Page 63 of Pride High 3: Yellow
“Oh stop.” Mindy swatted his forearm. “I could tell how happy you were after the play. You couldn’t stop smiling.”
“You were watching me?” he asked. Mostly to see her blush again. But he also wanted to know.
“Youwerethe star,” Mindy said. “And could be again.”
“Uh-huh. What about you? Are you gonna be up there on stage?”
“Never!” she cried. “Absolutely not. No.”
“Then count me out.”
Mindy clasped her hands together in front of her chest. “Please? You liked working with Whitney, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. She’s cool.”
“Well she probably won’t get the role of Maria because Sharks can’t be white, which is weird and maybe the point. All I know is that it’s been a real pain in the butt to cast this play. Butyoucould be Maria instead of Tony, and she could be Tony instead of Maria.”
Diego narrowed his eyes. “Is this some sort of crossdressing thing?”
“No. It’s hard to explain. But I think it could be really neat. If you’d only try.” Mindy put on a pleading expression. “Please? For me?”
“All right,” he said, amused by her behavior. “But only if you promise to audition too.”
“What?!” Her expression became a mask of terror. “I told you… I can’t!”
“Then I can’t either.” He turned as if to walk away. “Nice seeing you again.”
“Wait!” She grabbed his arm. “I’ll do it.”
“For real?” he asked, amused by the wavering panic in her blue eyes. Didn’t she realize that none of this mattered?
Mindy took a deep breath before nodding with determination. “As long as you actually audition. And try your best to get the part. And then accept the role if offered.”
“That’s a long list.”
“I know. But it would make me really happy. The others too.”
Diego wasn’t sure about that. And he didn’t care. But for whatever reason, he didn’t want to let her down. Besides… “I wanna be there when you audition. You can’t phone it in either. Those aremyterms. Agreed?”
Mindy swallowed before nodding rapidly. “After school today?”
“Yup. See you then.”
She did a little skip before hugging him. Diego kept his hands to himself. But it did feel good. He watched her race off down the hall, already shaking his head at himself, because no part of him wanted to be in another play. Even though ithadbeen sort of nice to belong to something.
He kept thinking of that during the rest of the day, believing in it less and less. People were scared of him. That’s the only reason they had been so nice. And they’d only liked him as the Beast because of that same fear. Although playing a shark or whatever wouldn’t be so different. He could do it all again. Principal Preckwinkle would hate that. Which was nearly motivation enough.
When he walked into the auditorium, a number of people called him by name and seemed genuinely happy to see him there. They kept asking if he was going to audition. Diego shrugged off their expectations while searching the rows of seats. His gaze lingered on Keisha. She nodded in acknowledgement and he did the same in return before they steadfastly ignored each other, like they’d agreed freshman year. Mindy was just a couple of seats away. Diego approached from the opposite end of the aisle and plopped down next to her.
“If I land this gig,” he said to get her attention, “are you going to glue a shark fin to my head or something lame?”
“It’s not like that,” Mindy said after giggling. “The Sharks are a street gang. They’re tough and cool.”
She was clearly trying to sell him on the role.
“Next up,” Keisha called out, “Byron and Laureen.”
A guy and a girl took the stage. Diego didn’t recognize them, so they were probably juniors or seniors. Keisha hit a button on a boombox. As soon as the song began, the couple started to dance. Without much confidence until they found the right rhythm.
