Page 58 of Troublemaker: The Big Picture Edition

Cheyenne, who is sitting next to Ryder, flips her long curly hair and smacks her lips before looking down at her notes. “Okay, well, Mr. Scrooge is the main guy, right? And he’s mean and he doesn’t like to spend money and he’s in a bad mood all the time. But it’s kind of funny and also sad.”

“Right,” he says. “And why do you think it’s sad that he’s so mean?”

“Well, because he’s just lonely. It’s adefriends macho-ism.”

“Yes. It is a defense mechanism. Very good point. So first we want the audience to understand that he’s mean. And then we want them to understand that he doesn’t like to spend money and he’s in a bad mood all the time. Right? And then, eventually, we’ll help the audience to understand why he’s like this. And eventually, he changes, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, he’s nice at the end.”

“So who is he particularly mean to in the beginning?” He points at Tyler, whose hand shot up. “Tyler, right?”

“Mr. Crotch-it.”

There is tittering amongst the children. Alex smiles and acknowledges the joke without making Tyler feel bad about it. “Okay, so how about you get up and pretend to be Mr. Cratchit, and Cheyenne, you pretend to be Mr. Scrooge.”

“But she’s a girl,” Tyler says, wrinkling his nose.

“Girls can play boys in theatre. We’ll figure out who’s going to play who for the show later. This is just for fun. Come on, get up.”

I make a note on my notepad… Okay, it’s not a note, it’s a heart. Because mine is bursting.

“Hey, Mr. Scrooge!” Tyler waves at Cheyenne.

“Harumph! Whaddya want?”

“I…I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas Eve, sir!”

“Bah! Humbug!”

“And, uh, a very early Happy New Year?”

“Pfffth!”

“And I wanted to ask you, sir, if it would be okay, seeing as tomorrow is Christmas Day and all…”

“Go on… All you have to do is ask, Mr.Crotch-it.”

This brings the house down, and Tyler has to wait for the other thirteen kids to quiet down before saying. “It’s Mr. Cratchit, sir.”

Cheyenne flips her hair and says, “Whatever.”

“Can I take tomorrow off, Mr. Scrooge? So I can spend it with my family?”

“No, you may not! Get back to work!”

“Why do you have to be such a b-face?”

“Hey!” I call out.

“And scene!” Alex points his finger at Tyler. “We don’t call girls b-faces.”

I sit up on my knees. “Tyler, you know better than that. Apologize to Cheyenne, please.”

“But we’re just playing.”

Alex stands up and gets all Alpha Dad on Tyler, and I hold the notepad up to hide my nipples because they are standing at attention. “First of all, Tyler, you’re pretending to be Bob Cratchit and Cheyenne is pretending to be Mr. Scrooge. Bob Cratchit would never say that to his boss. Secondly, we never call girls b-faces. Apologize and then sit down, please.”

Tyler apologizes to Cheyenne, lower lip quivering, his eyes brimming with tears.