Lulu the Broadway Mouse by Jenna Gavigan

Author:Jenna Gavigan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Running Press
Published: 2018-10-08T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

TEN

AND THEN YOU SHAKE YOUR SHOULDERS LIKE this,” Maya says, shimmying her shoulders like she’s wearing bells and wants them to ring in rhythm. She and I are teaching Jayne our overture dance.

“This is fun!” Jayne says, following along as if she’s done the dance all her life.

“Isn’t she just the cutest,” I hear Harper, one of the chorus girls, say to Agnes, another chorus girl. “She’s pint-sized.”

“Pint-sized and talented,” Agnes says. “You should have seen her in understudy rehearsal. Un. Real.”

Amanda groans loudly and stomps across the stage, passing us. “Milly. I need you.”

“Come dance with us first!” Milly calls.

“Now.”

Milly looks to us and shrugs, following Amanda offstage left. Luckily, I have spectacular hearing—it’s a mouse thing—so I don’t even have to leave my dance spot to hear their conversation.

“I don’t want her here,” Amanda says.

“Who?” Milly asks.

“Her. Jayne.”

“I understand that, Amanda,” Milly says, “but you really don’t have a choice in the matter.”

“They’re always leaving me out!” Amanda blurts.

“Is that what this is about?” Milly asks, softening. “You feel left out?”

“What? No. I never said that,” Amanda says. Um… what? She literally just said that. “Everyone’s obsessed with her. It’s ridiculous. I’m the star.”

“Yes, you are. And it wouldn’t hurt you to start behaving like one.”

Amanda glares at Milly. If her eyes were laser beams, Milly would be fried.

“And you are a wannabe actress who has to take care of kids because she doesn’t have what it takes to be on Broadway.”

Milly looks at Amanda with such hurt, it’s possible her heart is actually aching. Then she scrunches her mouth up, sighs, and says, “That was an incredibly hurtful thing to say, Amanda. After bows, I expect an apology. For now, let’s focus on our show.”

“My show,” Amanda says. “Not yours, not Maya’s, not Jayne’s, and certainly not Lulu’s. Mine.”

Amanda takes her place behind the upstage door, preparing for her entrance, smiling at the other actors as though she hasn’t just spewed nastiness all over offstage left. (Not as much nastiness as the time she puked in a bucket offstage right, I’d like to remind her.)

The overture is about to finish up, and everyone “mouse hops” into the wings.

“Are you okay?” Maya asks. “What did Amanda say?”

“Nothing worth repeating,” Milly says. “Let’s just do our jobs, girls. That’s what’s important right now.”

But there’s no fooling us. Milly’s light is out again, dimmer than I’ve ever seen it. Amanda managed to hit her where it hurt most. She hit her in her dream. I forget, sometimes. Milly dreams of being on Broadway, too. She didn’t go to a fancy musical theatre conservatory because she wanted to take care of a bunch of kids. The job fell into her lap, she took it, and she’s great at it. “I’d rather work in the theatre, one way or another,” she told me once.

It’s no wonder we get along so well. We’re two peas in a wanna-be-on-Broadway pod.

“Are you sure, Milly?” Jayne asks.

“Yes. I’m sure,” Milly says, literally shaking it off, with a sigh and a smile.

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