were reacting. They kept their facial expressions neutral. Isabelle and Bella w
ere happily squealing and hugging their teammates. I didn’t blame them for celebrating. They did really well. Their team passed the trophy down the row. When it got to Isabelle, she grabbed the trophy and pumped it a few times.

  “Double platinum!” Isabelle cheered loudly, holding the trophy right out under Megan’s nose.

  “Congratulations,” Megan said. “That is good.”

  “Good? It’s amazing! It’s the best!” Bella scoffed.

  “I’m SO glad we switched to Energii.” Isabelle waved the trophy at us again.

  “So am I,” Megan muttered.

  “What did you say?” Isabelle said.

  “Nothing,” Megan said. Then she changed her mind. “No, actually, I said, ‘So am I.’ I’m glad you switched too.”

  Bella gasped and Isabelle’s eyes narrowed. Isabelle opened her mouth to say something, but the announcer spoke loudly.

  “May I have your attention now for the next category?”

  The dancer sitting next to Isabelle elbowed her to turn back around, so Isabelle had to leave it at that while the announcer continued.

  “Our next junior category is contemporary!”

  Contemporary! That was us.

  “Oh my gosh,” Trina said, and she reached over to grab Riley’s hand. We all grabbed one another’s hands and waited.

  “I’m flipping out,” Lily whispered to me. I clutched her hand tightly.

  I knew it was only our first time. But we’d put a lot into this dance, and we wanted to represent our new dance team! I knew our families were out there, the younger kids from our studio—and, of course, Vanessa.

  “And DanceStarz is awarded a . . .” The announcer drew out the suspense. “Platinum!”

  Platinum! We all looked at each other in shock. Platinum! That was awesome!

  “Whooo!” We all started cheering. Lily and I started hugging each other. Then the Bunheads basically jumped on us and hugged us too.

  Megan jumped up and went to accept the award.

  “Hi, I’m Megan! I’m from DanceStarz!” she said, grabbing the announcer’s mic.

  Everyone cheered for her. Yay! We were all excited.

  Megan came back over and sat down with the trophy. She passed it down to us as they announced the last category, which was tap.