It was Wednesday, and I was at band practice. I sat next to Kay,chatting with her, as I pulled out my violin and bow. I rubbed rosin on the bow, and started a few scales when Mr.Aaron stood at the front of the room.
"May I have your attention please?", he called. The room gradually (That's an odd word.) quieted down."Okay, this is mostly for the thespians. Next Friday, when we do our usual demo of the musical, we will be having some preschoolers and kindergartners be viewing the demo as well. Continue."
I smiled widely. Seriously, my face probably looked mutated, my smile was so big. Kay turned toward me. "So, Hannah, I guess you're excited about the little kids seeing the demo." I hadn't thought about the demo yet! Every year, people at Oakstone saw about thirty minutes of an upcoming performance. It was supposed to motivate us the see the plays.
"Kay, you know I adore little kids." I said, and softened my smile some.
"Really? I never knew that about you, Hannah." Tony commented. Yes, he was there. The band room lay out ended up like this: violins and flutes were up front, with saxes and french horns in the second row. Then there were the trumpets, with the drums at the back of the room. The trombones were on the left side of the violins, with the oboes on the right side. So, I was at the front with Kay, Tony and Brooke were behind us and Hannah was off to the left side.
I turned around to face Tony and said, "Well, now you do." Tony had opened his mouth like he was about to say something when the band teacher shouted for us to turn around and start our scales. The usual loud symphony ( I LOVE that word) of various instruments began. I had loved that sound of the instruments since a few weeks after I started here. It was quite literally music to my ears. That was sooooo cheesy. LIke, stupidly cheesy. Excuse my stupid... no Hannah, think of a different word...idoitic (much better) cheesiness. The loud symphony continued for forty-five minutes until it was time to go. I packed my stuff and went.
A week and a half later, it was time for the demo. D-E-M-O LET ME SEE YOUR DEMO!! Sorry, that was an old cheer from and old cheer camp. The word demo keeps being used and that cheer goes on and on and on in my head. I had to let it out! Sorry! Okay, random cheer aside, I was in the fine arts room, getting ready for the demo. One really exciting thing about the demo was the BIG COSTUME REVEAL. The all caps was on purpose. Seriously everyone said it in a way that it needed all caps. But, the demo also gave us the first peek of all the costumes.
I was standing with my friends excitedly awaiting the costume reveal. We were talking about how we thought the costumes might look, when Mr.Aaron came in pushing two racks with several hangers one each. Immeadatley, he was bombarded by several thrilled people trying to get a glimpse of the costumes. It was mostly girls.
"Okay, settle down. I will call out a cast members name and they may calmly come up and get their costume. Then they may wait for everyone else to get their costume."Mr.Aaron announced. He called out various names and everyone got a costume, which was sadly covered on of the balck coat cover thingies. I don't know what it's called. Mr.Aaron ordered us not to peek at the outfits.
Finally, when the last person got their outfit Mr.Aaron started talking,"Okay, now you can go to your girls or boys locker room according to your gender. You will be changing seperatley." He emphasized seperatley which earned a few giggles and some blushing. Everyone sprinted off to their seperate locker rooms. I eagerly unzipped my bag thingie and pulled on my dress. I went over to the mirror and smiled at the dress. It was amazing. The dress was a beautiful shade of light blue with short sleeves, a square neckline, an empire waist and came down to just above my knees. It also had a number of feathers, symbolizing my role as a bird. on I also pulled on the tights and little blue slippers that were in the bag. Hannah bounced up to me wearing a similar dress in a more flamboyant shade of pink. She tossed her feather boa, also pink, that was included with the outfit.
"Darling, may I say we make a dashing pair of birds." I said and laughed with her. We headed back to the dressing room were Tony and Danny were already standing. Sloane and Jayde were also there. What the heck were those two doing here?I headed over to them.
"You're an elephant? How fitting, considering your weight." Sloane said to Tony. Jayde laughed viciously. I strode over.
"Excuse me, what did you just say?" I said, stormily. I put my arm around Tony's shoulders and glared at the two witches.
"She said that a role as an elephant fits Tony considering his weight." Jayde commented. Yes, Tony was a little overweight. Does it matter? It's on the inside that counts. And frankly, on the inside Tony was one of the best people I know.
"Seriously? You're teasing someone about their weight? I'm guessing you haven't heard the phrase it's what on the inside that counts. Actually, that makes sense, considering on the inside you two are about as ugly as you can get. What are you even doing here?"I retorted with fury in my voice
"We're the part of the make-up group." Sloane said and stalked off to a table laden with make-up.
"Thanks, Hannah." Tony said.
"No problem." I replied.
"Do you think what they said is true?" he asked.
"What! No. Like I said, it's on the inside that counts. Anyone who only cares about what's on the outside isn't worth your time. Anyway, you look cute in that costume. The kids are gonna love you." I said.
"Thanks. The kids will adore you too. You look adorable." Tony said and flapped his elephant ears. I blushed, smiled at him, and headed over to get my hair and make-up done. Next thing I know, it was time for the demo. Ella stood onstage singing about the things you can think as the Cat in the Hat. Tony then came up singing about protecting his dust speck. Next thing you know tons of people are onstage singing about how Horton the Elephant (also known as Tony) is crazy. Then I'm up on stage.
I sang, "I'm Gertrude McFuzz and I live right next door."
"Biggest blame fool in the Jungle of Nool." chorused in the background.
"He's never done anything crazy before." I sang.
Again, "Biggest blame fool in the Jungle of Nool." rang in the background.
"He's been friendly and loyal and kind, I just don't believe Horton out of his mind."
"Did you hear, Did you, Did you hear." chorused in the background.
"I'm Mayzie Labird (I think that's how its spelled) and I live in that tree." Hannah paraded in singing and sassily tossing her boa.
"Biggest blame fool in the Jungle of Nool."
"Enough about Horton, let's talk about me." Hannah continued. The demo went on and ended after the scene where I grow my tail to a ridiculous amount of feathers in hope of impressing Horton. The cast came up for a quick bow and Mr.Aaron reminded the audience to come next Thursday, Friday or Saturday (Ahhhh! It was so soon!) the see the rest of the musical. The cast exited offstage and I was headed back to the locker room to change when a little tug on the back off my dress. I turned around and saw a little 4-year-old girl standing there. An young woman stood nearby, probably her teacher.
"Hey there sweetie. Do you want something?" I said and knelt down to her eye level.
"I wanted to say you were very, very good. You look so pretty." She said.
"Awww, thank you." I replied. I think I melted a little.
"I wanna be just like you when I'm all grown up." The little girl said.
"Oh. What's your name, sweetie?"
"Angela."
"Well, Angela, you can be anything you want when you grow up. But, above all, you should be yourself."
"Okay. I have a question, though."
"What is it, Angela?"
"Are you and Horton dating? Not like in the play. Like in real life. He might have cooties though." Angela tilted her head in thought.
"What?! No, we aren't. Horton's a very nice guy though."
"So maybe you two would go out?"
"Maybe. Now, Angela, I think your teacher needs you now. But, I hope I can see you at the musical when we do the whole thing next week."
"Okay, Mayzie. I'll come if my mommy lets me." Angela said and ran off to her teacher.
"Call me Hannah." I called out after Angela. Then I headed off to change. OMG THE MUSICAL IS SO CLOSE!! YAAAAAAY!!. I did a little happy dance as I changed.