The next afternoon, Lily walked out of the locker room and into the school gym. Her hands were sweating, and she could feel her heart beating loudly.
The team’s first practice wasn’t scheduled to begin for another half an hour, but the coach had asked her to come early for a special tryout. She wanted to make sure that Lily was a good fit for the team.
After an hour-long phone call with Amy, Lily had spent the rest of the night before practicing her tryout routine. She’d practiced so much that she’d actually dreamed about it.
She took a deep breath and tried to bring back the confidence she’d always felt dancing with her old teammates. It’s the same moves, just in a different place, she tried to assure herself.
Lily headed toward the two people sitting on the bleachers. One was a woman wearing a red warm-up jacket and holding a laptop and a bunch of papers. She looked up and smiled as Lily approached, standing to greet her.
As Lily smiled back, she glanced over at the other person — it was Mia!
Lily felt her face go white. But she shook the coach’s hand and tried to hide her nervousness. “Hi, I’m Lily,” she managed to say.
“Hi, Lily, I’m Coach Smith, and this is our team captain, Mia Zabroski,” the coach said.
“Good luck,” Mia said, smiling as she stood and shook Lily’s hand.
To Lily, the girl’s smile looked icy. This is who’s going to be judging me? she wondered, trying to keep calm.
“I’m sure you don’t need luck. I spoke with your old coach, Ms. Jackson,” Coach Smith said. “She had great things to say about you. I’m sorry you won’t get to be team captain, but there’s always next year, right?”
Lily glanced at Mia. Her smile looked even more forced at the mention of Lily possibly being captain. Lily quickly looked away before she lost her nerve. “I guess so,” she replied softly.
“Well, we’d better get going,” Coach said, gesturing toward the laptop. “Pull your song up, and start whenever you’re ready.”
Lily nodded and walked over to the computer. It was already set up on a music site. She found her song and took the floor.
Music suddenly filled the room, flooding Lily with a familiar burst of energy. The bass thumped, and she began moving through the routine she knew so well. She finally felt her nerves begin to melt away.
Cambre, cambre, box step. The beginning of the routine was the same as the one Lily had done with the Greenville team. Kick, ronde de jamb, pivot, kick.
It seemed like only moments had passed before it was time for the back handspring. The move was one of Lily’s favorite parts of the dance, although it was also one of the most challenging.
Lily sprang backward. Her hands hit the floor squarely with her elbows straight, and then she launched herself back to her feet in one smooth motion. She could see Coach Smith and Mia nodding and whispering to each other on the bleachers.
Stay focused, Lily thought. She couldn’t worry about them if she wanted to nail her performance.
Spinning into the pirouette, Lily concentrated on her next move. Since she was by herself, she wouldn’t be falling backward into Amy’s arms. She was moving into the new part of her routine.
Thankfully her practice had paid off, and Lily’s body easily went into the different steps. She spun gracefully to the left in a series of short quick turns, called a chaîné. Arching her upper body backward, she kicked one leg out in a dramatic jazz layout. As her leg came down, she went into a soft collapse to the floor.
Swinging her legs quickly in front of her body, Lily folded them into a pretzel and rolled slowly up to her feet. A gliding triple step took her across the floor, then she whipped her leg up for a fan kick.
Before Lily knew it, she was jazz walking forward into the sassy final pose. She placed her hand on her hip and confidently thrust her other arm up in the air just as the song ended. Mia and the coach both clapped.
“Well, I can see we won’t have any problems adding you to the team!” the coach said, smiling. “Your movements are crisp and strong, and you have great energy. Wonderful job, Lily.”
“Thanks,” Lily said, a little breathless. “I love dance — thank you so much for making room for me.”
“Even though you’re new to the school, I think you’ll be a great help in showing our new girls the dance-team ropes. Don’t you think, Mia?” Coach added.
Mia shrugged. “Yeah,” she replied, sounding bored. “We do have a lot of new girls on the team this year.”
Suddenly a door closed in the back of the gym. They all turned. Three girls, all dressed in their workout clothes, had come in through the locker room. Lily recognized one of them as Jill, the girl she’d met in the courtyard.
“That was amazing!” Jill said as the girls walked over. “I hope you don’t mind us watching, but we heard the music . . .”
Lily wasn’t sure if the flush she felt was from dancing or from all her nerves suddenly returning. She managed a smile anyway. At least Jill was a friendly face. “No, it’s fine,” she said. “Guess I get to be your teammate.”
“Yay!” Jill exclaimed.
“Hello, girls,” Coach Smith said. “Go ahead and start with individual stretching and warm-ups while we wait for the others to arrive.”
Over the next few minutes, more girls trickled into the gym. Everyone chatted as they began to run through stretches. Lily could tell the dancers had already gotten to know each other really well at camp — just like she had done with the Lions.
At that thought, the small thrill she’d gotten from her tryout success and Jill’s warm greeting faded. It was replaced instead by homesickness.
The Lions are probably just starting their first practice too, Lily remembered. I wish I could be in Greenville with them instead of being stuck here.
She looked around the room at her new teammates. Jill and the two girls she’d arrived with were running through a series of yoga poses. Other girls had paired off to jog around the gym or do mirror stretches.
Soon Lily found herself standing alone on the sidelines. She might not have been the newest to dancing, but she definitely felt like the odd one out.
Lily turned her back to the other girls and began stretching by herself, even though she was already warmed up from her tryout performance. It looked like Jill and everyone already had their groups — she didn’t want to bother anyone by barging in.
Finally the coach clapped her hands. “Over here, everyone,” she called.
The girls quickly gathered around. Lily hung back at the edge of the group.
“I have an exciting announcement to make,” Coach said, beckoning Lily forward. She put an arm around her shoulders. “This is Lily Richter, joining us from Greenville Middle School. She was just named captain on her old squad, which she unfortunately had to leave. But I think she’s going to make a great addition to the Wilmington Panthers. Please make her feel welcome.”
The team clapped politely. A few girls called out, “Welcome, Lily!”
Lily tried to smile at them, but she just felt awkward. She gave a small wave then stared at the floor.
“Okay,” Coach said, “now that we’re all here, let’s get this season officially started!”
As the other dancers cheered, Lily frowned. She couldn’t work up any excitement for dancing with a team of strangers.