Play It Again (9 page)

Mariah rushed into the dressing area. “Has anyone seen Toto—I mean, Chocolate?”

Mr. Gibbons had brought in his own dog, Chocolate, to be in the early scenes as Dorothy’s dog, Toto. The poor animal had only been at one rehearsal so far and had been so traumatized by the lights and the music that she’d peed onstage.

A low barking noise was coming from behind one of the curtains at the far end of the stage. Mariah heard it first.

“Bad girl, Chocolate!” she exclaimed as she retrieved the mutt from between a heavy fold of fabric. The dog had gotten tangled up back in the curtains and was shaking like a windup toy.

A missing Toto is not a good omen, Madison thought, crossing her fingers again. She went back into the dressing room.

“Hey, Finnster!” Hart cried as Madison entered the dressing room.

He was decked out in a purple flowing cape and carried his mask in hand. The mask, constructed out of papier-mâché by the ninth-grade art club, was twice the size of Hart’s real head. It was more like a monster head really, with giant sunken holes for his eyes and red feathers at the top that looked like flames shooting out. It was attached to a broom handle so Hart could hold it up in front of his face during the early Oz scenes—just before Dorothy and the others discover that The Wizard is a big faker.

Egg was standing nearby. “Hey, Hart, that’s a good way to get girls.”

“That’s real funny, Tin Boy head,” Hart said as he held up the mask. “Hey, what do
you
think, Finnster?”

Just as he said that, the mask came detached from its handle.

“Hart!” Madison yelped. She leaned forward and caught it.

“Whoa,” Hart said. “That was close. But now what am I supposed to do? Lift it up like this—”

“No, let’s fix it.” Madison ran over to the prop shelves and retrieved some twine and duct tape that other people in the crew left around just in case anything needed to be tied up or reattached. The mask was repaired instantly.

“Madison, can you help me, too?” Fiona said.

On the other side of the prop closet, Fiona was searching for her witch hat, which had been mysteriously misplaced.

“It was here a little while ago,” Madison told her. “I double-checked my entire list. Are you sure you didn’t pick it up?”

Fiona looked frazzled. “No, I swear. Well, maybe. Oh, I don’t remember. It’s so busy back here and—”

“Is someone missing a witch hat?” Mariah said, walking toward Fiona.

Madison breathed a sigh of relief. “Don’t take it off, Fiona, okay?”

Fiona really could be the world’s biggest space case.

Peeking through the curtains, Madison could see Mr. Gibbons hunched over the piano with Mr. and Mrs. Montefiore. They were reviewing the order of song numbers. Mr. Gibbons had rearranged and shortened the
Wiz
tunes with the music department. For now the piano played, but for the real show, they were adding drums, cymbals, and a trumpet. Those band members just weren’t expected at rehearsal today.

Madison had set up a bench with a script on it so she could easily cue missed lines. She saw Ivy leaning over the script, flipping pages to find her parts.

“Ivy, you need to go finish getting dressed,” Madison said.

Ivy kept looking through the pages.

Madison moaned. “Why don’t you go look at your own script. Ivy? We’re starting in a few minutes and I need to—”

“Look, I don’t come on for a few songs, so I have plenty of time to get in costume,” Ivy said. “And I need to look at this script now. I left mine in my locker.”

Madison shook her head. “No.” She grabbed the script. “Get dressed.”

Ivy looked steamed. Had Madison really said that?

Rose and Joan walked over. They’d heard everything.

“You can use my script, Ivy,” Rose said. “I’m not stingy, like some people around here.”

The three enemies skulked away. “How do I look?” Lindsay asked. She modeled her braid-in pigtails and gingham jumper. She was carrying Chocolate in her arms. He was still shaking from the curtain incident.

“You’re the perfect Dorothy,” Madison said. “That’s a great costume.”

“Thanks,” Lindsay said.

“Do you have everything else you need?” Madison asked.

Lindsay nodded. She stuck out her pinkie.

“What’s that for?” Madison asked.

Lindsay smiled. “For luck. I’m very superstitious, aren’t you?”

“Hey, Madison.” Mariah poked her head out of the dressing room. “I have to help the Munchkins lace up their green shoes, so I’ll be back here. Are you okay by yourself?”

Madison smiled. “I think so.”

“She’s totally in control,” Lindsay said as she walked to the other side of the stage for her entrance. “Thanks again, Maddie.”

