In the Spotlight by Liz Botts, Elaina Lee

wondered…”
    “Um, well, callbacks start tomorrow for some of the parts, but, yeah, I don’t really think they’re necessary for me,” I said, before clamping my mouth shut abruptly, realizing I’d already said too much. But, man, did I want to share my news with someone other than just Kaylee. Well, and Josh. And Kyle. I guess a lot of people knew.
    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hayley’s face light up. “So you already know? You got the lead, didn’t you? Mike was sure you would.”

    I was taken aback by Hayley’s enthusiasm, but it felt nice. I grinned and nodded, “But it’s a big secret. No one’s supposed to know until Friday, or Ms. Bard might kill me.”
    “I won’t tell anyone,” Hayley promised. “Not even Mike, but if he guesses, I probably won’t tell him he’s wrong or anything.”
    “Just don’t hint at it too strongly or anything,” I replied, still smiling stupidly. I couldn’t help feeling a teeny bit special.
    Hayley nodded and grinned happily out the window. She really was the hardest person to read. Forty-‐-five minutes ago, she’d been a scowling mess, and now she was an uber-‐-cheery, well, cheerleader.
    “It’s really exciting, though,” she said after a few moments of silence. “I mean, when was the last time a junior got the lead?
    Who got the male lead? Is it Kyle? Wait, you probably don’t know.
    And if you do, you aren’t supposed to tell, right? Of course not, duh.”
    I shrugged, hoping that the gesture came off as suggesting that I didn’t know a thing about the male lead, not that I was trying to play coy and hoping she’d guess. Thankfully, Hayley let it drop as we pulled into the school parking lot.
    I headed back into school with Hayley not entirely sure what I hoped to accomplish now that I was here. My gumption had drained out of me. Healing Kyle’s wounded ego suddenly didn’t appeal to me at all.
    “Are you going to watch me cheer?” Hayley asked. “Or do you have to go straight to rehearsal?”
    “I think I’ll come watch you cheer,” I said, surprising both of us. “We don’t have any rehearsals until next week, you know, after callbacks.”
    “Duh, of course,” Hayley grinned. “What was I thinking?”
    When had my little sister become a person? I shook my head at myself as she headed off to join the other blondes on the squad.
    Somehow, I just didn’t think she fit with all of them. But what did I know?

    Entering the gym, my eyes automatically trailed over the basketball players, and I experienced a burst of heat when I caught sight of Josh warming up. His bruised shin had healed nicely from what I’d heard, and he hadn’t missed too many games. Instead of heading up by the band, I settled myself on the bleachers right behind the players’ bench, not something I’d ever done before, I promise. I told myself that I wanted to have a good view of the court so I could really watch Hayley cheer. It was the least I could do after she’d been so excited for me about my getting the lead in the musical.
    I felt a little thrill go through me as the basketball players jogged back to the bench for their pre-‐-game huddle. Even if I didn’t want to admit it, I was doing what dozens of other girls did, and was trying nonchalantly to watch Josh without being totally obvious.
    So I don’t need to go into extreme detail about the flare of excitement that literally shot through me when Josh caught my eye, grinned, and gave me a little wave. I pretended not to notice. How could I flirt with Josh when he had totally stolen the part right out from under Kyle? Josh waved again. Dude, he was persistent.
    That’s when I caught sight of Belle out of the corner of my eye, waving to Josh frantically. So he hadn’t been waving to me after all, just to his flavor of the week. That’s good, I told myself. I didn’t want to have to deal with a friendly Josh anyway. This just made it easier to remember why I didn’t like him in the first