Rochelle showed up for her solo rehearsal ten minutes early. She figured it couldn’t hurt to get on Miss Toni’s good side, especially since she had yet to design her costume.

“Well, look who’s here!” Toni said, entering the studio. “I guess the key to getting you to come to class on time is to give you a hip-hop number.”

“Yeah, well, I’m really psyched for it,” Rochelle said, shuffling her feet on the ground.

“Good. Because I have a special surprise for you.”

Rochelle’s eyes lit up. “Am I going to dance with Hayden Finley again?” For the Leaps and Bounds competition, Toni had paired her with a boy, and they’d been hanging out together ever since.

Toni shook her head. “Nope. You and Hayden will have to do your partnering out of the studio,” she said firmly. There was no putting anything past her dance coach. She knew that she and Hayden liked each other—despite the fact that Rochelle had hurt her ankle and messed up their chance to dance together in the competition.

“No duet this time. This one is all yours,” Toni said. “If you think you’re up to it.”

Rochelle nodded. “Oh yeah. Bring it on!”

The door of the studio cracked open. “Hey, y’all!” called a deep voice.

“Come in!” Toni replied. “Rochelle, I’d like you to meet Jerome.”

“So this is the famous Rochelle I’ve heard about,” the man said as he entered the studio. He was wearing the coolest outfit Rochelle had ever seen: black pants and a colorful graphic tee with a black leather jacket over it. “Nice to meet you.”

“It’s Rock,” Rochelle answered, extending her hand to shake.

The man grinned. “Your name says it all. You can call me J. J.”

“J. J. has a fine reputation as a hip-hop choreographer,” Toni explained. “And since that kind of dance is not my specialty, I thought I’d bring in someone to help you really bust some moves.”

J. J. smiled. “I don’t know the first thing about dancing on my toes. But I do know some pretty smooth moves.”

He demonstrated a quick pop and lock and drop it. “I figured we’d mix up some new moves with old school,” he said. “Keep the judges guessing.”

“As long as you keep the judges smiling,” Toni warned him. “I want a winning routine.”

J. J. tipped his baseball cap. “Yes, ma’am!” he said with a wink. “Is she always this pushy, Rock?”

Rock almost said “you better believe it!”—but thought twice since Miss Toni was staring at her. “Miss Toni isn’t pushy. She’s just got strong opinions.”

“And I have not formed an opinion yet about this routine,” she fired back. “So wow me, J. J.—and you, too, Rochelle.”

For two hours, J. J. put Rochelle through her paces. It was a very complicated routine done to a rapid-fire rap song. “Keep on the rhythm,” he yelled. “You’re falling behind the beat. Faster! Faster! Stop being lazy and dragging your feet. I want an explosion. I want to see attitude!”

When she came out of the studio, she was exhausted and dripping sweat. She could barely crawl back to the dressing room.

“I feel like I’ve been through a war,” she panted, collapsing on the bench.

Scarlett tossed her a towel. “I guess the new choreographer Miss Toni hired is tough?”

“Tough?” Rochelle sat up and mopped her face with the towel. “He’s like the guy version of Toni! He’s scary tough.”

“I think he’s really nice,” Gracie interjected.

“How do you know?” Rochelle asked her.

“ ’Cause when I got here after school, Miss Toni introduced me to him.”

“I met him, too,” Anya piped up. “He seems really cool.”

Rochelle shook her head. “I am in serious trouble.”

“Not as much trouble as I am,” Bria said suddenly. She was staring in disbelief at her laptop screen. “They just posted our grades for the science midterm!”

Rochelle sighed. “You know, you worry way too much, Bri. You studied like a maniac, and I’m sure you knocked it out of the park.”

Bria turned the laptop around to show them what it said. There, in big red type, was the letter “F.”

“You failed it?” Scarlett gasped. “How? Why?”

“I have no idea!” Bria cried. “All I know is that my parents are gonna kill me. And there goes the trip to Hollywood. They’ll never let me go now.”

“Maybe you can do some extra credit,” Gracie volunteered. “Like a diorama or a poster or something.”

