Play It Again (12 page)

Aimee looked over at the clock. “Fifteen minutes!” she shrieked, and ran into the bathroom to pee.

Show time!

The play really had turned out to be “the thing.”

It was the thing that turned Ivy, Aimee, and Fiona into witches, made Madison into a manager, and would now reunite Madison’s parents.

Madison wondered how she could be the glue that held the play together and yet feel so unglued herself. She had spent a better part of the last three weeks e-mailing Bigwheels back and forth about what to do if the Big D was looming at her home. But Madison had NO ideas about what to say or do. Not really.

The idea of Mom and Dad, and even Stephanie, sitting in the audience at the exact same time made Madison want to run far, far away.

Only there was nowhere to hide. Not now.

The show must go on.

W
HEN MADISON WALKED INTO
the auditorium just before the show, she couldn’t believe her eyes. The set looked more bright and alive than ever before, with painted skyscrapers sparkling along the back wall of the stage.

The room was packed with screaming junior high school students. Madison had never seen the auditorium like this. She felt a magnetic pull from all of the energy in the room.

At her feet were piles of programs, stacked up for distribution when people were seated. Mrs. Wing had pulled together all the individual flyers from
The Wiz
and the other class shows and made one fat, twenty-page program. They were using it for all three nights of performances.

Madison was thrilled to see her own collage inside. She compared her art to the pages from the other classes. An eighth grader had drawn a sketch for the
Guys and Dolls
section, and the director copied a New York City postcard for the ninth grade.

There had been no room for student biographies, but everyone’s name was neatly listed, along with the names of everyone that had painted the set or helped with lights. Ivy had raised a little bit of a stink about this since she wanted to be as much of a show-off as possible. “She probably wanted a full page all to her own,” Madison mused, “with a full-color photograph and the caption ‘Look at me, I’m so great!’” But the program only had Ivy listed once.

Madison, on the other hand, found her name listed
more
than once at the bottom of the crew page.

In a short section in the back, Mrs. Wing had also included a long list of thank-you messages from the school administration and parents. Each family had to pay ten dollars to have their greeting printed, and the money defrayed the costs of refreshments and other set expenses. It was fun to flip through and see what people had to say.

♥ Congratulations to all members of the cast, especially Fiona and Chet. We’re so proud of you. Mom and Dad

♥ Way to go, cast and crew of
THE WIZ—
you’ve got the
c
hemistry for success! From 7th, 8th, and 9th grade
s
cience dept.

♥ Mr. Gibbons and the entire cast
—
you rock! Break a leg! Mr. and Mrs. Montefiore

♥ Felicitaciones y buena suerte en el future Walter and Mariah. Con amor, Mom, Dad, and Nannie Conchita

♥ Best wishes to the seventh-grade STARS from Mrs. Goode. How can I thank you all?

Aimee’s family had paid to have the entire back cover of the program so it could be a congratulatory message
plus
an advertisement for her dad’s cyber-café and book store. Aimee was tickled when she saw the message.
To Our Dancing Queen, Love, Mommy, Daddy, Roger, Billy, Dean, Doug, and Blossom.
Madison read through all the thank-you messages and saw one for Ivy, Rose, and even Dan the Lion—but didn’t find her own name anywhere.

Mr. Gibbons was directing kids on where to stand, sit, and hang out. Madison couldn’t find Mrs. Perez or Mariah anywhere, but Lindsay was nearby.

“Isn’t this awesome?” Lindsay asked. She had on her full costume.

“Yeah, it is,” Madison said, still a bit distracted.

“I can’t believe how many people are out in the lobby already,” Lindsay said. “I went out to see.”

Madison thought about Mom and Dad again. “How many people are out there?”

“They sold like three hundred tickets, Mrs. Montefiore told me. Imagine if they had seventh, eighth, and ninth grade performing on
one
night?” Lindsay said.

“Have you seen Mariah Diaz anywhere?” Madison asked.

“Mariah?” Lindsay asked. “You mean the one with the red streaks in her hair? She’s back doing Munchkin makeup, I think.”

