The orchestra was even attending all our rehearsals, to get us used to singing with live music instead of the backing soundtrack. It felt more professional, which was both exhilarating and frightening at the same time.
Little things were still going wrong, which everyone blamed on the cursed mask apparently hidden somewhere underneath the theatre. But it was never anything too major. A string broke on a violin, one of the tree props fell down mid-rehearsal and Miss Lopez’s script with everybody’s parts in it went missing. All of these things could be explained away without too much drama. Although I did notice Saskia noting down each minor calamity in her notebook, grinning like the wolf she was playing every time something went awry.
Now, with only five days left before the show, everyone was really getting nervous. I walked down to our afternoon musical rehearsal a little early, wanting to get practicing to help lessen my nerves. As I entered the auditorium, I saw that it was empty. I continued on towards the tech crew box up the back. It was a small room behind all the seats, with big glass windows, elevated so it looked over the heads of the audience and straight down onto the stage. This was where the tech crew would adjust the sound and lights and add audio and visual effects. I poked my head into the room and saw Zoe sitting by herself at the sound desk.
‘What are you up to, Zo?’ I asked.
She looked up and smiled. ‘I’m just getting organised with the sound effects,’ she said. On the big screen in front of her, there were dials and controls and flashing lights that made my head spin.
‘Check out this one,’ she said, as her fingers danced over the keyboard. ‘This is the howling wind at the ice castle.’ She pulled up an audio file and clicked on it with her cursor. A howling sound echoed out from the speakers.
‘That’s cool!’ I smiled.
I looked out of the glass windows, down to the stage, picturing the scene to myself. Then I saw something move along the backdrop of the ice castle.
‘Who’s down there?’ I asked, craning my neck to see.
Zoe shrugged.
I saw a swish of blonde hair before Saskia came out from the wings. She looked from side to side, then jumped down off the stage.
‘What’s she up to?’ I asked suspiciously.
‘She’s holding her wolf ears,’ Zoe said, shrugging again. ‘She must have forgotten them and gone backstage to get them. No big deal.’
I frowned.
Slowly, other members of the cast started filing into rehearsal. I left Zoe in the tech box and joined them on stage. Mr Withers and Miss Lopez gathered us all together, while Mrs Lodge organised the orchestra girls.
‘OK, today we are doing the forest scene again. Everyone in this scene, hop up and take your places. Tilly and Ella, we’ll go from the part where you sing Fly Free. Come up here to centrestage.’
We all stood up and moved to our positions.
I looked at Tilly, who seemed pale. ‘Are you OK?’ I asked.
‘I’m just really tired,’ she said half-heartedly.
The music came on. Tilly was meant to be the first person to sing in the song. I was to join her in the second verse. But Tilly missed her cue.
‘Is it hot in here?’ she asked.
I shook my head and frowned, concerned.
‘Tilly, you missed your part,’ Miss Lopez said, slightly irritated.
‘Sorry,’ Tilly said weakly.
The music started again and Tilly missed her cue for a second time. I turned to her and saw she was staring vacantly out into the auditorium.
‘Tilly?’ Miss Lopez said, walking up to the stage.
Tilly appeared to sway on her feet. Then, suddenly, she fell to the ground. Someone in the chorus screamed.
I ducked down by her side. ‘Tilly? Tilly!’ I shouted, panicked.
Miss Lopez jumped up onto the stage and knelt down next to her, as Tilly lightly squirmed. Then her eyes fluttered open. She was pale as a ghost.
‘What happened?’ she mumbled.
‘You fainted. Has this happened before?’ Miss Lopez asked gently.
Tilly shook her head. ‘I’ve just been really tired lately,’ she said again.
She looked completely befuddled, which is a big word for super-duper confused.
Miss Lopez called the school nurse, who came across to the auditorium and, with the help of Mr Withers, carried Tilly down to sick bay.
I bit my lip. This was not good.
One of the girls in the chorus started crying. ‘It’s that stupid curse!’ she sobbed.
