Nutcracked by Susan Adrian

Nutcracked by Susan Adrian

Author:Susan Adrian [Adrian, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2017-09-26T00:00:00+00:00


I can barely keep my face straight as I lug the heavy bag carefully to the truck, then up the stairs at the stadium. I still don’t know if I did the right thing, but it’s done. I have him.

I ignore Joey, and she mostly ignores me. At least she brought dinner this time. Noah isn’t here yet, so I sit and wait, the dance bag held tightly between my feet.

When he comes, I practically leap off the bench, waving.

“What are you doing?” Joey asks sourly. “Are you crazy?”

“Stay here,” I say. “I’m going to talk to Noah.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I don’t have a boyfriend to meet,” Joey snaps. “Though I might tell Mom.”

I ignore her and heft the bag over my shoulder. I move to a bench across the aisle so she can’t possibly hear.

Noah looks amused when he comes up the stairs, a half grin on his face. He pushes one hand up through his hair. “Joey again, huh? I should bring P.J. next time so they can hang out together. Did you think of something?”

“Better.” I bounce on the bench until he sits next to me, blocking Joey’s view. Then I stealthily unzip the bag and point to the box nestled on top. “I had the perfect chance. I took him.”

His face wipes blank. “Wow.” He swallows and stares at the box, the writing. He leans over to see it better. “I can’t believe you really took it. Wow!” He looks up and smiles a little, his eyebrows high. “So…what are you going to do now?”

I zip up the bag again, my fingers shaking. “I have to figure out what to do when I go there. But you’ll help me, right?”

“Right.” He clears his throat. “Do you have any ideas? How to get him out of the glass?”

I’m quiet. The quarterback throws a long pass, and Noah’s brother, number 62, goes out for it. He catches it, holds it for the shortest of seconds, then fumbles. The ball rolls away, and Dad swears. I hear a groan from the stands too—Noah’s dad.

“I was thinking,” I say, “that I need to break out the soldiers first. In the show, the soldiers come out before you ever see the Nutcracker. Like the front lines? They could help, or distract the mice or something….”

He drums his fingers on the bench, in rhythm. Tappity-tappity-tap. It reminds me of Justin. “That’s good. Yeah. But how do you get them out?”

“They’re in a big glass case,” I say. “No latch. I think there must be some magical way of opening it. But he said ‘one battle ended’ when he was asking me for help. So that’s what I need to do, right? Let the soldiers out and end the battle with the mice.”

He frowns. “Okay. How do the soldiers come out in the ballet? Maybe it’s the same.”

I close my eyes and try to picture it. The battle scene begins after Clara has shrunk and the tree-growing music has been playing, up and up, to a crescendo.



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