Page 42 of Pride High 2: Orange

He paused in unpacking his satchel. “Hmm? Yes, what is it, Mindy?”

“Would it be okay if I addressed the class? My theater group—”

“Yes yes, fine,” Mr. Finnegan said as he resumed digging through his satchel. “I’m running late anyway. Please, go right ahead.” He stood up straight and said, “Class! Pay attention. Mindy has something to say about… something. I’ll be right back.”

Not the best introduction, but at least it was easy to follow. Mindy watched Mr. Finnegan rush from the room before she turned around and shrank under the collective gazes of her fellow students. She always froze when on stage. With an audience present at least. Anthony nodded encouragingly, which helped her find her voice again. As Mindy spoke, she mostly only looked at her friends. And occasionally even at Omar, since she was at least comfortable being uncomfortable around him.

“As you might have heard, the theater group will be performingBeauty and the Beastin less than two weeks,” she said. “Tickets are still on sale. Umm. But you know what’s better than seeing a play? Being in one. As the star!”

“That’s me!” Whitney said, raising her hand and waving when people noticed her. “Ilovesigning autographs. Bring whatever you want. I’ll sign anything!”

“So as you can see,” Mindy said, “we have a lot of fun. Accidents happen though, and we lost the actor who was going to play the Beast.”

“Did he die?” asked a guy in the back row.

“Oh my god, no! He broke his leg. So we’re recasting his role. Would anyone like to audition?”

“Is there any kissing?” asked the same guy.

“Yes, but the hardest part will be learning all the lines, so you have to have a good memory.”

“How much kissing?” the guy asked.

Mindy narrowed her eyes at him. “You would be wearing a Halloween mask during that scene, so if that’s your only motivation…”

The guy shrugged and looked disinterested.

“Anyone else?” she offered, looking from person to person in desperation. She was met with sympathy or apathy depending on who, but nobody seemed interested. “Well, if you change your mind, auditions are Wednesday after school in the auditorium. Thanks.”

Whitney started clapping, which was ridiculous. Ricky joined her and soon half of the class did too. Itdidfeel kind of good to hear their applause, even though all she had done was mumble her way through a speech that hadn’t borne fruit.

“Exciting news!” Mr. Finnegan said, returning with a stack of newspapers in his arms. “The Lion’s Pride Postwas delivered this morning.” He set them down on his desk with a thud. “Which means that many of you are in print for the first time!”

The room was filled with interested murmurs. Soon everyone was jostling around his desk to grab a copy. Which meant that they had probably already forgotten the open audition. More likely than not, the play would be a disaster. But as long as the costumes looked nice when everyone was being booed off stage, then at least she’ll have done her part.

CHAPTER 10

December 7th, 1992

Omar balanced his camcorder on a row of plastic CD cases, stooping to peer through the viewfinder as casually as possible, because he knew that Silvia was probably sick of him filming her. Doing so in secret was kind of weird, but hey… She was the most beautiful girl in all of Kansas. Maybe even the whole country! She didn’t even have to try. Like right now. Silvia was shuffling through a bunch of vinyl records, her brow delicately creased in concentration as she sorted them into piles. He watched the way she trapped her bottom lip beneath a tooth as she turned a record over a few times. When she found whatever she was looking for, her expression relaxed again as she set aside the record. So freaking pretty!

He was tempted to let the entire tape fill up, despite not having a need for the footage. Omar simply wanted all of her that he could get. If she’d let him, he’d follow her home to film her eating and sleeping. Creepy as fuck, but c’mon… She wasthebest!

“Omar,” Silvia said warningly, having noticed the camera. “Don’t you have enough footage of me standing behind this counter?”

She was referring to a little project that he thought of as Record Store Girl. He planned to combine footage of her working here with a monologue that they had written and she had recorded. He just didn’t know how yet. Although he was glad for the convenient excuse for why he was filming now. Maybe hewoulduse the new footage for the project. Or more likely, he’d simply watch it later tonight when missing her.

“I can’t help it,” he answered. “The camera loves you.”

She smiled demurely at this. Then she used an album to hide her face. The record had a black-and-white photo of Madonna’s head on the front. And as hot as the Queen of Pop was, Omar preferred his girlfriend. Silvia peeked from behind the album, making him laugh. She was so cute! He turned off the camera, happy to have captured the moment.

Omar was on top of the world as he walked over to join her. “You know what we should do if Anthony shows up?” he asked. “Have him watch the shop so we can go out to dinner.”

Silvia shook her head. “I couldn’t do that to Lester.”

“Your boss? He never comes in here at night. And even if he did, once Anthony is done lecturing him about music, he won’t remember that you’re gone at all.”

“Am I that replaceable?” Silvia teased.