Play the Game (22 page)

I felt great. I could nail this part.

From that point on, the play flew. Suddenly I was back on stage, delivering my favourite
speech, heartbroken and distressed.

‘O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day! …’

As I finished my speech, I snuck a look into the front row. I could see Mum, Dad
and Jean, but not Tess. My heart sank.

And then I saw her. She was looking right at me, and I’m pretty sure I saw her smile
in the dark. She’d forgiven me.

The rest of the play went by in a blur and then we were all on stage, and the audience
was cheering madly. As we all linked hands to take our final bow, Jackson squeezed
in next to me. It felt so perfect holding his hand.

We must have bowed ten times before the audience finally stopped clapping. When the
curtain came down we all ran off stage, cheering and laughing.

‘You were amazing, Edie!’ said Jackson, grabbing both my hands. ‘Amazing!’

‘So were you,’ I said, grinning at him.

‘You both were.’ Kerry gave us both a hug, and whispered in my ear, ‘You were right,
Edie. That part belonged to you. You nailed it!’

I knew she was right. I felt fantastic. This was why I wanted to act. To play amazing
parts, however big or small they were.

‘You coming to the afterparty?’ asked Jackson. He seemed to suddenly realise he was
still holding my hands, and let go. I found myself wishing that he hadn’t.

‘Absolutely! Are you?’

‘As soon as I get out of these robes,’ he said. Then he smiled shyly and added,‘Do
you want to go together?’

‘Sure. But I might have to take off this make-up first. Don’t want to go out looking
like I’m your grandma!’

He laughed. ‘Meet you back here in ten?’

‘Give me twenty!’ I said, thinking of the task ahead of me.

‘Edie, you were awesome!’ yelled Tess, running towards me. She hugged me so hard
I thought I was going to fall over. ‘I’m sorry!’ she said.

‘No,
I’m
sorry! I’m so glad you came!’

‘I was always going to,’ she said, smiling. ‘I actually already had my ticket, but
the one you put in my locker was front row – thanks for the upgrade!’

I grinned. ‘Do you want to come to the afterparty?’

‘Nah, you go. It’s your thing. But can we hang out tomorrow? And the next day? And
the one after that?’

‘Yes, yes, yes!’ I shouted.

‘Oh, and your family are waiting out front. Jean is so proud of you! Look out – I
think you’ve inspired a comeback!’

I laughed. ‘I have to go, but I’ll see you tomorrow?’

‘Absolutely. I’m so proud of you,’ she said with a big smile.

‘Thanks. Me too!’

I felt so crazy lucky. The play was great. My part was great. My best friend came. And
now I was off to a party with the boy I liked. What a perfect night!

‘You know what? You’re right,’ I said to Tess.

‘Of course I am!’ she said, groaning.

‘I have to play Juliet,’ I said, wondering even as I said it whether it was the right
decision. But if I didn’t leap in and give it a go, I’d never know how it felt to
play a lead. I wanted to know if I could do it. ‘I’m sorry I made it so complicated!’

Tess grinned at me. I couldn’t help grinning back. It was so exciting! I couldn’t
wait to tell Kerry and Freddy that I’d decided to say yes.

‘You know this means I’ll hardly see you until the play opens,’ I said. ‘I’m going
to have so much work to do to catch up with Freddy.’

Tess shrugged. ‘Have you forgotten training? It takes up almost my entire life!’

‘And you love it,’ I said.

Tess smiled and nodded. ‘I really do, Edie. I miss you, of course, but it’s totally
amazing playing netball at this level. I can already imagine what it would be like
to play nationally.’

‘I can totally see you doing that,’ I said. And I could. It was like Tess had found her path – she knew where she wanted to be. I was still
working mine out, but that was okay too. As long as we got to hang out along the
way, it didn’t matter if we were doing different things.

‘So you’ll get to kiss Freddy!’ said Tess, with a cheeky look on her face.

