Understudy Read Online Free PDF Page A

I step behind it, I glance back to see who I kicked a minute ago. Hopefully it’s not someone who will snitch on me.
    Derek’s sitting against the wall, with his knees pulled up and he’s sketching the outline of the stage on a notepad. My heart goes cold when his eyes dart upward and see me looking at him.
    “Sorry I kicked you,” I say.
    He turns back to his drawing. “Have fun.”

 
     
     
    Day twenty-seven of the 20 Minute Abs DVD. The moves are no longer as nightmarishly hard as they used to be, but I’m still in horrible amounts of pain by the thirteenth minute. I squeeze out the last set of reverse crunches and collapse on the floor before the credits roll. I should sue this guy with his huge muscles and peppy smile for his false claims on getting perfect abs in just thirty days. My sad sack of stomach muscles look exactly the same as they did a month ago.
    The only great thing about this DVD is that it wakes me up for school better than a cold shower. In first period theater arts class, I sit at my desk in the back and doodle in the margins of my script. Although auditions were open to every senior at Lawson High, most of the members of the play are in Ms. Barlow’s theater class. So lessons have been dropped in lieu of extra play rehearsal.
    The stagehands and me—their fearless leader—hang out in the back of the class and bullshit for ninety minutes. Derek isn’t in this class, thank god. Greg drags his chair over to my desk and rests his chin on my shoulder.
    “What’s up, bosslady?”
    “Not a thing.” I slide over in my desk to knock Greg’s head off me. Just because we’ve made out twice now does not mean something’s going on between us, and he needs to know that. He probably won’t care though, because he’s on the verge of becoming a man whore, following in the footsteps of his mega hot older brother, Brian. Brian graduated two years ago and Margot still hasn’t given up her goal of sleeping with him.
    “So, should we be uh, you know,” he says, pointing to the script on his desk. “Working on this play?”
    “I guess.” Truth is, I haven’t quite recovered from the roller coaster ride my emotions went through when I found out I didn’t get Gretchen’s role. At first I was pissed, then stoked because I’d get to work with Derek, and now I’m forced to avoid him at all costs because he’s some kind of angry psycho. More than anything though, I’m embarrassed at how I let myself get carried away with fantasies of him. That is the last time I will ever get excited to see a new guy in school.
    With Greg’s insistence, we work on ideas for props and costumes. He writes everything in his notebook, organized by scene and character. As the smartest guy in this class, he should be the manager, not me.
    I mention this to Ms. Barlow after class and it doesn’t go over very well. “I’m starting to wonder if you care about me at all,” she says, taking off her glasses and wiping them with her rainbow colored quilted vest. “Not only as an educator, but as a relative. You seem so keen on hurting my feelings lately.”
    “I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing.”
    “You can start by memorizing your lines as understudy.”
    I roll my eyes. “That won’t be necessary. Gwen loves being Gretchen.”
    “Memorize them anyway, okay?” The two minute bell rings, warning me that I’d better get to my next class. Aunt Barlow ushers me out the door and into the hallway. “By the way,” she says as if she just remembered something. “Since Derek isn’t in theater, he agreed to meet with you after school to get started on prop construction. You can bring the other stagehands as well.”
    A lump forms in my throat. “Yeah, okay.” I rush to my next class, making a mental note to track down Greg and the others at lunch and ask them to stay after school.
     

     
    Margot saves me a seat at our regular lunch table. I find Greg sitting with the