Mr Popular Is Keeping Me A Secret

Chapter 15: Performance

•Part 15•

I had stayed after school that day to practice. I could confidently say it was one of the worst experiences of my life. Liam and I barely talked to each other throughout the practice except for when we read our scripts which made the drama teachers job of teachings is a lot more difficult.

It was awkward. I could sense it. I mean, it was hard not to. Thankfully the performance was only 7 minutes long which meant that we had learnt the lines in no time.

Today was the day of the performance and I felt sick. I knew this was going to fail and I was going to be the laugh of the school, again.

"Luce, it's going to be great." Melissa reassured.

"Don't stress." Poppy told me. "That'll only make it worse."

I sighed. "Kill me. Please."

"Lucy--"

"Lucy we need you on stage please." The drama teacher appeared out of nowhere, taking my arm and dragging me away from my friends.

"Is what I'm wearing alright?" I asked remembering we got asked to dress in all black.

She looked me up and down analysing my dark grey nirvana tank top, black skinny jeans and black heeled boots with open heel and a buckle around the ankle. "It's fine."

We walked around till we reached the curtains. "I'm nervous." I muttered.

"Don't be." Jhee thanks. Great advice.

I felt sick. It was awful. I was bound to forget all my lines as soon as I saw all our school watching us. What had I done to deserve this?

"Three, two," I shook my head nervously as the teacher counted down hoping she'd stop. "One." And with that the curtain went up and I was alone on stage in front of the whole school. I could feel the eyes on me and heard some giggles but I tried my best to ignore them.

I did as I remembered, walking over to the table at the end of the stage and picking up the food tray with plastic toy fruit and drinks. As soon as I sat down at the table I knew that was Liam's queue. And he remembered because soon enough he was on stage strutting towards him with a smug look on his face and somehow a part of me felt like it was genuine.

"Get up Banks. That's my seat." He spat. Hearing his voice got me feeling a certainty type of way. I felt like I hadn't heard it in ages and the last time I had it wasn't aimed at me so it didn't really count.

I played up, like the apparently great actress I was. "I was here first."

"Does it look like I give a sh*t?" Yeah, to make it more 'appealing' to the teenage audiences, our school made us swear in the performance.

I shook my head getting up from the seat and taking my food with me. "I'm sorry."

And as I turned to walk away Liam stuck his foot out tripping me over. I tried my best to drop dramatically but that's not as easy in the heat of the moment as it was in the practice. I heard the audience laugh. They were all staring at me. I felt sick again. I started breathing heavily realising I forgot my lines. I knew what this part was, it was the part where I stand up (literally) to Liam and fight for myself but I had forgotten my lines.

I stared at Liam blankly and he was staring back, panicking. There were two options, go off stage and make a laughingstock out of myself or use my favourite exam technique. Improvisation.

"Who do you think you are?" I spoke, standing up.

"What did you say?" Liam asked. I wasn't quite sure if he was confused at the change of script or whether he was actually going along with it.