When Kathy had left for the hospital, Rosie walked back into the studio, frowning.

The whole class watched as she walked to the CD player and tapped her fingernails on the lid.

Rat-a-tat-tat. Rat-a-tat-tat.

Everyone was quiet, watching.

‘Well!’ Rosie tried to smile, but her eyes looked worried. ‘Change of plans.’

Charlie held her breath.

Rosie walked around from behind the CD player and stood in front of the class.

She looked at Charlie.

‘Lucky we have an understudy,’ Rosie said.

Charlie nodded but she didn’t smile. It all seemed so serious. And something else was worrying her.

Straight away one of the trendy girls said out loud what was worrying Charlie.

‘But what about Kathy’s solo?’

The whole class looked up at Rosie. What about Kathy’s solo?

‘Well, there’s not much time, but we’ll have to hold an audition.’ Rosie scanned the girls. ‘I want you all to try out for the part of the Dancing Queen.’

Until now, everyone had been quiet. But suddenly everyone — everyone except Charlie — started talking at once.

‘But how can we?’

‘Kathy’s solo has all those flippy things in it!’

‘We can’t do that!’

Rosie yelled above the noise, clapping her hands in a shimmer of nail polish.

‘OK, OK!’ Rosie yelled.

When the room was quiet, she continued talking.

‘Now, girls. Our dance isn’t about flips.’ Rosie put her hands on her hips. ‘Can anyone tell me what our dance is about?’

Everyone was quiet.

‘Being happy?’ someone suggested.

‘Dancing with your friends?’ said someone else.

Charlie hugged her knees and looked at her dancing shoes. She loved the dance. For her, doing the dance was like living a perfect dream.

‘Well, for me,’ said Rosie, ‘the dance is about being yourself. The Dancing Queen breaks away from the crowd and dances her own special dance.’

Rosie smiled at the class.

‘Next week, I want you all to show me your own special dance. Whatever that is. It doesn’t have to have flips.’

Rosie smiled at Charlie. ‘You too, Charlie,’ Rosie said. ‘I want everyone to try out. Show me the dance that comes from your heart.’

When Rosie said that, everyone started talking again.

Charlie kept hugging her knees, but she couldn’t help smiling. In just one class everything had changed so much. Now she didn’t just have a spot in the dance, she was also allowed to try out for the main part!

After class that night, Charlie pulled open the curtains in the lounge room so she could see herself in the windows.

Her mum’s voice floated in from the kitchen. ‘You are the daaancing queeen …’

Charlie’s mum wasn’t a very good singer. She sounded like an opera singer with a sore throat. But it was nice of her to be excited for Charlie.

When Charlie had told her mum that she was going to be in the concert, Charlie’s mum had given her a bear hug.

‘Lucky we bought those dancing shoes!’ she had said.

But now Charlie had more than dancing shoes to worry about.

Keeping an eye on her reflection in the window, Charlie danced through Kathy’s solo. She had watched Kathy do it so many times that she already knew it by heart.

In the parts where Kathy did her gymnastic flips, Charlie worked out some leaps and turns to do instead. But she still felt like a butterfly, just like her mum had said.

She could tell she wasn’t half as good as Kathy. The punchy, bold parts looked so good when Kathy did them. But Charlie didn’t feel at all like a queen when she tried to copy. She felt weak and silly.

Charlie flopped down on the carpet and made a face at the window.

What was the point? Rosie would never pick Charlie to be the Dancing Queen. She was the newest in the class, after all.

But until Rosie picked someone else next week, Charlie could dream.