Chapter Eleven

“Try that one again,” Jeff shouted from his perch near the back of the auditorium. This was his way of making sure that everyone was projecting enough to be heard in every part of the auditorium.

Today was the cast’s first day practicing with Tariq’s newly recorded tracks and they were running through all of the songs in the second act accordingly. With opening night less than a month away, tensions were running high. Rin and Jackson were apparently fighting and refusing to talk to each other. Sophia and Ruby had memorized their parts so thoroughly that they kept speeding through all their lines at the speed of light. The very small chorus hadn’t yet learned to harmonize with each other. Danielle was stressed out about making her last show a good one, and Cam was suddenly a stuttering mess whenever it came time for him to sing or deliver an important line.

The whole thing was making Enrique look like he wanted to rip his hair out, and Jeff knew that he should be right there with him, but he was in a remarkably good mood, and as it was, negative emotions just weren’t sticking in his brain.

He was having a real-life date with Luke tonight and it was basically all he could think about. He’d booked them a reservation at this amazing soul food restaurant overlooking the water. Jeff had been wanting to try it out ever since they opened, but he didn’t want to go alone and Manny had never wanted to go with him.

Honestly, he thought he’d be more nervous, but every cell in his body was practically giddy with excitement. He and Luke had been texting back and forth all week, sometimes sweet good mornings and nights, and other times restless musings and in Luke’s case, shirtless selfies. Jeff rather appreciated those, but mostly, he appreciated the genuine connection and feeling of togetherness that he felt with Luke.

Their conversations never seemed to die or go on too long, and he never felt like he was the one putting in all the effort, which was how he felt with just about every other relationship he’d ever had, romantic or otherwise. The only downside was that they hadn’t called, only texted. It had only been six days, but Jeff couldn’t wait to finally hear the other man’s voice again.

In his distracted state, Jeff was actually kind of glad for each one of Cam’s consistently flubbed notes. They were the only things keeping his attention where it was supposed to be, directing.

The kids reset and started the scene over again for the third time. It was a heavily choreographed action sequence in which Cam’s character, Nathan, and Danielle’s character, Maria, were trying to figure out where Eddie’s character, Reed, was keeping their kidnapped cast mates before time ran out and Reed blew up the auditorium along with all of the innocent bystanders inside, waiting for the play inside of a play to begin.

The scene started with Reed sashaying in to give a satirical villainous monologue. He lamented about his fourth grade dance recital and how Nathan had ruined it by stepping on his foot and breaking one of his toes right before his big solo number. Reed had fallen and embarrassed himself in front of his elderly grandma, who then had a shame induced heart attack and died on the spot. Ever since that day, Reed had been plotting his revenge, going as far as changing his name and appearance and infiltrating the drama club.

“And once that granny murdering scumbag is out of the way,” Eddie finished with manic glee. “I’ll swoop in to console Maria and she’ll see that we’re meant to be!”

“Yeah,” said Danielle popping out from her hiding space. “Not likely.”

Eddie looked at her with shocked horror that turned angry and petulant when Cam revealed himself a moment later, crawling out from under a table with an old tape recorder in hand.

“It’s all over Schwartzman,” Cam said, hands shaking. “We’ve got evidence of your little scheme. Now let everyone go and maybe we can talk things out.”

Eddie was seething now. He was so good in this role. It was nearly impossible to separate him from his character.

“You idiot. I’ve been planning my revenge for years. Did you really think I wouldn’t have a contingency plan?”

The actors were quiet for a moment, then Cam’s eyes darted over to Danielle’s and he asked, “Um, what’s a contingency plan?”

“Nothing good,” Danielle grumbled. She was a little bit too quiet, but nothing a couple of warnings on Jeff’s part couldn’t fix.

Eddie reached into his pocket and pulled out the little strip of cardboard that they were using as a stand-in detonator.