Madison wasn’t exactly in total control, even though she wished she were. Frantic cast members had her surrounded. There were other teachers and crew people around, but everyone seemed to need
Madison
to help.

Help!

Tommy’s scarecrow stuffing was coming undone. Madison stuffed it in and tied a new knot in his costume to make it all better.

Dan’s lion suit was a little too big and he kept stumbling around, bumping into people and things backstage. Madison unzipped his paws and rolled up his leg fur.

“We’ll figure it out after rehearsal,” she told him. “This will work for now.”

“My wand is missing!” Ivy screeched. She practically spit the words into Madison’s face. “Aren’t you supposed to keep track of the props, Madison?” She said Madison’s name like it tasted bad.

“Yes, but you wanted to be in charge of your own props, remember?” Madison reminded Ivy that she was the one who didn’t want anyone near any part of her costume. She’d made that perfectly clear during rehearsals, so Mr. Gibbons told her she could keep her stuff separate from the rest of the cast’s as long as she kept track of it.

“But you’re the prop person and you’re supposed to know what to do, right?” Ivy snarled.

“I do know what to do,” Madison said. She walked away, leaving Ivy there alone in her Glinda outfit with an expression of utter disbelief.

“I’m going to tell Mr. Gibbons,” Ivy threatened.

Madison didn’t care. “Have you seen Aimee?” she asked Mariah.

Five Munchkins looked up at Madison and pointed toward the backstage bathroom.

“Aimee?” Madison called out. “Are you in there?”

A muffled voice from behind the door squeaked, “Yes.”

It was Aimee, but she didn’t sound like herself.

“Aimee? Are you okay?” Madison rattled the knob. “Can I come in?”

The door unlatched and Madison walked inside. Aimee was leaning up against the sink.

“Aimee, what’s the matter?” Madison asked. They were looking at each other in the mirror reflection.

Aimee shook her head. “I have cramps. Bad ones.”

Madison rubbed her back. “Did you eat something weird for lunch?”

“Not those kind of cramps.” Aimee lowered her voice so Madison could barely hear. “I have my period.”

Madison didn’t know what to say. She and Aimee had never really talked about this. Madison hadn’t gotten hers yet.

“What should I do?” Aimee asked.

“You want me to tell Mrs. Montefiore that you have your period?” Madison asked.

“Noooo! Don’t tell anyone,” Aimee said. “I’ll be okay. I better just get into my costume.”

“Are you sure?” Madison asked.

Aimee put down the toilet seat and sat. She grabbed at her stomach and took a deep breath. “Cramp,” she whispered.

“Aimee?” Madison was worried.

But a heartbeat later, Aimee stood right back up. “I’m fine. They come and go, you know?”

Madison realized she
didn’t
know. Not one bit. She was eager to get older and wiser, but Madison could definitely wait for her period. She wasn’t ready to enter the world of cramps.

“Aimee, are you nervous, too?” Madison asked before walking out.

“I don’t get nervous. I don’t get all weird when I have to go onstage. I go onstage all the time at dance camp. Why would right now be any different than then? I just think—”

Aimee paused and took a deep, deep breath.

“I’ve never been so nervous, Maddie,” Aimee finally admitted. “I don’t want to mess up. All those dance steps and—”

“Aimee, you’ll be great,” Madison said. “You know you’ll be great. You always dance great, no matter what. Even with cramps.”

Aimee looked straight into Madison’s eyes. “You’re the best.”

“The Munchkins are waiting,” Madison joked.

As she walked out of the girls’ bathroom, Madison was so lost in thought that she almost smacked right into Tommy Kwong. Once again, he’d come unstuffed. Madison restuffed.

“Madison!” Mariah yelled. “There’s someone outside from the local paper. They want to take a picture of everyone in the show. Mr. Gibbons wants you and everyone else on the stage.”

Sometimes the local paper ran human-interest stories about school events like this. This article was going to be about Mrs. Goode’s twenty years at the school and her various contributions to the Far Hills community. They wanted photos from a dress rehearsal so they could run the piece the day of the show. They’d be doing separate pieces on the seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade performances.

Mr. Gibbons had turned up the house lights. “Uh, can I get everyone out here, please? All the seventh-grade cast members onstage.”

