The auditions are somewhat boring, you think. Rantaro is furiously trying to memorise the script, while Alice instructs people and forms a comprehensive list and schedule for the practice. You've looked over the part for Juliet, and it took a minute, but you have it memorised just in case. Some hidden, repressed part of you finds it rather romantic.
You sit down in the wings and take out some homework, hoping that you could at least get something productive out of this giant waste of time. You chew the back end of your pen unconsciously, trying to puzzle out the code for a function to calculate the factorial of a number. It's not going particularly well for you, what with all the nonsense that's been happening.
"It's recursive." A low voice speaks over your shoulder, so soft you can barely hear it.
You turn around to look at him, frowning slightly.
"And," you said, visible annoyed. "Who exactly asked for your help?"
"Sorry," the boy said, sheepishly rubbing the nape of his neck. "I'll just...go now."
"Actually, wait." You said, taking a deep breath. "I'm just frustrated because of this dumb assignment, I shouldn't have snapped at you."
"It's quite alright," the boy said, smiling.
He seats himself next to you, and that's when you notice just how tall he is. He's very, very tall, but very, very skinny as well. His plain white shirt hangs on him, seemingly empty, on top of which lies his school-issued cardigan with the school crest pinned neatly to it.
His straight, but rather fluffy-looking, blond hair brushes his shoulder and is particularly unkempt, barely held together by a couple of hairpins. His eyes a soft, warm brown, and his skin is unblemished, but incredibly pale. His long, lanky legs are covered by worn jeans that stop above his ankles.
He leans over your shoulder, his cardigan falling off his shoulder. A lock of his hair brushes past your ear as he points to your notebook.
"You missed a semicolon there."
You look where he's pointing and see your line of code meant to calculate and realise that it is indeed missing a semicolon. You're glad it was spotted before you had a lot more lines in your code.
You look at him, a small smile on your lips. "Thanks. Honestly."
His eyes widen and his jaw even drops a little before he buried his flushed face in his hands. You can see the tips of his ears redden considerably.
"Um, there's," he mumbles into his hands. "No problem."
He reaches into a small sling bag you didn't know he was carrying and pulled out a small sketchpad and a pencil. He flipped to an empty page and began furiously scribbling something. He drew his knees closer to his body as he worked, slowly curling up.
You shrug and then turn back to your work. After all, all of the homework you're doing now has to be submitted tomorrow. You sigh, but continue working anyway.
You're done with all the programs you had to write rather quickly after that, and you frown when you realise you'd have to find a computer to run them through. You suddenly have an idea and turn to the boy huddled up next to you.
You lightly tap him on his shoulder and he starts, eyes shot wide and hands scrambling to close his sketchpad.
"Sorry," you say, wincing. "But would you mind looking these over for me..."
"Kaito," he says, suddenly. "My name is Kaito."
He takes the papers from your hands and scans them over quickly. His eyes are sparkling, the corners of his lips turned up as he hands them back to you.
"Your logic is impeccable." He says, starry-eyed. "This is perfect and beautiful!"
You take your papers back from him and put them in your bag. He's still looking at you when you turn back to him.
"You seem pretty awkward," you say to him. "Are you auditioning for the play to bring up your confidence or something?"
"Ah, I'm not auditioning." He says, frantically waving his hands. "Alice and I...know each other, so he asked me to do set and costume design for the play."
"I see," you say. "Do you aim to something like this in the future as well?"
"Well, I do want to become a director at some point in time," he says, averting his eyes. "But I'm not sure if I can talk to that many people yet, so I'm speaking though Alice."
You recognise the passion within this words, the true ambition in his soul and decide to continue talking to him. He, however, has a question to ask you first.
"Are you auditioning for the play?" He asks.
"I'm here for a friend," you say. "But I just might, if I feel like it."
"So, if you want to, of course," he says, sheepishly rubbing the nape of his neck. "Would you mind coming backstage once in a while? We're kinda understaffed. And you have a lot of clear direction and sense, so it'd help."
"You know what?" You say. "Sure."
You look up to the sound of heavy footsteps and then turn to see a tall, muscular boy with a scowl etched into his freckled caramel skin.
His curly red hair falls into his emerald green eyes as he leans down to grab Kaito's shoulder.
"Kaito," he says. "Would ya gimme a hand moving all those boxes you ordered?"
"But I was just talking to her," Kaito says. "I wouldn't want to be impolite."
He looks at you, as if just noticing you and his scowl morphs into a more neutral expression as you rise to face him, your face hardening.
He's tall, maybe not as tall as Kaito, but still rather tall. He's got broader shoulders and more muscle than any boy in your class, stretching his studded leather jacket comfortably. His hands rest in the pockets of his ripped, worn jeans and he wears some comfy looking sneakers and fingerless gloves too.
You give the boy your name in a firm, commanding voice.
The boy continues to look at you, narrowing his eyes as if he's looking for something. He looks at Kaito, then looks back at you.
"It's only polite to introduce yourself when someone introduces themselves to you," you say, raising your eyebrows at him.
"Tough luck, eh?" He say, smirking. "I'm Akira, and you've gotta have chatted up Kaito by now, so I'm gonna grab him and go now."
"Goodbye then," you say. "It was nice seeing you two."
"Goodbye," Kaito says, shakily, waving his hand at you gingerly. "I'd love to see you again."
Akira rolls his eyes. "Alright then. See ya!"
You watch them walk away, Akira slinging a hand over Kaito's shoulder.
You hear Alice calling for all the people wanting to audition. You think this might be interesting if you do it, plus it'll make you seem multifaceted one your college applications.
It's a win-win, you think, and head towards the central stage.