‘Yep. Every night,’ I said. ‘In front of about three hundred people. Argh!’

Tess laughed. ‘At least you don’t have to act for that bit,’ she said. I hit her
playfully on the arm. ‘I know, I know, he has nothing to do with why you want to
play Juliet,’ said Tess, laughing.

It was so good to have my best friend back! I think we could have stayed up talking
all night, but after a couple of hours, I had to go home. I lay awake half the night
imagining myself on stage as Juliet. Now that I’d decided to do it, I couldn’t wait
to get started.

I looked at the clock again. Only twelve seconds had passed since I’d last looked,
which meant there was now only thirty-seven minutes and thirty-two seconds to go
before the curtain was raised. I felt sick. My dress was too tight. I had too many
pins in my hair. And Jean had plastered so much make-up on me, I could barely smile.
Not that I felt like smiling. I was so nervous that I wasn’t sure I could actually
speak.

‘Okay, close your eyes,’ said Jean, holding out the eye-shadow brush.

I tried to close them but it just made me panic even more.

‘What’s wrong?’ Jean said, getting impatient.

‘What if I forget all my lines?’

She grabbed my hands. ‘You won’t. And if you do then Freddy will help. It’ll be fine.’

‘Honestly?’ I couldn’t believe that before I’d been cast in the play there was no
way Jean and I would have been sitting and chatting about something as big as stage
fright. But now it just felt totally natural to tell her how I was really feeling.

Jean nodded. ‘I’m really proud of you, Edie. I dropped out of drama because of nerves. Watching
you get ready to play Juliet has made me realise how much I miss it. Everyone feels
nervous. Only some people let it control them.’

I was shocked. I’d always thought Jean had dropped out because of me. Finding out
it was because she got stage fright was huge. The problem was, that just made me feel
even
mor
e nervous. I mean, if it could happen to Jean, it could definitely happen
to me too.

‘We need to finish your make-up, or you won’t be going on stage,’ Jean said calmly.

I closed my eyes and let Jean finish her work. I tried to relax as she brushed and
wiped and pencilled makeup on my face, but I couldn’t help worrying that I’d freeze
as soon as I walked on stage.

‘Okay, take a look,’ said Jean.

As I opened my eyes, I was amazed. I looked just like I imagined Juliet would look
like. Even if I didn’t feel quite like Juliet, at least I looked like her.

‘Thanks, Jean!’

‘Knock ‘em dead, Edie!’

Nine minutes to go and I was hiding out at the back of the stage, feeling sick and
scared and wishing the ground would just open up and swallow me. It hadn’t been easy
stepping into the part of Juliet. For the first few weeks, Freddy had just seemed
really sad about Belle leaving, and we didn’t click in rehearsals at all. Kerry had
ended up calling some extra rehearsals just for Freddy and me to work on some of
the harder scenes. Kissing him on stage was the worst bit. Each time we got to the
death scene, I’d get all fidgety and nervous and worry that I wasn’t kissing him
right or that the other cast members were watching. I still wasn’t sure that it would
be okay tonight. We’d never really made it look particularly convincing.

‘Edie? You okay down there?’ asked Freddy, peering down at me.

I peered up and managed to nod. ‘Sort of,’ I said, surprised to hear words actually
come out of my mouth.

He held out his hand and I took it. It was soft and warm and I didn’t want to let
it go. ‘Come on, you need to be in the wings. It’s almost time.’

I let him lead me to stage left, where half the cast were pacing or chattering or
nervously reciting lines under their breath.

‘You look beautiful. You’ll be an amazing Juliet,’ said Freddy, looking straight into
my eyes and smiling. If I weren’t so totally nervous about the play I would have
been over the moon that he was being so sweet, but right now all I could think about
was running away. This was all Belle’s fault. If she hadn’t moved overseas then I’d
be still playing the Nurse, and I wouldn’t be nervous at all. But playing Juliet
was huge.