Home Sweet Drama Read online

  The woman’s head tilted and she stared at us like she thought we were joking. Then she grinned. “Really? That’s fantastic, girls. Go to the far side of the gym and wait for instructions. We’ll get started soon.”

  “I love Ms. Pike,” Alison said. “She’s so cool.”

  “For a second, I thought she’d say no,” I said.

  Heather smirked. “Like we’d listen anyway.”

  We walked across the gym, bypassing the girls who’d picked up jump ropes and were practicing, and joined guys who had formed a line. I noticed Callie wasn’t part of the lineup. Maybe she was skipping jump rope to cheer on Jacob instead.

  “What’re you doing?” Andy asked, walking over to us. I hadn’t seen him around the stable much lately. Probably because he was Eric’s friend and he was avoiding me.

  Julia put her hands on her hips. “What does it look like we’re doing?” she asked.

  “Push-ups?” Andy asked slowly.

  “Um, yeah,” Alison said. “Jump rope is cool, but we’re strong enough to hang with the boys.”

  Andy grinned and pushed back his light brown hair. “I like it. You’re on.”

  He walked back to join the rest of the group who had decided to participate. I crossed my fingers that this was it.

  But nope.

  Ben, Julia’s boyfriend, walked into the gym with Eric. Ben saw Julia and grinned. He was gorgeous—pale skin and dark hair. They’d been on the DL because Julia had been afraid Jasmine would try to break them up, but now they could be open about their relationship. By the way Ben was looking at Julia, it looked as if he was starting right now. I tensed, preparing myself for Eric to walk over to us with Ben, but he walked by and headed for the other guys. I let out a breath.

  “Hey,” Ben said, smiling at Julia. “I’m not even surprised.”

  I looked at him for a second, realizing he was lumping me in with the Trio. I’d never been part of a group, really. It had always been Paige and me or Callie and me. Never me and three other girls.

  “Like we’d jump rope,” Julia said. She flashed him a smile. “We’re gonna take you down.”

  Ben squeezed Julia’s hand. “I don’t doubt it for a second.”

  Ms. Pike walked over and stopped in front of us. “It’s time for the annual push-up contest. The rules are that you must do traditional push-ups and if your knees or stomach touch the floor, you’re out. You also can’t stop. You have to keep moving. Got it?”

  We nodded.

  “Physical competitions have occurred every Homecoming since this institution was started. I’m pleased to see you all here and participating. Go ahead and get ready,” Ms. Pike said.

  Just as we lowered ourselves to the ground, someone in red Converse sneakers walked by. I forced myself not to look up. I didn’t need to see his face to know who it was.

  Jacob.

  I could feel Heather looking over at me, but I ignored her gaze and kept my eyes on the gym floor. Someone else walked by and headed for the stands. I wondered if it was Callie, but I wasn’t going to check to find out.

  “And … ready, set, go!” Ms. Pike said.

  I pushed up off the ground, then lowered myself back down. Up and down and up and down. I focused on breathing and not going too fast. But I also didn’t go slow enough that Ms. Pike would eliminate me.

  After five more push-ups, Alison flopped onto her stomach. She rolled over onto her back, breathing hard. After a few seconds, she sat up and walked over to stand in front of us.

  “C’mon, everyone!” she said. “Keep going!”

  A few minutes later, a couple of guys dropped out and they joined Alison in cheering for their friends.

  At the opposite end of the gym, other people were cheering for the girls jumping rope. I hoped Paige was doing well.

  My arms burned and I felt beads of sweat forming on the back of my neck. I couldn’t keep going much longer. I was surprised I’d managed to hang on this long. But maybe riding had built me up more than I’d thought. Outlasting some of the boys felt good!

  “Ugh,” Heather said, dropping to her knees. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye and her cheeks were pink. She got up and stood beside Alison.

  I couldn’t believe I’d beat Heather! Julia and I were the only girls left.

  “I’m. Not. Going. To. Quit,” Julia said, huffing.

  “Me either,” I said. I squeezed my eyes shut for a second and tried to ignore the searing pain in my arms and shoulders. I was almost done.

  Andy joined the dropouts next.

