Teen For Hire

All Work And All Play

Quick question before we start: Is it a good idea to give some casts for this story to give some idea of character portrayals? Lemme know!

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Reece opened his locker lazily, barely paying any attention as a couple of books fell tumbling out as soon as he swung the small door open. Oh, he knew that his locker was messy. The books looked like they just experienced a hurricane, and there was already a lot of dust at the bottom surface. But frankly, he didn't have the time nor the energy to actually do anything about it. And when he did, he'd rather do something else with it.

His head hurt the moment he got up from bed, making him regret spending hours and hours on his phone last night watching uselessly entertaining YouTube videos and Instagram memes. His mom had always warned him about it, she even took away his phone once. It wasn't really a problem because he'd just pull out another phone that he had anyways. But Reece had to admit, the woman sure did have a hell of a point.

And now, everything at school just seemed so blurry. The boy didn't know if he was even taking out the right books. He didn't even notice the person that kept calling out his name until he felt a sharp pinch on his arm.

"Ow! Stop that!" The boy swatted the hand away, before seeing that it was Mara beside him, a deep frown on her face as she looked at him weirdly. "Sorry, I didn't see you there."

"I called you out like 10 ten times already. Reece, are you okay?" Her eyes narrowed. "Are you drunk?"

"No?"

"Having a hangover?"

"Again, no. Should I go check in the mirror or something-"

"Gosh, are you stoned?" Mara leaned a bit closer then sniffed.

"Wha- no!" Reece looked around himself. "Do I smell like it?"

Mara shook her head. "No, you smell...fine, I guess."

Well, that didn't really make him feel any better at all. "Anyways, is there something you wanted to say or something?" Mara had never actually approached him outside of class and lunch times, so he didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. So far, all he could think of was probably something bad.

"Oh yeah, that's right." Her bright red hair was tied up in a ponytail today so she looked even more cheerful than she did before. "I wanted to say sorry for yesterday. I just thought that you'd be okay with it, that's all."

"Oh, that." Reece relaxed. "Don't worry, it's just fine."

"Really? I mean, you did run-"

"Shush, do not speak of it." The boy gathered all the books he needed and shoved them inside his bag before closing the locker. "Besides, it was just a surprise to me that's all. Nice joke."

"Oh, about that..." Mara let out a sheepish laugh. "Is it like, a really big joke or the kind where 'oh-that-happens' kind of...joke?" She was smiling now, brighter than she had ever done before and she did it while staring right at Reece.

Inside his heart, Reece was wondering if running away again would be an option. He sighed, trying to avoid looking anywhere near the girl's face. "You're actually serious about the acting thing, aren't you?"

"Yes. Can you do it, please? Please, please, please~?"

"Why me?" The question was directed more to the universe rather than Mara.

"Because I think you'll do great!" Mara pursed her lips for a moment. "Alright, I'm hoping you'll be great. You don't need to be amazing like Frank Sinatra in 'Singing In The Rain'."