Page 48 of Love Me Not
Remembering that Trey was in his usual spot at the back of the room, I turned and said, “Coach Collins, could you come down here for a few minutes?”
After a brief hesitation, he hopped up from his seat and trotted down the aisle. “What do you need?”
“I’m going to have a chat with Kandace.” Handing him my script, I pointed to the bottom of the page. “Have them start here and run through the next two pages. Madison can tell you if there’s something specific that should be run through again.”
“I’ll be able to tell,” he said, eyes on the page.
That was fair. He’d sat silently through enough rehearsals that he could probably spot mistakes as well as I could.
“You’re in charge, then. Kandace, meet me backstage.”
She huffed again, rolled her eyes, and stomped off stage left like a toddler ordered into time out. You’d never know she volunteered for this.
Taking a deep breath as I climbed the three steps to the stage, I proceeded behind the curtain to find the pouty cheerleader doing just that—pouting.
Ignoring the attitude, I stayed calm. “What can I do to help you find your mark? Do you want to stay after and we can walk through it a few times? Maybe there’s a trick that will help you know where to stop.”
“I’m not giving this play any more of my free time than I already am,” she replied. “What does it matter where I stop anyway?”
“Where you stop determines where Burke stops, which in turn affects Emma’s movements.” Trying to find a way to reach her, I added, “You do this in cheer routines, right? Formations matter here as much as they do there.”
“Cheer is set to music.” She pointed toward the stage. “This is just walking. If I’m out there saying those stupid lines that should be enough.”
I took a beat to make sure the top of my head didn’t blow off. If she was trying to see how far she could push me, she’d just found the line.
“Why are you here, Kandace?”
She straightened. “What?”
“Why are you here?” I repeated. “You obviously don’t want to be in the play. So why are you here?”
“I—”
“Did you think you’d walk in and make googly eyes at Aiden and we’d all work around you?”
“Who says googly eyes?”
This was no time to discuss our generational differences. “I’m struggling to find a reason to keep you in this play at all.”
Kandace scoffed. “Please. You need me or you won’t have anyone to play my crappy part.”
Again, why was she here?
“If you aren’t willing to put in the work and give the same effort as everyone else, then it doesn’t matter if we need you. Respect the play and your fellow actors or leave.”
Dropping her arms to her sides, she stiffened. “Are you kicking me out?”
“No, I’m giving you a choice. Stop wasting our time.” Grabbing a script off Hannah’s prop table a few feet away, I held it out to her. “You have fifteen minutes to learn your lines and do the scene correctly. If you don’t come out, I’ll know you left and we’ll call it done.”
Taking the script, she quietly asked, “If I leave, who would do my part?”
Excellent question. “We’ll figure it out.”
I could see the debate in her eyes and had every expectation of which side would win. But I still wanted her to think about it, in case by some miracle she chose to stick around. Without another word, I left her in the wings to make her decision and returned to rehearsal to find the whole crew gathered around Trey at the center of the stage.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, confused why they weren’t running the scene.
“Aiden has an idea,” Emma said. “Coach Collins suggested we draw it out to see how it would look.”