Peppermint Cocoa Crushes by Laney Nielson

Author:Laney Nielson [Nielson, Laney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Published: 2017-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Tweleve

PREPARATION

“I can’t believe you blew off practice yesterday. You didn’t even text me.” I stood on the stage, looking down at Karly, who sat in the first row, pulling off her boots. “We needed that time to practice.” I wasn’t yelling, but I also wasn’t exactly using what teachers call an “inside voice.”

“I know.” Karly pulled up her leg warmers. “But I also needed to practice for Quiz Bowl. Sasha, it’s one week from this Saturday.”

“But you weren’t even practicing.”

“What are you talking about?” Karly lifted herself onto the stage.

“I saw the picture on Instagram. You weren’t studying. You were on a date. With Ahmed.”

“A date? I wish. Sasha, we were taking a five-minute break. Do you have any idea how tiring it is to run through a thousand questions and try to solve a bunch of math problems in seconds?” She stared at me. “No, you don’t.”

“Girls.” Ms. Kumar stood in the back of the auditorium. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” Karly and I said at the exact same time. Normally we would’ve laughed or said “jinx” when that happened, but instead we glared at each other.

“This is supposed to be fun. Remember?” Ms. Kumar sat down in the second row. “Why don’t you show me what you have so far?”

Just then Kevin barged through the auditorium doors, ran down the center aisle, and jumped onto the stage. “I’m here!” He did a pivot turn and faced the audience.

Ms. Kumar laughed. “You sure know how to make an entrance.”

“You’re not doing that during the show, right?” Karly asked. I was thinking the same thing but instead I said, “Nice.”

Karly raised her left eyebrow at me. “Nice? Really?”

I took a deep breath and turned on the music. We ran through the routine but Karly and I bumped into each other doing a turn and Kevin and I were still struggling to reach the high notes of the song. When we finished, Ms. Kumar offered a few suggestions (mostly about my and Kevin’s singing) and then we tried it again.

“Better,” Ms. Kumar said when we finished.

“It would be even better if you gave me back the hat.” Kevin bumped my arm with his. “You’ve got to admit, it would give my costume just the spark it needs.”

“Spark?” Karly and I said at the same time in the same skeptical tone. This time, we both cracked a smile.

“You two have no vision. You need to shake it up,” he said as he did a shimmy with his shoulders.

“I’ve got to go.” Karly climbed off the stage. “Quiz Bowl meeting.”

“Now?” I said. “But I thought we could work on our costumes.” We still needed to glue the candy cane appliqués onto the white leotards.

“Sorry.” She zipped up her coat and swung her backpack over her shoulder. “I can’t be late.”

“How about—” I was about to ask Kevin if he wanted to work on it when Ryan burst through the door.

“Hi, Ryan.” Ms. Kumar waved from her seat in the second row. “You ready to do your run-through?”

“Sorry, Sash.

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