Out of Bounds (21 page)

“I taught him last night.”

Teaching Marty tricks at the last minute was always iffy, but this one had paid off.

“That's not a rabbit, that's Marty,” Kelley said, clapping her hands together. “Yay, Marty!” Kelley started another standing ovation, and, once again, the audience joined her.

They all saw it coming. The applause was just too much for Marty. And hearing his name called like that sent him over the edge. Before any of the Beacon Street Girls could grab him, Marty made a mad dash for the audience, going from person to person, looking for treats.

Katani ran after him, handing out treats to a surprised group, who gave them to Marty as he moved down the line. He was about to start on the second row when Isabel grabbed him.

“Oh no, you don't, little guy,” she said.

Marty harrumphed.

Usually they tied Marty backstage out of the way. But this time Katani opted to hold him instead. Marty wasn't happy about being constrained, not at all.

“Watch Avery,” Katani said to Marty. “She's about to do her Houdini trick.”

Marty sighed and harrumphed again. But when the lights went down, he settled in to watch Avery as Houdini.

Charlotte introduced the next trick. She gave some background history on Harry Houdini, the escape artist. Then she told the audience that it was rumored that Avery Madden was a long-lost relative of Harry Houdini. And now, to demonstrate, Avery was going to do one of the escapes that Houdini had made famous.

Avery was nervous. It surprised her. Her hands were clammy when Charlotte secured the scarves around them. They had practiced so the scarves looked like they were tied tight, but the type of material allowed her to untie them really easily. Avery had wanted to use chains like the real Houdini, but Ms. Ciara and Avery's mom said “No way!”

Avery's feet were sweating, which was difficult, since once she was inside the box, she had to open up the trapdoor with her toes. Plus, it was stifling in the box. They hadn't used all the lights at rehearsal, or else Avery hadn't noticed how hot it could get under them. Already, she could feel her stage makeup starting to run. Whose idea was that, anyway? she wondered. Avery hated the idea of wearing makeup at all, much less this heavy pancake stuff. It was making her itch.

Charlotte pushed Avery down inside the box and closed the cover.

“Now, in a feat too daring to imagine, Avery will escape from the scarves and the box before the music finishes. There is only enough air in the box to last until the end of this song. Let's hope she can do it. Good luck, Avery!”

“Good luck, Avery!” Kelley yelled.

Once the music started, Avery had only twenty seconds to open the latch and jump down through the trapdoor to the mattress below. If she didn't do it exactly right, Charlotte would open the box and find Avery still inside, hunched into a ball of sweat, makeup running down her face. And though Charlotte had been exaggerating about the lack of oxygen, it was still very hot in the box. Avery had to do it right.

The music started and Charlotte's voice faded into the background. The only sound Avery could hear was her own breathing.

Avery escaped the scarves easily. The fact that she was sweating probably helped with that part. Avery stretched down, feeling for the latch. She found it, started to turn it and slipped. She tumbled inside the box. She could feel the box move, and she could hear stray laughter from some of the audience in the front row who had obviously seen it too.

“You okay in there?” Charlotte's whispered.

There were only about five seconds left. Avery reached for the latch again. She was sideways in the box, and she couldn't tell which way was up. Avery reached for the latch again, but this time she found the side panel.

“Five seconds. Four. Three.” Charlotte was counting down. Time was rapidly running out. What if Avery couldn't get out? Charlotte was really nervous. Maeve could have show business, she thought.

Avery twisted herself in the box, reached a fourth time and
finally
engaged the latch. Giving it all the strength she could muster, she freed the lock. As the final bars of the song played, Avery slipped into the darkness below, just as Charlotte opened the box.

Charlotte looked down at Avery through the hole.

“The box is empty!” Charlotte said, surprised, reaching inside. With one hand, Charlotte held up the empty scarves and, while the audience clapped, she reached into the box with the other hand and relocked the floor latch. Maeve pulled the magic box off the floor, while Charlotte casually put her foot down over the latch. Maeve and Charlotte held the box up to the audience to show that it was really empty and that Avery had indeed escaped.

The audience applauded wildly. They were still applauding as Avery made her way through the blackness of the tunnel and up the other side to the back of the stage. As
planned, the stage light was on, and she found her way easily.

