by Sheryl Berk
Gracie tugged on her mom’s robe sleeve. “Please, oh pretty please with ketchup on it!” she pleaded.
“It’s not up to me, honey,” her mom explained. “The plows have to be able to get through and clear the roads. It’s over thirty miles from here to Paramus. I don’t know if we’ll be able to get to the playhouse.”
“We can leave right now!” Gracie suggested. “I’ll get my dance bag.”
Scarlett stopped her. “Gracie, we can’t drive out there right now. It isn’t safe!”
“We just have to sit tight,” their mom said, “and hope for the best.”
Gracie sat on the living room couch most of the day, watching out the window for a snowplow to arrive and rescue them. It was two o’clock, and the cast was scheduled to report to the theater for hair and makeup by four.
“I could shovel the street in front of the garage,” she offered. “Mom could get the car out then.”
“What about the rest of the thirty miles to the theater? Are you going to shovel that, too?” Scarlett asked her. “It’s a nice idea, but it’s not going to help.”
Gracie pouted. “This stinks.”
“Why don’t you go outside and make a snowman?” her mom suggested. “It’s no use waiting around in here. You might as well have some fun.”
Gracie pulled on her snow boots and bundled up in her ski jacket and pants. When she took her first step outside on the lawn, she sank in up to her knee.
“It’s really deep!” she called to her mom and Scarlett inside. She grabbed a shovel and began scooping together two large balls for the body and head of her snowman.
Scarlett came outside to help and pass the time. “What are you going to name your snowman?” she asked her sister.
“It’s not a snowman,” Gracie replied. “I’m making a snowcracker.”
Scarlett smiled. “I think that’s a great idea. Need a hand?”
Together they shaped the balls into rectangles. “That’s way more Nutcracker-like,” Scarlett said. They put rocks on his body for buttons and an upside-down pail on his head for a military helmet.
Their mom came outside with a bag of green and red tinsel. “I thought maybe your snowman could use some bling,” she said.
“Oooh, I love it!” Gracie said. As she wrapped a red shiny tinsel scarf around her snowcracker’s neck, she almost forgot how sad and anxious she was about the storm.
“All we need to do now is his face,” Scarlett said. “I think I have a great idea.”
She dashed in the house and returned with an armful of food: two lemons for his eyes, a banana for his mouth, and a frozen hot dog for his nose.
“Oh, Scoot! It’s awesome!” Gracie said, hugging her. “This is the best snowcracker anyone has ever made.”
“I agree,” said their mom, who had come outside to see their creation.
“Now you gotta name him,” Scarlett told her. “Make it a good one, Gracie.”
Gracie scrunched up her nose—which meant she was thinking super hard.
“It’s a girl—she’s too pretty to be a boy,” Gracie finally said. “I’ll call her Crackerella.”
Scarlett and her mom both applauded.
“And now that Crackerella is all finished, I say we go in and warm up with some hot cocoa,” her mom said, ushering the girls in the house. “I can’t feel my toes!”
Just as they had gotten out of their wet clothes, the phone rang. Scarlett and Gracie heard their mother talking.
“Yes, we’ll do our very best to get there. I understand.”
They raced into the kitchen to see who had called. “It was Mr. Minnelli,” she told them. “He said the show is still going on.”
“Yipperooni!” Gracie jumped up and down. “I knew they wouldn’t cancel it.”
“But I told him we couldn’t promise that we’d be able to get to the theater,” her mom added. “He said not to worry, to just be safe. He has an understudy for Gracie who can go on tonight if we can’t get there.”
“Liberty!” Gracie and Scarlett shouted at the same time.
“Yes, apparently she stayed overnight at a hotel down the block from the Paramus Playhouse just in case.”
Gracie’s cheeks flushed. “She is so sneaky! She did this on purpose!”
“Gracie,” Scarlett said, trying to calm her down. “She didn’t make it snow. She just took advantage of the situation—and you.”
Gracie turned to her mom. “We have to get there. Please, there has to be some way.”
Her mom shook her head. “I’m so sorry, honey bunny. Unless someone shows up with a sled and a few Siberian huskies, I don’t see how. My car just can’t make it in this kind of weather.”
