Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen - Dyan Sheldon [74]
“I’m going to do what I promised.” I grinned. “I’m going to tell the truth.”
The mood at that afternoon’s rehearsal was nervous. Nervous and tense. I exchanged polite greetings with everyone except Carla, but that was as far as conversation went. You could tell the others were all waiting to see what would happen between Princess Santini and me.
I gave away nothing until we were ready to start.
“All right!” boomed Mrs Baggoli. “Places, everyone!”
“Mrs Baggoli?” I stepped to the edge of the stage. “Mrs Baggoli,” I said loudly and clearly. “There’s something I have to say before we begin.”
The expression on Mrs Baggoli’s face was like a sigh. Opening night was only three days away. She didn’t want any interruptions.
“Now what?” asked Mrs Baggoli.
I held my head up, bathed by the spotlight. “Mrs Baggoli,” I said. “I have a confession to make.” My eyes met hers. “A confession and an apology.”
Someone made a gagging sound from behind me.
“A confession?” Mrs Baggoli smiled a little uneasily. “A confession about what?”
“I did a terrible thing, Mrs Baggoli.” I spoke slowly, with dignity, dragging the attention of everyone to me.
“Lola…” Mrs Baggoli laughed a little. “What on earth have you done?”
I took a deep breath, the moral torment I’d been enduring showing in my face. “I borrowed Eliza’s dress,” I said flatly. “I’m really sorry, but I honestly felt that I had no choice.”
“Eliza’s dress?” Mrs Baggoli repeated. “No choice?”
I nodded. “Yes.” I shook my head. “No, I really had no choice.”
Mrs Baggoli, to her credit, picked up her line automatically.
“But why?” she asked. “Why would you borrow Eliza’s dress?”
You could have heard a feather crash to the floor, the room was so quiet. Even Carla Santini wasn’t saying anything under her breath – for a change.
“So I could go to the Sidartha party,” I informed her.
Mrs Baggoli frowned. “The Sidartha party?”
“But you didn’t go to the party,” said Henry Higgins. “Carla said—”
I turned to him with a small smile. “I know what Carla said … but it isn’t true. Ella and I were at the party.” I clasped my hands together, looking beseechingly at Mrs Baggoli. “It was Sidartha’s last concert,” I explained. “I had to go…”
“Oh, please…” Carla groaned. “When are you going to give up, Lola?” she demanded. “No one’s interested in your lies any more. First you lied about being invited to the party and now you’ve come up with this ridiculous story about Eliza’s dress—”
“But how could you possibly have taken the dress?” Mrs Baggoli was asking. “The cupboard’s always locked.”
“There are ways…” I said vaguely.
“Oh, sure,” muttered Carla. “Now you want us to believe you’re a lock-picker as well as a liar.”
Mrs Baggoli scowled in her direction. “Carla, if you don’t mind…” She turned back to me. “And where is the dress now?”
“I put it back in the drama room.”
Mrs Baggoli got to her feet. “Well, there’s one way of settling this,” she said more or less to herself. She marched off out of the room.
Carla took advantage of Mrs Baggoli’s absence to take centre stage.
“You really are too much, you know?” she declaimed. “I don’t know where you get off, thinking you can manipulate everyone the way you do. Just because we don’t come from New York City doesn’t mean we’re stupid, you know.” She glanced around at our fellow actors, so they’d understand that she was including them in this.
“You’re the one who manipulates everyone,” I hissed back. “You treat everybody like they’re puppets. Everything you say is a lie.”
“Here comes Mrs Baggoli,” said Colonel Pickering. He sounded relieved.
Both Carla and I smiled as Mrs Baggoli came back in the room.
“Well, the dress is back in the cupboard,” says Mrs Baggoli. “But in all honesty, Lola, I have to say that it doesn’t look as though it’s been touched.” She sounded relieved, too.
“That’s because Stu Wolff had it cleaned.” I nearly laughed out loud. At last I had my chance to explain – and to an eager audience. “You see, just as we got there, Ella and I saw Stu Wolff leave the party, and we followed him. It’d been raining all afternoon, so the