‘There’s no curse,’ Lauren said, pulling her in for a hug. ‘That’s just a silly story about a mask that doesn’t even exist.’
Miss Lopez gave us a minute to compose ourselves. But there was a strange feeling in the air. The word that sprung to mind was foreboding. That means the feeling that something bad is about to happen, like the feeling before a storm. Tears began to prick my eyes.
‘Oh, Ella!’ Miss Lopez said, holding out her hand to me. ‘Tilly will be OK, I’m sure of it! This happens all the time in theatre. People get hot in their costumes or dizzy from standing up for too long. It’s nothing very unusual.’
But Miss Lopez’s crinkled brow told me she wasn’t as confident as she sounded.
I sniffed and blew my nose into a tissue, then nodded and stood back up on stage.
‘Let’s skip ahead to where the children and the forest creatures enter the ice castle. Tilly doesn’t have as many lines there, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Amelia, can you please grab a script and jump into Tilly’s role just for the moment?’ Miss Lopez said. She nervously tucked a stray curl of hair behind her ear.
Amelia, one of the chorus girls, stood up slowly and frowned. ‘I’m the understudy for the siblings in the show, not the dryads. I don’t know her part.’
‘It’s just for now, don’t worry,’ Miss Lopez said hurriedly.
I frowned. There really was no understudy for Tilly’s and my parts. The lines of poetry were so complex that nobody else had been learning them. And, being a smaller part, no understudy had been assigned. Tilly needed to get better quickly, because there wasn’t anybody else to do the dryad part with me. I felt my cheeks flush with worry.
‘Portia and Lauren, move to the top of the ice castle,’ Miss Lopez said. She sounded tired.
Portia and Lauren walked up the small number of stairs to the platform, which was decorated to look like an ice castle. The set design team had done an amazing job. They’d used white and light blue and silver glitter paints, so that the whole castle seemed to shimmer magically.
I gently pulled Amelia by the arm. ‘We lead the way to the castle with Violet. The children follow us. And this is where we use a spell to release the magic in the hidden key the children found to unlock the castle door.’ I pointed to where we were up to on the script that Amelia was holding. She nodded uncertainly.
Violet fluttered her arms like wings as she danced on her tiptoes to look like a hovering bird. Amelia and I walked up to the prop door of the castle and recited the spell. Amelia stumbled over the words and apologised.
The sound effect of the castle door unlocking was a loud clunk. After the door had ‘unlocked’, I nodded to Amelia to open it. That was what Tilly usually did.
Amelia reached forward and pulled at the door. It swung open easily, being a light prop door. But as it fully opened, Amelia suddenly jumped back and screamed at the top of her lungs. She stumbled into the girls playing the children and they all fell over in a heap, squealing with fright. I stood, staring with wide eyes, my mouth agape in shock.
There, hanging on the inside of the castle door, was a large grotesque mask. It looked to be made of wood and was painted white, with jagged black and red stripes. It had ragged string for hair and inside the eye holes were red gemstones that glinted in the light, making it look alive.
‘It’s the cursed mask!’ Amelia screamed, disentangling herself and running off the stage.
‘Who is responsible for this?�
�� Miss Lopez said angrily. But her voice was drowned out by the sheer hysteria around her. Girls pushed to get off the stage, knocking over props and tripping over one another.
‘It’s obviously just a prank!’ Miss Lopez yelled louder. ‘Please come back and sit down!’
But it was no use. I overheard one chorus girl say, ‘I’m not doing this stupid musical anymore,’ as she stormed up the aisle.
As the girls fled the auditorium, I saw Saskia write something down in her notebook and push to the front of the stage to take photos of the mask on her phone. She almost seemed excited about what was going on. I marched up to her.
‘What are you doing?’ I asked.
‘Taking notes for the Eden Press story,’ she said with wide eyes. ‘Looks like the curse might be more real than we thought!’
