I nodded and also turned to address my classmates. “Yes. Our joint production with Westwood this year is Romeo and Juliet, but...” I waited for the groans to die down. “You’ll love what we’re doing with it. I don’t want to ruin the surprise but come to the talent show and you’ll see what I mean.”
I looked over at Mr. Stratton who nodded at me, which I took to mean that I should return to my seat. So I turned to do just that when I heard. “Oh Ms. Spencer?”
I looked over my shoulder to see him rolling up his right shirt sleeve, exposing his very manly forearms. I had to clear my throat before I spoke. “Yes, Sir?”
He nodded toward the stack of papers on the corner of his desk. “Can you please hand back the rest of the tests?”
“Oh sure,” I said, reaching for the pile. I wove my way around the desks handing all the girls back their marked tests. I was about to return to my seat when one of the girls stopped me with a hand on my arm.
I looked down at her with raised eyebrows, waiting for what I thought was going to be a congratulations.
She glanced at the teacher and then back at me before she whispered, “Thermostat?”
“It was really cold when we got into the room this morning,” I said faking a shiver. “We can’t have our teacher catching a chill, can we?”
“You’re my freaking hero,” she said.
I winked at her and returned to my seat.
Make Necessary Adjustments
Between school, Brooklyn’s birthday, rehearsals for the play and maybe a bit too much time spent gossiping with my girls and looking at hot guys online, the night of the talent show arrived quickly. Like, so quickly that Abe texted me to make sure I was ready and remembered the routine before I realized time had run out. Because it was that night.
Oops. Ever the cool cucumber—at least on the outside—I quickly texted him back that OF COURSE I was ready and how could he POSSIBLY think otherwise???
He sent me back an apology and promised to meet me backstage an hour before show time. I felt a pang of regret over pushing it on him, but it was too late to do anything about it now.
Then I spent the rest of math period mentally going through my makeup and figuring out how I was going to alter the dress for that very night. I’d planned to take it to Ida down in the laundry, as she used to be a dressmaker and had sewn a lot of the costumes for the productions before her arthritis took over, but obviously that hadn’t happened. I’d just have to make do.
When my own version of making do (which consisted of staring at the dress, hoping it would magically fit) fell short, I showed up at Emmie’s door.
Brooklyn opened to my frantic knocking. “What’s wrong?” she asked, her eyes going wide as she looked at what I’m sure was an expression of sheer panic on my face.
“The talent show is tonight and I forgot to get my dress fixed!” I blurted out, stepping past her into her dorm room. Emmie was sitting at her desk and had swiveled the chair around to look at me. I held the dress up in front of me. “I need help! Please!”
If I was a cool cucumber (most of the time, definitely not now) Emmie was a glacier. She smiled at me, somehow calming my nerves a couple of notches without even doing anything. “What’s wrong?”
I shook the dress. “It’s too big in the chest.”
She didn’t say anything, but I felt Brooklyn’s surprise like a heat wave rolling off her. I glanced over and sure enough, she was looking from the dress to my chest.
“They’re not that big,” I said with an eye-roll. “Much of what you see is an illusion. They can put people in space; making more out of my assets than actually exists is no great feat of engineering.”
Brooklyn nodded. “Good point. Well for what it’s worth, nice work with that. I was totally a believer.”
“Put it on,” Emmie said.
“Do either of you have a strapless bra?” I asked, looking between the two of them. “I forgot to get one. This whole thing tonight got away from me.”
Brooklyn shook her head and Emmie cringed before she said, “I do, but it would probably be way too small for you.” At my surely panicked face, she got up and started rooting around in her dresser before she pulled one out. “You can try it.”
“Thanks,” I said as I reached out and took the bra from her before turning toward their bathroom.
Emmie frowned. “Just put it on here. You don’t need to go into the bathroom.”
