Unscripted - Nicole Kronzer Page 0,33

inspired from the scenes we create together, I didn’t have to be married to the dead body premise. After that, I managed two or three minutes of a sketch about a sleepwalking bear. As I read it back to myself, the rhythm felt good. The jokes needing punching up, but it was a start.

I flipped over to a fresh sheet of notebook paper when Paloma and Sirena practically fell through the door, gasping for breath.

“Oh my god, they’re going to find us!” Sirena hissed to Paloma. Her braids were flying everywhere as she pressed her glasses on her face to keep them from falling off.

“Who?” I asked.

They both screamed.

“Zelda! Geez!” Paloma clapped a hand over her heart.

“I heard a scream from Gilda Radner!” a male voice called from some distance away.

“I’m sorry!” I whispered. “What’s going on?”

“Capture the Flag!” Sirena grinned, shaking a blue-and-red square of nylon at me. “And we’ve captured it!”

“Oh, that’s right! That’s great! Well, hide!” I exclaimed. “I’ll cover for you.”

They buried themselves: Paloma under a crumpled-up blanket and Sirena behind the door.

I stayed in my bunk like nothing had happened.

“Got you cornered!” Jonas exclaimed, banging into the cabin.

“Guilty as charged!” I smiled.

Jonas jumped and braced himself against the door frame. “Zelda? What are you doing here?”

“Writing.” I tapped my pencil against my notebook. “We were sent off to write cold opens, so I’ve been reading mine out loud, doing all the voices.”

His face fell. “That was you screaming?” he asked.

Oh, sweet, earnest Jonas.

I nodded and fixed an innocent look on my face. “Why?”

He flopped down on the bottom bed of the opposite bunk—a foot away from Paloma.

“Capture the Flag,” he said. “Dion’s team versus Roger’s.”

I tried not to sigh. “That sounds like fun.”

“It is,” he agreed. “I’m glad for you that you’re on Varsity, but I wish you were with the rest of us.”

“Me, too,” I said wistfully.

Paloma shifted on the bed and it squeaked.

Jonas’s eyes darted around. “But you’re . . . uh, good?” he asked.

“Well . . .” Jonas could be my sane person, right? He’d at least smile sympathetically. “They’re jerks, actually.” I felt lighter saying it out loud. “All of them. Pretty big jerks.”

“Really?” Now his eyes were on mine.

I nodded.

“Are you going to quit?”

I opened and closed my mouth.

“You can’t quit!” Paloma threw off her blanket. Jonas screamed so loudly, it made Paloma jump. He also fell off the bed onto the floor. I laughed until tears streamed down my face.

“Jonas? Are you okay?” It was Will’s voice.

“He’s—”gasp“—fine!” I was still laughing. “Oh my god, Jonas—the look on your face!”

“I’m sorry!” Paloma said, trying to help Jonas up off the floor. But he was laughing too hard to be moved.

“I’m fine!” Jonas said, waving her away as Will barreled into the cabin. Jonas took my brother’s proffered hands and stood. “I’m not sure if I should be pleased or embarrassed that you recognized my scream.”

I laughed again. “Pleased, I think,” I said. “Clearly, he loves you.”

“Z—” Will shot me a look.

“Oh come on, Will.” I threw my legs over the side of the mattress. “You are on opposite sides of Capture the Flag and you revealed your position to check on him. You. Mr. Competitive. Mr. Monopoly-Money-Launderer. Mr. What-Battleship-Up-My-Sleeve? You revealed your position.” I shrugged. “Only two explanations—you’re sabotaging the game so you don’t have to run at this altitude, or you love him.”

“You were dead before, and now you’re going to be double dead,” Will moaned, closing his eyes and covering them with both hands.

Jonas removed Will’s hands from his eyes and gave him a soft smile. “I’m glad that you’re here.”

Will was a puddle.

Paloma turned to me, arms folded. “Zelda, promise me you won’t quit,” she said.

Now it was my turn to moan. “Why?”

Will still held Jonas’s hand, but he frowned at me. “Quit what?”

I made a disgruntled sound. Telling Jonas was one thing, but telling Will made things . . . real. And although I wanted to talk to him, I wasn’t sure I was super jazzed about my growing audience. Still, there really wasn’t any getting out of telling him now. “Varsity,” I groaned. “The guys are gross. And Ben’s . . . weird. Kind of mean? I can’t explain it. And maybe it’s not important, but you guys are having way more fun than we are.”

“But you’re on Varsity.” Paloma climbed up on my bed and sat on her knees. “Do you know how long it’s been since a girl was on Varsity?”

I shook my