JULIA

The theater was much larger than Julia had expected it to be. The ceiling was two floors up. The lighting was poor, since the room was so large, but it added more to the dramatic affect of the theater and its stage.

Julia was standing near center stage, and Nathan was off to her right, seated at the theater's piano. It was nearly as beautiful as the one in the pavilion; it was made out of badly polished wood and was shaped like a box, with a tray of yellowing keys sticking out its front. It might have looked somewhat charming once, but age had decayed any beauty that it may or may not have had. Despite its outward appearance, the piano still played nicely enough.

Julia and Nathan had been there all morning. When they had first arrived, Nathan had played Julia's part for her. She needed to learn it by ear, since she couldn't read notes. She caught most of it the first time through and learned the rest of the tune the second and third times. Once she thought she had the notes down well enough, Nathan switched to the piano part and Julia began to sing with the lyrics on a piece of paper.

The first run-through was dreadful. The second one was painful. After the third one, Julia asked Nathan if she should give up. She thought that she wasn't as good as he had thought she was at first, and she wondered if he should just do the song alone, without a singer. He refused and told her that all musicians, even the best ones, can't get it perfect on the first try. He insisted that if she kept on trying, she would get better.

Julia gave in, and they picked up where they had left off. Like Julia had dismally predicted, the fourth try was just as bad as the other three. However, she felt the music come more naturally to her the fifth time. Gradually, she became better, until she could finally sing without thinking about it. Then Nathan decided it was time to focus on her technique.

"Chin up," he said, turning on the bench, but still playing. "Don't stare at your feet like that!"

Julia took his advice and tried to apply it. After some struggling, she was singing brightly with her chin up.

In the middle of the song, Nathan shouted, "Don't stand so stiff! You need to feel the music. You look like a wooden plank!"

Julia promised herself that she would be more relaxed in the next run-through, but it never came. Their attention was drawn away by the sound of the theater door opening and closing. Slowly, a maid walked toward them, followed closely behind by Lara. They advanced until they were standing at the foot of the stage. "Hello," Lara said timidly.

Julia walked to the edge and stood there, bending over slightly. "Hi," she said. "What do you two want?"

Lara held up a piece of red paper. "It says here that Nathan needs to come with us."

Julia raised her eyebrows and looked at him. He shrugged. He had no clue what was going on either.

She turned back to Lara. "How come? Is it important?"

"I think so," Lara replied. "It's J. Q. King. He wants to see us."

Julia straightened. J. Q. King? She had almost forgotten he existed. It was strange that after days of not showing himself, he suddenly wanted to meet Lara and Nathan. "Does he want to see all of us?"

Lara looked bewildered. She read the note again. "I don't know," she answered. "It doesn't say."

But the maid nodded in affirmation. Apparently she knew what was going on.

Julia addressed her. "So I'm going to have to see him sometime, too?"

Another nod.

Nathan walked over. "I guess I'll go, if everyone else is going," he said. He hopped off the stage and stood beside the maid. "Would you clean up the music while I'm gone, Julia?" he asked, looking up at her. "You can put it anywhere--in your room maybe? I don't care. Just don't leave it here."

"Sure," Julia replied.

After everything had been taken care of, the three left the theater. Julia stayed behind to clean up. She gathered the music, then rolled the piano backstage. I wonder what J. Q. King would talk about, she mused to herself. Maybe he just wants to get to know us better.

Julia didn't know, and she didn't really care at the moment. There was no use worrying about it.

RICK and ROY

Rick and Roy observed an interesting lack of students. The halls and rooms of the mansion were much quieter than usual, and the bustle for food in the dining room had died down to almost nothing. Remembering how Dwain had suddenly been called away the other night, they decided the loss of activity was because of J. Q. King.

"He must be calling away every student," Roy said.

"Yeah," Rick agreed. "And I don't think he's giving any of them back either."

None of the students who had gone away had reappeared. The two friends might have joked that J. Q. King was abducting them for horrible experiments and whatnot, but they didn't because they felt like it could be true. "Either they're having an really long conversation," Rick said, trying to ignore the abduction theory, "or they're throwing a party."

The first reason he said was more believable. But what could such a long conversation be about?

As the day dragged on, Rick and Roy found ways to amuse themselves. The usual method of entertainment would have been to play pranks on other students or tell jokes with Dwain. The first option would require students, but they were running out of those. They needed Dwain for the second option, and there was a shortage of him as well.

So they passed their time by eating and playing basketball. But eventually the amusement wore out; they soon stuffed themselves until they couldn't eat anymore, and Roy grew tired of being beaten by Rick.

So instead the two boys started searching for someone, anyone, they could prank. In the meantime, they also kept a careful tally of how many students were gone.

After their search, Rick and Roy concluded that there were at least six students missing. That meant there was still some left, and one of them was Star.

Roy loved the idea of pranking the queen of prissiness, but Rick was hesitant. He still remembered the incident with the grape. He had wanted to stay away from Star for at least a week after that. However, Roy was finally able to convince him to do it.

They stood outside her door. Roy was holding a jar of fake spiders and trying to suppress a chuckle. Rick was standing a foot away from the door as if it were radioactive.

"Okay, Rick," Roy whispered. "On my signal, you knock on the door. If she's in there, we go with plan A. If she's not, plan B. Got it?"

"Got it," Rick muttered.

Only a few seconds later, the signal came, and Rick lifted his hand to knock on the door.

To Roy's dismay and Rick's relief, a maid appeared behind them and cleared her throat. Rick's hand froze, and Roy nearly dropped the jar of spiders. Both of them spun around to face the maid.

We're in trouble now, Rick thought.

But instead of giving them a stern look and a swift punishment, the maid held up a red note. A few seconds later, Julia caught up behind her.

"The note says J. Q. King wants to see us," she said.

Rick and Roy looked at each other and shrugged. "Which one?" Rick asked.

"Whichever one of you is Roy," Julia said, turning red. She didn't know who was who.

Roy raised his hand halfway, grinning, and said, "That would be me."

Julia shook her head. "Well then, you're being summoned."

Roy gazed at his spider jar, Star's door, and back at the spider jar sadly. "But what about my prank?" he asked pitifully, making puppy-dog eyes.

The maid was clearly not amused.

Roy dropped the act. "Fine," he said. He handed the jar grudgingly to Rick. "Take this."

Rick watched his buddy walk away. "Hey Roy!" he called out. "Do have any idea what I can do while you're gone? I'll be so bored."

Roy turned his head and aimed one eye at Rick. "I don't know. Figure something out."

Rick sighed and waved a sullen goodbye. He would just have to wait. He would have to endure the boredom for maybe a couple hours more. Then he would go visit J. Q. King, too. At least that would be interesting.