Miss Fern exits the sound booth, and I shoot a playful glare at Ezra. “Seriously?”
He shrugs. “What? She needed help. You should be thanking me.”
I roll my eyes, but a smile fights its way onto my face.
Ezra and I, alone in this sound booth together?My stomach swims at the thought. And Little Birdie will definitely have to write about it.
I spend the majority of my free time working on the draft for that next post, and by the time I’m supposed to sit in that booth with him, I have it all ready to go.
Since all the music is digital, I’m needed in here much earlier for rehearsals because there are so many sound cues. All Miss Fern’s homemade music will be played from the sound booth by me.
Dot and I head to the auditorium after school on Wednesday, and my stomach won’t stop twisting the entire way there. I’m not sure if it’s nerves or excitement.
The theater is empty except for a few tech kids running cords along the stage and Miss Fern talking to the costume crew in the wings. In the green room, Meredith, Carlton, and the rest of the cast are running vocal warmups.
Dot smiles at me. “I’m going to join them. Break a leg up there with the sound.”
“Thanks.” I make my way to the booth. The lights are low, but the booth at the back of the auditorium glows softly. I’m on my phone, posting about working in the sound booth to my social media so it won’t seem suspicious when my scheduled Little Birdie post about this hits. It’s perfect timing for my Wednesdaydeadline. Just as I tap “schedule post,” Ezra opens the door for me like a gentleman and follows me in.
“Welcome to the command center,” he says, dramatically waving his arm like we’re entering a spaceship.
I snort. “That was way too enthusiastic.”
“Just setting the tone. This is where the magic happens, Rue. Try to keep up.”
Inside, the booth is surprisingly cramped, with just enough room for two rolling chairs and the large soundboard made up of sliders, knobs, and switches. The tiny space smells faintly of dust and peppermint gum.
Miss Fern pokes her head in behind us. “Ezra, thanks again for helping with this. As you already know, Rue, you’ll be cueing in the sound from this booth. You’ll also have access to some lighting, but that’s limited to house lights and some special effect cues. The spotlight stuff will be up in the rafters, operated by the light crew.”
I nod. “Got it.” My voice sounds calm, but inside I’m reeling about sitting up here with Ezra, close enough to smell his deodorant all afternoon. Which, by the way, smells unfairly good. Like clean laundry and something vaguely nostalgic I can’t place.
Ezra plops into the chair next to mine. He arches a brow, and a smile tugs at his lips. “Are you ready?”
I roll my eyes, but I’m smiling, too. “Yep. How does this spaceship work?”
He gives me a generic rundown of how it works, and then I try testing everything out. I try not to bump his arm with mine, but it still happens. The space is just too small, and Ezra is too big, and he leans so close to read the cue sheet that our knees keep brushing.
At one point, he reaches into his school uniform jacket and pulls out two granola bars. He tears into one and sets the other on the table in front of me without a word.
I raise an eyebrow. “Is that for me?”
“Of course. Everything is better with snacks.”
I open the wrapper and take a bite. It’s cinnamon raisin. My favorite. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
As we cue in the sound according to the script, Ezra says, “This is kinda like gaming.”
“You’re such a dork.”
He flashes a cute grin. “You say that like it’s new information.”
At some point, I look up and catch our reflections in the booth’s glass. I’m leaning over the board, and Ezra is watching me instead of the lights. And I realize how this must look to anyone in the theater.
Good. They need to believe it.
But through our reflection, I can’t help but watch Meredith and Carlton on the stage. Even though there’s something off about Miss Fern’s dialogue, their chemistry is clearly there. It makes sense why she likes him. But for her sake, I can only hope he’s not leading her on the same way he did with me.
