Chapter One to my feet I could feel everyone’s eyes on me I suppose I should have been thanking Becky for saving my life but at the moment with all the other sixth and seventh-grade soccer hopefuls not to mention Daria and the rest of the returning players staring at me being decapitated suddenly didn’t seem like such a bad thing after all Are you okay Becky whispered and then grimaced Um you’ve got some grass stuck right there Mortified mortified I sputtered the grass pieces from my lip Okay everybody said Daria swinging her thick auburn braid and smiling around at the twenty-two of us who’d come to try out for the team Coach says we can wrap it up Awesome job today As you know we can pick only six new girls for next year The new team members will be posted outside the gym first thing tomorrow morning Good luck you guys With that Daria and her glittering circle of athletically athletically gifted besties turned and sauntered back to the school building The other candidates broke into groups and pairs and walked off chattering excitedly about what they thought their chances were of making the team A couple of girls turned to peek at me over their shoulders and chuckle I wanted to dig a hole right in the middle of the center circle and crawl in 3
Stagestruck Curtain Up Don’t worry about it said Becky reading my mind as she hoisted her hot pink glitter-encrusted gym bag onto her shoulder By tomorrow everyone will forget what happened Which part I grumbled The part where I fell on my face or the part where I had to spit grass clippings out of my mouth Both Becky assured me with a smile I seriously doubted it and Becky could tell from my expression Well if they don’t she continued it’s no big deal Tomorrow’s the last day of school anyway and once the roster’s posted nobody will give the soccer team a second thought until September Becky would make the team no question She was that flawless combination of girly-girl and superjock did I mention the glittery gym bag and half the boys in school had crushes on her My best friend was basically a perfect human being which when you were twelve was the kind of thing that either totally impressed you or made you sick to your stomach If I were going to be truthful about it I’d have to say in my case it was a little of both Too bad there’s no middle-school theater program she said with a sigh That would be great for you Yeah I grumbled Then I stopped walking and turned 4
Chapter One to look at her Why don’t they Have a theater program I mean I don’t know Becky shrugged They have one at the high school True but that meant I wouldn’t get to do a play until I got to Chappaqua Central High and that was two years away The thought of having to wait until I was a freshman in high school to do anything theatrical was pretty depressing Let’s go get pizza or something I suggested when we reached the front of the school Can’t said Becky I’ve got swim practice and then a diving lesson and after that I’m meeting my brother for golf I smiled This was pretty much a typical Becky Mezan daily schedule I’d forgotten she’d joined the town’s summer swim team and I felt a twinge of sadness because I knew that all the swim practicing and competing would take up a lot of her summer vacation time We said our good-byes promised to Skype later and she went to meet her mother in the parking lot while I headed to the side entrance of the school to await the late bus Ugh Late Bus Honestly are there two more horrendous words in the entire English language A handful of kids were already assembled there some of the soccer hopefuls who’d witnessed my embarrassment 5
Stagestruck Curtain Up Kevin something-or-other who spent pretty much every afternoon in detention and a few student council members who’d stayed late to decorate the gym for tomorrow night’s eighth-grade semiformal dance And Austin Weatherly was there That was weird Austin was in my grade We didn’t know each other well but I did know that he lived only one block from school That was the weird part because why would he be waiting for the late bus when he could just walk home I got my answer when I saw that Mrs Warde was the Late Bus Duty Teacher today Mrs Warde was head of the English Department and pretty much everyone’s favorite teacher And since everyone knew that Austin Weatherly was the best writer in the sixth grade maybe even the whole school it made perfect sense to me that he was there to discuss something with the most creative teacher on the faculty Austin was the sort of guy a lot of girls would overlook but I’d always kind of noticed him I didn’t have a lot of experience with boys the overlookable overlookable type or otherwise but it seemed to me a smart quiet guy would be much easier to be yourself around than one of those high-profile guys who thinks a varsity jacket actually passes for a personality I agree with you completely Austin Mrs Warde was 6
