“You’re about as optimistic as a weatherman calling for sunshine while holding an umbrella.”
Chapter
Nine
“All right, people, it’s time to get started,” Mrs. Ingram announced the following Monday, clapping her hands. “Let’s make some magic! Take it from the top of act two, scene four.”
Nestling into my auditorium chair, I reached into my backpack and pulled out my English essay, grateful for all the time I had to edit it before I had to get on stage with the rest of the townspeople during scene seven.
“Mia!” Mrs. Ingram called from the stage. “Can you come up here, dear? I need you to stand in for Katrina tonight.”
I looked up at her. “Katrina’s not here? I thought she was never sick.”
“She’s not sick—I excused her from rehearsal so she could attend her great-grandmother’s ninetieth birthday party,” Mrs. Ingram said. “So can you please hurry and get up here so you can run lines with Jake? We have a busy night ahead of us.”
Warily setting down my unedited paper, I grabbed my script. I knew I should have skipped play practice tonight to get caught up on my school assignments. I’d even called Lisa and told her I would have to stay home with a terminal case of kakorrhaphiophobia, but she’d told me a fear of failure wasn’t a legitimate excuse to miss rehearsal, and if I didn’t show up, she was going to make me drink a beet and bean sprout smoothie.
As soon as I got up on stage, Mrs. Ingram said, “We’ll take it from the top of the scene all the way to the kiss at the end.”
I dropped my script. “What kiss?”
“After Marian sings ‘Till There Was You,’ she kisses Harold Hill.” Mrs. Ingram quickly added, “But I think we’ll skip the song tonight, since Katrina isn’t here. No use straining your vocal chords.”
Forget vocal chords—I was more worried about injury to my tongue. It had taken me a year to get over the feel of Jake’s frenzied kissing. Now I was going to have to face the human wet-vac again. I didn’t know if I could handle another round of dodging the drool.
“Can’t I just look meaningfully at him?” I asked as I desperately scanned the auditorium for Lisa in hopes she would save me. Not seeing her anywhere, I decided I had to save myself because there was no way I was going to end up soaked in Jake’s saliva again. “I mean, I’m not going to be Marian in the real play. I think it’d be better if you waited until Katrina was here to practice any kissing.”
“But Katrina is not here and you are,” Mrs. Ingram said impatiently, “and I really don’t have time for this. I need to block this scene and you are Katrina’s understudy, so please take your mark.”
“Yeah, dude,” Jake said, “what’s the big deal? It’s not like you ain’t never zoomed in on me before.”
Mrs. Ingram looked back and forth between Jake and me, and then said, in a dubious tone, “You two have a history together?”
“Yeah, Mia was my breezy last year. She used to scam on me whenever she got the chance,” Jake said. “I bet she’s just scared ’cuz if she gets another taste of my Kool-Aid, she’ll remember what she’s been missin’.”
Considering that Jake’s Kool-Aid consisted of 99.9 percent spit, I knew I would never be tempted to try it again, but being desperate, I decided to play along. “Mrs. Ingram, Jake’s right,” I said. “It took me a long time to get over him, and if I kissed him tonight, I might never be able to move on. So, for the sake of my future relationships, I really don’t think—”
“Mia,” Mrs. Ingram said with a sigh, “I don’t know, nor do I want to know, the details of your love life. All I know is that I needto block this scene and that includes a kiss between Marian and Harold. And I’m fairly certain one theater kiss won’t harm you. So take your mark and start saying your lines, or I will be forced to take disciplinary action in regard to your lack of cooperation. Do I make myself
Chapter
Nine
“All right, people, it’s time to get started,” Mrs. Ingram announced the following Monday, clapping her hands. “Let’s make some magic! Take it from the top of act two, scene four.”
Nestling into my auditorium chair, I reached into my backpack and pulled out my English essay, grateful for all the time I had to edit it before I had to get on stage with the rest of the townspeople during scene seven.
“Mia!” Mrs. Ingram called from the stage. “Can you come up here, dear? I need you to stand in for Katrina tonight.”
I looked up at her. “Katrina’s not here? I thought she was never sick.”
“She’s not sick—I excused her from rehearsal so she could attend her great-grandmother’s ninetieth birthday party,” Mrs. Ingram said. “So can you please hurry and get up here so you can run lines with Jake? We have a busy night ahead of us.”
Warily setting down my unedited paper, I grabbed my script. I knew I should have skipped play practice tonight to get caught up on my school assignments. I’d even called Lisa and told her I would have to stay home with a terminal case of kakorrhaphiophobia, but she’d told me a fear of failure wasn’t a legitimate excuse to miss rehearsal, and if I didn’t show up, she was going to make me drink a beet and bean sprout smoothie.
As soon as I got up on stage, Mrs. Ingram said, “We’ll take it from the top of the scene all the way to the kiss at the end.”
I dropped my script. “What kiss?”
“After Marian sings ‘Till There Was You,’ she kisses Harold Hill.” Mrs. Ingram quickly added, “But I think we’ll skip the song tonight, since Katrina isn’t here. No use straining your vocal chords.”
Forget vocal chords—I was more worried about injury to my tongue. It had taken me a year to get over the feel of Jake’s frenzied kissing. Now I was going to have to face the human wet-vac again. I didn’t know if I could handle another round of dodging the drool.
“Can’t I just look meaningfully at him?” I asked as I desperately scanned the auditorium for Lisa in hopes she would save me. Not seeing her anywhere, I decided I had to save myself because there was no way I was going to end up soaked in Jake’s saliva again. “I mean, I’m not going to be Marian in the real play. I think it’d be better if you waited until Katrina was here to practice any kissing.”
“But Katrina is not here and you are,” Mrs. Ingram said impatiently, “and I really don’t have time for this. I need to block this scene and you are Katrina’s understudy, so please take your mark.”
“Yeah, dude,” Jake said, “what’s the big deal? It’s not like you ain’t never zoomed in on me before.”
Mrs. Ingram looked back and forth between Jake and me, and then said, in a dubious tone, “You two have a history together?”
“Yeah, Mia was my breezy last year. She used to scam on me whenever she got the chance,” Jake said. “I bet she’s just scared ’cuz if she gets another taste of my Kool-Aid, she’ll remember what she’s been missin’.”
Considering that Jake’s Kool-Aid consisted of 99.9 percent spit, I knew I would never be tempted to try it again, but being desperate, I decided to play along. “Mrs. Ingram, Jake’s right,” I said. “It took me a long time to get over him, and if I kissed him tonight, I might never be able to move on. So, for the sake of my future relationships, I really don’t think—”
“Mia,” Mrs. Ingram said with a sigh, “I don’t know, nor do I want to know, the details of your love life. All I know is that I needto block this scene and that includes a kiss between Marian and Harold. And I’m fairly certain one theater kiss won’t harm you. So take your mark and start saying your lines, or I will be forced to take disciplinary action in regard to your lack of cooperation. Do I make myself
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