To try and save the situation, I ran to get my iPod and put on some cool music. Then, within minutes, everyone was settled around Sara’s make-up and had begun testing the different products that were stored in the large pink carry case.
The music certainly helped to lift everyone’s spirits as well and before long, we were all singing to our favorite hit songs.
I was pleased to see that Jackie was laughing once again and having fun. There would be nothing worse than to have your party spoiled by one of your guests. But as it turned out, we all had a pretty good time.
The next morning, after very little sleep because Sara was too scared to close her eyes in case the snake came back, we dragged ourselves out of our sleeping bags so that we could head into the dining room for breakfast. Sara’s mom had made pancakes and we sat around the table in our pajamas, talking and laughing about how much fun the party had been.
Unfortunately though, everyone’s parents soon started to arrive and it was time to head home. Before leaving though, we all agreed to try and fit in as many dance practices as possible during the next few days at school. The final dress rehearsal was scheduled for later in the week and we still had lots of work to do before then.
As Millie and I hopped into the back of my dad’s car, I overheard Sara commenting to some of the girls. “I can’t wait for the musical! It’s going to be amazing and I’m sure everyone will be in for a huge surprise!”
Just as I closed the door, I caught her glancing in our direction but the strange expression on her face carried a meaning that I couldn’t quite fathom. She waved as we drove off but the cold look was what worried me the most. Regardless of the party being hijacked by Sara, we had still thoroughly enjoyed it and now the musical was quickly approaching. I should have been full of excited anticipation but the sudden attack of nerves that I had been overcome with, caught me by surprise. Feeling tired and a little anxious, I leaned back against the head rest on the rear seat of the car and closed my eyes.
Oh no, NOT today….
The eve of the musical finally dawned and I had gone to bed early in order to get a good night’s sleep. Our dress rehearsal, had been a roaring success with every single item being performed almost to perfection. Miss Sheldon was beside herself with excitement. She seemed to think that it looked to be the best show the school had ever performed. At least since she had been teaching there, and she had huge expectations of a stand out extravaganza.
The tickets had all sold out and the office staff were asked to quickly print extras as well as hire more chairs to squash into the already very crowded auditorium. This was necessary to accommodate the overwhelming number of people who were keen to be a part of the audience. It appeared that almost half the town were coming and it was just lucky that the hall was big enough to seat everyone.
I rolled over in bed and closed my eyes, determined to fall asleep quickly so that the morning would arrive and I could begin the exciting day ahead. Then, what seemed like only a few minutes later, I was awakened by a noise outside my bedroom door.
Sitting up, I realized that it was our dog, Roxy scratching at the door and trying to get in. As I rubbed my eyes in an attempt to focus, I became aware of daylight streaming into the room from behind my curtain. Glancing at the alarm clock that sat on the bedside table next to my bed, I rubbed my eyes once more. With a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I grabbed hold of the clock and looked at the time again.
“Noooo!” I screamed loudly. “This can’t be happening!” With my heart racing like the beat of a pounding drum, I frantically sprinted out of bed, opened the door and looked out into the hallway. Ignoring the eager tail wagging and expectant look from Roxy, I bounded along the hallway and turned the handle of the bathroom door. But it wouldn’t budge.
“Oh no!” I grumbled loudly, then heard the familiar sound of my brother singing in the shower. “I need the shower!” I yelled desperately. “Hurry up!!!”
Of all mornings to have slept in! I just couldn’t believe that my alarm hadn’t gone off. I was sure that I had set it accurately the night before, thinking at the time that I certainly didn’t want to risk oversleeping and missing my bus.
“The bus! Oh, my gosh!” I yelled, running back into my bedroom to double check the time. The early bus was due in five minutes and there was no way I could get a lift to school. Because my parents both had a seven o’clock start on a Friday morning, I knew that they would have already left for work. I thought about my promise to Miss Sheldon, agreeing I would arrive early to help with all the setting up which still had to be done. It was blatantly obvious that I needed to get to school as soon as possible.
Deciding to go without a morning shower as I’d had one the night before, I threw on my clothes and grabbed the bag that I had already packed ready with everything I would need to take. Bolting down the stairs, I literally flew out the front door.
I don’t think I have ever sprinted as fast as I did that morning. But to my huge dismay, I arrived at the bus stop out of breath, only to see the bus pulling away from the curb. Yelling for the driver to stop, was a waste of time and I anxiously watched the bus head down the street.
Dropping my bag on the ground in disgust, I stood there in despair racking my brains for a solution. Waiting for the next bus was not an option; that would get me to school just before the bell and I needed to arrive much earlier than that, in order to get all the necessary jobs done. It was then I decided that I would have to walk. A fast walk along with running some of the way, would be the quickest alternative. And besides that, I was too worked up to stand there waiting 40 minutes for the next bus to arrive.
