I sit by Sean and Gigi at lunch. We’ve been talking about the cast party, which was pretty wild. (Highlight: Rex declared his love for me and said he’d even learn to sing opera if I wanted him to. He’s been learning “Caro Mio Ben.”) I’m eating a salad with chicken on it, and Gigi hasn’t found it necessary to comment on that.
“I was hoping you could help me out with something,” I tell them.
“I’m all ears,” Sean says.
I tell them about the summer program. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go, but now I think I do.” I look at Sean. “I know you’re super-busy getting ready for college auditions, but I was hoping maybe you could help me practice.”
Gigi has her leg in a cast. She told me it was a good thing because it keeps her from kicking Misty’s butt for trying to get her solo. “That sounds incredible,” she says. “Of course you have to go.”
“I’ll miss the choral camp,” I say. “And I wish I could be with you guys.”
“We’ll be here in the fall,” she says. “If I had an opportunity like this, I’d drop you so fast…”
I laugh. “At least you’re honest.”
And I realize that yeah, she really is. That’s the thing about having real friends like Gigi and Sean. You feel like you can tell them the truth about stuff in your life, and they won’t rag on you or try and use it against you, or try to talk you out of it because it doesn’t fit with what they want. If I’d never come to this school, I wouldn’t have ever had that.
Sean says, “The program sounds incredible.”
“If I don’t get in, I’ll go to choral camp with you guys.”
“You’ll get in,” Sean says. “With a coach like me, you’ll nail your auditions.”
I grin at him. The lunchtime conga line is snaking around the cafeteria again. Gus, at its head, yells, “Hey, Diva! Nice job in Drama today.”
Misty hits him on the shoulder, but he makes the line swirl around our table and comes back. “Are you ever going to join us?” he asks me. “Conga-ing, I mean?”
“I don’t … I…”
“Anyone can conga. It’s just…” Gus mimes an exaggerated maraca shake as he dances away.
I look at Sean and Gigi. “How about it?”
Sean shrugs. “Why not?”
Gigi says, “I think my orthopedist would have some big reasons why not for me. But you two go.”
I stand and hold out my hand to Sean. “Shall we?”
He takes it, and we run to catch up with the conga line.