Out of Bounds (20 page)

Ms. Kaplan pounded her son on the back and helped him drink a cool glass of milk. In a few minutes he was perfectly fine. So fine that he jumped up and waved his fists in the air. Kelley, who had been sitting at the same table, jumped up as
well, and yelled “Yay!” Sam went to high five her and she reached over and hugged him. Sam had such a look of surprise that all the adults started to giggle.

Kelley let go of Sam, put her hands on her hips, and said to the group, “You are not being very polite.”

Mrs. Fields, who had been sitting next to Kelley, nodded toward Katani's mother and then stood up.

“Kelley,” she asked in a very quiet voice. “How would you and Sam like to join me in the TV room? I have
Shrek
. We could eat our breakfast in there and watch
Shrek
. What do you think of that?”

Kelley looked very serious for a moment before she answered, “Is that polite?”

The adults bit their lips to keep from laughing. In her own way, Kelley had impeccable comic timing.

Mrs. Summers smiled at her daughter from across the room.

“Darling, it's very polite because you asked so nicely.”

Katani breathed a huge sigh of relief as she watched from the kitchen. Her family knew that once Kelley got wound up, it was difficult to get her to settle down. Her grandmother had averted a potentially embarrassing scene. Katani knew these were all her friends and no one would care, but still, some -times she just wanted everything to go smoothly.

Sam, who was relieved to be released, looked over at Maeve, who could see him from the kitchen. She just rolled her eyes.

She whispered to Katani, “I think there really ought to be a law that you don't take little brothers out in public until they are at least fourteen.”

The music started up again. It was time for the third course. They all stood up.

“I'd like to talk to you more about your theater plans. I
might have some ideas that can help you,” Mr. Martinez said to Mr. Taylor.

“That would be super,” Mr. Taylor replied. It was amazing, when he thought about it, to see how many people were reaching out to help him. Even Maeve's mother was doing her best to come up with ideas to keep the Movie House afloat. It was touching. She suggested that they have a Valentine's weekend special and show the most romantic movies ever made. Everyone tossed out their favorite choice. Maeve's mother announced that her favorite was a sweet, funny little English movie called
Enchanted April
. Maeve's father was the only other person who had seen it. He nodded ever so slightly in his wife's direction as she spoke.

Katani soaked a towel in club soda and gave it to Maeve, who dabbed at the salsa stain.

“It looks okay, Maeve. Let's go. I don't want to miss that dessert,” Katani said, pointing to the tray of little custard bowls on the counter.

The last course Elena Maria served was dessert. There was fine Mexican coffee, and more chocolate for the girls. And she served a coconut flan that melted in your mouth.

Elena Maria had stopped the music at just the right time so that all five BSG sat together for the final course.

“This is cool!” Charlotte said.

“It was so nice of Elena Maria to do this,” Avery said.

“And your parents are really nice,” Katani added.

“Your whole family is wonderful,” Maeve said.

Isabel looked around. Sitting here with her family and her new friends, Isabel was happier than she ever remembered being.

If it had taken getting on stage with the Queens of Mean to bring her father here, then that was just the price she had to pay.

I
t was ten minutes to curtain time. Charlotte looked out at the faces of the audience. The place was packed. Katani had been right. Maeve declared it officially SRO, which in theater speak meant
standing room only
. There were actually several people standing toward the back of the room. Isabel and Avery stood behind the curtain with Charlotte.

“Look at how cute your parents are,” Maeve said to Isabel.

It must have been the fourth time Maeve had said that to her today. Isabel smiled. Sitting there in the third row, they
were
cute; holding hands and chatting with each other. Somehow, it made Isabel feel happy and secure.

“Omigosh,” whispered Maeve frantically. “Is that her? Is that Razzberry Pink? The front row on the left…look!” Katani, Isabel, and Avery struggled to see. Charlotte looked over Maeve's head.

“That's her. Isn't she…amazing? And she's really, really nice, too,” Charlotte added.

“That's more pink than I ever wanna see in my life,” retorted Avery. Pink was definitely not her color.

“I think she looks awesome,” said Katani.

Ms. Pink was wearing pink jeans, pink cowboy boots, and a pink tweed jacket with a pink boa around her neck, and of all things, she was engaged in a very animated conversation with Mrs. Fields.

They were talking away like they were old friends.

Funny, thought Katani. She'd never seen her grandmother with anyone like Razzberry before.

Katani could see Kelley in the front row. Kelley gave the girls a thumbs-up. Katani returned the gesture and walked with her clipboard back to the dressing room to tell the cast that the show was about to start.

“Five minutes!” Katani announced as she read the list of acts in order of appearance. Just this morning, Katani and Ms. Ciara had made some last-minute changes to the list, and Katani wanted to run through them, just to be sure everyone knew.

