Sound Carries

28.

It was public news by the next day, when Dr. Davis posted the cast list during breakfast.

There was no time to consider how to react before Colin was up, practically leaping over the bench in his haste.

His posture was very still as he looked at it, then he wrenched the list down and brought it back with him, not taking his eyes off of the words. "They've changed the whole production."

It was one of the rare moments where Colin sounded surprised. He stared at it, eyebrows arched, hair falling over his eyes.

"They've what?" Gabriel snatched the list from him, then stared up at me.

"What now?" Cecily held her hand out, and Gabriel passed the page to her wordlessly. She sucked in a breath, then let it out slowly. "Carmen."

Oliver peered over her shoulder as he came back from the line up. "And-" He looked up at me for half a second before he looked back down. "Leah?"

I looked at him.

"This is what you were meeting with Dr. Davis about." His voice was not quite accusatory, but almost.

"I –" I hadn't told him about the meeting, but not because I didn't trust him. I just hadn't really believed they were going to go through with the change.

Cecily handed me the sheet.

Important Notice: Change of Production – Carmen by Georges Bizet

Casting:

Carmen: Leah Woodley

Don Jose: Gabriel Morrow

Escamillo: Oliver Gray

Micaela: Audra Daly

Francesca: Cecily Preece

Zuniga: Colin Thorpe

"I didn't think they'd actually do it." I said, a little breathlessly.

That was my name at the top of the list. It made me feel a little dizzy.

When I looked up, Oliver was looking at Gabriel with a very complicated expression on his face. He sat down slowly, then looked at me.

I took his hand, squeezed it once. There was a split second's pause before he squeezed back.

"Well, this ought to be fun." Gabriel shook pepper onto his eggs, saw me looking, and winked.

Don Jose was Carmen's lover. Gabriel and I were the leading couple. I was going to have to spend the rest of the semester flirting on stage with the last person on earth I'd have chosen to.

Oliver's smile was a little stiff.

I squeezed his hand again. "Look at us, off stage and on."

It was a weak reassurance, I knew. Escamillo was also a love interest in the opera, but not nearly to the degree that Don Jose was.

"Yeah, and then you get stabbed." Oliver said, and he didn't smile.

I hadn't realized he was so familiar with the plot. "Then let's hope that's not prophetic."

I was glad that Audra wasn't there to see the list, although I wasn't sure how she would respond. The Audra I knew a month ago would have brought the house down around her, and I wasn't sure I was ready to face that wrath.

As it turned out, I shouldn't have worried at all.

Audra took the news with an eerie sort of calm. She wouldn't look me in the eye, but I couldn't really take that personally. She wasn't really talking to anyone, not even Gabriel, which was extra strange because they were together practically every spare moment.