“I’m going to do it,” the girl said, sauntering up to the wall outside the auditorium. Ignoring her friend’s surprised look, she wrote her name in big letters at the bottom of the list. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“I one thousand percent agree.” The friend bounced up and down and smiled. As the two girls slipped away from the auditorium, making their way through the middle school crowd, she added, “I’m glad you changed your mind. We’re going to have so much fun. And I promise, trying out for the play won’t be embarrassing.”
“It’ll be fun,” the girl said. “Now I just need to find a song that will help me crush Velvet.”
Her friend looked at her strangely. “Crush her?”
“Take her down,” the girl said with a mischievous grin. She pulled her purple hair into a messy ponytail. “Show her how bad it feels to lose out on something that’s so important to her. I think I’d make an amazing Dorothy. Don’t you?”
The other girl put her hand on her friend’s forehead and narrowed her eyes. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Fine. Why?”
Her friend shook her head. “You just don’t seem like yourself. Saying you want to take her down? It’s kind of . . . mean. Is that what this is all about? Revenge? I thought we were doing this to have fun together. But are you only doing this because of her?”
“I’m doing it for me. And you think it’s mean?” the girl said, laughing. “This isn’t mean. It’s payback.”