“But I don’t want to be in the play!”
“Well, you shouldn’t have auditioned,” Mom said, standing up and putting her fists on her hips. “Once you stood on that stage and sang, you were committed. You know, I can’t stand a quitter, Mango. This may be the one and only play you do in your entire life, but you gave your teachers a choice and they’ve chosen you. You are committed. I don’t want to hear another word about quitting. You are going to play Juliet. Case closed.” She picked up Jasper, his face and hair covered in green pea mush, and carried him away for his bath.
Dada and I watched Mom go. I turned to look at him. From his exasperated expression I believed I could spy a crack in their united front, so I poked my finger in it. “Do I really have to do the play, Dada? I never really wanted to be an actor or sing in front of people at all. I’m too afraid to do anything like that.”
He stood and rubbed my shoulders. “It’s up to you, Mango. You take your time tonight, think about it, and decide what you really want to do. I’ll speak to your mother, and we’ll abide by your decision.” He started to leave the room but turned back. “You know, sweet one, fear can be a speed bump, a hill, or a mountain if you let it. But remember, any mountain can be climbed one step at a time.”
After he left the kitchen, I just sat for a while trying to decide if the level of my fear was a speed bump, a hill, or a mountain. I started clearing the table, thinking about all that happened in just one day. I had gone from down in the dumps to higher than a cloud to sliding into a pit of depression only to be flung back up into the stars again. Talk about a roller coaster. This one had a three-hundred-fifty-degree loop de loop and a death drop!
As I washed the dishes, one thing made me smile: thinking of how foolish Brooklyn would feel when she found out her stupid prank had backfired and possibly made me the star of Yo, Romeo!
Lying in bed that night, I had a hard time falling asleep. Not because of the decision I had to make, but because I could hear my parents arguing in the next room. The sound was muffled, but I knew in my heart the argument was about me. My parents arguing always triggered my worst habit: biting my fingernails. As I’ve mentioned before, Mom was stubborn, and I knew she would not be satisfied until she got her way. She never “agreed to disagree” with Dada. I chewed the nails on my right hand to the nub while I lay in bed, trying to decide what would really be the best thing to do for my family.
CHAPTER 10
Yo, Romeo!
The next morning, as soon as I entered the lobby at school, I heard loud, high-pitched screaming. My bladder clenched. I turned around and around to see what kind of horrible thing had just happened and came face to face with Izzy and a crowd of kids stampeding toward me. They surrounded me, cheering. Izzy yanked me into a bear hug, shouting, “I told you so! I told you!”
The casting notice had just been posted, and the Dramanerds, who had been waiting all night to find out which parts they would play, had just learned that I’d been cast in the leading role. I was being passed around like a hot potato, getting hugs from all of my “new best friends.” A few girls pulled me close, put their arms around my neck, smushed their faces up against mine, and took selfies of us.
I felt like a rock star might feel surrounded by fans and paparazzi. It was shocking and a little smothering, and just when my heart started pounding crazy fast and my palms got slick and my knees were about to turn to jelly, my teacher/director/bodyguard, Bob, broke through the mob and saved me. “All right. Back off, kids. Back off. You all should be on your way to your homerooms. I’ll see you after school for our first company meeting and script distribution.”
The cast and crew kids just stood there staring at me all starry-eyed. Bob clapped his hands together loudly. “Let’s go! Let’s go! Show me how well you can follow direction and beat it!” With that, they all scattered. All except Izzy. She gave me one last hug and whispered in my ear, “Told you so. You’re going to be great.”
When the mob was all gone, I noticed Brooklyn over by the cast list announcement, looking at me. When we made eye contact, she quickly turned away and stalked off down the hall. I must admit—that felt sweeeeeet!
Heading to my homeroom, Bob said, “First of all, I have to apologize for the feeding frenzy. Larry, I mean, Mr. Ramsey and I should have waited for your answer before we posted the casting notice. We were just so sure about you.… I guess we jumped the gun. Sorry.”
I smiled. “It’s okay.”