“I have to pee anyway,” I said automatically. Because there was no way I was taking my clothes off in front of them. In gym, I had an elaborate system using my uniform clothes (and the kind of distraction techniques I’d be employing for Abe’s show in JUST A FEW HOURS!) to keep myself covered at pretty much all times, but here, with just us, that wasn’t going to be possible.
Ducking into the bathroom, I locked the door and hurried to take my shirt and uniform skirt off. I’d already taken off my tights after class, replacing them with a pair of Spanx. I tried the bra, but Emmie was right that it was too small in both cup size and band, so there was no making it work. Crap. I put my own bra back on and slipped the dress over top, hoping that somehow we could make it work. I looked into the mirror; if I bunched up the material at the side, it fit. More or less. I just couldn’t walk around holding the dress, obvs.
I flushed the toilet and then turned on the sink for a few moments while I took in the dress from all angles. It really was pretty nice, we just had to get it to fit. Oh and the bra thing.
I turned off the tap and emerged to show the girls, clutching the fabric at my side to keep the dress up. Emmie whistled and Brooklyn said, “Wow!”
“Right?” I agreed. “It just needs a bit of adjusting.”
Brooklyn stood up and came over. “Ah, it’s kind of loose. Maybe we can sew in a seam?”
I looked up at her hopefully. “You can sew?”
She shook her head. “Sorry. My mom taught me to knit, but I’m barely good at that.”
I turned my eyes to Emmie.
She exhaled as she stared at the dress. “I’m no seamstress.”
“It doesn’t have to be perfect. It only needs to make it through tonight.”
She nodded decisively. “We can do that much. But you need a bra.” She looked back at her own dresser as if a perfectly-fitting bra would just appear. Then she turned to Brooklyn. “See if you can find someone down the hall who has a strapless one that will fit her.”
Brooklyn looked at Emmie as though she was nuts, but I begged her. “Please, Brooklyn. I’ll owe you huge. We don’t have a lot of time.”
She looked at me like going trick or treating for bras in the dorm was not something she wanted to do. “Do it for Abe,” I said in a last ditch effort to convince her.
Maybe it was her guilt over dumping him or that she really thought of him as a friend, but whatever it was, it worked. She sighed. “Fine. What size?”
I told her and Emmie suggested that anything close would work in a pinch. Pun intended. Even I laughed at that one. A little.
After Brooklyn left, Emmie went into the bathroom and returned with a mini sewing kit. She opened it up and pulled out a safety pin and came close, wrinkling up her nose. “It smells a bit musty.”
“I meant to wash it,” I said.
“It’s not horrible,” she said. “Just put on a bit of perfume. It’s not like anyone will be close enough to smell it. Okay, hold still.”
She bent down toward me.
I froze. “You’re not sewing it while I’m wearing it, are you?” I asked, suddenly worried about getting stitches in my flesh.
She glanced up at me and rolled her eyes. “No, I’m just pinning it so you can take it off and I know where to sew.”
“Well you can’t blame me for asking, you admitted you had no idea what you’re doing.”
“I never said that. I said I wasn’t a seamstress.”
I failed to see the difference, but since she was helping me and had a sharp object in her hand, I kept my mouth shut
.
It was only a few seconds later that she said she was done and I let out my breath.
“Take it off and I’ll sew it up.”
“You really think you can fix it?”
She shrugged. “Sure; it’s just a few stitches.”
I’d left my clothes in the bathroom, so I went back to change, closing the door most of the way so she wouldn’t think I was being a total prude by locking her out when I didn’t have the excuse of having to pee.
But I changed as quickly as I could just in case she had the idea to barge in to take the dress.
When I came out of the bathroom again, I handed her the dress and sat down on Brooklyn’s bed. “So no one else is doing anything for the talent show?” I asked.
She lay the dress across her lap and reached for the sewing kit. “No. But it’ll be fun watching you; no one else has any talents.”
“I find that hard to believe,” I said, which was the truth. All my friends were smart and talented in different ways.
