The Truth About Bobby Paulson – 2
Prompt: It was the day before, and nobody was ready.
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“I can’t believe you’re not ready yet,” Sally scolded.
Jenny rolled her eyes and looked at her friend over her black rimmed glasses. If only Sally had even the slightest idea of what they’d been up to over the weekend, she might not be haggling her now.
“Sally, no one is ready. Not without Bobby. I don’t have any idea what we’re going to do now..”
“Bobby? Bobby had an understudy. We’ll be fine.”
“You’ve got to be kidding! Bobby’s understudy? What a joke. Larry couldn’t make it to even half the rehearsals and doesn’t have a single line memorized! And seriously.. Even if Bobby were here.. were you at the last rehearsal? I may have said I’m not ready, but I’m way more prepared than the rest of the cast.”
Sally sighed heavily and gazed off down the nearly empty hallway. “I suppose you’re right.”
Right or not, it was the day before the opening of MacBeth for the high school drama team, and nobody was ready. Nobody. They were going to have to cancel. But that didn’t bother Jenny at all, it just meant she had more time to do some digging.
As she suspected, Bobby’s file from the administration’s office yielded nothing but random personal information. And Jenny was just sure that there was something big going on that they were covering up. So why would they want to put it in his file? Talk about an easy paper trail. No, she was going to have to be a lot sneakier and a lot smarter if she was going to get to the bottom of this. Especially considering the security guard at the school that night had seen Jenny, Ted, and Tommy leaving the campus after breaking into the administration office. Had he seen the file that Jenny had hastily tucked in her sweater? Did he have any idea what they had been up to? She was quite sure he didn’t.. but he had still seen them. That meant that their faces meant trouble to him, and that could cause them problems in the future if they had any more such slip-ups.
Yes, extra caution would have to be used from here on out.
“Jenny?” Sally was looking at her as if she was waiting for an answer to a question. She’d been so lost in thought that she hadn’t heard a word Sally had said. “You look like you’re a million miles away, hon. You okay?”
“Yep, I’m fine.” Jenny smiled.
Ted came walking in the front doors of the school building and caught Jenny’s eye.
“Gotta run, Sally. I’ll chat with you later.” Sally raised a hand as if to try and stop her friend, but Jenny had already trotted half-way down the hall to meet Ted, her long red wool skirt bouncing along with her as she held her books tightly against her black cardigan clad chest.
Jenny smiled broadly at Ted, her blue eyes meeting his deep brown ones as her blond pony tail gave one last swing before settling in place on her back. Ted smiled back at her briefly before looking over her head and down the hall at Sally.
“What were you two little hens talking about?” he asked.
“Nothing special. Just the play. Don’t worry.” Jenny smiled as she made a motion of zipping her lips.
“Ah, good.” he said, relaxing for a moment. “Oh! The play! Man.. was she wondering about Bobby at all?”
“No. Not really. I think she was hoping that his understudy would just step in and fill the role. Perhaps a little relieved since he’d been so scattered and disorganized before he left.” Jenny answered, wrinkling her face. “I think she’s let this whole directing thing go to her head. It’s as if the play is suddenly more important to her than anything else.. even her friendships.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ted said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sure she’ll calm down once it’s over.”
“Yeah.. I guess..” Jenny said, resisting the urge to look over her shoulder at her friend, not wanting her to know they were talking about her.
Just then, the principal’s door opened and Principal Wilson stepped out with the night guard that they had seen last Friday. Uh-oh. Jenny thought. The guard spotted them and turned quickly to say something in Principal Wilson’s ear. He listened carefully and set his gaze upon the pair of teenagers.
“Theodore, Jennifer.. may I speak with you two in my office for a moment?”