He cleared his throat. “So? Did you think it over? Are you our Juliet? The star of Yo, Romeo!?” He stopped and turned to me with his hands up and then clasped them under his chin in a prayerful pose. “Before you say anything, please say yes! Please! You are the most exciting talent I’ve ever worked with in my life. Seriously, I’m talking semi-professional theater, college productions, and all my years teaching middle school, I’ve never had the opportunity to work with a voice like yours. So, I’m begging. I swear, I’ll get down on my knees if I must. Just, please, say yes.”
Bob’s overacting was funny and endearing, and I decided to end the suspense. I said, “Yes. Okay. I’ll do it.” Mom and Dada had been distant toward each other this morning. I knew Mom would hold a grudge against Dada for breaching their united front and not pressuring me to do the play. I thought saying yes would solve everything, so I did.
Bob leapt into the air, punching with his fist. “Yeah! All right!” His excitement was contagious, and his confidence in me gave me a glimmer of belief in myself. The rest of the school day was a blur. I could barely concentrate in any of my classes. Kids were congratulating me wherever I went.
Since I was now the queen of the Dramanerds, I had a place to sit in the cafeteria. All the chatter was about the play, which none of us knew much about except that it was based on Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Izzy said there was a good movie version starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. “I’ll rent it and you can all come over on Saturday so we can watch it together!” High fives all around.
I didn’t mean to, really, but I looked over at the Cell-belles’ table. Brooklyn wasn’t there. Hailey Joanne’s crew was crowded over her shoulder, looking at something on her phone. She caught my eye, winked, and gave me a thumbs-up. I was like “huh?” but tried to eke out a smile and wink back at her—which was totally awkward. I mean, who winks at people except in breath mint commercials?
I couldn’t help but wonder where Brooklyn was. I knew she was in school because I saw her this morning by the casting notice, but she wasn’t in homeroom or language arts. It was odd that she wasn’t seated next to her new bestie, Hailey Joanne, like she had been every day since getting her phone. Something told me there was trouble in paradise, but I didn’t have much time to think about it, because Boss Chloe, the stage manager, ran up to the table and rasped with her blue hair and sandpaper voice, “Hey, did you see YouTube yet, dudes?”
Everyone who had phones pulled them out and started typing. I looked around to make sure the teachers on lunch duty weren’t watching, but guess what? They were on their phones, too. Boss Chloe sat next to me, shoved her phone in front of my face and said, “Check this out!”
It was me on her screen, singing “Halo” in a video shot at the audition. I was, like, so amaze-face; eyes popping, mouth so wide open that flies could zip in and out. I don’t think I took a breath while I watched. My heart was spinning like the mixer Dada uses to make cake batter, and I began to feel light-headed and woozy. My palms began to sweat, and my mouth filled up with that sour saliva that comes right before you greet your guts. I covered my mouth, bolted out of my seat, and dashed to the restroom.
I made it to the stall just in time to heave my tater tots, chicken nuggets, and apple slices into the toilet bowl. Boss Chloe, Izzy, and Braces Chloe hurried in behind me. Boss Chloe took charge, ordering the other two girls to wet paper towels with cool water so she could press them to the back of my neck. When I was able to get to the sink to swoosh water and spit until my mouth
felt clean, I asked, “How did I wind up on YouTube?”
Boss Chloe said, “My little birds told me Hailey Joanne uploaded it last night.”
“Hailey Joanne? Seriously?”
“Chirp by the lockers is that H. J. and Brooklyn had a nasty argument about it, but Hailey Joanne went and did it anyway.”
Izzy said, “That’s so stray. Who would have thought Hailey Joanne would do anything nice for anyone except the zombies who follow her around like … zombies?”
“Please believe,” Boss Chloe said as she patted another cool paper towel on my neck. “She did it to be monopular.”
I peeled off the paper towel; it was starting to drip down my neck. “What?”
“Monopular. You know, having a monopoly on being popular.”
“Did you just make that up?”
“Yep. I got a gift.” Boss Chloe hiked up her cargo pants. “Seriously though, Mango, your audition is the talk of the school, and Hailey Joanne having it on video makes her the big mac without the spanks. So of course she uploaded it. She probably wants to be your BFBD.”
