Read No Biz Like Show Biz Online
Authors: Nancy Krulik
No Biz Like Show Biz (3 page)
“Oh, I don’t need luck,” Suzanne assured her. “I’ve got talent. I’m going in there a fourth-grader and coming out a Snow Fairy!”
Chapter 5
“I got it! I got it!”
Katie held the phone away from her ear. The person on the other end was screaming frantically.
“Got
what
?” Katie asked
.
what
?” Katie asked
.
“I got the part!”
“Congratulations,” Katie said into the telephone receiver. “Who is this?”
“Oops. Sorry.” The voice grew quiet. “It’s me, Miriam. I got the part. I’m the Snow Fairy in
Wacky Winter Wonderland
.”
Wacky Winter Wonderland
.”
Now it was Katie’s turn to scream. “Wow! That’s so amazing!”
“Th—thanks,” Miriam told her. “I have lots of lines to learn—and three solos.”
Katie couldn’t tell if Miriam was scared or happy.
“You’re going to be really great,” Katie assured her.
“I have to practice a lot,” Miriam said. “I want to be perfect.”
“I’ll get to hear you,” Katie told her. “I’m on the stage crew.”
“Oh, cool,” Miriam said. She grew quiet for a moment. Then she added, “I can’t believe it, Katie. Of all the people who tried out, Mr. Guthrie picked me.”
Miriam definitely sounded more scared than happy.
Katie frowned. She bet there was one person who wasn’t so happy right now—Suzanne.
A few minutes after she hung up with Miriam, Katie’s telephone began to ring again. “Hello?” she said as she picked up the receiver.
“I can’t believe it!” the person on the other end shouted into Katie’s ear.
“Hello, Suzanne,” Katie said.
“Mr. G. picked Miriam Chan to be the Snow Fairy,” Suzanne continued without even saying hi back.
“I’m sorry you didn’t get the part you wanted,” Katie said.
“I’m stuck being a snowflake,” Suzanne told her. “Me? A snowflake! I have to lead a bunch of kindergartners onstage. They’ll be the little snowflakes. Can you believe it? I’ll be dressed like a kindergartner while Miriam is up there playing
my
part.”
my
part.”
“Suzanne, that wasn’t your part. It was up to Mr. G. to decide,” Katie reminded her.
“Whatever,” Suzanne replied with a sigh. “Maybe Miriam will get sick. Then I can be the Snow Fairy.”
“What do you mean?” Katie asked her.
“I’m her understudy. I have to learn all her lines and all her songs, just in case.” Suzanne groaned. “I don’t know who told Miriam to try out. But when I find out . . .”
Katie gulped. She crossed her fingers that Suzanne would never find out.
Because when Suzanne was angry, she could start a real blizzard of trouble.
Chapter 6
“We need to attach the sun to a wire so it can move across the sky,” Mr. G. called backstage to Katie. “Can you do that?”
“I’m working on it now. Don’t worry. I’ll have it ready before the dress rehearsal,” Katie shouted back. That was still two weeks away. She smiled proudly. Since rehearsals had begun, she’d learned a lot about how to make scenery look real.
“Great,” Mr. G. told her. He leaned back in his chair and turned to the stage. “Now let’s take this scene from the top. It’s time for the Snowman Shuffle. This is an important scene because it’s when the Wicked Wind Monster comes and freezes everything—maybe forever!”
George laughed. “This play is really wild, Mr. G.,” he told him. “Where did you come up with a story about a Wicked Wind Monster who threatens to freeze the planet?”
“I don’t know, dude,” Mr. G. chuckled. “It’s the magic of imagination. And that’s my favorite nation.”
George grinned. Mr. G. said that all the time.
“Okay, Kadeem, you’re the Wicked Wind Monster. It’s time for you to blow onto the stage.”
Katie stood next to Miriam and watched from the wings.
Kadeem Carter began to wave his hands wildly as he moved. “Whoosh,” he said. Then he puckered his lips and blew. “Here I come, freezing everything in sight. That’s good news for you,
Snowman
.”
Snowman
.”
“All that cold air is sure making me hungry,” George said. He was the Snowman. “I could go for an
iceberg-
er!”
iceberg-
er!”
Katie couldn’t help laughing. Some of the kids in the chorus began to laugh, too.
“Hey, that’s not your line,” Kadeem told him. “I know every line in this play. You’re supposed to say, ‘Brrr . . . thanks for the help.’”
“I know,” George admitted. “But my joke’s funnier.”
Mr. G. shook his head. “Stick to the script, George.”
George frowned.
“Let’s start over,” the teacher said.
Kadeem went back to his spot and began waving his arms again. “Here I come, freezing everything in sight. That’s good news for you,
Snowman
,” he repeated.
Snowman
,” he repeated.
“Brrr—” George began to say his line.
But Kadeem interrupted him. He opened his mouth really wide and pretended to nip at George’s arm.
“Hey, what’s that about?” George demanded.
“Frost
bite
,” Kadeem said. He began to laugh.
bite
,” Kadeem said. He began to laugh.
George frowned. “That’s not his line,” he called out to Mr. G.
“No, it’s not,” Mr. G. agreed. “Can’t you two just say the lines the way you’re supposed to?”
George and Kadeem stared at each other.
Mr. G. sighed. “Okay, let’s move on. Suzanne, bring the kindergarten snowflakes onstage.”
Katie watched Suzanne take one of the kindergarten snowflakes by the hand and practically drag her across the stage. The other little flakes followed.
“Mr. Guthrie, this isn’t working for me,” Suzanne said, stopping suddenly.
“What do you mean?” Mr. G. asked her, surprised.
“I just don’t feel the part. I can’t get into the Snowflake’s head,” Suzanne explained.
Katie and Miriam looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
“That’s because snowflakes don’t have heads,” George reminded her. “I think your brain’s melting, Suzanne.”
“You don’t know anything about acting,” Suzanne told George. “I have to be able to understand my character in order to play her.”
“Okay,” Mr. G. said. “So how about this? You’re a snowflake who is really, really excited to finally come down to earth.”
“How excited?” Suzanne asked him.
“Um . . . as excited as you would be if your picture were on a magazine cover,” he suggested.
But Suzanne wasn’t listening anymore. She was staring at Katie and Miriam in the wings. As she took the kindergartners backstage so they could start again, she ran right up to Miriam.
“Are you okay?” Suzanne asked her. “You don’t look so good.”
“I don’t?” Miriam asked. “I feel all right.”
Katie looked curiously at Suzanne. “Miriam looks fine to me,” she said.
Suzanne avoided Katie’s stare. “Well, Miriam looks green to me. Like she’s going to throw up or something.” She paused and turned to Miriam. “Please tell us you didn’t eat the squiggly pasta at lunch today!”
“Yeah, I did,” Miriam said. She sounded worried. “Why?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I heard a worm got stuck in the pot,” Suzanne continued. “It was probably just a rumor, though. Of course, eating a wiggly, squiggly worm
could
make someone kind of sick—”
could
make someone kind of sick—”
Other books
Darby: Bride of Oregon (American Mail-Order Bride 33) by Bella Bowen
Tyed to You by Jordyn McKenzie
Riven by Jenkins, Jerry B.
Flying Home by Ralph Ellison
Free Spirits by Julia Watts
Last Team Standing by Matthew Algeo
Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis
A Reason to Kill (Reason #2) by C. P. Smith
Good Stepbrother (Love #2) by Scarlett Jade, Intuition Author Services
Tiger Claws by John Speed
