Page 81 of Pride High 3: Yellow

“Alone?” he asked when standing. “No way. Let’s practice.”

Mindy blanched. “Without any music?”

“Hey, it was your idea.”

He began grunting to establish a rhythm before he started moving his body. After laughing, she joined him, and while it wasn’t a stunning performance by any means, it got the job done.

“Yeah,” Diego said as he slowed. “This will work.”

Mindy nodded. “I’m thinking we’ll pair it with a bright yellow T-shirt, so people can keep track of you on stage. I mean, that won’t usually be a problem because you’re so big. But during the dance scenes, they’ll see that flash of yellow with black, like you’re a bumblebee.” She saw him narrow his eyes and quickly amended, “Or like a wasp.”

Diego peered at her in suspicion a moment longer before he shrugged. “Yeah, okay. You always look good, so I trust you.”

That was flattering. “Thanks!” she said. “Your usual jeans will be fine, and you seem to move well enough in those boots.”

“I haven’t stepped on your dainty little feet yet,” he said with a toothy grin.

“You’ll be dancing with Whitney of course,” Mindy said, noticing that Diego had sat down in the makeup chair again, even though she was done with him.

“Right, right,” he said. “But she’ll be dressed as a dude or something?”

Mindy laughed. “No, she’s playing Tony, except we’re going to call her Tina. And you’ll be Maria, but you’ll go by Marco.”

Diego nodded along before he switched directions and shook his head. “You lost me.”

“Did you watch the movie like I said you should?”

“Nope,” he admitted without remorse.

“Okay, well, you’re familiar with Romeo and Juliet, right? The story is just like that, except instead of the Montague and Capulet families, there are two rival gangs. ‘West Side Story’ is usually about a white boy in the Jets who falls in love with a Puerto Rican girl who has a brother in the Sharks.”

“And that’s me, huh?” Diego interjected.

“Yeah, but now you’re Marco, and Whitney is Tina. Which is neat, because it means she’ll be pursuing you and um…” She trailed off because Diego was making a face.

“Whose idea was this?” he asked.

“Mine,” she admitted, and even though she was nervous about the potential response. Diego could be unsettlingly direct, but she couldn’t help asking, “Do you think it’s dumb?”

He thought about it before answering. “I think it’s going to screw with people, and that makes it cool.”

“Thanks!” She noticed a group of people walking toward them, the smile sliding off her face, because near the front was a tall guy with red hair. Troy Mitchell! What was he doing here?

Keisha detached herself from the group and hurried forward. “I feel you,” she said, no doubt in response to the expression of horror Mindy wore, “but I got outvoted.”

“For what?” she asked in confusion.

“These are the new dancers.”

They had come up short in their initial auditions, so they’d held a last call, which had taken place today. “You’re telling me he can dance?”

“I’ve seen better,” Keisha replied. “I told Ms. Deville that he wouldn’t fit in well with our theater group but…” She glanced at Diego, who also hadn’t seemed like a good fit initially. “I wasn’t sure how much you wanted me to say. If you want, we can go talk to her together.”

“No,” Mindy said with a resigned sigh. “It’s fine.” She had fended off his unwanted advances successfully, which was good, but it also weakened her position because—technically—little had happened.

“This is Mindy Beaumont,” Ms. Deville said as she approached with the others. “She’ll be fitting you each for your costumes. Once she has, come speak to Keisha and me. We’ll be choreographing the next scene.”

Keisha eyed her with concern. Mindy tried to assert with her expression alone that she could handle the situation.