Scarlett called the rest of the team, and they were all in the same snowed-in situation.
“I know I said I didn’t love playing a mouse at first,” Anya told her, “but now that we can’t get to the theater, I’m really sad. Minnie kinda grew on me.”
Hayden and Rochelle were equally disappointed. “All that work, all those hours rehearsing!” Rochelle exclaimed. “And now we’re missing our opening night!”
It was 3:45 p.m. and Gracie had just about given up all hope.
“The snow will be cleaned up, and you’ll be able to do the show tomorrow night, honey,” her mom said, trying to be positive.
“But I’ll never have another opening night as Clara.” Gracie sniffled. “It won’t be the same. Liberty gets to have it, not me.” She was about to go up to her room and mope when the doorbell rang. It was Miss Toni and Marcus.
“The highways are pretty clear,” Marcus told them. “And Toni called in a favor. We’ve got a minivan with serious snow tires.”
Toni blushed. “A lot of people owe me—this one just happened to be a former student with a dad who owns a car dealership.”
“We’ve got Olivier, Rochelle, Hayden, Bria, and Anya. Are you girls ready?” Marcus asked.
It took Scarlett and Gracie mere seconds to grab their dance bags and pile into the car with the rest of the Divas.
“Be careful, girls,” their mom called after them. “Buckle up.”
“Another van is coming for you and the other moms around five thirty,” Toni told her. “We wouldn’t want anyone to miss opening night.”
Just then, Gracie heard the clank-clank of chains and spotted the snowplow making its way down her block. “Hooray! The plows are coming! The plows are coming!” She applauded.
As the van pulled out, she whispered in Scarlett’s ear, “I bet Liberty is gonna be really shocked to see us!”
Chapter 14
We’re All in This Together
The van pulled into the parking lot of the Paramus Playhouse just a few minutes after 4:00 p.m. Mr. Minnelli was trying his best to rechoreograph the scenes with fewer dancers.
“Oh thank goodness you’re all here!” he said, running and hugging Marcus as he walked in the door. “I couldn’t cancel the show, not with the critic from the Times coming to review it. Just my luck that he lives in Paramus!” He motioned to the empty stage. “I’m at my wit’s end. We’re down two mice, a couple of gingerbreads, and a handful of soldiers and snowflakes. No one can make it in all this snow!”
Addison walked through the door. “I made it. I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” she said with a smirk. Her hair was already done up in a bun and topped with a delicate pearl and rhinestone crown.
“I have my principals, but the corps is a mess,” Mr. Minnelli said.
“We can pitch in, Mr. Minnelli,” Anya offered. “We can teach each other the choreography and fill in for the missing dancers. We’re really fast learners.”
Bria nodded. “Miss Toni loves to switch our competition routines at the last minute. I once had to learn a tarantella in ten minutes.”
Toni shrugged. “I knew it would come in handy one day.”
“All right, if you think you can do it,” Marcus said.
“We need more soldiers or the mice are gonna kick our butts,” Hay
den pointed out.
“I can fill in for a soldier,” Marcus offered. “Toni? You game to join me?”
Toni looked stunned. “Me? A soldier in The Nutcracker? I played Snow Queen at ABC, or did you forget?”
“I didn’t forget,” Marcus replied. “You were spectacular. And I was your Snow King.”
Gracie tapped Toni on the arm. “You said there are no small parts, only small dancers,” she reminded her.
“You’re right,” she said. “I wouldn’t want any of my team to think I go back on my word.”
Liberty stuck her head out of the dressing room to see what all the commotion was about. She was dressed in a white lace-trimmed nightgown and her hair was styled in long, flowing ringlets tied back with a white bow.
“Hey! You look like Clara!” Gracie said, spying her. “Where did you get that costume?”
Liberty was utterly stunned to see Gracie—and the rest of the Divas—filing into the theater. “What are you doing here?” she gasped.
“Um, we’re here to put on a ballet,” Rochelle replied. “Disappointed?”
