Dare Truth Or Promise by Paula Boock Page A

cross country. I don’t like plays.”
    Mrs. Ashton grinned. “We’ll fix that.”
    Eventually Louie cleared her dressing room, but only after Susi said to her, “I’m afraid we don’t have room for Willa if you’re thinking of our giving her a lift.”
    “Mum!”
    “Sorry, Louie, but there must be dozens of cars going her way. I’m sure she’ll be able to get a lift with someone.”
    Louie stewed as she got changed and noticed the beginning of play crash coming on. It was over so quickly—three performances and you’re done—and all that work and effort, the thrill and nerves, were over. The best performance she’d ever managed was already a memory. And all her mother could say was, you were very good and we can’t take Willa home. Mo never got on as much of a high as Louie; neither did she fall prey to depressions afterwards. She packed up quickly and was already talking about her big hockey match tomorrow as she left. Louie took her time spreading cold cream over her face and wiping off the makeup. She exchanged a few jokes with the others, but her heart wasn’t in it. All she could think of was that this was her last performance at this school, her last time working with Mrs. Ashton. She put everything away carefully in its place, taking home her costume to wash. She put her tatty script in her bag along with the programme as a memento and breathed in the smell of the dressing room for a last time.

    Nearly everyone was gone. Louie walked across the stage once more. Tomorrow they would begin striking the set. She stood stage centre, feeling that familiar tiny but huge sensation as the air seemed to shimmer about her and echo with all the sound that wasn’t there. It was just a stupid school hall, she knew that. But it was where she had felt the only thing as strong and as right as Willa. Louie looked up at the empty auditorium and gave it a silent thank you.
    p.

    On the way home Susi seemed determined to talk about anything but the play. She asked Marietta what she thought about Woodhaugh High and mentioned that they might be taking her with them to Bah in the school holidays if she was lucky. Then she asked Tony what other package trips they could get and suggested they might all go, Louie and Nic included. Louie couldn’t have cared less about going to Bali right then. It was only time away from Willa.
    “Hey Mum, you know that thing you went to see tonight, at the school, in the hall, you know, what was it again?” she asked, exasperated.
    “What do you mean, the play?”
    “That’s it,” she clicked her fingers. “I thought you’d forgotten.”
    “No, Louie, we told you how good you were. You know we did.”
    “What about Mo?”
    “She was good too.”
    Louie nodded slowly. “Okay … what about Dena?”

    “Very good.”
    “Vika? Rosa? The scenery?”
    “What is the matter with you? They were all good.”
    “Especially the scenery,” chipped Tony.
    “So haven’t you anything to say about the play itself, or what you really thought?”
    “Well,” Susi shrugged a little in the front seat. Louie wished she could see her face. “It was a funny sort of a play to do, really. For a girls’ school, I mean.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, all that, what do you call it—cross-dressing? Girls being boys falling in love with girls. It’s a bit hard to believe.”
    Louie felt enormously irritated. This wasn’t about the play.
    “It’s
Shakespeare.
”
    “I know that. But it is a bit out of date, isn’t it? And Mrs. Ashton always seems to make you the boy. It’s probably just as well you’ll be at university next year. You’ll get more scope.”
    “Girls’ parts you mean.”
    “Well, yes.” Susi turned and smiled at her. “You are a girl, after all!”
    “In Shakespeare’s time all the female parts were played by boys, you know,” Louie said, focusing hard on the back of her mother’s headrest. “And I
was
playing a female part, actually, in case you hadn’t