Page 38 of Dungeons and Drama

They break off and wait expectantly for a report from me.

“Mission accomplished,” I tell the table, taking a seat. “I think.”

Nathan and Sophia are back by the time Anthony has finished his next turn. “Sorry it took so long. It was hard to choose,” Nathan says as he sits down.

“What’d you get?” Anthony asks Sophia.

She shrugs. “I decided not to get anything. The store is overpriced anyway. I’ll order online.”

I never thought I’d be loyal to this store, but I ball my hands into fists at the words.

“Here.” Nathan drops a little fabric bag in front of me. I pick it up and pour out a set of seven dice. A little gasp escapes me as I take them in. I’ve never thought of dice as something that could be beautiful or personal, but these are. I pick them up, one by one, turning them so the facets catch and glimmer in the overhead light. They have swirls of brightly colored jewel tones—cobalt blue, jade green, chartreuse, maroon—all my favorite colors in the world, with sparkly gold numbers imprinted on the sides. I shake my head softly. “They’re…”

Nathan chuckles. “They’reyou.”

I look up in shock. He’s right. They are me. These might as well be stamped with the letters of my name rather than numbers. Lucas is now describing the ancient vault where the sword is being kept, but I’m too distracted to hear everything. My heart beats faster knowing that Nathan picked these. I thought he’d grab the cheapest thing possible for the sake of the ruse.

“These are…wow. Like little gemstones.”

“Do they make you more excited to play?” Nathan whispers.

I nod fervently.

“Then they’ve already done their job.”

I’m still not sure what to say, so I study the dice again. I’ve been around Dad enough to know that the large, ball-shaped one is called a d20. And, of course, I recognize the normal six-sided dice. But I don’t know the others.

“Honestly, I’m still not sure what these all do.”

He leans close, so that our shoulders touch, and picks upthe d20. “You use this one the most—for skill checks, initiative, lots of stuff. This one is a d4. You use it for low-level spells. And these others will depend on the situation. You’ll figure it out if you stick around. And, in the meantime, I’ll help you.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, and impulsively lay my head on his shoulder. It’s part of the act, sure, but right now I’m not doing it for Sophia’s benefit.

I’m doing it because I like the feel of my head on Nathan’s shoulder.

Chapter Thirteen

I wait after choir on Thursday to speak to Miss Sahni again. She’s at her music stand at the front of the room but beckons me over as the rest of the class streams out.

“I’ve been making good progress on my plans for the musical and I wanted to run them by you,” I tell her.

She nods. “Of course, I’d love to hear what you’ve been working on.”

“So, I decided on three potential musicals that would work best and pulled the licensure fees, a list of possible costumes and sets, and what we’d need for cast numbers. I also wrote up a possible budget for each, but I wasn’t sure about some of the numbers, so I think I’ll need help tweaking those.” I hand her a stapled packet that I printed at home last night.

“This is really impressive, Riley,” she says, flipping through the pages. “I wasn’t expecting you to do so much.”

“Do you think it’ll be enough to convince them?” I ask.

Her shoulders sag. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up. This is great and I can tell how much work you’ve done, but…”

I wait impatiently, wondering what I’m missing. Do I need to add more detail? Would a personal essay on the importance of theater sway them?

“You’re just one person,” she says finally, her voice resigned.

I frown. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s true that budget is a big concern, but the reason they chose to cut the musical instead of something else was because of flagging interest from the student body and community. I know you’re enthusiastic, but they want to see everyone share that excitement. And, unfortunately, that’s not something you can control.”

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