Page 23 of The Ruse

In the brief moment that our eyes caught, his expression tensed and the hand currently sitting behind Elyse’s back flexed, as if the thought of me being here caused violent feelings to rise in him.

I just chuckled and looked away. It was kind of nice seeing that small reaction from Nash, because the opposite of love wasn’t hate but apathy. It was nice to see someone having some sort of emotional response to seeing me.

Would I have preferred to have more people greet me like Miss Crawley had?

Yes.

But this rivalry with Nash might just make up for all the crap it had taken for me to get back here.

“Can you all take your seats?” Miss Crawley said, looking at the people hovering in the back. “It’s time to start.”

The last few stragglers sat in the three empty seats to my left. Someone came running through the back doors at the last minute. Cambrielle Hastings rushed in and sat in the seat between Elyse and me, saying, “Sorry, for some reason, I thought we were meeting in your classroom.”

“It’s okay.” Miss Crawley gave Cambrielle an understanding expression. “You got here just in time.”

Cambrielle sighed with relief. Peeking over at me, she whispered, “Hi, Asher.”

“Hi,” I said.

And if there was any person in the room whom I had to sit by, I was glad it was Cambrielle. Because even though her brother had always been obvious about not liking me, Cambrielle had never seemed to hop on his “Asher is the worst”bandwagon. She had always thought for herself and seemed to stay on neutral ground in our war.

“I know some of you are joining us for the first time,” Miss Crawley said once everyone was settled in. “In this stack of papers, you’ll find the list of expectations that I have for each of you, a packing list for our little retreat this weekend, along with the schedule for the next two months.”

Miss Crawley handed a tall stack of papers to a girl at the opposite end of the circle and indicated for her to take one and pass it down.

“I want each of you to go through the expectations form and bring it back to tomorrow’s rehearsal with your signature,” Miss Crawley explained. “I’ll be emailing your parents and guardians a few forms for them to sign as well.” She locked her fingers together behind her waist as she paced around the circle. “The main criteria that I wanted to point out is the attendance policy.The Phantom of the Operais a very complicated musical—in fact, most of my colleagues think I’m crazy for attempting this with a group of high school students. But I know how talented you are and how hard you are willing to work. And I believe that if we each put forth our best effort, we’ll have an amazing production to show our family, friends, and community by the end of January.”

The pile of papers had made its way to me at this point, so I took a stapled packet from the top and handed the rest to Cambrielle.

As Miss Crawley went over the rest of her expectations, I scanned over the schedule. Tomorrow was the last day of November, and with two weeks of winter break, that gave us seven weeks to put together a good show.

“We’ve had some very generous donors donate an unprecedented amount of resources to our set and costume budget, which we are so thankful for,” Miss Crawley said, probably referencing the Hastings as one of those benevolent families. “And I know all of you are going to do your best to help us have an amazing show. Ever since I started teaching at this school, I’ve dreamed of having a class that I believed could pull off this particular musical, and this is the year. You’re the most talented group I’ve ever had, and I can’t wait to see the magic that we can create together.”

A few cheers erupted, along with applause.

“Thank you.” Miss Crawley smiled at everyone. “With that said, let’s start our very first read-through.”

We openedour scripts to the first scene: an auction where Raoul and Madam Giry bid on The Phantom’s music box years after the main story had taken place. Since I’d had a lot of time to myself over the weekend, I’d memorized my lines easily enough from the script Miss Crawley had mailed to me before auditions. If I hadn’t needed to keep track of everyone else’s lines, I would have been completely off book.

Raoul’s part wasn’t huge compared to the roles of Christine and The Phantom, but I was determined to make the most of this opportunity to impress the scouts Miss Crawley had arranged to come watch our performance.

I’d saved a little for college, but if I was going to cover the tuition to one of my top three schools, I’d need a scholarship or a miracle to do it.

I sang my little part in that first scene, accompanied by the rehearsal track Miss Crawley had, and was able to relax until the students who were playing the new opera house owners, Andre and Firmin, introduced my character le Vicomte Raoul de Changy as their new patron. Everything went smoothly for the first few scenes. I could tell that my fellow castmates were taking their roles seriously because it was apparent that I wasn’t the only one who had been practicing on his own time.

We went through the scene where Christine was chosen to take Carlotta’s role in that evening’s performance, and then the introduction to the song “Think of Me” was playing through Miss Crawley’s speaker.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Elyse sit up a little straighter, and after glancing around at our peers with a nervous expression, she started to sing the first verse of the song.

I didn’t know what to expect of the new girl who had so far seemed pretty timid and shy, but I had not expected such a strong soprano singing voice to come out of her. She— well…I would mock anyone for saying the phrase that was coming to my mind since it was super cheesy and exactly the kind of thing that Nash would say—but all I could think of to describe Elyse’s voice was as the voice of an angel.

Yes…I hated that it was the only description that came to my mind.

But this girl had some serious pipes and was hitting all the notes just right, making it sound effortless in only the way that someone with true musical talent could.

I kind of got it now. Nash and I had always been drawn to the same girls. The ones who were a bit understated until they surprised you with something. The girls that snuck up behind you.

I could see why Nash had been looking at her all throughout their date and in the classes we’d had together today. Because even after just a few lines of music, I could tell that Elyse had been made to play this role. And while I’d initially thought Nash would be my biggest competition in wowing the scouts who came to watch us, it was obvious that Elyse was the one I’d really have to outperform.

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