Easy To See(Sequel to 'Didn't Know It Before' - an EJ Caswell Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty: Things I Wish You Said

"I think their Lumiere is like an actual French exchange student." Ricky added. 

"Ms. Jenn, how are we supposed to beat North at the Menkies without Megan, if they're churning out this a second after changing their musical? Its like..."

"They're probably utilizing her freaky stage-manager powers to get things done fast."

Everyone started talking at once and I leaned my head against my hand, pulling my jacket out of my pocket and scrolling through our text messages. 

Can we talk?

Megan please.

I'm worried about you. I love you.

We can work through this.

Please just text me back.

We all miss you at East. We want you to come back. 

I clicked on the little text box, typing out a new message. 

You make a beautiful Belle, just like I expected but...you look so sad. Its killing me to see you this way and not be able to do anything. Please talk to me.

"Wildcats!" Ms. Jenn clapped. "Take heart. North High is clearly focusing on bells and whistles. Impressive, but distracting. All we need is..."

"Friendship?" Seb guessed.

"No, Seb, all we need is to get back to basics," She corrected, "Emotional performances that connect with the audience can make all the difference with these judges."

I sighed, instantly being bombarded with the memory of Megan and I back at the El Ray last semester. 

"Ok, so the reason that performance you just did was so bad was because you were trying to act." I furrowed my eyebrows. "Its like with my songwriting! You weren't trying to portray how a real person would talk and feel in that situation, you were trying to give a performance that you thought would show Miss Jenn that you had emotions. You were so focused on the action of acting that you weren't portraying genuine feeling." I nodded.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

"Here...can we try something?" She asked. I nodded. "Ok, so acting, is an extension of yourself. You're trying to portray yourself to the audience through your character, so I want you to put yourself in Troy's shoes. Troy has been identified by one thing his entire life, he thought that was all he was able to do, until he sings with Gabriella. So...have you ever had someone or something that just completely opened you up to aspects of the world, or maybe aspects of yourself that you didn't know existed?"

"Yeah...yeah I think I have." 

I don't think she realized it at the time but...I was talking about her. She is, and always has been, the person who opens me up and brings out the best in me. Pretty much every emotion I've drawn from since then, when it came to acting, was connected to her in some way...and now she's gone.

"I have a plan, which is why you've all been called in today." Ms. Jenn continued, "And that plan is a weekend acting intensive." 

"Acting intensive like..." I trailed off, waiting for her to answer.

"Improv. Character work. Movement exercises." She sat on a pile of mats, crossing her legs dramatically. I nodded. "Hey Gina? Gina? Are you here?"

I looked over at her, as she was sitting right beside me, and saw that she had her phone in her hand. 

"Yeah, yeah." She said, putting her phone down again. 

"We're going to really connect with our characters, and impressive performances, not fancy staging or actual killer wolves, will be our key to the gold."