The Lion King

 THE LION KING

BY SERENA DUGAN

Oh god. What if my voice cracks in the middle of a song? What if I trip during a dance number? What if I forget to go on stage entirely! “Shut up,” I muttered to myself. “That’s not going to happen.” Even though I said the words, I didn’t sound too sure of myself. I was performing the Lion King! It had a lot of African words that were hard to pronounce, high notes and low notes, choreography, and beautiful set pieces that were way too easy to break. This was REAL theatre! Still, I tried to shake the jitters out and slipped on my too big jazz shoes. Ugh, junky old camp shoes. I wish the costume department would’ve given me better ones. I called from across the bunk to where my friend was sitting. “C’mon Misha! Jason will not be happy If we are late for putting on costumes.”

 “Okay, okay. What’s with you. You nervous?”  She looked a bit concerned. I felt kind of weird about putting my baggage onto my friend that was excited about the show, so I tried to smile 

“A bit. Let’s go!” We both got cast as lionesses in our musical, and I had been really excited until today. Now everything just felt… off. Still, I forced my feet to run down the steep hill separating the bunks from the rest of the camp. We crossed the red bridge and sprinted through the wooden buildings painted rooster red and milky white. We ran up the vibrant green hill and onto  the pavement.

 There was our theatre, The Playhouse, It was one of the oldest buildings. We bounded up the creaky old steps and high fived Jason. He was really nice and funny but had a really strict side. It came out when people didn’t try and when people were late.

“Glad you decided to show up.” He joked.

 “We were right on time!” Misha said defensively, crossing her arms. 

“Okay, Misha, But who’s the director? Me or you?”He laughed. “Get inside. The girls costumes are on the left wing. Ask Taylor to help you find them.” Taylor was the helper and my counselor. She was playing the antelope in one of my scenes. Pretty nice of her to let a bunch of 11 year olds dressed as lions pretend to eat her. Having her be in the musical helped my nerves, but not by much. Those butterflies were getting angry. I gulped them down and grabbed Misha’s arm. “Let’s go see Taylor!” I said, faking cheerfulness. She jumped up and down. 

 “I am so excited. I bet the costumes are amazing!”

   “Hey girls!” Taylor exclaimed in her thick Australian accent. She was from Sydney and she came to America every year as a counselor for this camp. A lot of the counselors did.  

“Hey Taylor. Mind helping us get our costumes? We don’t know where they are”

“No problem. I’ll get your costumes right away,” She started flipping through the clothing rack that stretched from wall to wall. “ Nope. Nope. That show was last year, oh! Here we are.” She handed Misha a tan leotard and a striped pattern skirt with a yellow background and brown stripes. 

   “Thanks!” A disappointed pout flashed across her face. “I thought it would be cooler.” Immediately her face cleared up, realizing Taylor was giving her a look. “No biggie, though! The play’s gonna be awesome!” She declared, Grinning like a madman. Misha held up her costume. “I’m gonna go change. Later!” 

Despite my nervousness, I laughed. Misha could be a lot sometimes, but she knew how to make people smile.

“Okay. Now that Misha’s out of the way, let’s look for your costume.” Taylor said. “There’s your leotard, but where’s your skirt?” She asked herself. 

“Look down in the boxes.” I suggested. “Maybe it fell in.” She rummaged through the boxes filled with old props. When it wasn’t there, she looked in other places. Soon, we had searched the whole left wing. We scanned the dusty cobwebbed corners, searched the fire red floor, and practically flipped over the long wooden table. No skirt. Panic and terror crept into my throat, choking me and making it hard to breathe. When I get scared, I try to cheer myself up by joking about it, like throwing candy to the actors at a haunted house,  But not this time. I flopped onto the bed and my eyes welled up. “What If we don’t find the skirt?” I asked, voice shaking, trying to stay calm. “I’ll be the only lioness without a skirt!” I said voice getting louder and higher. Sensing my panic, Taylor tried to calm me down.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll find your skirt” She soothed “I’ll send Steve from costumes to get you a new one.” She reassured. I felt a bit better. She mumbled into her walkie talkie. “There,” She said confidently, hands on her hips. “He’ll be here in a while. “I hope he gets here in time.” I muttered to myself. What will I do if he doesn’t? 

