DRAMA TIME

5 FEBRUARY, FRIDAY, ENGLISH

We had gym after lunch so I continued wearing my gym clothes into English class. Henry and Marcus decided to also wear their gym clothes to keep our group matching and because their uniforms were "too stiff" to fence properly. Excuses, excuses... But I wasn't about to call them out on it. I was actually relieved to not be the only one in class still in gym clothes.

Mr Devon had booked a small auditorium for us so we could perform on some kind of stage. He raised a brow at our attire, but said nothing. Maybe because of his very theatrical background though, his expression said it all, "Let's see what you kids plan to do in that."

Or he could have been looking at the long fencing bags the guys had on their shoulders...

Anyway, we all sat down with our groups on the upholstered seats, and Mr Devon got onto the stage and started talking about Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet and I think he just liked talking on the stage. Finally he told us all to go "break a leg."

Hahaha. Theatre talk.

I remembered hearing Esther talking to some of the older youths about a play they had seen together at King's Theatre. Evelyn had been the most vocal I had ever really seen her. Link had called her "artsy fartsy" for it. But Evelyn had very strong opinions about how the show had been "butchered" that night.

It seemed that if you performed a play bad enough, you could butcher it.

I'm telling you this because I believe without a doubt that our class had in every way butchered Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

The first group was Ivan, Troy, and some guy I didn't know, who Marcus assured me was definitely from our class.

We were quite surprised that they volunteered to go first, but then we found out that THEY STOLE OUR SCENE.

They performed it very seriously with all the words and foam swords from the dollar shop. I wished I thought of that. It seemed like a much safer prop that the swords Henry and Marcus brought.

Anyway, it was very serious, and they looked really stupid waving their foam swords and speaking too softly to be heard properly, even with our wolf hearing, but we were at the back of the auditorium.

Most of the groups were rather quiet.

"We need to project our voices." I told Henry and Marcus.

Next was Abigail's turn. Abigail was playing Juliet across Terrence. Pearl was playing her nurse. They did a balcony scene where Abigail insisted on using a table as a balcony with a chair next to it for her Romeo to climb up.

Pearl refused to get on the table for fear falling might cause the metal parts in her back to break. This alarmed Mr Devon who told her to stand behind the table.

The first part was a little uncomfortable to watch because Abigail kept making googly eyes over at Henry.

But besides that it was also rather boring to watch until the part where Terrence tried to kiss Abigail and she "accidentally" kicked his chair so that he fell off.

Terrence reached out instinctively while falling, grabbing Abigail's skirt. Abigail screamed and the both of them fell in a heap at the bottom of the balcony. The class burst out laughing and clapping because we were cultured like that.

Terrence stood up angry and red. Abigail was furious and called Terrence a big stupid oaf. Pearl smiled widely, "Wow, you didn't want to get kissed but you ended up all over him."

After that, some of the boys claimed that Abigail was wearing red underwear. It was a good thing I was wearing my gym clothes.

By the time it was our turn, Marcus was groaning, "I don't know how we could make it worse, but we are definitely going to mess this up and humiliate ourselves."

Now that was like admitting defeat even before the battle started.

"No!" I said firmly, "I'm not going to lose. Since we know it's going to be humiliating, then we should go all out."

"What the hell, Sam." Henry said, because I think that must be his new favorite phrase now.

"This isn't a competition." Marcus reminded me, "let's just get it over with."

"No way!" The last thing I want is for these two to repeat the Motivational Group Cheer we did last week, "Man up! Use your strengths to your advantage! Flaunt your good looks and fancy sword skills. Project your voice, put feeling into it, and if they must laugh, at least it's because we purposely made them laugh."

"So you think we are good looking and have fancy sword skills?" Marcus waggled his brows.

"Isn't that obvious?" I asked.

"You're really something today, you know that Sam?" Henry told me, he held up his foil, "Alright, let's go all out. All for one."

"And one for all." Marcus said resignedly, clinking foils with Henry.