I felt lame asking, but I did. “BFBD?”
All three of the girls clued me. “Best Friend By Default.”
Boss Chloe said, “Everybody knows you’re riding solo since you turned Brooklyn’s phone into a submarine. So, H. J.’s gonna slide in and be relief pitcher—at least until the musical is over and the buzz around you dies down.”
Izzy agreed. “Yeah, she’ll brag that she was the one who made it all happen, when I was the one who brought you to the audition in the first place.”
Braces Chloe, who was leaning against the door checking her phone, suddenly blurted out, “Wow, you’ve already got over six hundred views on YouTube, Mango. You’re the biggest thing to happen to this school since Soy-Taco Tuesdays!”
While they were all congrats-hugging me, my stomach started feeling sour again. All the confidence Bob transfused into me had been flushed down the sewer with my vomit. Now that so many people knew about my being cast in the play, what if I failed? If I was a big flop, the whole YouTube-verse would know.
The bell rang. My head began to ache, so instead of going to my next class, I headed for the school nurse’s office.
I needed a break and wanted to lie down in peace and quiet so I could get it together. Mrs. Totter, the nurse, was always sympathetic to girls with any kind of stomachache, so she let me lie down until I said I felt better, which was just after the final school bell rang.
On the way to the Yo, Romeo! company meeting, I started beating up on myself. Was I insane? I should have never said yes. I had to hold onto the lockers while I walked down the hall. Stage fright was affecting my entire body, and I hadn’t even made it to the stage yet.
If I couldn’t walk into the auditorium on my own two feet, how was I ever going to dance and sing, or even speak, in front of an audience? An audience mostly made up of students ready to crank me through the meat grinder and launch tomatoes, pudding cups, and anything else they could sneak out of the cafeteria? I was just about to turn and rush out of the building when Izzy appeared and looped her arm through mine.
“I know what you’re thinking, and you’re not taking off.” I shook my head, but she didn’t buy it. “Don’t try to smoke-screen me, rookie. I can tell by the death stare in your eyes, your dry lips, and the way you’re trembling like you just got a brain freeze from a Slurpee. You’re terrified. Am I right, or am I right?”
“You’re right.”
“Of course I am. But listen—you don’t have anything to worry about. This is just a company meeting. Bob will probably start off by talking about the show, and then Mr. Ramsey will play a few songs with Bob singing along—that’s always high-larious. Finally, they’ll introduce the cast, calling us up onstage one by one, handing out the scripts, and telling us to read the entire thing over the weekend—not just the scenes we’re in. Then everyone will rush off home to count their lines and highlight their scripts. Finito. So easy-peasy, quit being cheesy.” With that, Izzy led me into the auditorium, and my life in the theater began.
Bob and Mr. Ramsey walked onto the stage to wild applause. They bowed and joked and did the yada, yada, yada about how happy they were that we were finally ready to start rehearsals on the greatest musical they’d ever collaborated on, which was based on the tragedy written by Shakespeare, the greatest playwright who ever lived, and how Yo, Romeo! was going to be the most amazing show the school had ever seen!
Bob began telling us about Romeo and Juliet, the Shakespeare play. The story was about a boy, Romeo, and a girl, Juliet, who fell in love even though their families were sworn enemies. They sneaked off and got married in secret. Then there was a lot of fighting, and Romeo accidentally killed one of Juliet’s cousins and was kicked out of town. A friar, which is like a priest, gave Juliet a potion that made her seem dead so she could stop her wedding to some other dude her parents wanted her to marry. When Romeo found her, he thought she really was dead, so he killed himself. When Juliet woke up, she was so depressed that she killed herself with Romeo’s knife.
The story is seriously cray-cray.
Just before we were about to zone out listening to Bob talk about the Shakespeare play, he switched gears and began explaining. “Our musical is loosely—very loosely—based on Shakespeare’s play. Yo, Romeo! takes place in the 1990s.” That got a huge response from the cast, because we all were obsessed with how funny things were back when our parents were young. I’d spent hours laughing with Mom and Dada, looking through photo albums that had pictures of Dada with bleached hair, thick, ropey gold chains around his neck, and a leather eight-ball jacket. Some were of Mom at school wearing baggy overalls and platform sneakers, and there was one of her going to a party dressed like a Spice Girl! OMGZ, high-larious!
