2 MARCH, TUESDAY, GETTING EVEN LATER
My bad mood became the edge that sharpened my portrayal of Bulliet. Because now, I didn't just play Bell's ex girlfriend, Bubbles, or Bell's allegedly ex crazy zombie lover, I was also playing ME.
Poor Bulliet! Despite being the mean girl of teenage dramas, she was really the most pitiable character. For one, she was saddled with having to act cutesy so she would be "loved" by Horneo. I don't know what she saw in her pervy teenage boyfriend, but when she contemplates the possibility of break up, I imagine Bell leaving me and she goes zombie Ruby mental.
She was also under a lot of pressure because of her ambition to remain queen of popularity - which included keeping a perfect image no matter how self destructive. Whether it be living with bulimia or cultivating toxic relationships to manipulate Nerd and pretty much everyone around her.
Now pour a good dose of a very p***ed off Boo at the end of her restraint over everything, and I had to say, it felt like I was playing a train wreck waiting to happen.
It got to the point where it wasn't even funny anymore.
I had to hand it to the rest of the cast, even as Bulliet's character spontaneously intensified in ways that even surprised me, everyone acted like Bulliet had always been this way. In fact, they stepped up to the plate an with every interaction with Bulliet, gave me the feeling that they were always a little on the edge. Bulliet was a highly stressful individual to deal with.
I also had to hand it to Bell... For dating such terrifying females... okay, granted that Ruby was just a rumor, I'm sure there were others, and I've imagined them to all have the same proportions as Bubbles and Ruby. I also imagine they had all gone mental. Because while playing Bulliet, I've come to appreciate how hard it was to love a cold dumbbell like Bell.
There would always be this feeling that you weren't enough to keep him, that he'd leave the moment you lose his interest, that in his heart, he was probably somewhere else anyway - because Bell was just the kind of guy who was too busy taking revenge to take care of his girlfriend. I mean, face it, I was his soul mate, and even I didn't feel like he was all that into me. I know everyone else seemed to think Bell was totally besotted/charmed/love-struck. But that was me. Bell was just... he was always just really busy. If he wasn't starting some kind of catastrophe for another colored packland, he was fighting to death, or accumulating power somewhere, or exacting revenge, or any combination of the above.
Maybe I should take it like Dad did and be grateful he was on our side.
But if I were to be very honest, I wished I were more beautiful too. There was a very small and secret part of me that emerged while playing Bulliet that wished I could one day become so beautiful that Bell would look at me and forget about destroying the world, that Bell would love me enough to want to live happily ever after with me, more than to see his vengeance fulfilled. This small and secret part of me was probably the crux of Bulliet's redesign.
Finally at the climax of the play, I stepped up on the raised platform, the spotlight falling perfectly on me now (because the lighting guys managed to adjust the lights from yesterday to all our new positions). Horneo had proven his love - and was eternally expelled from Verona High. Part of me was still reeling from the shock - but seeing with my own eyes that it was true and he was gone forever (to another school) had shaken me to the core - after everything I've done, I still lost it all.
It was the moment to flare - and nothing happened. My hair didn't move at all.
Wth?
But we had been told to pretend this was the real deal and not to stop no matter what, so I continued all my other lines as if I never meant to flare and the play went on to its conclusion.
At the end, we had to practice what Ki called the "Curtain Call" which was something like when warriors had to fall in, but not exactly. Basically, we all had to come back out to the empty stage at the end of the show to take our bows and show our appreciation to our audience. This meant coming up on stage, holding hands, taking a bow, and then standing in a line and clapping until everyone had a turn to get back out on stage. Then we needed to do another bow altogether (this took a few tries to get right) and clap again for Ki to come up and take his bow. And then we would keep clapping until Mr Devon escorts Madam Silvia up to take their bows too.
Mr Devon was truly chuffed about having his moment on stage - he had insisted most strongly about escorting Madam Silvia up, so that she had to most graciously accept the pleasure of his company.
I had no idea that the curtain call would be a whole production on its own. Again, we had to wait our turn, and even though I was the Alpha, I wasn't allowed to go first. Theater had a different order of for curtain calls. Like the more important you were, the later to come up at the curtain call. And if the audience kept clapping even after that, we had to wait for Ki and Madam Silvia to return for a second round of applause before we could go off stage again.
There was a bit of discussion among the adults in the decision of moving Jasmine to step up and take a bow all by herself - since she was also the one who wrote the play. Jasmine looked excited and terrified all at the same time the moment Ki suggested it. Madam Silvia was less enthusiastic. In her experience, playwrights didn't take the curtain call and the honors should go to Henry and I individually. Certainly we shouldn't create an excessively long curtain call either. That might be too much, hm?
At that moment though, I suddenly remembered the moments I noticed Jasmine watching Abigail wistfully as the other cheerleader pranced in the center of the other girls' attention, or her expression when she wondered about how to get more followers like Krystal or Abigail. I remembered what she had said about the moon behind the clouds, and I raised up my hand, "I can do the curtain call together with Henry, Jasmine can take my slot."
I mean, all the other actors went out in groups. Henry and I were the only ones besides Ki who had individual bows.
If I were with Henry, I wouldn't have to remember my cue to step out, or where to stop, when to bow, when to step back, where to stand and clap... I'd just follow his lead. Yeah, I could be such a proper lady when it suited me. Hahaha.