  My hands were starting to slip on the floor. I flicked my gaze over to Julia—she looked as if she could keep going for hours. There was no way. I couldn’t—I dropped to my stomach.

  Major. Ouch. Everything burned. I gulped air and tried to slow my crazy heartbeat. I felt as if I’d just run ten miles. I walked over and stood by Alison and Heather. Callie was sitting on the bleachers a few feet down, watching Jacob. He, Troy, Ben, Eric, and a few others were still going. I didn’t let myself look at Eric or Jacob—I watched Julia.

  Julia did two more push-ups, then lowered herself down. Her arms shook. Her face was red and her arms quivered as she tried to push herself back up.

  “Go, Jules,” Alison said. “You’ve got it!”

  Julia made it halfway up and shook her head. She fell to her knees. “Oh. My. God,” she said. “Pain.”

  Alison reached out and took Julia’s hand, pulling her up.

  “That was awesome,” I said. “I would have died if I’d done one more.”

  Heather nodded at her. “Impressive.”

  We sat on the bottom row of the bleachers and watched the remaining guys do push-ups. One by one they dropped out. As I watched them quit, I knew what was going to happen before it did. A drop of sweat fell from Ben’s forehead to the floor and with a shake of his head, he got on his knees.

  Eric and Jacob were the last two guys left that I knew.

  “C’mon!” Ms. Pike said. “We’re down to the final competitors. Who’s going to win?”

  Both of their faces were brilliant shades of red and their T-shirts were soaked.

  Neither looked as if he was going to stop anytime soon. They both had the same look of determination on their faces.

  “Go, Jacob!” Callie cheered.

  “Yay, Eric!”

  I looked past Callie and saw Rachel standing and clapping. I hadn’t even seen her come in.

  “C’mon, Eric!” Troy cheered.

  “You’ve got it, Jacob,” said one of the guys in our grade. “You’re almost there, man.”

  I watched them both, knowing it would look bad if I got up and walked away. I tried to look at both of them, but I couldn’t stop watching Jacob. Go, go! I cheered in my head. You can do it!

  A crowd started to gather around them and everyone was cheering them on. The cheers seemed to give Jacob and Eric a boost of energy and just when it looked as if their pace was starting to lag, they gained speed. The other guys looked as if they weren’t going to stop, either.

  Ms. Pike walked over. “Guys,” she said. “You’re all doing a wonderful job. You’ve got two minutes before I have to call a tie. Everyone has to get to class.”

  The crowd sighed, but I was glad. Knowing both guys and their history of hating each other—they’d keep going until they dropped.

  Ms. Pike counted down the minutes and then everyone joined in for the final five seconds.

  “Five, four, three, two, one!”

  On one, Jacob and Eric looked at each other—a glare passing between them—and they both got to their feet. Jacob’s light brown hair was a little sweaty and his green eyes darkened after looking at Eric.

  “Congratulations, Eric and Jacob,” Ms. Pike said. “That was fantastic. You both displayed a tremendous amount of strength and drive. I don’t know if we’ve ever had the competition last this long!”

  Neither guy looked at each other—they just moved a few steps away.

  Rachel bounced
over to Eric and smiled up at him. “You were so awesome,” she said.

  “Thanks,” Eric said, trying to regain his breath.

  Callie walked up to Jacob and reached out to hug him. Jacob stiffened and he leaned his body away from Callie’s and gave her an awkward one-armed hug. Callie pulled away from him, frowning.

  “I don’t want to get you all gross,” he explained.

  “Oh,” she said, nodding. “Right. But you were amazing. You didn’t even have to keep going—I know you would have won.”

  Jacob’s eyes connected with mine over the top of Callie’s head.

  I looked away and got up from the bleachers.

  “I have to see how Paige did,” I said to the Trio. They nodded and I headed to the opposite side of the gym. Another gym teacher was telling the remaining jump ropers that it was time to stop and get ready for class. Paige and Geena were jumping side by side and they jumped a couple more times before stopping.

  “That was great,” I said, smiling at both of them.

  “Thanks,” Paige said. Her cheeks were pink and she and Geena caught their breaths. “You were awesome, too. I thought you were really going to take down the boys.”

