"Okay, let me put it this way. I may end up kissing you tonight, and don't wanna taste that." She chuckled at her comment, and so did I as I gave in and took the bottle. As I drank, I wasn't expecting the water to be minty, but I guess it was an effective strategy.
"Also, here." she added, handing me a towel. "You've got me on your face everywhere."
I laughed at her wording and cleaned myself up. After, we lay in the bed, completely naked, completely wordless, connected by our hips, shoulders and hands, which were held in a clasp as we both looked up at the ceiling.
"Why do you live here if you go to school in the next town?" I asked out of the blue.
"Why do you?" She asked, not missing a beat.
"Bullies. Wanted a fresh start." I said simply.
She nodded. "Well, I guess you got one." She said matter-of-factly. "I've always gone to that school, but recently my parents moved back here, so we could be closer to family. I didn't want to leave all of my friends behind, so I decided to drive myself."
"Okay." I replied, then spoke again after an awkward silence. "Thanks again for the voice thing." I said sheepishly. "I know it must be kind of weird."
"I've had weirder." she shrugged. "Besides, whatever makes you happy." She squeezed my hand. I couldn't see it, but I felt that she was smiling.
"Though if I'm speaking freely, I don't really get what you see in her." she added. Well, this was going to be quite the can of worms.
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"I mean, she's not exactly well spoken." She began. "No grammar skills, nothing really interesting about her personality, nothing that turns her head besides the way she looks. She honestly seems like a ditz, who has little-to-no unique personality."
I wanted to retaliate, to tell her she was wrong, but I honestly didn't know how to. Don't get me wrong, May was NOT a ditz to me, and she had a unique personality, it just wasn't as in-your-face as Nicole's was. Nicole was great, but she could never make me walk on sunshine just by talking. She could never make me quite so excited about possibly kissing her. In the end, I did enjoy the time with Nicole more, but just the idea of May made me excited. When it came down to it, I liked Nicole, but was crushing on May.
For the first time ever, Nicole misinterpreted me, taking my silence as being offended. "Sorry, I guess that was kind of rude, huh?" The only thing more uncommon than saying sorry for her was being incorrect, but I shrugged it off. She just didn't understand what I felt for May. She just couldn't.
***
Monday, fourth period hit me like a ton of bricks. I was beginning to control it better, but my inner sense of panic made me want to throw up. For goodness sakes, it was a small project, maybe worth 5-10% of my overall grade, maximum, but that wasn't it. It was the possibility of disappointment. I couldn't handle anyone being disappointed with me, and the more doubt kept telling me I would definitely screw up, the more evident the possibility of disappointment became.
Zac arrived at the classroom before I did. I was an absolute jerk to him before, even though he didn't know it. He wasn't after May, and was doing this out of the goodness of his heart. He was truly a good guy.
Mr. Salvador entered the way he always does – by walking up to the stage, sitting down on its edge, and facing us with a calm, powerful "Hello." However, this time, he immediately added, "Alright, everyone take seats at the back of the auditorium. I should be able to hear any actors from there. If I can't, you're not being loud enough. Dylan and Jack, you're up first. Make any preparations you need. Go!"
Everyone started moving to the back seats. Zac came from the crowd up to Mr. Salvador and I could make out him saying something to Mr. Salvador amongst the kerfuffle. He nodded and spoke out, "After Dylan and Jack will be Adam and May!"
Oh my God. Second. We were going second. As I made my way to the back of the aud, I had to stop to breathe. My hands on my knees and I inhaled and exhaled a few times, until I felt a soft, delicate hand on my back. "Are you going to be okay?" May asked, a little bit of concern in her voice. Though I could tell her voice was mostly just patience.
"Yeah, I'll be good." I told her breathily as I took my seat. Blondie and the long brown haired guy were up first, evidently. Zac ran past the audience so that he could get into the booth. A few seconds later, Mr. Salvador called out, "House lights off. Standard stage lights kept on."
On cue, the lights around the audience, and the class, faded, as the stage was left as the only illuminated thing left in the room, with Blondie and the Baseball Kid standing on it dumbly.
"Feel free to start whenever you're in position." Mr. Salvador commanded from the back row. The two guys got into a position. Baseball Kid sat Indian-style on the floor, and held his arms out in a bowl shape. Blondie tried to make a box with his arms. After a few seconds of stillness, Blondie tilted to one side and shook his form up and down.
