Chapter Twenty-One
Carly
I’ve never performed in front of such a large audience before.
I don’t think my heart has ever pounded this strongly or my knees have shaken so badly.
I wish there were bright lights to block out everyone’s faces, but in a way, I’m glad I can see my family and friends.
Because like I said before, they pump me with confidence.
I have no idea why the music isn’t playing yet. The team has been in our starting position for what feels like ages—though it’s probably only a minute—and with each passing nanosecond, I feel like my insides might explode. This wait is pure agony.
When I glance at Addie and Naya, I find that they, too, are beyond anxious.
And then I allow my eyes to make their way to Ryder.
I almost startle when I find his gaze glued to mine, as though he was waiting—and hoping?
—for me to look at him. He gives me a reassuring smile and then mouths, “You’ll be awesome. ”
I just gape at him, my stomach getting all squished. All these emotions coursing through my body right now? It’s way too much. I think I might actually explode.
The music finally starts and my legs move on their own.
I push any thought of Ryder and those beautiful eyes and that lazy smile out of my head and focus on the routine.
The energy the team is producing is so profound that it encases us in a bubble and makes the audience disappear.
It doesn’t matter who or what is outside of our bubble.
All that matters is what is happening inside.
And from what I can tell? We’re on fire.
We move in nearly perfect synchronization, our movements sharp and precise, our jumps timed perfectly, our arms and legs swooshing through the air with the right amount of force.
The two minutes flash by in the blink of an eye, and then I find myself in my ending position with my chest huffing and puffing.
The bubble disintegrates, and the audience claps, cheers, and whistles.
My friends and family are on their feet, whooping and applauding, and it makes me feel like I’m on top of the world.
We wave and hurry off the stage, and then waste no time flinging our arms around each other and congratulating each other on an amazing job.
I grab Naya and Addie, and a few other dancers I can fit in my arms, and squeal and jump along with them.
There’s so much adrenaline in this room, I swear we can shoot to the moon.
“Amazing, amazing!” Coach Moreno says as she hugs each and every one of us. “I’m so proud of you. You worked so hard and deserve this.”
“You think we placed?” Naya asks with huge, hopeful, and excited eyes.
“How can we not?” I ask. “Your smile itself is sure to send us to first place.”
She laughs. “Thanks. It was so hard not to look at the audience to see my mom’s reaction. I hope she liked our routine.”
“You kidding?” Addie says. “She loved it.”
“I hope so! I just want her to be proud of me.”
I hug her again. “Of course she’s proud of you.”
I search around the area for a certain male dancer and find him surrounded by a group of girls, including a few from other teams. They’re all gushing how incredible he was, and it looks like the girls from the other teams want to snatch him away and put him on their team.
Do I need to march over there and tell them to keep their paws off of him because the only place he belongs is on the Harrington Bay Academy dance team?
I want to slap myself. Seriously, am I really worried he’ll ditch us? He’d never do that. And even if he wanted to, he can’t. Unless he switches schools. Wait a sec, would he…?
Oh my gosh. What the heck is going on in my brain?
Naya, Addie, and I spend the rest of the competition watching funny videos on social media.
One might think the anxiety is gone because our performance is over, but the hardest part is yet to come.
If the team doesn’t qualify at this competition, we won’t be able to compete in any more this year.
We’re late to the game and need to make up a lot of ground.
“We’ll make it,” Addie assures me as she wraps her arm around my shoulder. “That was a sick routine, Carly. There’s no way in heck the other teams beat us.”
Naya nods. “Agreed.”
The logical part of my brain knows that. But you really never know. I’m aware of some of the mistakes my teammates and I have made, and all those could be deductions…
Nope. I’m not going to drive myself crazy like this. The performance is over and I can’t change anything. I have no choice but to await our fate.
There aren’t that many teams after us, but it feels like we’re here for days. Finally, finally, the last team performs and then the scores are shown on the large screen.
My heart sinks when I don’t see our team’s name in the top three. And it sinks further and further as my eyes scan down the list. We’re not fourth, fifth, sixth, or even tenth. We’re fifteenth, the last team to qualify.
“What?” I whisper, shock freezing my blood flow. “We’re last?”
Addie frowns with creased brows as she stares at the screen. “There’s no way. We were much better than that.”
When I look at the rest of the team, I see all of them confused and dejected. Coach Moreno also seems confused, but she also appears to have some sort of understanding.
“Everyone, gather around,” she calls.
There’s so much cheering and excited chatter around us from the other teams. Some of them congratulate us on qualifying, and we return the congratulations, although it’s obvious we’re all pretty down by the results.
“I know this feels like a setback,” Moreno says once we’re gathered in a circle. “But don’t be hard on yourselves. You did a wonderful job and qualified! That’s a cause for celebration.”
“But I thought my routine was good,” I say, my chest feeling like it’s full of lead. “I worked so hard. We worked so hard. And we barely made it?”
“We’re a young team,” Moreno explains. “You all did a stupendous job and the routine was great. We’re slightly behind the other teams in technique, and unfortunately, the judges saw that during the performance. We have some kinks to work out, but don’t worry, we’ll get there.”
I scan every member of my team, noticing how upset and broken they all look.
As captain, it’s my job to make them feel better.
So putting on a smile, I say, “This is what we need to light a fire under our butts. We just became a team two weeks ago while other teams have been together for months, maybe even years. Look what we accomplished! We qualified for the next dance competition. Our hard work and determination have paid off. If we could achieve this in only two weeks, imagine what we could accomplish in the next month!”
I can see the confidence growing in most of my teammates’ expressions. Our coach’s words are true, and so are mine. We might be behind other teams, but that doesn’t mean we can’t beat them. All we need to do is push through and push each other. We can achieve anything we put our minds to.
We smile at one another and congratulate each other on our fantastic performance. After a group hug, we disperse to meet with our families and friends.
As soon as I see my parents, I rush into their arms. They and my brother tell me over and over how awesome I was and how proud they are of me.
They can’t wait to see our next performance.
Dad gives me an extra hug, as though he’s telling me that he wishes he could give me the world, but he also needs to be practical.
I kiss his cheek, letting him know I understand.
And then my friends squish me to death.
“You all were like goddesses on the stage,” Sophie tells me and Addie. “And a god,” she says with a laugh, nodding to Ryder, who is exchanging hugs with my parents and doing a dude hug with Blake.
“I recorded the whole thing,” Raven tells us with a grin. “I need to rewatch it because it went by so fast.”
“Thanks, Raven. We’ll need to study and analyze our performance to figure out what we did wrong,” I say.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Raven says. “I don’t know why you were last place. In my opinion, you were better than many of the other teams.”
“Thanks, but the judges look at the technical side of the routine, too,” I inform her.
“We’ll get there,” Addie says with a reassuring smile. “The whole team has confidence in you.”
“Thanks.”
It suddenly dawns on me that I didn’t have a chance to congratulate Ryder. I was able to catch a glimpse of him here and there during the performance and I saw that he was doing a phenomenal job. But when I look around, I don’t see him anywhere.
“Have you seen Ryder?” I ask my friends.
They raise their shoulders, telling me they don’t know where he went. When I ask my brother, he tells me he has no idea where he is, either.
Hmm, strange. But I’ll have a chance to congratulate him later. In the meantime, I celebrate with my friends and family.