Musical Mystery

by Laura Sieveking

  ‘Ella!’ Grace hissed, shaking me by the shoulder.

  ‘I don’t want to!’ I mumbled, half asleep.

  Grace whipped the covers off my bed. The cool night air shocked my body and I sat bolt upright. Zoe and Violet were already putting their jumpers on over their pyjamas.

  I reluctantly rolled off my bed and zipped up my hoodie. I pulled the hood over my head and glared at Grace. She laughed at me and I couldn’t help but smile back.

  We had decided that the CRMF was going to have to move locations. It was just too risky being in the common room, right down the corridor from Monty’s bedroom. So we shifted it to be a Dorm Room Midnight Feast, or DRMF. The most obvious dorm room to choose was Saskia and Portia’s room, as it was the furthest down the hall and offered us the most protection from Monty hearing us.

  Grace opened our door and we peeked into the darkened corridor. It was eerily silent. The thing about boarding school is that it’s almost never silent at any time of day. There was always someone doing something. So it was weird to be walking up the corridor in utter stillness. We reached Saskia’s door and Grace did the secret knock.

  The door opened just a crack and Mercedes peeked out.

  ‘Password?’ she hissed.

  ‘It’s obviously us, let us in,’ Grace said, rolling her eyes.

  ‘Password!’ Mercedes demanded.

  ‘Hippopotamus bottom,’ Grace replied, irritated.

  ‘No!’ Mercedes said, her voice wavering a little from laughter.

  ‘I think it’s rhinoceros,’ I offered.

  ‘Rhinoceros bottom,’ Grace tried.

  The door slowly swung open. ‘You may enter,’ Mercedes said, waving us in through the doorway. Inside, Saskia, Portia, Annabelle, Ruby and a few other girls from our year were sitting on the floor and beds, cross-legged. The moon shone through the slightly open window.

  I sat on the bed next to Portia and Grace. Zoe and Violet joined the circle on the ground.

  ‘OK, let’s get started!’ Portia said, bouncing her leg with excitement.

  ‘Um, Portia, I thought we agreed that I would be leading the DRMF tonight,’ Saskia said bitterly.

  ‘Oh, yeah, sorry,’ Portia mumbled.

  Saskia gave Portia a cold look, which made me think she was still bitter about the fact that Portia had been cast as Arianwen in the musical and she was just a chorus wolf.

  Grace pulled a bag out from under her dressing gown and emptied the contents onto the floor in the middle of the circle. Everyone dived onto the treats, opening the crackly wrappers and shoving them into their mouths. Violet reached into her pocket and pulled out a small pack of her special diabetic-friendly lollies, which she could have in moderation.

  There was a knock on the door. The secret knock. Mercedes jumped up and opened the door a crack.

  ‘Password?’

  ‘Um . . . monkey bum?’ the girl on the other side of the door said.

  We all burst out laughing.

  ‘Password?’ Mercedes repeated.

  We could hear the girls in the corridor arguing over the password.

  ‘It’s rhinoceros bottom!’ Grace yelled out.

  ‘Grace! Don’t TELL!’ Mercedes scolded.

  ‘Rhinoceros bottom,’ the girls in the corridor said.

  Mercedes reluctantly opened the door and let them through. As she came back to her seat, she muttered about why they even had a password if people didn’t respect it.

  ‘OK, so who’s got a good story for us?’ Zoe said, looking around the circle.

  ‘What kind of a story?’ Annabelle asked.

  ‘A scary story,’ Zoe said, mischievously.

  ‘I do,’ Portia said.

  ‘Of course you do,’ Saskia quipped. ‘Always the centre of attention.’

  Portia frowned, but continued. ‘It’s a true scary story, so you have to promise not to be terrified.’

  I felt a chill climb up my spine. We all nodded.

  ‘I call this tale “The Cursed Mask”,’ she whispered. ‘It’s interesting that I’m telling you this now, what with the announcement of the school musical. It all started about 100 years ago, in these very grounds of Eden.’

  We huddled in closer, listening intently.

