Bring It On by Jasmine Beller

hoped some of this was sinking into Emerson’s noggin. “And it’s definitely not your fault that the Diva had a temper tantrum and quit.”
    Max burst into the locker room. “Devane’s out!” she exclaimed. “Devane’s out of the group!” Her voice became higher with every word.
    â€œWe were just talking about that,” Sophie told her.
    Max put on an exaggerated pout. “I wanted to be the one to tell.” She started stepping up and down on one of the benches like she was in step class. Not that Sophie had ever been in step class. But she’d seen a few while she was channel surfing. Before hip-hop, channel surfing was her main form of exercise.
    The locker room door opened again and Sammi hurried in, followed by a few sweaty girls who were probably in her basic class and Becca from the Performance Group. The basic class kids were usually changing out of their dance clothes while the kids in the Performance Group were using the locker room to get ready for class. “I’m serious,” Sammi was saying to the girls. “No detail is too small.”
    â€œI saw him drinking a Yoo-Hoo once.” Becca laughed as she unzipped her backpack and pulled out her sneakers. “You’re telling me that detail isn’t too small?”
    Emerson raised her eyebrows at Sophie, asking a silent question. Sophie shrugged. She had no idea what her sister was talking about.
    â€œNope,” Sammi said. “That’s one point for Becca. Remember, whoever gets the most points wins a fabulous prize.” Sammi opened her locker. “Whoever gets the most points wins—” She rummaged around inside the locker. “Wins this fabulous People magazine that is only two weeks old.” Sammi held up the magazine and riffled the pages.
    â€œWhat do you have to do to get points?” Max asked, dropping to a seat on the bench.
    â€œOne fact about ill papi equals one point,” Sammi answered with a grin.
    The troll in Sophie’s head started to stomp around. So Sammi hadn’t given up. Clearly she was determined to get ill papi interested in her. And when Sammi was determined to get something—watch out. She’d do whatever it took. That’s why she was the best at everything she did.
    Sophie shot a glance at her sister. You’re gonna get a spot in my Performance Group any day now, she thought. Do you really, really need to get the hottest guy in the group, too?

    Of course it’s going to take a little more effort to get noticed by the hottest guy in the place, Sammi thought. He’s used to having tons of girls pay attention to him. She stood in front of the bathroom mirror, trying to get in game head for another “accidental” encounter with ill papi.
    You look great, she told herself as she blotted her lipstick on a rough brown paper towel. And you’ve studied for the test. You’ve done your research.
    Well, this is a first — you’re giving yourself a pep talk before meeting a guy, Sammi thought as she shook her head at her reflection, then turned and hurried out of the bathroom, through the locker room, and into the hallway. She’d spent so much time prepping, she had to find ill papi fast or the Performance Group class would start before she got a word out.
    Oh, score. There he was. Over by the soda machine. She could go over and complain to him about how it was always out of Yoo-Hoos. But that didn’t seem like exactly the right thing to bond over.
    She couldn’t believe she was putting this much thought into what to say. She’d never had to plan like this with any other boy. But ill papi was a special case.
    Sammi ran through the facts she’d learned about him. It wasn’t a long list. That ill papi, he was sort of a boy of mystery. She knew he drank Yoo-Hoo. He liked those Madden NFL PlayStation games. He had an Aqua Teen Hunger Force sticker on his backpack. Max had seen him