“Beautiful!” Jen clapped for me. Yay! Then I got back in line with the other girls.

“Do you have any questions for me?” Jen asked.

I raised my hand.

“What did it feel like when you auditioned and then they called your name and said that you’d made it?” I asked.

“It was the best feeling in the world!” Jen’s face lit up. “I’d worked so hard and wanted it for so long. When they said my name, I screamed. Then I alternated crying with joy and laughing for about two days.”

We all laughed.

“Along with dancing the Spectacular, what’s your favorite part?” Lily asked.

“Performing in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!” Jen said. “Have any of you ever performed in a parade?”

At that, everybody turned to look at me. Because the first time I’d performed in a parade with the Squad, I had—ugh, it was still so embarrassing to say—fallen off the float. I couldn’t help but groan.

“Oh dear, I may have hit a nerve!” Jen read the room.

“My last parade wasn’t the best, but I’m over it.” I laughed.

“She got on TV!” Trina pointed out kindly. “Not falling, I mean. Dancing.”

“Being on TV is another fun bonus of being a Rockette,” Jen said. “We perform on shows a lot. Oh, hello!”

Five more dancers walked in the room, also wearing the leotards and character shoes with high heels.

“We hear there’s an amazing dance team here for nationals,” one of the girls said.

She meant us!

“Do you mind if we join you?” one of them asked. “Would you like to dance the routine Jen taught you with us?”

Mind? We all scrambled excitedly into place.

“Five, six, seven, eight!”

And we danced! Kick! Ball change! I felt like I was a real Rockette! And when I did my strut kicks, I swear I even looked like one!

When it was over, we all started clapping. This was probably the best thing EVER. And we had fun as a group. No fighting, no drama, no weird things about Eliza. It finally felt like we were enjoying ourselves, both onstage and off. I hoped this feeling would keep on going.

CHAPTER

14

After our amazing Rockettes experience, I had one more thing left to do—something I had been looking forward to for a while. It had all been cleared with Vanessa and my parents—I was going to Connecticut to visit my old dance school! People who lived outside New York City usually drove into Manhattan for dinner, not the other way around. Eliza’s mom was willing to bet we’d be headed against traffic both ways.

I hoped she was right.

I was honestly starting to get a little tired. Our schedule had been really busy. And even though we really loved the cool experiences Vanessa set up for us, we had something planned every day outside of the competition. I loved that I was living out so many dreams. But it was both great and exhausting.