OMG YES, I text back, and my brain floods with adrenaline at the prospect of creating a whole parody musical with him. Writing, rehearsing, and performing a play in less than a day sounds insane, but I know the two of us can make it happen. In a weird way, it feels like the most doable thing I’ve been asked to accomplish since I got here.
“You’re free to start forming your groups now,” Bob says. “Please write your names down on this sign-up sheet, and have fun, you brilliant people! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!”
Everyone starts talking at once, and Zoe grabs my hand. “Should we work alone, or should we ask Jessa and Livvy and those guys to work with us? It might be easier to get ideas if we have more people. Then again, if it were just us, we could—”
I cut her off before she can say anything about being alone with me in a rehearsal room. “Russell and I already have an idea for something we want to write, actually,” I say. “But I’d love it if you’d work with us. All of you, actually—we’re going to need a bunch of people.”
A crinkle appears between her eyebrows. “Wait, how do you guys already have an idea? Did you know about this in advance?”
“No, it’s something we’ve been kicking around. He texted a minute ago to ask if I wanted to work on it for this. See?” I hold up my phone, as if I’m required to prove it.
“Oh,” Zoe says. It’s like she had no idea until this moment that I had a life separate from her. “What’s the idea?”
“It’s a Shakespeare-Broadway musical mash-up, like a parody. We were thinking of maybe doing A Midsummer Night’s Dreamgirls, since everyone knows both shows. We’d keep the general story from Midsummer, and we’d rewrite the lyrics from a bunch of Dreamgirls songs to be about the Midsummer characters.” Russell and I haven’t actually discussed the logistics of the mash-up, but it’s very clear to me that this is how it should work, and I know he’ll agree.
For a second, I’m afraid Zoe’s going to say that’s a dumb idea, that she’d rather do something else. If she’s not into it, I’m afraid I’ll back down and let her take the lead, like always, and being in charge for once is suddenly really important to me. Fortunately, she starts laughing. “That’s really funny. I’m definitely in. Want me to round up everyone else?”
“Yeah, that’d be perfect,” I say. I can write a twenty-four-hour play with no problem, but there’s no way I could find a cast without Zoe. None of the other apprentices take me seriously anymore. Maybe this play festival is exactly the opportunity I need to show Jessa and Livvy and Kenji and Todd that I’m worth something.
Zoe gets up. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”
“Should I come with you?”
“No, I can do it myself.” Her tone is light, but she obviously thinks it’ll be easier to talk them into working with us if I’m not there to screw things up. “Why don’t you put our names down on the sign-up sheet?”
“Shouldn’t we wait until they say yes?”
“They’ll say yes. I’m very convincing.”
She could just as easily have said, It’s a really good idea. I’m sure they’ll go for it or How could they not want to work with you? But she’s trying to help me, so I try not to be annoyed that she’s making this all about her. “Okay,” I say. “Thanks.”
“When I’m done, we’ll pick up Carlos and go get some dinner in town, okay?”
And that’s all it takes for my annoyance to get the better of me. How rude is it to assume I have nothing better to do than be a pathetic third wheel? “I can’t go out with you guys tonight,” I say, struggling to keep my voice even and pleasant.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m eating with Russell.”
Zoe looks confused. “I thought we weren’t supposed to start working on the show until midnight tomorrow.”
“We’re not working on the show; we’re hanging out. He’s my friend. And I’m sleeping in his room tonight so you and Carlos can…you know.”
“Oh,” Zoe says. “It’s just that I already told Carlos you’d come with us. We barely got to hang out with you the other day, and he wants to get to know you better.”
I can’t believe she’s making me argue with her about this. She has to know how much it sucks for me to see them together. “Carlos isn’t going to care if I’m there or not,” I say. “He wants to see you, not me.”
I wait for Zoe to make it right by saying, I care if you’re there. But instead she says, “All right. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” She sounds disappointed, but not disappointed enough.
As she walks away from me, I try not to feel too disappointed, either.