“Ladies and gentleman, was that an amazing morning of excellent performances or what?” Trey hyped up the crowd.

“Yeaahhhhh!” One cheerer was way louder than everyone else. I grinned at Riley. I actually appreciated her enthusiasm for Trey—it was cracking me up and taking the edge off my nerves.

“Performers, you hear that applause? That’s every one of us in this place saying that you all are winners.” The applause grew in intensity as Trey pumped his fist. “Let them hear it, yes?”

“Aw, thanks, Trey!” Riley called out, as if they were the only two people in the room.

“Without further ado, we have the envelope with the judges’ tallies and the three top-scoring teams who will return tomorrow for the final round of group competition.”

The mood changed. There were audible gasps as all the dancers got serious. This was it.

We all held one another’s hands and sat closer together.

“Our first nationals results,” Megan whispered fiercely.

“From Trey Thompson.” Riley sighed happily. Megan shot her a look that definitely tried to put her priorities straight. The top ten teams were announced. We were not numbered ten through four. So that meant we’d either placed or were completely shut out. And gone. And sent away. Okay, Harper, pull yourself together, I told myself.

“In third place, hailing all the way from Arizona, the Scottsdale Steppers!”

The group leapt up from their spot and didn’t stop jumping until the trophy was in their arms. It was such a display of pure emotion, you couldn’t help but smile and feel happy for them. They accepted their day one qualifying medals and posed for a photo with Trey.

“I almost started jumping up and down with them!” he said. That guy was all in. I was starting to appreciate him. Not as much as Riley did, though.

Two more slots to go.

“Let’s keep this celebrations going, shall we?” He flashed a dimpled smile, which of course was followed by low-key swooning. “In second place, representing Florida . . .”

“Florida!” Trina burst out. “We’re from Florida! Is anyone else from Florida?”

We gripped each other’s hands and practically bit our tongues not to cheer prematurely, just in case those medals were meant for another lucky team from Florida that we didn’t know existed.

“. . . the Squad, of DanceStarz Academy!”

AHHHHHHH!!!

We placed! At NATIONALS! I could see Vanessa and the moms standing up and cheering for us wildly.

We all jumped up and went to get our trophy. The crowd cheered with so much gusto, we felt the need to wave our thanks to them when we got onstage.

Megan held her hands out to take the trophy, but Riley basically tripped her to get to Trey first.

“The pull of Trey is too strong,” I whispered to Lily, who giggled as Riley grasped the trophy but didn’t take it out of Trey’s hands, trying to prolong the moment. I think he was used to dealing with fans.