Ripple Effect by Sylvia Taekema Read Free Book Online Page A

blackboard at the front of the room. Mr. B. had just announced that Oz was going to be the school play this year.
    “I’m glad to see you’re so excited,” said Mr. B. when the buzz began to quiet down a little. “I knew you would be. Over the next couple of days, I want you to think about what role you’d like to play. You can choose to be a character or a member of the backstage crew, but we’re going to need everyone to be involved somehow. We’ll have auditions in a week or so, and then we’ll assign parts. There will be acting, singing, costumes, makeup, set design and, most of all, a whole lot of fun! All right, everyone to their seats now, please.”
    Jason took his seat and leaned toward Dana. “You should try for the lead.”
    Dana glanced behind her to see if he was talking to someone else, but there was no one there. “What?” she asked.
    “You should try for the lead. In the play.”
    “You mean the part of the Wicked Witch?” asked Mickey, sitting over in row three.
    “No,” said Jason, shaking his head. “I mean Dorothy. Seriously, I think you’d be great.”
    “Me?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Really?”
    “Really.” He nodded. “You like dogs.” He cocked his head, trying to remember what it was she’d said about dogs. “Right? And you’re funny. I’d like to be the Scarecrow, I think, or maybe the Tin Man. Yeah, the Tin Man,” he said with a grin. He looked at Mickey. “Who do you want to be? A Munchkin?”
    Dana sat down at her desk. She’d been thinking of signing up for the backstage crew. Should she really try for the lead? Jason thought she could do it. Was this the way to make him keep noticing her? But just what did he mean by funny ?

Thirteen
    FOR THE NEXT few days, the play was the only thing anyone talked about. Groups of girls walked around outside with their arms linked, chanting, “Follow the yellow brick road.” Or they huddled together at their desks, whispering and cackling like witches. Someone was really good at it. Probably Julia .
    Dana didn’t do any chanting or cackling. She felt like she was hovering on the edge of all the excitement. No one was actively excluding Dana, but things just felt different. Her place had always been with Janelle. Now she felt cut off from her roots, rolling around like a tumbleweed.
    Jason’s words continued to float around in Dana’s head. Should she try out for the lead? The whole idea made her feel light-headed. It meant learning a lot of lines. It also meant she’d have to sing! Normally, Dana would have asked Janelle her advice, but they weren’t really speaking these days. Julia, on the other hand, had lots to say. She couldn’t stop talking about how Janelle just had to be Dorothy.
    “She has such beautiful, long hair that she could wear in pigtails, just like Dorothy,” said Julia.
    “But it’s blond,” said Dana.
    “So?”
    “Doesn’t Dorothy have brown hair?”
    “And she has the same bubbly personality.”
    At least, she used to.
    “Plus she’s so sweet and always trying to help people.”
    Is she?
    “It’s a big commitment, but I know she could do it.”
    Dana bit her lip. “I’ve been thinking I might try out for the part.” It was like all the air went out of the room. Julia didn’t say anything for a moment.
    “You want to be Dorothy?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe.”
    Julia’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t you think that’s a little selfish, Dana?”
    “Selfish?”
    “Don’t you think you’ve taken enough away from Janelle without taking this too? I thought you would try to help Janelle, to support her. That’s what friends do, isn’t it?”
    Dana wasn’t sure what friends did anymore. She was also pretty sure Janelle didn’t need her help for anything. She had Julia. “So, you don’t think I should try out?”
    “Janelle would be a perfect Dorothy,” said Julia.
    “Of course she would,” said Dana. Janelle was good at everything. Good at sports. Good at school. Good at having friends.