Avery broke through the curtain and took her bow. It was the perfect ending to an almost perfect act. Avery walked over and grabbed Marty, Charlotte, and Maeve, and they all took their bows together, with Avery keeping a tight grip on Marty so he wouldn't break free and make another run for the audience and the possibility of more treats!

When they broke down the set, they tied Marty backstage. Then they sat down next to him and watched the rest of Act One.

The show was already a success. Betsy's Sousa band number went next, and it was so lively that everyone in the audience clapped along. The march music kept the energy up and was the perfect lead-in to Maeve's ballad, which Katani had scheduled for the end of Act One.

When Katani had heard Maeve sing “For Good” from the Broadway show
Wicked
in rehearsal, she knew that it was going to be a showstopper and just the thing to end Act One.

Katani nodded to Maeve to get ready, and gave a sign to Billy Trentini to open the curtains. When the curtains opened, the stage was dark. The only light was a spotlight that shone down on Maeve. Dressed entirely in black, her red hair full and shiny, Maeve looked like a cabaret singer. The audience seemed to sense that they were in for something special and grew still.

Maeve dedicated the song to her friends, the Beacon Street Girls, to her mom and dad…and Sam.

Dillon stood offstage, just watching the number. There was something magical about Maeve, her red hair, her great smile, that made him so happy. When she finished, there wasn't a dry eye in the place. She had nailed her song. Maeve beamed as the audience clapped and whistled.

“She's quite a professional,” Isabel's father said to Mr. Taylor.

“She will be, someday,” Maeve's mother said. Her parents exchanged a look of tenderness and pride that Maeve could see all the way from the stage.

When she came off stage, she almost ran headfirst into Dillon. He caught her by the shoulders. “Ooo!” Maeve said. “Dillon.”

“You were great, really great,” he said as he looked at her shyly. Maeve felt equally shy as she said a quick thanks. They sort of stood there for awhile, staring at the ground, as other kids walked by them. Finally, Dillon mumbled something about really liking her dress and then he said he had to go, and rushed off. His face was all flushed. Maeve took a deep breath. She knew Dillon still liked her, and she liked him. But what should come next? She wasn't sure. But she couldn't think about that now. She was too psyched about her performance to think of anything else.

W
hile Dillon was busy watching Maeve's act, Anna had stolen Kiki's videotape out of the machine.

“What are you doing?” Joline asked when Anna presented it to her.

“I'm going to watch it,” Anna announced. “I don't believe we're even in it.”

“Kiki said we were,” Joline said.

“Well I'm going to make sure before I go out there as one of her backup dancers, I can tell you that much,” Anna said.

“How are you going to make sure?” Joline didn't understand.

“I'm going to watch it, that's how!” Anna said.

“Where? There's no place to watch it around here.”

“I've got that all figured out,” Anna said. “Follow me.”

The back door up to Maeve's apartment was open. There was a little TV in the kitchen and it had a videotape player, which Anna had seen the day she and Kiki went upstairs to find Isabel.

“But what if someone catches us?” Joline hesitated. She was scared. Wasn't it illegal to be in somebody's house if they didn't know you were there? But Anna forged ahead, and Joline did what she always did…follow Anna.

“No one's going to come up here now, not with their ‘precious' Maeve out on stage.”

It wasn't if they were strangers breaking into someone's house, Joline thought. They were there before and the Taylors knew them. It wasn't so bad, she reasoned. And she also had to admit that she was curious to see the tape. Lately, she was feeling taken advantage of by Kiki too.

Anna and Joline stood in the darkness watching the tape. Anna fast-forwarded through hundreds of Kiki frames.

Kiki hadn't lied, not exactly. The backup dancers were there, all right, but only at the very end of the number. And they weren't dancing. They were standing awkwardly, watching Kiki dance.

“Do you believe me now?” Anna asked Joline.

“Why did she cut us out?” Joline was really mad.

“Because she is really selfish,” Anna said. “She didn't want us looking better than her.”

“Then why did she need backup dancers to begin with?” Joline didn't understand.

Anna said, “Because
Ms. Cool
wants all the attention.”

Anna had succeeded in getting Joline just as angry as she was, maybe even more angry because Joline felt betrayed. During the last few weeks, Joline had started to think of Kiki as her new BFF. But that was never true. For whatever reason, Kiki had just been using her all along.

Anna pulled another tape out of her backpack.

“What's that?” Joline wanted to know.

“It's a surprise,” Anna said.

