“Look who’s here!” Eliza called out.

“HARPER!”

I got the coolest greeting ever imagined. Some of my old dance team, and only a few new ones I hadn’t recognized. Some I’d gone to school with. A girl hugged me and more came over to say hi.

Some kids were classmates at my old middle school, others I knew just from the dance studio.

“Oh my gosh, when did you come back?” someone else asked.

“How’s life in Florida?” my old neighbor Caty asked.

“It’s cool, actually,” I said.

“Don’t you mean ‘warm’?” she joked. Everyone groaned.

“Yeah, that is so weird,” I said. “We wore shorts for Thanksgiving! It feels way more normal to be here in winter.”

“Well, they can’t be up on the latest dances like we are up here,” another dancer commented. I recognized her as someone from the junior squad.

“In a way—they have their own style. It’s different, but it’s no less cool,” I told them. “Dancing is huge there, too. We have great dancers.”

“She’s right! Her team was amazing yesterday!” Eliza said. Then she smiled mischievously. “I do have to point out that we did beat you.”

“OOOOoooooh.” Everyone laughed.

“Bring it,” I shot back. “That was just practice. Also, I was the one who taught you how to do that turn, so your victory is partially mine.”

Everyone laughed again. I cracked a smile, unsure if it was betraying my friends.

Then I laughed as hard as everyone else. But they were just kidding around. No need to take any offense.

One or two people were already dancing, teaching one another new dance moves and practicing with one another.

“This is such a good idea for a party,” I told Eliza, looking around as I folded my slice of pepperoni. You know what else is a good idea? New York pizza.”

“Yeah, this is something new we started about six months ago,” she explained as she scooped extra cheese balls onto her plate. “It’s already helping two students stay on here, when before they wouldn’t have been able to.”

“That’s amazing,” I said, touched by the story.

Kelly, a girl who had been in a few of my classes but I didn’t know well, walked over and joined the conversation. She was one of the people who danced a lot with Eliza though.

“So, congrats on qualifying for round two! That’s sooo great!” She congratulated me as though she were overacting. There was something weird about it, but I shrugged it off.

Beyond high-fiving each other, Eliza and I hadn’t really spoken about what had happened, even about the fact that we were kind of in a fierce competition here. I wasn’t about to examine why we didn’t go there, but something was telling us to stay on safer topics. My neighbor was about to mess up that unspoken agreement between Eliza and me. So I changed the subject.

“So how crazy was it that Trey Thompson MCed the competition today?!” I said.