The Show Must Go On! Read Online Free Page A

bottomhung backstage. When a student shook the tin sheet, it sounded like thunder.
    Bree smiled widely, picturing all these elements coming together on the finished set to create Carrie’s bedroom— her bedroom.
    â€œBoo!”
    Bree jumped, startled by Melissa’s sudden entrance.
    â€œDon’t sneak up on a person in a haunted house,” Bree scolded her best friend. “Even if it’s not finished yet. Don’t you know anything?”
    â€œI know that Tiffany is still sulking,” Melissa replied.
    Bree turned to face the back of the room and saw Tiffany sitting by herself, flipping through her copy of the play, shaking her head in disapproval.
    Ms. Hollows entered the auditorium and hurried down the center aisle. She paused at the foot of the stage for a moment, taking in the vista of Carrie’s bedroom. Then, giving a quick nod of approval, she climbed the stairs and walked out to center stage.
    â€œLadies and gentlemen,” she began. The buzz of excited conversation that had been humming through the auditorium stopped instantly. “I thank you all again for volunteering to be a part of this play. Thank you tothe set decorators and technical volunteers. Now, may I have all the actors up onstage, please?”
    â€œHere we go, Bree!” Melissa said excitedly as the two made their way onto the stage with the rest of the actors, including Tiffany, playing the ghost; the boy playing Carrie’s elderly neighbor; and the boy and girl playing Carrie’s parents, as well as a few others.
    â€œYeah, here we go,” Bree echoed, still unable to shake the twin feelings of excitement and nervousness.
    â€œReady to put on a fantastic play, everyone?” Ms. Hollows addressed the cast. The actors on stage nodded, some more vigorously than others. Bree was somewhere in the middle. Tiffany’s eyes were glued to the floor.
    â€œAll right then,” Ms. Hollows continued. “Let’s start from the top. Scene one. Rachel, Laura, and Carrie. Places, please.”
    Bree, Melissa, and Dara Marinelli, the girl who’d been chosen to play Laura, sat in a circle in the middle of the stage. They began rehearsing the scene.
    RACHEL: Nice, Carrie. The place looks like it was decorated by a wrecking ball!
    CARRIE: Cute. You know we only moved in a few weeks ago. My family and I haven’t had a chance to fix it up yet. I just couldn’t wait to have my first sleepover. It helps to make it feel like home.
    LAURA: Yeah, if your home’s been condemned!
    CARRIE: Ha-ha-ha! Come on, you guys. We should—
    (SUDDENLY LIGHTNING FLASHES AND THUNDER RUMBLES.)
    LAURA: Eiii!
    CARRIE: Laura?
    LAURA: Sorry, I’m just a little afraid of thunder. I—
    (THE THUNDER SOUNDS AGAIN . . . LOUDER THIS TIME. LAURA SCOOTS OVER CLOSER TO CARRIE. SUDDENLY THE CHANDELIER OVERHEAD FLICKERS ON AND OFF, AGAIN AND AGAIN.)
    RACHEL: Okay, now I’m officially creeped out. I—
    CARRIE: Look!
    (CARRIE POINTS TO THE CHANDELIER. A FLASH OF LIGHTNING REVEALS THAT THE CHANDELIER IS SHAKING UNCONTROLLABLY. EVERYONE SCREAMS.)
    â€œOkay, let’s take a break, everyone,” Ms. Hollows called out. “Very good start.”
    As the girls in the cast sat down on the edge of the stage to get their notes from Ms. Hollows, the lights in the auditorium began to flicker again. But this time it was not just the stage lights that flashed on and off. Every light in the room twinkled.
    â€œPlease leave the lights on!” Ms. Hollows shouted impatiently to the technical crew backstage.
    â€œIt’s not us, Ms. Hollows!” Tyler Lahari, the boy running the lights, replied, sticking his head out from backstage. “We didn’t touch the lights that time!”
    Then the entire auditorium went completely dark.

CHAPTER 4
    â€œFlashlights!” Ms. Hollows shouted out.
    Several members of the backstage crew came running out with their flashlights