Mr. Harding gets a little enthusiastic about moving everyone into the theatre.
Paige gets roped into helping Mr. Harding carry all of his papers down. She walks behind him, struggling under the weight, and trying to listen to him prattle enthusiastically about the lighting and the sets and the costumes. They've been rehearsing in small, cramped rooms for three weeks, and Paige can tell how excited Mr. Harding is to get them all on the stage.
It's the Sunday of the third week of rehearsals, and since they're not supposed to be in the theater til Tuesday, that's a sure indication of his impatience to get things rolling.
They're halfway down the steps to the lobby (all the backstage routes into the theatre are being clogged up by set pieces and costume racks and everything else in the process of being moved to the dressing rooms or backstage) when Lara comes rushing up the stairs, almost knocking Mr. Harding over.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" she says in a rush, jumping back and almost falling back down the stairs when Mr. Harding reaches out to steady her. "I wasn't looking and I'm sorry I'm late and-" She breaks off, looking past Mr. Harding at the pile in Paige's arms. "Where are you going?"
"We're heading into the theatre today," Mr. Harding says, sounding as proud as someone would after winning twenty Tony awards.
Paige watches Lara frown, looking thoroughly confused. "But... it's Sunday."
"Exactly!" Mr. Harding exclaims, continuing down the stairs, past a still befuddled Lara.
The two girls follow at a slower pace, Lara taking some of Paige's heavy load. "Thanks," Paige exhales. "So... where have you been?"
Lara peers at Paige, who has the uncanny feeling that she's being thoroughly scrutinized before she's provided with an answer. "I have family coming to town this week," Lara says quietly. "My parents wanted me to help them get things ready for them."
"Oh," Paige says. "Are you going to be missing any rehearsals this week? You know, we've been pardoned from school on Thursday and Friday."
"I know," Lara says, sounding frustrated. "I can make it on Thursday on Friday, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to come for the rest."
It's Paige's turn to frown. "Mr. Harding's going to blow a fuse," she whispers. "The closer we get to opening, the more bipolar he gets. He spent half of rehearsal yesterday running around talking to the set people and the sound people and the lighting people. They're all so busy I've barely seen any of them. And none of the writers have shown up for a while, which probably means that either they're done butting in or Mr. Harding has booted them all out of the theatre."
"Or they're busy with rewrites," Lara says.
Paige groans, but before they can continue the conversation they catch up to Mr. Harding, who's stopped in the open door into the theatre itself.
"This is still heavy, you know," Paige grunts, trying to drop a hint.
She sees Mr. Harding visibly relax in front of her. "We're good," he says, relieved. "The set's in place, the costumes are done, the makeup is planned. We're good. Come on in, girls."
Paige and Lara exchange looks before following Mr. Harding into the theater.
"Oh, wow," Lara breathes.
Paige dumps her stuff on the floor, staring at the set. They've got the set for the restroom on, which is only in three small scenes and is really a minor set, but which looks absolutely astounding. It looks like an exact replica of the girls' restroom at school... except more theatrical-looking.
"If that's the toilets, I can't wait to see what everything else looks like," Lara mutters.
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Paige replies quietly.
Mr. Harding runs to the stage to get the boys to stop playing with the stall doors (which have hinges, although there's nothing in the stalls and no one needs to get in there for anything) and then he gathers the whole cast together in the front rows to watch the crew go through all the set changes for them.
Paige settles down between Lara and Annie (they both seem to be on edge to each other, which is weird because both girls are normally fine with other people), craning her neck to watch the house lights dim.
The first few scenes circle between a playground and a school hallway, before settling on the restroom. Everyone jumps slightly as all the lights go out, coming up again to reveal the classroom set.
"That's lowered down from the top," Mr. Harding says, sounding to Paige as though he's giving a tour. "The restroom will be pulled offstage by the adult ensemble until we can figure out how to get the tracks on the stage working again, and the teenagers will all bring their tables out for Goner, got it?"
There's a mumble of assent as the lights flash out briefly: the classroom disappears, replaced by the counselor's office. They finish watching the sets cycle through all the way to the one used in the finale, and then Mr. Harding is ordering the teens and kids backstage and lifting Hayley onto the stage to start off the opening number.
"That's so cool," Paige whispers to Lara from the wings, watching the playground and benches roll off the stage, with Hayley on it. They're already been given strict instructions to not stand in the wings at the front and back of the stage, where the set pieces would be rolled in.
Paige doesn't really get a chance to really be on stage until after Lara goes on: it's more much fun watching Lara pretend to be dead in a restroom replica as opposed to the wooden floors of the rehearsal room, but she doesn't get a chance to finish watching the scene because one of the assistant directors is yelling at everyone to move away while they lower the school tables.
"We've had all the set rigged up for a while now," Mr. Harding says to Paige as she struggles to maneuver her table through the still unorganized backstage. "Now all we have to do is make sure everyone knows where they need to be and how to get there, and we can focus on wrapping up the rest of rehearsal."
Paige doesn't bother with a response, because she hears someone calling from the stage and hurries to join the others in pushing their tables out onto the stage. They have to stop and repeat the action several times, getting everyone to go back to where their table was lowered and then pointing out the path they should take and how they should line up in the wings to get all the tables out in the right order as soon as the lights go out.