  Portia continued, ‘On this campus, there used to be a grand old theatre. Much like the auditorium, it was used for performances, like plays and musicals. The Eden Girls at the time were putting on a musical—just like we are doing now—and everything was going well. Until the musical director gave something to the lead actress. That’s when things started to go . . . wrong.’

  ‘What kind of wrong?’ Zoe asked.

  ‘What did she give her?’ I pried.

  ‘The musical director gave the lead actress a horrid little mask. She was supposed to wear it in the play. The musical director said she had picked it up on her travels in the deepest, darkest jungles of Asia. But as soon as the mask was brought onto the set, things started to go wrong. Little things at first: props going missing, people forgetting the lines they’d learned. But then things got weird, and the little things going wrong became big things. One girl even broke her arm when a heavy sandbag fell on her from the rafters. People began to believe that the mask was . . . cursed!’ Portia said, waving her hand in the air dramatically.

  Saskia rolled her eyes. ‘As if.’

  ‘The girls hid the mask and things started to go well again. But on the night of the performance, the musical director told them to get it out. Against their better judgement, they pulled out the mask and the lead actress wore it in the show. Everything went well at first, and the girls thought the curse had broken . . . until the very last act, when a bolt of lightning hit the theatre. It caught alight and burned to the ground!’

  ‘Woah,’ we all whispered.

  Portia continued in her eerie voice. ‘Everyone escaped and nobody was hurt, but the girl who had worn the cursed mask decided it was too dangerous to keep. She buried it in the ashes of the theatre, where it is still hidden today. And do you know where that is?’

  We all leaned in.

  ‘Under our new auditorium!’ Portia yelled.

  We all screamed. Then we burst out laughing.

  ‘Great story, Portia,’ Mercedes giggled.

  ‘Not a word of a lie,’ Portia said, solemnly holding up her hand.

  ‘Mayday! Mayday!’ Annabelle hissed from the doorway. It was her turn to keep watch. Monty must have opened her door downstairs!

  ‘Quick, everyone out,’ Saskia said, hurrying the girls out the door. Grace and I stayed back to clean up all the lollies and chocolate left in the middle of the room. We hurriedly scooped the contraband (which is a dramatic word for things that aren’t allowed) into Grace’s bag, as Saskia hissed at us to hurry up.

  The other girls had tiptoed back into their rooms already. Grace and I poked our heads into the hallway and could hear the muffled sound of Monty’s slippered footsteps coming up the stairs.

  ‘We’re too late!’ Grace said, closing Saskia’s door with us still inside her room.

  ‘You need to get out or you’ll get me in trouble,’ Saskia said.

  We looked around wildly for somewhere to hide. The bed frames reached the floor and we wouldn’t fit in the cupboards. There was nowhere else, except . . . Grace and I looked at the window at the exact same time. We turned back to each other.

  ‘No way,’ I said, shaking my head.

  ‘It’s that or get busted,’ Grace said.

  This was a bad idea. But I nodded.

  Grace bounded over to the window and flung it open. We climbed out onto the flat roof that bordered the window pane. I stopped for a moment to look out into the darkness. The back of the dorms overlooked bushland and all was quiet and peaceful. I could feel summer was ebbing away, as there was a crispness to the night air that was unlike the long summer nights, when we’d sit outside in t-shirts until late into the evening. I sucked the cool air deep into my lungs. It felt refreshing after the stuffiness of
the room crammed with girls.

  Grace snapped her fingers, waving at me to stop dawdling. We shuffled around the roof, past the other windows, counting to make sure we ended up at the right dorm room.

  Grace tapped desperately on the glass, hoping Zoe or Violet would hear.

  Violet pulled back the curtain and jumped in surprise when she saw us on the roof. She quickly opened the window and Grace climbed in. They both threw themselves into their beds. Just as I was about to step into the room, I saw our door start to creak open. Still crouching on the roof, I reached in and pulled the curtain shut, obscuring me from view. I shivered as the wind picked up a bit. Holding onto the window ledge, I hoped Monty wouldn’t check the window behind the curtain. If she caught me hanging out on the roof at midnight, I would be in so much trouble. How could I explain this one?

  I heard light footsteps padding around our room. Ms Montgomery stopped.

