Just Grace, Star on Stage Read online

  Every time I visit Augustine Dupre, I do a special knock on the door so she knows it’s me. I started doing this because of Crinkles. When I was at the door, Crinkles could stay in Augustine Dupre’s apartment, but if Dad was at the door, Augustine Dupre had to grab Crinkles and put him outside super fast. That’s because Dad had a No Pets in the House rule, but after we got Mr. Scruffers, he pretty much had to change that.

  At Augustine Dupre’s wedding, Dad found out about Crinkles and how Augustine Dupre had been sneaking him into her apartment. It was a surprise for him, but he surprised us back, by not being one bit upset about it.

  WHAT I HAD TO GET USED TO

  Now that Augustine Dupre is married, it’s not always her that answers the door. Sometimes it’s her husband, Luke. At first this was kind of weird, but now I’m kind of used to it—plus in the daytime, it’s still mostly Augustine Dupre. Luke is a UPS deliveryman, so he works in the day.

  After I knocked, Augustine Dupre answered right away. Sometimes I get lucky and she’s in the middle of making something yummy like croissants or cookies, but today she wasn’t. As soon as she opened the door I told her all about the play and how I needed her help. Mom says it’s nicer to do a little chitchatting before you ask for something, but I was too excited for chitchat. I couldn’t help it.

  Augustine Dupre was surprised. It took her a minute to get her brain used to my question. She put her hand on her head and said, “Well, that was a long time ago. Let me think.”

  I watched her while she was doing her thinking and tried to imagine her on stage. Sometimes when you get new information about a person it can change the way they look to you. I had never noticed it before, but Augustine Dupre really does have an actress look. For a half-second I even felt a tiny bit shy, but then it was gone and I was back to normal.

  MY VISIT WITH AUGUSTINE DUPRE

  Augustine Dupre and I like to do most of our talking while sitting at her kitchen table. Usually she offers me lemonade or something, but today we didn’t have anything. I guess she was too busy thinking about acting to think about snacks.

  At first I was kind of disappointed with her advice, because she was saying things like You have to be yourself; Don’t be afraid; If you feel good about yourself others will too. This is the sort of stuff Mom says, and she’s not even an actress. I didn’t want this kind of advice. What I needed were real acting tips, the kind of things to help me get a starring part.

  Augustine Dupre likes talking, but she really loves talking about acting. I didn’t know this. She talked for a long time, and then at last, after what seemed like forever, she finally said something good.

  AUGUSTINE DUPRE’S ADVICE

  Be loud and clear; Do not whisper. If you are on stage people in the back of the audience will want to hear you. Practice projecting.

  THE IMPORTANT FUN THING I LEARNED

  Augustine Dupre gave me a lesson in projecting. Projecting is not what it sounds like—it has nothing to do with pictures.

  The most important thing about projecting is that you have to do it without shouting. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Augustine Dupre said I would for sure get better at it if I practiced. I was hoping she was right.

  I told her I was going to be the best projector around, and then we both laughed, because that sounded funny. The only one who did not think projecting was fun was Crinkles. As soon as we started making our voices louder he jumped off the sofa and ran to hide.

  WHAT I DID AFTER I LEFT AUGUSTINE DUPRE’S APARTMENT

  When I came back upstairs I told Mom about projecting, and then I gave her a demonstration. Mr. Scruffers was not like Crinkles. As soon as I did the loud talking she got excited and started barking. This gave Mom the idea to send me outside to take Mr. Scruffers for a walk before dinner. This was not what I wanted to do. I wanted to practice acting stuff instead.

  THE LUCKY THING

  Just as I was putting on my shoes the doorbell rang. It was Mimi and her little brother, Robert. Before I could say anything Mimi said, “Can Robert run around in your backyard with Mr. Scruffers? He needs to burn off some energy. He’s driving us all crazy.” I looked down at Robert. He nodded. Mom must have been listening, because she shouted at me from the other room.

  I grabbed Mimi’s arm and pulled her to the back door before Mom could change her mind. As soon as I opened it, both Robert and Mr. Scruffers took off running. I’m not sure how Mr. Scruffers feels about being chased by Robert, but I’m sure how Robert feels about it. He loves it!

  HOW TO BE A GOOD FRIEND

  Even though Mimi does not want to be in the play she practiced projecting with me. The backyard was perfect for it, because there was lots of space and we could move back and test out if we could still hear each other.

  Mimi was really good at it—better than I was. It was lucky that she was not wanting to be on stage, because if we were competing, for sure she would get it. Mimi said she was probably good at projecting because of all the shouting and yelling she did at Robert. She was right about that—Robert listens more if your voice is loud and yelling. That’s probably how an audience worked too.

  We stayed outside until Mom called me in for dinner. I was glad about that because my throat was hurting. People might think acting is easy, but it’s not—even just the talking part is hard work.

  THE THING THAT HAPPENS AT BEDTIME

  Every night before I go to bed I do the same three things.

  Put on my pajamas.

  Brush my teeth.

