The Ghost Sonata by Allison Jennifer

Author:Allison, Jennifer [Allison, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 2010-02-28T22:00:00+00:00

25

The Sight-Reading Competition

Mrs. Mendelovich hurried toward Gilda and Wendy, clicking across the floor in high-heeled shoes. She wore green tights that called attention to a pair of surprisingly athletic legs. As always, Gilda observed that Mrs. Mendelovich had an uncanny way of looking at once ancient and youthful.

“Geeelda! Thank God you are here! They are calling the first performer in just a few minutes!”

“But Wendy and I have plenty of time, don’t we?”

“You are official page-turner!”

“I’m Wendy’s official page-turner.”

“Oh, no. Other performers need page-turning, too!”

“Other performers?” Gilda instantly felt her stomach tie itself in several knots.

Professor Heslop approached with her clipboard in hand. “Is this our page-turner?”

“Here she is!” Mrs. Mendelovich placed her hands firmly on Gilda’s shoulders. “Geelda is best in the business,” she added, causing Wendy to have a sudden coughing fit.

“You’ve got a long job ahead of you today, my dear,” said Professor Heslop with a note of gallows humor. “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.”

Neither would I. Gilda’s palms turned sweaty with the full realization that she would be expected to turn pages not just for Wendy, but for every one of the performers in the competition. Wendy always gave her a signal when it was time to turn a page, but other people would simply expect her to read the dense music and turn the page at precisely the right moment. How in the world was she going to pull this off?

Then Gilda had a happier thought: she would be onstage with Julian while he was performing! The idea filled her with giddy excitement and temporary amnesia about the appalling situation in which she found herself.

“Omigod,” Wendy whispered as soon as Mrs. Mendelovich and Professor Heslop had moved along to greet other students. “This is awful.”

“I know. On the positive side, I bet I can throw the other performers a few curveballs.”

“Cur veballs?”

“If other people screw up because of my page-turning, it’ll make you look good.”

“Gilda, if you’re that bad, they’ll pull you off the stage before it’s my turn.”

“But I’m not that bad at page-turning.”

“To be fair, you had improved the last time we practiced.”

Suddenly, Gilda’s mind was a thousand miles away from the mundane subject of page-turning. If she had been a cat, she would have puffed herself up to three times her normal size and hissed, because she had just spied something that made her feel like clawing someone.

On a velvet bench in the reception area, Jenny Pickles and Julian sat next to each other. The two appeared to be deeply absorbed in conversation: Julian turned his body completely toward Jenny and gestured with broad enthusiasm. Jenny simply sat with her legs crossed, swinging a foot adorned with a delicately pointy shoe.

He’s telling her a story, Gilda thought. She felt something very unpleasant—a hot, liquid drop of jealousy that burned the lining of her stomach. She noticed with annoyance that Jenny looked cute. There was no denying it: her vibrant red hair looked fantastic after using hot rollers. What in

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