So off I took and just when I realized that I was actually making pretty good time, I felt some droplets of water on my face. Looking up, I spotted an accumulation of very dark clouds heading my way so even though I was already breathless, I forced myself to run. However, I was unable to beat the rain. At first it was a light sprinkle and then gradually became slightly heavier. Within minutes though, it was bucketing down and I was absolutely drenched.
Running through the school gates and trying to avoid a huge puddle of water that sat right in the middle of the driveway, the rubber bottom of my shoe skidded wildly. Feeling as though I was skating on ice, I slid recklessly across the slippery surface, desperately trying to maintain my balance. But then with an uncontrollable yelp, my legs went out from under me.
I hit the hard asphalt with a thud, landing flat on my back, my head coming down heavily with a bang. Dazed and very sore, I managed to stand, the rain still pouring down around me. By this time, I was absolutely saturated and had mud all over me along with a scraped and bleeding knee. I could already feel the throbbing lump starting to form on my head and I hobbled cautiously towards the Performing Arts building, not wanting to slip over again.
When I entered, the room was full of excitement and noise. People were scattered all over the place in various stages of preparation. I ducked under a ladder that was blocking the entrance and looked up to see Blake helping to hang a large banner.
“Not a good idea to walk under ladders, Julia,” Miss Sheldon warned when she noticed me trying to weave my way inside the door. “That brings bad luck you know!”
“As if I haven’t already had enough bad luck today!” I muttered miserably to myself.
Then all of a sudden she did an abrupt double take. “Julia!” she exclaimed in a worried tone. “You’re soaking wet! And what have you done to yourself?” She looked down at the blood oozing from the graze on my leg which now appeared much nastier than I had originally thought.
I could feel tears starting to form in the corners of my eyes but then noticed Blake climbing down the ladder towards me so I quickly brushed them away.
“I’m alright,” I said trying to muster a convincing tone. “I missed the bus, so I decided to walk to school. But it started to pour with rain and then I slipped on a puddle in the school driveway.”
“I’ll get a first a
id kit,” Miss Sheldon quickly replied. “I don’t really like the look of that gash on the side of your knee. I hope it doesn’t need stitches!”
“Oh, I’m sure it’ll be fine,” I said bravely as I looked with a frown at the blood that had started to flow freely down my leg.
“Blake, see if you can get something to press onto that gash and stop the bleeding. I’ll be back in a minute.” Miss Sheldon raced towards her office, on the way picking up a roll of paper toweling that had been left on a chair. “Here you go, use this,” and she threw it towards him.
I sat down while Blake held strips of the toweling firmly on my leg as I miserably watched pools of water dripping onto the floor around me. In no time though, Miss Sheldon was back and had cleaned the wound with antiseptic and wrapped my leg in a sterile bandage.
“It looks like you fell on something sharp,” she commented. “We’ll have to keep an eye on that. But in the meantime, why don’t you try and dry off. There’s some towels in the cupboard in my office and there might be some clothes in there that you can change into.”
“Thank you, Miss Sheldon!” I replied gratefully. “I actually have a change of clothes with me. And at least my back pack is waterproof, otherwise everything would be completely soaked, including my costume for tonight.”
Millie then spotted me and raced over, a worried expression on her face. Rubbing my head tenderly, and wincing with pain, I explained what had happened. When she realized that along with everything else, I also had a huge lump on my head, she ran to get some ice from the kitchen and then grabbed a couple of towels from the cupboard in Miss Sheldon’s office.
After putting on dry clothes, I gratefully accepted a cup of hot chocolate and a breakfast bagel that had been provided for everyone who had offered to help that morning.
Holding the ice pack to my head, I looked down at the tight bandaging on my leg and hoped that it wouldn’t restrict my dance moves. “Maybe I can just take the bandage off later,” I said to Millie. “The bleeding will have stopped by then and at least I’ll have more freedom of movement!”
She looked at me with sympathy and commented in her usual positive manner, “Well, thank goodness you got here, Julia! The show just couldn’t go on without you!”
Grateful for her caring friendship, I smiled warmly and sipped the soothing drink which was helping to make me feel much better. Then with a determined resolve, I got to my feet and set myself to work. There was lots to be done and I knew that I needed to get started. We had a show to perform and nothing was going to stop it from being the best show ever. We had all worked so hard and I knew that it had to be a roaring success!
I spent the morning helping as much as I could. Although the throbbing pain I was feeling in my head had seemed to intensify, I focused my thoughts on the celebrations we would be having later that night, over the wonderful show we had performed.
And then suddenly out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sara Hamilton walk into the room.
Overwhelmed…
“Oh, Julia!” Sara wailed, as she headed in my direction. “I just heard about your accident. Will you be able to dance tonight?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine,” I abruptly assured her.
