— — —
“There you are!”
Diego felt a dainty hand grab his. When he turned around, he almost expected to see Ricky, but the voice was wrong. Although it was nearly as familiar. Mindy Beaumont was smiling at him as students swarmed past them in the school hallway. He gave an upward nod. “How’s it going, princess?”
“Fine,” she replied before seeming to realize that she was still holding his hand. She let go with a blush. “Are you on your way to class?”
“Nah. It’s my lunch break.”
Mindy perked up at this. “Oh! We have the same one? I’ve never seen you in the cafeteria.”
Diego jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “I usually eat in my car. Or when the weather’s nice, I sit on the hood.”
“Doesn’t that make it hard to steer?” Mindy teased.
“Yeah,” Diego said, “but the bigger problem is getting bugs out of my teeth.”
“Ew!” she said with a giggle.
Diego tilted his head while grinning, reminded of how pretty she was. The tousled ginger hair that stopped just short of her shoulders, the petite nose covered in light freckles, and the pale skin that turned pink so easily… Like it was doing now.
“Are you meeting anyone for lunch?” she asked.
“Nope. You?”
“I always sit with Silvia. She’s my best friend. You could join us.”
“Omar’s girlfriend?” he asked, already tempted to accept, because flirting with her would torture his former friend. Although he didn’t like the idea of doing so in front of Mindy. “Some other time, maybe.”
“Oh. Well, I was wondering… Did you happen to see that the theater group is holding auditions?”
“No thanks,” Diego replied with a snort.
Mindy’s face fell. “How come? You were so wonderful as the Beast! And everyone liked working with you. Me especially.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yes! Didn’t you have fun?”
He shrugged. “I guess so.”
“Oh stop.” Mindy swatted his forearm. “I could tell how happy you were after the play. You couldn’t stop smiling.”
“You were watching me?” he asked. Mostly to see her blush again. But he also wanted to know.
“You were the star,” Mindy said. “And could be again.”
“Uh-huh. What about you? Are you gonna be up there on stage?”
“Never!” she cried. “Absolutely not. No.”
“Then count me out.”
Mindy clasped her hands together in front of her chest. “Please? You liked working with Whitney, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. She’s cool.”
“Well she probably won’t get the role of Maria because Sharks can’t be white, which is weird and maybe the point. All I know is that it’s been a real pain in the butt to cast this play. But you could be Maria instead of Tony, and she could be Tony instead of Maria.”
Diego narrowed his eyes. “Is this some sort of crossdressing thing?”
“No. It’s hard to explain. But I think it could be really neat. If you’d only try.” Mindy put on a pleading expression. “Please? For me?”
“All right,” he said, amused by her behavior. “But only if you promise to audition too.”
“What?!” Her expression became a mask of terror. “I told you… I can’t!”
“Then I can’t either.” He turned as if to walk away. “Nice seeing you again.”
“Wait!” She grabbed his arm. “I’ll do it.”
“For real?” he asked, amused by the wavering panic in her blue eyes. Didn’t she realize that none of this mattered?
Mindy took a deep breath before nodding with determination. “As long as you actually audition. And try your best to get the part. And then accept the role if offered.”
“That’s a long list.”
“I know. But it would make me really happy. The others too.”
Diego wasn’t sure about that. And he didn’t care. But for whatever reason, he didn’t want to let her down. Besides… “I wanna be there when you audition. You can’t phone it in either. Those are my terms. Agreed?”
Mindy swallowed before nodding rapidly. “After school today?”
“Yup. See you then.”
She did a little skip before hugging him. Diego kept his hands to himself. But it did feel good. He watched her race off down the hall, already shaking his head at himself, because no part of him wanted to be in another play. Even though it had been sort of nice to belong to something.
He kept thinking of that during the rest of the day, believing in it less and less. People were scared of him. That’s the only reason they had been so nice. And they’d only liked him as the Beast because of that same fear. Although playing a shark or whatever wouldn’t be so different. He could do it all again. Principal Preckwinkle would hate that. Which was nearly motivation enough.
When he walked into the auditorium, a number of people called him by name and seemed genuinely happy to see him there. They kept asking if he was going to audition. Diego shrugged off their expectations while searching the rows of seats. His gaze lingered on Keisha. She nodded in acknowledgement and he did the same in return before they steadfastly ignored each other, like they’d agreed freshman year. Mindy was just a couple of seats away. Diego approached from the opposite end of the aisle and plopped down next to her.
“If I land this gig,” he said to get her attention, “are you going to glue a shark fin to my head or something lame?”
“It’s not like that,” Mindy said after giggling. “The Sharks are a street gang. They’re tough and cool.”
She was clearly trying to sell him on the role.
“Next up,” Keisha called out, “Byron and Laureen.”
A guy and a girl took the stage. Diego didn’t recognize them, so they were probably juniors or seniors. Keisha hit a button on a boombox. As soon as the song began, the couple started to dance. Without much confidence until they found the right rhythm.
Diego leaned close to Mindy. “Good thing we aren’t trying out for that role.”
Mindy’s eyes went wide, her lips pressing together.
“Right?” he pressed.
“I know you can dance,” she squeaked. “Omar told me.”
“Omar?” he asked incredulously. What did he have to do with any of this?
“Very good!” Keisha shouted before stopping the music. “I don’t suppose either of you can sing?”
The couple on stage shook their heads.
“That’s okay. Make sure we’ve got your contact info, please!”
Diego glanced around, despite having already seen enough. “This is a freaking musical?” he asked incredulously.
Mindy nodded. “About rival street gangs. Knives are involved. And a gun!”
“Whatever,” he scoffed. “That still doesn’t make it cool. I’m out of here.”
He was rising from his seat when Keisha called out another set of names. “Mindy and Diego? You’re up!”
He turned to look at her in surprise. They were supposed to dance? Together? Mindy withered beneath his stare before turning to Keisha.