Page 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Zack

T he jacket felt heavy as it settled over my shoulders. Betty’s words were a blur in my ears as she gave me what I thought was supposed to be a peptalk. I would have turned and run entirely, but the hope and confidence and love in Lucas’s face and that I felt through our bond leaked into me and gave me just enough courage that when Betty pushed me out through the gap in the curtain, I kept going forward instead of turning and running back.

At first, nothing happened. Most of the audience was standing and talking to each other or flipping through their programs or wandering in and out of the auditorium for snacks or a bathroom break. Few people noticed me, and those who did probably assumed I was some stagehand sent to check something. Heaven only knew enough had gone wrong in the first act that it made sense for someone from the crew to wander around troubleshooting.

But then the house lights flashed, the audience headed back to their seats, and people seemed to realize I was there with a purpose. Gradually, the chatter hushed as more people sat, and the house lights slowly dimmed to darkness.

Before they dimmed entirely, someone began to applaud. I searched the front balcony, and lo and behold, there was Grandma. She hooted and clapped some more, then shouted, “That’s my grandson!”

The audience laughed…which totally made sense to me now. Muse of Comedy and all. Why hadn’t she told me about all of this? It would have been nice to know before?—

Then the spotlight snapped on, focusing on me with blinding intensity, and all other thoughts were blasted out of my head. Maybe inspired by my grandma, everyone in the audience applauded like I’d already done something special.

It was kind of nice, actually. Kind of encouraging.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” I called out, standing a little taller and grasping the lapels of my sparkly jacket…for dear life. “I, er, um, there’s going to be a slight delay as we work out a few technical problems backstage, but hey! That just means you get to stare at my pretty face for a few minutes.” I flashed a cheesy smile.

They laughed. The audience actually laughed.

I cleared my throat, heart pounding a mile a minute, and let the sense of excitement and purpose carry me instead of running and hiding from it.

“So it’s kind of a long story how I ended up as part of this production,” I began. Tell the story of the last few weeks, Lucas had said. It was certainly a bizarre story, but I didn’t know how funny it was.

“Oh, and yep, that’s my grandma alright,” I said, gesturing into the crowd where I could just barely make out her face in the light coming from the stage. “Grandma raised me. If you think I’m funny, you should meet her. I mean, the woman actually puts pineapple on her pizza. If that’s not funny, I don’t know what is.”

The audience chuckled and I started to sweat.

“Oh, wait. Comedy not controversy,” I said, earning a slightly bigger laugh. I’d better stick to safer topics, like religion and the fact that no one told Valleywood that the old gods were supposed to stay tucked away in myths and legends.”

That earned me a way bigger laugh than I thought it would, but it also confirmed a few things that had been simmering in the back of my mind since my little chat with Dion earlier.

I flailed for some way to go on and to keep people laughing, but my mind had gone blank. It was handy that someone in the orchestra pit stepped up on the conductor’s block and handed me a microphone. Yeah, that would probably help. I reached for it and nearly fumbled it, which provided a nice bit of physical comedy as I finally caught it and pulled the insanely long cord onto the stage with me.

I glanced into the wings and spotted Lucas. He made a gesture for me to keep going, but just knowing he was watching me gave me the confidence to go on.

“So. How I ended up as a stagehand for The Little Mermaid ,” I said. I shrugged and walked along the stage a little, the spotlight following me. “I suppose it’s all because I tumbled out of the sky and fell into the arms of a merman, really.”

A few people hummed or oohed or made other interested sounds.

“Yeah. One minute I was standing up on the bridge, looking back at the city, and the next, some guy on a bike rides past, and I’m tumbling head over heels down into the water.”

“Loki,” someone called out.

“Bless you,” I replied.

The audience laughed.

“Anyhow, there I was, splashing into the water, certain that was how it all ended, kind of like our own Little Mermaid’s prince, when suddenly, a strong pair of arms wrapped around me and I was pulled in tight against a naked, alpha chest. And I thought to myself, eh, okay, maybe death isn’t so bad.”

I got another laugh for that one. It felt good. More than good. It felt like I was doing exactly what I’d been made for.

