THIRTY

Auditions. They just might be the death of me. Already my hands had started to sweat and my heart to beat harder. If I could take Mom’s reaction to Paul’s news, which was a really scary smile that lasted all evening, I could take anything, but my body didn’t seem to be getting the message.

I waited in the hall with my fellow drama clubbers after school Tuesday. Emma was down the hall at a student council meeting. She said that she would meet up with me after.

Students had been bussed over from all of the schools represented at drama club. They rotated auditions at our schools, because they preferred to use a stage rather than the little practice room that we usually used, and they wanted it to be fair.

A student, Mandy, came out of the auditorium, relief etched across her freckled face. “There’s someone else in there with Mr. Svink,” she said. “A woman from the Veteran’s Society, I guess. I thought that it would just be him this time.”

“Me too,” I said. She sat down next to me and Chuck went in. I was up next. A sign on the door said that the casting would be posted within ten minutes of the last person’s audition. That really didn’t seem like enough time to me but I guess Mr. Svink knew us well enough that it wouldn’t be that hard.

Chuck came out. My heart began pounding irrationally. I had faced down a criminal mastermind and been in one near death situation after another. How could this be scary?

I opened the door and went in. I had to walk through all of the seats in the auditorium and mount the stage.

“Katie Carlyle,” Mr. Svink said to the woman next to him. “Katie this is Mrs. Patent from the Veteran’s Society.”

I thought that I must have heard him wrong. I peered out into the audience to where Mr. Svink was sitting. I had not heard him wrong. Sitting next to him was none other than Margaret Patent.

I took a deep breath and tried to push this knowledge to the back of my brain.

“What play does your monologue come from, Katie?” Mr. Svink asked.

“The Waiting Room, by Lisa Loomer,” I said.

Then I was off into acting land and it was over before I knew it. My heart slowed down a little bit and I could breath normally again.

“You may go Katie,” Mr. Svink said.

I stepped carefully down the stairs and off of the stage.

“Wait,” said Mrs. Patent just as my foot hit the ground. I froze and turned to her. Her old lady eyes locked into mine. “Come here,” she said in this very majestic voice that I could not refuse.

I walked over to where Mrs. Patent was sitting.

“Do you know Katie, Margaret?” Mr. Svink asked.

“I know of her,” Mrs. Patent said. My heartbeat, which had just gone back to normal speed after my monologue, shot back up to high speed. She couldn’t know that I was a spy assigned to her case, could she?

Mrs. Patent continued, “I recognized you right away,” she said to me and then turned to Mr. Svink, “I’m afraid that my grandson has treated this girl poorly. I am so sorry, my dear.”

Grandson? I didn’t say anything.

“Alex was trying so hard to impress me that he invited this young woman to go out with him. She is a Save the Whales volunteer,” Mrs. Patent said.

Oh my god. Alex was Mrs. Patent’s grandson. A whole lot of things were suddenly making a whole lot of sense.

“Really, Katie? I didn’t know that,” Mr. Svink said.

“It’s sort of a new thing.” I smiled meekly at him.

“He took her out to the same restaurant that I was dining at to impress me. He thought that taking out a girl involved in the same charity that I am passionate about would change my mind about a certain financial issue.”

So she had been watching me. I hadn’t imagined it.

“Alex has had some real problems holding on to money and I had to draw the line. He was just throwing my money out the window. I told him that if he could show me he straightened up his act that I might rethink the issue.”

Mrs. Patent sighed. “It looks like he couldn’t wait for me to rethink the issue. I’m afraid that he got mixed up in some criminal activity to get more money for himself. I found out just yesterday when I got the phone call from prison. Anyway, I’m sorry that he used you to get to me. I didn’t want your feelings to be hurt when you never heard from him again. I’m sure you’re a wonderful girl. You are a Save the Whales volunteer after all,” Mrs. Patent smiled at me. “But this wasn’t about you. Alex also told me that there was some altercation at the restaurant. You were attacked, he said?”

“Yes. I think it was a mugging,” I said, lamely.

“I’m afraid not. It had to do with this criminal activity that Alex was involved in. I won’t bore you with the details. You are all right, though?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” Though I really wasn’t. Criminal or no I still thought that Alex might have liked me just a little to go to the trouble of asking me out. I felt like I’d been punched.

Mrs. Patent reached into her purse. “If you need anything, just give me a call. The least I can do is get you an invitation to a charity event or tickets to a concert or something.”

“Thanks,” I took the card in my sweaty hand and shoved it in my pocket.

I walked out of the auditorium and found Mandy and a crowd of students waiting anxiously.

“What took you so long?” Mandy asked.

