Snitch (17 page)

“It looks like somebody else has been here,” I said, eyeing old cigarette butts and empty beer bottles. “We used to come here to get away from our little sisters. We’d talk and try to fish with string and hooks.”

“Was it good fishing?”

I snorted. “We never caught anything; half the time we used peanut butter sandwiches for bait. But we did figure out what we would be when we grew up. When we were little,
Johnny and I were crazy about
Greek mythology, so Johnny
decided to grow up and
be Zeus and I
decided
to be Poseidon. He threw around a lot of lightning bolts in those days.”

Liz laughed and my mouth kept talking.

“I carried around big
ol
’ sticks to part the water with.”

“Sounds more like Moses
.
”
Liz was listening to me,
smiling and
running her hand through the cool grass.
I wondered if she knew how beautiful she was.

“Trust me, I was Poseidon. Then one afternoon we decided we should give up on the pretend and decide on our futures: we would both become famous. Johnny wanted to be Batman and drive the
Batmobile
.
Me, I was going to be an athlete with a red
Maserati
.”

Liz raised her eyebrows.
“
A
Mas
era
ti
?”

I shrugged. “I was eight. I saw a movie with a secret agent driving one. That’s all it took.”

Liz laughed, dusted off a place for
me
to sit, and pulled me down.

“I’ve always loved
Maserati
s
!
Especially red ones driven by spies!”

“Athletes,” I corrected her. I leaned into Liz, draped my arm around her slender shoulders and kissed her. Under the train trestle I did something I had never thought about when I was eight. I lost myself in the touch and the smell and the kiss of a beautiful girl.

“Hey,” Liz breathed into my ear,
“I have an idea that I want you to think about before you say no
right away
.”

I untangled my fingers from her
tussled
hair and looked down at her. Her curves were soft and warm and she smelled like strawberries.

“Anything.”

“Don’t
say
that
until
you’ve heard.”

“I’m listening,” I said, but I was really focusing on her lips and my hand resting on the curve of her waist.

“Tryouts for the school play are next week. Johnny and I are signed up for Thursday after school. Will you sign up too?”

With those two green emeralds shining up at me, how could I say no?

***

Later that night I got Johnny on the phone.

“Was that a set up?” I asked. “Getting Liz to ask me to try out for the play? It’s a little outside my comfort zone.”

“Hold up
.
Did you say you were going to try out?”

“Kind of
.
Yeah
.
I guess. I mean how
could I
not?”

“Good, ‘
cause
I signed you up already.”

“How did you know?”

“Liz might have called me. And by the way, I hear you showed her our secret spot. That’s against the rules.”

“So it
was
a set up
.
” I was trying to be angry, but I couldn’t help being thankful that Liz and my best bud Johnny were getting along.

“Kind of.
There was one spot open, so I put your name on it. Spots are filling up fast. Even the ladies are auditioning.”

“By ladies, you mean
Tammera
?”

“Absolutely.
The stage is the place to be to show off your
personality.”

“Maybe it is for you. I think I’d rather be backstage.”

“Suit yourself. There’s going to be a big chorus you could probably lose yourself in. It’s a good way to get your feet wet.”
He paused gathering more ammunition. “
You got to expand your horizons, Andy.
Besides, Liz would like it.”

“I’m stuck doing it now.
Anybody else going to try out?”

“Sure. Sizzle and Ben, and Seth might even give it a go.”

I was surprised.
“Really?
Seth?”

“Yep.
I spent today giving him some auditioning pointers. He’s pretty good.”

“You spent the day with Seth?”

“Just the morning.
You were busy with Liz.”

Ouch. That hurt.

“I went back to the doctor too. He said I’m healing nicely but I still have to wear
my soft cast.” Johnny chuckled,
“It’s very fashionable
. T
he girls like it.”

“Can you walk on it?”

“I’m not supposed to. I still have to
deal with
living with these crutches. He says another four weeks. I figure next Friday.”

The subject changed back to girls, the latest movie, girls again, and finally a rehash of the banquet.
After
I hung up I realized two things: Johnny was already giving Seth a second chance, and since my name was on the audition list
long
before I saw Liz at the park, I had definitely been set up.

I was going to have to audition for the
school
play.

“If I do this, you have to help me.”

We were sitting, Liz, Johnny and me, before school at one of the cafeteria tables that wasn’t littered with somebody
’s old breakfast trash. Instead, p
ages of a script were spread out on the table.

“What am I going to have to do? I don’t have to memorize this, do I?”

Liz slapped my shoulder playfully. “Stop worrying. All you have to do is read it. “

“In character
,
” Johnny
added
.

“OK. What’s that mean?”

“What do you mean, ‘What’s that mean?’” Johnny stood up, his crutches
hitting the floor with a loud crash
for the third time since we had begun. He gave them a nasty look, rolled his eyes
,
and balanced by hanging onto the table, his ankle held in the air behind him.

