Saturday, 7:29 P.M.
“Heyyyy, Simon!”
When I burst through the auditorium doors, the first person I saw was Quinn Wilder, standing onstage and cupping his hands around his mouth like a megaphone. He was already in costume: His black pin-striped suit was perfectly tailored, and his bright red tie popped under the stage lights. His sandy bangs had been slicked back, making him pure leading man perfection. Behind him, the stage was crawling with tech crew, extras, and a few randoms I didn’t recognize.
I swallowed. “Hey, Wilder,” I called back. With my new crystal clear super-vision, I could see just how kissable his lips looked from all the way in the back. So how come all I could focus on was the sound of someone tuning a guitar in the orchestra pit?
“Nice…” He paused, like he wasn’t quite sure what to say next. “Face.”
I moved slowly down the aisle, letting my curled ends cascade over my green peacoat in the flirtiest way possible. “Thanks.” I hurried up the steps to the stage, dying to get a whiff of Quinn’s winterfresh essence.
“So. No more glasses, huh?” Quinn said. At the exact same moment, someone slid a gold film onto one of the stage lights, flooding Quinn with a heavenly glow and making him look like a stage god among mortal middle schoolers.
“Nope. Back to the old me.” I leveled my eyes at him with confidence. He stared right back, and we locked eyes for at least two beats. Four, in a two-four time signature. Right? Zander would know. I shook my head, banishing Zander from my thoughts. I’d made my choice.
“Looks good.” Direct, and to the point. Exactly how a guy should be, so there was no room for confusion. No sweet but ambiguous song lyrics that could drive a girl clinically insane.
“So I was thinking.” Quinn’s eyelids lowered to half-mast. “Since I’ve been rehearsing with Molly, maybe you and me should run through some of our lines before the show.”
You and I, I corrected him silently. I breathed in deeply, through my nose. “Meet you backstage after I get into my costume?”
“It’s a date.” He grinned, making my entire body tingle with anticipation.
I turned and exited stage right without another word, maneuvering through the noisy, made-up crowd with total control even though my insides were as jittery as ever. I didn’t have to turn around to know that Quinn was staring.
Just outside the girls’ dressing area, Liv had arranged rolling racks of costumes: one for the leads, one for the extras, and one for the dancers. I found the hangers with my name taped to them, and lifted my maroon miniskirt and jacket from the rack.
“YOU. LOOK. AMAZING.”
I started at the sound of Molly’s voice.
“Seriously. You look like a total rock star.”
Rock star. I felt a twinge in my stomach. But my stress turned to giggles the second I saw Molly’s background dancer costume. She was dressed as an oversized dancing die: a giant white rubber foam cube that obscured her entire body, except for her legs. Tiny eyeholes had been poked out of the black marks on the front face of the die.
“Maaaaaaan in the wings!” Nessa charged into the girls’ dressing area, balancing a stack of programs on her clipboard. “Everybody dressed?” She’d gone Broadway director chic in head-to-toe black.
And a pair of cat-eye glasses embellished with tiny rhinestones.
“Yeaaaah,” everyone chorused. I stared, openmouthed, at my friend.
She lowered her lips to the mic in her cordless headset. “All clear.”
“Okay, girls, listen up!” Sean’s voice boomed through the backstage area. Instead of his usual jeans uniform, he was wearing khakis and a button-down with the sleeves rolled up. “We’ve got twenty minutes to curtain and a packed house out there already, so I need everybody in costume and ready to rock and roll in no more than ten minutes! Got it?”
There was a brief moment of silence, and then everybody went back to what they were doing.
“Kacey? Is Kacey Simon back here?” Sean scanned the crowd until his eyes fell on me. His eyes widened slightly, like he didn’t recognize me.
“Here.” I blinked, kicking off my sneakers and reaching for the matronly oxfords that went with my costume. I smiled to myself when I saw the toes: glittery silver hearts, just like the ones Liv had drawn on my Converse two weeks ago. Hearts that only I could see onstage. I ran my thumb over the bumpy bling.
“So.” Sean smiled. “Molly says your, ah… speech problem is all taken care of?”
