Stratford Academy-muke

5

"Sooo..."

"So..."

Michael and Luke were now sitting backstage, trying to get their creative juices to flow. "What do we write about?" Michael asked. He tapped the pencil against the hard floor.

Luke shrugged. The two stared down at the floor. Michael felt like his brain was empty. He swore that a singular fly was flying around in there.

"I got it!" Luke announced, breaking the silence. Michael looked over at him, his head cocked to the side.

"What's your idea, blondie?" Michael asked. Luke rolled his eyes at the nickname but continued.

"Okay, so what if there was a voodoo doll-"

"Voodoo doll?"

"Shhh, let me finish!" Luke shushed. "And the owner of the voodoo doll makes their crush fall in love with them!"

Michael quirked an eyebrow but wrote down the idea anyway. "That's interesting for sure...are you trying to tell me something, Hemmings?" He teased. Luke's eyes widened, and a dark blush appeared on his face.

"I-uh-how do you know my last name?!" Michael giggled and pointed to the metal water bottle next to Luke with his pencil.

"It has your full name on it."

"Oh."

———

It was now lunch, and the group sat together discussing random topics. Luke and Michael sat at the very end of the table, writing down ideas for their performance.

"How will we fit all of this into the ten to fifteen-minute time slot?" Michael asked. Luke shrugged.

"We'll figure it out as we go. Plus, these are just ideas; we haven't written the actual script yet," Luke said.

A loud clacking noise was heard approaching the table. Everyone silently groaned as they looked up to see Arzaylea acting as bitchy as ever.

"I don't get it! Why am I not with Lukey? I told Mr. G I specifically wanted to be with him!" She pouted. It seemed like the more she talked, the higher her voice got.

She shuffled over to Luke, a frown on her face. "Can you believe it, Lukey?" Luke sighed and ran a hand through his blonde hair.

"We have to listen to G, Lea." He mumbled. Arzaylea stomped her foot against the floor.

"But it's not fair!" She screeched, gaining the attention of nearby tables. Luke grabbed Arzaylea's wrist in an attempt to stop her hissy fit.

"Stop. You're making a scene." She stared Luke dead in the eyes. Then, the loudest scream Michael had ever heard came out of her mouth. It was ear-piercing. Michael swore he heard ringing in his ears. Everyone at the table cringed and covered their ears.

The whole lunch room went silent. Everyone's eyes were on them. "Ugh! Fuck this!" Arzaylea screeched and stormed off to god knows where.

Luke swore under his breath and got up, chasing after Arzaylea. "Does this happen often?" Michael said in a whisper. Calum nodded.

"We've been trying to get him to break up with her, but she's just so..."

"Controlling?"

"Yeah. He clearly doesn't love her; everyone can see it. I don't know how she hasn't noticed yet." Calum said as he took a bite out of a hamburger. As soon as the food hit his mouth, his face paled, and he spit it out onto a napkin.

"Luke's also way too sweet. He doesn't want to hurt her." Ashton butted in. He rubbed Calum's back as the Kiwi boy ran a hand through his hair, his face growing paler by the second.

"It's sad," Sierra said as she applied a layer of lipgloss. "He's a sweet guy. Good boyfriend, too. I dated him for like a week back in eighth grade. He's truly a sweetheart." Michael hummed in agreement.

"Yeah, he's nice. I like him." When those words came out of Michael's mouth, Calum and Ashton turned to each other and giggled.

"What are you two giggling about?" Michael asked, his eyebrow quirked up.

"Oh, nothing!"