“Your performance was one of my faves,” he said with such honesty.

“Thank you,” said Riley, all heart-eyes. “Thank you, Trey Thompson.”

When we posed for a photo with him, you don’t have to guess who stood right next to Trey.

“And you guys made fun of me for saying I would meet Trey!” Riley suddenly turned on us.

“They did?” Trey said. “Well, let this be a lesson that dreams can come true.”

“You’re right, Riley,” I said seriously. “We were wrong.”

“Also, we should probably announce the winners,” Trey said gently. Oops!

We grinned and said cheese and floated off the stage in a state of euphoria. Dragging Riley with us. As we sat down onstage, I realized there was one name I had yet to hear. I hoped I would hear it now, for first place.

“And now, our top spot,” Trey announced. He paused, dragging out the suspense. “Come on up, Dance City of Connecticut, and get your first-place qualifier medals and trophy!”

Wow. Eliza and the team actually did it.

“Whooo!” I shouted, clapping for my good friend. Her team had come with their A-game and nabbed the top prize. I was impressed.

If only my teammates were half as impressed. They clapped politely. Megan looked pointedly at me cheering loudly for Eliza.

“The competition is not over,” Megan muttered. “We still have the chance to knock Dance City out of the top spot and be the overall winner tomorrow.”

I just ignored Megan and kept on clapping, But I did agree with her that it wasn’t over. We’d gone big, so we were not going home . . . yet.

After the competition, Vanessa had another surprise in store.

“Girls, I have a treat for you,” Vanessa said. “This is not only a reward for all of your hard work, but it’s inspiration and motivation.”

“I wonder what this could be,” I said. “Maybe we are going to see Hamilton? Or Dear Evan Hansen?”

Lily laughed. “I wish! Those tickets are super hard to get right now!”

“Hey, we can dream!” I said.

We walked for a bit until we saw the famous sign: RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL.

“Ooooh, are we going to see the Rockettes?” I yell. We all start cheering.

The Rockettes is one of the most famous dance companies in the world. Just seeing Radio City Music Hall was an inspiration.

Vanessa laughed. “Even better. You are going to dance with them!”

We all stood there, stunned. Then we burst into more cheers. Dance? With the Rockettes? What?!

I was so excited!!

“Have you ever done this before?” Lily asked. I shook my head no. This was going to be AWESOME!

We were greeted by one of the tour people, who welcomed us and showed us around a little bit.

“Hi, everyone! I’m Matt.” He gave us a cheerful wave.

“I want to give you a little history of the company before you go on to do this dance experience,” he explained. “So the Rockettes are a precision dance company that has been performing since 1933 with their most famous show, the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.”