Sugarcane Chronicles Volume I: One and Lonely (ryden)

Improv Scene

I went home pretty soon after we drew names. Ryan told me that that Saturday they would all be going to the mall to go shopping for what they had called the ‘Winter Party’ and I was invited.

The next day at school was the first day of drama club and it was held during Study Hall after lunch. I’d never been in a club before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was glad I had Ryan to kind of guide me because he had been in a club before and knew what to expect of drama club because he had been in it before.

Ryan and I had agreed to meet by my locker before going to the club. Mostly because he knew where the room was. We walked to the room together without talking. When we stepped into the room, all the drama kids went crazy for Ryan. I looked at him in confusion as everyone ran up to him and welcomed him back. After all the commotion died down, Ryan explained to me that he used to be in the drama club and then dropped out of it without telling anyone and everyone missed him. I nodded and understood, because something very similar happened to me before I moved to the neighborhood.

It was after my first girlfriend (and was before I knew I was gay), and she broke up with me in the middle of music class. It was the only class we shared and I cherished every moment we had together, and I even learned piano for her. One day we were sitting next to each other, and I had written a song for her and had it written on a piece of notebook paper. I had just finished writing it and passed it to her. She didn’t even look at the lyrics that I had poured my whole being into and just passed the paper back to me and stood up. She yelled at me and broke my heart in front of the whole class. After that, I couldn’t even look at her without bursting into tears. I dropped music and my grades started slipping. My parents noticed my sudden change in attitude, and we moved here to have a new start.

I told Ryan all of that while we were waiting for the ‘club leader’ to come. I looked around the room and saw Josh and Tyler. I waved at them and walked over because Ryan was busy being a drama club celebrity.

“Hey guys,” I said. “I wouldn’t’ve expected you guys to be in the drama club.”

“Yeah, well, we wanted to join a club and this was the only one that would take both of us,” Josh said.

“Ok, well--” I was interrupted by the club leader yelling something over the chatter of everyone.

“Hello, everybody!” He said over-flamboyantly. “Welcome to the drama club! I am the club president, Jack. Firstly, I would like to welcome back the best makeup artist the club’s ever had, Ryan.” Everybody gave him a round of applause. “And secondly I would like to welcome the new club members because I know there are some.” A smaller round of applause followed. “Because of the new members, today we are just going to split into groups of four to do an improv scene. Your scene will be five minutes long. We will have one makeup artist for everyone, which will be Ryan. Let me know if you have any questions.”

Josh, Tyler and I decided to be in a group together. I would’ve asked Ryan to be in it, but he had to be the makeup artist, so I started looking for a familiar face in the crowd of people. I saw somebody and walked over to him.

“Hey, Chris,” I said after tapping him on the shoulder.

“Hello, boy I’ve never seen in my life,” Chris replied.

“You’ve seen me before,” I told him. “You’re a waiter at Stromberg’s, right?”

“Was,” he corrected. “They fired me. And I do remember you now. You had a lunch date with your tall boyfriend with the almost bob haircut and dazzling blue eyes?”

“It’s not a bob cut,” I said. “And he’s not my boyfriend; he’s my music teacher.”

“Riiiiiight,” Chris said, nodding slowly, as if in telling him I wasn’t dating Dallon confirmed it.