I’m taking books out of my locker the next day when Reach comes up behind me.
“What’s with the new black shirt?” he says.
“How can you tell it’s new? I wear black every day.”
“It’s a slightly different shade of black.”
“You’re good,” I say.
“There’s a reason my job is called props master,” he says. “So what’s up?”
“Nothing’s up.”
“Interesting. Let me pass that through the bullshit detector.” Reach sniffs the air and makes a face. “You failed.”
“Give me a break.”
“Let’s start with that wannabe techie yesterday. What’s her name again?”
“Grace. And she’s not a wannabe.”
“You’re into her, aren’t you?”
“No.”
Reach sniffs the air.
“Okay, fine,” I say. “There is somebody I like. But it’s not Grace.”
“Who?”
“You don’t know her,” I say.
I barely know her.
“I know everyone with breasts,” Reach says.
“She doesn’t go to our school.”
“My radar extends for a seventy-five-mile radius,” Reach says. “That makes me a threat throughout the tristate area.”
Summer comes around the corner, walking right towards us. She’s wearing shorts with white cutoff socks that make her legs look very long.
“We’ll talk about it later,” I say.
“And you’ll tell me everything?”
Summer is getting closer and closer.
“I’ll show you a friggin’ video,” I say. I push Reach towards his classroom. “But later. I don’t want you to be late for class.”
“How sweet. You’re worried about me,” Reach says. He takes a step into the classroom, then turns back.
“Don’t forget to put gas in Derek’s car,” Reach says.
“Okay, Mom,” I say.
Reach looks hurt. “I’m trying to help you,” he says. “You don’t want to take Derek down, so you’re going to have to build him up. It’s one or the other. I don’t make the rules, so don’t bust my balls about it.”
He slips into the classroom just as Summer walks up.
I want to say something to her, but when she gets close, I chicken out and turn around like someone called me from down the hall. I hold my breath, waiting for her to pass by.
Only she doesn’t.
“Excuse me,” she says. “Were you in the hall yesterday?”
I turn around like I’m surprised.
“When?” I say.
“When I was dancing.”
“You were dancing in the hall? That’s kind of strange.”
“Sorry, I thought it was you,” she says.
“It wasn’t,” I say, hating myself even as the words come out of my mouth.
“You look like a theater guy,” she says.
“I’m not a theater guy. I’m a techie.”
“But you’re not that techie.”
“The one in the hall? No. I don’t hang out in halls.”
“You’re in the hall now,” she says.
“I’m in it, but I’m not hanging out in it. I’m just passing through it.”
The first bell rings. Students speed up around us.
She says, “It’s just… Someone helped me out yesterday, and I wanted to thank him.”
Derek comes strolling around the corner. He’s wearing one of those pageboy caps, whistling, and walking like he owns the place.
“It wasn’t me,” I say to Summer, and I head in the opposite direction.
“Whatever,” she says behind me, sounding a little pissed.
I don’t blame her. I’m an idiot.
I nod as I pass by Derek. At first he looks at me like he’s never seen me before, then he stops.
“You—” he says like he’s trying to come up with my name.
“Z,” I say.
“I remember now. I have something for you, Z.”
“For me? What is it?”
“A bit of Tennyson.” He recites: “‘I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.’”
“What is that?”
“It’s how I live my life,” Derek says.
“Very interesting,” I say, which is what we say in the theater when something is not interesting at all. For example, if your friend does tech for a bad play and then asks if you liked it, you say, It was interesting.
“You don’t get it, do you?” Derek says.
“I guess not.”
“Translation: If you want something, go for it. Or else you’ll spend your life thinking about it.”
“I see,” I say, which is another thing we say in the theater when we don’t see at all.
The second bell rings and the last few stragglers rush off to class.
“You have to ask yourself what you want,” Derek says.
He reaches into his pocket and takes out his BMW keys.
“And what are you willing to do to get it?”
I stare at the keys.
He says, “I could have gotten rid of you after the spotlight incident. The actors wanted me to. They’ve got some crazy idea that you’re trying to sabotage the show.”
“That’s not true,” I say.
“Of course not,” Derek says. “I told them it was ridiculous. But rumors have this nasty habit of reviving themselves. Unless, of course, one is diligent about squashing them.”
A light flickers overhead. The hall is empty now except for the two of us.
“Never fear,” Derek says. “I’ve got your back.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve got plans for us.”
“What kind of plans?”
“First things first,” he says.
He dangles the BMW keys in front of me.
The hall lights are glinting off the metal.
I think about Summer. I think about being the spot op, lighting her night after night.
I think about how she looked onstage, smiling up at me, running her fingers through her hair.
Pull him down or build him up. That’s what Reach said.
I take the keys.
“Good man,” Derek says.