Katani had enlisted her father to help backstage in case any electrical problems came up. He'd already helped Dillon with some last-minute modifications for the Hip-Hop Honeys' number.

Avery and Charlotte were surveying the audience, trying to see if Miss Pierce had shown up.

“I don't see her anywhere,” said Charlotte, sounding disappointed.

“I don't think she came,” Avery said, shaking her head.

“Places, everyone,” Katani said.

At exactly seven p.m., the curtain opened and Mrs. Fields, who had left her seat, stepped onto the stage.

“Good evening everyone, and welcome to the Twenty-Third Annual Seventh-Grade Talent Show,” Mrs. Fields said. “As you know, this year's class has mounted the show despite
some major setbacks, including a problem with the school auditorium. For a while, it looked as if there would be no seventh-grade talent show this year. But some very resourceful students persuaded us that the show must go on. And so, here we are.”

The audience applauded.

“As you are well aware, this is a charitable event. And, unlike in other years where audiences had little opportunity to see the effects of their donations, this year, you can see those effects right in your own community. Look around at this historic old theater. I'm proud to announce that your presence tonight will solve a short-term crisis that the theater is facing. With your ongoing support and the help and determination of young people like these, I have no doubt that we will be seeing movies here for a long time to come, and who knows, maybe even more events like this one.

“What you're about to see tonight hearkens back to the days when the Movie House was a legitimate theater. A magical transformation has taken place here. Tonight's show will start out with the teachers making terrific fools of themselves in an effort to break the ice—another school tradition. Later, you'll see a cheerleading squad made up of some very unusual characters. There's a rock band, hip-hop dancers, a ventriloquist, magic, and music, music, music. So relax, let the lights come down and enjoy the show.”

 

As announced, the teachers went first. This year, the theme was vaudeville, complete with bad jokes, pratfalls, and a soft-shoe number performed by several of the homeroom teachers. After each segment, Ms. Ciara would bounce across the stage carrying a sign that said
LAUGH
,
APPLAUD
, or
BOO
. By the end of the number, the audience was laughing and booing at everything. The icebreaker worked.

Riley's band went on next. They played rock, traditional stuff, and they played well. By the end of their number, the audience was clapping to the downbeat or at least tapping their feet. Maeve looked at Riley with admiration. He was a very good performer. Maybe even good enough to be a rock star someday, a dream he confessed to her once in the library when they had been working on a history assignment together.

The curtain closed and the rock group broke down their set and packed up their equipment. While the magic show was setting up, the cheerleaders went on in front of the closed curtain. Henry Yurt was out in front leading the cheers, and the rest of the cheerleaders tumbled onto the stage and performed the strangest acrobatic act anyone had ever witnessed, complete with wigs, pompoms, and the megaphone from the prop room. Legs and arms flew everywhere as the boys gave their best imitation of a girls' cheerleading squad. Red-wigged Henry cheered in the loudest girl's voice he could muster, and, though the others tried to follow his lead, their voices kept cracking, and it was all they could do to keep from busting out laughing.

They finished the ragtag act with a pyramid. Henry got a running start and overshot the pyramid completely, his red wig flying off his head and into the lap of a dignified older woman who was sitting next to Avery's mother. To her credit, the woman didn't scream, but held the hairpiece at arms length and wiggled it so that Henry would reach it. He did, and thanked her politely; he even bowed. Then he stuck the wig back on his head, although it was kind of twisted around, with the pouffy sides in front and the bangs over one ear. When he had it securely back in place, Henry
ran across the front row and up the stage-left stairs to try the pyramid again. This time he nailed the landing. The pyramid was complete. Then, on Henry's cue, they collapsed onto the stage and got up to take their bows. The audience was laughing and clapping enthusiastically at Henry's antics.

“What is going on out there?” Avery asked Maeve.

“Two words,” Maeve said. “Henry Yurt.”

They all laughed.

Maeve poked her head through the curtain to get a better look. “I see your mother, Avery,” Maeve said. “She's sitting with Charlotte's dad.”

“Is Miss Pierce here?” Charlotte asked.

“I don't know. I don't see her, but it's really dark,” Maeve said.

“Kelley is giving the cheerleaders a standing ovation.”

“They're going to be a tough act to follow,” Maeve said.

“Don't worry about it,” Charlotte said. “Your solo is going to be faaaabulous.” Maeve chuckled, because as good a writer as Charlotte was, her talent didn't transfer into acting. Maeve crossed her fingers. After the last fiasco with Dillon and not telling anyone where she was, she really wanted to make everyone proud tonight.

Marty barked.

“Shh,” they all said, turning to him.

He looked so cute. Katani had made him the most adorable little suit. He wouldn't tolerate the pants, and had long ago shredded them, but he wore the jacket, which matched Avery's. They looked like a matched set.

