Read Daddy's Little Angel Online

Authors: Shani Petroff

Daddy's Little Angel (15 page)

BOOK: Daddy's Little Angel
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“Everything all right?” Cole asked when I got back to my seat.
“Of course,” I said as breezily as I could.
My heart started beating extra fast, but I couldn’t let myself get distracted. As all six of the cast members came out on stage for the opening number, I concentrated with all my might. “Make Courtney forget her lines. Make Courtney forget her lines,” I mouthed. It had to work. I needed it to work.
The show started. Porter Ciley, who played Linus, said his line. Then Bronwyn as Sally recited hers, followed by Matt Cruz as Schroeder. They were all talking about Charlie Brown, aka Kyle Manning, while he stood there looking defeated. His dog Snoopy, Randy Valone, was next to him.
All of a sudden the stage got quiet. Were my powers starting to work or was the silence part of the show? I watched without stirring a muscle.
Another twenty seconds. It was definite. Someone wasn’t saying their line! And I knew who it was.
I did it! I had powers. And I made them work. It was better than I could have ever imagined. And it was so easy!
Everyone on stage turned to Courtney. I wished I had brought my camera. The look on her face was priceless.
Her mouth was moving, but nothing was coming out.
Wait a minute.
Nothing
was coming out
.
Could she not talk at all?
Oops.
That wasn’t supposed to happen. She was just supposed to forget her lines. Not how to talk!
Well . . . serves her right
, I thought. At least my plan still worked. I’d have to worry about getting her voice back to her later.
As I watched Courtney struggle, I felt a tiny breeze blow against my face. I looked up and saw something fluttering. It was my program, which seemed to have floated up off my lap.
Weird
. I yanked it back down and checked to make sure no one saw it. Luckily, both Cole and the woman sitting next to me had their eyes strained on the disaster that was unfolding onstage.
My eyes went back to the paper where the words had rearranged themselves to say: “Good job.” Not again. Clearly Lou was back. The words rearranged themselves again, this time to read: “You told her to shut up—and she did.”
“Huh?” I asked out loud by accident.
Cole turned to me. “What?”
“Just a cough,” I answered. No wonder he didn’t want to date me. I talked to myself and wasn’t fit to be taken out in public.
I quickly crumpled the program into a little ball and threw it under the seat in front of me. Now Cole was looking at me. “
Um
, I’ll get that later,” I told him.
As I watched Courtney onstage, I thought about Lou’s note.
You told her to shut up—and she did.
At first I didn’t know what he was talking about, but then it hit me. Before the show, I had told Courtney to shut up. I even wished someone would silence her permanently. That must have been why she lost the ability to speak.
Onstage, Porter danced over to Courtney and whispered in her ear. He tried to make it look like it was part of the show, and he was telling her a secret. But he was obviously telling her the lines. Not that she could say them. Thanks to me!
I could have watched Courtney squirm for hours. But the other people onstage needed rescuing. That’s where Gabi came in. It was her turn to shine. I turned toward the woman next to me. I hoped Cole would think I was talking to her instead of to myself. “Let Gabi take over Lucy’s lines,” I whispered under my breath
.
“Are you talking to me?” the lady asked. “I can’t hear you.” She spoke way too loudly for the theater.
I ignored her. I knew I had to forget about everything that was going on around me, and focus all my energy onstage. Gabi still hadn’t come out. So I covered my mouth and mumbled, “Gabi, take your entrance,
”
while covering up with a fake cough.
Cole looked at me again. Had he heard me? I clutched onto my armrest.
Cole cannot see me using my powers,
I thought to myself.
Then, without any warning, there was a huge explosion. Every light onstage and in the auditorium popped off at once. The audience members were gasping and jumping around in their seats, terrified. And then, just when I thought I was about to lose my rein on sanity, something truly unbelievable happened. Cole took my hand and
squeezed
it.
I looked right at him. The exit lights in the aisle cast a small glow on his face. He looked right back. We each gave the other a small smile that kind of stayed frozen on our faces for a moment. Then, superslowly, he moved his head toward mine, and I went in to meet him.