Emmie kept her eye on the needle she was threading. “No one has any talents they want to display on stage. Anyway, it will be fun watching the guys make dorks of themselves with whatever they do. Except Abe, who will be awesome, I’m sure. And Dave, if he does something...” she sighed at that, but I didn’t say anything.
After half a second, she went on, “And you’re super-talented, so we’ll all be rooting for you.”
I laughed at that. “Yes, I’m very talented”
Emmie glanced up at me and frowned. “Of course you are. You’re a great actor.”
I shrugged. “I’m just part of the production. And believe me, there are not a lot of quality actors there. Wait until you see Philip Carson.”
Emmie lifted an evil eyebrow and narrowed her eyes. “I can’t wait. Kaylee said he’s awful.”
“That douche is an insult to the word awful,” I said.
She smiled, even as she bent to begin sewing the dress where the pin held the material together.
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “But it’ll be fine. How long is his magic show?”
“Six minutes.”
She glanced up. “No problem. Is he good?”
“Yeah. We just sort of talked through it, so I know what he does, but I didn’t really get to see his stage presence.” I shrugged. “He’s a good performer. I’m sure it will be good.”
“And with you there in this hot dress, he can’t fail,” she said.
I smiled at that, but didn’t say anything else, not wanting to let on that I was actually pretty nervous about it for both myself and for Abe. This performance meant a lot to him. A lot more than most people would know. At least until his memoir came out.
Several long, quiet minutes later- I had stopped talking to let her concentrate- the door opened and we both looked up at Brooklyn, hopeful. But she shook her head as she entered the dorm room having returned empty-handed. “Sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t find one.”
I cursed loudly. “What am I going to do? Abe’s going to kill me.”
Never one to be deterred, Emmie returned to the dress and reached for her little scissors to snip the end of the thread. “Try it on now without your bra. Maybe it will work.”
I gave her a look. “Okay, so I’m not totally stacked, but I don’t think I can go completely without a bra.”
“Just try it. Maybe we can pin it up around the top. There are safety pins in the sewing kit.”
Before they could say anything else, I ducked back into the bathroom and put the dress on sans bra. It definitely fit better than it had before, but the top wasn’t working and was going to fall down. I emerged from the bathroom again, holding the material up over my boobs.
“Better,” Emmie said with a nod. “Let me see what I can do with these pins.”
“Tape,” Brooklyn said. “You need some two-sided tape.”
I looked at her.
She shrugged. “That’s what they use in pageants. You can put some on just inside the hem and that will hold the dress to your body.”
“Do you have any?” I asked.
“No,” she said.
I exhaled, knowing that finding a strapless bra that fit had been a long shot but finding two-sided tape would be near impossible.
“What about down in the maintenance shed?” Emmie suggested.
Have I ever mentioned how smart my friends are? I snapped my fingers. “If there’s any on campus, it’s probably there.” I glanced at the clock on Emmie’s nightstand and groaned. It was almost time for dinner (not that feeding my nervous stomach sounded like a good idea) which meant we were quickly running out of time.
“Want me to go?” Brooklyn offered.
“You are so sweet,” I said. “But by the time I get you my keys and explain where you might find tape, I may as well just run down.”
“What about your hair and makeup?” Emmie asked. As she did, Kaylee and Celia came in, taking places on Brooklyn’s bed. Celia gave me a whistle and Kaylee waggled her eyebrows at me so I gave them a turn in the dress, making sure I swished the fringe before I turned back to Emmie.
“That’s next,” I said.
“What’s next?” Celia asked.
“Makeup,” I said. “I need to glam up like a whore for the stage.”
Kaylee slid to the edge of the bed and stood up. “I’ll do your face if you want.”
“You sure?”
“Yep. You know I was practically raised by movie folk; I hung out with one of my parents’ favorite makeup artists on a lot of sets. I learned a thing or two about stage makeup.”
“You’re on,” I said. “My room or yours?”
“Where’s Naomi?” she asked.
“Your room it is,” I said. “I’ll go get the tape and meet you there.”