Backstage was a full-blown disaster. At first, Madison didn’t see anyone she recognized, which was a little intimidating. The backstage area was a crush of teachers, techies, and other kids in all kinds of weird makeup.

Ivy and her drones appeared suddenly out of one girls’ bathroom. Ivy was all decked out in her Glinda garb, wand in hand.

“Madison!” she yelped. “Where are we supposed to go?”

Madison wanted to say, “Ivy, why don’t you just go HOME.” But she didn’t. She pointed to a side area of the stage where she now saw half the cast gathering. Fiona waved.

“You need to go over there,” she said to Ivy as she waved back. “Over by Fiona and the rest. And break a leg.”

“Thanks … I guess,” Ivy said.

Madison laughed to herself. She knew the superstition was to say, “Break a leg” for
good
luck, but that wasn’t what she
really
meant. Madison was standing there focusing all her energies on the possibility that maybe Ivy actually would break one of her legs. It wasn’t a nice thought. Then again, she hadn’t had too many
nice
Ivy thoughts lately. She looked down at her hands and noticed how she’d chewed off all her nails this week.

Mr. Gibbons appeared, clapping for everyone’s attention.

In a few minutes, the curtain would be going up.

Madison could hear the Montefiores playing the introductory music for the evening. She peeked out between the curtains and saw a sea of parents flowing down the aisle into the assembly seats. It was definitely a full house tonight. Madison still couldn’t spot Mom or Dad, though. She’d have to wait and face them after
The Wiz
was over.

Principal Bernard led off the evening with a short speech about Mrs. Goode’s commitment to Far Hills Junior High. He cracked a few jokes that got big laughs from the parents in the audience.

Madison held her breath.
The Wiz
was here. This was real.

“Pssst! Finnster!” Hart whispered, coming up behind Madison. “Whaddya think?” He had on the purple cape with silver stars.

“Wow,” Madison gasped. “You look so … cool.”

“You think?” he said nervously. “Thanks, Finnster. Cool.” He leaned over and touched her arm when he said that.

He touched her arm.

Madison could feel the pink in her cheeks. She felt anything but cool right now. “You’re welcome,” she quivered as he walked away.

Her heart was pounding—hard.

“AND NOW, PRESENTING CLASS SEVEN AND SELECTIONS FROM
THE WIZ.”

Lindsay clung to Chocolate as she walked onstage in her Dorothy costume, followed by Rose Thorn as Auntie Em and Suresh as Uncle Henry. When the lights went up, Lindsay started to sing without hesitation. Her song was originally supposed to be Auntie Em singing alone, but Mrs. Montefiore made it a duet, just like she’d done with some other songs. It was as angelic as ever.

Madison darted over to help Mariah, the Munchkins, and Aimee get onstage for the next number. Lindsay’s great singing gave her a jolt of energy.

Aimee spun onstage in the “Tornado Ballet.”

She wasn’t onstage alone for too long, but it was close enough to a dance solo to make her happy. She was wearing a purple leotard with yellow lightning bolts sewn on the side.

Every song and dance number seemed to go more smoothly than expected. The seventh grade was getting laughs and applause in all the right places. A superstitious Madison couldn’t help but think that the “bad rehearsal” theory really was true in their case. The cast and crew dress rehearsals had been minor disasters, but this real show was a smash.

“Mariah.” Madison found Egg’s sister standing backstage in between a Dorothy-and-Scarecrow song number. “Do I need to do anything else right now?”

Mariah just smiled. “We did it. We’re four songs away from the end.” She leaned over and squeezed Madison’s hand.

Madison watched the rest of the numbers standing in the wings, in that space between backstage and onstage. She felt like she was hovering on the edge of a cliff, the air electric with movement and sound. Madison stood in the folds of a black curtain, holding her marked-up cue script and watching the action. Occasionally she wandered backstage where people needed help with costumes or makeup touch-ups and visited the prop closet to make sure everything was still in order for the final scene. But mostly Madison stayed right there in that in between space until the end of the show.

She was in the middle of
everything
there, and she liked it.

“Ease on Down the Road” was one of the best numbers. Dan the Lion took a header during his dance part, but it was so funny, people thought it was a planned part of the show. Egg didn’t have the best singing voice, but he was also getting a lot of laughs. Tommy Kwong, as usual, was a hit. His floppy Scarecrow got rip-roaring cheers.

