"True love is visible not to the eyes but to the heart, for eyes may be deceived."
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"I feel pretty! Oh so pretty! I feel--" My giddy pirouette around the imaginary dress-maker's room during rehearsal the next week was cut short as someone came running from backstage shouting: "Fire! Fire!" The next few minutes were a blur. Mr. Hayes and other men rushed backstage with fire extinguishers and those of us onstage were herded outside across the street where we stood, huddled together in fear.
Tom Glover, a quiet dark-haired young man who was playing Tony, ran out of the theater a few minutes later and told us with somber eyes that we could go back in. His gaze was especially dark on me but I didn't understand why until he showed us where the fire had been.
I gasped when I stepped to the doorway of the small closet where the musicals' costumes were being kept and saw the charred remains of the costumes for Maria. The oily smell of lighter fluid hung in the air, giving no doubt to all that stood there that this fire had been no accident.
"There's something else too..." said the same boy who had shouted "Fire!" He kicked aside a burnt piece of cloth to reveal the same blood red, messy handwriting that I was all too familiar with. This time the message read: "THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MY ORDERS ARE DISOBEYED. -TG" With trembling fingers, I reached into my pocket, retrieving the latest note from TG that had been in my locker earlier that day, reading: "YOU DEFY ME? FINE, PREPARE TO FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!" Someone took the note from my hands and gasped out loud.
"Christine, where did you get this?" asked Mrs. Lucas grimly.
I tore my gaze away from the smoldering costume remains to the equally grim sight of her face. "I don't know," I replied with a shrug. "I've been finding them in my locker... I thought it was just a joke..." I continued, my eyes drifting back to the scrawled message on the floor.
"Well, we're not laughing," interjected Mr. Hayes looking stern. I assured them that I had no idea who sent the notes or who had set the fire and they made me promise to tell them if I got another note. Eventually the mess was cleaned up, orders were placed for new costumes, rehearsal was canceled for the night, and I waited alone in the theater once everyone had left. Well, maybe not completely alone...
"Ready, Christine?" Erik asked, appearing at the piano with a swirl of his black coat. "We need to go over 'Tonight.' Your breathing was a bit off..."
Later, after my lesson, Erik was playing lightly on the white keys, his motions smooth and complete as always. I watched him for a minute, thinking about something I had decided to ask but never had the nerve to. Before my courage deserted me, I spoke. "Erik." He stopped playing and looked at me. Beneath his intense gaze I floundered a bit but continued. "Want to fill out an application to Julliard with me?" He just stared at me. Why can't the visible side of his face be easier to read? I moaned inwardly then hurried on while I still had momentum. "I've already gotten some from the guidance office, we'll have to prepare some audition music but I'm sure you will make it, I have no doubts about your abilities... but I was hoping you might help me with mine..."
The silence was tangible and I resisted the urge to twirl my hair in a nervous gesture. Finally he blinked and seemed to deflate against the force of my words. "I suppose I have to look at prospective universities sooner or later..." He looked up at me, a rare grin stretching the corner of his mouth. "What are the requirements?"
"In my opinion, the relationship is not worth continuing if that certain something isn't there," said Marisa, her voice sounding a bit tinny in the ear-piece of the phone. We had gone from the comedic antics of a teacher at school, to what had happened at the latest musical rehearsal (a piece of scenery had almost fallen on me), to relationships and guys.
"What do you mean? What 'certain something'?" I sat up on my bed, trying not to sound too eager. Lately, I had been wondering about my relationship with Rod. I liked him but I didn't know if my feelings were love or the more friendly type.
"Well... like the first time you kiss. There should be like... fireworks, music, just something spectacular, you know? The tingle of electricity that goes from your head to your feet, the incredible, indescribable feeling that you feel when in love. There has to be some sort of chemistry there. Also, above anything else I think that the person you love should be your best friend. Someone who you can tell anything, someone who will want to share life with you through the ups and downs..." She chuckled. "Someone who'll still love you after discovering that you have morning breath."
"Yeah..." I grinned wryly. Rod and I had never kissed... and if that's what it took to find out how I felt about him, maybe it was time that we should... "Speaking of chemistry, some girl in chemistry today was talking about, I think she said, the 'Dance in Disguise'?"
"Oh that!" Marisa sounded excited. "It's a major party-dance thing that we do on the night before Halloween every year or on Halloween, depending on when it falls. It's a huge deal at our school, people go all out for costumes and spend about the same about of money for it as they do prom. We usually have it in the courtyard if the weather cooperates. Oh, and the most important part is that to get in, you have to have a mask on so that you aren't recognizable right away. It's lots of fun, I went as a freshman and sophomore but I didn't get to go last year. I'm forgetting something... something that happens during the dance... what is that?... It'll come to me later I guess."
"Hmm... Halloween falls on a Friday this year... and opening night for West Side Story is Monday, the third of November..."
"It plays Tuesday night too, right?"
"Yeah. Only two nights..." My mind was no longer on the conversation. Masks! Erik could go, and not feel so out of place! I was so lost in those types of thoughts that I didn't bother to think what Rod might do.