Amelia seemed quite shocked as I asked the question. Am I missing something?
"you really didn't know I was the lead?"
"nope!"
"weren't you paying attention in the class?"
I seem to remember something, the bell ring in my head. It was the day when Amelia smiled at me, miss chole was discussing about this play. Okay so, I wasn't paying attention since I was busy analyzing other things.
"oh..I seem to remember it. So, why isn't Eddie brown suitable for this role? so far I think miss chole said afterwards that Eddie will be Harry Preston"
Eddie brown was a type of boy who have a squeaky voice, people would just avoid talking to. He was skinny, with pimples all over his face and he usually talked to you with his eyes all squinched up. He had a nervous tic, and he couldn't help but squinch his eyes whenever he got nervous, which was practically all the time. He'd probably end up spouting all his lines like a psychotic blind man if you put him in front of the crowd. To make things worse, he had a stutter, too, and it took him a long time to say anything at all. Miss chole gave him the role because he was the only one who offered to do it, but even then it was obvious she didn't want him either. Teachers were human, too, but she didn't have much of an option, since no one else had come forward.
"Miss chole didn't said that exactly. What she said was that Eddie can have the role if no one else tried out for it"
"Can't someone else do it instead?"
But there wasn't anyone else, and i knew it. Because no one takes drama that year in senior boys, the classes were merged with ours. There were about hundred sophomore and senior boys at the highschool, twenty-two of whom were in football team, twenty of them were in basketball team, and with the team still in the running for the state titles, none of them would have time to go to the rehearsals. Of the fifty-eight or who were left, more than half were in the band and other activities, and they had after-school practice as well. A quick calculation showed that there were maybe be dozen of people who could possibly do it.
Now, I didn't want to do the play at all, and not only because I'd come to realize that drama was just about the most boring class ever invented. The thing was, I just couldn't bear the thought that I'd to spend every afternoon with her for the next four months and even the mornings in our vacation. Being seen with her once was bad enough...but being seen with her everyday? what would my friends say?
But I could tell this was really important to her. The fact that she'd asked made that clear. Amelia never asked anyone for favour. I think deep down she suspected that no one would ever do her a favour because of who she was. The very realization made me sad.
"What about Charles Ellsworth? he might do it." I offered.
Amelia shook her head." As you know he lives with his mother and she is sick now, and he has to work in the store after school untill his mother gets back on her feet."
"What about Jeff woods?"
"he broke his arm last week when he slipped on the boat. His arm is in a sling."
"Really? I didn't know that," I said, stalling, but Amelia knew what I was doing.
She sighed for the second time.
"I'd like this play to be special this year, not for me, but because of my father. I want it to be the best production ever."
She paused. Looked at me and continued again " The Winter Angel, the story that my father wrote is very close to his heart. Cause if you see the plot it's quite related to his real life too. I know how much it will mean to him to see me be the angel, because this play remind him of my mother..." She paused, collecting her thoughts. "It would be terrible if the play was a failure, especially when I am involved."
She stopped again before going on, her voice becoming more emotional as she went on.
"I know Eddie will do the best he could, I really do. And I am not embarrassed to do the play with him, I'm really not. Actually he is a nice person, but he told me that he is having seconds thoughts about doing it. Sometimes people at school so...so...cruel, and I don't want Eddie to be hurt. But..." she took a deep breath, " but the real reason I am asking is because of my father. He is such a good person, Landon. If people make fun of his memory of my mother while I am playing the part... well, that would break my heart. And with Eddie and me....you know what people would say."
I nodded. My lips pressed togther, knowing that I was one of those people she was talking about, when we saw them practicing we called Amelia and Eddie, the dynamic duo. The very fact that it was I who started it up made me feel terrible, almost sick to my stomach. I didn't know a single thing about the play but I made fun of it.
She straightened up a bit little in her seat and looked at me sadly, as if she already knew I was going to say no. I guess she didn't know how I was feeling. She went on.
"Never once in my life I thought that God can be cruel, especially someone like my father. He devotes his life to God, he believes that everything is in lord's plan. And he already lost his wife and had to raise me on his own. And I love him soo much for it..."
To be continued...