Willa sighs and rolls her eyes. “I’ve got some bad news to share, lovelies. One of your fellow students had to leave the program this morning due to a family emergency. That leaves us one actor short.” I look around to try and figure out who’s missing, and I know right off. The shaggy-haired guy with the guitar. Jude gets up to hand Cole a script, and Lex elbows me hard in the ribs. “And,” Willa goes on, “since we don’t have any other musicians in the group, Cole has agreed to step in. He’ll be playing the part of Orion, opposite Avril.”

For a second, I think I must have misheard her, but then Willa turns to look at me, and there is so much in her eyes. She smiles, and my heart almost explodes.

“Yes!” Lex shouts. “I fucking knew it!”

I reach for my script with a shaking hand, and Jude leans down to whisper in my ear as he hands it to me. “Nobody else was even close,” he says. “It had to be you.”

“And now that we’re all here”—Willa gives Cole a pointed look—“we might as well jump right in. We have less than four weeks to get this show up and on its feet, so screw your courage to the sticking place, my lovelies. Everyone on your toes!”

We start with some warm-up exercises. Stretches and vocalizations led by Jude. I try to breathe deep. Relax my spine. Find my center. But I keep accidentally finding Cole’s eyes instead.

Then Willa claps her hands together. “Okay. Let’s take it from the top. I need Eden and Orion onstage for scene one, please.”

Cole grabs an old acoustic guitar that’s leaning against the stage manager’s table, and Willa gestures to a small wooden bench, the only real piece of scenery we have so far. “This first scene takes place in the park. Eden, when the lights come up, you’re sitting on the bench there, eating lunch and reading your book. Orion enters, walks up, and sits down next to you. Got that?” Cole and I both nod. “Good.” Willa gives me a reassuring wink. “And so it begins.”

I sit on the bench, and Cole walks up and looks around before sitting down beside me. He leans the guitar against his knee, and we read from our scripts.

ORION: I’ve read that book. The one you’re reading. It’s good. The ending isn’t very nice, though. It made me sad.

EDEN: I like it. So far, anyway. I haven’t read very much.

ORION: Do you mind if I sit here? I’m Orion.

EDEN: I know.

ORION: You do?

EDEN: I saw your band play at the club last week. I thought you were really . . .

ORION: Awesome?

EDEN: Loud. Actually, I was going to say loud.