Read Online The Sisters Club by Megan McDonald - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Megan McDonald
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puts marshmallows between her toes.
I tried to think of myself in that dress. To imagine what it would be like. Picture it. It was a big step up from Human Piñata, that’s for sure. I wondered if the dress and the makeup help transform you, I mean, make you feel like you’re somebody besides yourself.
I got so caught up in the story and costumes and characters, the first act went by in a flash. Before I knew it, the curtain fell with a hush, and we could hear the patter of feet as the scenery changed.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ACT TWO
Starring Alex
SETTING: THE HOUSE OF BEAUTY’S FATHER.
Beauty: (Bursts into tears.) (Real tears! This is good!)
Beauty’s sister: Beauty? Whatever is wrong that causes you to weep so?
Beauty: I’ve had a most frightful dream this night. I was in the palace garden, and a lady appeared to me. She showed me Beast, lying on the grass, nearly dead. My poor, dear Beast! I fear I’ve made a most dreadful mistake. (I haven’t forgotten one line so far!)
Sister: Nonsense. You belong here with us, with Father.
Beauty: I fear I am indeed very wicked to cause my poor, dear Beast so much grief. He has shown me nothing but kindness. Why did I not wish to marry him? (Act Two is almost over — they love me!)
Sister: Marry him! Have you lost your senses?
Beauty: Is it his fault that he is so ugly and has so few wits? (Yes! I didn’t say “zits!”)
Sister: Perhaps not . . .
Beauty: Why did I not wish to marry him? It is neither good looks nor brains in a husband that make a woman happy. It is beauty of character, goodness, and kindness. (This is the best play ever! I’m a star!)
Sister: Certainly you would not be so foolish as to think yourself in love with the Beast?
Beauty: Yes, and to prove my love, I shall remove this ring. (I hope I can get it off!) Soon I shall find myself back at the palace of my beloved, where I belong.
Sister: NO!
Beauty: Alas! ’Tis too late, my dear sister. Good-bye! (I wish this scene wasn’t over! Maybe if I ad-lib. Add just a line . . .)
Beauty: (Holding hand to head.) Beast, O my dear, sweet Beast. Where art thou? (Runs around stage, looking here and there. Exits by the volcano.) Oops! (Tripping.)
CRASH! (Audience gasps.)
Beauty: “Curtain! Curtain!”
Curtain falls on Act Two.
Just when I was starting to think that maybe acting wasn’t so bad after all.
When the house lights came up at intermission, Mom and Joey and I ran backstage to check on Alex. The girl who played one of Beauty’s sisters in the play came rushing up to us.
“Mrs. Reel — you gotta come — now,” she said, all out of breath. “Alex! Her foot — it’s bad — all swelled up like a baseball.”
Mom pushed through the crowd and ran up the stage steps, with Joey and me right behind her.
Alex was propped up against a wall, her leg sticking out. Dad was holding an ice pack to her ankle. Mr. Cannon and a bunch of the cast were swarming around her. Her makeup was all runny, and her dress looked like a deflated birthday-party balloon.
Everybody was talking at once. In the blur, I heard words like “sprain” and “twisted” and “broken.”
I heard Alex say she couldn’t get up or stand or put any weight on her foot.
“What happened?” I asked, squeezing through the crowd.
“Didn’t you see? Everybody else in the whole world did.”
“I know. But how?”
“ Somebody painted A. R. LOVES S. H . in a big red heart on Dad’s volcano. I saw it right before the show, so I got some of the stage crew to help me turn it around a little. But I forgot that the corner was sticking out, and I fell.”
I knew she was going to say the play was ruined. I knew she was going to say it was all my fault.
“I didn’t do it!” I said.
“We know, honey.” Dad pulled Joey over close to him. He must have known she painted those initials on the volcano.
Alex didn’t get mad. She didn’t say it was all my fault or Joey’s.
I tried to think of myself in that dress. To imagine what it would be like. Picture it. It was a big step up from Human Piñata, that’s for sure. I wondered if the dress and the makeup help transform you, I mean, make you feel like you’re somebody besides yourself.
I got so caught up in the story and costumes and characters, the first act went by in a flash. Before I knew it, the curtain fell with a hush, and we could hear the patter of feet as the scenery changed.
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, ACT TWO
Starring Alex
SETTING: THE HOUSE OF BEAUTY’S FATHER.
Beauty: (Bursts into tears.) (Real tears! This is good!)
Beauty’s sister: Beauty? Whatever is wrong that causes you to weep so?
Beauty: I’ve had a most frightful dream this night. I was in the palace garden, and a lady appeared to me. She showed me Beast, lying on the grass, nearly dead. My poor, dear Beast! I fear I’ve made a most dreadful mistake. (I haven’t forgotten one line so far!)
Sister: Nonsense. You belong here with us, with Father.
Beauty: I fear I am indeed very wicked to cause my poor, dear Beast so much grief. He has shown me nothing but kindness. Why did I not wish to marry him? (Act Two is almost over — they love me!)
Sister: Marry him! Have you lost your senses?
Beauty: Is it his fault that he is so ugly and has so few wits? (Yes! I didn’t say “zits!”)
Sister: Perhaps not . . .
Beauty: Why did I not wish to marry him? It is neither good looks nor brains in a husband that make a woman happy. It is beauty of character, goodness, and kindness. (This is the best play ever! I’m a star!)
Sister: Certainly you would not be so foolish as to think yourself in love with the Beast?
Beauty: Yes, and to prove my love, I shall remove this ring. (I hope I can get it off!) Soon I shall find myself back at the palace of my beloved, where I belong.
Sister: NO!
Beauty: Alas! ’Tis too late, my dear sister. Good-bye! (I wish this scene wasn’t over! Maybe if I ad-lib. Add just a line . . .)
Beauty: (Holding hand to head.) Beast, O my dear, sweet Beast. Where art thou? (Runs around stage, looking here and there. Exits by the volcano.) Oops! (Tripping.)
CRASH! (Audience gasps.)
Beauty: “Curtain! Curtain!”
Curtain falls on Act Two.
Just when I was starting to think that maybe acting wasn’t so bad after all.
When the house lights came up at intermission, Mom and Joey and I ran backstage to check on Alex. The girl who played one of Beauty’s sisters in the play came rushing up to us.
“Mrs. Reel — you gotta come — now,” she said, all out of breath. “Alex! Her foot — it’s bad — all swelled up like a baseball.”
Mom pushed through the crowd and ran up the stage steps, with Joey and me right behind her.
Alex was propped up against a wall, her leg sticking out. Dad was holding an ice pack to her ankle. Mr. Cannon and a bunch of the cast were swarming around her. Her makeup was all runny, and her dress looked like a deflated birthday-party balloon.
Everybody was talking at once. In the blur, I heard words like “sprain” and “twisted” and “broken.”
I heard Alex say she couldn’t get up or stand or put any weight on her foot.
“What happened?” I asked, squeezing through the crowd.
“Didn’t you see? Everybody else in the whole world did.”
“I know. But how?”
“ Somebody painted A. R. LOVES S. H . in a big red heart on Dad’s volcano. I saw it right before the show, so I got some of the stage crew to help me turn it around a little. But I forgot that the corner was sticking out, and I fell.”
I knew she was going to say the play was ruined. I knew she was going to say it was all my fault.
“I didn’t do it!” I said.
“We know, honey.” Dad pulled Joey over close to him. He must have known she painted those initials on the volcano.
Alex didn’t get mad. She didn’t say it was all my fault or Joey’s.
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