  Flash my bedroom lights on and off for Mimi.

  Mimi and I are super lucky. Our bedroom windows are right across from each other. Usually stuff like that only happens on TV.

  Once I was in bed I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on imagining myself as an actress. I don’t know how you’re supposed to control a night dream, but imagining yourself as the thing you want to be right before you fall asleep seems like it could work.

  The first thing I thought of when I woke up in the morning was I didn’t dream anything!

  WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT

  I got disappointed, and then I got grumpy. It was the first time ever that I was mad about a dream that didn’t happen—a not dream. Sometimes after a bad dream you can be sad, but this was different. It was the nothing that was making me sad.

  WHAT MADE THINGS WORSE

  As soon as I walked into the kitchen Dad said, “What’s wrong with you? Did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?” Saying stuff like that to a grumpy person is a bad idea. It does only one thing, and that one thing is make the grumpy person even grumpier!

  WHAT MADE THINGS BETTER

  I made a face at Dad to show him I was mad at him, but it was wasted because he was eating his oatmeal and didn’t even look up.

  As soon as Mom saw me, she knew something was wrong. She came over and put her hand on my shoulder. “Did you have a bad dream?” she asked. For a half-second I thought about lying and saying yes. Mom is always super nice to me if I’ve had a bad dream. But it’s hard to lie so early in the morning, so instead I just told her the truth.

  I was surprised. I thought she would tell me I was being silly, but instead she gave me hug and said, “It’s hard to be disappointed.” She was right. It is.

  WHAT MIMI SAID ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL

  When I told Mimi about my not-happening dream, she said something that made me feel a whole lot better.

  By the time we got to school, both of us could hardly wait for class to start. This was unusual. If Miss Lois had known it she would have been excited.

  WHAT TREVOR SAID WHEN EVERYONE GOT INTO CLASS

  “Can we talk about the play instead of doing work?” Usually Trevor says stuff that no one else agrees with, but today he said exactly what everyone else was hoping for, too. When Miss Lois nodded yes and smiled, we all knew that Trevor had asked the exact perfect question at the exact perfect time. Trevor put his arms up and said, “YES!” He was probably thinking, Finally, I’ve done something
right.

  WHAT WAS HARD TO REMEMBER

  Everything Miss Lois told us about the play. She said a lot of stuff. After she finished explaining everything she gave us some handouts to take home.

  Miss Lois told us to put them away, but not everyone listened to her. Sammy snuck a peek—I saw him. Suddenly he was waving his paper in the air and shouting. “The show is going to happen in only two weeks! It says so right here. Look, it’s on page three!” Instantly Miss Lois stopped smiling. She hates it when people don’t listen to instructions—plus Sammy had done two other things wrong too.

  WHY SAMMY WAS IN TROUBLE FOR SURE

  That was three mistakes all at the same time. I could tell what was going to happen next, and it was not going to be good.

  WHAT MISS LOIS DID THAT SURPRISED ME

  Instead of getting mad Miss Lois said, “We’ll talk about the play for ten more minutes, just to clear up some details, but then that’s it.” Of course everyone had questions, but Miss Lois said, “No questions. I’m the only one who is going to do the talking, and I’m going to tell you why I’m excited about the play.”

  THE THING MISS LOIS WAS EXCITED ABOUT

  Miss Lois said her favorite thing about the play was that it was going to be a great learning tool. Right away that probably made everyone feel a little less excited. I don’t know how she could have missed Owen 1 making a loud groaning sound, but she did.

  She said, “The play is equal parts fun and learning.” When a teacher says this, you can’t always believe them about the fun part. Grownups have different feelings about fun than kids do.

  WHAT HAPPENED AT LUNCH

  Even though we were supposed to keep our play handouts in our backpacks, we didn’t. Everyone wanted to know as much about the play as possible. It was a good thing to do, because there were a few things on there I didn’t know about.

  THE NINE THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT THE PLAY FROM MISS LOIS

  The play is about the life cycle of plants.

  It is not going to be just a long list of boring facts. (She promised!)

  There is no singing or dancing.

  The main girl part is the forest fairy queen.

  The main boy part is the king.

  The other main part is the narrator, which sounds kind of boring.

  The other characters in the play are forest fairies, king’s knights, and talking trees and animals.

  There are lots of ways to help with the play without being in it. You can make costumes, make the sets for the play, make the program for the play, and lots of other stuff.

  The play director is Ms. Perry and she is very nice and very fair and she is also a real actress.

  THE TWO THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT THE PLAY FROM THE HANDOUT

  If you want a starring part you have to go to an audition.

  The show is going to be at night in the auditorium, and we get to invite guests.

  The last page was all about the auditions. I’m glad I already knew what that was. Some of the other people didn’t.

  Everyone who wanted to have a main part or be a king’s knight or forest fairy had to go to the audition. There was a form for parents to sign and it must have been super important because in big red letters it said, MUST BE RETURNED TOMORROW. If you wanted to be a talking plant or a talking animal you didn’t have to audition—I guess anyone could do those parts.

