Summer ending was high on the list of shitty things about summer vacation. The rest of the list encompassed awkward tan lines, sun burns, sand in the crotch, and sweating on the subway.
Everything else was magical and perfect. No school, no homework, no curfews… mostly.
There were bonfires with wine coolers hooked up by Dana’s sexy older brother, and movie marathons that involved starting at one end of the building and sneaking into each theater on the way back to the snack bar. Cruising down 95 with her mother’s convertible top down, screaming along to the Chicago soundtrack.
Her first professional theater audition.
Her first professional theater actor.
It was a damn good summer.
The pillared spectacle that was her high-school death trap threatened to ruin all of it before she stepped foot inside the over-bleached hallways. Lynn spent her last few weeks of freedom begging to finish school by correspondence to further her theater career, but that apparently went against everything the Viggiani legacy stood for.
Or something equally fucking absurd that came out of her father’s overstuffed mouth and fell promptly out of her deaf ears.
Her career path wasn’t exactly endorsed by Daddy Warbucks and his Plastic Surgeon Empire or her mother’s Thinly Veiled Top Secret Law Domain, but acting meant drowning in golden stage lights and visitors gossiping with your name on their lips, and Tony awards and possible film adaptions.
Whatever legacy her parents intended could just as easily be fleshed out with her own desires. It wasn’t prestigious, but it was fame. They’d come around then, she knew it. Lynn just had to prove she could do it, prove she was actually working her ass off and not just dicking around.
Otherwise, she’d be SOL on any help with college.
So she limped through the day, ready to give only the barest minimum of fucks required to make it to graduation. That was her mantra—One more year. Ten more months and the brilliant lights of Broadway would be her home.
Her schedule was light enough, thanks to some heavy lifting in her earlier, more academically-centered, years. The ones before she stumbled onto the stage and fell under its intoxicating spell, to make it bearable: free period, library aid, Advanced Algebra with all the other seniors who didn’t care enough about their final year to take a real math class for the fourth required credit, and then Theater III to fill her schedule before lunch.
Library Aid was a sacred spot, because you got to sit around and read all day. Lynn learned the basics of the classification system used to replace the Dewey decimal and then lounged on a cozy chair to read some Palahnuik.
Theater III was what she really looked forward to; rumors promised the new teacher was exceptionally attractive. More importantly, those in Theater III always had a leg up on leading roles for the fall production. There was no way Lynn was going to accept a minor role after tasting Broadway. None.
It was every bit her intention to ensure the sexy new theater director understood she was lead actor quality.
Unless they were doing Our Town again, because God help her, she couldn’t stand another eight weeks of endless pantomiming.
After dancing with integers in math, Lynn met Dana in the theater department hall. Her best friend was flushed red and breathless. “Guess what!”
“Oliver asked you to homecoming?”
“Oliver asked me to homecoming!” Dana screeched, jumping up and down.
“You know it’s like a month away, right? What if he changes his mind? Or what if you change your mind, because you’re a saucy bitch who doesn’t need some man to hold her down?”
Dana rolled her eyes and stuck out a hip to rest her hand on. “Seriously? That’s the best you’ve got, Miss I Banged A Totally Hot Older Bearded Sex God Over the Summer?”
“Shh!” Lynn hissed at her, but couldn’t hide her grin. “That’s between us, bitch! Also, you’ll note he’s not my
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