“Gary,” Meg said, “I think it would be nice to let her go.”
Gary frowned, thinking it over. “Okay,” he said. “Meg’s right. Shakespeare wanted everyone to see his plays. And you’re investing your money back into the Summerlost Festival, which is good. But next time you have to ask two weeks before.”
“Thank you,” I said to Meg as Gary turned toward his office.
“You work in the costume shop every day for free,” Meg said. “The least I can do is make sure you get to see one of the shows.”
24.
“Hey, Miles,” Leo said. “Looking good.”
The trumpet had sounded for people to leave the courtyard and take their seats inside the theater for the evening performance. I turned around and there was Miles, wearing a button-up shirt with his favorite jeans. He’d even combed his hair. His timing was perfect.
“Are you going to the play or something?” Leo asked.
I shifted my basket of programs to my other arm and waited. This was Miles’s part, and he knew his lines. I could see that he was having a hard time keeping from grinning.
“Yeah,” Miles said. “So are you.”
“What?”
I held out the tickets. “We’re all going to As You Like It,” I said. “I got you a ticket.”
I hadn’t been able to think of a good way to leave it on Leo’s windowsill (what if it blew away? what if he didn’t see it?) so I’d decided to do it like this.
Leo didn’t seem to understand. “We still have to help clean up,” he said.
“Not tonight,” Miles said. “Cedar talked to Gary.”
“You did?” Leo asked. “Really? And he said yes?”
“Yup,” I said. “But we have to go now. And we probably won’t have time to change out of our costumes.”
Leo’s mouth and eyebrows shot up in a smile. The sunset turned his brown hair orange and his eyelashes golden. “You are kidding me.”
“I’m not.”
I gave one ticket to Leo and one to Miles.
The sun was behind the pine trees now, winking at us. For once, we were going inside with everyone else to see the play. We’d be part of the Summerlost Festival in a different way. I put my hand on the wooden railing of the theater as we climbed up the stairs and listened to the sound of many feet walking on the old boards. A smiling usher showed us to our seats. “Enjoy the show,” she said, and I said, “I will.”
“Here we are,” Leo said. We slid down along the bench. Leo, me, Miles.
“Did you read that synopsis I gave you?” I whispered to Miles as we sat down.
“Um,” Miles said.
“He’ll catch on even if he didn’t,” Leo said. “It’s a lot easier to understand when you’re watching it instead of reading it.”
“Everyone always says that,” Miles muttered.
“We’re going to be so tired when we give the tour tomorrow,” Leo whispered in my ear. “But it’s going to be worth it.”
I don’t know what it was, but my heart started racing. Being at a play with a boy? The way the lights went down but the stars were about to come up?
Blue and green leaves hung down in ribbons from dark archways on the stage. The slightest breeze sent them moving. They were meant to be the forest of Arden, but before the actors came on, it looked like the leaves could be many other things. Seaweed, for mermaids to swim through. Strips of cloth hanging over a door, for men and women to slip past as they entered a castle, a cave, a tent. The stage was dappled with blue-and-green light, like water, like precious stone.
The actors came onstage. Miles leaned forward.
I didn’t recognize Caitlin Morrow for the first part of the play. I didn’t even think about Caitlin Morrow being the character of Rosalind. I saw Rosalind, clever, smart. I saw the other characters, and I felt like I was with them, in the forest.
And then Miles coughed next to me, and for a moment I came back out of the woods and was me.
And I wondered if Caitlin felt the way Lisette Chamberlain did before she was Lisette Chamberlain. Before everyone watched to see a movie star, a celebrity, but instead saw her as the characters.
I glanced over at Leo, who had that look on his face, the one I used to see all the time when we first met and still saw a lot now, even with the bullies and the worry about money. The look of being alive. He wasn’t smiling, but his eyes had a brightness. He didn’t even notice me looking at him. He was still in the forest.
So I went back too.
25.
When intermission came, the three of us sat there for a moment after the lights came up. Then I looked over at Leo.
“Wow,” I said to him.
“Right?” he said. He looked over at Miles, who was stretching and standing up. “What do you think, Miles?”
“It’s not bad,” Miles said, “but my butt hurts from sitting.”