Born to Perform

Chapter 14

I stand outside Mrs Escott’s office, tapping my foot nervously. I’ve thought over what I’m going to say but I just can’t bring myself to knock on her door. Having the lead role in the school musical felt so amazing and meant so much to me and in a few minutes it will all be over. All that pride and anticipation I was feeling will all disappear as soon as I walk through that door - and I just can’t do it. 

I take a deep breath, trying to suppress the urge to run away as fast as I can. I remember Sam and how if I don’t do this, he will go through everything I’m about to go through. I can’t let that happen. Spurred on by this thought, I turn around and raise my hand to the wooden door, only to hear someone call my name.

“Melody!” I swing round to see Sam running up the corridor to me. We haven’t spoken for nearly a week and there’s no way he knows about what Elisha’s threatening. 

“Um, hey,” I say in confusion as he stands before me catching his breath. 

“Look, I’ve been a total jerk to you. Again. I can’t tell you how sorry I am. We’ve barely spoken for the last month because of all that’s been happening and I wanted to call a truce,” he explains, running his hands through his hair like he does when he’s distressed. I almost want to cry at how nice he’s being to me because I realise that I just can’t put him through any pain. “I promise I will never be a jerk to you again,” he continues with a mischievous grin. 

“And how will you manage that?” I tease him. He laughs a little then looks into my eyes. 

“So, am I forgiven?” he asks, looking so perfectly gorgeous. I nod and smile and he gives me a hug. Just a friendly hug, don’t get your hopes up. 

“So, why are you going into Mrs Escott’s office?” he asks me, looking confused and a bit concerned. “Is everything ok? I mean, the performance is next week.” I rack my brains to try to come up with a plausible reason but my mind goes blank. 

“Umm, it’s just a homework assignment thing…” I try to explain. He lifts his eyebrow in doubt. 

“Mrs Escott doesn’t teach you,” he points out. I blush. 

“Uh, yeah, well I was going to get her to check my… english paper. You know how drama and english are meant to be… connected…?” I trail off, realising that I have just given the worst excuse known to man. Quite understandably, he looks at me with suspicion.

“Look Melody, I might not be Albert Einstein but I get the feeling that you’re not going to get Mrs Escott to check your english paper,” he says, trying to hide his amusement at how bad I am at lying. “What’s this really about?” I’m not stupid enough to keep pretending nothing’s up - he’d see right through me. I take a deep breath and decide to tell him the truth. 

“Well, ever since you and Elisha broke up, she’s been pretty mad at me,” I say slowly. 

“I knew she was involved…” he mutters under his breath. 

“And she’s been… threatening me,” I continue, carefully watching his reaction. He looks furious but stays silent. 

“She says that if I don’t give up my part, she’ll take away yours.” At this, his eyes widen.

“No way. You’re not giving up your part for me, no way,” he states, trying to hold back his anger but looking like he wants to punch someone. Shame Justin isn’t around. 

“I have to!” I protest, “She’s already got you demoted from quarterback and I’m not letting her take away your part too!”

“I’m not letting you do that for me!” he shouts back at me. “The fight’s between me and her. I’m sorry that you’ve been dragged into this but she’s not taking your part away from you. What happened was my fault and you are not going to take the fall for me.” We both calm down a bit and pause. 

“So, what do we do then?” I ask him. I’m not letting him give up his part and he’s not letting me give up mine. He runs his hands in his hair again as he thinks of a solution. 

“How was she even going to get me kicked out of the musical anyway?” he asks finally. 

“Ariel said that you need a C average in all your subjects to stay in the musical and that Elisha could change your C in biology into a D.” He looks at me suddenly. 

“Biology?” he repeats. I nod, wondering why that matters. “I’m not failing biology. Well, not anymore. I flunked one test but I told Mrs Peterson that my cat died and she let me retake it.” 

“Your cat died?!” I question him. 

“No, I don’t have cat but you know you can tell Mrs Peterson any tragic story involving animals and she’ll let you get away with murder.” I can’t help but smile. 

“So, we’re safe? Neither of us have to drop out?” I ask him, wondering if this is really happening. 

“Looks like we’re safe for now,” he smiles back at me. “Here, I’ll walk you to class in celebration.” We start to walk together in happy silence. Then, halfway down the corridor to math class he turns to me. 

“You were really going to give up your part for me, weren’t you,” he says, looking at me almost in admiration. I want to reply ‘I would do anything for you’ but realise how creepy that sounds and just say “That’s what friends are for”. Then I want to slap myself for sounding like a character in a cheesy movie. 

“I would have given up my part for you, of course. I wouldn’t play Tony if you weren’t playing Maria,” he says without looking at me. I don’t know if he means that he wouldn’t want to play opposite someone who didn’t know what they were doing or if he wouldn’t want to fall in love with any other girl. My head says the former, my heart says the latter.