Tara Takes the Stage by Tamsin Lane

Author:Tamsin Lane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada

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Tara goes to the audition.

Tara goes to the wedding.

Supporting Actors

I couldn’t believe I was at Preeti and Sanjit’s big, flashy wedding! The one that everyone in town—everyone who loved Bollywood—was talking about. Sure, maybe I wasn’t at the ceremony, but everyone knows the party after the ceremony is the best part of weddings.

The rooms at the hotel where it was being held had been sold out for weeks, and as we’d pulled our catering van in, we saw a huge lineup of limousines in the half-circle driveway. Limousines mean celebrities, and I could not wait to see who was in our little town to help Preeti and Sanjit celebrate their big day.

Especially since we weren’t just there to bring the food: Preeti herself had invited the four of us—Mom, Dad, Rohan, and me—to be her special guests at the wedding reception, too! I’d been practicing my bhangra dance moves all week.

But before we could join the party, we had work to do. While the ceremony was still going on in another room, Rohan and I were busy in the reception hall, setting up the sweet table. We arranged everything carefully on the gigantic silver platters that were built up on gold fabric-covered tiers. My mandala cookies (which I did not complain about decorating, because they were for PREETI CHANDRAN’S WEDDING) were arranged around the bottom, then came the sugary samosas, and then on top were all our special laddus, jalebis, and barfis (which, trust me, are a lot better than they sound!).

While we were setting those up, the hotel’s caterers were setting up the zillions of hot food stations, and my parents were putting the final touches on the wedding cake, which took up its own table because, obviously, it was a VBD.

Dad had totally outdone himself, creating a layered, toasted-coconut-flavored cake that looked like it had an embroidered scarf (matching Preeti’s stunning red wedding sari) draped over it. The “scarf” was made of fondant with icing rosettes, edible beads, and even real gold leaf. It was a piece of art that was almost too beautiful to eat. Almost.

I had gotten tears in my eyes when I’d first seen it and was so proud of my dad. Preeti was going to love it when she saw it, because anyone would be lucky to have a stunning cake like that at her wedding.

Not two minutes after we finished setting up and making everything look perfect, we knew the wedding party was coming when we heard the roar of the big crowd out in the hall getting louder and louder.

The servers came forward with platters of champagne and sparkling juice, ready to greet the guests and the just-married couple.

I looked down at my new outfit—an emerald-green-and-gold sari—to make sure it was arranged properly and that I hadn’t spilled anything on it. When I’d gone shopping with my mom for the occasion, I had planned to buy a western-style party dress, but when we got to the mall and started looking, I realized that for Preeti’s blockbuster wedding, a traditional sari was the right choice.

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