Male Lead

"Huh? Him? Are you sure?" Seeing the name that Mr Kane pointed at, the Drama teacher flinched involuntarily.

"Why? What's wrong? Is this student of yours not good? His acting was superb and it seems that he can switch personalities just as well."

"Well, I do have to admit that his portrayal of the character was on point, but his attitude could be said to be very uh… subpar."

"Subpar? Really? Here I expected this boy to be one of your prized students in Year 9." Both Mr Kane and Mrs Circa was surprised by what Mr Bialik had just revealed.

The student they were talking about was none other than Shawn. His acting skill had differed greatly from his normal personality. To be able to switch so easily, this was a feat that only veteran actors could do. Mr Bialik came clean about Shawn's past assignments that he had done in his class, to which both teachers were deeply surprised as to why the boy decided to try out for the audition.

"Man... And here I thought that the boy was an avid actor." Mr Kane was confounded. Still, he chose to stick by his decision from earlier, "But, this does mean that he is just a diamond in the rough. All you have to do is hone him."

"I? Not we? Come on man." The fat drama teacher started cold sweating with the words of his fellow colleague. Thinking about how he had to change his laziest student into a male lead, it made Mr Bialik feel like he may be living a nightmare.

"You'll be fine, Samuel. If you ever need our help, you know where to find us." Mrs Circa spoke as he took Mr Kane out of the room with her. This left Mr Bialik sitting in the drama room by himself. The man was in deep thought, but in the end, he still relented and followed along with the decision made by the teachers.

The weekend went by in a blink of an eye and it was now morning assembly. Unlike form class, morning assembly was where the year 7 to 13s would gather in the large auditorium and listen together to the school news and events (if there were any). That morning, Shawn and Emilie had come into assembly late due to traffic congestions. The pair sat together at the end of the chairs and listened to the news together.

Eventually, Mr Bialik had come on stage and it was to reveal the results of the audition. Excited, Emily nudged Shawn awake as she told him to pay attention. Normally, Shawn would not care about it, but for this occasion he was energized. He was truly hoping for his name to not be called out.

As Mr Bialik went down the list in accordance to importance, he soon reached the names for the Raymond and Jacelyn, "The student playing Jacelyn will be Emilie Williams and the student playing Raymond will be Justin Lay."

"Oh What? You did not get your part?" Emily was shocked by the results. She did not know how Justin performed, but in her heart, she genuinely thought that Shawn would get it.

"Oh well, I guess that it is fated that I do not get to perform." Shrugging it off with a smile, Shawn did not look one bit disappointed.

Yet, as Mr Bialik went about reading the male and female lead for the play, Shawn's face started to change too. "The students playing Robert and Sarah are Shawn Lin and Jessica Bialik respectively."

With this news, everyone in 9A and the Asian gang clique made loud noises of disbelief when they heard the news. Did the biggest slacker in class just got the role of male lead in the school play? No freaking way?!

"Shawn! You did it! Oh my god!" Emilie who sat beside Shawn was obviously the happiest for him. She shook the boy's lifeless body strongly. Shawn, on the other hand, could not hear anything. He had entered a state of nirvana as if his mind had been enlightened and he would soon disappear from the material realm.

Eventually, the assembly finished and Shawn was soon bombarded by questions from his classmates, especially Julian who had jokingly signed him up for it.

"Dude! What the hell! And here I thought that you did not want to do the play! And yet you freaking stole the spotlight by becoming the male freaking lead!?" Julian nudged Shawn as they made their way down the hallway to their first class.

"I did not want it…" Shawn spoke under his breath.

"What?" Julian could not catch what he was saying.

"I did not want it…" Again, he was not able to catch Shawn's words.

In the rest of the classes today, every teacher made an effort to congratulate Shawn in becoming the male lead in the play. It was shocking to believe that the laziest and quietest student in their class was able to become the male lead. In the teacher's lounge it was a normal occurrence to talk about student's bad behaviours and without fail, Shawn was usually the main topic of focus.

When Mr Bialik decided to make Shawn the male lead, he had purposely kept it a secret and only revealed it to the teachers the same time as the students. This made it so that Shawn was launched into the limelight in an instant.

"I am very proud that you are starting to do more things in school, Shawn." Shawn's math teacher, Mr Khan, congratulated Shawn in a very surprised manner, but soon turned it around on it. "I'm hoping this means that you will be paying more attention to your homework."

"Uh…" This message repeated throughout every subject teacher's class. Now, everyone was expecting more from the boy. It was a cascading effect that left the boy in a soulless state when school ended.

"It's over. It's over." Shawn repeated that as he slouched in the back of the bus.

Emily who sat beside him, comforted Shawn with a smile. "Well, this is only the beginning."