A week later, I was sitting on a plastic chair that was positioned in a circle. There were about thirty other people sitting in this circle, practically without conversation. Two girls were giggling quietly with each other, but the rest were just staring awkwardly at the other people. Some of them had smug expressions on their faces, and the newbies, like me, looked scared. It was drama class and I had no clue what was going to happen. Sure, I had taken acting classes, but this was somehow different. These were people that I should've known, yet had been too scared to.
Our teacher wasn't in the classroom yet, so I had no clue what to do. The only reason that we knew we needed to sit in a circle of chairs, was because it was written on the whiteboard at the front of the room. Right beside the instructions on the board were big letters that read, "MRS. SINGS." I figured that was our drama teacher, and based on her last name, she seemed kind of cool.
The two people next to me seemed just as awkward as myself. They kept repositioning themselves on their chairs, which caused them to continuously brush their knees against my leg. I groaned, suddenly realizing that this was going to be a long class.
Although I was really nervous, a part of me was excited. It was the part that was sending adrenaline through my bloodstream, and lighting my skin with sparks. It was the side of me that could get lost in acting a different character, or singing a song.
All my thoughts were washed away and replaced with utter terror when our teacher came in. She was very quiet when she came in. In fact, I barely saw her come in at all. She sneaked up behind someone's chair and grabbed their shoulders, yelling, "BOO!" The girl screamed to the point that I swear she would have permanent vocal damage. Some of the drama veteran's snickered, but most of the kids were just as scared as the girl was, including me.
Our teacher, whom I presumed was Mrs. Sings, said, "I got you so good. If you are stupid and couldn't tell by now, today, we are going to learn about emotions!" She sounded kind of funny. Her makeup was a mess, and she was super dramatic. I figured it was just an act, as she was our drama teacher.
Overall, I believe that it is safe to say that she was really confusing. I wasn't sure if she was being serious, or just trying to make us laugh. And laugh, we did. She was the funniest teacher I had ever had, and even though she could be a bit weird and cocky, she was a bundle of fun.
We played a bunch of acting games for the most of the hour and a half. The first bit of the class was actually really awkward. Take all these kids that have a low enough life to do drama and put them together, forcing them to interact with each other, and that is what it was like. Nothing unexpected there.
Some of the games we played were really stupid. There was one, however, that I loved a lot and found myself enjoying way too much. It was called "Speed Dating". All you had to do was pretend that you were on a date with your partner without laughing at anything. I found out that I was alright at it, until my brain started to wander. Because this school was very traditional, all the pairings were all straight. I found this ironic because, according to stereotypes, all male people in drama are said to be gay. Anytime a girl said something relatively flirty, I would crack up laughing. It wasn't their fault; I just found it to be the funniest thing ever.
During the games and activities, I met a lot of people. There was Grace Helbig, who couldn't see that she was actually a good actress and wouldn't accept a compliment. She continued to say what a failure she was to humanity and all that shit.
I also met Dan and Phil. They were, by far, way more awkward than me. Considering I had been excluding people from my life for the past five years, I found this amusingly impressing. They claimed that they only reason they were taking that class was because Dan needed the credits to pass, and whatever class Dan took, Phil went alongside. Literally, they were my dream relationship in an actual embodied version.
Then there was Sawyer Hartman.
I was just casually participating in the activities when I looked over my shoulder and saw him sitting by himself on a chair. I frowned and went over to see him. It seemed that after hanging out with Connor as much as I did, his confidence was rubbing off. Before meeting him, I used to ignore people and be ignored them. Now, it seemed that I hardly knew when to stop approaching people.
As I was saying, Sawyer was just sitting there. His one hand was trembling really badly, and based on his posture, I could tell that he was tired. His hair was dyed blue, matching his irises. It was easy for me to tell his eye color because it was very vibrant against the redness of the sides of his eyes. It was pretty obvious that he was on a drug-relapse, so why did I approach him? Probably because little Troye thought that he could save everyone.
"Hey, I'm Troye," I said, opening up to conversation. I wanted to make him feel comfortable around him, so I figured I would ignore his obvious drug problem.
"Sawyer," he mumbled back. His voice was really ruff and it sounded as if it hurt him so badly to say. I decided, right then and there, that I was never doing drugs, if this person was a literal result of all the negatives that could happen to one. I felt so bad for him, knowing it would be harder for him to get a job now, to go anywhere without drugs.
"Why aren't you participating in class, Sawyer? It's fun." Again, I knew why, but I didn't want him to feel like it was very obvious.
"Piss off," he quickly said. I rolled my eyes, but decided not to push it. Anger was a very big side effect of drugs, and I didn't need to be yelled at by a random stranger that I decided to approach.
I stood up and looked back at him once more. "You know, I am here if you need anyone," I decided to say, and then walked back to the area where the activities were taking place.
I was greeted with Grace coming up to me and whispering in my ear, "He is part of the 'behind-the-scenes' crew, I think. He makes cool short films, but I heard that he was only here because they needed someone with actual smarts on the stage crew. I still don't understand how a stoner like him can be much help around dangerous shit like the lighting and technical shit, but that is not for me to say." I nodded at her words. They made sense, really. I looked over at him again, and he just looked so lost. Not sad or mad, but lost. It was like he had no clue what was going on.
