I considered him. He looked miserable. If he was hating rehearsal this much, maybe he should quit. He could walk out of here right now and forget it ever happened.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you one hundred percent certain you want to be in the musical?”

He sighed. “I don’t know. I wanted to try. I knew I might not like it, I knew I’d probably be bad at it, but I just had to… try.”

“Why?”

“There might be some… personal reasons,” he mumbled, his face going pink.

Personal reasons? I sucked in a breath. Oh my God—Harrison joined the musical because he liked someone in the cast? My chest squeezed, because Colleen would be all over this. She was a romantic—in love with people falling for each other and doing embarrassing things because of it.

Awwwww! I could practically hear her squealing. You have to help him!

Suddenly, I really wanted to. His dumb romantic plan was going to work, damn it.

I grabbed the CD player, gestured for Harrison to follow me, and went out the back door into the lobby. “Okay, look,” I said, finding an electrical outlet. “The fact that it’s hard for you to act like an overconfident creep is a good thing in general. It’ll take practice, that’s all.”

Harrison raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yup. Now, watch my arms.” I pressed Play before I could think better of it. As the jaunty drumbeat and swirly strings kicked in, I made my body go loose-limbed. Then I did the dance, infusing each step with a cocky sureness. When I finished, Harrison’s eyes were wide.

“How did you do that?”

“You just have to do what the song tells you. And do it confidently. And relax your shoulders. Try it again.”

It looked marginally better this time. Still stiff, but definitely less painful to watch. Laney and Ada came out of the auditorium just as Harrison got to the part where he was supposed to start twirling the line of girls, and I had an idea. Laney was probably too young to be his costar crush, but maybe it would help him get into character if he danced with an admirer for a bit.

“Hey, Laney. Do you mind partnering Harrison for the spin part?” I asked.

Laney dropped her backpack with a thud and came over, nervously giggling. “Yeah, I guess I can do that.” Ada sat on the floor, breaking out a pack of Skittles like she was at a movie theater.

I had Harrison and Laney go through the combination a few times. My plan was kind of working. Laney’s bubbliness was loosening Harrison up, making him take himself less seriously and lean into the movements.