One Shot! One kill!

With the Foundation Week long over, we started preparing for our practical exam in Literature.

"Okay people FOCUS please!" Joshua clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. He waited until our not so small circle of 15 people became quiet. "Playtime is over. We only have two weeks to practice and I need all of you to cooperate if you don't want to fail this subject. And if you don't mind failing... to hell with you, but don't drag the rest of us down. Got it?"

All of us were silent for a moment before we answered in unison. "SIR, YES SIR!"

He then started assigning us our roles and of course it didn't go without a single protest. "Okay, since Ameera will be our female lead, who will be our three male leads?"

"Jake!"

"Jake!"

"Craige!"

"Ivan!"

"Craige!"

The entire group erupted with enthusiasm, taking advantage of Ameera's absence by making her the main character without her permission. You see, the criteria for being chosen for the lead role was not acting skills. Nope, we never take skills into consideration although Ameera was also quite a decent actress. It's all about the popularity. At a young age we quickly learned the importance of ratings over anything else. And the same goes for the male lead character. It's not about the skills but popularity.

And of course personal interests.

I snickered and amidst the chaos I also shouted, "Arthur! Arthur!"

Arthur glared at me and mouthed; I WILL KILL YOU.

I just ignored him and continued suggesting his name until Joshua finally said that we will decide through a voting process. He told us to write down three names that we'd like to suggest and give it to him. So I looked around, trying to guess whose names the others will be writing down.

My eyes then landed on Craige, which made me remember the last time that we spoke to each other and how amusing everything was, until we got tied up. And how two days later I started thinking: What if I just let it brush... would that be weird?

I shook my head to brush off the crazy thoughts that have invaded my head and to concentrate on the crucial task at hand.

At first, I hesitated whether to really do what I was planning to do. But then I thought, to hell with it and just went with it. When Joshua saw my paper, he looked at me as if asking me if I was serious about it.

I meaningfully smiled at him.

And he smirked back.

[Sweet Revenge:

1. Arthur

2. Blake

3. Paige]

And that's how Arthur ended up with the third lead role, Craige got the second and Jake got the first by shamelessly voting for himself.

Never underestimate the power of a single vote...

The competition for menial roles on the other hand was very fierce, but I manage to take NoName#03 who has the least number of lines in the entire play. On my defense, I did help a lot with completing the script so this could be considered as a privilege that I rightfully deserved.

But what I didn't expect was when we started the script reading just to test the flow of our story, I was asked to read Ameera's lines since she was absent that day. I wanted to protest but decided not to because it really was no big deal. I just had to read the lines. Or so I thought.

"Let's break up." I started with my G**gle assistant tone.

Craige: What? Ameera, why?

Me: Just because.

Craige: You can't do this to me. We've been together for a year already. Where did I go wrong?

Me: Listen. You and I both know that this is not going anywhere. We're not in love with each other.

Craige: If—

"Cut!" Joshua interrupted. "Hedwig, stop goofing around and say the lines properly."

"What are you talking about? I'm reading it perfectly word for word." I defended and they started laughing.

'What the heck?!'

"Stop reading it to a T!" He snapped.

"Then what do you want me to do? Read it backwards?" I snapped back.

Joshua took a deep breath. "We've worked on this script together for an entire week and I know that you know perfectly how I want these lines to be delivered. Now do it properly."

'Who are you to order me around?!'

I wanted to protest but I don't want to give everyone the satisfaction of seeing us bicker again and call it a Lovers' Quarrel.

'You wanted proper. I'll give you a taste of proper.'

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Then I said the lines with my head down and a quivering voice. "Let's break up."

"What?" Craige asked, not hearing what I said. Then as if realizing what I was doing, he said his lines as well. "Ameera, why?"

'God...this is killing me. I want to crack up. Focus!'

I looked out the window. "Just because."

"You can't do this to me. We've been together for a year already. Where did I go wrong?" He frowned and sounded really wronged.

'Ooooh... for someone who was forced into the role, you're quite good, Clinton.'

I turned to him and gave him a cold gaze. "Listen. You and I both know that this is not going anywhere. We're not in love with each other."

He smiled sadly, looking so heartbroken which caught me off-guard. "If this is not love, then what have we been doing all this time?"

I blanked out.

'Why? What happened?'

I managed to say the next line, but my concentration already went haywire that Joshua eventually asked someone else to read Ameera's lines while giving me a meaningful look.

During the entire practice, my eyes kept darting back to Craige who was really smooth in delivering his lines.

'The hell was that? Is this guy for real? If he's like this by just reading lines then what is he not good at?'

Then I remembered, "Ah! That's right. Romance. He said that he was bad at it."

Three days later, I was blankly staring into space, tired and wishing so badly to go home when I suddenly got cornered by Joshua during our break time.

