Chapter 3

I leaned back, taking my fingers off the keyboard and flexing them. I decided that writing wasn't nearly as easy as I'd thought it was. Especially writing to a deadline. The other play had been easy, but then, it had been nothing but a bunch of songs held together by a little dialog. Now the dialog had to tell the story.

And on top of that, just when I was trying to think, 'How would this character say that?' I found myself thinking, 'Robbie expects a first draft tomorrow.' No pressure, it's not like Robbie is a perfectionist or anything. I wonder if the Foreign Legion is still taking recruits.

I think my biggest problem was while I was trying to write something on page twelve, I'd think of a better way to say something back on page three. If I didn't spend so much time going back and forth, I could have finished three plays in the last week.

I looked over at Tami. She was sitting cross-legged on my bed, her laptop on her lap, typing away. She must have felt my eyes on her.

"What?" she asked, looking up and brushing a wayward strand of hair out of her face.

"Just looking."

She smiled, looked down, and finished typing something. "How's it coming?"

"Slowly. Think we can talk the foundation into waiting for spring?"

Tami laughed. "Now that you mention it, there was something on the website about moving the competition to the spring, to make organization easier. But that's next year. This year, you're stuck."

"You're a lot of help," I said disgustedly.

She shrugged.

"Do you realize that every other member of the committee is off on a date tonight and we're slaving over computers?"

Tami shrugged again. Traci and Peter had gone to the movies with Kelly and some kid I'd never heard of. Mikee was seeing a different movie in the same multiplex with Billy Toland, a kid in my class and a guard on the football team. Darlene and Robbie had both gone out to dinner, though neither mentioned who with.

"I'm here. You're here. What more do you need for a date?" Tami asked.

"It occurs to me that I'm here and you're here, and better yet, my sister is gone for a couple hours, and my parents have decided to have another weekend alone. Two teenagers alone in a house. That give you any ideas?"

Tami grinned. "Yeah, we can get a head start on our reading for European Lit."

I sighed. I was beginning to understand most guys' attraction for dumb blondes.

"Tell you what. What page are you on?"

I glanced back at my monitor. "Halfway through page twelve."

"How many pages?"

"Probably twenty-five to thirty."

"Okay, here's the deal. Finish page fifteen before Traci comes home, and I'll spend the night."

"You'll..."

Tami grinned. "Mom's in Wenatchee. She said I could spend the night. I may have forgotten to mention your parents were gone."

I grinned right back at her. "And what happens if I only finish fourteen-and-a-half?"

Tami sighed. "Then I guess I spend the night in Traci's room like Mom expects."

I turned back to my computer and started typing. I wasn't sure it was going to be coherent, but there was damn well going to be more than fifteen pages.

About an hour later I wrote END OF ACT TWO and saved the file. All sixteen-and three-quarters pages of it.

I looked over at Tami. She was in the same position typing away.

"You look cute on my bed like that," I said.

She looked up. "You sound pretty smug. You must have finished page fifteen."

I grinned. "And page sixteen and most of page seventeen. I think you need to talk your mom into spending Saturday night in Wenatchee too."

"Do I get to read it?"

I turned back to the computer and pressed two keys. "It is printing as we speak. So what are you working on?"

Tami blushed. "I'm, uh, not sure."

"Okay," I agreed.

"It's just, uh, you know how you say some secrets aren't yours to share?"

I nodded. I understood, even if I didn't like having my own words come back at me.

"This is just something I heard about, and I was doing a first draft and making notes on how to investigate."

"Okay," I agreed again.

"I want to tell you, but..."

"Tami, I do understand."

"I... Damn! I hate secrets."

"Tell you what, save the file, blank the screen and forget about it. I have."

"One thing?"

"Yes?" Her 'one thing?' was so syrupy that I was on my guard.

"Do you still have the passwords to hack the school paper?"

I could feel my eyes getting big. "Tami, my mother was so proud of me not getting suspended last year."

"Tony, she knows you. She's not expecting it two years in a row." I hated to admit she was probably right.

"The Committee to Undertake New Theatrical Sensations will come to order."

"You can use the acronym if you'd like," I said.

Robbie didn't dignify my suggestion with a response.

We were all back in my living room with Peter watching. Mostly he watched Traci. From the puppy dog look on his face, I guessed they'd had a pretty good date. They'd come back from the movies about ten, and he and Traci disappeared into her room 'to talk' for about an hour. I would have let Kelly borrow my room, but her boyfriend had to go home. His mom had driven.