Before It Rains

The completion of all the show’s blocking took longer than Mr. Samuels thought it would, but by the end of the next week it was roughly finished.

The following Tuesday when Mr. Samuels came into rehearsal, there was a very petite, young woman with him. She had olive colored skin and dark hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was wearing black sweatpants and a black tank top to match. She smiled at us.

“Hey all you hooligans, quiet down! This is Alison. She’s going to perform the miracle of choreographing for all of you. Now listen up because the schedule for this week is going to be different…” He kept going, and I proceeded to find out that I’d be rehearsing every day, as always.

I hadn’t really been listening to everyone else’s calls for the week, so I was confused when I walked into rehearsal on Wednesday and found a grand total of one person in the auditorium – Jeremy. I joined him in the front row.

“Hey, where is everyone?” I asked him.

“Everyone?”

“Like, as in actors and actresses?”

He looked at me like I had four heads, maybe five. “Today’s private rehearsal. It’s just us.”

“You’re kidding.” Private rehearsal with Jeremy? What could they possibly have us do that we’d need…

Mr. Samuels came into the auditorium then with Alison. Instead of coming down to the stage, he took out a key ring and opened a closet at the back of the auditorium. “Hey, you two, you want to come help us with these?” He started pulling gymnastics mats out from the closet. Alison took one and carried it down the aisle to the stage.

I looked at Jeremy, and he shrugged back. We each grabbed a mat and aligned them with Alison’s on the stage floor.

“Okay, today I want to nail down one of the coolest things in the play,” Alison told us. “And that is the Oklahoma hello.”

“No way,” Jeremy said. “We’re doing that?” I was surprised as well. I thought we’d just add something in place of it, but instead, Jeremy was going pick me up and flip me backwards through the air. Holy crap.

“Okay, Will,” Alison said, not knowing our real names. “He’ll be here, and Annie is stage right of him. Annie spreads out her arms like so,” she said, demonstrating. I did the same. “And Will puts his arms here and here…good.” One of Jeremy’s arms was on my stomach and the other one was behind my knees.

“Annie holds onto his right shoulder…” I did. “Can you pick her up? Upside down?” I squealed as he picked me up off my feet and swung me upside down into the air. “Now flip her back to the ground,” Alison told him.

“To which side?” Jeremy asked.

“Any side would be nice, but could you please get a move on? I’m practically dying here,” I said in a strained voice. All the blood was rushing to my head as he eased me down.

“You’ll want to put her down so that she’s facing front,” Alison said. “Now let’s try that again.

The second time before I even got upside down I landed hard on the mats.

“You have to grab onto his shoulder, otherwise, that’ll happen. He can’t do all the work. Try again,” Alison coaxed. We did it, and got it right. Slow motion, but I didn’t fall and I flipped in the air. We worked on doing it faster and faster for the next forty-five minutes. When we had finally executed it fast without falling, Mr. Samuels clapped his hands.

“This is going to be terrific! Now just add in the last part and we’ll be good to go!” Mr. Samuels chimed.

“What last part?” I asked. How much more complicated could this actually get?

“Have you guys ever done that trust fall thing?” Alison asked us.

“I’m not doing that with him! He’ll drop me!” I complained. Truth be told, I didn’t know whether he would or not, but come on, the kid hit me in the head with a soccer ball!

“He won’t,” Mr. Samuels said from the front row.

“Try it.”

He put his arms out, and I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the impact with the floor. It never came. I opened my eyes and Jeremy propelled me back up with his arms and crossed them over his chest, giving me a ‘so there’ look. I guess I deserved it.

“So it’s close to that,” Alison told us. “Only, you’ll do it one handed, and she’ll fall horizontally. We did that several times, which was easy compared to the first move. “Now do the flip into the fall. One right after the other.” We spent another twenty minutes on that and then stopped so we could catch our breath.

“So,” Mr. Samuels said, and I was pretty sure I knew what was coming. “When you’re holding Sam down there, you know you’re going to have to kiss her…”

Jeremy raised his eyebrows. “Now I do.”

“And then after you kiss her, hold her down there until the applause dies down and then help her back up to standing.”

“Do we have to practice that now?” I asked. Please say no, please, please say no.

“No, maybe next week, but I want to see this whole track done perfectly before you leave.” At that moment, the auditorium door opened at the back and Max was there. I shielded my eyes from the stage light to look out at him.

“Hey, Sam, Austin has a math test tomorrow and so…” Oh, man, he was going to need as much help studying as he could get.

“Hold on a sec, wait for me,” I told him. I looked back at Jeremy. “Ready?”

“One last time.”

I backwards flipped to perfection and Max let out a little “Oh!” Then I raced down the aisle, grabbing my bag on the way and saying goodbye, and walked out the doors with Max right behind me.

“That was so… cool!” he exclaimed.

“Thanks.” It was cool.

***********

Mr. Samuels got a call last block on Friday afternoon, and told me that right after class I was to go straight to principal’s office. As far as I knew, I hadn’t done anything wrong, but I hurried over as soon as class was dismissed and the secretary let me into his office.

When I opened the door, I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Layla?” I screeched. My best friend was standing ten feet away from me at Mr. Borough’s desk with a suitcase in one hand. She dropped her baggage and ran to me and we hugged.

“I’ve missed you so much!”

“What are you doing here?”

Mr. Boroughs cleared his throat and I reluctantly turned to him. “At public schools, this is Columbus Day weekend, and we have agreed to allow your friend to stay for the weekend and fly back on Monday.”

“Really?” I squealed again.

“Really.”

“Oh my gosh, thank you so so so so much!” I yelled.

“Why don’t you take Layla up to your room? And she has to follow the same rules you do when you’re here, Samantha.”

“Sam,” I corrected, grabbing Layla’s bag in one hand and her hand in my other. “Come on!” And I pulled her out of the office.