A Wright Christmas

Luckily, by the time the Sunday matinee show rolled around, the roads were clear, and my knee was back to normal. Which wasn’t a hundred percent, but the swelling had all gone down, and I could walk again without pain. I was sure dancing was going to make it worse, but there were only two more shows in Lubbock, and I wasn’t ready to hand it over to the understudy.

Isaac had gone home Sunday morning when the roads were clear, promising to see me at the soccer game that night. Since I had no car, Piper agreed to drive me to the studio.

“Remind me again why you don’t have a car,” Piper asked as we headed that direction.

“Remind me again why you were snowed in with Bradley.”

She huffed, “I wasn’t with Bradley. I was just at his place.”

“Uh-huh,” I said disbelievingly. “Is it because Blaire was gone, so she couldn’t talk you out of it?”

“No!”

I laughed at my sister. “I love you.”

“I love you, too,” she grumbled.

She dropped me off at the front entrance, and I felt the normal swell of excitement right before I went onstage. That dissipated as soon as I saw who was waiting for me—Angelica and Bart Lawson.

I should have anticipated it. Of course I couldn’t hope that Katelyn would actually be a bigger person and let it all go. That she’d realize the consequences of her actions. Instead, she’d brought in the big guns. Great.

Katelyn stood just behind them with wide eyes. It wasn’t the vindictive, smug look I was used to from her. I met her gaze for the briefest moment, wondering what she was thinking, before turning to her parents.

“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Lawson,” I said with the biggest smile I could muster, ignoring the stares from the rest of the performers who had already arrived for the show. “Thank you for dropping Katelyn off for the show this afternoon. Are you going to stay to watch? She’s a lovely flower.”

“You know why we’re here,” Bart growled.

“You tried to kick our daughter out of the show!” Angelica snapped.

They had an audience now. I had confronted Katelyn in front of her peers but not the entire show. This was humiliating.

“Why don’t we go inside my office to discuss this?” I said graciously.

“We’re not going anywhere with you. I’ll have you know that we plan to sue you and this company for what you’ve done to our daughter,” Angelica said, arching an eyebrow.

“Really?” I said without inflection. “Well then, I believe there’s nothing more that I can say, and I’m going to have to ask that you vacate the premises.”

“You can’t kick us out,” Bart snapped. “We have a right to air our grievances.”

“I’m sure that you do. However, threatening legal action will only get you dismissed from the building.” I gestured to the door. “Have a nice day.”

“You—” Angelica said, taking a step forward.

“Stop!” Katelyn yelled. She silenced everyone, but her gaze was on me. “Everyone, just stop. This has gotten completely out of hand.”

“Katelyn…” her father said gently.

“No, Daddy. You two need to stop. I want to stay in the company. I want to go to Joffrey this summer.”

“We know, baby. We’re making sure that happens,” her mother said.

“No, you’re making it worse,” she ground out. “You don’t have to sue everyone who disagrees with you. Just…go watch the show.”

“But you deserve better than this treatment,” her father said.

Katelyn met my gaze and nodded. “Then, I’ll earn it. Maybe next year, I’ll be Clara.”

Her parents looked flabbergasted by her outburst, but Katelyn just masterfully shuffled them toward the door and shut it behind them. Her shoulders heaved, and everyone was still watching.

“All right, show’s over,” I said, clapping my hands. “Let’s get back to work.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and went back to what they had been doing. I walked over to Katelyn and put a hand on her shoulder.

“You too,” I said gently.

She looked up at me, and something like understanding passed between us. Katelyn wasn’t going to completely change anytime soon. I could see that in her stubborn expression and the way she couldn’t quite say anything about what had happened. But as she headed back to the dressing room, I had hope that she’d get there.* * *Even though we still had one more show on Christmas Eve, everyone was celebrating the end of the official run. Kathy had even shown up with her teeny-tiny baby for the performance.

She pulled me into a huge hug. “Thank you so much for taking over. I’ve heard having you here for a month has been transformative. You make a spectacular artistic director, just like I knew you would.”

“Thank you, Kathy. I just worked with what you had already established.”

“I heard about what had happened with Katelyn, too.” Kathy winced. “Sorry about leaving you with that land mine.”