Oh my God. It was about to happen. I was going to get my first kiss! From Cole Daniels!
My brain was going like a treadmill stuck at top speed. In the few seconds before our lips touched, it filled with enough thoughts to take up three textbooks.
Do I tilt to the right? Is my breath okay? Do I smell like pizza? I’m about to touch lips with Cole Daniels. Do I even know what to do? Has he done this before? Maybe with Courtney? I hope not. Will he tell people we kissed? Can Reid and Lana see us? Is that better or worse? Do I want to share this moment with a bunch of theatergoers? I really don’t care. I am about to kiss Cole Daniels! Why do I sometimes refer to him with his full name? It isn’t like he’s a celebrity. Well, I guess to me he kind of is. But now he’s my boyfriend. Right? I know that not everyone who kisses each other is a couple, but I want to be one. Colgel. No. Angole. That doesn’t work either. Our names don’t meld well. I hope that doesn’t mean we’re doomed. But it’s not like most of those star couples end up working out, anyway. But Cole and I will. We . . .
Then my brain shut off.
Cole.
Was.
Kissing.
Me.
It lasted for about three seconds. And when we pulled apart, I felt dizzy. Like I had gone round and round on a Sit ’n Spin and then quickly stopped. But it was a good kind of dizzy. Better than good. It was amazing. And it didn’t end with the kiss. Cole kept on holding my hand. Courtney was so wrong. I wasn’t Cole’s project. He liked me.
As we continued to hold hands, I suddenly became very self-conscious. Was I supposed to smile at him again? Say something to him? Pretend nothing happened?
As I debated what to do, my eyes were drawn onstage. What the . . .
A giant ball of light was moving toward Courtney and reciting Lucy’s lines. I recognized the voice. It was Gabi’s. This was really bad. Gabi had turned into something like a firefly. A super-sized firefly type thing.
I sucked in my breath. How did this happen? Did I say something? Did I do something? How could I have been so stupid to think I’d be able to handle my powers right off the bat? This was a catastrophe.
I closed my eyes in the hopes that everything would be fixed once I opened them again. Needless to say, that wasn’t the case. In fact, no one was moving, no one was talking, no one was
breathing
. Everyone was frozen in place.
I poked Cole with my finger. He didn’t budge. He didn’t even blink. What had I done to him?!
“Don’t panic,” Lou said, popping up from a seat four rows in front of me. I couldn’t believe he dared show his face after what happened with the hPhone. “They’re fine. I just thought you could use a time out and some guidance.”
“I don’t need anything from you. Just unfreeze everyone and leave.”
“I think you may be underestimating your problems,” he said, looking up at Gabi onstage.
“If my life needs any more ruining, I’ll give you a call,” I told him. “Otherwise, I’ve got things under control, thanks.” No help was better than the devil’s help.
“Really?” he asked, trying to mask a grin. He gestured to my best friend, who was still glowing brightly. “Do you even know how you made that happen?”
Duh.
“My powers.”
“Yes. But they didn’t work as you planned, now did they?” he asked.
I didn’t have time for this. “Lou, just go. I’ll figure it out. I don’t need you.”
He kept talking anyway. “Your powers are responding not just to your words, but to your thoughts as well. And they’re interpreting both too literally. You have to—”
“Got it. Thanks. Now please unfreeze everyone.”
He shook his head. “Knowing why your powers are going awry is not enough. You’re going to need my help until you master them.”
“I said I got it covered, thanks. Now please undo what you’ve done and leave.”
“Okay,” he said, “but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Not even a second later, everyone came back to life.
I really had to think fast before a riot broke out. If Lou was right, I just had to retrace my thoughts. I racked my brain for what had been on my mind before Cole kissed me.
Oh, right.
I had wanted Gabi to shine.
Only one way to fix that, I figured. “Bring the stage lights back on and take away Gabi’s glow,” I mouthed over and over again.
The lights came back on, and Gabi started to return to her natural rosy complexion. Finally, something was going right.
