Page 121 of The Executioners Three
“Call him again,” Mom said, her knuckles pressed against her cheekbones. “He’syourboyfriend.”
But he wasn’t. That was part of the problem here. Theo and Freddie hadn’tdefined their relationship, and for all she knew, he might never answer another phone call from her again.
“I have tried six times now.” Freddie glared at her mom, narrowly missing Mr. Binder as the two of them performed a complex line dance of anxiety behind the Lumberjack Pageant stage. Freddie’s gown swished around her anachronistic duck boots with each step. “Theo knows what time they’re supposed to be here.”
“And we are now past that time.” Mr. Binder hugged his script to his chest. Like Freddie, he was dressed in the pseudo-1600s lumberjack gear(he would be playing Lumberjack Number Three tonight). Unlike Freddie, he had wisely added a puffer jacket over his costume.
“Was it all a prank?” Mom asked, her face sagging with despair. “Was it all a part of your wretchedwarwith Fortin Prep?”
That thought had most definitely crossed Freddie’s mind. How else to explain why none of the Fortin students had shown up tonight? They’d come diligently to the rehearsals (except Theo, who’d been in the hospital). They’d accepted their costumes,andthey’d all definitely said they’d be here by seven o’clock on Halloween night.
But nope. Not a one was here, not even Theo.
The sounds of the audience billowed against the curtain. They were impatient for the pageant to begin (and, in turn, for the Most Outrageous French Accent Contest to begin).
“Freddie!” Divya zipped around the stage, her eyes huge. She was dressed like a super-sexy (and definitelycold) skeleton. Right behind her was a nunchaku-toting skeleton who, like Mr. Binder, had wisely chosen to wear a jacket atop her costume.
“What is the holdup?” Divya asked, forcing Freddie to stop pacing. “People are getting impatient, and Kyle actually suggested driving his Jeep into the stage again.” Divya glanced at Laina. “I don’tthinkhe was serious?”
Laina shrugged. “With him, it’s hard to tell.”
“Divya, it causes me great pain to say this, but…” Freddie screwed her eyes shut. “I fear that it was indeed a prank all along, and now the Fortin students will not be showing up for the pageant. But before we all freak out!” she added, snapping her eyes wide again. “The show will go on! Frederica Gellar in three acts is still an option. Just give me that script, Mr. Binder.”
She thrust out a hand.
But Mr. Binder didnotgive her the script. “There are two of us, Freddie. We know the story well enough that I’m sure we can ad lib a show.”
“We can help too!” Divya cried. “I mean, we’re dressed like skeletons—”
“Sexy ones.” Laina grinned at her girlfriend. (Yes,girlfriend,sincetheyhad actually defined their relationship.)
“—but that doesn’t mean we can’t help. And I know Cat and Luis’ll help too. And Kyle… well, I’m not sure I’d trust him near the stage.”
“Yeah, no.” Laina made a pained expression. “But definitely the rest of us can help.”
Mom sighed, a sound that was likely the Most Dejected Sound in the history of Dejected Sounds. “I supposeashow is better thannoshow. And maybe I can put a fifteen percent discount on the cider, so Elliot Harper won’t get cranky and write a mean editorial in the paper like two years ago.”
“Don’t worry, Mom.” Freddie clapped her hands onto her mom’s shoulders. She was in Prank Wizard mode, on the prowl for the easiest solution with the broadest impact. “We’ll make you proud. I’ll get this show started as Traveler Number One—all alone and weary of the world. Laina, you’ll get the rest of our cast assembled. And Divya, you get your French accent ready because you’re up next as Berme Resident Number Two.”
As Laina shot off and Divya bent over the script with Mr. Binder, Freddie gave her mom an overly cheerful thumbs-up. Then she rolled her shoulders and stomped up the steps onto stage.
The instant she pushed through the curtain, though—upon which was the painted scene of a snowy logging settlement—the whole crowd went silent. It didn’t matter that the stage light wasn’t on; Freddie was hardly invisible.
Andwow,there were a lot of people out there. The entire town, of course, with Bermians clustered into any space beside the heaters that they could fit. In fact, this might be the most crowded the fête had ever been.
Which was great for Mom’s annual budget. Not so great for Freddie’s sudden onset of stage fright—a sensation she’d never felt before. Then again, she’d also never been called to perform on the stage where she’d nearly died and watched her not-a-boyfriend nearly die too.
It was kind of a lot. Even if no one else here remembered what had happened, Freddie sure did.
Someone coughed. Freddie’s eyes shot to Steve, dressed as a ghost with white strips of cloth all over his body that made him look more like an unraveling mummy than a proper haunting. He was mouthing something Freddie couldn’t decipher.
Then a phone rang. Adoodle-loo doo, doodle-loo doothat transported Freddie back into Mrs. Ferris’s attic before her whole life had unraveled.
Then someone in the crowd dropped an f-bomb in a way that suggested they’d just spilled hot cider all over their pants.
Then,Freddie realized what Steve was trying to tell her.HE IS ALMOST HERE!That’s what her stepdad was mouthing—and also why he was now pointing toward the Village Historique’s distant entrance.
Where sure enough, if Freddie squinted past La Taverne, she could just make out a stampede (or was it aherd?) of lumberjacks thundering this way. At the front, jogging in a way he absolutely wasnotsupposed to be jogging, was Theo.