And really, it should be Jasmine's moment. I don't think the play mattered more to anyone else than to her. It was her brainchild, and her hard work rewriting the whole script that began this entire production.
Anyway, Ki was the director, so he got the final say. And of course Ki would say whatever I wanted, like he always did. Jasmine got the solo bow just before Ki. Jasmine froze up from excitement at this and couldn't even speak a coherent word.
"Then its settled." Ki smiled his beautiful smile.
And then we all had to rehearse the curtain call again.
By the time we were done, my tummy was rumbling from hunger.
Beta Pete, our stage manager, appeared at this moment with the most wonderful thing in the world! Boxes and boxes filled with paperbags of Mcdonalds. The paperbags were packed with mystery individual meals - some kind of burger with fries. The drinks were in a separate box. There was a choice of coke or sprite.
Okay, I thought it was the most wonderful thing... until we were told to NOT take off our costumes, but to eat very carefully, and then we will run through everything from the top once more. I guess it's true, there's really no such thing as a free lunch, or free dinner either. What time was it anyway? I looked to the clock on the side of the hall - 5PM. It wasn't THAT late.
Mr Devon started rushing about yelling for all of us to call home to let our parents know that we would have to stay back late.
Wait, we were only running through the whole thing once more right? How late was "late"?
I repressed a sigh and went over to collect my paperbag, using my nose to sniff out the one with cheeseburger. Might as well collect on my burger since it looked like we'd be here for a while. Beta Pete had especially reserved a coke for me. (Was he worried I'd make him run out for strawberry juice if we ran out of coke? haha) I had wanted to tease him, but decided against it. He might really run out if I did. I went with a safe and polite, "Thank you" instead.
We had a half and hour break. I took my burger to a quiet corner of the hall meaning to enjoy it in peace, but even before I unwrapped my burger, Henry, Marcus, Jasmine, Liam, Fluffy, and EJ had all come over too. We ended up sitting in a tight circle with Mcdonald paperbags torn open in front of us. Liam did it first. I watched in surprise as he tore his bag open to expose his burger and fries. Then he used the torn open bag as a food tray of sorts, pouring out his fries and squeezing out his ketchup on the makeshift tray.
Then he helped Jasmine tear her paperbag and set up her fries and ketchup for her.
I put down my burger and attempted to do the same. The other guys looked at me, and then proceeded to try it too.
"I've never eaten fast food takeaway this way." Henry admitted.
I was surprised the Young Alpha Henry ate fast food takeaway at all.
"Is this the first time you're eating fastfood, Sam?" Marcus asked.
Me? Hahahahaha... I knew the Macdonald's menu by heart!
"Seriously?" EJ sounded totally surprised, "I didn't know such a person could exist!"
"I HAVE eaten macs before." I quickly clarified. I knew how these misunderstandings quickly escalated by now.
Fluffy considered all this, and then he quietly helped me squeeze out the ketchup and unwrap my burger. He folded it around my burger so that I could hold it without messing up my hands. Then he beamed at me, "You hold it like this, pretty alpha, and then you bite it like a sandwich."
Why? What made him think I had ever eaten anything as basic as a sandwich?
"I KNOW HOW TO EAT A BURGER!" If I could flare, I would. But admittedly, I had never wrapped my burger so neatly just to eat it before either. I studied the neat folds Fluffy had made. It looked like origami. Usually, I just... actually, come to think of it, I wasn't sure. I never thought about how to eat a burger before. I just ate it.
But now that I was noticing, I realized we all had different ways. I mean, its not like anyone (e.g. Henry) had to use a knife and fork on the burger. But he ate his fries like a burger. He held the red packet up to his mouth and ate directly from that - which was weird.
"What?" He asked when he caught me watching, "Its faster this way, and I won't get my fingers dirty."
Oh, I tried to do the same.
"Mou! Pretty Alpha!" EJ exclaimed, "That's not ladylike!"
Yes, because there was a ladylike way to eat McDonalds.
"You can just use your hands like this, Sam." Marcus demonstrated.
I KNEW HOW TO EAT A FRENCH FRY! Grrrr... why were they treating me like an idiot?
Even after eating, I noticed there were differences. Some of us balled the wrapper, others folded it in varying levels of neatness. Fluffy's wrapper being folded into an origami rose - complete with stem.
"Woah." And then Marcus started laughing, "Fluffy, I don't want to know why you need such a skill."
Henry smirked and looked very amused.
And our time was up. Mr Devon started walking around clapping his hands to get our attention so he could yell that time was up and to throw away our trash in the black bags Beta Peter had kindly set up on the sides of the hall.
Beta Peter immediately and kindly came over to our circle to throw his Alpha's trash for him. I guess Henry's pack also believed as Gamma Harry did - that the Alpha was the head, and one did not use their head to pull weeds, or throw trash. He also kindly took my trash from me.
"Alright, once again. As before, no stops please. We'll run through to the curtain call." Ki instructed.
Then he went through a few pointers to the various cast or crew to tighten up each point. When he got to my failed hair-flare scene he said, "Goddess, your performance today was exceptional, but is it possible to unfurl your hair as you did in yesterday's rehearsal at this point?"
Ki almost always called me goddess. It was to a point where I had stopped noticing it. So I didn't notice it this time either... until someone behind me whispered sharply, "He called her goddess."