The Taming (7 page)

“Not word for word. I just know what it means. You’re just saying that she can have children.”

“So I’m sort of propositioning her,” Josh said.

“That’s what you’re doing throughout the whole first part of the play, you know, before you try to break her … tame her,” Evan said.

“
That
I can understand,” Josh said.

Danny and Josh exchanged smiles.

Travis and Ms. Cooper entered the auditorium.

“Let’s get down to business!” Travis called out. “Let’s take it from where we left it yesterday!”

I nodded and folded my script. I knew the next two bits, knew what they meant. It was always like that with Shakespeare, I just sort of “got” him. It seemed like Evan got him as well. Josh scrutinized his pages as if they held clues to a scavenger hunt.

“Okay, Petruchio, Katherina’s a fireball, but remember, that’s just because she’s crying out for attention from her father.”

Josh looked blank, not just confused, but nobody-is-home, power-failure blank.

I heard Lisa groan in the eighth row. I think Josh heard her as well.

“Okay.” Travis started pacing. “Never mind that. You want her money, and you’re such an arrogant jerk that you also want to show off your ability to bring Katherina down, make her
beg
for you.”

“Okay!” Josh lit up. “The beg for it bit? I’m all over that!”

“Excellent!” Travis said, scanning his pages. “Katie, from line 214, please.”

Oops. I drew a blank. I’d been too cocky in putting away my script. Now I would be punished. I deserved to be punished.

Lisa cleared her throat and I instinctively looked at her. She stuck her tongue out at me. That was all I needed. I remembered what that meant.

“
In his tongue
.” I winked at her.

“
Whose tongue?
” Josh asked, as if he wasn’t even sure about the first line.

“
Yours, if you talk of tales, and so farewell!
” I turned to go. And then stopped, staring at Josh, waiting for him to deliver his next line. Even in the waiting, I could sense it, the power. All eyes were on me. Every fibre in my body lit up and waited for a response so that I could throw down another line and feel it all again.

“Oh, uh … hang on,” he said. “Um … 
what, with my tongue in your tail? Nay, come again. Now he takes her in his arms
.”

“Stop!” Travis yelled. Travis lifted his hands and slowly walked down the aisle and onto the stage until he was standing right beside Josh.

“Josh,” he said, his voice so low that I could hardly hear him, “remember the italicized parts in your script are directions. So you take Katie in your arms there, you don’t say, ‘
he takes her in his arms
.’ ”

Josh was squirming. I was squirming. I tried to give him a big booster smile, but I basically suck at that sort of thing. Danny and Evan moved to stage right, into my line of vision. My heart pounded a little louder.

“Okay, finish the speech, Josh,” Travis said, encouraging him with a weak smile.

“Got it,” Josh said. “
Good Kate, I am a gentleman
—”

I slapped him. “Ow!” He looked at me, genuinely shocked and hurt.

“Sorry, sorry!” I apologized instinctively.

“Petruchio, dear God, quit being such a pussy, she barely touched you. What are you guys going to do when it gets to real roughhousing?” asked Travis.

Josh’s hand was still on his cheek. “No, I know, it was just a surprise, that’s all.” He looked at his script accusingly. “Oh, right, it’s that italics thing again, isn’t it? It says, ‘She strikes him.’ That’s hit, right? It would help if I had clue one about what the hell they’re talking about. Like, later on the page they’re talking about cocks. Can we do that?”

“Chickens,” I whispered so no one else would hear. “It’s a rooster reference.”

“So why’s he talking about chickens?”

Travis looked like he was going to give birth. The rest of us didn’t know where to look.

“I’m sorry, it just doesn’t mean squat to me,” Josh said.

Maybe he didn’t understand the play but he did understand how bad he looked. I was embarrassed for him.

“I just wish I understood any of this … the way Katie does, and Travis, and Evan.”

“Evan knows this play?” Ms. Cooper asked from her seat five rows back.

“Yeah, he was trying to explain some lines to me before you walked in,” Josh said.

Ms. Cooper marched up the aisle, trailing pink and white chiffon scarves behind her. Evan looked like he’d been caught doing something naughty.

“Is that true? Do you know this play?” she asked.

“We took it at my last school, ma’am.”

“Ma’am? Who says
ma’am
?” Ms. Cooper asked. “Katie, your next line.”

“
No cock of mine, you crow too like a craven
,” I spat. Josh whistled and looked stunned at the same time.

“And, Evan, the line after that?” Ms. Cooper demanded.

Barely a second ticked by before Evan responded with a perfect, “
Nay, come, Kate, come, you must not look so sour
.” He locked on to me and did not look away.

It was the same line Josh had thrown out in the cafeteria—maybe he would have known that line, but still, Evan said it so,
so
much better.

My heart did that thing again. Was it Shakespeare or Evan? They both sort of had the same effect—a thrill that slowly boiled and bubbled up from the deepest part of me.

“Just as I thought,” Ms. Cooper harrumphed. “Spoken like a young man who knows what the words mean and who, like our Lisa, has an eidetic memory. What are the odds?”

Josh turned to me, eyebrow raised.

“Photographic memory,” I whispered.

“Evan, you have a new job,” Ms. Cooper said.

“I like my present job.”