“This,” he said. “This right here is connected to the bombs I’ve planted all throughout the building. Once I press this button they’ll go off in exactly fifteen minutes. Then your precious audience will be blown to smithereens!”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Cam shouted. He was angled so that Jeff couldn’t really see his face. They’d gone over the concept of cheating out a few times, but Cam had a lot of stuff to memorize and sometimes he tended to forget. Still, it was just a small mistake, nothing worth stopping the whole scene over.

Eddie stepped forward and held his position for several seconds as he was waiting for the music to come on. Enrique was still working on all of the cues. Once the first note of the dark number rang out, he lifted his arm and mimed pressing a button on top of his cardboard.

Cam and Danielle both gasped.

“You monster!” Danielle shouted at him. She was very convincing. There was a voice-crack and everything.

Eddie sidestepped and sashayed around the front of the stage, perfectly in time with the music. The he opened his mouth to sing.

“A monster I may be, but not as much as he,” he gave a pointed look at Cam. “Of this I guarantee, my little mon cherie.” Danielle twisted her face up in disgust as Eddie leaned down to kiss the back of her hand. “In time you all will see, that the real star here is me, and I think you will agree, that’s how it ought to be.”

“How is becoming a terrorist going to prove any of that, you crazy freak!” Danielle shouted over the music.

“Yeah!” Cam agreed. “Plus, that’s not even how you write songs. Not every line is supposed to rhyme!”

The track went on for an extra measure here to account for —hopefully—audience laughter. Tariq hadn’t even asked Jeff about it. It was just something he intuitively figured out, the little freaking genius. Eddie picked back up a few moments later to deliver the last line of the song.

“Oh well I cannot hear your plea, because your friends they are in need, and hidden with them is the key, but you did not hear that from me!”

This was where Eddie was supposed to disappear with a puff of smoke, but for today’s purposes he just turned tail and ran off the stage as fast as he could. Suddenly the music changed, becoming faster and more ominous, almost like the ticking of a clock. Cameron turned to Danielle.

“Maria! Why are you just standing there? We’ve got to get everyone out of the auditorium. Come on, let’s go!” 

Danielle shook her head.

“There’s no time. The house is full. There’s no way we’d be able to get everyone out in less than fifteen minutes, even if we could convince them to evacuate.”

“Then what do we do?”

Danielle paced across the stage and mouthed something to herself before stopping in her tracks and turning back to Cam.

“Nathan, the rest of the cast!” she shouted.

“What about them?”

“Reed said that our friends in need had the key! That must mean they’re in the school somewhere. The key is probably a kill switch for the bombs! We’ve gotta find them right now!”

The music swelled and Danielle and Cam ran backstage and momentarily disappeared from sight.

“Good!” Jeff shouted. “We’re going to run through the rescue scene and then skip right to the finale number.”

The hidden actors emerged from the wings and worked together to drag the classroom set away, exchanging it for the hallway. It was a bit tedious for a non-dress rehearsal, but it was worth it to have the kids learn their blocking within the actual confines of the space they’d have on show night. Jeff had learned that lesson the hard way.

Once everything was set, Jeff called action and Cam and Danielle started marching in place down the hallway set while all of the “kidnapped” actors were huddled behind the locker walls, visible to the audience, but not to Nathan and Maria.

On cue, Danielle started singing. This song was much better constructed and way more serious than the previous one. It was fast and tense at first as Maria tried to put all of the clues together and figure out where her friends might be. On the other side of the lockers, the kidnapped actors sang together in a haunting descant begging for her to come save them. On top of that still, was Cameron, who was counting down the minutes they had left until detonation.

Then, as time started winding down, the hectic song faded into another, still carrying the hint of metronome to indicate that the clock is still ticking. This was Nathan’s biggest solo where he sings his heart out about how much his friends mean to him and how he can’t let them down all because of a mistake he made at a dance recital when he was a kid.