“That might work in second grade, Gracie, but my science teacher, Ms. Moran, doesn’t believe in extra credit.” Bria buried her head in her hands. “I’m doomed. Doomed, doomed, doomed.”

“I actually think Gracie had a great idea,” Scarlett said.

“I did?” Gracie replied. “I mean, I did! What did I say?”

“You said Bria should do some extra credit—and I think that’s exactly what she should do.” Scarlett turned to Bria. “Just like how you wow those tough judges every competition, you can wow your teacher, too.”

“How?” Bria sighed. “She won’t appreciate my back handspring.”

“No, but she will appreciate it if you rap the entire science unit and prove that you know it.”

“Rap? I don’t rap,” Bria replied.

“Which is exactly why we’re going to teach you how. And we’ll all do a routine as your backup dancers,” Scarlett said, nodding to all of the girls.

Anya held up her hand. “I don’t get it. We’re going to drag her science teacher here to the studio to watch us do a number?”

“Nope!” Scarlett replied. “Bria is going to make a video on her laptop and bring it to school.”

“Like a real music video?” Gracie asked. “Like Lady Gaga?”

“Better,” Scarlett said, smiling. “Lady Bria!”

“I can definitely help,” Rochelle said. “As soon as I catch my breath.”

Bria sighed. It was a long shot. But it was either this or be grounded for all eternity and miss out on going to Hollywood. “Okay, I’ll try anything to get Ms. Moran to give me a better grade.”

Anya peeked outside of the dressing room. “Studio three is empty. And I think we could sneak in and pull down the shades so Miss Toni won’t see us.”

Rochelle wiped the sweat off her forehead and scooped her long curls into a messy bun. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with,” she said, turning Bria’s laptop toward her. She studied the screen. “Earth Science? Worms? You want Bria to rap this?” she said to Scarlett.

“I told you it’s hopeless,” Bria said. “I can’t think of anything that rhymes with protozoa.”

“I don’t know-a!” Gracie said, giggling. “That rhymes!”

Scarlett scratched her head. “Well, it would have been easier if it was biology. ‘The leg bone’s connected to the hip bone’ kind of stuff. But I’m not giving up yet.”

Liberty swept into the dressing room—and Rochelle quickly covered Bria’s laptop with her towel.

“What are you guys up to?” she asked.

“We’re making a music vid—” Gracie started to say before Scarlett clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Oh, nothing,” Scarlett fibbed. The last thing they needed was for Liberty to butt in on Bria’s extra credit project. “Just homework.”

Liberty looked from face to face. “Homework? Are you sure?” She turned to Gracie. “Or are you hiding something?”

Gracie bit her lip. “Nuh-uh. We’re helping Bria with her science homework.” Technically, it wasn’t a lie.

Liberty grabbed her dance bag off the shelf and glanced over her shoulder. “Okay, if you’re all going to sit here and do homework, I’m outta here. I have much more exciting things to do.”

“I bet,” Rochelle muttered. “Ta-ta, Liberty!” She waved her off.

Once the coast was clear, they uncovered Bria’s computer again and began planning. “So worms eat bacteria, fungi, protozoa, organic matter, and decaying animals?”

“Eww!” Anya squirmed. “That’s disgusting.”

“Tell me about it,” Bria groaned. “This is why I failed my test. It grosses me out.”

Rochelle hopped off the bench and began to wiggle her hips. “Do the worm, do the worm,” she began to rap. “Shimmy up, shimmy down, spin yourself around. Crawl through the soil, slink through the ground.” She got on her stomach and rested the palms of her hands parallel to her chest on the floor. Then she began to kick her legs in the air and the rest of her body popped up in a wiggly motion.

“Go Rock! Go Rock!” the girls chanted. “Do the worm dance! Do the worm dance!”

Bria continued to write the rap. “A worm is the coolest—and that’s no lie. He sucks up his food in the blink of an eye. Be it teeny-tiny things or a bird that’s dead, he grinds them in his gizzard—you heard what I said!”

“OMG, that’s hilarious!” Scarlett giggled. “Bria, you can totally do this! I think we’re ready to go shoot it.”

