Chapter 57

The Show Must Go On

At lunch the next day, it seemed that we weren't making any progress. Samina was still a little too excited about getting her poetry into the school literary magazine and Candace had big news for us.

Candace was one of those people who had too much to say and not enough time to say it, so she always talked extraordinarily fast. She talked even faster when she was excited. So when Candace told us the news, she was talking so quickly I could barely make out individual words. What I heard sounded something like, "Ican'tbelieveitohmygoshI'mthehostfortheschoolvarietyshow!!!"

"What did you say?" Samina asked.

"I'm hosting the school variety show! I'm SO excited!" Candace shouted. "You see, they usually pick one of the seniors, but they picked me. I really don't know why, but they said I have a lot of school spirit and I have the right personality for it."

"Well, congratulations!" Samina said. She gave Candace a high five.

"That's great!" I said.

"Yeah, but I'm kind of nervous," Candace said. "I bet I'm going to screw up."

"You won't," I said.

"Easy for you to say," Candace said. "You're good at this sort of stuff."

"No I'm really not."

"Yes you are! You were great at the city council meeting."

"Thanks, but I had to prepare a lot for that. I suspect you will have to also."

"I know," Candace said. She sighed. "I really don't know what I'm doing with this."

"Don't worry about it," I told her. Talking about the variety show had sparked an idea. I didn't know if it would work, but it was worth a shot. "Candace, how much control do you have over the show?"

"Kind of a lot, why?"

"Do you have a charity picked out to donate the proceeds to?"

"No."

That was all of the information I needed. Now I was sure this was a good idea. "What if you donated the variety show profits to our project?"

Candace squealed in delight. "That's a great idea! Why didn't I think of that myself?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, it was kind of obvious."

"Isabelle, you're a life saver, you know that, right?" Candace said. "I don't know what I would do without you."

I decided not to mention that this was my project, not hers. "Thanks! You've been a huge help with this too."

"That's what friends are for!" Candace shouted. "Hey Samina, maybe you could do an act in the variety show? Like sing one of your songs or read some poetry?"

"No thanks," Samina said.

"Come on!" Candace said. "You'd be great!"

"But all those people..."

"Are going to love you!" Candace interrupted. "Just audition at least? Please?"

"Maybe," Samina said quietly.

"That's better than no!"

I relaxed a little. Finally, we were making some progress. I knew the variety show would be fun too, although I didn't really want to participate. I didn't really have a talent I could share. It would be fun to watch though. For once, I was honestly really excited about where this could go.

"But will it work?" I asked the Magic 8 Ball.

Cannot predict now.