Kaylee smiled at me and I would have hugged her but didn’t want to risk losing the dress and having a really awkward moment. “You’re the best,” I said, which I hoped summed it all up.
“It’s the least I can do for my Romeo.”
I smiled at her and followed her to the door.
“If I don’t see you, break a leg!” Emmie called out.
At the time, I appreciated her good wishes. Later, I would have rather a broken leg to what actually went down.
I'm Sexy and I Know It
My makeup looked flawless, thanks to Kaylee, and I was thankful for one less thing to worry about.
I had luckily found the two-sided tape down in the maintenance shed, but would have to apply it backstage during my wardrobe change in between the Romeo and Juliet bit and Abe’s magic show. Not ideal, but I didn’t have much choice.
At least the Romeo getup wasn’t going to be an issue: a ruffled shirt, short pants and long stockings. Even Abe couldn’t complain about that costume.
So there I was backstage, just standing amid the chaos as everyone got ready for the show, going over my lines in my head. Declan and I didn’t have a big scene and we’d rehearsed it plenty, just that this would be the first time we’d actually do the kiss. We’d sort of glossed over it before now, doing goofy almost-kisses, probably both feeling awkward and not wanting to go through with it until absolutely necessary. But now we’d be doing it for the first time in front of an audience. A really big audience. So yeah, I was a little nervous.
“Hey.”
I turned around and there was Abe, looking extra hot in his tux. Of course, all guys look great in well-fitting tuxedos, but right then, Abe nearly took my breath away with his giant manly shoulders, his dark hair slicked back into his ponytail and his twinkling green eyes. Yes, I realize eyes and hair have nothing to do with tuxedos, but the point I’m trying to make here is that he was the whole package. The whole hot package.
“Hi,” I said, giving him a once-over. “You look goooood.”
He did a quick sweep of me with his eyes. “You look...uh...”
“The phrase you’re looking for,” I said
, giving him a mock stern look. “It hot in a cross-dressing sort of way.”
He grinned. “Exactly what I was about to say.”
“You all ready for your performance?”
“Our performance,” he corrected. “And yeah. I think so.”
Kaylee came up to us. “Where is Declan?!” she practically shrieked at Abe, who did a double-take.
“He’s here, don’t worry. We drove over together,” he said, looking over our heads to scan the crowd. His eyes suddenly fixed and he pointed. “There...”
We all turned and Declan looked over while holding up his costume, a question in his expression.
“Yes, that one!” Kaylee yelled and pointed toward the wardrobe room. “Hurry up!”
She turned back and sighed. “I will be happy when this show is over. Chelly, your costume...” Then, inexplicably, she started tugging at my shirt to adjust it.
“Stop it,” I said, pushing her hands away because I knew she was just nervous—I’d already checked my outfit. “It’s fine. The show will be fine. We’re here to get laughs, so no matter how ridiculous it ends up being, it will be good.”
She looked up at me and nodded. “Sorry. You’re right. I’m being stupid, just...”
I put my hands on her shoulders to still her. “It will be fine,” I assured her, looking into her eyes and trying to be as convincing as possible.
She nodded. “Thanks. I’d better go make sure Declan has everything he needs. Don’t go far, though, we’re on second.”
I nodded, but she was already gone, weaving through the crowd toward where her boyfriend had disappeared into the wardrobe room.
“She okay?” Abe asked.
I turned back toward him. “Yeah. She’s a bit nervous, obviously.”
“What about you?”
He was staring into my eyes and I had to look away. “I’m okay. We’re doing a scene with a kiss, so that’s a bit weird.”
“Ah, yes. I’m familiar with the on-screen kiss awkwardness.”
“I bet. Any tips?”
He actually blushed a little, which was weird for someone who had been through what he had, but at the same time it was kind of adorable. I almost said something to tease him about it, but bit my lip instead, suddenly not wanting to embarrass him. Too much. Until I couldn’t help myself and, “So, can I practice on you?” came out of my mouth.
Acting Out Page 9