I had to take a double take on that. I didn't expect these two to be cheesy like that. But to each his own, and it was our turn on the stage.

At the last moment I pulled and pushed chairs and a couple of tables across the stage, "It's urm... stage props."

The two guys only smirked.

So our play started. And then the sword play, and more word play. I decided I rather liked the comical Romeo I made up at our first practice and went for it.

Henry had some trouble not laughing at a few points. But once drawn, his sword never stopped, and neither guy tripped even when mounting tables and chairs. And from the laughter and gasps from the class, I don't think anyone really noticed.

We finally reached the climax where Romeo (me) flapped like a headless chicken and jumped between them.

Henry plunge in the sword with a speed and accuracy that made me glad that I had memorized my lines properly (up to this point anyway).

And then there was a sound, a very soft sliding sound. His blade had cut something. He said, "F***."

The class gasped. Even Mr Devon's mouth dropped open.

I turned to see what got cut. Marcus was "dead" on the ground, a pool of blue hair on his stomach. Eh, wasn't that my hair?

"F***, f***, f***." Went Henry.

I was pretty sure that wasn't in the script.

How did that happen? I reached out to touch my hair, one of my braids was still on. The other one was broken up on Marcus. Maybe Henry's blade accidentally got caught in the braid and had sliced through it.

It had to be a really sharp blade. I barely felt any resistance. Anyway, everyone was still watching. Opps, was it my line? But I couldn't remember it so I just adlibbed, "Look what you've done Tybalt! If Juliet hates my new hairstyle, I'll kill you!"

I drew my sword and Henry blocked, "Juliet is definitely going to kill me." He said. Did he forget his lines too?

"I've seen the way he touches your hair." Henry muttered under his breath.

"Who?" I asked.

"James - I mean Juliet." Henry corrected.

"It's just hair and it'll grow out." I told him, "But poor Merchie is dead or something! And it's all my fault that love made me wimpy."

"I told you to learn your lines!" Henry parried.

Gah! "Why are you suddenly mad? Hair would grow back, but if you kill me, I will really die!" Do not forget, Tybalt, how sharp your blade is! I used a chair to block his attack.

At this point Mercutio sat up, "Wherefore art we talking about hair?"

I had to give Marcus credit for his ability to speaketh shakespeare. Lol.

And then he noticed the locks of hair sliding off him, "Arughhh..."

The class laughed as he scrambled up and dusted the hair off him. Then he said, "A miracle! Romeo's hair hast reviv'd me!"

And then we all took our bows because we ran out of lines and plot. The class actually clapped and cheered.

Except for Ivan who stood up and shouted, "They didn't even follow the script!"

"Yes, well, thank you Henry and company for that exciting and ah, inventive performance." Then Mr Devon stopped, he looked down at the pool of hair, "Is this real hair?"

"Oh goddess, Sam, are you okay?" Jasmine grabbed my arm when I returned to my seat.

I nodded, "It'll grow back."

Henry sighed his full reluctance, "I'll text Juliet to explain."

"Oh, Juliet's so going to kill you." Marcus said.

Who's Juliet? And then I realized.

"Wait don't text Mate!" I grabbed Henry's phone.

"What the...Sam, give that back." Henry said.

"But he'd never have to know." I said, "It'll grow back by dinnertime." (Because I was quite sure I would shower and shift to dry off by then.)

I returned the phone to Henry, "Anyway, it's not the first time I've lost some hair."

Henry's phone felt really familiar. It was heavy, and black, and glossy... Like a flat metal and glass block. Where had I seen it before?

Oh well, all phones looked the same anyway.

"Is...everything alright back there? Is the next group ready to come up?" Mr Devon asked.

Liam stood up, "Yes, sir."

Jasmine turned red.

"Just remember to project your voice." I told her.

Jasmine nodded and left for the stage. Janice joined her.

They followed the same set up as Abigail's team, but I had to admit, their version of the scene was pretty sweet. Until the kissing part. The kissing part was ruined because all the guys in the class started chanting, "KISS! KISS! KISS!"