"Something smells fishy." He looked at me suspiciously.

I frowned not looking at him and turned the page of the script. Then I started reading one of my three precious lines. "Just because he refuses to let go, doesn't mean that the relationship can still go on. It's long over before you even asked for the breakup, Ameera. And I'm pretty sure that... that..."

Joshua supplied. "Craige."

I froze for a split-second.

"... knows that." I finished. My heart suddenly going erratic, I looked up to Joshua. "What do you want? You're distracting me."

He snorted. "You were long distracted even before I came here, Hedwig. You've been distracted for three days. And I figured out the cause of it."

"Ha! And what that might be?" I challenged him.

He moved closer and whispered. "Arthur Paige."

Yeah. Right. Arth--Who???

"What are you talking about?"

"I noticed that you can act decently compared to others. Did you get lessons?" He started.

I smugly smiled at him. 'Heh! I wasn't even trying...'

"And in what way is Arthur connected to that?"

"Somewhere in between, you totally got distracted and got lost. I've been watching you since you've submitted that paper with only Arthur's name on it and noticed that you kept on stealing glances at him." He confidently answered, not even trying to conceal his excitement over this 'discovery'. "As they say: The more you hate, the more you love."

My brows twitched, 'This kid's probably high again.'

I was so shocked by this news that I didn't have to feign my surprise. But the words that came out of my mouth was a well-rehearsed reaction for occasions like this. "Oh. My. God! You were stalking me? Ewe!"

"Ha!" He snorted. "You've already been shot down, Hedwig. Fess up already."

"Ha!" I copied him and snorted before playfully chanting. "I don't want~ Why should I~ How much will you pay me~"

"You're seriously going to be like this?" His eyes threateningly narrowed at me.

"Sir, yes sir!" I playfully made a face but deep inside my head was running in full gear.

'What does he mean I've been stealing glances? And to whom? Is he kidding me? Is he on drugs?'

Joshua stepped back. "Let's see for how long you can keep this up."

I stuck my tongue out at him and he just smirked then left.

'What the heck was that all about?!'

"He's not as bright as I thought he was." An awfully familiar voice spoke from behind me and every strand of hair on my nape totally freaked out.

My hands flew up to cover my nape. "What the f--"

"Language." Arthur warned, nonchalantly doodling on his script.

"PLEASE! No sneaking up behind me! Do I really have to beg you for you to stop doing that?!"

But he was obviously not listening to me as he furiously scratched the pencil against the poor paper, "And to think he wrote this whole thing. He's unexpectedly simple-minded."

"Who? Joshua?" I asked him.

He continued to scribble on the paper, not answering my question. "But it's quite disconcerting how that guy just tried to make you 'fess up' right in front of me. I'm even impressed that he dared to do such thing. He must've thought that you're one easy prey."

'Dobby knew that Arthur was behind me this whole time?'

"This is why I've been telling you to drop this air-headed cosplay of yours." Arthur continued and I found myself actually listening to him. "Except that he's totally off the mark. Wasn't he, Zee?"

'Oh, good, now he's talking to me.'

I sat on the arm of my chair and crossed my arms. "Off the mark? He was completely out of bounds, brother."

He briefly glanced at me with a curios smile and went back to whatever it is that he was doing.

"It wasn't me you were watching."

I looked at him as if he grew another head.

"You've never thrown a single glance my way." The suspicious smile on his face grew wider. "Why would you anyway..."

I laughed at the ridiculously outrageous thought. "Exactly. Why would I?"

Then he added. "...when you were so busy looking at Craige."

All my senses went numb at his words as if I've been shot at the back of my head.

"There, now it's all nice and cool. Just like me." He dusted his hands and handed me the script that he was scribbling on. Then he took the script from my hands and left the classroom while whistling the tune that I chanted to Joshua earlier.

I looked down at the script that he gave me and realized that it was mine after all. It was only then that I remembered that I had borrowed Arthur's script earlier, because I couldn't find mine. And it seems that he was able to find it for me. I turned to the back page, where he was drawing something, and quivered at the sight of the page filled with graphite.

He drew a target with a heart-shaped arrow stuck on the bulls-eye and cryptic words hovered over the entire drawing as if in 3D.

'One shot, one kill. Watch your back!'

***

Dear Dairy Milk,

Today I think I received a threat. But I'm not sure if I should take it seriously. It's not like he can really do anything harmful to me.

Except annoy the hell out of me.

Every single guy around me has been really annoying lately. One is being a know-it-all. Another is preying on me like a hawk. And the other is simply being such a bother by just being in the same room.

Contrary to what Big Toe was implying though, I AM NOT WATCHING THAT GUY. He just happens to be there whenever I turn my head.

A mere coincidence.

Or it could be some kind of skill.

"Eburi weru no jutsu!"