Page 84 of Love Me Not
“Like I said, these kids are dealing with this stuff every day. Bullying, peer pressure, parental pressure, a thousand choices that can affect their futures. Even at the audition phase, I knew they could convey what this play is about, and I’m proud of how hard they worked to get here.”
Jordan nodded and Vanessa snapped a picture, startling me. Hoping I didn’t have my mouth open or my eyes closed, I tried to pretend she wasn’t there.
“Will you stick with this genre of play for the spring production?” the reporter asked.
Again, who knew if there was going to be a spring production? “We still have two more performances of this one, so that’s where I’m focused right now. We’ll see what the future holds when the time comes.”
The photographer’s camera clicked several more times before Jordan turned off the recording app on his phone. “I think we have what we need. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us.”
“Thank you,” I said, grateful they would even mention us in the paper. Curious, I had to ask. “How did you know about the play? I mean, we don’t typically get media coverage.”
“Our sports reporter got the suggestion from Coach Collins, and the editor liked the idea of covering both arts and athletics from the same school.” He turned to Vanessa. “Did you get enough shots?”
“I’ve got plenty, yeah.”
“We’ll run this online tomorrow morning,” he said to me, “along with the performance times for the rest of the weekend. Good luck. Or I guess we should say break a leg.”
“That’s for the actors, but still appreciated.”
The pair walked off and I dropped onto the chair I’d occupied for the last ninety minutes. Trey got us coverage in the newspaper? A little warning would have been nice.
“There you are,” Carole Fabian said as she ducked around the long black curtain. “What are you doing back here?”
“I just did an interview with the newspaper.”
“Really?” she said, crossing her arms. “I can’t believe they showed up.”
Not the surprised reaction I expected. “You knew they were coming?”
“I knew Trey called them. He asked my permission first, which I appreciate, but I get the impression he would have done it no matter what I said.” Carole dragged over the chair from the props table and took a seat beside me. “That man would tackle a bus for you, you know that, right?”
“That man has barely spoken to me for two weeks.”
“That’s because he’s been dragging me from meeting to meeting to figure out this funding mess. We’ve met with everyone from the booster club to the head of the school board.” Leaning back in the seat, she crossed her legs. “He charmed every single one of them into doing what he wanted, while making it seem as if it was the other person’s idea every time.”
If we were talking about anyone other than Trey Collins, I’d believe she was describing a conman.
“Does that mean my club won’t be cut?”
Carole snorted. “No one is getting cut. We now have the money needed to keep all of the clubs going.”
There was still the promises they made to Trey. “What about the football team? Will he get what he asked for?”
She nodded. “The boosters agreed to raise the money. He won’t get everything right away, but Trey says he’s okay with that.”
So everything I’d been stressing about for weeks was… gone. When I told him we might not work, which looking back now, was me being my typical dramatic self, he spent two weeks fixing the potential problem. All this time I thought we were over before anything had begun, while he’d been doing everything in his power to make sure that didn’t happen.
Stunned, I stared at the curtain in front of me. “I had no idea.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
“What? Why not?”
Carole rose and straightened her gray skirt. “Trey asked me not to tell you. I was supposed to take the credit, but since I know how stubborn you are, and since your sisters asked me to make sure you don’t mess this up, I’m telling you anyway.”
I didn’t know whether to be grateful of offended.
“Maybe he did it for the kids and not for me,” I said, clinging to the story I’d told myself.