  “I definitely tried, but there was no way I could have won,” I said, grinning. “Maybe I do need to start taking gym.”

  Paige and Geena laughed and the three of us walked out of the gym together.

  When I walked into the theater for class, I looked for Heather, but I’d beat her here and Jacob was already onstage. Ms. Scott smiled at me as I put my bag on my seat.

  “Go ahead onstage, Sasha,” she said. “We’re going to do an exercise before we start our lesson.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  I walked up the stairs and tried to keep my ballet flats from making a sound as I walked onstage and stood behind a couple of girls in my class. I wanted to blend in with them and I hoped Jacob would stay where he was and not come over and talk to me.

  “Hey, Sash,” said Whitney, a black-haired girl with cute, blunt-cut bangs.

  “Hey,” I said.

  Her friend, Aprilynne, smiled at me. “So, are you freaking out about Homecoming?” she asked.

  I faked a smile. “Oh, totally. I’m definitely freaking out about it.”

  Just not in the way they thought.

  Whitney brushed her bangs out of her face. “I’m going solo, but there’s this guy that I’m in looove with in my history class. I hope he asks me.”

  “Who?” Aprilynne asked. “I didn’t know you liked someone!”

  Whitney smiled. “Carter. He picked up my pen when I dropped it yesterday and we shared my book because he forgot his.”

  “Omigod,” Aprilynne said. “That’s so cute!”

  I looked past them as they chattered about Homecoming. Jacob was still talking to one of the guys in class. Whew. Aprilynne and Whitney’s convo about Homecoming wasn’t the ideal conversation, but at least Jacob wasn’t trying to talk to me.

  “Seriously?” someone said in my ear.

  I jumped and turned around to see Heather.

  “What?” I asked.

  She gave me a knowing look. I smiled at Whitney and Aprilynne and drifted off to the side of the stage with Heather.

  “You were subjecting yourself to that conversation of ‘omigod-Carter’s-so-cute-and-I-looove-Homecoming’ for what reason?”

  “I didn’t want Jacob to talk to me,” I said. Why had I suddenly become so honest with Heather? Probably because she was the only person who really knew what was going on, and I had to tell her the truth or she’d call me on it.

  “Then you’re going to learn how to say ‘Jacob, I’m not talking to you right now,’” Heather said. “Otherwise, you’ll be stuck hiding with two girls who won’t talk about anything but your fave topic.”

  I sighed. “Yeah, I know. That was lame.”

  “Yeah, it was.” Heather shook her head, laughing.

  I rolled my eyes at her, but didn’t want her to go. Luckily, Ms. Scott moved to the front of the stage and looked up at us, ending my convo with Heather.

  “Hi, class,” Ms. Scott said. “Today, we’re going to play a quick game called Blob. It’s going to teach you how to work together and use each other. Here’s how we play: Aidan, you’re ‘it.’ You’re the blob.”

  Aidan laughed. “Cool.”

  “Everyone else needs to avoid Aidan because he’s going to try to tag you,” Ms. Scott said. “When he does, you need to stay attached to him since you’re now part of the blob. You have to work together to tag someone else. The blob will grow and as more people are tagged, it will require more teamwork on your part to move cohesively and tag people.”

  We all nodded. This sounded fun.

  “This is a great game to build trust with your fellow actors and to understand that you must learn how to take direction in theater. Questions?” Ms. Scott asked.

  No one had any. We were ready.

  “Aidan, move up to the front of the stage and give everyone a second to find a spot,” Ms. Scott said.

  Aidan walked to the front of the stage and brushed back his light brown hair. He grinned at us. “I’m taking all of you down,” he said.

  “Good luck!” Whitney called, laughing.

  Aidan made a face at us and fake-braced himself like a runner getting ready to sprint.

  “Get ready and … go!” Ms. Scott said.

  Aidan started to lunge to the right, but changed directions midstep and dashed in the other direction. Everyone scattered and a couple of girls screamed as he ran at them. He touched Lexa’s shoulder and she grabbed his elbow with one hand, joining him. He tried to run to tag Whitney, but Lexa went after Jacob. Aidan tugged her in his direction and she laughed as she almost fell over.

