Page 12 of Welcome Home to Ivy Falls

Chapter Five

PIPER

Emotional Sensors

Today was all about good luck charms. I was wearing my favorite T-shirt, my softest jeans and a pair of worn-in purple Converse that felt like slippers. The topaz and jade rings I’d collected from all my travels sat perfectly on my fingers. Even though I’d shampooed it twice, the scent of coffee still lingered in my hair so I tied it back in a braid with my best scrunchie. It felt silly to wear every special talisman I owned, but I needed this first rehearsal to go smoothly because it would set the tone for the whole production.

I pulled in a full breath before I opened the doors to the lobby of the theater. Fake potted plants and red velvet benches sat in the corners of the room. More framed posters of shows like Avenue Q and The Heights lined the walls. To the right of the entrance sat the glass-encased box office with its arched window and single high-back chair.

I could do this. They were kids. I was a kid once. How hard could it be?

With confident strides, I marched toward the theater doors and yanked them open. What I saw inside had me quickly slamming them shut.

That urge to run again overtook me until I considered the way Miss Cheri had looked at me with such confidence yesterday. How she swore I could handle this.

I stiffened my shoulders, tipped up my chin and flung the doors back open.

The scene inside the theater was what I imagined the circus would look like if all the animals and clowns were let loose at once.

More than a dozen kids raced around the hundred-year-old space. Some were screaming. Others were singing along to a rap song blaring out of a portable speaker.

The pungent scent of old paint and decaying wood swept over me as I stalked down the center aisle. Small puffs of dust floated up around my feet as I moved. I’d spent a lot of time here when I was a kid, but I didn’t remember the place being so ancient and musty.

When I reached a set of side stairs, I climbed them and marched onto the stage. The entire time my mind was spinning.

Why had I thought this was a good idea?

I didn’t know anything about kids.

And, sadly, did I even deserve to be here after everything I’d done?

I pressed a hand to my lips. Grounded my feet on the stage. My pulse raced. A thousand dire scenarios swirled in my head. I closed my eyes. Counted out what I could hear, smell, feel. My pulse slowed and rational thought took over.

If I understood anything, it was acting. It’d been my passion since I was a kid. Hell, I had my first small role here when I was seven playing a cub in a production of The Lion King.

I steadied my feet before placing two fingers against my lower lip and blowing out the loudest whistle I’d ever conjured.

The chatter stopped immediately.

‘How’d you do that?’ a boy standing below the stage asked. He quickly followed it with, ‘Can you teach me?’

‘That’s not on the schedule today,’ I said in the most adult voice I could muster. Kids started to talk again, chase each other up and down rows, until I called out, ‘If you want to be part of this show, you will find a seat by the time I count to five.’

This had always worked for my mother when she was pissed at Beck and me, and I hoped it’d work now.

The kids kept laughing, running, until I said, ‘Five, four…’ I paused. ‘I can call parents.’

It didn’t take long for them to put their butts in the red upholstered seats in front of the stage. Like magic, the music disappeared too.

‘Good,’ I said firmly. ‘Looks like you all understand instructions.’

The weight of a dozen stares landed on me. My hands began to shake again and I shoved them into the pockets of my jeans. Again that doubt about whether I was capable of doing this job raced through my brain.

It’d been over two years since I’d gotten my shit together. I wanted to be a bigger part of the Ivy Falls community; that was why I’d volunteered for this job. But kids were emotional sensors, and they’d smell fear on me in an instant.

I rolled back my shoulders and pulled the folded paper out of my back pocket.

‘Welcome to the first day of rehearsals for Mary Poppins Jr. I’m Piper Townsend, the volunteer director for the show. Today, we’re going to do a read-through of the musical.’