3 7
puck's poison, pt. 1
We're all backstage with costumes on and make-up caking our nervous expressions. People are setting up props. Runners are everywhere... running. And Mr. Allen is in a frenzy. It's the night of the play that's been in the back of our minds. Now it's right in front of us.
I peek behind the curtains. Oh, God, the whole auditorium is packed.
"Listen up, actors and actresses!" Mr. Allen gathers us in a circle and I'm scared to meet anyone's eye. Mostly because everyone in this room hates me. "This is the time to be a team, alright? I don't want any shenanigans on stage. You've all watched High School Musical?" Complete silence. "Yeah, just be that, and we'll be fine."
I let out a loose breath. Quickly meet Trey's eyes. He nods.
We'll be fine.
A C T I , S C E N E 1
Justine, Trey and Vic are the first ones to show up on the stage, during the Duke of Athens' wedding where Justine is demanded that she be married to Vic and not Trey.
"Give up, sweet Hermia..." Vic coos, making a lavish hand gesture that looks ridiculous if it weren't for his acting skills, "and Lysander, give me my certain right."
"You have her father's love, Demetrius; let me have Hermia," Trey responds ever-so-clearly with his authoritative voice, looking like his late sixteenth-century costume suits him. He steals all the attention in the room. "My love is more than his, my lord, and, above all, I am the beloved of beautiful Hermia. Why shouldn't I prosecute my right?"
There's tension somewhere in the air that the audience think is pretend. It isn't in the slightest.
Trey and Vic are having a showdown, but while the latter's stare is merely uncomfortable, the first is actually strained — like his lines come directly from him. Then there's Justine herself, knowing she's being treated like an object, even if it's only a play and she's only a character.
I don't know if I imagine the unease in her eyes. I don't know if she sees it, too.
That art mimics reality.
A C T I , S C E N E 2
Jude's storyline is rather irrelevant in my opinion, but Mr. Allen still includes his character. Either to stay devoted to Shakespeare's original work or to piss Jude off even more. Probably both.
He doesn't look me in the eye as he passes me to the stage. Neither does Justine when she returns to the back. She's there and then she's gone. Not so different as her not giving me the time of the day when we're in the hallway, but that's usually between a sea of people. Tonight, it's only the two of us and the dark.
But as much as I want to grab ahold of her, I remember Jude's advice. So I stay away... from both of them.
Adding to that, Liv doesn't spare me a glance, and Vic only offers me a pitiful nod once in a while.
I want to die into a hole.
"Well, well, well," TJ smirks, "if it isn't the infamous Adelaide Hale, professional match — "
"I'm not in the mood."
He blinks once and clicks his tongue. "I heard about what happened, Hale. And damn," he chuckles, "you just love getting mixed up in other people's relationships, don't you? As if you don't already have problems with your own love life."
"This isn't a fucking game, TJ," I snap, whirling towards him. I don't usually swear, and even TJ knows that, because he instantly shrinks back. "This is my life. My friends. Their relationships. What you tried to do during Never Have I Ever — that was fucked up. And I'll never forgive you for it." I can't stop. "You pretend like this is your reality show, but honestly, I think you're desperate for the kind of friendship we have. I think that as much as you hate us for some reason, you actually envy us. And I just feel sorry for you."
And our scene begins.
A C T II , S C E N E 1
The woods are filled with fairies, the King and the Queen. Mr. Allen has to nudge TJ — who's King Oberon — forward to the centre stage; he's still shocked over my last words, and I smirk at the impact. Not until I get nudged forward, too.
Oh, right. I'm his servant.
"My gentle Puck, come here!" TJ wraps an arm around my shoulder and I have to pretend like I don't want to vomit. "Bring me that little flower which people call love in idleness. We will put the juice of this flower on Titania's sleeping eyes... she will love the first thing she sees..."
I grin at him like a little boy. "I'll search the earth for it!"
Exit King Oberon and Puck.
