Curtain in 5, 4 . . .

Chapter Seven

It was the morning of the clinic in Surf City.

Those who were able to assist the final load-up of all materials and taking final inventory entered the Temple before ten o'clock came around and their bus arrived.

Peridot didn't have many classes that day. In fact, one of her professors had called in ill the night previous in an e-mail sent out to the whole honors mechanics class. She had slipped in her excuse forms to her other two remaining teachers' inboxes before returning to the Temple yesterday.

Garnet approached Peridot as she was gathering a bundle of outlet cords for Amethyst's fog machine. In her arms was a lime-coloured binder that the lights technician accepted with an equivocal "thanks."

"In this binder are the light plots for every theatre the Crystal Gems have performed at in the past," Garnet explained as she opened the binder for her, pointing out the front page which was a cleanly illustrated diagram depicting the Temple's stage and its lighting areas. "You can use this to your advantage when we visit other auditoriums with different settings."

Peridot's eyes widened behind her frames as she poked through the hard folder, taking in the different drafts of lighting areas for different theatres. "And they're all schools?" She asked, pointing to a picture titled 'Bayburgh College of the Arts and Humanities Auditorium.'

Garnet nodded. "One Act Play is only found in university programs. It's part of a grander universal scholastic league regime, but we aren't directly involved with the likes of those officials." Peridot nodded in understanding with a remote scowl. "So we're really only competing against other students."

The stage manager hummed accordingly. "There's no such thing as only competing. For the past few years the Crystal Gems have been trounced by other neighboring OAP groups. We haven't been to State competition for. . ."

"Three years," Peridot finished for her, remembering a similar discussion she had shared with Pearl when they had been organizing light program sheets together last night. The uptight manager really had a respectable knack for alphabetical and numerical composition.

In retrospect, the Crystal Gems' lack of triumph sounded outrageous. "That's so contemptible, though! How big is Delmarva, really? Advancing should be a piece of cake."

Garnet's expression was stoic as she viewed the amputee. Peridot's lips tightened together as she mulled over her choice of words, anxiously registering just how mean-spirited and contemptuous she had come off as.

"That is to say," she flustered to correct, "this year should be great!" She swung up a fist for emphasis, balancing the coiled cords in her free arm whilst mentally crumpling to the floor with cold relief when Garnet tilted her head to acknowledge the indirect apology.

"It definitely will be," the head of the troupe said as she turned to help Sugilite and Stevonnie begin moving the armoire across the stage to their truck. "Be good, Peridot."

"Be good," Peridot echoed back, biting her lip. "Sure. I can do that."

She finished coiling Amethyst's wires and found her talking with Smoky and Opal, making a crude joke as Peridot walked in on that Smoky guffawed at. Opal looked away with a hidden smile.

"I got your cords," Peridot said, handing them to Amethyst with a proud smirk. "I even colour-coded them. They were a mess! How did you even manage connecting them to the right adapters?"

"Just followed the gut instinct," the other girl mused, patting her stomach gladly. "It usually works out just fine. Pearl's always there to double-check if it screws up anyway so I'm in the all-clear, dude."