Stagestruck Showstopper Monday afternoon at the coffee shop to plan I got there first toting my laptop I bought lemonade and a swirly iced cupcake and picked a table Three minutes later the bell on the door jangled and Austin walked in Thanks to our day at the pool his nose and cheeks were a little bit sunburned I was surprised at how good Austin looked with that sunny glow For some reason my heart sped up a bit He waved and went to the counter for an iced tea and a giant macadamia nut cookie When he sat down we got right to work First things first I said Finances Austin bit into the cookie and nodded I opened my laptop and showed him the document my sister had titled RF Financial So according to Susan we made a pretty decent profit I pointed to the number at the bottom of the screen Not bad right We’ll be able to cover our piano-tuning debt and still have plenty left over Excellent said Austin Add that to the next session’s dues and potential ticket sales revenue following the second show and we’re definitely in good shape Yes we are I said Moving on Membership I clicked a few times and showed him the two e-mails I’d received that 2
Chapter One morning Unfortunately Sam isn’t going to be able to be in the second show He’s got a lot of baseball stuff going on for the next few weeks His team is heading for the pennant race or something like that Austin frowned That’s kind of a bummer Sam’s a great kid And a good actor I know I was pretty sad when I got the e-mail But I understand baseball means a lot to him too Then I indicated the last line of the e-mail I’ll def be back for the third show Austin read aloud This resulted in a shiver of excitement along my spine Third show I repeated Sam’s counting on there being a third show That’s encouraging Austin beamed Yeah it is My excitement subsided as I clicked on the second e-mail Unfortunately Sam’s not the only one who’s bowing out Please say Sophia’s decided to quit We should be so lucky I rolled my eyes But no as far as I know Sophia the Diva will be back for the second show It’s Mia and Eddie who won’t be able to do it Family vacation They’ll be gone for two weeks That’s a serious bummer grumbled Austin A double whammy What are we gonna do without Mia’s vocal talent and Eddie’s comedic timing 3
Stagestruck Showstopper We’ll just have to work around it I said with more confidence than I actually felt And remember a lot of our cast has improved a ton since we started That’s very true And don’t forget the new recruits Those three kids we met at the pool yesterday Nora Brady and Joey they’ve got great potential And Susan’s been fielding tweets and texts all morning from kids wanting to sign up So you’re saying our cast might actually increase Austin looked thoughtful That’s going to be a huge factor in deciding on the next show We’re going to need something with lots of roles It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him if he thought he might be able to finish his big musical the work in progress that had given me the idea to start the theater in the first place in time to start rehearsing it a week from now But after the theme song disaster I’d learned my lesson about messing with a writer’s creative flow So instead I said Annie Austin sipped his iced tea Annie who Not Annie who I said and laughed Annie the musical Wouldn’t it be awesome to do a full-length musical this time Austin mulled it over Could be cool Extremely cool I took a bite of my cupcake being careful to avoid getting icing up my nose Ya see I was 4
Chapter One thinking we could use my script from I was interrupted by the jangling of the bell on the coffee shop door Looking up I saw a frantic Susan come skidding in Anya You have to come to the theater Now Why What’s wrong I’m not really sure Her eyes were wide her face pale and her tone was positively freaked All I know is that Mr Healy’s pickup is parked on the lawn There are orange cones blocking off half the street and the whole clubhouse is surrounded by fire trucks and police cruisers Police cruisers Fire trucks I looked at Austin He looked at me We dropped our snacks and sprung up from our chairs And we ran The sprint from the coffee shop back to Random Farms Circle felt like a million miles All I could think was that one of us had left something plugged in we shouldn’t have and the clubhouse had gone up in smoke Austin Susan and I were breathless when we barreled around the corner of our street Red-and-blue lights flashed 5