“I’m the old man. Watch and learn.” He picked up the script with flair and launched into a horrible British accent. “Darling, is that you?” he trilled; only it came out, “
Dahling
, is
tha
’ yew?”

He thrust the script at Liz so she could read the other part.

“Is that the part you want?” I interrupted.

“No. It’s too big. I’m going for her friend, Clara. It’ll be my first time on the stage instead of behind it, so I want a smaller part.”

“
Dahling
,
is
tha
’ yew?” Johnny demanded.

“Yes, Grandpa
,
” Liz read from the
script. They finished the scene
,
playing off one another
with Johnny’s horrible British accent making it funnier.

“That’s how you do it,” Johnny said. “
Ain’t
nothing
to it. Get it?”

“I get it,” I said shaking my head, knowin
g I didn’t want any part at all.

***

Tryouts were a nightmare because of all the nightmares I had about them. Getting up in front of people playing basketball was one thing, but being on stage? That was one thing my brain got real inventive with. I began having stupid theat
e
r dreams that shook me from sleep in the middle of most nights drenched in cold sweat. In one I couldn’t remember what play I was in. In another I had to go onstage but I couldn’t find my shoes. The common factor in every dream was the terror I felt knowing the whole school was laughing at me.

In those moments I remembered what Kate went through
standing up in front of the whole school for real during a pep rally
and felt worse.

So when my tongue turned into a block of wood and I fumbled my lines in tryouts that week, I was almost relieved. I did end up on stage, but as a faceless chorus member. The back of the stage became my refuge where I buried myself with Ben, Sizzle
,
and Seth every time Ms. Miller put us on stage. Johnny was the star as the old man, and although Liz didn’t get the part she wanted
,
she got another small one
which made her happy.

I have to admit, rehearsals were fun. Theat
er
games can be pretty hilarious, and when we weren’t playing those we spent most of the time cutting up backstage. Before I knew it, I wasn’t nearly as nervous as I had been about
being
on
the stage. Besides that, theat
er
geeks throw wicked parties. I guess because they’re used to doing outrageous things on stage, you never know what they’ll do at a party. Of course, I never wanted to ever be included on the “theater geek” rolls; I preferred to be known as a jock-who-was-just-visiting. Like Johnny.

If you look for
the kids who fashion their par
ties around drinking you’ll find them in the theat
er
too, but most of these kids don’t need anything except a place, some music, and each other to keep things
rolling. Most of them have known each other for a long time, and I have to admit you really do get to know a person once you do a play with them.

I didn’t realize I’d spend as much or more time at rehearsals than basketball practice. Some of the kids couldn’t take it and dropped out, including Seth, but I stayed.

The truth was Johnny was right: I was getting pretty comfortable being in theat
er
. I especially liked working with tools and building the set pieces. Once Ms. Miller gave us a mini course on how to use the saws and drills and let us loose, I was pretty surprised and proud of how much I could do. Of course, having Liz there watching me be all macho with a hammer didn’t hurt.

“
You going
to the party Saturday?” Johnny asked me while we were building a flat. He held a triangular
-
shaped piece of wood over two boards while I nailed it to them, wedging them in a neat ninety
-
degree angle.

“Which one?
I’m not dressing up.” I grabbed a nail. “Move your hand.”

“Dressing up? What are you talking about?”

“The eighties party.
I heard there’s
go
ing to
be an eighties party.” I drove the nail in neat and clean. I was getting pretty good at this.

“I’m not talking about no eighties party. Charlie’s having a bit of a bash,” Johnny slipped into his English accent. He peered around to be sure no one was listening and winked. “His parents
ar
’ gone for the
‘ole
week.”

I set down my hammer.
“Really?
I didn’t know you were hanging around with Charlie.”

“I am a little.
More Seth than Charlie.
Seth asked me if I wanted to come. Wes is driving.”

I laughed. Wes had gotten his license a few weeks ago and was proudly driving around the truck he had called
“
a piece of shit
”
only a few months ago.

“C’mon, it’ll be fun.”

“Can I bring Liz?”

Johnny rolled his eyes. “If you thin
k she won’t mind riding in Wes’s
rolling wreck, she can come.”

I smiled and picked up three more nails. “Cool.”

***

It was difficult wedging all four of us plus all the junk Wes had decided he needed to carry around in his truck. Finally Liz settled on my
lap
,
which was all right with me. It was already dusk, and the streetlights played little shadows over her cheeks and eye lashes.

“What is all this stuff?” Liz asked, eyeing a dirty crate
next to us in
the back seat
.
Forms
of wires, greasy metal things
,
and tools
stuck out of it every which way.

“Extra.”

“Extra what?”
I asked.

“Extra parts.
You never know when this thing is
gonna
break down. It’s good to be prepared.”