Free Breaking Big by Penny Draper Page A

if they’re mad, if it wasn’t enough to keep the role, well, that’s the way it goes. But at least I tried.

Thirteen
    Cam and Jer catch me in the hall and pull me into a small studio. “That was awesome, man!” Cam says.
    “Thanks! You know I couldn’t have done it without you, right?”
    “The look on Quince’s face! It was priceless!” Jer exclaims.
    “Yeah, and when you decorated his hair with the streamers? He couldn’t believe it was happening!” Cam doubles up with laughter.
    “The one I really liked was when Oberon couldn’t find the flower. He was trying so hard to be kingly, but up close you could tell that he was saying, What the hell ?” Jer casts his eyes skyward and sighs. “It was beautiful.”
    I don’t say much. It’s more fun to listen to them do a postmortem on the prank. But much as I want the moment to last, duty calls.
    “I gotta go,” I say. “Mr. Acton’s called an immediate debriefing.”
    Cam laughs. “You think? This debrief will be historic!”
    “What do you think they’ll do to you?” asks Jer in a worried voice. “I mean, the rest of the dancers have got to be mad.”
    “All I know is that they can’t make me feel any worse than I felt before I did it,” I say. “So… whatever. I’ll roll with it.” I take a deep breath and go into the studio.
    * * *
    “What he did was insane! He threw everything off!”
    “I thought I’d throw up, I laughed so hard!”
    “Bellamy, you can’t let him get away with this!”
    “Bottom, I really like your new look…”
    “Now the show is going to be totally ruined!”
    “Quiet! Be quiet!”
    It takes a long minute for everybody to shut up. Mr. Acton, Mr. Colson and Miss Amelia are all standing at the front of the large rehearsal studio. Finally, there is quiet.
    “So,” says Mr. Acton in a calm voice, “are you all awake now?”
    The company dancers frown and look at one another.
    “Yes, awake. Yesterday this production was on life support. Today there’s enough energy in this room to start a nuclear reaction. I’d say I prefer the latter, although something in between would be even better.”
    Nobody speaks.
    “We blamed Puck for not being good enough, but it’s Puck who figured out how to pull this piece together. Don’t any of you forget that.” Mr. Acton takes in every single one of us in his stare. “That said, today was a once-only. A wake-up call. Now we need to channel all this energy and get to work. Titania, in Act 1 I need you to…”
    It’s the most intense debrief I’ve ever been in. Mr. Acton goes through every step, every phrase, every character. Inevitably, he gets to me. “Robin, let’s keep the bucking stool—it works with your character. But I noticed that in all the confusion, you left out your final double tour . Don’t let that happen again.”
    “No, sir,” I reply smartly. But inside I groan. I knew he’d notice, but I was hoping he’d say the ending looked better without it. Fat chance. As we all finally leave the studio to go to dinner, I get shoulder punches and back thumps from the other dancers. I’m in, but I’m not done.
    I now have just one day to master that stupid jump, so right after dinner it’s back to the studio for me. I’ve been at it for about half an hour when I see a shadow pass by the door, then back up. Someone peeks in. I groan. Odette. And she’s coming inside. Just what I need.
    “What are you doing here?” Odette frowns.
    “What does it look like? I’m practicing.”
    “Why?” asks Odette. She actually looks confused.
    “What’s so weird about practicing? You do it all the time.” I wish she’d go.
    “Yeah, but I’m a dancer. You’re an idiot.” She sniffs, turns to go, then whirls back. “That, that…circus you caused today? It was disgusting. Not that you care, but somebody could have been hurt. And it looked ridiculous.”
    “I’m hardly going to do that in performance. Not even you could believe that,” I shoot back. “It