When Joey woke the next morning, the bed was empty, but still warm. He rolled over to a note left on the pillow beside him, telling him that Lauren had gone to breakfast early to get a headstart on the day. Today was when she had to prepare for the bake sale, and she'd told him that she anticipated being in the kitchen all day. He felt overwhelmed for her. While they couldn't spare two counselors from rehearsal, Joey had told her that he'd stop by if at all possible to help out.
He arrived at the cafeteria expecting to have already missed her, but to his surprise he saw her sitting at a table with Jackson, their heads bent close together so they could talk in hushed voices. A light blush spread over Lauren's cheeks at something he said, but she laughed. Joey approached slowly, hoping he might overhear snatches of the conversation, but then Lauren looked up at him, and the wide smile on her face wiped away any thought of eavesdropping.
"Hi," she said, her voice soft as she gazed at him, managing to convey without words that she had missed him that morning, so he hoped she knew he felt it back.
"What were you guys talking about?" he asked.
"Don't worry about it," Lauren said, standing up and gesturing him to take her seat.
"I hate when people say that to me," he said, and she laughed,
"Come on, sit down, I have to get going."
"Hey," he said, reaching for her hand and squeezing it briefly before letting go. "Good luck."
"Thanks," she said, blowing out a breath. "I need it."
"You're gonna do great. And like I said, if I can come and help at all, I will."
"Thanks, JoJo. Try to keep things under control without me."
He grinned. "I'll do my best."
He watched her walk away, unable to wipe the smile from his face. Then he turned his attention back to Jackson sitting opposite him, who was smirking at him.
"What?" he asked, a little too defensively.
"Nothing."
"Are you going to tell me what you were talking about?"
"Nope," he said, still smirking. "You should worry less about that and more about your food. We gotta go in a minute."
Joey sighed, very suspicious of what they were being so secretive about, but he was more concerned with the anxiety beginning to build about making sure the show ran smoothly. The kids had come on leaps and bounds from the first shambolic run through, but with a little over 24 hours to go until the performance, he was worried about everything coming together well enough to impress Victoria, or at the very least appease her. And more than that, all the campers had worked so hard, and they deserved to put on a show they could be proud of.
He could feel the anticipation when he walked into the auditorium too, a mix of the pressure he was feeling himself, and excitement. Campers from his group kept coming up to him, asking him questions that they already knew the answers to, asking him if he thought the show was going to be okay, asking him if there were really 600 people coming. With every question, he got a little more nervous. And watching the run through didn't help. He knew these kids knew their lines, but some of them stumbled through them, forgot which side of the stage they had to exit on, or just seemed to completely freeze up.
"Bad dress means great show," Jackson said, putting a hand on Joey's shoulder.
Joey turned to him with a sigh. "We better hope."
"They're gonna be great," Jackson reassured him. "They're just getting over some last minute nerves. I haven't seen a show completely fall apart yet," he laughed. Joey smiled.