Or not.
I quickly realized that the de-glowing process wouldn’t stop. All Gabi’s color started draining away. Everything—her skin, her hair, her eyes, her clothes, her watch—turned black and white. I hoped people would just think it was a cool special effect.
Cole turned to me. “Do you see that? It’s—”
“Just part of the show,” I finished for him. This was horrible. I hoped my nerves weren’t making my hand all sweaty. On top of everything, I didn’t need Cole to be grossed out by me.
I could hear the couple behind me talking. “What’s going on? Is she sick? Should we call a doctor?” someone asked. “How in the world did they do that? It’s not possible,” another commented. And so on.
They weren’t buying it as part of the play. This was awful. All the voices started to jumble together. I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying anymore. It was like they were talking French or something.
I had to be smart about my next move. I couldn’t let my thoughts get the better of me. I had to be careful how I worded my commands.
Porter walked up to the front of the stage and cleared his throat—loudly.
“Mmm, hmm,”
he repeated, trying to get the audience’s attention.
I was glad he was taking over. It would give me time to think.
“
Vous êtes un homme bon, Charlie Brown
,” Porter said.
Excusez-moi?!
Was he speaking French?
“
Oui
.” Bronwyn moved next to Porter and sang,
“Vous êtes un homme bon, Charlie Brown.”
I hadn’t meant to make them speak French! I was just making an observation that the room felt like everyone was speaking a different language! This was nuts. A mere thought could set off my powers? If that was the case, I was going to be in a lot of trouble. How was I supposed to control every thing that crossed my mind?
For the time being, I concentrated on having only one thought.
I want everyone on stage to stop speaking French!
“
Oofway, oofway,”
Randy said.
He was playing Snoopy. Maybe that was his interpretation of dog speak?
Then the cast began to sing.
“Eres un buen hombre . . .”
Bronwyn began.
She was overpowered by Porter.
“
你是一個好人
. . .”
But you could still make out Matt.
“Du bist ein guter mann . . .”
Holy mackerel.
There was chaos on stage. I had made a sampling plate of languages. You had Spanish, Chinese, German . . .
“
Oofway
,” Randy barked.
And Pig Latin?
Even Courtney got in on the act. Somehow she picked up sign language—or at least it looked like it.
No one in the audience said a word. They were all staring at the stage in utter astonishment, watching my whacked-out magic at work. At least no one could pin it on me.
Focus. Focus.
I needed to be specific.
I want the cast to speak English, like me.
I think I accidentally squeezed Cole’s hand. “This is crazy,” he whispered.
“I know,” I whispered back.
“I know,” the entire cast said in a hushed voice.
Uh . . .
That was just a coincidence.
Please
.
I let out a small cough.
All seven people on stage, including Courtney, coughed.
Cole shot me a look. “What’s going on?”
My life was over. I couldn’t answer him. Not without having an echo. Or one of those choruses they had in Greek tragedies.
Back to normal. Put everyone back to normal. Everyone’s back to normal
, I thought.
Okay, that had to work.
Cole was still staring at me. “How . . . Did they just mimic you?”
I shook my head no.
“Say something again,” Cole prodded me.
I was afraid to. What if I hadn’t put everything back to normal? But he was waiting . . .
“Cole,” I whispered.
“Cole,” the cast repeated.
No!! Why didn’t it work?
This was way worse than any Greek tragedy. It was a Cole-is-looking-at-you-like-you’re-a-freak-of-nature-and-he’s-right tragedy.
He pulled his hand away from mine. “There’s no way they could have heard you. How’d you do that?”
“I didn’t,” I said.
“I didn’t.”
Make them stop
, I thought.
“It’s part of the show. It’s rehearsed,” I tried to explain.
“It’s part of the show. It’s rehearsed,” seven voices echoed back.
The people sitting around me were whispering and pointing at me. I needed to stop talking. But I had to make it better. I had to offer Cole some explanation that he’d buy.
“It’s a new thing they’re working on . . .”
BOOK: Daddy's Little Angel
12.19Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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