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so good. Mr. Acton brings up a chair and starts to talk about the storyline of the ballet. I try to keep all the characters straight. There’s the Duke of Athens, who is getting married. There are two guys and two girls; one couple is eloping, and the other is chasing them. Oberon and Titania are the King and Queen of the Fairies, but they’re in the middle of a huge fight. Finally, there’s a troupe of actors doing a play within the play, making fun of everything that’s going down. All these people are in the forest, either going to or running away from the Duke’s wedding. Then there’s Puck. Oberon asks him to make a love potion, but Puck messes it up and gets all the wrong people in love with each other. It takes the rest of the dance to straighten things out.
    Sounds perfect for me.
    Mr. Acton talks about his vision for the piece and the direction he wants to go with it. Then he gives a speech about how each actor needs to bring “vitality, honesty and freshness” to their role. He gives everybody a copy of the play to read after class, then asks the dancers to experiment with different types of movement that might suit their character. They start to move around the room, and their eyes get kind of unfocused. This is so weird. Some people are playing around with jerky hops, others are waving their arms around in silly romantic port de bras, and some are simply moving about. All the dancers are totally getting into character. And Rick is amazing as Puck. He makes all these quick little motions with his hands, and he jumps up and down, and he hides. He’s even started poking the other dancers, just like Puck does. He really is a sprite. Watching these dancers create something from nothing is amazing.
    But it’s also terrifying. I don’t know what to do. I’m used to learning steps, then adding interpretation at the end. In company class, everything is backward, and I feel like an idiot, standing around watching. All of a sudden, Puck pokes me from behind. I swing around, kind of mad because I was startled, and Puck is hiding behind one of the other dancers, waggling his eyebrows at me. Without thinking, I go for him. He dashes around to the other side of the barre. We do this kind of mirror thing, poking at each other from opposite sides of the barre, and then he dashes away again. I leap after him, only to skid to an abrupt stop. Puck’s hiding behind Mr. Acton, who’s standing there staring at me, arms crossed. Game over.
    But then he smiles, and Rick comes out from behind him. “Not bad, kid,” says Rick as he walks away.
    All I can do is stare after him. Wow .
    I bet we could do this with our year-end performance. Odette always knows everything, so she can lead the discussion about vision and direction and everything, and then we can all try getting into character for our parts. And I can’t wait to tell my friends about the warm-up. There’s stuff we could copy. This is going to be great.

Six
    I’m late and have to run to catch the school bus the next morning, plunking down in the empty seat in front of Cam and Jeremy just before the bus lumbers away from the curb. That’s what happens when you stay up half the night reading a play.
    “You missed breakfast,” says Cam. “Here.” He hands me a greasy fried-egg sandwich, still warm.
    “Thanks,” I say, licking the ketchup that’s already running down my hand. “I think.”
    “Where were you?”
    “Slept in,” I mumble, up to my elbows in drippy sandwich. “Up late.”
    “Got your English essay?” asks Jeremy.
    “Darn! I forgot.”
    Odette’s sitting in the seat across from me, alone and studying, as usual. Without taking her eyes from her book, she says, “So, big stars don’t have to do homework anymore?” Then she looks up and makes a face at my sloppy sandwich. “You are so disgusting!”
    I ignore her and lick my fingers. “Thanks, Cam. Listen, company rehearsal is amazing. It’s so different from ours. Everybody’s