CHAPTER 23

When the bell rang, I was slightly surprised. It felt like barely ten minutes had gone by since I sat down again. Apparently, after everyone had done their performances, Mr. Salvador was just talking to us, giving us tips on playing non-humans and stage presence.

"Good! Everyone comes to the front to see your marks on this assignment. Other than that, class is over." Mr. Salvador called. As I was about to go up to the front, I heard Zac call behind me, "Did it work the way you wanted?"

I turned around to see him exiting the booth via the ladder. "Yeah!" I exclaimed. "Thanks for taking the time to do this."

He shrugged. "It was cool to watch. Reminded me of my first year."

"Was it any good?" I asked, knowing the answer. Compared to Blondie, May and I totally killed it, and I was confident that we were the best ones there. I mean, we worked really hard, and it showed.

Zac simply shrugged. "A little underdeveloped. I mean you only really did one action. But in terms of how you executed it, it was great, yeah. Well done."

In my mind, I sputtered. One action? Underdeveloped?! That's what we were supposed to do! Zac clearly didn't realize what Mr. Salvador was looking for, that was all. Smiling superficially, I thanked him. He nodded as he walked out of the auditorium, just as May bounced up to me.

"C'mon," she coaxed with a sweet smile. "I think we should get our marks together." She started to walk towards the stage then turned around. "Since we earned them together."

I couldn't help but smile. I think anything May said sent my head high into the sky and my heart flying with the birds, but this made fireworks go off inside me. She made me happier than I've ever been with just the way she looked right into my eyes, let alone the things like that she said. That's what Nicole didn't understand.

I followed May to the front, pushing past several people who were leaving, to face Mr. Salvador, who had his face buried in his clipboard. May cleared her throat loudly, a bold move in front of a teacher, and faced Mr. Salvador as he looked up.

"Could we please have our marks?" she asked him sweetly.

"Of course." he replied flatly, searching on his clipboard until he found two cue card-sized pieces of paper, and handed them to us. May took them both, and handed one to me. Giddy, I looked at the paper to find a surprise.

73%. We got 73%. I looked to May to find the same disappointment on her face as mine. "Mr. Salvador, this must be a mistake." I told him. "These can't be our marks. Is this another group? We did the one with the tree."

"Yes, I know," he replied.

"Well then… What did we do wrong?" I asked him.

"You didn't really do anything wrong, you just didn't go beyond." He answered me. "73% is average, which was what your performance was. It was a basic action, with no clear plot. There was only one basic movement for each actor, and you went a little under the expected time."

We did the lights and everything, and got this. I was frankly hurt. "But…" I protested.

Mr. Salvador looked at me expectantly. When I added nothing, he shrugged. "Make your next performance really wow me."He gave me a smile, not of kindness, but of challenge. I was still hurt though. I said nothing and walked away.

May hastily added, "Thanks, Mr. Salvador." before turning and following me out of the audience.

"That's just bullshit." I complained as I looked at my sheet again. Mr. Salvador's criticisms, mostly pertaining to how we limited our piece to one action, were written in barely legible handwriting all across the sheet. The only clearly legible part was the 73%, which just pissed me off more. People were passing us left and right, since it was the end of the day and we were standing in the middle of the hallway.

May shrugged. "I thought we did a great job, but I guess we'll need to try harder if we want daddy's approval."

I smirked. "You're not his biggest fan, are you?"

"I just don't like how he thinks he's top shit, and we need to all give 110% all the time." She answered, annoyed. "For what it's worth, you're a great partner."

"Thanks." I replied, smiling warmly.

"Hey, mind if I ask you something? If you're in no rush." She asked me after awkwardly sticking in the same spot in the hallway with me. Right at that moment, I realized I was in a rush. It was Monday! The Student Council would be starting their meeting any second now.

"Uh, sure, but can you make it quick? I have a student council meeting to go to."

"Oh…" She started, thinking. "Well, it's not that important, plus I want your full attention when I do ask it. I have choir right now anyways, can we meet up in the main hall after your meeting? Around 3:30?"

"Sure, I'll do that." I said absent-mindedly. "See you then, bye!" I rushed off towards the meeting, wondering what would happen if I were late.

"Bye!" she shyly, yet loudly, called out behind me, fading into the crowd.

***

Luckily for me, I arrived at the meeting just a few seconds before Phil called the whole thing to order. No one seemed to notice, except Nicole of course, who simply cocked one eyebrow at me. Knowing she had a freaky tendency to read my thoughts, I tried my hardest to give her a look which said 'I'll explain later.' She nodded.

"Great, everyone's here." Phil interjected into the buzz of many council members mumbling to each other. "Alright, the first item on the agenda is tomorrow's dance. Great job to our advertising team for making everyone know it's tomorrow. How's our dance team for coordination?"

A skinny tall redhead stood up from her seat. "Um, the DJ is booked, he says it's, like, all good on his end. The gym is mostly set up, we just need a couple of volunteers for tomorrow morning to finish."

Phil pointed to a few members of the council in the crowd. "Eli, Nicole, can you spare the time?"

Eli, an uptight British-looking kid in glasses, shrugged and nodded. Nicole chipperly replied, "No problem, Mr. President!"

Phil's gaze lingered on her for just longer than it needed to with a small smile on his lips. "Great, thank you two. How about admission? Let's get our two newbies on that. Adam, Megan, can you stand at the door and accept the dance tickets?"

I had no clue how to do that, but nodded in blind obedience, then turned to Megan. She had a nervous look on her face, and shrugged.

"Great." Phil nodded. "It's really easy. You just stand at the gates of the school, and students walk up to you and present their ticket. You take it, put it in the bin, and let them in. If they don't have a ticket, you don't let them in. No exceptions, no re-entries."

"Okay." Megan slowly replied. "Could I please go over it with Adam in the hallway? Just to make sure we're all on the same page."

Phil shrugged. "Sure, if that's what you guys need." He pointed to the hallway. "Feel free to barge back in whenever you're done, don't feel bad about disturbing us. You shouldn't need to be out there long though, right? I don't want you to miss anything important."

"Right." Megan confirmed, and started to walk out. I got up and started to walk out myself, noting that Nicole was giving me a serious look. In her hand, poised just high enough that I could see, she held up her phone. I nodded at her as I followed Megan outside.

Phil's talking was reduced to a faint murmur through the walls as Megan shut the door behind me. I noticed that she was fiddling with her knit sweater, and after, began to readjust her glasses in a frankly adorable way as she tried to find words. I saw how nervous she was, and being able to understand that myself, decided to step in.

"So what did you need to ask?" I asked, trying to sound as kind as possible. "The whole thing is straightforward, right?"

"Um… yeah." She began. "I was just… I was wondering if…" She stammered. She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut. "I was wondering if you'd want to go to the dance with me. You know, since we're going to be working together anyways, it just makes sense, right…?"

My eyebrows shot up. I certainly was not expecting this. For a second, I wondered why Nicole, May and Megan, basically the only three girls I knew, had at least a minor interest in me. I wasn't good looking or confident, nor very interesting.