The Montefiores stopped playing. Madison and Mariah helped to corral the witches and Winkies onto the set. They were standing in front of the city backdrop, and it looked so magical. The yellow linoleum squares twinkled when the lights hit them in just the right way.

“Okay, now let’s line up,” Mr. Gibbons asked the cast.

Amazingly, everyone got into rows and the photographer asked everyone to stand closer. Madison crossed her arms and watched everyone come together. It was so exciting!

Fiona waved her over.

“Here,” Fiona said. “Get in the picture! Stand next to me!”

Aimee put her arm around Madison’s shoulder when she slipped in.

“Hold on!” the photographer yelled. “Would the Tin Man please straighten his tin hat?”

Egg fixed it.

“No, no—I need the Munchkins to be in the same group, please,” he said raising his camera up to his eye again. “Yes, that’s better.”

Mr. Gibbons yelled out, “Dan, would you please roll down your lion feet?”

Madison helped.

“Okay.” The photographer made little hand motions to tell kids to move in, move out, and then move in again. “Would the boy playing the Scarecrow please check his straw?”

Madison looked over at Tommy. Mrs. Perez needed to work on that costume a little more.

“Okay, now everyone smile,” the photographer said, lifting the camera up once more.

Mr. Gibbons suddenly stepped in front of the camera. “Wait! Ivy Daly isn’t here. Ivy? How could we be missing Ivy?” he yelled backstage. “Madison, where did Ivy go?”

“I’ll get her,” Mariah said, running to the back. Madison was very glad she didn’t have to go.

In a second, Ivy was onstage, apologizing. She had
finally
found her Glinda wand.

“Now are we ready?” the photographer asked once more.

Everyone smiled.

“Wait! I’m sorry, but who is the girl in the second row? The one in between the two witches?”

Madison knew he was talking about her.

“She’s our stage manager,” Mr. Gibbons said.

“Could I ask you to please step out of the picture, miss? This is just for cast members wearing costumes.”

Madison felt everyone’s eyes on her. “It’s okay, Madison,” Mr. Gibbons reassured her. “You can be in the next round of photos.”

Madison slowly walked to the side of the stage.

“Thanks!” the photographer cried. “Now,
Wiz
cast, please say ‘Oz!’”

Madison blinked when the flash went off and got dizzy. The photographer kept taking picture after picture, posing the group in different arrangements. He even took shots of Addaperle, Evillene, and Glinda by themselves. The three of them looked great in their costumes.

By the time Madison got into the photo, the photographer only had a few shots left. She posed with Drew and the Nose Plucker. Madison knew
she
wouldn’t make the paper, but she tried not to let it bother her. The cast and crew photo might make it into one of the trophy cases in the school lobby.

When the picture-taking hubbub died down, the cast finally started their opening number. The actual dress rehearsal took about twice as long as it should have, but it finally ended around six-thirty, to loud applause from Mr. Gibbons. He gathered everyone onstage for a little postperformance pep talk.

“You guys were great,” he said. “See you back here on Monday.”

“That’s it?” Egg said.

Mr. Gibbons nodded. “That’s it. Good job. Now get your gear and get home.” Because it had gotten late, he kept it real short.

Kids were pulling off their costumes in a hurry, so Madison and Mariah kept running from place to place backstage. They had to make sure that props were returned, capes were hung up, and all the caps to the makeup tubes were twisted on tight.

When she was finished running around, Madison had lost track of Aimee and Fiona. They weren’t in the dressing room, the bathroom, or the auditorium.

“Have you seen Aimee?” Madison asked Dan.

He played dumb and put on his Lion voice. “Duh, which way did dey go?”

Madison laughed as she walked away. Dan was a dork, but he was funny.

She bumped into Lindsay at the auditorium entrance.

“Hey, did you see Aimee or anyone else?” Madison asked her.

“Nope,” Lindsay began. “Yeah! I did see Aimee. She was headed out with her stuff like five minutes ago. Fiona was with her, I think.”

Madison sighed.
They’d left without her?

“You know, Madison, you really should have been in those photographs,” Lindsay said. “I mean, you’re the most important person in the show.”

“Yeah, well …” Madison mumbled. “No biggie.”

“Still, I hope you know how psyched we all are. Everyone thinks you’re a great stage manager.”

Madison scratched her head. “Thanks.”

“I mean it,” Lindsay said.

“That’s really nice of you to say that,” Madison said. “I mean, you don’t have to.”