and not a seat in the theater sat empty—and it held nearly five hundred bodies. They had come from far and wide to see our production. We bowed in unison and then stood waiting for the applause to die down.
I saw my parents sitting in the middle row. It was my mother’s fourth show and my father’s first. Willow’s father stood in the wings of the theater, his face hidden in the shadows and behind that stupid camera, as he filmed our musical for his reality show. “Bring Maine to Hollywood,” he kept saying. “Make it appear that living in Shepherd’s Bay is glamorous and exciting.” Every kid and their parent had to sign a waiver form if they wanted to be a part of the show, which, as we’d been told from the beginning, faced long odds of ever getting picked up. Those that didn’t want to be involved would have their face blurred if the show ever made it that far.
The applause seemed like it would never stop. I looked down the line and saw all the cast members holding hands and smiling profusely. Standing front and center was Willow, wearing the biggest grin of them all. And yet I knew those smiles would vanish once we went backstage. Then the bitterness and backstabbing of rehearsals would rear their ugly heads. Despite our friendship, I knew she was not entirely without blame.
This smiling chain of performers bowed again to the crowd. Willow’s talent as a singer and dancer blew me away. She was far more gifted than anyone could have imagined, and the senior girls in our theater group might have begrudgingly accepted her into their clique had it not been for her diva-like attitude throughout the production. But Willow didn’t care. She didn’t want any part of their clique. She had already made up her mind about her classmates after that first day at school, had decided that she would have nothing to do with them. News of her whupping of Tiffany had spread like wildfire throughout the school and had given her somewhat of a reputation. Unwillingly, or maybe not so unwillingly, I’d cast my lot with Willow, and it was now too late to turn back.
Once backstage, my classmates segregated themselves in their various corners. Willow’s father—he insisted that everyone call him Gil—strolled around the room, filming everyone’s reactions. All the bitter feuds during rehearsals didn’t damper our enthusiasm for a job well done, especially after that thunderous reception we received, the likes of which none of us had ever experienced. No one in town could ever remember a high school production being moved to Ford Theater. Or selling out every show. It was unheard of.
I sat with Willow as she removed her makeup, the two of us an island among a sea of exhausted performers. It felt awkward sitting next to the show’s star and not basking in her glory. Looking at her, one would have thought that she’d bombed on the biggest stage of her life. But quite the opposite had happened, and now she was the biggest star ever to come out of this town.
So what did that make me? In some ways, I felt like I’d made a big mistake by befriending her. I still talked with some of my old friends, but our lifelong relationships had soured because of my decision. I desperately wanted to leave Shepherd’s Bay and see what else waited for me out in the world. My mother had once tried to leave this place but, for whatever reason, had dropped out of college and returned home. My father had never left and, quite frankly, had never seen any good reason to leave. He loved this town, like so many others who had grown up here.
I didn’t want to go back to my old life, to being the same boring Katie Eaves. The good girl who went to church each Sunday and earned good grades and treated people with kindness and respect. A girl who loved her little brother to death. A girl who never did anything exciting or crazy, and who tried to fit in as best she could.
Truth be told, I was in awe of Willow and happy that she had chosen me, of all the kids in school, to be her bestie. Was there anything she couldn’t do? And now her father was making her the star of his reality show, and I would be her sidekick. Ironically, Shepherd’s Bay could possibly be my