Jane&Juliette

            “Juliette! Juliette! Throw down your hair!” Thomas Riddley called dramatically.

            The blonde girl perched upon the balcony that had been constructed specifically for the play they were supposed to be rehearsing for covered her mouth as she giggled. Her hands caught on to the railing as she leaned over and called down, “Wrong play, Romeo! Try again!”

            Guffaws spurted around the on looking cast and crew loitering in the surrounding auditorium. No one but Thomas Riddley could manage to make such a scene during a rehearsal. The place only grew louder and louder as the boy comedian continued to make a fool out of himself. Juliette was just about keeled over from the strength of her laughs at her stand. She, like all the other females in the play, sometimes fell to the charms of the boy and couldn’t help being swept off her feet by his eccentric humour and mindless jokes.           

            Backstage, near the mounds of wires, paper maché masks and feathers, Jane was going red from anger – quite the opposite of her cackling peers. Her fellow crew mates were green with envy as they stared at the high spirited cast, but contrary to them Jane was not. She had proved many a time that she was not an easy person to sway. Fury flashed bright before her eyes in a colourful pattern of red and gold.

            It wasn’t fair, she told herself. She was always stuck picking up after the cast; aiding them with their costumes plus whatever else it was that their little hearts desires. That she had to make sure everything ran smoothly and simultaneously cater to their needs while they got to good off like little pixies on a high wasn’t fair. It was like they didn’t care that there was the biggest drama production of the year looming just around the corner.

            “I hate Thomas Riddley,” Jane spat much like an angered feline would. Her eyes followed her classmate as he hopped around the stage, holding one of the gowns she’s painstakingly prepared the night before to his chest and sneered.

            Her assistant, Katy Bennings, was suddenly at her side, startling her so profusely that she had no choice but to disconnect her stream of vision to recover.

            “Katy! Did I not tell you six hundred billion times already to make noise when you walk?!” Jane screamed.

            The sophomore girl simply laughed - the noise like a twinkling bell to her ears, already accustomed to Jane’s angry outbursts. A product of her stress she continually reminded herself so she wouldn’t get offended.

            “Yeah, yeah,” she brushed off. “You’ve told me six hundred billion and one times now. Actually boss, I was wondering where to put Romeo’s outfits? I would have asked Mr. Scoo, but I can’t seem to find him anywhere…”

            A sigh left Jane’s lips. Of course she couldn’t’ find Mr. Scoo. He was probably out buying donuts and coffee for all his precious actors and actresses. As if they deserved it.

            “Leave them here; I’ll take care of it,” Jane assured.

            Katy shrugged, mumbling an ‘okay, boss!’ as she went to fetch the rack of costumes. Seconds later it was by Jane’s side and she was wheeling it down the length of the stage to Thomas’s dressing area which was really just a room where all the boys changed. She cared not that she was crossing straight through the center of the egocentric cast; she had a destination to reach.

            Unfortunately for her, the others didn’t see it as such and Thomas especially. He was still acting the roll of Bobo the clown instead of dashing Romeo and while he danced with an invisible woman he kept moving back and back still until he moved straight into the rack and tumbled ungracefully to the floor in a mess of limbs and lace.