Nia and Olive were waiting for me at the end of my driveway on Monday morning as usual for us to walk to school together. Because the rest of our school schedules were so busy—Olive had orchestra, Nia was gearing up for basketball season, and I was finishing up field hockey season—none of us had much time after school to just hang anymore, like we could in elementary school. We used the morning walks and lunchtime to catch up on our days.
“Hey, girl!” Olive waved and smiled with her entire face, eyes wide, all her teeth showing, like she ate sunshine for breakfast. Nia nodded and smiled as I approached her. Her hair was pulled back away from her face, showing off her smooth brown cheekbones.
“Hey, y’all,” I said. I felt that small pang in my chest again, and Lee popped into my mind. I should tell Nia that Lee asked about her. I know I should. I know. I will. Later.
We swapped notes about math homework and the social studies reading as we started walking toward school. “I hear our history teacher is going to have us study Hamilton next. Have y’all seen it?”
“Of course, girl,” Olive said. “I was obsessed when the Broadway show recording came out on Disney+. I wonder what parts we’ll have to study.”
“I’ve seen parts. Mainly on YouTube,” Nia said. We’d arrived on campus a few minutes earlier than usual, having walked at a slightly faster pace in the cool fall air. Nia gave her usual greetings to Kenya and Rachelle and anyone else she recognized (practically everyone) on campus. Olive quickly scurried to her locker to sort out her sheet music and store her viola. We reunited in homeroom.
Mrs. Worth got us settled before our principal made a few quick announcements over the intercom: “Okay, guys, hi! Our major announcement for the day is the reveal of the spring school musical. Produced by the theater department, the musical we will be performing is…The Wiz! Auditions will be held the week after Thanksgiving break. Check the signs posted in the cafeteria for more details.”
My eyes widened. I took a big inhale in, then let out the world’s loudest, most excited squeal. I looked at Nia. I knew she’d be as excited as I was. I’d only made her watch clips of “Ease on Down the Road” like a hundred times.
“What’s The Wiz?” someone asked from the back. My neck whipped around.
“What do you mean, what’s The Wiz? It’s only one of the most important pieces of Black American theater of our time!”
“Thought that was Dreamgirls,” Nia responded.
“Or Fences,” Olive answered.
“Or Madea’s Family Reunion,” said Eustice from the back.
“Before all of those,” I said, “there was The Wiz. C’mon, guys, with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson? It’s a classic!”
I freaking love The Wiz. I know, it’s perhaps a bit strange that someone my age would even know about it, much less love it. But my parents first showed me the movie when it was on television during the holidays one year, and since then it’s become somewhat of a holiday tradition—we watch every year. Mom and Dad know all the songs, and they both end up getting up from the couch at some point during the musical to jam to their favorites. Even my dad—yes, Howard Law Dad—loosens up every time he hears “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News.”
The Wiz was coming to Featherstone Creek Middle School. I had to be a part of this.
I tried to concentrate through the rest of my morning classes, but it was near impossible. I kept daydreaming about what part I could possibly play. Maybe a singing and dancing role in the ensemble? A winged monkey? Aunt Em? Glinda, the good witch? Evillene, the bad witch? Or, could I even play Dorothy?! I did know all her lines! My mind swirled with the possibilities.
Nia and Olive were already in the cafeteria when I arrived for lunch after stopping by my locker. The girls gathered at the main counter and loaded their trays full of food and drinks. Nia sat down next to Lee and Alvin, and Olive and I shared the other end of the circular cafeteria table. I unwrapped the yummy sweet-potato-and-turkey wrap with honey mustard my mom made for me from last night’s leftovers, which I was eager to dive into. I was even more eager, though, to discuss today’s big news.
“Okay, so who’s going to audition?” I asked. “Olive, you’ll be in the orchestra for the show, right?”
“Um.” She took a bite of her sandwich. “Probably. But Mr. Burns didn’t mention anything about it in orchestra today.”