Vic and Liv's characters come back in, where they bicker about the latter's unrequited love. "And I am sick when I don't look on you," Liv pleads, and it's almost agonising looking at her at this moment, because her eyes look too sincere, especially when we cross paths.
"Liv — "
"Don't," is all she says, and it's a stab to my chest.
"Take some of the flower and search this wood, a sweet Athenian Lady is in love with a disdainful young man," TJ boasts with such an overly-done manly voice. "Wait until he is asleep and drop some of the juice on his eyelids. When he wakes and sees the lady, he will love her again."
"Fear not, my lord," swallowing hard in my throat, "your servant shall do so."
Neither of us knowing that this here will start the entire conflict.
"You're delusional," TJ hisses as the scene ends, referring back to our conversation.
"No." I shrug. "I just see things clearly now."
A C T II , S C E N E 2
My fuck-up scene.
I'm back in the woods where I see Justine and Trey's characters, Hermia and Lysander, sleeping on opposite ends.
"On whose eyes I might drop, this flower's force in stirring love? Garments of Athens he wears, this is he, my master said..." I look down at Trey, and although he keeps his eyes closed, I feel like he can sense my every move. "And here, the maiden sleeping sound, on the dank and dirty ground. She should not lie near this man who lacks of love..."
I'm unable to recollect the next lines for a few seconds. It's just all too... familiar. I turn to Justine, whose face looks too peaceful to bother.
"...wake up, and in love you'll be, with the first person you will see."
The lights above me feel hotter every second; sweat rolls down my forehead. The List, crossing off things like Justine was a trophy to win, thinking I had the ingredient of an impossible love potion....
I spread the potion over Trey's eyes.
The next thing that unravels passes my vision like a blur. Vic enters the forest, literally chased by Liv; he escapes from her, and when Trey finally wakes up, Liv is the first person he sees.
"Helena, my love! I'll run through fire for your sweet sake!"
"Hermia still loves you, Lysander! Be happy!"
"Happy with Hermia?" Trey makes a disgusted face that I even cringe at, because it looks so real. "I regret every minute I spend with her. It is you whom I love!"
Liv is terrified and runs away with Trey quickly at her footsteps. Then Justine wakes up alone, before setting off to find her lover.
It's all a mess that I remember I created.
A C T III , S C E N E 1
Not an important one, but it's one of the only scenes that Jude and I have together. Puck stumbles upon the rehearsal of Bottom's play and I, for God knows what reason, decide to play an awful trick.
This is literally where I transform Jude's head into an ass.
"O monstrous! O strange!" the extras scream, horrified. "We are haunted!"
Jude appears with a donkey head mask on his head, and though it covers his whole face, his glare oozes off of it. The plastic, deadpanned eyes are fixed on me. He's not amused.
I hope he can forgive me for this.
A C T III , S C E N E 2
The very scene I'm absolutely terrified of: the climax.
"This is the same Athenian woman," TJ stands close to me as we watch Vic and Justine argue, "but not this the man..."
"Demetrius, where is Lysander? You've killed him, haven't you?" Justine points an accusatory finger at his face. "If you have killed him, kill me too or tell me where he is!"
"I haven't killed him! I don't know where he is!"
"Fine. Lie to me. Whether he's dead or alive, you won't see me again."
I frown. I think she's improvising with her lines a bit. I look over to Mr. Allen who's on the other side of backstage, and his surprised expression confirms it. But the crowd is loving the climax, though.
Correction; they love Justine, who's giving everything and more to her performance. I gaze at her from where she's standing, not too far from me.
"What have you done?" TJ swivels at me and grasps my shoulders, making me startle. Oh, right, I'm still here. "What have you done?"
I go, I go, look how I go! Swifter than an arrow from the Tartar's bow, is what I have to say next. But I can only stare at him as memories flash before my eyes. All through the course of a couple of months.
What have I done?
A/N: This was getting too long so I decided to split it into two parts.
P.S. I know that graphic is imperfect but just pretend it isn't.