  ‘Ella?’ she whispered. ‘Where are you?’

  She was clearly next to my empty bed. She sped out the door and up the corridor, probably going to check the bathroom.

  This was my chance.

  I threw the curtain open, leapt through the window and yanked it shut behind me. But what could I do now? When Monty came back, she would know something was up if I had magically reappeared in my bed. I scanned my eyes around the room and saw our beanbag sitting in the corner. I scurried over and curled up into a ball on it, pretending to be asleep.

  Monty’s hurried footsteps came up the hallway as she came back to our dorm room. She burst through the door and walked straight over to my bed to check it again.

  ‘Ella?’ she whispered.

  I pretended to snore lightly. Monty turned and saw me on the beanbag. Her shoulders relaxed. She probably thought she just hadn’t seen me last time she was in the room.

  ‘Ella, were you just up?’ she whispered.

  I snored on.

  I could see through one squinted eye that she looked confused. She shook her head lightly, then looked at the window. The curtain was open. I winced. It wasn’t open last time she came in.

  Ms Montgomery walked over and pulled the curtain closed.

  ‘How strange,’ she muttered under her breath. She gently pulled me up off the beanbag and I mumbled something incoherent to make it look like I was still mostly asleep.

  ‘Come on, Ella, back to your bed,’ she whispered gently.

  I crawled into bed and Monty pulled the covers over my shoulders. She paused as she looked down at me and frowned slightly. Then her brow relaxed as she gently swept my hair from my face. I breathed in deep rhythms. Monty turned and walked quietly out of the room.

  As soon as the door shut, I breathed a deep sigh of relief, while Zoe, Grace and Violet muffled their giggles with their pillows.

  Chapter 8

  I nervously jiggled my leg as I sat cross-legged on the stage. I’d looped my arm through Violet’s, as she seemed just as nervous as I was. Saskia and Portia sat next to us, as did most of the other Year 7 girls in the musical. We all chattered while we waited, excitement and anticipation dancing around in the air. More girls from the cast trickled into the auditorium from their afternoon classes, as school had now officially finished for the day.

  ‘Hello, girls!’ a voice called from the front of the auditorium. Miss Lopez swanned down the aisle, her billowy skirt swirling around her ankles. Her hair was bundled on top of her head in a messy bun again, with renegade curly strands hanging loose around her face. Mr Withers followed her in.

  ‘Welcome to Enchantment the Musical!’ she gushed.

  We all cheered. It was the very first rehearsal and everyone seemed a bit nervous. It felt like the time I’d first caught the bus to school on my own. I knew I could do it, but the exhilaration and fear of doing something so independent on my own caused me to feel slightly nauseous, which just means a bit vomity.

  ‘Now, I want to have a quick word to you all before we start,’ Miss Lopez said. Her eyes sparkled. ‘First up, congratulations to you all for getting a part in the musical! There was a lot of talent and it was very hard to choose. You should feel very proud! But now you are here, I am expecting full commitment. No missed rehearsals without a letter from your year supervisor saying that you were sick or unable to attend for another very good reason.’

  We all nodded solemnly.

  ‘And remember, we are a team. There’s no competition here. We support one another. Sometimes things will get hard. I’m expecting some tears,’ she said.

  I gulped.

  ‘But if we support one another like a family, then this musical has every chance of being the most glorious musical that Eden College has ever done! Does anyone have any questions before we begin?’

  We all looked around as a few people put their hands in the air.

  ‘I’m sorry, I’ll slowly learn all your names. You, what’s your name?’ Miss Lopez said, as she pointed to one of the girls with her hand up.

  ‘Astrid,’ she said.

  ‘Hi, Astrid. What’s your question?’

  ‘Why are you being our musical director? I’m just wondering why you’d come to direct a school production instead of being in a real show yourself. I saw you in Cats a couple of years ago. You were amazing,’ Astrid gushed.

  Miss Lopez blushed and smiled. ‘I was just ready for a change,’ she said, as she dismissed the question with a wave of her hand.

  Tilly, the Year 8 girl playing the other dryad, put up her hand. ‘Will we be starting with the songs or the words from the musical?’