“What are you going to do?” asked Joline nervously.

“Are you in or not?” Anna challenged Joline.

“I'm in,” Joline said. She wasn't sure this was a good idea, but Anna had never been wrong before. Besides, Kiki
so
had it coming. How dare she keep Anna and her out of the video!

They snuck quietly back down the stairs.

While Dillon was with Maeve, Anna slipped the second tape into the machine. Then she and Anna stood on the sidelines and clapped for Maeve, just as if nothing had happened.

S
o should we just walk out or what?” Joline whispered to Anna as they broke for intermission.

“No way,” Anna said. “She'll know we did something.”

“What about Isabel?” Joline asked.

“What about her?” Anna said.

“Aren't we going to tell her we're walking out?” Joline wanted to know.

“Hey, Isabel wants to dance for her father. Without us there, he might actually be able to see her.”

“You're bad,” Joline said, but there was admiration in her voice.

Anna and Joline got to the dressing room just as Isabel was doing up her dress. She stood in front of the mirror, looking at her dress. “I don't know,” she said to both of them. “I still think we've got the Christmas thing going.”

“It looks great on you,” Anna said with a sickly sweet smile.

It was the first time Anna hadn't complained about the
dresses. It was also the first time Isabel could remember that Anna had spoken a kind word to her. That in itself should have made her suspicious. But she was too nervous thinking about her parents in the audience to give Anna's change in attitude a second thought.

After intermission, Katani had two stand-up comedians in the lineup. Then there was the girl who twirled the fire baton.

Katani had counted on the momentum of the first act to carry these entries, but as the first comedian performed badly, the audience, especially the kids, was starting to get restless. Katani began to panic. What should I do now? she won dered. She looked around for Ms. Ciara. She was on the other side of the stage. Then she saw her father watching the comedian. He was shaking his head in amusement at how awful he was. Katani really panicked now. Her father laughed at every bad comedian there was. Things must be really bad. Katani beckoned to him to come over.

“What's up, honey?” he asked her.

“Dad, I'm scared. This act is not going well. The audience might get up and leave. I don't know what to do,” she stammered.

Seeing how nervous she was, Mr. Summers put his arm around his daughter.

“Honey, do what the quarterback does when he's in trouble.”

“Dad,” Katani whined. “I don't play football.”

“Katani, when the game is going poorly—change the play.”

Katani looked at him with confusion in her eyes, and then suddenly the light bulb went on.

She motioned for Keisha the baton twirler to come over.

“Keisha, how good are you at this baton twirling?”

Keisha looked at Katani strangely. Nobody in school knew Keisha very well, including Katani. She hardly talked, and she wasn't able to rehearse for the talent show because the Movie House only had an insurance policy for one night. Keisha could twirl her fire baton for the night of the show…that's it. Keisha's mother brought in a tape of her daughter with her baton club to show Ms. Ciara. Nobody else had seen her twirl.

When Keisha didn't answer her, Katani said, “Keisha, this is no time to be shy. You see that audience out there? We need fantastic right now! Can you do it or not?”

Keisha put her chin up and said, “Watch me!”

Keisha stood behind the curtain. Just before the music started, Keisha's mother rushed on to the stage and lit the ends of the baton. When the curtains flew open, the Trentini boys went crazy. They marched up and down the side of the stage, raising their fists, going, “Awesome!”

And Keisha, the shy girl, was exactly that…totally awesome. She twirled her brains out, and when the flaming baton went up in the air the audience held its collective breath. NO problem. Keisha caught the baton, twirled, and bowed to the audience for her finale.

When she walked off the stage, Keisha was an Abigail Adams celebrity, and the show was back on track. Thank goodness!

Next, Katani put the ventriloquist, who was using an old Cabbage Patch Kid as her dummy, on stage. The material was funny, but the girl had laryngitis and couldn't project her voice, so Katani closed the curtain and had her stand in front of the curtain, so at least the first ten rows could hear her. This setup also allowed the Hip-Hop Honeys to get ready behind the curtain.

Charlotte and Avery wanted to watch Isabel dance from the audience. They left Marty snoring next to Katani and tied to a post. Maeve was still backstage, and so was Katani.

There were no seats in the front, so the girls walked to the back of the theater and stood with the other SROs. There was one empty seat.

“Do you think it belongs to someone?” Charlotte said, motioning Avery to it.

