"Come on Rami!" Gwil shouted as we jogged around the gym floor.
"No, you guys are being mean!" Rami picked up the pace as Gwilym tailed behind him, trying to talk to him.
"I know I should feel bad but I find this kind of hysterical." Lucy was jogging to my left, we had to fill her in on what happened at lunch because Rami was moping.
"Before Civil War, I would've been chill, but now that Tony tried to kill my Bucky, I will forever hold a grudge."
"Your Bucky?" Joe looked down at me and laughed.
"You are damn right MY Bucky." I said completely serious.
"He'll get over it." Joe directed at Lucy before changing the subject, probably for my own good. "You excited for Drama Club?"
"I am very excited for Drama Club."
"We are actually getting ready to do a new play so you joined at a perfect time."
"Okay, that's enough running for today!" The gym teacher yelled from the corner of the gym. Everyone abruptly stopped running and all headed to the staircase. I tried to keep my breathing under control as we continued our conversation.
"Oh man, do you know what the play is yet?"
"Actually no, the teacher is still picking them out and stuff. We should know sooner or later." All the students filed neatly into the weight room and stood around waiting for further instruction.
----------------------------------------------------
In gym class we did the v-sit in reach, pretty simple and easy, definitely not exciting(even though I found out Joe was almost as flexible as me which had me SHOOK). I was currently waiting in the lobby, outside of the auditorium, with Joe and 'the gang' waiting for the drama teacher.
"I hope we get to do a comedic play."
"You always want to do a comedic play Joe." Gwil responded, arms crossed.
"What's wrong with comedic plays?" Joe placed his hands on his hips.
"Nothing really, just that that is the only type of play Mrs. Thomas likes to choose."
"Yeah, Gwil is right. Thomas doesn't need to be thinking we all want to do comedic plays all the time." Rami piped in the conversation, his arm calmy resting around Lucy's shoulders.
"I know I'm new and all," I interjected, leaning forward a bit to see everyone in our little circle we formed, "but I agree with Gwil and Rami." I looked up at Joe who was smirking down at me, so I kept going. "I think a lot of drama teachers take the easy way out by choosing comedies because there's ALWAYS room for improv, and with high school students not all of them take it seriously because it IS a comedy. I like serious plays that force you to work on your acting skills, character developing and stuff like that, so you can better yourself and challenge yourself. I'm not bashing comedies by all means, I'm just saying people get too comfortable." There were nods of acknowledgement and agreement around our circle through my little speech, which I appreciated gratefully.
"Those are very good points, really. I never thought of it that way." Ben said.
"I'm always pushing for comedies because I like making people laugh, and by now I'm just used to us doing comedies. But I'm up for a change." Joe glanced at me out of the side of his eyes, a smile tugging at my lip as I put my arm around his waist, Joe's hand resting on my shoulder.
"There's Thomas finally." Lucy pointed, everyone in the circle turned to look and I saw a female teacher that looked to be in her fifties, with very long hair. She walked to the auditorium doors and unlocked them, letting all the students that were waiting in. Joe let his hand slide from my shoulder, across my back and down my arm, forcing me to release my arm from around his waist, and ending in my hand. Warm tingles ran through my body and I squeezed his hand, smiling to myself when he squeezed back. He led me through the doors and we entered the auditorium. It had many seats, but it was relatively small, probably considering this was a small school in the countryside. All of the gang sat in the same row, which was the second from the bottom and in the middle; the order was Lucy, Rami, Gwil, Ben, me, and then Joe. Other students spread out through the seats, but staying close to the front and middle.
"Okay kids," Thomas was standing on the stage in front of us, her hands clasped together. All of the little chatter throughout the room died down and it became quiet, so Thomas continued. "I have, I think, three or so scripts left in the running for us. We could always do the classic 'Romeo and Juliet'." At this, I heard some groans throughout the room, but I thought it was a good idea. "Don't worry, we could always find a modern version if the dialogue is too intimidating." I couldn't help but chuckle at that comment. "Anyways, I think that would be fun! I don't quite recall the names of the other ones, and the copier in the teacher lounge isn't working so I guess we have to wait to choose a play until next week when I can bring in copies. Today we can decide which one of you guys want to be actors and which ones want to be tech and backstage, everyone come grab a notecard."
"I'll grab us some." I stood up and said to our row before shuffling past Joe, the back of my legs brushing against his knees. I went down the couple stairs that were there and up to the stage where everyone else was lining up. I counted out six of the notecards and went back to my seat, passed Joe once more, and took a seat. I took two cards for Joe and I and handed the rest of the cards down the row. "Hey Joe, do you have a pencil?"
"Yeah one sec." Joe leaned forward and shuffled through his bag, eventually handing me a red pen. Haha how ironic.
"I think we'll all need that mate." I heard Ben say next to me.
"Maybe you guys should be more prepared." Joe leaned forward to comment to Ben, causing me to chuckle. I placed the card on my knee so I could write, and wrote down my name and 'actor'.
"I know there's a new face here," Mrs. Thomas said facing me, "why don't you stand up and tell us a little about you?" Usually, I would be a quite nervous but I've always had slight confidence when it came to drama club. So I stood up, and looked around the room before speaking.
"Well, my name is Cassandra, Cas, and I moved here from Georgia just like a week ago." I trailed off a little and looked to Thomas.
"How long have you been acting and what grade are you in?"
"I'm a senior and I've been in drama club all of high school, and did some plays when I was little."
"Well, it's always nice to have new people in our group. Thank you." I nodded and took my seat once more. "Anyways, don't forget for techs, there is: lights and sounds, costumes, hair and makeup, props, and set building. If you're an actor, I want you to double up if you like seeing as we will possibly have two casts for different nights like for our last play." At this, I quickly wrote down which tech job I prefered.
"What are you going to pick for backstage?" Joe asked and I held out the pen to him, seeing as I was already done writing.
"Probably hair and makeup and then costumes. I know, it's cliche." It's like every book you read, the main girl is an art student, but that's honestly what I enjoy so tough luck. Joe proceeded to write on his card.
"The only reason I predicted that was because of the way you acted when I got the zipper stuck in my skirt." Joe was now quietly whispering in my ear, sending tingles through me.
"Would you believe me if I said I honestly forgot all about that." Which was an all out lie, you don't just forget that. I then turned my head to face Joe, now mere inches apart.
"Not for a second." Joe looked up and down my face and I could feel mine heating up.
"Can we have that pen please?" Lucy sounded from the end of the row. Joe leaned past me, his chest pressed against my shoulder, to hand the pen to Ben, and then relaxed back into his seat. He put his arm over the armrest, so it was flush against my side and under my arm, and rested his hand on the middle of my thigh. I placed my hand on top of his and mindlessly fiddled with his fingers while we waited for further instructions.