  Right away I could tell that getting the queen fairy part was not going to be easy. There are girls who play pretend fairies every day at lunchtime. For sure some of them were thinking that they would be perfect for the fairy queen part. I looked around the playground to see if I could see them, and there they were: Olivia, Marta, Grace W, and some girls from another class, all dancing around like perfect little fairies. They were good. Mimi saw me looking at them and said, “You’d be a much better fairy.” It was a nice thing for her to say, but they were experts at moving their arms around gracefully and skipping around on their tiptoes. Just because your name is Grace does not mean you are graceful.

  THE ONE THING I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO HAPPEN

  WHAT I DID WHEN I GOT HOME

  I took Mr. Scruffers straight outside so I could practice doing fairy moves in the backyard.

  WHAT MR. SCRUFFERS DID NOT LIKE

  Mr. Scruffers had never seen me do fairy arms before. It took a lot of “No!s” before she finally stopped jumping up and trying to grab my sleeves.

  Mom must have been watching me from inside, because after a few minutes she came out to see what I was doing. It wasn’t one bit funny when she said, “Are you trying to be an octopus?” After I got upset, she said she had only been joking, but part of me didn’t know if I should believe her or not. Octopus arms were definitely not something I wanted to do at my audition.

  After Mom went back inside I tried to move my arms differently so I wouldn’t look so much like a sea creature, but it was hard to get the octopus picture out of my brain.

  WHAT AUGUSTINE DUPRE TOLD ME

  Augustine Dupre must have seen me too, because all of a sudden she was outside as well. It’s hard to do fairy arms in front of an audience. I stopped moving and suddenly felt kind of embarrassed. “What are you doing?” she asked. I told her about the fairy queen part, and how I had to do an audition to get it. I was hoping that she knew some fancy fairy secrets, but she said no, she didn’t know anything about being a fairy. “If they want you to act like a fairy, they will teach you to act like a fairy,” said Augustine Dupre. “I think you will have more luck if you keep practicing the projecting.” And then she said the thing that made me feel a whole lot better. “I don’t think good fairy arms is going to get anyone the part of the fairy.”

  WHY THIS WAS GREAT NEWS

  Because my fairy arms looked more like octopus arms.

  Because Marta will not get the starring part the minute she walks into the room.

  Because my arms were kind of tired.

  As she was walking away I asked Augustine Dupre one more thing. “Can you come to the show?” She turned around. “Grace, I’d love to!” she said. “Thank you.” Augustine Dupre had never come to my school before. Just imagining her being in the audience and watching me on stage was exciting. I think it was a good luck sign.

  WHO DOES NOT LOVE THE THEATER

  Mom and Dad! They have no appreciation for the fine art of acting. After only about five minutes they made me stop practicing my projecting at the table.

  Mom said it was annoying, and Dad said his ears were starting to hurt.

  I told them that it was going to be their fault if I didn’t get the part in the play, but they didn’t care. Mom said, “Go practice in your room.” But I had a better idea.

  In the shower, I was the queen of projecting.

  WHAT WAS UNUSUAL

  I woke up super early. For some reason, I couldn’t wait to get to school. Nothing exciting was going to happen, but still I wanted to get there—it must have been play energy.

  On most days Mimi comes to my house to get me, but today I was ready early, so I went to get her. It took her a while to get to the door. She said that Robert was being annoying and hiding all her stuff. As soon as Robert heard me he came running up to see me. “Hi, Grace!” he shouted. I was just saying hi back when all of a sudden Mimi grabbed him. “Where’s my other sock?” She gave him a serious look and pointed to her feet. She was wearing one blue sock and had one bare foot. Mimi made a pretend angry face, but Robert wasn’t scared. “The sock monster took it!” he shouted. Then he squirmed away and ran off laughing. Mimi rolled her eyes and said, “I’ll never find it. Let me put on different socks. I’ll be right back.” While I was waiting I decided to practice my fairy arms, just in case. That’s probably why I didn’t notice Robert sneaking back into the room. And that’s definitely why I didn’t notice him getting ready to throw Mimi’s rolled-up sock. But I did notice being hit on the side of the head. Something like that is hard to miss.

  THINGS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE

&nbs
p; Nobody likes to get socked. Most often it will make you mad, but sometimes the mad part depends on other things too.

  I looked at Robert, and even though I was a little bit mad, I had to smile. He was so happy with himself—plus he was giggling like crazy. I threw the sock back, but he missed catching it. He was a better thrower than a catcher. By the time Mimi came back downstairs we were throwing it back and forth from the hallway all the way to the kitchen. “Well, that’s helpful,” said Mimi. “Don’t encourage him.” “Too late,” I said. “He’s encouraged. Plus he’s a good thrower.” “Yay! I’m a good thrower,” shouted Robert. Then he said it over and over again, nonstop. I couldn’t tell if he was being annoying on purpose or by accident, but it was nice not to have to stick around to find out. “Time to go!” said Mimi, and we walked outside and closed the door.