‘Why are you excited about it?’ I yelled. ‘Tilly is sick and everyone is scared. It’s only you who seems to think this is great.’
Saskia’s smile faded. ‘It’s obviously a stupid prank, Ella. I’m not scared. But it makes a good story, so it’s my job to investigate.’
‘I saw you in here before rehearsal,’ I said flatly. ‘What were you doing backstage?’
Saskia’s cheeks reddened and she frowned. ‘I was getting my wolf ears. What are you suggesting?’
‘Nothing,’ I said, anger bubbling in my veins. ‘I’m just saying it’s a bit of a coincidence, don’t you think? You, lurking around the set alone, and then this happening!’
Saskia’s face became cold as ice. ‘Don’t you dare accuse me,’ she hissed, before storming out of the auditorium.
I stood, alone in the building. Tilly was sick. The cast had fled. Miss Lopez had followed, trying to calm them. Props had been broken in the stampede. And the musical was in five days.
It was a disaster.
Chapter 14
× −
From:
Ella
Sent:
Tuesday, 3:45 PM
To:
Olivia
Subject:
Epic disaster
Hi Olivia,
I’m despondent! (That means completely sad and devastated, in case you didn’t know.) Everything has turned DISASTROUS with the musical! Yesterday, someone thought it would be funny to plant an ugly mask on the musical set. Now everybody thinks it’s the cursed mask from the old theatre story! And even though I know that’s completely stupid and highly unlikely, there has been a whole lot of horrible things going on, which makes me think maybe the whole musical actually is under some kind of terrible spell. Grace is completely annoyed that some of the props were broken when everyone ran off in a mad panic after we found the creepy mask. So she and the set design team have to use all their lunch breaks to fix the props in time. And that’s not even the worst of it!
Tilly fainted at rehearsal yesterday and she didn’t even come back to the dorm from sick bay last night. I heard she slept there. I hope she’s OK! Amelia from Year 8 has been told to start learning Tilly’s dryad lines, just in case, but she is REFUSING to do it because the part is too hard and she doesn’t want to be in a cursed musical anyway.
I have to find out where that mask came from. If people knew it was just a silly prank, they might calm down and stop being so dramatic about the whole thing. I was so excited to see you for opening night on Saturday, but at the moment I’m scared there won’t even be a show for you to come and see.
Pitifully yours,
Ella
xx
I shut my laptop and pulled out my Eden Press notebook. I’d solved lots of mysteries since I’d come to Eden, so if anyone could solve this mystery of the mask, it was going to be me. But where could I begin?
I tried to remember the plots from my favourite book series, Millie Mysteries. What would Millie do? I chewed the end of my pen as I thought. Millie always started with the evidence. But the only piece of evidence we really had was the mask itself. I needed to take another look at it.
After rehearsal yesterday, I’d seen Miss Lopez take the mask with her. Surely she wouldn’t have thrown it out yet—not before they had caught the culprit. Which meant it was probably in her office! The school had given Miss Lopez a temporary office in the music, art and drama centre while she was working with us on the musical. I grabbed my sneakers and put them on, then hurried out the door with my phone and my notebook and pen.
As I walked out of my room, I saw Ivy leaning against the bannister at the top of the stairs, talking to her friend. I waved to her and she smiled sympathetically at me.
‘Sorry to hear about Tilly, Ella. Are you going to be OK in the musical?’ she asked.
‘I think so,’ I said. ‘As long as Tilly gets better quickly! The musical is still four days away so I’m sure whatever she has will be gone by then.’
Ivy exchanged a worried glance with her friend. She opened her mouth as if to say something, then shut it again.
‘What is it?’ I asked, sensing something bad.
‘Didn’t you hear?’ Ivy asked.
I shook my head.
‘Tilly has glandular fever. She’s gone home,’ she said.
‘What’s glandular fever?’ I asked, alarmed. It sounded very serious.
‘Glandular fever is a virus that makes you very tired. Don’t worry, she’ll recover just fine, but it can take a few weeks . . .’ Ivy’s voice trailed off.
