âO
kay, cut! Get some water!â
Whew. I had never been so grateful for a water break.
Weâd been rehearsing nonstop for nearly an hour, and I was drenched in sweat. Camilla was a great dance team captain, but she didnât go easy on anyone. If she hadnât driven herself even harder than she drove the rest of us, I donât think weâd have been able to stand her.
Maybe I just felt so overworked because I was so new. New to the dance team and new to Southside High. Until the summer before freshman year, my family had lived in the Northside High School district. I always assumed Iâd go to Northside with my middle school friends. But my dad switched jobs that spring, and my parents decided it made sense to move closer to his new office. Weâd be closer to my grandparents that way too, and my aunt and uncle, which made my mom happy.
I had been shocked.
How can Mom and Dad do this to me?
I wondered.
Who wants to move between middle school and high school?
I argued as hard as I could, but in the end parents have the final say. And life wasnât all bad after that. For one thing, our new house was a lot nicer than our old one. I liked being close to my Gran and Gramps and cousins. And I was lucky enough to make a new friend my very first day.
Olivia lived three houses down from our new place, in a big, pretty home on the corner. She and her mom came over with lemonade and a cooler of sandwiches on the day we movedâthe hottest day in the middle of the longest heat wave of the summerâand Olivia instantly made me feel welcome.
âIâm so glad youâre a girl,â she said.
I almost snorted lemonade out my nose. What else would I be?
Olivia laughed. âI mean, Iâm glad youâre a girl my age, so we can be friends. Thereâs nothing but boys on this block. Little boys, not even high school guys. I havenât had a girlfriend within walking distance since, well, forever.â
I could appreciate how Olivia felt. Back home on the north side, my best friend had lived right next door.
Later that afternoon, Olivia helped me unpack my room. Thatâs when she saw all my dance stuff.
âYouâre a dancer!â she said. âSo am I! Oh, this is perfect. I want to try out for Southsideâs dance team this fall, but Iâm too scared to do it by myself. Freshmen hardly ever make the team. Now you can audition with me!â
And thatâs exactly what happened.
When Olivia found out Iâd taken tap and jazz since I was little, she didnât let up. She actually didnât have to work too hardâIâd always wanted to try out for the Northside dance team, but the competition was super tough at my old school. Southsideâs dance team was newer, and I had a better shot at making it. Plus, Olivia convinced me that joining dance team would be the perfect way to meet other Southside kids.
No one was more surprised than I was when I actually made the team. Olivia made it too. The two of us supported each other through the fall and winter, and then there we were. Halfway into spring term, with regionals less than a month away.
I chugged some water and slid down to the gym floor. Olivia collapsed next to me.
âCamillaâs brutal today,â Olivia said. âLookâmy legs are actually twitching!â
âI know,â I agreed. âBut weâre getting better. Arenât we?â
Even though this was just my first year on dance team, I thought we looked pretty good.
Apparently Camilla didnât agree. âListen up, everyone!â she called in a sharp voice. I swear she wasnât even breathing hard. âRegionals are in less than a month, and frankly, weâre not ready. Northsideâs won the last three years, and Iâm damned if theyâre going to walk away with that trophy again this time. This is
our
year!â
Then Camilla got specific. Painfully specific. âAna, your air