 I groaned. 

       “I’m going to miss the whole musical! Everyone else will be wearing costumes and looking great, but I’ll be in bike shorts and a shirt. I’d ruin the whole thing!” 

    “Drama queen.” Taylor said, mock being annoyed. I threatened her by  throwing a prop pillow at her. 

“It is not that funny!” I laughed. “My crippling stage fright is nothing to joke about!” Taylor laughed, and I was caught in the moment, worries and fears melted away. “Alright, Serena. I’m gonna go help out some other people in the right wing. All that hair stuff and measurements. See you later!” 

“Bye!” I said, still grinning. I sat on a prop tree stump. At first, I thought hey, this isn’t so bad! But after a few minutes of looking around and paging through old scripts, I felt kind of… lonely. It was an uncomfortable thing.  laughter started to fade away. People were talking and joking around right outside, but I felt isolated. 

Cold. They had things to do. I don’t want to bother them. Fear knotted my stomach. 

I waited, and waited. My fear growing stronger, Like a black slimy consciousness, whispering in my ear and crawling all over my spine, infiltrating my stomach and making me want to force out the chicken tenders and tater tots I had at the dining hall this evening. I sang my favorite songs, and thought about going back home to the sweet sound of an air conditioner Two more days. No use. That black wave of poisonous, suffocating, fear kept coming back. I scanned the area. The other kids I’d developed friendships with after three weeks of practicing songs with. Girls trying on their costumes. Something that I don’t have, even though I was one of the first ones here. Lucky. A bit of envy mixed with that fear, but I instantly felt guilty. It wasn’t their fault they got their costumes and I didn’t. 10 minutes left until the show starts. “If that Steve guy doesn’t get here soon I’ll be in huge trouble.” I grumbled. That thought does not help my anxiety. Ugh. I guess I’ll never be in the I looked up from my sorrow and saw a man carrying my… 

         

“SKIRT!” It was like a package being delivered from heaven with trumpets blaring in the background. I did a little victory dance, pumping my fists into the air and a wide grin stretched wide across my face, teeth and all. Joy and relief washed me clean, and got rid of most of my fear. (Hint: key word is most) I pulled my skirt on. Right after my moment of relief I felt something else: Terror. The show was going to start In 5 minutes! People were probably already there! I peeked from behind the curtain and what do I see? People. It was probably only 150, but It felt like a million. All the eyes seemed to simultaneously shift to me. What are they thinking? I imagined the thoughts in their heads. Ugh what kind of costume is that? I bet the show’s going to be horrible. I’m only here to be nice. I feel bad for them. So little people compared to all the other performances! I was freaking out. I heard Jason call out a team meeting, so I took a shaky step to the backstage.

      “Listen guys,” Jason’s confident voice filled me with a smidge of hope “You guys have been some of the best workers I’ve known. Your show is going to be amazing. You’ve all worked so hard and honestly, the show looks Incredible. I just want to thank you guys for having the best junior’s show I’ve seen in a long time.” This might just sound fake and corny, but Jason is not easy to please. It’s really hard to get him to be really proud of something. But we’ve done it. I’ve done it. 

He could be wrong. A little part of me thinks. Then Taylor comes over to me. 

     “You might not know it, but you’re an amazing and talented kid. You’ll do great. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.”  Her eyes shone with pride and I knew she wasn’t lying

     “Thanks. I needed that.” She just didn’t know how much I needed that. 

 I ran to get ready for the start of  the musical. There was no time. My eyes shone with courage. There I was, waiting in the right wing, Misha beside me. 

“You know what’s funny?” She whispered. 

“What?” I asked 

“The whole time I was getting ready, I was terrified. But now, I feel kind of calm,” She laughed quietly. “That sounds kind of weird, right?” 

 “No, not at all.”

Suddenly,  it was my turn to go up. I stepped onto the stage and just sang. It’s the Circle of life… We were nearing the end of the song. No mistakes! The last verse was sung. The first scene was over. I heard  thunderous clapping. I searched the crowd and found my parents. They were going crazy. The audience was hooting and hollering.

It was music to my ears.