Bus trips were always horrible. The school district's buses were designed for elementary school students and were highly uncomfortable. There were about six inches of room for my legs to rest before they crashed into the seat in front of me. Sleeping against the window, even with a pillow, was terribly lumpy.

We'd all shown up at the theater at about 3:30 AM to arrive at the festival on time. Unfortunately, we hadn't gotten going until almost 4 AM because Kai was late.

Shayna had to call Kai three times to wake him up. He had missed his alarm, so we picked him up on the way out of town at his house.

Now, we bumped along upstate on the highway. I checked my watch. It was half past six in the morning, and we'd been on this dumb little bus for almost two and a half hours. I reached for another donut, but the last box was empty.

Half the cast was still asleep. I never slept well on buses. I kept waking up from weird dreams and just decided to stare out the window for the rest of the trip.

Lilly was curled up in the seat in front of me, sound asleep. I was proud of her. Even after seeing Mary bleed all over the theater, she was still comfortable with the cast. She'd given Shayna a big hug this morning. It had been sweet.

I wasn't sure what was next for us. Once the play was over today, we wouldn't have it as a distraction. Uncle Anton would have to face more of the problems that loomed. Lilly wouldn't have a light board to fiddle with to keep her mind moving. Then she'd have to think about our dying mother and the wave of social media that, so far, we'd done our best to avoid.

Shayna's legs reached across the aisle from the seat across from me. She opened her eyes, and a small smile crossed her lips as she stretched out.

"Are we there yet?" She asked softly.

"We're close to the city," I said. "The festival is in a big public park."

"Did you sleep at all?" She frowned.

I shrugged. "A little. We're maybe half an hour away."

Shayna yawned and pulled a thermos from her backpack. The smell of coffee wafted across the aisle as she opened it and drank.

"You came prepared," I smiled.

Shayna sighed. "Parker invented this mix of coffee and hot chocolate when he was fifteen. He swears it works. I know caffeine isn't good for the nerves, but somehow I'm not nervous."

"I have so much going on in my life I don't have the room for nerves either," I said. "Everything just seems like chaos."

"I wish that things were better for you," she said. "No one deserves..."

There was sympathy in her eyes, and my heart twisted. I'd never liked it when people felt sorry for me. When all they saw was my dying mother. Now Shayna looked at me like all the others with pity in her soft brown eyes.

"I'm fine," I said. "I'm not sure what will happen after this weekend, though."

"Don't think about that," she said. "Let's stay in the here and now."

"Here and now," I said, but the words were hollow.

I could lose myself in Orlando today, but I had nothing for tomorrow. I could play football and pretend as if nothing had changed, but that would be living a lie.

Running for so long had finally caught up to me. Now that all my lies were in the open, I didn't want to act anymore. It was time to be real.

"I'm glad we're friends now," she said. "I wish I'd been able to look past my grudge sooner."

"I wish your brother had told me what I did to make you so mad years ago," I said. "And I never meant everyone to find out about the divorce. I just told Hudson that Parker had asked us to step up in leadership on the flag football team. I didn't know he'd tell everyone, but it was my fault Hudson knew in the first place."

"I was angry and emotional," she said. "I never should have blamed you."

Except it wasn't her fault. We'd both been young and dumb. It was something that we'd both have to put in the past together.

Uncle Anton stood up at the front of the bus with Jamie. He walked down the aisle, careful not to fall, and shook the cast's sleeping members awake one at a time. Jamie had a different tactic. She hooked up a Bluetooth speaker and started playing some big Broadway number about putting on Sunday best I didn't recognize at a loud volume.

"We're nearly there," Uncle Anton said over the music. "Get your things together and make sure your costumes are all ready. We'll have an hour to check in and get into costume before the monologue contest."

"You are all going to be amazing," Jamie said. "Just breathe and smile. You did all the hard work in rehearsal. Today, all that effort pays off."

I took a deep breath. Staying here in this moment was important. I had to concentrate. Putting in my headphones, I turned my focus out the window again.

We were parking in a large lot beside a park. I could see three other buses parked there. Beyond the buses were several white tents set up on the grass. Several students got off one of the buses. One carried a large paper mache donkey head.

Jamie shut off her music and clapped her hands. "Anton is going to check the group in. Our job is to gather our things until Anton returns and tells us where they want us to set up. We will prepare. Then Kai, Hugh, Carson, Novah, Samantha, and Lilly will help me unload the trailer while the rest of you enter the monologue contest that starts at 7:30."

It was still hard to believe this contest started at 7:30 in the morning. Uncle Anton said it was the only way to fit in two hours of monologues and eight scenes from different Shakespeare plays before announcing which three groups would perform their entire plays.

While Uncle Anton exited the bus to check us in, I ensured I had my costume bag and backpack. Then I reached for my phone and flipped through my music.

I couldn't find anything that I wanted to listen to right now. Nothing seemed to suit my mood. Then I saw it. The acoustic demo of "Every Little Moment" Carson sent me a while back. It was perfect.

Humming along, I felt wide awake as everyone else rubbed their eyes and gathered their things. Uncle Anton was back within ten minutes with a handful of lanyards and a packet of paperwork. Everyone got quiet as he gave instructions.

"We have half an hour before we need our monologues to be ready," he said. "Follow me, and I'll lead you to the tent we are sharing with Elmwood's production of The Tempest."

I followed my uncle off the bus after putting on my backpack, carrying my costume bag in one hand and my pillow in the other. We didn't have to walk too far. Once we were in the tent, I could see Elmwood High School had already staked their half of the tent.

They had about twenty kids sitting around. Several clutched scripts and one guy with close-cropped hair dyed bright blue was pacing around the back of the tent, muttering under his breath. One mother was doing some of the girls' makeup.

I set my stuff down and looked at my uncle. He seemed to be sizing up their large group. A tall, thin man with curly hair and a suit who must have been their director walked over to my uncle.

"You must be Mr. Sterling," the man said, shaking hands with him. "My name is Dr. Connors. I'm the Shakespeare advisor for Elmwood."

"Nice to meet you," my uncle said. "You have quite a cast here."

"Plenty of stage crew and enough actors," Dr. Connors looked around at our small cast and frowned. "Are the rest of your students on the bus?"

"This is the whole cast," Uncle Anton said. "I think I have a good crew here."

He smiled at us. I couldn't imagine what we looked like. Most of us had just woken up. Jules and Rita distributed coffee while Samantha opened the stage makeup, giving everyone their shade of base and blush. Juan and Kai weren't too happy when they learned they had to wear stage makeup, but Anton and Jamie explained that it made faces less washed out under the lights.

"Uncle Anton," I said. "Do you want us in costume for monologues?"

"We may as well sell it," Uncle Anton said. "Get everyone their lanyard, Jack, and then get yourself ready for monologues."

He handed me the pile of lanyards. Our names were printed on the bottom of each one. I handed Rita, Novah, and Jules their lanyards as they headed to change in the restrooms. I gave Kai his lanyard as he gelled his hair back. Juan and Carson stopped their makeup to accept their lanyards. Shayna took her lanyard and smiled at me.

I found Hugh and Samantha unlocking the trailer on the back of the bus with Lilly and Jamie to move our props. I handed them each their lanyards and ruffled my sister's hair.

"You gotta get ready," Lilly said. "We got this."

"Go rock monologues, Jack," Hugh said.

I walked back to the tent with a smile on my face. We were going to do just fine. I could feel it.