"I would gladly help you if I could."
I had to carry a box of some costumes from our third floor team room towards the Organization Room 7 in the fifth floor. Marvin accompanied me that's why I couldn't feel much trouble. "Just continue talking, lessens the weight of this box." I said as I turned to the corner of the stairs. It wasn't really heavy, just some scraps of clothes and small props.
"I can actually carry that simply with my thumb," he said while flaunting his thumb.
"Oh, really?" I said and laughed.
But the moment was ruined when Candice shoved her way pass me. She was also carrying a box, but it was the smallest compared to all boxes we had to carry. "Hurry up! Are you losing your mind and talking to yourself?"
Thankfully, I had placed my wireless earphone before leaving the Props and Costume room. I didn't owe her any explanations but her smirk made me able to carry the box with one hand to reveal the ear behind my hair and show her the earphone. She just rolled her eyes and walked forward. The gesture I made took a bit more of my effort that's why I had to stop on one step of the stairs and regain the position of the box on my arms. "Need help?" Marc emerged from the previous floor, he was carrying a larger box than mine.
"Oh, no, no!" I said, feeling guilty that my box was nothing compared to his.
"Come on, it's nothing, Ella." He grabbed the edge of my box but I still refused and continued walking until we reached the fourth floor. He still tried to take the box from me but at one point I accidentally tore the bottom part of the box. I almost had a sprain by trying to stop it but the things fell, luckily, the props dropped on top of the costumes, the fabric prevented them to break. We stood there staring at the fallen things for a moment until he apologized. "I'm sorry, Ella!"
I leaned down to pick up the box and tried to mend it. "If Candice sees us, she might kill us." Then we just laughed while picking the things up, making sure everything was all right.
"Don't mind her, you got me. I know her secrets." He winked and eventually carried my box. I tried to get it again but he did not let me have it. "If you just gave it to me earlier." He shook his head but then showed his grin.
As we walked towards the fifth floor, I stopped doubting he could carry those boxes at the same time. He was walking few paces above me and I saw the veins of his arm popping out of his muscles, that maybe the result of his sport workouts.
"Ella!" Aly caught me in a hug. "Are you staying until the afternoon for our grand rehearsal?" I still couldn't believe that the play would be two days from now. Time flew so fast and I was so proud about the whole club.
"I forgot it would be today already! But yes I want to watch it." We walked towards the organization room. "Where's Liam?" I asked.
Aly rolled her eyes. "Probably talking to his mysterious lover. I still can't catch who it is." There was a buzz and she took her phone. "Anyway, here comes my lover. See you later!" She went to the corner and blew me a kiss before answering the call.
I hadn't completely opened the door of the Organization Room, when I wished I could close it again. Candice's voice was booming on the other side. The moment I opened the door felt like the only time when the voice escaped the room, like pressure finally released in a not-so-calm manner. She was saying something about a costume and something. I went to Marc who was sitting beside the box he brought in, only it was already opened and the contents were distributed.
"What happened there?" I gestured to Candice who was still arguing with a guy with too fit military costume.
"The usual," Marc slouched on the sofa like he was seeing the scene every day and very tired of it. "The mitary guy gained weight since the first time the group assigned for minor roles took his measurements."
"Didn't they check the last week? We were asked to double check right?" I remembered.
"Well that's the reason why Candice is making a scene. She wants to prove that it's not the Props and Costume's fault but the guy himself. He was absent during the re-checking last week and he didn't bother to go to us to again though we sent reminders."
"Oh, so Candice is somehow battling for our sake. Wow."
He totally enjoyed the couch and he closed his eyes. "Just tell me when it is over and someone needs me, I have to enjoy the comfort of this Org Room."
I stood and went to look at the commotion. Mrs Gonzales, the club moderator, was there already and Candice was explaining in a calmer way. "...his fault actually, ma'am." The guy was blushing, he was probably in the lower batches, but if I didn't know he was in Highschool, I would have thought that he was way younger. His pale cheeks had tints of red, probably from Candace's embarrasing remarks.
I wanted to see how it goes, I was worried for both parties but the moderator asked them to talk about the issue outside, and so the three of them, plus Beth who was probably the head of the Minor roles costume subgroup, went outside, just when Liam and Aly arrived. Others continued to check their costumes and tried the props. When Liam asked what happened, Marc and I explained to them, others also listened that's why we had to excert effort not to put any biased comments or something both for the guy and to Candice.
"Why not repair the costume instead of arguing about it?" Liam said.
Aly crossed her arms. She just came back from wearing her Eponine dress we made. Liam was wearing his Marius costume as well. "I know right!" She replied to Liam.
"Does it fit fine?" I asked while fixing the side of her dress. We tattered the sleeves and the bottom of her dress just like what Eponine wore in other plays.
"It's okay, just a little big for me. It will fit perfectly on you, I guess." I was about to apologize. I knew I had the measurements right. "It's okay! You barely even notice it, I'm sure the audience won't. Besides, it's not so hot and fitted unlike Bea's, lucky for her she didn't need any corset." Aly laughed.
