The Crumbling Pyramid

Anette thought callbacks went pretty good. The only parts that were deemed worthy to get called back for were Sandy, Danny, Rizzo, Kenickie, Roger, and Frenchy. She was delighted that Gerard was called back for not only Kenickie, but Danny as well. She and Hailey both got callbacks for all three of the girl parts, and so did a few other girls. Dalton, a longtime and hardcore thespian got called back for all the guy parts, and a few others got called for at least two parts. They all had to do some acting scenes and sing a song for every character. It was trying, but Anette was pleased with herself. And now there was nothing to do but wait for Friday to come.

Thursday afternoon, Chase decided he should go run if he wanted to continue getting in shape for football, so Anette was left alone once again. She decided after much consideration to go down to the hallway where she had accidentally found Ray on Tuesday to see if he was there and willing to put up with her again. She found his company nice and comforting, more so, oddly, than any of her friends could give her, even Dawn.

And she found him in the same place, sitting with a book in his lap and headphones in his ears. He looked up when she approached, and pulled out a headphone. “I didn’t think I’d see you again privately so soon,” he said, smiling a bit. “What’s up?”

“Chase decided he needed to run, so I’m alone again.”

“And you come straight to me? Don’t you have a ton of friends?” Ray asked.

“Not a ton. And none of them have free periods when I do except Chase,” Anette explained, sitting down and pulling out some work of her own. “I won’t bother you, but I like to at least have company. It helps me focus.”

“No problem.”

And so they sat in silence. Anette had to admit it was pretty weird. She had never hung out with him before this year ever, despite knowing him (well, of him) since sixth grade. And now here she was, someone from the top of the social pyramid sitting along side a person from the bottom in a deserted hallway.

Anette decided she should work on her math homework, as she had a lot of it and it would take her a while. She lugged out her heavy textbook, a sheet of paper, a pencil, and set to work on the thirty problems they had been assigned this morning. She worked in silence through the first ten problems, but she was getting increasingly frustrated as everything started to become confusing and the numbers began to move around on the page.

She finally shut the book shut with a loud snap, making Ray jump a little. Just as Anette was putting away the book, he asked, “You okay?”

“No. I’m done with this stupid math. I can’t read anything.”

Ray frowned. “What do you mean?”

Anette hesitated. “I um… well… don’t tell anyone, okay? I have… dyslexia, and I have problems reading, especially when I get agitated. And right now, my numbers are re-arranging themselves without permission, and I didn’t really understand the problems anyways.”

“Do you want some help? I’m pretty okay at math,” Ray offered, marking his place in his book and shutting it.

“I—” Anette stopped. She almost never asked for help from the people she knew the best. But she had this feeling that she could ask Ray and he wouldn’t tease her or make her feel stupid. Maybe it was because he was a senior and all her friends were juniors. “Sure. Thank you,” Anette said, pulling her book back out and opening it with a sigh. She pointed the eraser of her pencil at problem twelve as Ray scooted closer to her to get a better look at the book. “We’re doing exponents and stuff, and I can reduce the easy problems, but what the heck do you do here? And is that a five or a seven in the first power place?”

“It’s actually a three,” Ray corrected gently, and he pulled out his own pencil and started working the problem on her page. “You see, all you really need to do is solve these out and add them, and they’re pretty simple. Two to the power of three is eight, plus five to the power of two is twenty five, so you get thirty three.”

“You sure?”

“Pretty sure.”

“How do you know this stuff?”

“I can do the math in my head. But you can always put it in your calculator or multiply it out on your paper if you need a visual.”

“Visuals are good.” Anette wrote down the work and solution to number twelve, then looked at the next problem for a good minute before asking, “What about this one?”

-

Friday seemed like the longest day of Anette’s life, or at least one of the longest. The entire day, she didn’t really pay attention to anyone or anything. Not her math class, not the graphics tutorial, not how many laps she ran, not how Dawn thought she and Tyler might have a thing, and not at all how Chase kept blowing her off for sports. Even during her free hour, she sat in a corner by the theatre doors with her headphones in and listened to music, not doing anything except worrying about the cast list.