They practice: everyone finally gets in their place and Mr. Harding shouts out a few reminders before giving the go ahead to Adrianna, who's playing one of the teachers in this rehearsal.
Adrianna takes her cue and starts. Paige catches Flynn's eye on the other side of the room and makes a face. He responds by sticking his tongue out playfully.
"I know we're all distracted," Addie says. "I know you all want to know what happened to Ella. But solving that does not solve these math problems."
Paige internally rolls her eyes: she liked that line a lot better two revisions ago, when it was actually funny.
"Now-"
Addie's cut off by an adult shouting off stage, horribly imitating a public announcement system in a way that cracks everyone up. "Nikki Hastings, please report to the Grade Level Office immediately, your counsellor would like to have a word. I repeat, Nikki Hastings, report to the Grade Level Office immediately. Thank you."
Annie gets up from her seat at the back, walking right up to the edge of the stage.
Paige is about to stand up when Mr. Harding interrupts. "Take a step back, Annabell!"
Annie does, then turns to nervously glance at her classmates then at Adrianna, who shrugs at her. As soon as Annie's back is turned, Paige stands up. "Nikki's in trouble now!" she calls. There's one more line before the next number starts, but Mr. Harding forgets it and starts banging out the opening drum beat on the table he's sitting on. Paige sits back down quickly, and before anyone else can move, some of the lights that Paige is expecting flash on above her.
The theatre falls into darkness.
Someone swears loudly backstage. The kids all let out little shrieks at that, and Paige hears Mr. Harding shouting for everyone to calm down. She stays in her seat, listening to the chaos around her.
"No one move!" Mr. Harding shouts. "Annabell, I want you to take five steps away from the edge of the stage... towards Flynn's voice. Everyone shut up! Flynn, say something."
"I'm over here, Annie."
"Annie, go," Mr. Harding orders. Paige can just make out the shuffle of footsteps and one of the tables sliding slightly against the stage.
"I got her, Mr. Harding," one of the boys calls out.
"Addie, I want you to head in that direction too, I don't want anyone falling off the stage," Mr. Harding adds. "Does anyone have a cellphone?"
"They're in our bags in the rehearsal room," someone says.
"Where's my crew!" Mr. Harding shouts. "Lighting? What's going on?"
Paige sees a flashlight come on behind the curtains, heading away from the stage. "The sound's out too," someone shouts.
"I think a fuse blew somewhere!" someone else adds.
"No duh!" Mr. Harding angrily shouts back. "Someone better get a huge flashlight down here pronto. We've got kids stuck in the wings, teens stuck on the stage, and more people crammed backstage than should be legal. SO SOMEBODY BETTER FIND ME A DAMN FLASHLIGHT AND THEY'D BETTER FIND IT FAST!!!"
Paige is shocked. She's heard Mr. Harding get really mad before, but now he sounds absolutely steamed.
It doesn't take long for one of the stagehands to rush onto the stage with a box of flashlights. Mr. Harding tosses them to the boys, waiting for everyone to get off the stage and out of the wings and settled into the seats in the front few rows before charging off to yell at some people and fix whatever the problem is.
"Someone probably plugged a light in the wrong place," some next to Paige says.
"Probably," Paige replies, trying to make things out through the near pitch-black.
The house lights come on with no warning, causing everyone to groan and cover their eyes. Paige winces, shielding her eyes and looking around. The tables on the stage are in slight disarray. Everyone is clustered in the front of the house, the kids all looking scared. Mr. Harding emerges briefly from the depths of backstage, his face red and actually looking angry beyond words.
Paige turns to Lara to make a comment about it, but realizes that Lara isn't at her side. In fact, after standing up and taking a quick look, Paige realizes that Lara isn't with the rest of the class.
She has no time to worry about it, because one of the assistant directors is coming up and shooing everyone back to the rehearsal rooms. The understudies run through the show on their own, the rest of the tired cast watching them from their seat on the floor. Lara still has yet to turn up, and her bag isn't here with the rest, but that's no indication of anything because Lara had brought her bag down to the theatre with her.
Mr. Harding is gone for so long that Adrianna goes to his office and gets his phone book. She's in the midst of calling parents to pick up their kids when Mr. Harding makes a return, slumping in the doorway with a wounded expression on his face.
"You can all go home," he says, sounding tired. "They tried to put a few too many lights into one plug and blew the whole theatre's power. We'll be back up here tomorrow after school until we can get everything fixed."
He leaves as quickly as he comes. Paige has a dance class, so she's one of the last ones out the door, waving to Leah, the instructor. Adrianna is still on the floor, calling parents. Paige thinks about offering to help her, but then she remembers that Lara's still missing and she has no clue where she's gone or why.
Suddenly feeling useless, Paige waves goodbye to Adrianna and trails after Leah towards the dance studio.
The second half of this chapter wasn't planned.... But yesterday I was having lunch in the hair room backstage (my school doesn't have hair and makeup, my school has two different rooms, which is great cause it's a lot less crowded) and they were setting up lights for the next show and some junior messed up bad and bye bye lights in the theatre. So that was interesting....
(I think we knocked out all the power in the hallway outside) (I think this is why they invented parallel circuits)
Thanks for the reads and the votes :)