Translation: Say something with an s in it so I can be sure I don’t get laughed out of the director’s chair.
He could have just come right out and asked. Since he didn’t, I decided to have a little fun with him.
“Yup. Completely cured. All better.” I ducked around Molly’s left side and flashed an enthusiastic thumbs-up.
“Good. Great. Glad to hear it.” He hovered awkwardly by the costume rack, trying to think of something else to say.
I let him squirm for a while. Then: “Um, I need to change? Into my co—” I caught myself just in time. “Play… outfit?”
Molly snorted inside her costume, finally catching on.
“Right. Of course. Okay.” Sean rubbed the back of his neck. “Well… see you out there? Break a leg.”
“No doubt. And I’m grateful for the… encouragement.”
Sean stared at me for a second, confused, then escaped to the boys’ side of the stage.
“Okay, so see you in a sec?” I shot Molly a grin.
“Def.” Before I had the chance to arc around her, she grabbed my left arm, and held on tight. “Hey. Is… Zander out there yet?”
My stomach clenched. This time, it was definitely guilt. “No. Not yet.”
Her eyes darkened. “But I saved him a seat in the front row!”
“He’ll be here,” I assured her. “I saw him this morning, and he said he had a really great time with you yesterday,” I lied.
“For real?” Her eyes lit up again.
I nodded. “I’ll fill you in at the cast party, ’kay? I have to change.” I scurried off before she had the chance to sniff out my crush or my lie.
I did a quick change behind the folding screen and then set out to find Quinn. I didn’t bother looking for a mirror first. I could tell from the whispers, wide-eyed stares, and flickers of admiration and fear in the other kids’ eyes that I looked… back to normal.
“Hey.” A strong hand grabbed my arm and whirled me around, taking my breath away.
“Hey.” It was nothing short of a miracle that I managed a greeting. With a fedora and silver tie pin added to his costume, Quinn looked the hottest I’d ever seen him look. I smoothed my maroon jacket, just to have something to do. But my hands were shaking, and not from stage jitters.
“THREE MINUTES TO CURTAIN, EVERYBODY!” Nessa yelled.
“So you wanna run lines real quick?” The GQ cover model standing across from me still hadn’t let go of my arm. It was irrelevant, since I’d lost all feeling in my body anyway.
I nodded.
“Come on.”
I let him drag me deeper into the wings, around the mannequin and changing screen to the very back, where there was nothing but a mop propped in the corner and one of those big yellow mop buckets with a picture of a stick figure slipping and falling on the side.
Quinn kicked the bucket out of the way, and it started to roll. “So, I’m glad you’re back to normal, you know?” he murmured, backing me gently into the wall.
“Yeah.” The traces of ammonia drifting from the mop bucket were making me dizzy. My breath quickened. “So, what scene did you want to run? We only have a—”
And then he kissed me.
It was a total movie kiss. Slow motion and everything. It’s like one second I was saying something, and the next MY LIPS and QUINN’S LIPS were hurtling through space, desperate to meet. His lips were even softer than his hair, and I could even feel the flutter of his Maybelline-length lashes against my cheekbones. He gripped my face with his hands, making every nerve in my body explode like fireworks.
“Hey, has anybody seen—”
“Ohmygod. What are you doing here?” I gasped.
Zander stared at me for what seemed like hours. My entire body felt hot and tingly, but not in a good way.
“Uh—I was looking for Molly.” He lifted a bunch of yellow roses, his face turning bright red. He glared at Quinn, then at me. His lips parted slightly, but nothing came out.
“What?” I crossed my arms over my chest, feeling like Zander had just walked in on me in a string bikini: completely exposed and totally humiliated.
“I mean…” Zander shook his head slowly. “Are you serious? This guy?” He jerked his thumb toward Quinn.
“What up, dude.” Quinn nodded.
“What do you care?” I snapped. “You’re with Molly!”
“I don’t care.”
“Good.”
“Good.”
“CURTAIN, EVERYBODY!” Nessa’s voice sounded far away. “I need Kacey Simon, ready for entrance! Kacey! Simon!”
Quinn grinned and squeezed my arm.
“That’s you.”