Dance Team (7 page)

By the time we hit our final turn combination, people in the audience were flashing their own jazz hands back at us.

Afterwards, we all clustered around, congratulating each other. Even Camilla was beaming. “That was the best ever,” she said, throwing her arms around whoever she could find. “You guys are stellar!”

Once we were finished, we could relax and watch the other routines. Some good teams had shown up to compete, but I didn't think any of them performed as well as we did. I was feeling pretty excited about our chances of winning—until Northside came up. They were the last team to perform, and they were good. Really, really good. Maybe not better than we were—but close.

Everyone from Southside got quiet as we watched them. The Northside girls were dressed all in black. They performed a hip-hop number that was as fast and edgy as it was fun to watch.

Hip-hop isn't as technically difficult as jazz. It's more about style and keeping the audience entertained. But Northside totally nailed its number. The dancers stayed close to the ground and hit their tricks hard and fast. They moved effortlessly from windmills to hand-stalls to kip-ups, and their freezes were textbook perfect. The crowd went wild. It was pretty clear that the real competition was going to be between us and Northside.

The girls from Northside were just taking their bows when I saw Camilla slip away from the group. I didn't think anything about it—she probably just had to go to the bathroom. But then I saw her talking to one of the officials. The two of them headed toward the dressing room.

And then everything blew up.

N

orthside's team had barely made it off the stage when one of the judges announced that there was a problem. Final scores would be delayed. We were to return to the changing area and wait for further instructions.

“What's going on?” hissed Olivia as we were herded back to the dressing room.

“I have no idea!” I said. “Something bad, that's for sure!”

My heart sank when we went into the dressing room. Leah was arguing with two of the judges, tears streaming down her face. One of the judges was holding Leah's dance bag. He had something in his hand—it looked like a pill bottle.

Pretty soon we heard the official explanation. Performance-enhancing drugs had been found in Leah's dance bag. Instant grounds for disqualification.

The room buzzed with talk following the announcement. I searched the crowd for Camilla. Sure enough, she was standing by an official, the same one she'd gone to talk to in the auditorium. Her face didn't give anything away. But I knew what had happened. I just knew. And when Camilla came back to our group, I lit into her.

“Camilla! Did you put those pills in Leah's dance bag? I saw you fiddling with it when I was showing Leah my costume!”

The team was shocked into silence.

“Izzy!” Olivia whispered. “What are you talking about?”

“I'm talking about Camilla playing dirty tricks to get Leah disqualified!”

I was sure I was right. Words tumbled out of me. The escalator, the breakfast at Pancake Corral, the graffiti, the bike brakes—all the ways I was sure Camilla and her friends had been trying to get Leah out of competition.

Camilla let me finish. “I don't know what you're talking about, Izzy,” she said. “Honestly, you sound a little crazy. I'm sorry your precious friend Leah isn't so perfect. But there's no reason to blame me because Leah takes drugs.”

The other girls looked shocked.

“Izzy?” Cate said. “Camilla's right. This does sound a little … far-fetched.”

“But it's true!” I insisted. “Camilla wanted me to make it so Leah couldn't compete. She was willing to hurt Leah to win regionals. I'm going to tell Ms. Geiger!”

Even Olivia looked troubled. “But Izzy, you don't have any proof! You're just going to stir up trouble and make everything worse. We need this win! Our whole team might be lost without it!”

I looked at the rest of the dance team. I could tell that nobody believed me. And really, why would they have? I didn't have any proof.

But I didn't care. Even if I couldn't get anyone else to believe me, not even Olivia, I owed it to Leah to try to set things straight. I knew—with no doubt—that Leah would never use illegal drugs.

So I marched over to Ms. Geiger and spilled out everything. First, she looked confused. Then she looked concerned. Then she looked sad and grim.

Things happened pretty fast after that. Officials and team advisers went team by team, searching bags and backpacks for drugs or other “incriminating evidence.”

And they found it. Camilla had an identical bottle of pills in her backpack. At first, she denied knowing anything about the drugs.

“They must have been planted!” Camilla spat. “Probably by Leah Velasco!”

“Well, Camilla,” said Ms. Geiger. “You got the steroids for something. If they weren't to plant on Leah, were they for your personal use?”

Camilla drew herself up proudly. “No! I don't need steroids. I'm a dancer! I don't abuse my body! I work for what I do!”

And then she broke down and owned up to everything. The mall, the graffiti, even the bike brakes. When none of those worked, she got her cousin Alex to use his connections to get some steroids for her. The idea was that Camilla would slip one bottle into Leah's dance bag and one bottle into her backpack. But in the end, she was only able to get the pills into the dance bag. She held onto the second bottle as insurance, in case she could sneak it into the backpack later.

