Light in the Dark

Chapter Eight

      "After class I will be posting the parts for the Much Ado about Nothing, all casting is final. No 'ifs' or 'buts' will be reaching my ears or I will fail you." Mr. Jet held the paper that held all of our names and parts in his hand. With it he walked out of the classroom and posted it on the door. The young freshman bolted to see if they got casted as the part they wanted.

"Oh I can't look! I'm too nervous!" Charly cried. I couldn't blame her, it wasn't something that I wanted to do.

"I know! It's like all of my nerves are hitting me at once!" Emma joined.

"I could look for you guys, I know I didn't get casted so I'm not really all that worried about it," I suggested.

"Oh you definitely got casted, your monologue was so good!" Emma encouraged. I stood up to go over but Emma and Charly were quickly behind me.

"I have to see for myself!" Emma blurted, Charly nodded earnestly behind her. I continued walking to the sheet of paper. Finally we were in view of the casting list. Emma let out a squeal and Charly's own squeal followed shortly after.

"I'm Beatrice!" Emma squealed again.

"I've got Hero!" Charly shrieked. Though her voice sounded excited, you could definitely hear a twinge of fear in her voice. I moved my finger down the list and saw my name next to Charly's.

"I'm your understudy?" I asked, confused.

"Yeah, looks like it." she beamed.

"But I don't want to be in the cast, I - I just signed up for stage hands," I stuttered.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to miss this!" Charly reassured me. I continued looking down the list and saw that Darik got the part as Claudio, Hero's love interest. It seemed fitting for him.

After we all saw our parts Mr. Jet passed out scripts to all the characters, I was confused when one entered my hands.

"Mr. Jet, I'm only an understudy, why do I need one?" I asked.

"You are an understudy and while Charly doesn't plan on dying or getting deathly ill or breaking any bones, you still need to learn her lines and be prepared, should anything out of the ordinary happen to her. Understand?" he clarified.

"Yeah," I sighed. Opening the play I gazed at it with horror then prayed that nothing happened to Charly.

                                                                                *****

      "Class, I've got some bad news," Mr. Jet started class and immediately everyone was silent, anxious to know the news.

"Charly has shattered her leg bone and has to go through Physical Therapy and can't continue on with the play. She is very upset about it. That being said, Mariah, you are now our Hero and I mean both the character and the title." At that moment I never hated another person more than I hated Charly. I raised my hand and asked to be excused. I ran to the bathroom and hung my head over the toilet bowl. All the horrors of performing on stage mixed with being with Darik, getting caught and ridiculed swam around in my head as my breakfast and anything else I had in my stomach now lived in the toilet.

"Mariah? Are you alright?" It was Darik. I froze in my position, unable and unwilling to move but it didn't matter because I had been detected. Darik opened the bathroom stall that I had been vomiting in. Flushing the toilet I remained where I was.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, his voice soft.

"Go away," I muttered. Without speaking he started to leave but his footsteps came back.