Finally, school was out, and there was a mad rush of theatre kids to the call board to see the list. Anette scanned the crew list first, too nervous to check the cast list. Good, Beth was going to be stage manager, and she saw that Mikey, who she had seen there with Gerard, was on light crew. Then from the bottom up, she started scanning the cast list.

The chorus was composed mainly of first-time auditionees, most of them freshman. Continuing up, she saw that Hailey had made it as Rizzo, and Anette grinned, but then gasped. Gerard’s name was next to “Doody.” Her grin grew wider. Dalton was playing Danny – that was no surprise. And then Anette nearly fell over, because right next to “Sandy” was her name. She absolutely couldn’t believe it. She had gotten the lead!

Anette read the note that said for everyone in the show to come get a rehearsal schedule right away, and for the cast to get their scripts and music. Anette signed her initials on the list, accepting her role, and then ran off to backstage.

“ANETTE! WE GOT LEADS!”

Anette was practically tackled by Hailey, who was completely ecstatic. “I know! I’m so excited!” Anette cried, hugging Hailey tight.

“I can’t believe it!”

“Me neither!”

“Hey Anette, congrats. You too, Hailey,” said Dalton, nodded at them. He held the schedule and a script in his hands.

“Thanks Dalton. I knew you’d get Danny,” Anette said, smiling. He left, and she and Hailey got their required materials, chatting animatedly about their parts. They both thanked Mr. Wind for giving them the parts, and then they left.

On the way out, they ran into Gerard and Mikey, who were both looking rather dumbfounded. Anette grinned when she saw him and hugged Gerard tightly. “Gerard, you got in! I knew you would!” she practically yelled.

Gerard just laughed in a sort of oh-my-god-I-can’t-believe-it way. “I… I really thought I wasn’t gonna make it. This is insane…”

“And awesome!”

“Yeah. Hey, congrats both of you, though. Rizzo and Sandy,” Gerard said, giving them a thumbs up.

“Thanks,” Anette and Hailey said together.

“Well, see you Monday, Gerard,” Hailey said, and they parted ways.

-

“Oh, sweetheart, this is wonderful!” Anette’s mom, Shirley, said and hugged her daughter. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks, Mom,” Anette said, grinning.

“What do you want for dinner? This calls for a bit of a celebration.”

“Pasta’s good,” Anette replied. From another room, they heard Anette’s younger brother, Terrence, start to cry.

“Oh goodness, Anette, can you see what’s wrong?” Shirley asked, pulling out a pan and set it on the stove.

“Got it, Mom.” Anette left and found her brother in the living room. He was sitting and crying, and due to the fact that he was about three, there was a good chance he had been walking and fallen.

“Shh, shh, it’s okay, Terrence,” Anette cooed, picking him up. “What happened?”

“Fell,” he mumbled. He was still crying, but at a lower volume now.

Anette kissed his red knee and snuggled him. “Better?”

“Little.”

“Good. Mommy’s making dinner. You ready for pasta?”

“Yeup.”

Anette just smiled and brought him into the kitchen where the family stocked some coloring books and a lot of crayons so they could color together. Terrence was probably more precious to Anette than anything else she owned in the world. She had been helping to take care of him since he was born. After their father died, her older sister Noel was still in college, and her mom had to work full-time at the flower shop she owned to keep up with all the payments, meaning Anette was pretty much always in charge of Terrence. And because of this, Anette felt they had the most special bond in the world, as cheesy as it sounded.

While the two kids colored and Shirley cooked, Anette told her mom all about the show and who was who and how excited she was. Even after dinner and Terrence had been put to bed, they read through the first scene together, Anette marking all of her lines as she went. She went to bed late, knowing her weekend was going to comprise of lots and lots of work.