In the Spotlight by Liz Botts, Elaina Lee Page B

my parents, at least, when I got home from my shift.
    Except that I didn’t. Harlow called during dinner weeping and wailing because her professor in her improv class hadn’t chosen her for the improv night that week. And she always got chosen! So Mom and Dad spent several hours calming her down.
    The last thing I could bear to hear was Mom cooing to Harlow about the immense talent that her professor was obviously overlooking to make the other students feel less inferior. Gag me.
    I didn’t tell them the next day either. Instead, I studied my script. I stayed up far too late reading and highlighting. The next day in homeroom, I felt groggy, so I decided not to start any homework. I pulled out my script again to look over a few scenes that felt odd to me.
    “Hey, do we just sit wherever we want or are the seats assigned?” I glanced up from my script to see Josh standing hesitantly beside my seat.
    “We just sit where we want,” I replied. Josh nodded and dropped into a seat next to me. “Not to be rude or anything, but why are you here?”
    Josh smiled. “Ms. Bard wanted me to switch into drama since I got Chad, and the semester break was the perfect time. All my classes got shifted.”
    “Are you going to be in choir too?” I asked, knowing Ms.
    Bard had probably wanted him to have extra practice in that too.
    He nodded and pulled out his schedule. I glanced at it out of curiosity. This was one of the first conversations we’d had. From what I could see of my schedule, Josh was suddenly in six of my eight classes. Whoa. That might not work out so well. Maybe I could talk to my counselor.
    No, I chided myself. That was just stupid. I could handle seeing Josh that much, couldn’t I? What’s the worst that could happen, right? I could fall in love with him and get my heart broken. Yeah, right. A guy like Josh wasn’t ever going to be interested in a girl like me. Wait. I wanted Kyle to be interested in me. So where had that thought about Josh come from?
    I was about to delve into that line of thought when Claudia came bounding through the door. “Oh my gosh! Josh! What are you doing here?” She gushed happily as if the two of them had been best friends for years.
    Josh gave her an easy grin. “I had to change around some of my classes.”

    “That is so great!” she said. “I think I’ll be in drama class with you,” Josh said, again all too easily.
    Claudia actually clapped her hands in excitement before dropping into a seat on the other side of Josh. “Do you think you’ll get a part in the musical?” she asked him.
    Josh cast me a sidelong glance that bordered on conspiratorial, and I felt a rush of excitement. We did share a secret, at least until Friday, and it was pretty cool if I let myself think about it for a minute.
    “I hope so,” he said.
    Claudia nodded seriously, but before she could say anything more, the bell rang.

Chapter Seven
    As I stepped into the auditorium, I shivered with pleasure.
    All the house lights were up, giving the theater a warm glow. Ms.
    Bard sat on the stage waiting for the cast to arrive. Kaylee sat to her right leafing through the assistant director’s binder. The role was perfect for Kaylee. She loved being in charge. Being assistant director gave her an excuse to be bossy. I climbed the stairs to the stage and took a seat beside Kaylee. Pulling my script out of my backpack, I couldn’t even say hi to her. I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up.
    When the cast list had gone up on Friday, there was much congratulating and much sniping. Kaylee and Maggie had danced around the Commons alerting non-‐-drama types to the amazing events transpiring in our world. Claudia had been cranky with me for a while, but by third period, she’d come around because, as she noted, we were playing sisters in the show and we needed to act like them. Josh had tried to be supportive of me, but I hadn’t let him. I was too upset that Kyle wasn’t speaking to me.
    Other