"Shikka shikka shikka," were the noises that came out of his mouth, slightly muffled by his attempts not to laugh at himself, as if he was doing something hilarious. As Blondie waddled back to his original position and tilted back, Baseball Kid made his body expand, still making the circular shape.
They stayed there for a few seconds, before going out of position. "That's what we got." Blondie declared. I tried recalling what I saw, but I couldn't tell what they were trying to show. As they came down off the stage, there were a few stray claps from the audience. That couldn't have been longer than 30 seconds, I thought to myself. Seemingly, I wasn't the only one doubting them.
"Good." Mr. Salvador said, which got their hopes up. I could tell that 'good' was just a word he used, and held no connotation. "Was everyone paying attention to that?"
He was met with a sea of nods and a chorus of 'yes's from the group. "That's an excellent example of what I don't want to see from you." He stated. There was no hint of malice to his voice, but the fact that his tone was gentle, calm and steady made the comment sting that much more. Blondie's eyes flickered with disbelief, then anger, before settling with acceptance as he took a seat.
"Next up, Adam and May. Go." Mr. Salvador continued. If I was nervous before, I am catatonic now. Our teacher was a serious hardass when it came to performances, and he just served the team that went before us, then asked us to go up as if nothing happened. I had to admit, the two seemed really underprepared, and that put me at ease knowing how much May and I worked on our piece.
As I got up on stage, I looked into the glass windows of the booth and saw Zac give me a thumbs-up. I gave him my own thumbs-up as Mr. Salvador noticed and looked behind him. When he looked back, there was nothing clearly visible on his face, though the guy had a good poker face.
As I inhaled and exhaled a few times, I felt a warm breath in my ear. "Don't worry." came the sweet, gentle voice of May. "We're going to be awesome." This display caused a few "Oohs"to come from the audience, but we ignored them. I smiled at her and nodded, my nervousness dying just a little. With that, I lay on the ground, feet together, my left arm bending around my head to meet at the fingertips with my right. It was meant to be an ax, and I had little to work with, so that's what we settled on.
"Go ahead when you're ready." I heard Mr. Salvador call. I could only see the ceiling of the auditorium, and trusted that May took her position as a tree. After breathing for a few seconds, I hoisted myself up by only my legs (not an easy feat when you're a scrawny freshman) and stood up, defining myself as the axe. I avoided eye contact with the audience, my eyes fixated only in May. Originally we thought to do the arms up thing, but creatively, May decided to make her arms all jagged and spread out instead, using every finger to look like a different branch. It looked a lot less cheesy and from my angle, and it paid off. Although maybe I was biased – with the position she took, it was a lot easier to catch a quick glimpse of her fantastic breasts.
Scolding myself internally, I focussed on the piece and moved towards her, using only my heel and the ball of my feet to move towards her so I wouldn't have to walk. After landing where I was supposed to, I wound my body up and went forward, bashing her in the stomach with my connected hands.
On cue, a red pulse filled the auditorium, only to die a few seconds later. When no red light was left, I wound back and hit her again. The red bathed the stage, and May contorted her waist to look like a dent had been made.
Whack, whack, whack. With each time I hit her, the lighting changes came perfectly on time and she contorted her body more until she finally tipped over, changing her footing position so that she could fall but still keep her legs from the knees down on the ground. I was amazed she didn't hurt herself when she fell to the floor with a bang. It wasn't quite five minutes, but honestly, how could you make something like that last five whole minutes?
Remembering Blondie's piece, I decided to stay as the object until we were addressed. Thankfully, May thought the same thing. After about ten seconds of stillness, Mr. Salvador called out, "Are you done?"
"Yes." May's confident voice responded.
"Good." Mr. Salvador said flatly, writing down a few things on his clipboard. "Thank you. A much stronger performance. Next, let's have Hanna and Jarrod."
I breathed a sigh of relief as we walked off stage. It was over, it was done with, thank goodness. Drama was a lot harder than I assumed it would be, though apparently that was Mr. Salvador's fault, not the curriculum's. According to the rumors around school, he's a lot harder on kids than most drama teachers are, but they also come out learning a lot more and being more successful theatrically.
"We did it!" May said gleefully before we took our seats, hugging me again. I returned the hug in vigor this time, glad to see her so overjoyed. I was happy too – this project was a lot more stressful than I thought it would be, especially during the performance. It was nice to be done with it.
I couldn't focus on the other performances, frankly – I was too busy trying to return my breath to normal. My anxiety was becoming a huge problem for me, I noted.