This production had been so chaotic with all the many changes. One day, it was this and the next it was that. Harley had to scramble to adjust while dealing with Nardo and Pillar of Earth. It took so much out of her. She wished she’d never auditioned for the lead role. It wouldn’t have been as time consuming. She’d wanted to put distance between her and CJ after she’d turned down his proposal to go steady last summer.
“Did you hear me?” Ms. Mendez said, touching Harley’s shoulder.
Harley shook her head.
“I said Nardo didn’t change anything. We just can’t find him.”
Panic hit Harley and she straightened. “Where’s my daddy?”
“In the audience with your grandmother and a few other members of your family. You don’t want to disappoint them, do you?”
She didn’t, but suppose Nardo was intending something? No. Daddy was in the audience. He would protect her. However, she had another problem. “How am I supposed to do my lines without my Romeo?”
The ones she’d longed to do in the first place and convinced hertoaudition. Of course Nardo would ruin this for her too. He’d always hated whatever she liked.
“What happens when I call for Romeo?”
“Improvise.”
How? She neededRomeofor this act.
“Remember, it was one of the techniques we studied and practiced?”
“I do, but I wasn’t good at it.”
“Do the best you can. I’ll grade you fairly, I promise. Nardo’s desertion isn’t your fault. As long as you give it your all when you’re on stage. Fair enough?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Harley said morosely. “Is CJ in the audience?”
“Probably. Are you ready, hun? We’ll have a very restless audience and bad reviews if we don’t get a move on.”
Ms. Mendez already warned everyone she’d deduct from their grades because of timing, both to recite their lines and also on the speed of the play. Either too fast or too slow was bad.
Harley stood from her chair and smoothed out the fabric of her skirts. “I’m ready,” she said, a lie but she wasn’t about to fail the stupid class at this late date. It was why she’d come to school today. She needed to orient herself to her surroundings so she could at least recite some of her lines. Had she stayed home, she might not have been able to set foot on school grounds this evening, worried about Nardo’s plans.
She followed the teacher to the cross-over, giving herself a peptalk the entire way and halting at the biggest set piece.The famous Capulet balcony that was actually a window in Shakespeare’s play, but whatever.
Ms. Mendez clipped a microphone on Harley’s bodice and placed an earpiece in her ear to help her if she forgot her lines, then put a headset on her own head.
“Harley is about to enter the balcony,” the teacher said. “Start the prologue of Act Two. Lower the stage lights and begin moving Juliet onto the stage.”
“Now old desire doth in his death-bed lie, And young affection gapes to be his heir,” the Chorus started as the stage darkened and the balcony began its slow roll to center stage.
By the time Stevie uttered, “Tempering extremities with extreme sweet,” Harley and her balcony were in place. Romeo was supposed to speak and–
“He jests at scars that never felt a wound.”
Harley squinted, equal parts relieved and confused.
CJ?
That Romeo sure sounded like him. The stage was still dark, to give the set designers time to place all the artificial foliage. The lights wouldn’t come on until Romeo finished half his speech.
“What the fuck is that other line?”
Definitely CJ. Thankfully, he was far enough away that her microphone didn’t blast his question. He didn’t sound as if he had his own.
So where was Nardo?
