Free High Note by Jeff Ross

door and walked back to my house, earbuds plugged into my ears, The Marriage of Figaro playing loudly, making the world and all the people in it feel like bit actors in the production of my life.

Thirteen
    A nd then it was opening night. There was a kind of electricity in the air. Everything we’d been working toward was going to come together at last.
    The dress rehearsal had gone off almost without a hitch. Amanda had sat us down that afternoon and spoken very briefly about what we could improve. We were all there, understudies included, when she came to me. “Hailey, you’ve proven to us all that we absolutely made the right choice for Barbarina,” she said. “If you perform as you did last night, you will find glowing reviews in the morning.”
    “Thank you,” was all I could manage. Denise had squeezed my arm a little. Then I’d spotted Crissy across the room, watching. She had her arms crossed, and I could tell she wanted to leave. But she couldn’t. She had to stand there and listen.
    Until that moment, Crissy wouldn’t have known how well the dress rehearsal had gone because she’d skipped the entire week. Apparently, she’d come down with a cold. I didn’t know whether to believe this or not. On the one hand, it would have been poetic justice if Crissy had actually caught Cleary’s cold. But I had a feeling it was just another lie.
    I really hoped that Crissy had missed the rehearsals because she felt bad about what she’d attempted to do.
    * * *
    Everyone was wishing us good luck as the members of the orchestra took their spots. I peeked around the curtain and found the entire hall full, right up to the top of the second balcony.
    Sean gave me a bump on the arm.
    “Nervous?”
    “That’s the wrong thing to ask someone,” I said.
    “Well, are you?”
    I let the curtain fall back. “I wasn’t until you came up here and started asking me if I was.”
    “Don’t be nervous,” he said.
    Which was incredibly useful.
    “That’s easy for you to say.”
    “Nerves are the very root of suffering. They arrive as one is worrying about the future or concerned about the past. They happen when you’re not thinking of the moment at all. If you get nervous, you will just get through this performance. You won’t really be a part of it.” He grabbed me by my giant poofy shoulders. “Be in the moment.”
    “You are tiring,” I said. “I mean, honestly and truly exhausting.”
    It looked like he was going to kiss me.
    “What are you doing?” I said.
    “Looking deeply into your eyes.”
    “Why?”
    “I want to see if you’re in the moment.”
    Luckily, Mrs. Sturgeon called for the chorus, and Sean had to take off before things got any weirder.
    It was strange to hear the chorus warming up without me. Normally, I’d have been right there in the middle of it. Instead, I stood watching, as though it was some group I’d had something to do with long ago.
    As though I’d moved on.
    They sounded great once they were out on the stage. Crissy looked miserable though. Her face, when she wasn’t singing, fell in the same way as that grumpy-cat meme on the Internet.
    It broke my heart to see her like that, but it was sort of funny too. She looked like an entitled little kid who hadn’t gotten what she wanted. She was pouting, angry, and trying to make everyone around her feel the same way.
    Before I knew it was happening, the lights went down and the orchestra began to play the overture.
    People moved behind me in the dimness. There was an energy in the backstage area I’d never felt before. As though everyone was on the verge of exploding. The orchestra sounded amazing. And then it was time for the first singing part, and the performers slipped onstage.
    I watched from behind the curtain until it was my time to go on. Of course, I stepped slightly off to one side and was blinded by a spotlight. I stumbled a little, corrected myself and refocused.
    It’s incredible being on a stage, singing with an