“You’ll like your new job even better,” Ms. Cooper said. “From now on, you’ll be explaining the text to our Petruchio here and …” She turned to Travis. It was like she suddenly remembered that he was there. “If that’s all right with our director, of course.”

“Works for me,” Travis said. “Whatever makes the play lift off. So, Evan?”

“I can do that, ma’am,” he said, while looking right at Travis.

Again with the
ma’am
thing. Somehow it was getting sexier every time
he
said it.

What was the matter with me? I was scaring myself. Who was I? I did
not
have these feelings, these thoughts. I actually tried to revive my horror movie obsession. Couldn’t. Evan Campbell was right there standing next to Josh and, hence, next to me. All I could see was him and, boy oh boy, that boy was more distracting than
Carrie
and a symphony of construction noises.

Chapter Eleven

“S
ounds like you’ve been sprung from working in the dungeon,” Danny said. We were in the shop room working on the opening scene set.

“I’ll still be offstage, so that’s good.” I paused. “And speaking of good, Katie is
really
good.”

“And Josh really isn’t. I feel sorry for—”

“Hey, guys!” Brittney called out as she poked her head into the room.

“Hi, Britt,” Danny replied cheerfully.

I nodded an acknowledgement.

“Thank goodness it’s Friday!” she said. Brittney was all lip gloss and legs—my usual menu pick.

“TGIF,” Danny agreed.

“I’m thinking about a movie tonight. What about you two?”

“There are lots of good movies out,” Danny said.

“I’m not much into movies,” I replied. I turned to Danny. “How long does this set have to be?”

“Um … okay … see you later,” Brittney sputtered, and then left.

“Man, did you shut her down.”

I shrugged. “I just don’t like most movies, especially the crap that comes out of Hollywood.”

“I don’t care that much for movies either, but there’d be nothing wrong with sharing some popcorn—or something else—with Brittney.”

“I’m not into her type,” I said.

“And her type would be beautiful and female … maybe it isn’t Travis’s sexual orientation that we should be questioning.”

“Cute.”

“And so just
why
aren’t you interested in Brittney? She certainly is interested in you.”

“She was talking to both of us,” I said.

“She was looking at you.”

“I didn’t notice,” I said. That was a lie. I could read the signs as well as he could. The problem was that she’d be too easy in the beginning and too hard in the end. “Besides, if she was interested in me it would have to do more with my car than my personality.” I said that to make Danny feel better.

“It
is
a nice car.”

“It’s when she found out that I had the Audi that she seemed to take an interest in me,” I suggested.

“I have an easy solution. Give me the car.”

If only it were that simple.

“Better yet, you can keep the car and date
me
. At least I can admit that I certainly do
love
you for your car.”

“Okay, so neither of you are my type. And before you ask, female is definitely my category. She just strikes me as being, I don’t know, kind of high-maintenance.”

“Well, I’d be prepared to put in a little maintenance work to keep
her
happy,” Danny said.

“That’s it, though, you probably
couldn’t
keep her happy. My father once said to me that the best thing in the world is a beautiful woman.”

“No argument there.”

“But the
worst
thing in the world is a beautiful woman who
knows
she’s beautiful.”

Danny nodded his head knowingly. “And there’s no question that Brittney knows it.”

“Knows it and uses it,” I said.

Danny nodded again.

“Keeping her happy would be a full-time job, and one you couldn’t do successfully. Me, I’m just here for a few months and I’m not spending my time on somebody like her.”

“I think I’d be prepared to
waste
my time on her,” Danny joked.

“Then what’s stopping you?” I asked.

“She didn’t come here to flirt with me.”

“She was flirting with my car,” I said.

“Don’t sell yourself short. If you were gay, and I were gay, you’d be up there pretty high on my list of guys I’d date.”

“A fine compliment … although one that’s making me increasingly uncomfortable,” I joked.

I dug into my pocket and pulled out my keys and tossed them to him. He gave me a questioning look.

“You drive me home and then the car is yours for the night.”

“You’re joking, right?”

“No joke. Can you drive a standard?”

“I could. I know the principles behind driving standard.”

“It’s no big deal, it’s a six-speed. I’ll show you on the drive to my place.”

“Won’t your parents mind you lending out your car?” he asked.

“My father is still on another continent and my mother won’t notice. Don’t worry.”

“It’s not me who should be worried,” he joked. “But I’ll be careful, and I’ll even fill up the tank.”

“Don’t waste your money. It’s all on my father’s charge card. Now, get out there and see if Brittney is interested in going to a movie tonight. Tell her that you and the Audi will pick her up.”

Danny got up to leave and then stopped and turned around. He looked like he had concerns.

“Just go, be confident,” I said. “Make sure you jingle the keys in front of her. Girls like her are fascinated by shiny objects.”

Danny burst into laughter and left.

It was nice that the car was going to at least make him happy. I wished it could be that easy for me.

Chapter Twelve

L
isa and I walked away from the school and plopped down on a bench to wait for my bus.

“So you have a crush on Evan,” she said.

“Evan? A crush? Well, maybe, maybe me and everyone else in the entire school. How about you?”

“Hmmm, so not my type.” She turned to me. “Maybe it’s even more than a bit of a crush?”