CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
eye don't know what to title this
walker sat up and pulled the chair out for violet to take his place. "thank you," she told him, astonished as if he was a mythical creature.
i waved goodbye to walker, and once it was just violet and i alone, i had the sudden urge to talk to her. "violet owsinski, right?"
"yeah. you're y/n," she said. "sorry that this introduction is delayed."
i nodded, studying her. i'd never seen the girl up close. she had a few birthmarks and clumpy mascara and a defined cupid's bow. she actually did look somewhat distinctive from madeline. "i couldn't find your instagram or anything. so us starting the project is very delayed, too."
"i don't even know what it's about. aren't we learning about chemical bonds?"
"mhm, but the project is on reactants." damn, this time i could tell the person next to me what we're learning. my eyes wandered to walker. all i could see was the back of his head, which was moving slightly because he was talking to madeline. she stirred her drink like she was trying to cause an earthquake but maintained intense eye contact with him all the while. i could hear the ice cubes swishing around in her cup. no one could not. it was so loud.
violet spoke again, saving me from observing what was bound to end in me taking that coffee right out of her hand and throwing it in her face. "i can't do it tomorrow. i have something after school. so are you free today? we can get it done super quickly and half-ass it — she probably won't have the energy to fail us after reading through hundreds of pages of this."
"you're right! yeah, i'm free today." i already knew the answer to what i was about to ask next, but i said it anyway. "what do you have after school tomorrow?"
"i'm auditioning for some local short film. i think walker is going to be in it," she said excitedly. so madeline must not have told her friends about me being a casting director myself. "i've always wanted to act, so i thought this would be a cool opportunity!"
"i'm gonna be there too!"
"really? did you sign up to be an extra or are you going to audition for the character emily? because right now, i've talked to around thirty girls who want to also."
oh crap. thirty? and just for emily's part? that could take hours! even chemistry extra help wouldn't take that long. the audition epidemic had established itself in our school. and i feared the only cure was to isolate the virus, meaning we would need to be divisive and implement some sort of pre-screening process.
"you're scaring me a little, violet. i'm gonna be the casting director with one of my friends. we won't have time to go through that many people and for just one of the couple parts we need."
"oh... well you could set off the fire alarm and see who stays there and wants the part the most," she joked, i hope.
as the bell sounded, i leaned back into my chair with a huff. next, i took out my phone discretely and texted maeve about what i just received.
i made sure to hide it back away though, because mrs fennel emerged from her evil lair with a look in her eyes that envied the simplicity of her victim's minds. in other words, she looked like she needed madeline's coffee, like she had stayed up all night stressing out about something. "can i get everyone's attention?" as if her frog-like voice didn't already do that.
she waited for the class to respond. who was this woman, actually wanting our feedback? after everyone realized this, a common murmur swept across the room.
fennel continued with a smile. "i don't have a lesson planned today. and since everyone is slacking, i'm giving you time today work on the project."
indistinct chatter from every single person in the class swarmed the air. "no way," i said to violet. "this is so out of character!"
i wondered what she could possibly be doing. i mean, i wasn't about to complain. it was like someone poured holy water on her, expelling the demon. she sat back down and continued typing away on her keyboard. was she writing a thank you note to the exorcist?
violet and i got started on the project. i pressed the autopilot button in my brain and let it do all the work. i needed to think about this potential pre-screening. i didn't think maeve would be against it, but the problem was that it was so last minute. there was no way we could have people submit their auditions tonight and have callbacks tomorrow.
i certainly didn't want to ask violet for her input, and i checked my phone to see if maeve had responded -- she didn't. this left me in a position where i needed walker's opinion on the crisis. plus, it's an excuse to talk to him.
to catch his attention, i decided to converse with violet loud enough so that he could hear. "so, my new table-mate, what's your favorite tv show? mine's criminal minds!"
as violet responded, walker swung his head around and shot me silent screams. "no way, that's mine, too!" she said.
"oh wow! that's crazy," i exclaimed. then i sharply switched to the desired topic. "so did you ask the thirty girls that said they wanted to audition for emily, or did they come to you?"
i saw walker take out his phone after he heard this and start typing aggressively in the corner of my eye as i tried to keep focusing on my forced conversation with violet. "uh, i've just heard about it. i've seen a ton of instagram stories," she informed. "it's all everyone's posting." so she did have instagram!
"ah, i see. could i get your instagram by any chance? just in case i have a question for..." my voice faded as her friendly expression did also.
"sure, just please don't tell my friends about it," violet hesitated. "they don't know this account is mine -- they think i don't have an instagram. when they see me view their stories, they think it's just some weirdo stalker who likes anime."
"no yeah, of course," i said quickly, peering over her shoulder as she scribbled down her username on a sticky note.
i definitely got the right girl on the fanfiction last night. when she handed me the note, it read in purple gel pen: "anime_overlord_79." no judgement to her or any anime watcher, just the way she was willing to give me her account and how she hid it from her friends made me frown at her in pity.
"thanks. i'll add you, my user is just my name." as i said that, i felt walker's text send in.
walker
thirty?
damn, the wifi is terrible. it took over a minute for one word to send. i was frankly underwhelmed. i assumed he would send me a case study with answers as to how we should proceed with under this bombardment.
you
yep. what should we do?
walker
have u talked to maeve?
you
nah i just found out
walker
hmm, we're screwed
you
we got th
oh my god do you see that?
walker
is she crying?
i couldn't even finish typing when i looked up to check if the coast was clear and noticed mrs. fennel's chest heaving and little squeaks of sorrow. she was sobbing into a tissue, trying to stay silent. but little by little, everyone realized what she was doing. i didn't want to admit it, but i felt sorry for her. i also felt a little stunned. this was not on my once in a lifetime experience bucket list, but i felt it was worthy of it.
someone with similar hair to walker raised his hand as if he would be called on and said, "yo, mrs. f, you good?"
"does it look like she's good, michael?" sassed madeline. the two exes made burning eye contact that briefly took the attention away from our teacher.
thankfully, before a fight could break out, mrs. fennel spoke with quivering lips. "do your parents ever argue with you?" then, softer, she said, "don't talk -- that was rhetorical."
"does this mean we don't have to do the project because you're wasting our time," called out some boy.
for a moment, fennel's tears seemed to evaporate under the raging fire that ignited in her eyes, but she resumed talking. "i want to know if i'm crazy or not for having an argument with my son last night. i couldn't believe what he told me, it was just the worst! he said he wants to go into liberal arts for college! i said he needed to go into something that'll be worth the money that i'm spending to send him away."
tasha spoke for the class, "fennel, why are you so mad about that? there's someone who found success in the arts in this room right now."
"surely you're joking, young lady," she remarked. "i could have sworn me sending him to science camp and making him be a mathlete would give him the hint that he needs to go into s.t.e.m! once you're a parent, you'll know how much it hurts to have all the influence you thought you had on your kid go down the drain."
that was it. influence. we could use walker's influence on this crowd of fangirls and get them to decrease in size somehow. let's face it, they would never listen to something i said. if walker tells madeline that he can only act with girls with the same level acting skill, though, then she could spread it before tomorrow. it would make some too scared to even step foot in the private practice room, leaving us with more serious contenders. this was a risk -- it could limit our pool of people to choose from. but this was getting out of hand. it was a risk we needed to take.
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thank you for reading chapter 21!