young, scrappy and hungry | a hamilton story | √

Chapter 5

Kasey returned to the loft that night with Carleigh.

"You know, we should get a dog," Kasey suggested. Carleigh laughed.

"A dog?"

"Yeah, a dog. We need a friend," Kasey said.

"Kase, we have friends. Lots of them," Carleigh reminded her. "Besides, I'm allergic to dogs. And Oak is like a dog. He's big and fluffy and loyal."

"Oak is not like a dog," Kasey protested.

"Fine. You're like a dog. You're a sweet tiny bean that needs caring and love," Carleigh said, unpinning her hair and letting it tumble down her back. "You have a hard enough time keeping your side of the loft neat. Do you really think you can handle a dog?"

"True," Kasey relented. "We don't need a dog."

"We could actually invite people to our loft, though. Maybe Pippa or Jazzy," Carleigh suggested. "We could have a girl's ensemble night. They could all sleepover."

"That would be cool!" Kasey said, sitting down on her bed and taking off her flats. She shoved them under her bed. "We could make food and watch sad movies."

"We should do it. Just not this week. Opening night was crazy enough," Carleigh said, laughing. "I'm going to get ready for bed."

"Me too."

~~~~~~

Each ensemble member had their own cubby of sorts near the stage, in one huge room just off stage right. They could keep their coats that they needed for various scenes there, their props, and personal belongings like hair ties and makeup.

Kasey liked keeping extra hair ties there. They had to be black, not colored, and she also kept bobby pins there.

She'd also hung up a picture of her family, that had been taken when Kasey was about seven years old. That was the last picture she had of her family. A month later after the picture was taken, her parents and her younger brother had been killed in a car crash.

She went down to her cubby to get her water bottle that she'd left there the night before.

When she got there, she found that almost every single cubby's contents had been tossed onto the floor. Carleigh's photo of her father was smashed. Thayne's favorite pillow pet, a moose, which was somewhat of an ensemble mascot, was torn to shreds. The navy blue jackets had been dipped in some kind of bleach, turning a pale, sky blue color. Several bayonets had been shattered. Almost all of the white vests had been dipped in red dye.

Only Kasey's cubby was left untouched, along with the redcoats used for the British soldiers.

Megan walked in.

"Looks like someone hates the cast after all," she sneered. "Whoops. I may have to report this to the stage manager. Have fun explaining to Lin and the others what you did."

"It was like this when I got here!" Kasey shouted. "Did you set me up?"

"So what if I did? I didn't know you'd be coming down here. Besides, you have no proof. I erased the footage of last night. And there's video proof of you coming in here for at least ten minutes. That would have been plenty of time," Megan drawled. "Have a nice day, Kasey. I'll see you for tonight's show. Or maybe not."

She sauntered away.

Kasey could not believe Megan's nerve. Kasey hadn't done anything. She'd barely been at the theatre for twenty minutes, and she knew Megan was right. There was no evidence that Megan had done anything, but there was for Kasey.

Just when she'd been starting to feel like she had a family. Kasey could feel Carleigh and her newfound friends slipping away the closer Megan got to the stage manager's office. She was doomed. There was no way she could prover that she hadn't done it, and even if she had- there weren't enough extra props lying around the theatre to make up for all the ones that Megan had ruined.

What was Kasey going to do? She didn't know how the cast would react. All the evidence was pointing towards her. What if she got fired? There would be nowhere else for her to turn. Carleigh would probably turn her out of the loft, and she'd have to find somewhere else to work.

It wasn't like anyone would hire her then.