And that sort of killed the mood, but Liam had dropped a quick and very chaste kiss on Jasmine's forehead.

The whole class erupted, "Woah...."

And then into applause.

Liam smiled his usual lopsided, eye crinkling smile and put his finger to his lips in a mock, "Shush" to the audience, which made the girls giggle.

Jasmine's hand was still on her forehead and her face was red when she returned to us. She sat next to me.

"You did great, Jasmine." I told her honestly, "I think your group was the best performance so far."

Jasmine nodded, "Th...thanks, Sam."

And then she smiled. I smiled back. I could sense Jasmine's happiness. It made me happy to.

"Uh, Sam?" Jasmine asked.

"Yeah?" Was it about my hair again?

Jasmine lowered her voice, "Liam asked me out on Vday."

Oh. Wow. Okay...

"I don't know..." Jasmine was struggling with something that was internal, intangible, and probably girly. I felt myself panic a little. I can't do girl talk. I have zero experience in love. I'm useless to you, Jasmine!

"I guess I'm just a little scared that if anything goes wrong, I might lose our friendship." Jasmine said at last.

On stage, the cool girls were getting ready for their scene.

"Oh my god! It's real hair!" Leia shrieked.

A couple of guys went up to investigate.

"It's so soft." Troy said too loudly.

A few more boys went over to help clean up.

"It's like expensive silk." Another boy said.

"I didn't know girls' hair is so smooth." Terrence discovered.

Oh. I felt my face redden.

"Don't touch her like that!" Zara scolded.

"We're not!" Troy argued back.

"You boys are such perverts." Krystal said.

"We're not!" Troy argued back.

Marcus and Liam went down to sort the guys out. I guess I should've gone with them to clean up my own hair. But I was too embarrassed to by now.

On hindsight, I should've cleaned up my own hair just now, before leaving the stage. I'm not sure why I didn't think to do it.

"Where the hell are your betas when they're needed?" Henry grumbled.

I didn't need my betas 24/7! But I didn't say that out loud, I'm sure Henry would object and I didn't feel like arguing about something pointless like that.

And maybe Henry was right, I think my betas spoiled me. When did I become the kind of person who didn't clean up after myself? I remembered Sabre's admonition, "Mum and Ki won't always be around to clean up."

I was brought up to clean up after myself. I didn't always have three betas to open doors or put away my coat etc. Not long ago, I was someone who would have picked up my fallen hair, and also stacked back the tables and chairs we had used in our scene.

"Sam, what should we do with this?" Marcus asked about the hair.

"I dunno..." I said, "Dump it in a bin?"

Marcus sighed, he turned to Liam who was holding a trash bag of hair, "Dispose of it securely."

"Understood." Liam nodded and left.

"Thanks." I managed to say. This was probably be the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to me in school.

I don't know how to describe the feeling. I just wanted to hide my face somewhere. I'm not even sure what embarrassed me, having my hair left on the stage, watching the other boys feeling it, or needing Marcus and Liam to clean it up for me after that. It was a compounded feeling.

And then I realized that Jasmine was still waiting for my response. I turned my attention back to her. What should I say?

"I don't know much about this stuff." I told her honestly, "Is Liam your mate?"

"I don't know." Jasmine looked guilty, "But I've had a crush on him since middle school... Maybe just one date wouldn't hurt."

I felt bad about making Jasmine feel guilty. But I also felt I owed it to her as a friend to tell her the truth, "If he's not your mate, he's not the one."

"I know, Sam, but maybe he will be my mate some day? Maybe that's why I like him so much." Jasmine said.

"Maybe." I allowed. But the logic sounded weird to me. If her liking Liam was indication of possible matehood, then what about the other girls? Liam seemed to be the type of guy a lot of girls liked. They couldn't all be his mates!

Hahaha. Girl talk.

That's why I couldn't do girl talk. Our train of logic seem to run on completely different tracks.