Camilla's confession was enough. Southside was disqualified from the competition, and Northside was awarded first prize at regionals for their fourth year running.

“The sad thing is that you girls had a really good chance of winning this year,” Ms. Geiger told us. “I don't know what the final decision would have been, but I've been to enough competitions to know that you and Northside were neck and neck.”

She sighed. “But the worst part, of course, is what Camilla felt driven to do. Trust me, I know how hard she's worked for dance team these past four years. It's just a terrible, terrible shame that she couldn't trust your skill, your determination, and your hard work to win the trophy.”

And that was how regionals ended for us.

W

e were a pretty subdued group as we changed out of our regionals outfits and gathered up our dance bags. The rest of the team seemed to be avoiding my eyes. Even Olivia didn't seem to know what to say.

Leah did, though. She came barreling through the crowd and gave me a tight hug. “Thank you, Izzy,” she said. “I'm sorry if I ever, ever doubted you. You're a true friend.
And
a good dancer. When all this blows over and Southside gets on its feet again, you'll win a regionals trophy. I'm sure of it!”

I laughed a little shakily. “Somehow, wanting to win seems a little dangerous right now.”

“No!” Leah said. “Winning legitimately is the best feeling. You deserve that feeling, Izzy!”

She hurried off to join her family, and I was left with my own team again.

Cate was the first one to break the silence. “This is too hard to believe, Izzy,” she said. “I don't know who to be madder at, you or Camilla!”

Jaci snorted. “I do,” she said. “And it's not Camilla! We deserved to win this! We would have too, if it weren't for Izzy!”

A troubled look crossed Trez's face. “Or if it weren't for Camilla,” she said. “I for one don't want to win by cheating. Why couldn't Camilla have believed in us as much as she made us think she did?”

“Why couldn't Izzy have minded her own business?” said Amelia.

Cate gave Amelia a steely look. “Maybe you should have minded
your
own business,” she said. “It sounds like Camilla's not the only one who has something to apologize for!”

I couldn't keep silent any longer. “I really am sorry for all of this,” I said. “I never wanted to ruin our chances. Maybe it would be better for everyone if I just resigned from the team.”

“Yes!” said Jaci and Amelia.

“No,” said Trez. “That's no solution.” She laughed faintly, but it wasn't like she thought anything was funny. “Right now we don't even know if we have a dance team for you to resign from! We'll have to wait to see what Ms. Geiger and Mrs. Nuñez say on Monday.”

S

unday was a long day. I spent it at home with my family. Mom and Dad were especially nice to me, but all I wanted to do was sleep and try to forget the whole mess. I didn't even see Olivia. I had no idea whether or not she even wanted to be my friend anymore.

I didn't feel any better by Monday. For once, Mom and Dad let me stay home from school. I slept most of the day, so maybe I really was sick. I spent my time away from Southside High lying on the couch in the family room and flipping from channel to channel on TV.

As soon as school was out, Olivia called. “Joel and Eli are here. Can we come over?” she asked.

I didn't feel like I could blame Olivia for questioning my suspicions about Camilla. They were pretty wild, after all. We don't expect people we know—our friends—to act, well, like TV bad guys.

“Sure,” I said. “I'd like that.”

Olivia let out a sigh of relief. “Oh, Izzy,” she wailed over the phone. “I'm so sorry I didn't believe you from the beginning. I should have trusted you.”

“It's okay,” I said. And it was, too. “Nothing Camilla did was the kind of stuff you'd expect from someone you look up to, someone you want to call a friend.”

Joel and Eli wanted to know all the details when they arrived with Olivia.

“It was Camilla's little brother who bumped Leah at the mall,” I said. “And her cousin Alex helped her and Amelia and Jaci do the graffiti, just like you thought, Joel.”

“Camilla, Jaci, and Amelia tinkered with Leah's bike brakes,” Olivia added. “They heard us talking about going biking. They drove by Leah's house the Friday before, and Jaci snuck in to mess with the brake cable.”

“I kind of have to hand it to Camilla,” I said. “She confessed to everything, but she didn't drag in Jaci or Amelia.”

“But then they confessed on their own,” Olivia added. “They didn't leave Camilla hanging.”

Loyalty is a funny thing.

“So what happens now?” Joel asked.

“Camilla, Jaci, and Amelia are suspended for two weeks. Leah's family doesn't want to pursue criminal charges, but Camilla and Alex will still have to deal with the illegal drugs stuff,” Olivia said.

“And dance team's disbanded for the rest of the year,” I said sadly. “Ms. Geiger said they'd have to review everything before they decide if we can perform and compete next year.”

“I bet you will,” Joel said encouragingly. “It's not like the rest of you did anything wrong. And you were so good at regionals!”

“You were there?” I said, surprised.

“Of course we were!” Eli answered. “Where else would we be?”