And she was totally right. I’d never had Turkish food before. The chicken kebab plate I ordered was so good! Like, how could I have made it through life without this deliciousness? I felt like calling my parents and demanding they answer that question. I pulled out my phone to take a picture of my food. Then I paused.

I’d missed two texts while we were underground: from my dad and from Zora asking me how New York was. Which made me realize: Eliza still hadn’t returned my text messages. I’d sent her three. In the first one, I’d asked where she’d gone. I mean, I’d thought she’d wait for me to finishing taking those team photos. But when I’d looked up, she’d disappeared. The next text was to send her a link to an article posted on a dancers’ website about the nationals that featured a photo of Dance City midperformance. And the third text was sent just to ask her if she was okay. It wasn’t like her to ghost me like that.

She really must’ve been ghosting me on purpose.

Eliza must have been sitting all in her feelings about my walking away from that photo, and the thought made me feel uneasy.

“What’s the matter, Harper? Is it the food?” Vanessa asked.

“No.” I tried to laugh it off and play it cool. “The food is amazing.”

“Well, finish up, because we want to get in enough time hanging out at the rink.”

“We have to leave already?” Megan asked. “Wait, does the subway run at night? Is it really dark down there?”

“We can take a taxi back,” Vanessa told her.

“Whew!” Megan burst out. “I mean, okay, cool.”

“But first, a toast. Here’s to the most talented, hardest-working team I’ve ever had the pleasure of taking to nationals,” said Vanessa.

“Hear, hear!” the moms replied, bursting with pride. This was a big moment for them, too.

Together with all of our parents, they were our number one fans.

No one celebrated our wins like they did. I was so grateful to my parents and to Hailey for cheering me on every step of the way, all the way to nationals.

“Riley and I came up with a fabulous idea to celebrate,” Riley’s mother said.

Riley picked up a spoon and pretended it was a mic.

“DanceStarz Squad, you’ve just earned top honors at the forty-fourth annual dance nationals. What are you going to do now . . . since we’re outside of Florida and too far from Disney World?”

“We’re going ice-skating!” she announced. “At the famous rink at Rockefeller Center!

“Well . . .” Vanessa held up a finger. “Not all of you can skate. Sorry, Megan and Harper, but you know the rules. No risky activities before competition.”

Ugh. I knew that rule was meant to protect us.

“Oh dear, I hadn’t thought of that,” Riley’s mother said.

Vanessa caught sight of Megan’s pout. “No exceptions.”

“Well, now my daughter is left out of the celebration?” Megan’s mother frowned at Riley’s mother. Uh-oh.