Miss Toni gave Liberty a stern look. “You can change out of that costume this instant,” she said. “There’s no need for a Clara understudy. Gracie is here.”
“There’s a big, bad gingerbread costume with your name on it,” Rochelle taunted her. “Better go get ready, Lib!”
Liberty fumed. “It’s not fair! Why does Gracie get to play Clara?”
Mr. Minnelli held up his hand. “There will be no tantrums, no hard feelings, no diva behavior.” He turned to Toni. “Apologies of course to Dance Divas—but you know what I mean.”
Toni nodded. “More than ever, we need everyone to pitch in tonight. You’ll have to double up on roles and help each other out.”
Gracie tapped Mr. Minnelli and whispered something in his ear. “Are you sure?” he asked. “Well, all right.”
He faced Liberty. “Gracie suggested that you play a snowflake in addition to a gingerbread.”
Liberty’s face lit up. “Really? I get to wear one of those beautiful silvery white tutus and a rhinestone tiara? That is so much better than a giant cookie! Thank you, thank you!”
“Thank Gracie,” Toni reminded her. “It was her idea.”
“Thanks,” Liberty said softly. “I’m sorry. I guess I wasn’t being a great friend to you.”
“You were—in the beginning,” Gracie pointed out. “I liked being your friend.”
Liberty smiled. “I liked being your friend, too. It’s not easy to find someone who loves pink sequins as much as I do. Sorry again for trying to steal Clara away from you.”
Marcus glanced at the clock on the back wall of the theater. “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but our curtain goes up in less than two hours and no one is in hair, makeup, or costume yet.” Everyone stood frozen, not knowing where to run first.
Toni clapped her hands together. “Get moving!” she commanded. Like magic, all the dancers disappeared into their dressing rooms.
“And that,” she told Marcus and Mr. Minnelli, “is how it’s done.”
Chapter 15
Curtains Up
The Paramus Playhouse was only about a quarter full—there had been so many cancellations because of the snow. But Gracie was excited to see her mom and the other Diva parents all seated in the front row. Justine was there as well, studying the program and the list of understudies Mr. Minnelli had printed out for the evening.
“I wish we had a full house for opening night,” Anya said, peeking through the curtain. “It’s like a ghost town out there.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Scarlett assured her. “We’re performing for anyone who’s watching us—and we have to do the best performance we can.” She looked at Gracie and Olivier, who were gearing up to go onstage.
“We’re right behind you,” she assured them.
“I know,” Gracie said. “I’m not scared. I figure if Clara could fight off all those mean mice, I can be just as brave. Right?”
“Right,” Anya told her, wiggling her tail at Gracie. “Just try not to hit me too hard when you throw your ballet slipper at my head, will ya?”
Gracie giggled. “I’ll try. But my dad says I have a mean pitching arm.”
When the curtain rose, the dancers all filed out onstage, pretending to participate in a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration. They danced in lines, with Gracie and Olivier leading them. There was a magician—Clara’s uncle Drosselmeyer who was played by Presley in a handlebar mustache and an eye patch—who produced a giant box tied with a bow in the center of the stage. Gracie danced around it, trying to pull off the ribbon and find out what was inside. Finally, the box opened, and Scarlett and Bria pirouetted out—as the two wind-up dolls.
“Oh!” Gracie gasped, genuinely surprised to see them in these roles. She giggled as they twirled around her in a doll-like trance, and were finally swept back into the box by Drosselmeyer.
Next up was the battle scene. Miss Toni stood backstage, dressed in a black-and-red military costume with red circles painted on her cheeks.
“You make a very pretty toy soldier,” Marcus whispered to her.
Toni half smiled. “Better not let Justine hear you say that.”
They marched onstage with Hayden and Rochelle, twirling their rifles expertly as if they were cheerleading batons. Bria and Scarlett only had minutes to change into their mouse suits before Anya pushed them out onstage. They tangled with the soldiers and finally declared surrender. Gracie stood on a bench and cheered as Olivier took the Mouse King’s crown and waved it in the air in victory.