“Okay, well, maybe he will during your after-school practice. You should totally audition! Nia, any interest?”
“Nope,” Nia replied. Really?! I thought she’d be as enthusiastic about it as I was!
“Um, why not?” I asked.
“Because it’s, like, not my thing,” Nia said, not looking up from her meal.
“The Wiz is everybody’s thing! It’s a musical! With Diana Ross and Michael Jackson in it! It’s, like, the most fun musical ever!”
“It’s still a musical. It’s still the theater, June. I don’t do theater.”
“Say what?” I said.
Nia turned her body toward me. “I’m not an actress. What if I audition, what, they’ll make me a Munchkin or a tree or something? That does not sound cool. And then I’ll have to deal with the lead actresses from the upper grades and their egos and them thinking they’re, like, superior because they’re the lead actresses. I do not want to be in a dank theater surrounded by people who think they’re the next Lupita Nyong’o when they can’t even fake leg cramps good enough to get out of gym class.”
“Wow, tell us how you really feel,” I said, shocked that something as family friendly as The Wiz could cause such disdain in Nia. I mean, she could at least want to audition if it meant we would be Munchkins together.
“June, are you going out for it?” Olive asked.
I thought before I opened my mouth. I didn’t want to lie. Really, I couldn’t lie because that dreaded Victoria could show up any minute to toss some fairy dust on my turkey wrap and then I’d look like I was having an allergic reaction at lunch and then everyone would freak out and call for a medic to stab me with an EpiPen. Let’s avoid that. Plus, I truly hadn’t decided what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a part of the production for sure, even if it meant being a Munchkin. But could I audition to be something more? I wanted to be good. I wanted to be great.
I also didn’t want to deal with Nia’s berating if I did want to go out for a part. Or if I went for a part and didn’t get it. What if I wasn’t good enough to even be a Munchkin? I didn’t want her to call me lame in front of everyone. Especially Lee. My heart began racing.
“I mean,” I started to say. “I haven’t really decided.” That was the truth. “Look, I know I don’t have a ton of experience onstage.”
Nia looked at me. “Girl, don’t you have enough going on with field hockey and the paper and stuff? You can barely keep a date for Sunday dinner in your own house!”
“Field hockey ends next week,” I said. “That’ll free up some time for the school musical.”
Speaking of field hockey, Blake Williams, my good friend and teammate, walked up the row of tables toward me carrying her tray of food and chatting with another girl from the team. I reached out a hand to get her attention. “Hey, girl. You hear about the school play? Are you going to audition?”
“I don’t know,” Blake said. “I could always be part of the dance crew. I took ballet when I was younger. Now mostly jazz and hip-hop, when I can squeeze it in.” She turned toward the cafeteria line. “I’m going to see if there are any tater tots left.”
Lee, who I didn’t look at this entire lunch for fear I’d accidentally blurt out something about him and Nia, seemed even less interested in the play.
“I can’t sing or dance, but maybe I can help build the set or something,” he said with a shrug.
I expected Alvin to have even less interest than Lee, since he was more into computers and tech stuff. But he surprised me! “I’m down,” he said confidently. “I could be the Scarecrow. I’ve got the vocals, and I could study Michael Jackson’s moves.”
I was stunned. Alvin knew how to sing? Nia looked up from her sandwich with eyebrows raised.
“What? Just because I can code doesn’t mean I can’t sing, too,” he said. “I’ve been singing in church since I was three.”
“My man can belt out notes like Luther Vandross, Leon Bridges, and John Legend combined,” Lee said, giving Alvin a fist bump.
I gave an approving nod. At least I had one buddy in my quest to join The Wiz. “Well, then, maybe I could be like the next Diana Ross. Why not?” I said, growing more hopeful by the minute.