“Are you sure?” she asked, exhibiting what looked like a semblance of sympathy. “I wondered if you might be out of action! That would be such a terrible shame after all your hard work.”
“Nothing will keep me off that stage tonight, Sara!” I declared in a determined voice.
“I thought it would have to be something terrible for you not to perform,” Sara responded. “After all, you’re pretty much the star of the show, of the dancing segments, anyway.”
“Sara you have the lead role in our dance now, but regardless, it’s a team effort and I think everyone will be stars tonight,” I stated firmly.
I really wasn’t in the mood for her games and hidden meanings. I just wanted to focus on getting organized and right then, I had a splitting headache and a really stiff and sore knee.
“By the way,” Sara added. “Miss Fitz wants to see you. It’s about the headbands for the girls’ hair that you were meant to bring with you today.”
“The headbands?” I asked, a sinking feeling forming in the pit of my stomach.
“Yeah,” Sara replied. “Remember I gave you the message from Miss Fitz yesterday afternoon? She arranged for your neighbor to do some last minute sewing and you were meant to bring them with you to school today.”
“Sara, I don’t remember you telling me that,” I said, looking at her in complete puzzlement.
“You’d better go and see Miss Fitz,” she replied. “She’s freaking out in there because a lot of people haven’t followed through with various commitments that they’re responsible for. Miss Fitz and Miss Sheldon are complaining that some of the committee members should have been more organized.”
Approaching her office apprehensively, I could see as I entered that Miss Fitz appeared quite stressed. “Miss Fitz,” I stammered hesitatingly. “Sara said that you wanted to see me.”
“Julia, please tell me that you brought those head pieces to school with you today?” We need them to keep the girls’ hair pinned back. That dance that you choreographed for them has their hair flopping around everywhere and this is the last finishing touch.”
“I know they need them, Miss Fitz but I wasn’t aware that I was responsible for collecting them.”
Just as she was about to take a deep breath and probably let fly with an angry retort, I asked if I could use the phone to call my mom. “She should be able to call in and pick them up,” I explained hopefully.
“OK, and please be quick, there’s still lots to do!”
Sighing with relief, I put the phone down a few minutes later. Mom had agreed to get the head pieces. I just prayed that our neighbor was at home. I knew that she usually headed off to visit her sister on Friday afternoons and often stayed there for dinner. But hopefully she might have left them out for someone to collect.
I crossed my fingers and sneaked out of the office, deciding that I should stay out of the way of my drama teacher. But I understood how stressful the whole situation was. Organizing something that was the magnitude of our school musical was a mammoth task and any number of things could go wrong.
Thinking again of Sara’s words, I tried to recall her mentioning the message the day before but had no memory of it whatsoever. “Am I really becoming that forgetful?” I wondered. “Or is there just too much on my mind right now?”
As I thought about it some more, desperately searching through my memory banks, I could not bring myself to recollect Sara giving me the message from Miss Fitz.
Looking in Sara’s direction, I could see her in a corner of the hall, laughing with Blake and some of the other boys. They were obviously enjoying her company and she was definitely thriving on the attention they were giving her.
She must have felt my eyes on her because she abruptly glanced my way and then with a little smirk, turned her back on me to refocus on the group of boys once more.
A feeling of doubt started to weave its way through my mind and tingles of apprehension began to build. Trying to force the worried thoughts away, I headed towards Millie and a group of other girls who were busy with the list of jobs that still had to be done.
Still absorbed in my thoughts, I failed to notice a wooden box that had been left lying in the middle of the floor. It was only small and the tawny brown color blended in with the floorboards beneath it. I didn’t realize it was there until it was too late and I felt myself suddenly being propelled into mid-air. Desperately trying to regain my balance, I let out a loud yelp. This is something I have a bad habit of doing and rather than avoiding attention, it always alerts everyone around me. Of course, this occasion, was no different from any other and my squeal of fright drew all eyes towards me.
Landing heavily on top of the box, I could not stop the tears that began to flow down my cheeks. The humiliation and em
barrassment of everyone staring at me and rushing to see if I was ok, was just too much to bear; that and the sharp pain that was added to my already throbbing leg. But the worst part of all was Sara’s voice over all the others, “Oh my gosh, Julia! What is wrong with you today? I hope you don’t fall over in our dance tonight! Are you sure you’re going to be alright to perform?”
Throwing a black look in her direction, I didn’t trust myself to reply for fear of bursting into a crying fit and embarrassing myself even more.
As Millie helped me to my feet and then to a nearby chair, the feeling of overwhelm that had engulfed me was like a bottomless pit I was frantically trying to climb out of.
The day I had been looking forward to for so long, had gone from bad to worse and I desperately hoped that no more terrible things would happen!