‘Weeks?!’ I yelled. ‘We don’t have weeks! The musical is in FOUR DAYS!’
‘I know,’ Ivy said gently. ‘Sounds like you guys need to come up with a Plan B. The show must go on, right?’
I shook my head, indignant. How could Tilly be gone? How could we perform without her? How could I perform without her? I walked down the stairs with tears in my eyes. Surely this was the end of it.
No, Ivy was right. The show had to go on. I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath. Maybe Amelia would be able to learn the lines super quickly. And maybe she would be happier to do it if I proved the cursed mask was just a prank. I still had to get to the bottom of it.
As I opened the front door of the dorm, I heard the light grumble of thunder. The sky was dark and it felt like night-time, even though it was only the afternoon. Fat raindrops were plopping down onto the path in front of me. I knew I’d have to run.
I bolted up the pathway, ducking undercover as much as I could to avoid the rain as it got heavier.
The raindrops began to fall faster and harder, and soon it was pouring. The metallic scent of an afternoon storm rose off the wet cement and filled my nose.
I ran to the glass doors of the music centre, which opened automatically. Inside, I ruffled my wet hair and tried to flick the water off my bare arms. My skin was cool with wetness.
I could hear some people in their afternoon music lessons. Instruments blared and voices sang, all mixed together in a tangle in the air. I walked up the flight of stairs to the teachers’ offices. Miss Lopez’s office was down the end of the corridor. But what was I going to say? That I wanted to launch my own private investigation into who was causing all the problems with the musical? She was never going to be on board with that.
Seeing her office door was ajar, I peeked in. It was empty.
I quietly pushed open the door.
‘Hello? Miss Lopez?’ I whispered.
No reply.
From where I stood in the doorway, I could already see that the mask was sitting on her desk. Should I take it? I decided the safest option was to have a look at it, then take a photo on my phone for reference. I looked down the corridor behind me and saw that nobody was there. So I slipped into the office and closed the door just slightly, so nobody would see me inside.
Stealthily, I tiptoed over to the desk and put my hand out to pick up the mask. But then I paused. Was it really a good idea to touch it?
I shook my head, annoyed at myself. ‘It’s just a silly story,’ I whispered, as I gently picked up the mask.
It was light in my hands, obviously made of a very flimsy ma
terial. Even though it looked wooden, I didn’t think it was wood at all. In fact, it seemed like it was made from simple craft materials. The mask had been painted white and there were jagged red and black lines across the face, making it look menacing and scary. It reminded me of something Olivia would wear for Halloween. The lips had a shiny, glittery silver paint on them. The hair was wiry pieces of string stapled to the top of the mask. And in the eye sockets were bright red gems. Turning the mask over, I saw that they weren’t real gems at all, but big sticker jewels. I laughed to myself. There was no way this mask was generations old. It looked like it had been made with materials from my craft box at home. I breathed out, relieved—it was far less scary close-up. I mean, I could understand why everyone thought it was real when they saw it from a distance at rehearsal, but there was no way you could believe it was an ancient artefact up close. It had staples!
I pulled out my phone and took lots of photos from different angles. When I felt like I had enough, I put the mask back down. This was exactly what I needed to calm everyone’s fears about the so-called curse.
I was about to turn and walk out of the office when something else on the desk caught my eye:
Letter of Offer
I looked at the letter, which was addressed to Miss Lopez. I knew I shouldn’t read other people’s mail, but it was far too tempting, just sitting there on the desk. I picked it up, my eyes scanning over it.
‘Ella!’
I startled, dropping the letter to the desk and letting out a small yelp.
‘Miss Lopez!’ I said, alarmed. ‘I wasn’t . . . I mean, I didn’t . . .’
‘You had better have a good explanation for snooping in a teacher’s office,’ she said angrily. Her usually warm expression had been replaced with a cold angry stare.
Musical Mystery Page 7