Nia turned her back toward her lunch and shook her head—almost as if she wanted to tell me not to do it but didn’t want to even make the effort to warn her friend not to make a fool of herself. Then she quickly spoke up, before I could push her any further. “Anyone got notes for next period’s history class? If she gives a quiz, I want to be ready.”
Everyone turned their attention back to their lunches, and eventually to other things like schoolwork and after-school plans and whatever was trending on TikTok. But my mind was stuck in Oz, daydreaming about the Tinman, Scarecrow, and Lion, and pondering the important questions about putting together this magical musical…. I wonder if we’d get a real dog to play Toto or use a stuffed one?
And the wizards! There’s, like, a bunch of wizards and fairy godmothers in that play, including Glinda the Good, Evillene, and the Wizard of Oz himself. Gosh, if anyone knew about fairy godmothers and magical spells, it would be me. They’re a tricky bunch, I tell ya.
I looked out the window during class, my mind drifting away from the lesson. I really wanted to be a part of The Wiz. But I’d never acted before. The closest acting I’d done was dressing up for Halloween. I was no Ayanna Pullman, who was in seventh grade and had been doing commercials since she was a baby. She even had a manager, and I heard she went to Los Angeles last spring for something called “pilot season.” She was a big deal.
Just because I was a girl obsessed with The Wiz, that did not make me good enough to play Dorothy. Maybe I was more of a Tinman. Like Nia said, the seventh and eighth graders would probably get all the lead roles. Right? What shot could I have of getting a role that would get me any real stage time? My mind started racing again. Maybe I could do something behind the scenes. Like join the stage crew!
If I auditioned, no matter what role I got—Dorothy, Tinman, a Winkie, or a stage crew hand—I was going to rock it out like my life depended on it. I would do what was best for the production. To make both the cast and the audience happy so we could put on the best possible show. See, I wouldn’t even have to lie this time to make people happy! I’d just be doing something that I genuinely liked—might even love, once I had the chance to try it out!
Should I do this? Could I possibly give as great a performance as Diana Ross and Michael Jackson did in the original movie? Could I even hold that legendary note that Diana Ross did in “Home”? Was this a good idea? My head hurt from thinking so hard. I was anxious about just auditioning—how would I feel if I actually got a part and had to perform onstage?
I pulled up the notes app on my computer and weighed the pros and cons.
Pros and cons list for auditioning for The Wiz
Pros
Love the play
Know all the words
Get to express my creative side
Blake is doing it too
Mom will be proud (will Dad???)
Cons
Nia thinks it’s lame
One more thing to commit to (though field hockey ends in another week or two)
Never acted before—could fail miserably
Never sang in public before—could fail miserably
Could embarrass my whole family and bloodline by failing miserably
Could become laughingstock of school, Featherstone Creek, and all eleven-year-olds of America by failing miserably
Could end all chances of a future, a great career, a stable family life, and a strong social network with an embarrassing performance, thus failing miserably at both the play and at life
I looked at my list. My eyes fixed on the list of cons. The negatives. The possible catastrophes that could happen because of my first crack at acting. Oh my. I was chewing the inside of my mouth nervously, and my fingernails beat against the keyboard. I was risking it all by auditioning. Could I really do this? I could confidently say: I had no idea what to do.
CONFESSION #25:
OMG, the most amazing thing happened at school today. We found out the theater department is putting on a production of The Wiz. 
I want to audition, but none of my friends think it’s a good idea. Except for Alvin, who apparently can sing. I have seen the movie a thousand times, but I’ve never sung in public, onstage, in front of my entire town. And what if I am not that great? What if I can’t carry a tune? I mean, is there any chance I could play Dorothy with literally zero acting experience? Maybe I shouldn’t go out for it. Maybe Nia was right….
But, hold on. Why is Nia hating? Shouldn’t she be encouraging me to go out there and rock it? Shouldn’t she be my hype man? My wing girl? My best friend? I’m kinda annoyed she wasn’t cheering me on when I mentioned the play. Makes me want to audition just to prove to her I can do it.