I shook my head to clear him from my mind. Grace and I found our way back to Dan and Phil, and sat down next to Mrs. Sings table. She was organizing a bunch of papers that looked like scripts. Eventually, after everyone settled down, she stood up and yelled, "Okay, next class is in two days. I am giving you a script and you will have to memorize whatever scene you would like, and perform the role you choose. People who suck are not going to do very well."
"Better get my ass working, then," I heard Grace mumble. I snickered at her sarcastic tone. Mrs. Sings looked at us with eyes like daggers.
"We do not say that word in my class." I laughed even harder at this along with Dan, Phil, and Grace herself. We tried not to, which only resulted in tears, and loss of breath. I didn't realize how much fun this class was going to be until that moment.
Once regaining our laughter, she handed out the scripts. I sighed when I realized that it was going to be from the classical: Cinderella. There were, like she said, three scenes to choose from. I didn't know which scene I would choose, but I figured I could deal with that later.
After saying goodbye to my new friends, I walked out of the building. I told Steele that this class ended at four-thirty. There was less than two minutes before I could officially say he is late. Because he was only here for a week and a half, he said he wanted to spend as much time with us as possible, so he drove me to school, leaving me to need a ride home. On Fridays, I had English at two, so drama was, thankfully, right after class.
A while later, Steele pulled up in his fancy ride right in front of me. I looked down at the clock on my phone which read, "4:35". I opened the passenger's side door, and sat down on the leather seat. Steele looked at me and smiled, but I gave him a frown. "You are five minutes late, Steele," I said with an annoyed tone.
"At least I am here, whinny-pants," he countered.
I sighed and shrunk down in my seat. "Dickbishop," I mumbled under my breath yet loud enough for my older brother to hear. He snorted in response.
We arrived at my place shortly after. I opened the door and was overwhelmed by the smell of a feast. Sometimes, I forget that Friday nights in Jewish homes meant food.
My mom was busy in the kitchen, working on that night's supper. She looked up at us and ran to give us each a hug. One thing about my mom was she was never too shy when it came to giving her children affection.
I took the time before supper to stalk Connor's Facebook account. I brought my laptop down from upstairs and sat down at the dining table with it. His most recent posts were pretty much the kind of Connor I knew. He was hanging with his friends in a couple of the photos. He also had a link to these random "Frantastic" games, as he put it. I laughed at his lameness and continued scrolling through with profile.
Sometime between my surfing through his profile, I briefly recall my dad walking in. He came behind me and squeezed my shoulder, letting me know that he acknowledged my presence.
After scrolling down to his posts from 2013, I started to see morefetusyshit. He had a bunch of awful, backlit selfies with his old emo fringe hair style. I resisted the urge to like one of them teasingly. The only reason I didn't was to ensure that he wouldn't find out that I had stalked him.
I quickly scrolled down to a post from four years ago. Doing some fast math, I realized he was only thirteen years old in these posts. The post I stopped on read, "Girls are so confusing." That was all it said, and even though it is a very teenage boy thing to say, I questioned it more than I believe should've. Was this from a bad breakup? Or maybe, just maybe, he was simply not into girls. But that was just wishful thinking.
I closed down Facebook once my mom lay the food down in front of me. I smiled at her and we exchanged a glance as Tyde came running down the stairs yelling, "I smell food!" I laughed at when he hit the last step before the ground. His feet were going too fast for his body to catch up and he ended up falling onto his bum. Sage came down, slower, and laughed as she passed him, causing Tyde to groan in pain. "It hurts! Dammit!"
"Tyde!" my mom hushed, "Don't you dare say that word under my roof." The whole time this was happening, Jagga, our seal-looking dog, was barking on the top of her lungs. The whole situation was actually quite comedic.
Steele, who was sitting directly across from me on the table, rolled his eyes at our goofiness. It was clear that he wasn't used to being around us. "Man, how I missed you guys," he said, to which my mother just smiled.
Supper and its dishes were finished an hour or so later. After clearing off our table, my dad went and brought out a monopoly game and three beers for him, Steele, and I. I wasn't legally allowed to drink as I was only seventeen, but my parents are okay with it as long as they are with me.
We spent half an hour playing monopoly that night. That was my favorite part about my family. They are never scared to laugh at each other, play games with each other, or just simply enjoy each other's company. Although it kind of seemed crowded with everyone under one roof, I enjoyed having us together again. It was nice to bond with them and know that our family was okay with each other's differences. Some people don't have that and I couldn't have been more thankful that I did.
Unfortunately, our game was cut short when my phone in my pocket rang. I turned beat red as Steele started laughing at the ringtone. It was Beyoncé's "Single Ladies". I sighed and dug it out of my pocket. Without looking at the caller ID, I picked it up. I was just expecting that it was Tyler or Zoe, but I did not expect the person to be neither.
"Hello?" I said into the phone.
With a very hollow tone, I heard Connor say, "Hey, Troye. Is there a chance you can pick me up at my place? I'll text you directions." This wasn't the Connor I was used to hearing. He didn't have his usual energy in his voice and it was kind of disheartening to listen to.
Without thinking, I immediately responded with, "Sure. I'll be right over," and hung up. Everyone at the table, including Jagga, looked at me with concerned expressions. I just shook my head saying, "I got to go. I have no clue when I'll be back." With that, I picked myself up from the table and ran to the front of the door, grabbing my winter jacket and keys off of the coat hanger. Walking out to my car, the only thought that occupied my mind was, What the hell did he get himself into this time?
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Before I forget (again) thanks for 2K and 2.5K and 2.6K! you guys are amazing!! xx