They tiptoed into studio 3, and Bria set her computer on a stool to film. Rochelle handed her a piece of paper. “Here’s the rest of it. Now make sure you give it attitude—and a beat.”

“An earthworm has no eyes to see; it picks up the vibe from you and me. It feels that vibe along the ground, and it senses bright light all around,” Bria read.

“Again! With more ’tude!” Rochelle instructed her.

“You sound like Miss Toni.” Gracie giggled. “Very tossy!”

“Tossy?” Rochelle looked to Scarlett for a translation. Her little sis was always making up her own Gracie language.

“Tossy. Tough plus bossy,” Scarlett explained. “It’s a compliment.”

“Oh, then thanks, Gracie,” Rochelle said. “I think.”

Just then, there was a knock on the studio door. “Quick!” Bria shouted, slamming her laptop shut. “It must be Miss Toni. Everyone act like we’re rehearsing the group number.”

The girls raced to the center of the room and got into position as the door creaked open. It was J. J.

“Who’s he?” Anya whispered.

“My tossy new choreographer—aka Miss Toni’s boyfriend,” Rochelle explained.

“So, what’s up in here?” he asked. “Do I sense some trouble brewing?”

Rochelle stepped forward. “No, no trouble. Just rehearsal for our group number.” To drive the point home, she waddled like Charlie Chaplin.

J. J. nodded and took a seat on the floor. “Great. Let’s see it.”

“See it?” Scarlett gasped. “You mean now?”

“Yeah. Just go on with what you were all doing. Don’t mind me. I’ll just be a fly on the wall.”

Bria shrugged. It was no use trying to hide what they were up to. “We’re not actually rehearsing the group number,” she confessed. “Everyone was just helping me do an extra-credit science project on earthworms.”

J. J. nodded. “So that’s why I saw you all do a pretty poor imitation of the worm dance?”

Rochelle rested her hands on her hips. Of course, he had been spying on them through the crack in the door! “It was not a poor imitation. I choreographed it.”

J. J. chuckled. He dropped down on the floor and began “worming” across it. “See how the body ripples? You want to keep the arms and elbows strong and let the rest be fluid. Pop up, flow down, pop up, flow down …”

Scarlett elbowed Rochelle. “He does do a good worm.”

“Fine. Thanks for showing us,” Rochelle said.

“Let me see what else you got,” J. J. said, jumping to his feet. “Maybe I can help you refine it.”

“That would be so nice of you!” Bria exclaimed.

“We got it under control,” Rochelle countered. “Thanks.”

J. J. raised an eyebrow. “You sure? You wouldn’t want the choreographer who did Justin Timberlake’s last concert gig to lend you a hand?”

“JT?” Anya gasped. “I love him! That is so amazing!”

Rochelle rolled her eyes. “We wouldn’t want JT’s choreographer ratting us out to Miss Toni.”

J. J. grinned. “I see. So I’m a spy, is that it?”

Rochelle shrugged. “You said it. Not us.”

“Well, what if I promised not to breathe a word to your dance teacher? I can keep a secret.” He pretended to lock up his lips and throw away the key.

“I think we can trust him,” Bria said quietly. “He seems really nice.”

Rochelle shrugged.

J. J. paced the studio floor. “So you really wanna impress this science teacher, right?”

Bria nodded. “Totally! I need at least a B plus or my mom will never let me go to Hollywood.”

“Then, I say make it authentic. You won’t find any earthworms rolling around Miss Toni’s squeaky-clean dance studio. You need dirt.”

Gracie jumped up and down. “I love dirt! Do we get to roll in the dirt?”

“I think you should take this shoot out back behind the studio. That way you can get down and dirty … You know what I’m saying?”

“It’s a really good idea, Bria,” Scarlett piped up. “We can shoot some close-ups of the grass and maybe even find some real worms.”

“In dance and life, authenticity is everything,” J. J. added. “I’m happy to record it for you on my phone. And we can add a pretty decent beat box.”

Bria grabbed Rochelle by the arm and tugged. “Come on, guys! What are we waiting for? Let’s get wiggling!”