She nodded sharply. “All day.”

“I know it. You were born for this.”

“You were too, girlie.” Eliza gave me another high five. “Let’s show them what we’re all about.”

“Good luck to you and Dance City!”

“Good luck to you and DanceStarz!”

Members of Eliza’s squad had been too busy sprucing up or warming up to notice or care about our chat. But when I turned around and headed back to my camp, it was an entirely different story. Busted, my Squad sprang into action, doing stretches, texting like normal, as if they hadn’t been doing anything else but staring and trying to lip-read my short conversation with Eliza.

“So,” said Megan a snarky tone. “Did she talk to you about the routines she’ll do?”

“What? No, of course not. I would never ask her that.” I frowned at her.

“Oh,” she continued, pretending to be confused by my defensiveness. “Well, did you tell her anything about what we’ll be doing?”

Okay, now I was really annoyed.

“Who would even do that? You and I must not have met before.” I rolled my eyes, offended.

Looking around, I didn’t see Lily, or Trina, or even Riley making a move to intervene. “You guys don’t think I would do that, do you?”

“Of course not,” Lily said. “But . . .”

But? But what?

Megan’s voice rose inches higher than your average speaking decibel. “Well, maybe we just know the Florida Harper and not the Connecticut one all that well.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, both mad and upset.

“It means you’re different here,” Lily said, her eyes looking down.

“I’m the same me I always was!” I protested. “I mean, I’m the old me, which is still the new me! I mean—”

Our squabble drew the attention of a few performers in the closest spot next to us. Thankfully, the performances had begun, and aside from the music, the din of the crowd and the announcer’s voice filled the air with buffering sound.

Megan’s mom set down her sparkle eyeshadow case, paused from doing Trina’s makeup, and walked over. “Okay, girls, there’s no need bickering about this now. Harper is allowed to say hello to a friend—even if it’s a rival performer right before you’re about to dance at the highest level this Squad has ever competed on.”

Thanks, I think?

“Now you two should remind yourself that you’ll be sharing a stage soon, so you better start acting like the teammates I know you are.”

At least she didn’t force us to apologize to one another, as if we were toddlers. I retreated to the farthest corner from everyone and threw on my earbuds. My plan was to zone everyone and everything out—Megan’s wrath, Lily’s disappointment, Trina’s sympathy, Riley’s judgment, Eliza’s expectations. For the next half hour, it was just me and the music on my favorite playlist.

Someone tapped my foot, and my eyes flew open.

“Harper,” said Riley’s mom. “They’ve given the fifteen-minute warning. Let’s head to the stage.”