I felt crumpled from Mrs. Patent’s revelation. I tried to straighten up and keep my voice level, “Oh, they just had some questions for me.”

“Weird.”

“Yeah.” I looked up and saw Emma chatting off to the side with Chuck. She smiled at me briefly before turning back to him.

A warm hand touched my shoulder and I heard Jaisen’s voice in my ear. “Are you OK?”

I nodded, but followed Jaisen as he steered me down the hall away from the crowd.

“What’s up?” He turned to me.

I didn’t say anything, tried to swallow the lump in my throat.

“Katie, what’s wrong?” His face wrinkled in concern. “You look awful.”

A laugh bubbled up. “You sure do know how to charm a girl.”

“I do what a can.”

I sighed. “Remember Alex, my date, the criminal mastermind?”

Jaisen nodded, his stunning blue eyes trained on me.

“I just found out that Alex is Mrs. Patent’s grandson.” I said this in a whoosh and then leaned against the wall for support.

Jaisen looked puzzled. “That’s it?”

“Yeah, that’s it–that’s huge.” I looked at him more closely. “Why don’t you seem surprised?”

Jaisen looked down. “Because I knew?”

“What do you mean you knew?” I tried to keep my voice down, but it was extremely difficult under the circumstances.

“I had the U.E. do a background check on him on Saturday—”

“That’s why you wanted to fill out the kidnapping report by yourself!” I interrupted.

Jaisen shook his head, his eyes still down. “Actually, I sort of had them do a background check on him before you went out with him.”

“You did what?” Just what I needed, another older brother figure to look out for me. Weren’t two older brothers enough!

“I was worried about you. You didn’t even know him. I wanted to make sure you were safe.” Finally, he looked up. “He’d been in trouble with the law before, but never anything big. I didn’t think twice about his connection to Mrs. Patent.” He reached out and touched my shoulder.

“I can take care of myself.”

“I know.”

I looked up to find him watching me, his hand still on my shoulder. “Now tell me why you’re so upset about Alex being related to Mrs. Patent.”

“You wouldn’t get it, Jaisen. Obviously, you wouldn’t get it.”

I bit my lip. “I just thought he liked me. And now it turns out he was just using me to get in the good graces of his grandmother.”

“Katie,” Jaisen put his other hand on my shoulder and turned me to face him. I looked at his hands on my shirt and tried to keep the tears from spilling down my cheeks. “You’re way too good for that guy.”

“Look, I know how dumb this sounds, he’s a criminal and everything, but I can’t believe that he never even liked me.”

“Katie, please look at me.”

I looked up and met his eyes.

“I’ve never had as much fun in my whole life as I’ve had being your partner. Any guy would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend.”

Warmth filled me up. “Really?”

“Really.”

And right there in the middle of the hall at Norshore High in front of everyone–though I guess everyone was probably too far away to even notice, but still, Jaisen Bax, my partner, hugged me.

Then, as if things weren’t crazy enough he said, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but you’ve had a rough day and I want to give you some good news. You’re up for a promotion.”

I felt a smile pushing my cheeks up. “Are you serious? That’s the best news ever! Was Melissa right–was it because I pushed the emergency button?”

Jaisen winked at me.

Before I could give that wink any more thought, the door to the auditorium opened and Mr. Svink taped the casting lists to the door and hurried away with Mrs. Patent.

Everyone crowded in and Chuck shouted from the front, “I told you Katie Carlyle was star material.”

I pushed my way to the front. Ariel. I was going to be Ariel for one of the productions. Wasn’t it bad enough that I had to go to drama every Saturday? Now I was going to have to act onstage in front of god knows how many people? Not to mention my family.

I took a deep breath. I was just going to have to figure a way out of this–how hard could it be?

“You will be perfect for Ariel,” Chuck said, bumping me on the shoulder. “You have that sprightliness about you.”

“Thanks,” I said, trying to muster up something resembling a smile.

“Good job, Katie.” Emma patted me on the back. We walked down the front steps of the building, Jaisen beside me, Emma and Chuck chatting in front of us.

That’s when it really started to sink in. I was up for promotion. Nothing else really mattered. I was up for promotion! I could feel the smile bloomed back onto my face.

“I didn’t realize that you liked drama so much.”

“I don’t. What makes you think that?”

“You look happy.”

“That’s not why I’m so happy.”

“Ohhhh…” He nodded at me.

He got it. It was so nice to be with someone who got it–who knew about my possible promotion and who I didn’t have to hide my secret double life from. He wasn’t such a bad partner after all.

I jumped as his shoulder brushed against mine, sending a shiver up my spine.

But it wasn’t like I liked him or anything.

Did I?