Fiona’s song as the evil Evillene got a roar of applause, too. She looked fantastic in her gray makeup and black hat. Mariah had helped her to affix a fake nose, too, with a giant, bulbous wart on the tip. Casting the nice girl as the bad witch had been a fun choice by Mr. Gibbons, and Fiona was surprisingly good at hamming up the obnoxious parts. Madison didn’t ever want to see Fiona being anything but spaced out and sweet in real life, however. There were enough witches at Far Hills already.

Glinda and Addaperle’s duet was a success. When Ivy and Aimee rushed offstage, Aimee danced right over to give Madison a big, sweaty hug.

“How was I?” Aimee asked. She was bouncing all over the place.

“You’re all wet,” Madison said.

“I know, I’m sweating. Can you see it?” Aimee raised her arms for Madison to check.

“Nope,” Madison said. She wanted to tell Aimee that her performance had been so amazing—and she wanted to tell her how much she loved it. But right now, everything else was on hold for the last musical number. They would talk more later.

Lindsay Frost was up next.

As Lindsay belted out her solo, the last song in the show, “Home,” Madison listened for the response inside the auditorium.

It suddenly got quieter than quiet.

In a place jammed with chatty junior high schoolers, parents, toddlers, and faculty,
that
said everything. For a brief moment, Lindsay wasn’t labeled a “geek.” She wasn’t in Poison Ivy’s shadow. All eyes were on her—front and center.

Lindsay Frost was the most popular.

Just before the last song started, as Mrs. Montefiore clinked her opening chord, Madison saw a slow haze drift across the stage. It lifted up all the music—and then Lindsay’s voice—up and out into the auditorium. Madison could actually see dust lingering in the light beams like magic powder.

The show had cast a powerful spell on the seventh grade, and it would stay with Madison and everyone even after the curtain fell. Madison watched the entire cast and crew rush the stage for bows, leaping into the air and screaming with the excitement that comes when the show is finally over.

“Wooo-hoooo!” Egg yelled out. He and Hart were high fiving all over the place.

As the curtain bobbed back up, the seventh graders finished taking their group bows, and Ivy and Aimee presented Mr. Gibbons with flowers. Madison was right there, in the corner of the stage, watching them. But this time, she didn’t mind seeing her enemy and friend doing something together. That was their job—and she knew hers.

She knew where she fit in. She really had been the glue.

Fiona and Aimee grabbed Madison to go out toward the lobby as the crowd dispersed. Families were waiting to greet everyone there.

“I can’t wait to see my parents!” Fiona squealed.

“All of my brothers came—could you die?” Aimee said.

Madison gulped. It was the Mom-and-Dad moment of truth.

She rushed off with her friends to the front of the building and searched the crowd. She searched for Mom on one side, and Dad on the other. What would she say to them? What if Stephanie
was
here?

“I’ll never find them!” she said. The lobby was packed.

Then, over by the table with the soda and brownies, Madison saw Mom’s cobalt blue coat.

She was talking to Dad.

“S
LOW DOWN, HONEY BEAR!”
Mom gasped as Madison zipped over.

Madison almost crashed into the table with little cups of water on trays.

“Whoa, Maddie,” Dad said, opening his arms to shield her from the table’s edge. He gave her a big hug. “Guess you’re a little excited?”

“Yeah, well …” Madison didn’t know what to say. “How long have you guys been talking?”

Mom and Dad turned to each other and smiled.

“Your father got here on time for the start of the show, Maddie. Can you believe it?” Mom said.

Dad shifted from foot to foot. “I’m not sure I believe it, Frannie,” he said to Mom. “Must be your influence.”

“I really enjoyed the performance,” Mom said, changing the subject. “Especially Aimee and Fiona and … who’s that other girl? Your old friend Ivy. They make great witches.”

Madison couldn’t believe Mom liked the witch part best.

“I liked the props,” Dad said. “And the set and the costumes and … let’s see, what else did
you
do, Maddie? I liked that best.”

“Aw, Dad,” Madison said.