It was off by itself, half obstructed by a pole.

“Not anymore,” Avery said. She could see someone heading toward the door. “Sit,” she said to Charlotte.

Because the seat was off by itself, Avery was able to balance on the chair arm. They couldn't wait to see Isabel's number.

The curtain opened to reveal Isabel's set. The audience clapped just for that. Isabel hadn't had time to do what she wanted, so she took her teacher's suggestion of splashing huge splotches of colors on big canvas frames. On top of it, her art teacher had helped Isabel paint words big enough for the audience to read. Words like, “Oh, yeah,” “Just do it,” “Hippity hip-hop,” “Kitty cat rock,” and “Purr.” Isabel also added Anna, Joline, and Kiki's names on there with a cartoon of each girl's face. It was really cute.

Joline looked over to Anna, who refused to look back. Joline wished she was anywhere but waiting to see what was on that videotape.

Kiki entered stage, followed by Isabel.

Charmed by the girls' bright smiles, the audience applauded warmly.

S
HOWDOWN

Backstage, the applause had awakened Marty. He opened one eye, then both. He looked around for his Beacon Street Girls, but they weren't there. Katani was on the other side of the stage, holding her clipboard, and Maeve was helping Dillon run the lights.

The music started as a ballad, with Kiki singing melody and Isabel the harmony. It started slowly, when suddenly, Kiki turned around and yelled “Hit it!” Dillon turned on the tape, the cue for Anna and Joline to enter, but they were nowhere to be found. Kiki and Isabel started their hip-hop dance as planned.

But something was terribly wrong.

Instead of being awestruck, the audience was giggling. Then laughing. Then wildly applauding.

Kiki turned slightly to see what everybody was looking at. The twirling, dancing Kikis had been replaced by
Fantasia's
dancing hippos!

“It's the hippo hip-hop!” someone yelled from the audience.

Certain that it was planned, the audience applauded again.

If Kiki was fuming, Marty was delighted. The combination of laughter and applause was just too much for him. As far as Marty was concerned, any applause was for him. Show business was in his blood. He just had to get to the audience to get his treats.

Marty pulled on his leash as hard as he could. It might have been his superdoggie strength, more likely it was because he was tied loosely, because after a few seconds, Marty broke free and ran across the stage, dragging his leash behind him. He took a flying leap and jumped into the
audience as if it were a giant mosh pit. He landed on the lap of the elderly lady in the first row. Of course, the audience howled. Marty was part of the act, they thought. With the same aplomb she had shown when Henry's wig had fallen in her lap, the lady held Marty and gave him a few tastes of her popcorn.

Kiki was livid. “Pull that tape out of there, you idiot!” she yelled at Dillon, who reached down to get it. But he wasn't fast enough for Kiki, who had broken character and was marching across the stage, her face as red as the dress she was wearing.

Kiki was so angry that when she saw Anna smirking at her she ran offstage toward her. She was about to grab her when Ms. Ciara caught her arm.

“No you don't, young lady.”

Actually, it was too quiet. At first, the audience had thought this was all part of the act, but with the extended silence, they didn't know what to make of it.

And poor Isabel stood frozen in place. She couldn't move. It was her worst nightmare. She looked out at her parents, her eyes screaming, “Help me.”

“Sing,” Maeve whispered loudly to Isabel.

But nothing happened. Isabel couldn't move.

“Do something,” Katani said to Maeve.

Maeve looked around and spotted Riley's acoustic guitar. She took it and headed on stage.

Maeve handed Isabel the guitar. Then she started to sing “De Colores,” a Spanish song she had practiced with Isabel one day. Only this time Maeve was singing the harmony.

Harmony without melody was a strange sound. If you didn't know what Maeve was doing, which the audience obviously did not, she might seem like a bad singer. Having
heard her previous number, this change totally confused the audience.

Isabel had no choice. She had to join in. If Maeve wasn't afraid to make a fool of herself, then Isabel couldn't be either. Isabel played a few chords on the guitar. Then slowly, softly, she started to sing.

Together, their voices were a perfect blend.

The audience went silent and listened to every word. “De Colores” was unfamiliar to the audience, which made it all the more unique. Luckily, the words were in English, or Maeve would have been in deep trouble.

This time Kelley didn't have to start the standing ovation. The whole audience was on its feet before the song was even finished. And Isabel's father was clapping harder than anyone.