Free Play It Again by Laura Dower

the sky she made a wish for that … times two … with sugar on top … crossing her fingers just to be sure. Superstitions couldn’t be proved; Madison knew that. But they didn’t hurt.
    “Please don’t let me mess up,” she said aloud to the sky. “Please don’t let me miss any cues or drop any props. Please let The Wiz be the best show ever.”
    By the time the dress rehearsal started, she was readier than ready to watch that wish come true.
    “Let’s get this show on the road!” Mr. Gibbons yelled. He motioned up to the mezzanine to Drew and Wayne, who were running the lights, to begin. “Is everyone almost ready back there?”
    This was the true test. Everyone always says a bad dress rehearsal is good news for the real show. Madison wanted to believe that both could be fantastic.
    Mariah rushed into the dressing area. “Has anyone seen Toto—I mean, Chocolate?”
    Mr. Gibbons had brought in his own dog, Chocolate, to be in the early scenes as Dorothy’s dog, Toto. The poor animal had only been at one rehearsal so far and had been so traumatized by the lights and the music that she’d peed onstage.
    A low barking noise was coming from behind one of the curtains at the far end of the stage. Mariah heard it first.
    “Bad girl, Chocolate!” she exclaimed as she retrieved the mutt from between a heavy fold of fabric. The dog had gotten tangled up back in the curtains and was shaking like a windup toy.
    A missing Toto is not a good omen, Madison thought, crossing her fingers again. She went back into the dressing room.
    “Hey, Finnster!” Hart cried as Madison entered the dressing room.
    He was decked out in a purple flowing cape and carried his mask in hand. The mask, constructed out of papier-mâché by the ninth-grade art club, was twice the size of Hart’s real head. It was more like a monster head really, with giant sunken holes for his eyes and red feathers at the top that looked like flames shooting out. It was attached to a broom handle so Hart could hold it up in front of his face during the early Oz scenes—just before Dorothy and the others discover that The Wizard is a big faker.
    Egg was standing nearby. “Hey, Hart, that’s a good way to get girls.”
    “That’s real funny, Tin Boy head,” Hart said as he held up the mask. “Hey, what do you think, Finnster?”
    Just as he said that, the mask came detached from its handle.
    “Hart!” Madison yelped. She leaned forward and caught it.
    “Whoa,” Hart said. “That was close. But now what am I supposed to do? Lift it up like this—”
    “No, let’s fix it.” Madison ran over to the prop shelves and retrieved some twine and duct tape that other people in the crew left around just in case anything needed to be tied up or reattached. The mask was repaired instantly.
    “Madison, can you help me, too?” Fiona said.
    On the other side of the prop closet, Fiona was searching for her witch hat, which had been mysteriously misplaced.
    “It was here a little while ago,” Madison told her. “I double-checked my entire list. Are you sure you didn’t pick it up?”
    Fiona looked frazzled. “No, I swear. Well, maybe. Oh, I don’t remember. It’s so busy back here and—”
    “Is someone missing a witch hat?” Mariah said, walking toward Fiona.
    Madison breathed a sigh of relief. “Don’t take it off, Fiona, okay?”
    Fiona really could be the world’s biggest space case.
    Peeking through the curtains, Madison could see Mr. Gibbons hunched over the piano with Mr. and Mrs. Montefiore. They were reviewing the order of song numbers. Mr. Gibbons had rearranged and shortened the Wiz tunes with the music department. For now the piano played, but for the real show, they were adding drums, cymbals, and a trumpet. Those band members just weren’t expected at rehearsal today.
    Madison had set up a bench with a script on it so she could easily cue missed lines. She saw Ivy leaning over the script, flipping pages to find her parts.
    “Ivy,