“So there I was, bobbing around in the arms of a gorgeous, alpha merman thinking, ‘I love Philly, but this beats a hoagie any day!’”

The audience laughed so much that I wondered if maybe Grandma was helping things along.

“Nice city you have here, by the way,” I went on, my smile brighter and my enthusiasm for what I was doing growing. “Great welcoming committee.”

That also earned me a laugh.

“You’ve got a bunch of great restaurants, too. My merman and I actually went for our first date at one of your seafood restaurants. In hindsight, I wonder why I ordered the Caesar salad. That’s like going to a Mexican restaurant in the middle of the Arizona desert and ordering sushi, you know?”

That one definitely wasn’t funny, but maybe I was?

“My merman ordered the fish, of course,” I went on, wondering how long I could drag this whole thing out. I didn’t have a set prepared, so I was totally winging it, which was ironic for a story about a merman.

Ooh! I’d have to use that one.

“He told me he didn’t eat land meat,” I went on. “And I thought, ‘well, there go my plans for later’.”

The audience ate it up. I worked that into my next joke. Who would have thought I could have come up with an entire stand-up set at the spur of the moment using just food jokes and an increasingly fictionalized version of my date with Lucas as material?

I was still sweating through the whole thing, though. I couldn’t fill an entire evening with fish jokes. As I scrambled for more content, I kept peeking into the wings to see if someone, anyone, would give me a signal that things were a go for Act Two.

Right around the time that I started off on a new track by saying, “I came to audition for the show, but I ended up pushing a broom to clean up glitter from the stage. And if that doesn’t tell you something about why I was the one shoved out here to entertain you during intermission, then I don’t know what does,” Betty appeared in the wings and waved at me.

I’d never felt so relieved in my life.

“Well, ladies and gentlemen, it’s been fantastic entertaining you today,” I said, so relieved that my knees nearly buckled. “And now, on with the show!”

The audience applauded and laughed as I handed the mic back to the conductor, then raced for the wings, nearly tripping over my own feet in my haste to get out of the spotlight. It had been fun, it had scratched that itch that had inspired me to leave Philly for Valleywood in the first place, but I wasn’t sure I would be in a hurry to get in front of an audience again. Not without serious preparation.

“You were amazing!” Lucas greeted me in a tight whisper once I flew into his arms in the wings. “That was brilliant.”

“Everything is ready for Act Two,” Betty said, not really paying attention to us, as Ben strode up to our corner of the wings. “Cue the orchestra.”

She spoke into her headset, and moments later, the orchestra started tuning.

“That was terrifying,” I told Lucas with a laugh, clinging to him. “But hey! Grandma is out there in the audience.”

“I heard,” Lucas said with a laugh. “I’m so proud of you.”

My heart was already racing, but my head spun like a waterspout as Lucas leaned in and kissed me. It was one of the best kisses I’d ever had, because it was completely filled with love. It went beyond just our lips and bodies. I could feel his entire soul embracing me through our bond.

“See?” Eric’s voice suddenly shouted only a few feet away from us. “Do you see this? I told you they were involved. I told you they were breaking the rules.”

Eric had rushed over to us along with Ben. Greg was standing by his side, too, although he didn’t look nearly as happy to be there or to be dragged into whatever mess Eric was trying to create.

“We don’t have time for this,” Ben said, scowling at all of us. At least that included Eric. “Lucas, you’re meant to be on stage, like, now. The curtain is going up at any second.”

Ben and Betty had inserted a quick song for Lucas, which he sang from one side of the stage, lamenting his missing daughter, before shifting to the land scene.

“Right,” Lucas said letting go of me. “It’s going to be alright. Everything is going to work out just fine.”

It was hard to tell whether he meant that for me or for Ben and Betty when it came to the show.

“You can’t just let him go out there and finish the show like that,” Eric protested as Lucas walked out to take his place. “According to your rules, he should be fired. Greg is right here, ready to go on as the understudy. Get him off the stage and put Greg on.”

“I really don’t need to go on,” Greg said, raising his hands and backing away.

