Kate the Chemist: Dragons vs. Unicorns by Kate Biberdorf

Author:Kate Biberdorf [Biberdorf, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2020-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

SLIP SLIDING AWAY

Vapor (noun). A gas formed by boiling a liquid. Like if you boil water and watch the steam hover above the pot.

THE ACTORS SAT IN THE FIRST two rows of the auditorium waiting for me to tell them the schedule.

Only I couldn’t help them. Not when all the information had been crossed out! I didn’t have time to figure out who had played this joke on me. The neurons in my brain had to fire speedy quick to find a solution.

“Kate!” said Avery. “Everyone’s ready.”

“Hold on one second!” I called out. “Just have to get something!”

Mrs. Hansberry had written the schedule with a ballpoint pen in her elegant cursive handwriting. As quickly as possible, I ran a pencil over the back of the page to get the raised letters to appear.

Then I pulled out a little mirror that I had in my bag. When I looked in the mirror, the letters faced in the right direction.

Yes, I could read the schedule now! Victory!

Sprinting up front, I began explaining what was happening when. “The main dragon roles should go over their lines in the green room.” I paused, searching around the auditorium for a green room. The seats were brown. The walls were beige. There was nothing green in sight. “Um, what’s the green room?”

“You don’t know what a green room is?” asked Jeremy in a shocked voice.

I bit my lip. Everyone could definitely tell I didn’t know what I was doing.

“A green room is where actors hang out before a show,” explained Avery. “At my dads’ theater, it’s large with a snack machine.”

“Um, okay.” My stomach twisted. How could I help direct if I didn’t even know the basics? “So the main unicorns should go over their lines in the back rows, while the dragon and the unicorn dance teams will work on their choreography onstage. And if you’re playing a bunch of smaller roles, go meet in the prop room.”

As everyone started to leave, Avery held up her hand. “There’s something important I’ve got to do.” She opened her bag and rummaged around inside. Then she grabbed a bottle of glue with one hand and lifted it out so she could get to something underneath. A bag of Starbursts. “Catch!” she said, tossing out dozens of candies.

“You can do that anytime,” said Jeremy, snagging four or five fruit chews, and Avery smiled widely.

Some of the actors who didn’t get any looked bummed. Especially Birdie.

“Next time, maybe you should hand them out,” I said. “So everyone gets one.” My eyes met Birdie’s.

“It was just for fun,” said Phoenix. “Why are you making such a big deal about it?”

“It’s good to be fair,” said Birdie quietly.

Wow. I never thought being assistant director would be this hard.

While dragons and unicorns ran through dance steps, I sat in the front row, figuring out how to get the dragons to breathe smoke. I wanted it to look as if the smoke curled right out the dragons’ mouths. But how?

Up onstage, thumping feet echoed through the theater.

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