Our attention revived, Bob continued, “Romeo is a rocker, like Bruce Springsteen, and Juliet is a pop star—a cross between Mariah Carey and Beyoncé.” I gasped. I would be playing a part based partially on my favorite singer! I sat up in my seat, excitement filling me up the way the soda fountain fills a cup at Mickey D’s.
“Romeo and Juliet are both signed with rival record companies run by their families. They fall in love and secretly record some songs together, even though their families forbid it. The head of Romeo’s record company hears about this and thinks recording with a pop star will turn Romeo’s hard-rock fan base against him and hurt his record sales, so he starts a rumor online that Juliet is dead. Romeo believes the rumor—but this is a middle-school production, and we can’t have our stars committing suicide. So just before Romeo swallows some poison, he gets a text from Juliet. The text tells him to meet her at the airport, where she’s hired a private plane that flies them off to live happily ever after … but the plane goes down in the Bermuda Triangle, and they are never seen again. Their families get together to lament the loss of their children and agree to release the secret recordings Romeo and Juliet made, which become huge hits that make our star-crossed lovers live on forever.”
While listening to the story, I realized that I’d never even thought about who was going to play Romeo, the boy I’d have to pretend to be in love with and maybe even kiss! OMGZ, I was definitely not into kissing for the very first time while a bunch of people watched.
Bob began calling the cast to the stage. First he announced the members of the chorus, who went up onstage one by one to applause. Then he announced the supporting cast. Izzy was cast as Juliet’s agent, who secretly helps her get to the recording studio with Romeo—sort of like the nurse in the Shakespeare original.
Bob called me up to the stage. The cast applauded wildly. I must admit, it felt kind of good that they were excited about welcoming me to their world. As long as they were on my side, I got the feeling being in a play wouldn’t be so bad.
The only ones left in the seats were students we called the Downbeats. They usually played in the orchestra and marching band. Finally, Bob called for TJ Gatt to come to the s
tage. TJ was tall and lanky with a kind of intense face. I didn’t know him personally at all, but I’d heard about him. He was a grade ahead of me, and he was the lead singer and guitar player of a rock band called the Halfrican Americans. All the band members—two guys, one who played keyboard and one who played bass, and a girl drummer named Natsuko—were biracial. TJ was black and Italian, and Natsuko was Japanese and Puerto Rican. I wasn’t sure about the other two guys, but I guess they were a pretty good group, because they played at a lot of parties and festivals and no one heckled or threw things at them.
TJ was a quiet guy, sort of a loner who only hung out with his band and never said much of anything to anyone else. The fact that he had tried out for the play was a huge surprise, which Bob quickly cleared up. “We had to chase this guy down to get him to audition in private, but we wanted someone we knew could rock out and act, and in TJ, I know we’ve found our man.”
All the kids, including me, applauded as TJ loped up to the stage wearing dark glasses that hid his eyes, a T-shirt, torn jeans, and a leather jacket that was pretty beat up but in a cool way. He had frizzy black hair that he wore in a Mohawk. He stood next to me, and I had to look way up to see his face. He didn’t turn to me or smile or anything, so I turned away from him and wondered what I had gotten myself into. Would I really have to pretend to be in love with this scary guy? Would I have to kiss him?
Mr. Ramsey and Bob handed us our scripts. I knew that as soon as I got home, I would scan through the pages to make sure I didn’t have any kissing scenes with TJ. If I did, I’d have to google “dying of embarrassment” to see if it were a real possibility.
I was walking with Izzy as everyone headed out of the auditorium when Mr. Ramsey called for TJ and me to stay behind. Izzy closed her eyes and shimmied as if she had swallowed the best ice cream ever. “You are so crazy lucky. You get to fall in love with TJ. He’s so cute—not, like, ordinary cute but kind of scary-weird-cute. You know what I mean? Anyway, I’ll call you about the movie at my house tomorrow. See ya.”
Mango Delight Page 7