"This is all your fault, director's pet. This is a play. I'm not falling in love with you, and I would never ever go out with you, Jack Garrison."
Jack and Shayna can't get through a rehearsal without fighting.
Cheerleader Shayna loathes perfect Ja...
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Bus trips were always horrible. The school district's buses were designed for elementary school students and were highly uncomfortable. There were about six inches of room for my legs to rest before they crashed into the seat in front of me. Sleeping against the window, even with a pillow, was terribly lumpy.
We'd all shown up at the theater at about 3:30 AM to arrive at the festival on time. Unfortunately, we hadn't gotten going until almost 4 AM because Kai was late.
Shayna had to call Kai three times to wake him up. He had missed his alarm, so we picked him up on the way out of town at his house.
Now, we bumped along upstate on the highway. I checked my watch. It was half past six in the morning, and we'd been on this dumb little bus for almost two and a half hours. I reached for another donut, but the last box was empty.
Half the cast was still asleep. I never slept well on buses. I kept waking up from weird dreams and just decided to stare out the window for the rest of the trip.
Lilly was curled up in the seat in front of me, sound asleep. I was proud of her. Even after seeing Mary bleed all over the theater, she was still comfortable with the cast. She'd given Shayna a big hug this morning. It had been sweet.
I wasn't sure what was next for us. Once the play was over today, we wouldn't have it as a distraction. Uncle Anton would have to face more of the problems that loomed. Lilly wouldn't have a light board to fiddle with to keep her mind moving. Then she'd have to think about our dying mother and the wave of social media that, so far, we'd done our best to avoid.
Shayna's legs reached across the aisle from the seat across from me. She opened her eyes, and a small smile crossed her lips as she stretched out.
"Are we there yet?" She asked softly.
"We're close to the city," I said. "The festival is in a big public park."
"Did you sleep at all?" She frowned.
I shrugged. "A little. We're maybe half an hour away."
Shayna yawned and pulled a thermos from her backpack. The smell of coffee wafted across the aisle as she opened it and drank.
"You came prepared," I smiled.
Shayna sighed. "Parker invented this mix of coffee and hot chocolate when he was fifteen. He swears it works. I know caffeine isn't good for the nerves, but somehow I'm not nervous."
"I have so much going on in my life I don't have the room for nerves either," I said. "Everything just seems like chaos."
"I wish that things were better for you," she said. "No one deserves..."
There was sympathy in her eyes, and my heart twisted. I'd never liked it when people felt sorry for me. When all they saw was my dying mother. Now Shayna looked at me like all the others with pity in her soft brown eyes.