As promised, the girls had tied Marty up, something he didn't seem to understand at all. The applause was getting to him. Every time he heard it, he wanted to run down into the audience and collect some treats. So it was probably a
good thing he was tied up. But the real reason they had to keep him tied, of course, was Kiki and her allergies. That was the agreement they had made with Ms. Ciara.

“Our little Marty is about to become a star,” Charlotte said and kissed the top of Marty's head. He gave her a sad look and glanced at his leash. “Sorry little guy,” Charlotte said. “That's the price of stardom.”

Maeve helped Charlotte drag the Houdini Box over the trapdoor, which was at the back of the stage. The show had been using the rear curtain as a backdrop, partly because it was old and velvet, and partly to hide the movie screen. The trapdoor was so far to the rear of the stage that it was almost off stage all together, which was the general idea, since this was originally a way to access the orchestra pit during the vaudeville years. But with the rear curtain partially opened, the trapdoor stood center stage, just where they wanted it for the Houdini trick. When Avery emerged from the tunnel, she would come out behind the closed portion of the rear curtain far over at stage left where the lighting and sound systems were set up. It was the perfect trick. And they couldn't have done it anywhere but here.

“Everybody ready?” Katani asked when she heard the applause dying down.

“Yessireee,” Avery said.

“You bet!” Maeve said.

“Let's go!” Charlotte said.

Avery strapped the new set of rabbit ears onto Marty. This time she'd gotten him used to the headgear, and Marty seemed much more comfortable in them.

“Down,” Avery said and he popped back down and disappeared inside the huge hat.

Isabel stood off to one side watching with Katani.

“Your set looks beautiful,” Katani said.

“Thanks.” Even Isabel thought it looked pretty good: stars, constellations, the Milky Way, all sparking in the full spectrum of stage lights. It was a magical set for a magical show.

“Actually, your sets are amazing. Did you ever think of going into set design, like for Broadway shows?” Katani asked.

Isabel nodded. She
had
thought of it. Her art teacher told her there were many ways to be an artist: artistic director of a theater company, animator, set designer. It all sounded so cool. And he said it was much easier to make a living doing that than just painting. But Isabel couldn't decide. Since she was only in seventh grade, she wasn't going to worry about careers just yet. She would just keep painting and see where she ended up. It would be more fun that way.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” Charlotte's voice boomed. “I would like to welcome you to the world of magic, where everything you see is an illusion, and nothing is ever as it seems.”

Both Charlotte and Avery were wearing tuxedos. Even Marty (though still inside the magic hat) was dressed formally. The only one wearing an actual dress was Maeve, and it was a beauty, all gold and silver and midnight black, with sequins in the pattern of lightning bolts. Her mom had found it at a secondhand store, and she'd had it tailored for Maeve. With her red hair and stage presence, Maeve almost seemed magical herself.

The whole picture was so charming that people started to clap the minute the curtain opened. From where Isabel stood, she could see her parents' faces. They immediately recognized her work. She could tell they were proud.

As Charlotte began to wave her magic wand, flowers
materialized out of thin air. As she gestured to each constellation, it became illuminated. Charlotte pulled the endless scarf Katani had made out of one of her sleeves and handed it to Maeve, who kept pulling and pulling until the scarf wrapped around every object on the stage at least once. Then, Charlotte tapped her magic wand again, and the scarf disappeared completely.

Charlotte introduced Avery, who had been standing off to the sidelines. “Meet Avery Madden, escape artist, magician, and animal trainer extraordinaire!”

For the first trick, Avery hypnotized Marty. The trick was an immediate hit, with Marty going stiff and playing dead.

“For my next trick, I'm going to pull a rabbit out of a hat!” Avery announced.

“Oh boy, a rabbit.” Kelley clapped her hands together, having seen the trick before and knowing full well that the so-called
rabbit
was Marty.

There were some giggles from the audience.

“That's right, Kelley.” Avery couldn't help breaking character just a little. “A rabbit.” Kelley laughed with delight at the inside joke.

Music played. It was the kind of flute music they play in old cartoons when they're taming a cobra. Avery waved the magic wand three times as planned. “Abracadabra,” she said, and tapped the hat. Very slowly, the tiny ears began to emerge. Marty, the consummate showman, played it to the hilt. He raised the ears so slowly it was almost as if he were playing a cobra instead of a rabbit. Finally, when both ears were above the rim of the hat, Marty popped his little head out and grinned at the audience. Then he hopped out of the hat and jumped up on the stool, standing on his back feet and hanging both paws in the air, looking just the way a real bunny rabbit might look.

“I didn't know he was going to do that!” Charlotte whispered to Avery. “That is so cute!”