The Aberrations of S.I.D.E.

No. 25: The Theater Has Many Secrets

"'Left the playroom entirely,'" Kai muttered, grinning. "Genius."

Logan walked onstage, loudly clearing his throat. "Are you going to be done anytime soon? We have to make sure the mics work."

"Do you need us to be out of the way to do that?" Virgil said.

"Yes."

"We'll be done in a second, Logan," Elliot called. "How's it being the head of sound crew?"

"Not as stressful as I would've initially thought," Logan admitted. "We've successfully banned Janus and Remus from the sound equipment room, so my major headache is gone for the time being."

Kai smirked. "Oh, yeah? When'd you ban them?"

"A few weeks ago."

"Oh." He blinked. "They lasted that long?"

Logan made a face. "To the best of my knowledge, they've moved into the dressing rooms."

"Yep, there it is."

A loud shriek sounded from backstage, followed by one of the costume crew members---Kathy, Virgil remembered her name was---running onstage, waving her phone around. "Janus won the bet!"

Kai let out a loud gasp. "Are you shitting me? I thought Adrianna would win for sure!"

Kathy proudly displayed her phone to him. "Read it and weep! Both of them timed it, and both of them had the same result! Four minutes and twenty-eight seconds!"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Kai flapped his hands around. "Does that mean---"

"They're in the hair and makeup room right now, but Janus won't do it unless he has an audience, and there's only a couple of people there, so we gotta MOVE!"

Virgil looked back and forth between them. "Could---could one of you explain?"

Elliot rubbed the bridge of their nose. "Okay, so... this weekend during rehearsal, Adrianna claimed that the longest Larry could talk about Dot when he was supposed to be focusing on something important was three-and-a-half minutes, and Janus decided to bet on that. If she won, he'd have to not wear his hat for two full weeks, and if he won---and he did---then he'd get to give her bangs."

Virgil raised his eyebrows, grinning. "Has he ever done that before?"

"Don't ask me. You're his friend."

Kai grabbed Virgil's arm and started tugging him backstage. "Come on, emo, let's go! I wanna see the show!"

.......................

"I can't believe I agreed to this," Adrianna grumbled.

"You knew the risk when you claimed something debatable in front of me," Janus said, holding up a pair of scissors with a grin. "Time to pay the piper, honey."

"You watching this?" Roman murmured, hugging Virgil from behind.

"Kai's taking care of the recording bit," Virgil answered. "He's sending it to me later."

Adrianna reached for her bandana, then paused. "You do know that I can't really afford a bad haircut, right? I mean, I've got a pretty important role in---"

Janus let out an offended hmph. "Who said I was going to give you a bad haircut? I bet on giving you bangs because I thought they'd suit you."

"Have you ever cut someone's hair?"

"No, but there's a first time for everything." Janus squinted at her. "Hmm... maybe a fluffy, choppier style would work for you. Like, not perfectly symmetrical all the way across, but still fairly symmetrical---"