Liam also laughed. "Cosette without Corset." He said in between laughs. I did not get why they were laughing at first then it dawned on to me, then we all laughed at the corny joke of Aly. Something to help ease our nerves for the coming play. Though our job would be done after all costumes were fitted, I still couldn't get my mind of the play as supoort to my friends.
After the fitting session, we all went to the auditorium to watch the rehearsals. "Break a leg, you guys!"
"Thanks Ella! Our costumes were amazing!" Aly gave me a hug and they went backstage.
Me and my other team mates who finished our jobs tried to help other teams with their tasks. Minutes before the play started, I helped the stage team in posting the decorations on stage. The actors and actresses were in the backstage, finalizing their scripts. I handed the tape gun to the Stage Official on a ladder when I saw Candice again just by the entrance of the auditorium. She was talking to Lorenz while trying to give him something what seemed to be a military costume.
"Wait a sec," I told the Stage Official and handed my work to someone fron his team. I went towards Lorenz. Marc probably saw us too because he followed me. "What the hell this time?" He muttered under his breath.
Candice was forcing Lorenz to take the costume to the Home Economics club for them to repair themselves. Mrs Gonzales said that Candice should take care of it as the our leader in the Props and Costume. The moderator also didn't want to see Beth working on it, according to Candice. "If this kid won't take this, the name of our team will screw up, understand that kid? So here, take this!"
"Can you stop talking for a while Candice?!" I shouted at her because I just couldn't contain my emotions anymore.
"Oh, yeah?" She said. "I will shut up only when you have a better idea."
I sighed. "Give that to me!" I took the costume and checked the interior of the base. "See this fold? They folded it to serve as an allowance. We can just break it."
"That was exactly my idea!" Candice said and pointed at the costume on my hand. Her nails were newly polished in green. "So this, you should give it to that," he pointed at Lorenz. "Let his sister do it, it wont require an hour, though."
"No!" Marc said, I almost forgot he was there.
"Excuse me?" Candice made sure she heard him right.
"You will do it. Our moderator said you should, so you have to. We'll bring the sewing materials here and you will fix that by yourself." I was proud of Marc's courage to sya that despite the risk Candice might break his secret. Marc asked Lorenz where his sister was or how to get the materials needed. We were about to get out of the auditorium when the host announced that the play was about to start in five minutes. I wanted to watch but our task was more important.
~
After giving the tools and materials to Candice, we stayed to make sure she wouldn't bribe other people to do it for herself. It was eerie inside the Home Economics Laboratory at a Thursday afternoon because students were still in their classes and only the members of the theater club were excused today and tomorrow, our rest day, to prepare for the play on Saturday. The laboratory was like a small home that had complete living room, bedroom, kitchen and dining room area in one small flat. Together, with only the three of us, it was surrounded in akward silence.
"You know what," stopped what she was doing and looked at us. "You can go now. I don't need to join me in my misery." She said it in a usual sarcastic Candice-way but I heard some seriousness this time. Marc and I just looked at each other, he was on one couch of the living room while I was on another, Candice was on the sewing table beside the living room. "I know you don't trust me but there are CCTVs just above you, in and out of this laboratory. I can't escape this task, though." She rolled her eyes and went back to sewing.
I looked at Marc for what he could say but he just shrugged and went back to his phone. "We're one team after all," I suddenly said.
"Yeah," I was even more surprised when Marc agreed. "After all."
She just glanced at us for a split second and looked away. "Thanks," she muttured. "But seriously, watch the rehearsals. I don't want you to blame me for not being able to watch."
"It's okay, more surprise for tomorrow." I smiled even though she couldn't see because she acted busy in sewing. Minutes passed and we just stayed there.
I probably drifted off to sleep short nap because the next time I opened my eyes, Candice was standing in front of my and I had a strange thought that she would kill me, like in horror or thriller movies, but when the grogginess faded, she was only reaching out to hand me the repaired costume. "There, just give it to the guy and say I'm sorry."
"Oh," I said while getting the costume. "Okay." Marc also sat straight now. Candice started to walk out of the lab when I asked, "Aren'tyou going to watch the rehearsal?"
She paused and turned towards our direction again. She shook her head, but instead of answering my question she furrowed her "on-fleek" brows. "Are you always like that?"
"Like what?" I asked, now standing, curious of what she meant.
"You always try to be nice it's..."
"Irritating?" I supplied a word from her word bank of what she might have said.
"No," she said and turned around. "Just thanks."
After she went, Marc and I returne to the auditorium. Candice was sitting on the first few rows, talking to her new friends. So she did stay after all. The rehearsal was already more than half and I remembered this scene. I looked for a good spot. Liam was already on the top of the make-shift barrier with some soldiers. Aly was on one corner, ready to run up, but suddenly, as she ran up the barrier, she slipped on one step and the rehearsal suddenly had its emergency pause.