Audition & Subtraction by Amy Fellner Dominy

“Mr. Wayne did that for him?”
    â€œHe did it for Lori,” I admitted. “She’s the one who asked.” I drew scratchy zigzags in the tray’s paper liner with the straight pin. “I saw his solo music this morning. He picked something really hard, and now he wants Lori to help him. Instead of practicing with me yesterday, she helped him with rhythms.”
    â€œThat’s not cool.”
    I wiggled the pin through a tiny hole in the liner. “She couldn’t say no. He’s her boyfriend.”
    Aaron looked up, the scissors still in his grip. “That’s total crap.” Then he took aim and cut through the rest of Sam’s mouth. Instead of flopping open, the jaw stayed in place. But the smell suddenly got a whole lot worse.
    â€œThat’s disgusting,” I said. “Talk about not moving a muscle.”
    â€œRigor mortis,” Aaron said as he made a note on the worksheet.
    I ripped a slash in the paper. “Mr. Wayne said I should do a solo.” It was the first time I’d said the words out loud. I still hadn’t told Lori … or Mom and Dad. But it felt okay telling Aaron—he always acted like I could handle a solo with one hand tied behind my back. Still, my heart sped up just putting the words out there. “Hepicked one out for me,” I added, glancing at my backpack where I’d stuffed the sheet music in my English notebook. Mr. Wayne had handed it to me after band yesterday—
just in case
, he’d said. I hadn’t even looked at it. But the harder I tried to forget, the more I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
    â€œYou going to do it?” Aaron asked.
    â€œIt’s too late to learn a solo.”
    â€œWimp.”
    I elbowed him in the arm. “I’m not a wimp. I just need Lori to get focused.”
    â€œLike that’s going to happen.”
    Before I could draw breath to argue, Mr. Howard raised his hand from the front of the room. “After you finish step two, you may begin to clean up. That’s all we have time for today.”
    â€œWe’ll get it together,” I said in a low hiss. “We always do.”
    â€œShe blew you off yesterday to practice with Michael.”
    â€œShe’ll make it up.”
    â€œAnd she skipped your first play-through for Mr. Wayne.”
    â€œShe didn’t skip it; she was late. And I’m going to stop telling you things if you’re just going to throw them back at me.”
    He opened the frog’s mouth with his gloved fingers. “I’m just saying. It sounds like she’s flaking out.”
    â€œShe’s not flaking out.” I reached for a handful of pins. “At least, she doesn’t mean to be.”
    While he held the jaw in place, I pushed in the straight pins to tack down Sam’s mouth. “It’s just different now that she has a boyfriend. He’s always around. Even when he’s not supposed to be.”
    â€œLike when?” Aaron asked.
    â€œLike this Friday night.”
    â€œWhat’s Friday night?”
    â€œBasketball game. Lori and I signed up weeks ago to work concessions at halftime. Now he’s going to want to work it with us.”
    Aaron made another note on the worksheet. “So hang with me instead.”
    I blinked, surprised. “Huh?”
    He turned on his stool until he faced me, his navy board shorts skimming my knee. “At the basketball game. We can walk over together.”
    â€œBut …” I took a breath. “I always go with Lori.”
    He tilted his head, studying me, his expression unreadable. “Maybe if you’re not waiting around for her, she’ll notice you’re missing.”
    â€œNo,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t need to do anything like that.” I peeled off a glove. “Lori already feels bad. She made a big deal at lunch today that I had to come over after school. I know she wants to make