“You have to go on!” Eric shouted just as the orchestra reached the crescendo of the Act Two overture and the curtains opened. “I went through all this trouble to get rid of him so that you could take the role.”

“Excuse me?” I asked. I was too loud, especially now that the curtain was open and the number had started, so I lowered my voice to a hiss and asked a second time, “ Excuse me ?”

“You know something about all the problems the show has been having, don’t you?” Betty said, glaring at Eric.

“I—” Eric suddenly seemed to realize he’d put a foot wrong.

Ben grabbed his arm and dragged him along the wings to the opening of the corridor that connected the stage area to the dressing and rehearsal rooms. “What is going on here?” he snapped.

“Nothing is going on,” Eric said, laughing nervously. “Nothing except Lucas and Zack dating behind everyone’s back, which you explicitly forbid.”

“Uh-uh.” I shook my head. “You’re not getting out of what you said earlier. You went through trouble to get Greg on as Triton?”

Ben and Betty turned to Greg.

“Don’t look at me,” Greg said, taking a step back from everyone. “I had nothing to do with any of this. I told Eric it was all a bad idea.”

“What was a bad idea?” Ben boomed.

“Nothing,” Eric laughed nervously. “We need to focus on the important things here. Lucas broke your explicit rule, and he should be fired from the production at once.”

“Eric, half a dozen people have broken my no dating rule,” Ben said, exasperated. “I never expected it would hold anyhow. Even Betty is dating Greg, which is the entire reason why I made the rule in the first place.”

“Hey,” Betty snapped back at her brother. “You don’t own me. You have no say in whether I find myself a little boy-toy during productions.”

Yeah, I had a feeling that was as much as I wanted to know about that particular topic.

I needed to steer things back to the important matter at hand, so I asked outright, “Eric, did you deliberately sabotage the show tonight in order to get Lucas fired?”

“What? I…how could…I didn’t mean…how dare you!” Eric stammered.

“Eric?” Ben asked, his brow a dark line and his eyes sharp with anger.

“I didn’t do anything!” Eric gasped.

“I tried to stop him,” Greg said at the same time. “He didn’t want Lucas stealing the focus in the show, and when he couldn’t get those two fired before opening night, he resorted to breaking things and undermining Lucas’s performance so people would think he sucked.”

I knew it! I almost jumped into the air and did a fist-pump. Rats were always outed in the end.

“Is this true?” Ben asked looking like he might strangle Eric personally.

“How could you cast a nobody and then make his part bigger than mine?” Eric shouted. “I had to do something. You can’t treat me like this. It’s not fair.”

Ben turned to Betty and said, “Find Vincent and send him on immediately.”

Vincent was the understudy for the prince. I couldn’t help but grin at the order. Eric was about to get what he deserved.

Ben turned back to Eric and said, “You’re fired.”

“What? No! I didn’t break the rules. I’m not secretly dating anyone,” Eric protested.

“You tried to ruin the show,” I pointed out, giddy with victory. “That seems like a firing offense to me.”

“You can’t do this to me,” Eric said as Betty turned away, speaking into her headset. “I’m the star of this show. I’m the one people came here to see.”

“I apologize for the cliché,” Ben said, grabbing Eric’s arm and marching him away from the stage, “but you’ll never work in this town again.”

“I refuse to let you do this,” Eric continued to shout, maybe trying to be loud enough to be heard by the audience, though I doubted he could be. “The second act will flop anyhow. The set pieces are jammed and that scene-stealing diva doesn’t have his big finale costume.”

“Looks like we’re adding destruction of property and willful sabotage to the charges that will be brought against you,” Ben said as they neared the end of the hall.

Eric made a horrified sound just before they turned the corner. That was the end of that, as far as I was concerned.

I blew out a breath, then smiled as I glanced to Betty.

“Everything is set from our end,” she told me. “We’re going to need all hands on deck out there.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” I said, my energy running at an all-time high.

We headed back into the backstage area just as the opening scene with Triton lamenting the loss of his daughter ended. Lucas and the chorus members playing the merpeople hurried off-stage, and Lindsey, Vincent, and everyone else playing the people in the palace rushed on.