  ‘Ah, good question. We are going to run through the text of the play first. I’ll break you into groups according to your parts and you can start to become familiar with the script. We’ll get onto the music a bit later,’ Miss Lopez said.

  ‘Are we using a soundtrack or a live orchestra?’ someone else asked.

  ‘For rehearsals,’ Miss Lopez answered, ‘we will use a soundtrack or the piano here. But when we put on the real show, we will have the school orchestra playing live. We’ll practice with them later down the track.’

  We all sat quietly—a little stunned—at the thought of being in such a professional-sounding production. When there were no more questions, Miss Lopez clapped her hands.

  ‘Right, to start today, we are going to break into groups to go through the script. I’ll put people who are in common scenes together, so you can focus on the parts of the musical most relevant to your role. People in the chorus, you are in the background of almost every scene, so it will be good for you to read through the entire production together.’

  Miss Lopez read out the cast list and handed each one of us a bound book, which had our name and our part on the front. I looked down at mine:

  DRYAD – Ella, Year 7

  My heart fluttered a little. It reminded me of the time that I got my acceptance letter for Eden College. It had been exhilarating, but, at the same time, it had also dawned on me exactly what I’d gotten myself into. Nanna Kate always says that’s when the feelings of doubt usually sneak up on you. I was certainly feeling doubtful now. Could I really do this? I pushed the thought aside as Miss Lopez turned towards us.

  ‘Dryads and songbird, can you please form a group of three and go over your scripts? You can go through the forest scenes in more detail,’ Miss Lopez said, directing Tilly, Violet and I over to one side of the stage.

  I was happy to be working with Violet. And I knew Tilly from working on our school newspaper, Eden Press.

  ‘Wolves, you will be working with Mr Withers,’ Miss Lopez said.

  Mr Withers jumped up and put his hands out like they were claws. ‘Ow-oooo!’ he howled, imitating a wolf. ‘Wolves, follow me, like this,’ he said energetically, stalking away like a wolf prowling the night.

  Saskia rolled her eyes so hard I thought they might fall into the back of her head. She dragged her feet along, refusing to stalk like a wolf.

  I muffled a laugh.

  Tilly, Violet and I opened our scripts an
d glossed over the opening scenes, which didn’t involve us. The songbird and the dryads came into the plot when the children embarked on their quest to rescue their sister from the Snow Queen.

  All of Violet’s lines were in song and all of our dryad lines were in poems. The dryads also sang a short song together. As I flicked through the script, I saw just how much poetry there was to remember. Those doubts crept back in and I began to have a sinking feeling in my stomach. Had I bitten off more than I could chew?

  Violet pushed her glasses up her nose. ‘I don’t know how my songs go yet, so I’ll just read the lines.’

  Tilly and I nodded. We turned to the first forest scene. I cleared my throat and began to read.

  ‘Song of the morning, dancing in the air,

  Mist of the evening, dissipate slowly, softly,

  with magical care.

  What’s that I hear? Soft footfall. Gently trod and plod

  Through crisp, auburn leaves,

  The forest wakes, to friends or thieves?

  Let us listen...’

  This was the first moment the dryads would meet the children wandering through the forest. But as I read over the words, my mind began to spin. So many words—as beautiful as they were—jumbling and tumbling across the page. I took a deep breath. I knew I had work to do.

  I looked at Tilly, who had a similar look of panic on her face.

  ‘Is everything OK over here with my forest creatures?’ Miss Lopez asked, wandering over to our group.

  I nodded slowly. ‘It’s just . . . the dryads have difficult parts to remember.’

  She smiled. ‘Tilly and Ella, you were by far the best readers of poetry at the auditions. We gave you these parts because we know you can do them.’

  I forced a smile. I really didn’t want to let Miss Lopez, or the rest of the cast, down.

  Suddenly, with a jolting snap noise, all the lights in the auditorium shut off. A few girls squealed in fright.

  ‘Oh, dear,’ Miss Lopez said. ‘I wonder if it’s a power outage.’

  She made her way over to the light switches at the side of the stage and flicked them up and down. But no lights came on. Even though it was daytime, the auditorium was eerily dark.