A gold coach pulled by carousel horses took Clara and her prince to the amazing Land of Sweets. It was just as magical as Marcus had promised. Gracie couldn’t stop staring at the cotton candy clouds floating overhead and the giant Ferris wheel made out of licorice, gumdrops, and lollipops. As she and Olivier sat in the coach watching the action unfold, Addison as the Sugar Plum Fairy flitted around the stage, welcoming them to her domain.
Since the Sugar Plum Fairy’s cavalier was stuck in the city because of the blizzard, Hayden had volunteered to play the part.
“I can’t watch,” Rochelle replied. “This is worse than the time he had to dance with Liberty!”
Addison leaped and twirled around the stage, stepping on Hayden’s toes and shoving him out of her way.
“I think she thinks it’s a solo not a duet,” Anya said. “Rock, you gotta see this! Poor Hayden!”
He struggled to lift Addison in the air as she squirmed. “Let me go!” she hissed. “You’re wrinkling my costume. You’re ruining everything!”
So Hayden did just that. He dropped Addison and she landed on the stage with a loud thud.
She sat there on her butt, staring out at the audience, as the snowflakes glided down.
“Nice job, Sugar Dumb Fairy,” Liberty whispered as she swirled past her. Addison was too humiliated to answer anything back. She ran off the stage crying and rubbing her rear end.
“She asked for it,” Hayden explained to Marcus. “She said to let her down.”
“Wonderful!” Marcus complained. “Now what? I have no Sugar Plum!”
Rochelle thought fast. “Anya could do it,” she said, pulling her friend over. “She knows the part inside, outside, and upside down.”
“Fine, fine,” Marcus replied. “Go get into the spare costume. You can do the finale.”
The audience oohed and aahed over the “Waltz of the Snowflakes.” Liberty gracefully glided en pointe around the stage, following Bria and Scarlett’s lead. Each of the treats performed a dazzling dance: there were the twisty candy canes, the spicy Red Hots, and the stretchy caramel chews.
When it was time for the gingerbreads to perform, Liberty was first out onstage, leaping through the air and exploding into a breathtaking cartwheel. The rest of the gingerbread dancers waddled in behind her. Their comical routine made the audience roar with laughter—especially when Liberty threw real ginger candies into
the audience and pelted Justine in the face with one of them. She ran offstage, panting.
“That was pretty awesome,” Scarlett congratulated her. “You stole the show.”
Liberty beamed. “I guess this cookie role wasn’t so crummy after all.”
Next up was the “Arabian Coffee” duet, a mysterious pas de deux performed by a couple dressed in matching red-and-gold Middle Eastern costumes. Gracie’s eyes widened as she saw Miss Toni and Marcus make their way across the stage as the romantic duo.
“Check it out!” Rochelle pulled Scarlett over to watch from the wings. “Toni and Marcus are killin’ it!”
Scarlett was mesmerized. She had never really seen her dance coach perform onstage before. She marveled at her poise and presence; the way she extended her arms and legs into graceful long lines; and how her face captured every emotion the music was trying to convey. “Wow,” she said breathlessly. “Just wow.”
All the candies came out onstage to perform a grand group number led by the Sugar Plum Fairy. Anya floated onto the stage in a shimmering pink tutu. With a wave of her wand, the Ferris wheel lit up and began to turn. Hayden held her hand as she did a graceful arabesque and then bestowed a kiss on Clara’s and the prince’s foreheads.
In the last scene, Gracie danced around the Christmas tree once again, cradling her nutcracker doll in her arms. Olivier was transformed back into a real boy, and the Land of Sweets faded away with her dreams. She waved good-bye to the Sugar Plum Fairy and the curtain fell.
“I did it! I did it!” she said, as her teammates huddled around her backstage.
“You were an amazing Clara,” Liberty said. “I couldn’t have done it better myself.”
The curtain rose again for bows, and Marcus came out and handed Anya, Olivier, and Gracie bouquets of roses. He had one more bouquet left, which he presented to Miss Toni.
“Thank you—for your wonderful Divas and for saving the day,” he told her.
Toni curtsied and kissed him on the cheek. She waved to the audience and was not at all surprised to see that Justine’s seat in the front row was now empty.
