The Competition
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Acknowledgements
An Excerpt from The Audition
About the Authors
Also by Maddie Ziegler
Copyright
CHAPTER
1
Welcome to . . . regionals!” the announcer’s voice rings throughout the packed convention center.
This is it. Regionals. And all eyes are on us. This is the moment! We are here! My costume is super cute. It’s black and pink, with some flowy ribbons dangling off my shoulders. That sounds weird, but it works. I have a little hat on my head, tilted just right and securely fastened by approximately a thousand bobby pins.
At least I hope it’s securely fastened. That would be bad if my hat fell off, wouldn’t it? Ha! Okay, that’s actually not funny. If my hat falls off, then I might trip over it. Or one of my dance squad might trip over it, and slide all the way across the stage—not just across the stage! Off the stage! Onto the judge’s table, knocking everything over and destroying the entire regionals!
My best friend and teammate, Lily, grabbed my hand and squeezed it hard, snapping me out of my imaginary list of things that could go wrong.
“Harper!” Lily whispered to me. “I think my hat is loose!”
“I was JUST thinking mine was,” I whispered back.
“That’s why we’re best friends,” Lily said. “You understand me.”
Lily and I had become best friends ever since I’d moved to Florida. Lily, who had been new to the team too, was the first person I met, right before we’d auditioned for DanceStarz. I remember when I walked in, I was worried I’d never find my place on the team. The rest of the team, aka the Bunheads—Megan, Riley, and Trina—hadn’t exactly been welcoming at first, to either of us. So Lily and I had bonded over that, and then become true friends, totally on the same page. Like for example, worrying about our hats falling off.
“Were you also thinking you’d trip on it, slide across the stage, and fall on the judges and the competition would come to a screeching halt and the judges would toss you out the door of the building?” I whispered.
“Um, no?” Lily said. “I take it back. I guess I don’t understand you.”
We both cracked up a little.
“Are you two laughing? No laughing!” Megan hissed at us. “This is serious business. Regionals.”
When I’d first met Megan, I’d been intimidated by her. We’d had our ups and downs, but now we had mutual respect for each other’s talent and hard work. We even had fun together. Most of the time.
“First this, and then our duet,” Megan said, looking hard at me. “Serious business.”