Find Her, Fix Him

12 | Not my girl

12 | Not my girl

~KHAN~

"Right, Delilah and Khan. My super-duper lighting managers. Let's see what we've got here, shall we?"

Mr Scott beams down at me and Lilo, rubbing his hands together. Beside me, Lilo slumps lower into her seat to the side of the stage in the school hall, which has been converted into a sort of theatre. I don't blame her. Teachers being excited about something is never a good thing, especially not if it's to do with you. I swap distressed looks with her, and her mouth tightens to stop a smile.

This is going to be a long rehearsal.

"I take it you two have sat down together and made some sort of plan?" Mr Scott asks us, smiling expectantly. We nod, trying not to make eye contact with eachother for fear of laughing. It's Wednesday- five days after Scott told us we were going to do the Cymbeline lights together- and if by 'sat down together and made a plan' he means watched movies every night over the phone and occasionally referred to the school play in passing, we're ready to go. Lilo did spend Sunday night googling types of stage lights and their uses, sending me screenshots of lists of equipment, but I had to delete them to free up room on my phone to download the next night's film. It was Call Me By Your Name, and I almost beat Lilo's thirteen-homeless-men-worthy-tears record. Of course, she spent half the time raving about the actor of Elio.

If we keep on a roll with films like this, we'll practically be critic-level by the time the week is up. I keep on meaning to give Lilo's book a try, but I wasn't lying when I told her I don't read. The words all sort of squirm on the page. The Cymbeline script on my lap right now is no different.

"Yes, sir," says Lilo, "We've- we've planned."

"Yes?" Scott looks delighted, "And what sort of lights were you planning to use for the opening- for the king's grand entrance? A fresnel or a backlight?"

A what?

"A- a backlight," Lilo says, attempting to feign confidence, "We thought we'd use a backlight."

"Oh really? Even if it would wash out the colour of the actors' faces?" Scott frowns, "Though of course, you could use a yellow filter to sort out that problem..."

I feel like how I did the time when I forgot my maths book at home one time, so had to use my geography book the whole lesson, all the while trying to hide the different-coloured cover from my teacher.

"We thought of that," says Lilo determinedly, "We...what you said."

"Yeah, what she said," I butt in, trying to look involved, but end up regretting that I've bought attention to myself.

"Well, it looks like you two are prepared. What a dream team!" Scott grins at us like he's cracked the world's best joke, "I can't wait to see what you've put together. I'm starting rehearsal in ten minutes, once Aria has managed to get her hair extensions clipped."

"We can't wait either," Lilo smiles.

Mr Scott trots off to check on Aria Clifford's extension crisis, and Lilo and I turn to eachother. "We're doomed," I sigh, and she elbows me.

"We're not doomed, don't be so negative. Half of achieving something is believing that you can do it."

"Right, I believe we can do this. Now, what the hell do we do next?"

"Stop swearing at me for one."

"For fuck's sake, 'hell' isn't a swear word-"

"'Fuck' is."

"But I only said that because-"

"Khan, calm down, please!" Lilo hisses, fiddling with the vast and ever-confusing control panel infront of us, kicking a plug into its socket with her foot. "I'm trying to remember what I read on a website I googled yesterday whilst you were busy crying your eyes out at 'How I Live Now'."