  “Aidan!” Lexa said.

  “Sorry,” he said, grinning.

  “Figure out how to work together, class,” Ms. Scott said.

  Aiden whispered in Lexa’s ear and they both ran to the right side of the stage and chased Aprilynne.

  “Lexa!” Aprilynne said when her friend tapped her arm.

  Lexa grinned and grabbed Aprilynne’s hand. Together, Aidan, Lexa, and Aprilynne walked back across the stage, faked a right and then tagged a guy in the class. I tried to stay in the back of the middle of the stage. I didn’t want to get trapped in a corner.

  The blob kept growing as more people got tagged. The group snagged Heather next and she looped her arm through Whitney’s. The group lunged at me and, laughing, I tried to dodge them, but Heather’s fingertip touched my shoulder blade.

  “Gotcha, Silver,” Heather said, smirking.

  “Yeah, whatever,” I said, fake-grumbling. I linked arms with her and Aidan motioned for us to huddle up.

  “Three people left,” he said. “We need to pretend we’re going after Derek, but get Jacob. He’ll have nowhere to go or he’ll fall off the stage.”

  Um, no! We couldn’t go after Jacob yet or he’d be attached to me. That could not happen!

  “I think Derek’s an easier target,” I said.

  “Aidan’s right,” Heather said, not looking at me. “We need to grab Jacob. He’s had it pretty easy this whole time. No one wanted to go after him ’cause he’s on the track team. Let’s get him.”

  Everyone nodded and it was done—no one had listened to me. Since I was attached to Heather, I knew throwing it wasn’t an option. She was ultracompetitive and she’d kill me if I purposely messed it up.

  We started walking toward Derek and he shifted from foot to foot, ready to run away from us. Just as we got within feet of him, we ran sideways and caught Jacob by surprise. He jumped to the side, trying to avoid us, but Aidan was too quick. He touched Jacob’s arm and, smiling, Jacob shook his head.

  “So close,” he said.

  He walked around the group and stood beside me.

  “Um,” he said, starting to reach for my arm.

  “Uh,” I said. Two-letter words were obviously our mode of communication. “Go
ahead.”

  He linked his arm through mine loose enough that we were barely touching. But it was enough to almost make me forget how to walk. What if Callie came in and saw us? Neither of us had planned it, obviously, but I didn’t want her to see us this close. Even for a game.

  But I couldn’t think about it anymore as the group moved forward and tagged Derek, leaving Vanessa as the winner.

  I detangled myself from Heather and Jacob, glad the game was over.

  “That was great, everyone,” Ms. Scott said. “You all learned to move together even though it got more difficult as you added people. I was impressed with your ability to work together as a group. Nice job.” She smiled at us. “Okay, now that we’re all warmed up, please take your seats.”

  Those were four words I needed to hear.

  5

  THREE RIDERS. ONE SEAT.

  LATER THAT AFTERNOON I WALKED DOWN the main aisle of the stable and headed for the tack room. My mind was focused on only one thing—the tape for Mr. Nicholson. Even though Jas was gone, it didn’t matter. My riding skills were going to be compared to Heather’s. As if that wasn’t enough, both of our rides were being held up against everyone else who rode for the YENT at different schools across the country. My stomach flipped at the thought.

  “Don’t tack up yet,” someone called.

  I looked back and Heather motioned to me. “Mr. Conner wants us in his office first.”

  I walked over to Heather. “Probably about Julia and Alison.”

  “Prob,” Heather said. “All I want is to hear him say that they’re back on the team.”

  We walked to his office together and Heather knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” he said.

  Heather walked inside and I followed her.

  Mr. Conner was sitting behind his giant wooden desk. It was covered in papers and stacks of files.

  “Take a seat,” he said.

  Heather and I sat in the comfy office chairs across from him. I clenched my fingers together. I wanted to hear whatever he had to say, but I was also ready to start the lesson and do the tape for Mr. Nicholson.

  Mr. Conner closed a file on his desk and cleared his throat. “As I’m sure you’re already aware,” he said. “Jasmine has been expelled from Canterwood Crest. In addition, we have discovered proof that Julia and Alison did not cheat on their exam.”