Megan did a big swoop with her arm. She overdid her arm reach and tore her long-sleeved leotard, just under her arm. The seam split. She froze.

I couldn’t help it: My first thought was Serves you right. My second thought was what Vanessa said, though—we are partners, and we’re supposed to support each other. My third thought was that if Megan looks bad, I look bad.

My fourth thought was: How do we cover it up? I think that was Megan’s only thought, from her panicky look.

When we spun with our backs to the audience, I mouthed to her: I got you.

I adjusted our dance and took action, positioning myself to cover her holey-ness with my body. Megan regrouped to let me block her. The result was a synchronized mirror image of poses that unfolded pretty well.

We ran offstage. Megan was clutching her arm. Riley and Trina were waiting in the hall, hair in buns, dressed in pink-and-butter-yellow dresses for their duet.

“Megan, you were awesome,” Riley said.

“I can’t believe this happened!” Megan was visibly upset. She ripped off the vest and threw it on the floor. “I’m suing the costume place.”

“Oh, no!” Trina said. “Because they got your name wrong?”

“Huh?” We all looked at her, confused.

Trina picked up the vest off the floor and showed it to us. The label pinned into it said HARPER.

“Wait,” I said. I pulled my vest off. Sure enough, it said MEGAN. No wonder my sleeves didn’t fit—Megan had longer arms than I did.

“Harper wore my outfit, and my sleeve ripped!” Megan wailed. “It screwed up everything.”

“WHAT?” I protested. “You’re the one who grabbed it after your mother’s assistant—”

“Oh. Whatever. That doesn’t matter,” Megan said. “What matters is my leo ripped onstage at regionals.”

I saw Vanessa waving pointedly at us.

“Actually, I think what matters is Riley and Trina’s duet onstage,” I said, tilting my head toward Vanessa.

“Where are your priorities? I am not very happy right now,” Megan snarled.

“I won’t be happy either if our next duet doesn’t take the stage on time,” Vanessa said from behind us. Megan’s face turned white.

“I meant, Riley! Trina! Go, team, go!” Megan recovered quickly.

Megan and I were done, so we went into the audience. All the parents were in seats. My little sister, Hailey, was waving at me to sit next to her. I went up the aisle and started to slide into the seat.

“Not you, Harper,” she said. “I was saving the seat for Megan!”

Blugh. Megan turned around and smirked at me. Hailey loved Megan. Megan was actually really good with younger kids. On the bright side, I didn’t have to sit next to my sister, who wiggled a lot.

I slid into a seat behind my mom. We all watched Riley and Trina do their jazz solo, cheering them on. They did great! Trina was on point as always with her precision and her footwork, and Riley really worked the crowd.