What’s supposed to happen is that Nathan stops in his tracks, pours his heart out via song and then realizes that if his friends are in need, then they must be in the auditorium too, ready to be blown up along with everyone else. He suggests this idea to Maria and they both agree that their missing cast mates are being held in the orchestra pit.

That’s not how this particular performance went down though.

Cameron started by jumping in too early, which threw off Danielle’s strides and ruined the descant. Then he was nervous because he knew he’d messed up. He quickly fell off key and strained his voice so hard that he was frightened of reaching for all of his high notes. The number came to a sad conclusion a few minutes before the music cut off and everyone just stood there in awkward silence.

Jeff cleared his throat.

“Okay,” he said. “Why don’t we skip the finale for today. You all can go home now.”

The kids went into the green room to get their bags, looking defeated. It was crazy how one failed song could completely ruin an otherwise mediocre performance. Maybe that was why this school didn’t do musicals anymore. Musicals were hard and depressing. Jeff called up to Enrique telling him to lock up the sound equipment and then followed the cast into the green room. He hung back until most of the students had cleared out, and then he put his hand on Cam’s shoulder. The teen slumped into the touch.

“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” Jeff asked.

Cam shrugged and followed Jeff out into the crossover where everything was quiet. There was no liminal space quite like the empty backstage of a theater. It was like time didn’t even exist back there, unless there was a show going on, in which case time existed at double speed.

“So how do you feel like that rehearsal went?”

Cam narrowed his eyes and said. “Don’t patronize me, Mr. Martin.”

Jeff bit back a smile and calmly clasped his hands together in front of him.

“Fine. Tell me why you’re suddenly having issues then.”

Cam sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It's just like...everyone else is so talented and they seemed to already have everything figured out, even Sophia and Ruby.”

“Sophia and Ruby don’t have as many lines as you do,” Jeff countered. “And even if they did, you shouldn’t be comparing yourself to anybody else. That’s how you end up with an inferiority complex. There’s always going to be somebody better than you. You’ve just got to work hard and push through, just like you have been this entire time.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t feel like I’m pushing through,” Cam complained. “It feels like I’m holding on by a tiny thread.”

Jeff frowned.

“Cameron. I’ve quizzed you maybe hundreds of times. I know and you know that you have your lines memorized perfectly. You’ve just got to work on getting consistency in your delivery. It’ll come naturally with more practice. And as far as singing goes, you’ve got to know by now that you have one of the best voices in the entire cast, if not the best. What on Earth are you so afraid of?”

“Ruining the show for everyone and being laughed off the stage never to return again,” Cam answered monotonously.

Jeff shook his head once more. He didn’t bother mentioning that it was a rhetorical question.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret, kid,” Jeff said. “Everyone’s afraid of those things. That’s what being a performer is all about.”

Cam narrowed his eyes.

“Was that supposed to be motivational? Because it’s not making me feel any better.”

“No,” Jeff said. “But this is: You can’t let fear or other people’s judgments rule your life. I can tell you from personal experience that it’s stifling, miserable, and dull. If you’re afraid of messing up, that’s good. It means you care. It means you want to do a good job. But don’t let that fear eat away at you or stop you from doing the things you love. If you do, sure you might be spared some embarrassment here and there, but you’re also going to miss out on all the good things life has to offer you. Understand?”

Cam had his hands shoved in his pockets and he was giving Jeff a tiny half smile. He looked so much like Luke in that moment. It filled Jeff with an equal mixture of fondness and guilt.

“Well you didn’t have to go all profound on me, but yeah. I get what you’re saying. Thanks, Mr. Martin.”

“Anytime Cameron. I’ll see you for tutoring tomorrow.”

Cam grimaced, immediately erasing the image of his father.

“Oh boy, can’t wait.”

The two of them parted ways and Jeff went about shutting things down and locking up the auditorium. Then he headed out into the parking lot where his was the only car left. The sun had already started to set, and he watched it disappear in his rearview mirror as he drove back to his apartment.

He had to prepare for his date.