“Where’s Eric?” Lucas whispered as we met in the dark.

“Gone,” I said, laughing. “Caught in his own net.”

“Good,” Lucas said, then pulled me into his arms for another amazing kiss.

The rest of the world disappeared, and for a moment it was only the two of us. Correction, the three of us. Tadpole was as giddy in my belly as if they’d had a part in the whole thing. We’d beat the real bad guy, and even though we still had a lot of things to work out, I knew things would be okay.

I pulled back as I remembered some of what Eric had said. “We still don’t have a good finale costume for you,” I told Lucas.

Lucas grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “You leave that to me.”

I knew what he had planned, of course. The very thought of it made me giggly and clumsy for the rest of the second act, as I joined the others in manually moving the set pieces and making sure everyone’s props and costume changes were where they needed to be when they needed them. The whole thing was a buzz of activity, so much so that I forgot to take off my glittery jacket. I kind of liked that jacket, though, and I hoped they’d let me keep it.

At last, after ballroom scenes, the prince falling for the wrong woman, and an almost wedding that involved Lindsey getting her voice back and winning her true love, we made it through the show and it was time for the finale. I knew Lucas had something special planned when I spotted one of the stagehands passing out spray bottles to some of the members of the chorus.

Even though it wasn’t where I was supposed to be, I snuck my way to the front of the stage so I could watch through the wings and get a good view of the towering set piece that represented Triton’s throne as he welcomed his daughter and her prince home to the undersea world. I knew it was going to be good.

Sure enough, when the covering that hid Lucas at first was removed and the throne revealed, instead of sitting there in a costume, Lucas had fully transformed into his merman self. For added effect, the chorus members with spray bottles were subtly keeping his tail wet so it glittered and shone under the stage lights.

The audience gasped and applauded. Lucas had them all captivated as he sang his beautiful welcome to the happy couple. I wasn’t sure how he did it, because I really hadn’t asked him enough about his tail yet, but he came down off his throne and managed to maneuver around the stage, although it wasn’t quite dancing.

It didn’t matter that he wasn’t able to work through the choreography. I could see from my position that the audience was enthralled by him. So was I.

“That’s my alpha!” I whispered to no one in particular.

No, I was telling someone in particular. I put my hand to my belly, right over Tadpole, and said, “That’s Daddy!”

The show ended amidst a flurry of applause. The audience loved it. There was so much cheering and cries of “Bravo!” as the cast, particularly Lucas, but Lindsey, too, took their bows that I was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that the whole thing would be a wild success.

Better still, in the chaotic, excited moments just after the end, as the cast and crew was celebrating with hugs and kisses, I spotted Grandma pushing her way through the people trying to stop her from coming backstage through the side of the curtain.

“Grandma!” I called out, letting go of Lucas and running to her. “You came!”

“Of course I did.” Grandma opened her arms to me and hugged me tightly when I reached her. “I was driving when you called me earlier. I never take calls while driving. That’s not funny.”

I laughed anyhow, then gasped and stepped back. “How come you never told me you were the Muse of Comedy?”

“I didn’t?” Grandma said, looking thoroughly confused. “I thought everyone knew that.” She shrugged. “Ah, well. Sometimes the funniest moments come from a complete misunderstanding.”

That made me laugh, too. It was all quickly forgotten as Lucas walked over to join us. I hadn’t seen him shift back to legs, but at least he was wearing sweatpants now.

“Grandma, I’d like you to meet Lucas,” I said, pulling the two of them closer together as Lucas offered his hand. “He’s my alpha, we’re bonded, he really is a merman, and I’m having his baby.”

I finished with a deep breath, relieved that absolutely everything was out in the open.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lucas,” Grandma said. She narrowed her eyes at him and said, “You and I have a lot to discuss, Zakai.”

“We certainly do,” Lucas said, smiling warmly at Grandma.

It was perfect. I could tell the two of them adored each other at first sight, just as it should be. It made everything feel absolutely perfect. I’d found my purpose for traveling to Valleywood, and I was certain that I would get my happily ever after now.