The Royal Woods' Elementary School was putting on a production of 'Dracula.' Needless to say, a good number of Lucy's friends wanted to participate, and they all lined up for auditions. Lucy was filling out the necessary paperwork when she happened to look up to see her brother Lincoln, along with his friends Zach, Liam, Rusty and Rusty's younger brother Rocky.
"Well hello nerd squad, what brings you to the drama side of the school?" her friend Silas asked them.
"Hey, we're nerds ourselves, in maybe our own way," Lucy told him.
"We just thought it might be fun to audition, I mean, it's an awesome story!" said Zach.
"Yeah, and the ladies do like a leading man!" said Rusty with a bit of a pompous attitude.
"It's a sweeter deal than cider freshly squeezed after them apples are picked! But don't tell my daddy I said that!" added Liam.
"I was just following my brother, thought I might audition as well. I love Dracula!" said Rocky. Lucy tried very hard not to smile as she turned to Lincoln.
"Is Clyde auditioning as well?" she asked.
"Naw, he decided to ask the drama teacher if there was any way he could help in the costume department. Said he might get a nosebleed if he gets onstage. Which is strange, I've seen him dance onstage plenty of times," he replied.
"I think he just doesn't want to get onstage with a vampire!" laughed Rusty.
"Laugh all you want, this is considered one of the greatest novels ever written, so let's treat this play with respect," snarled Lucy, that seemed to get Rusty to quiet down.
"Lucy Loud! If you will please step up!" the drama requested. Lucy did as she was bidden.
"Break a leg little sis!" said Lincoln as he attempted to high-five her. But she just kept walking, evidently, she wasn't into high fives. Lincoln just shrugged, realizing he should have expected that.
Two days later, the roles were posted. Everyone who auditioned immediately lined up to try and see if they had been given a role. According to the paper, Silas had been given the title role of Dracula, which he was overjoyed upon seeing. Lucy would be playing a character with a very similar name, Lucy Westenra. Her friend Haiku had been given the role of Mina Harker. They shook hands upon reading each other's roles. Rocky Spokes had been given the role of the mental patient Renfield. He started crawling around on all fours. Liam would be playing Quincey Morris, an American who helps in the defeat of Dracula. Rusty Spokes got the role of Arthur Holmwood. Zach was given the role of Dr. John Seward, the psychiatrist.
"Looks like you have to look after my brother now!" joked Rusty.
"Here, let me through! I haven't had a chance to see if I'm on there!" Lincoln's voice came from behind his friends. He did find his name on the paper. In fact, it was very near the top. He had been given the role of Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
"No way! You probably have one of the coolest roles in the production!" said Rocky.
"Really? One of the coolest roles?" asked Lincoln, his eyebrows raised in interest.
"Seriously! Van Helsing is a well-respected medical professor, and expert on vampires! He's the one who realizes what Dracula is, and how to recognize a vampire and how to destroy them!" explained Rocky.
"Guess I have to take care to keep you away from my friends," said Lucy.
"Lucy, I think most people would try to stay away from your friends to begin with," said Lincoln, even the members of the Young Mortician's Club had a good laugh at that. Lincoln looked back at the list and smiled. He was playing an important hero, a character that hunted down spooks before "ARRRGH!"
Well, as with most play productions, preparations had to be set in. The actors came to their rehearsals. Clyde and everyone else involved in costuming did the necessary measurements and worked very hard to make the costumes. Lana and her friends from the mechanics club helped to build the set, they were having the time of their lives doing that. Lucy even trained her pet bat Fang and some of his brethren to fly onstage so they could be used for the scenes when Dracula becomes a bat. She had a small role, so she was able to do both things easily. The teacher was even impressed with Lucy's great enthusiasm to be involved. Granted she was very proud of everyone involved, no matter their contribution, they were all ecstatic in their parts.
One day after rehearsal (Silas was already donning a cape) Lincoln came up to the teacher and shook her hand.
"I just wanted to say that I'm really glad to be a part of this performance. I'm really looking forward to being onstage in front of everyone!
"Well I'm glad to hear that Lincoln, and I'm really glad you got to be the Professor Van Helsing," she replied.
"Yeah, reading the script, and learning about the character, he's actually pretty awesome. I feel as though he's the original superhero!" said Lincoln happily.
"Well, I'm sure there's a lot of characters in literature who could claim that title! But one of the best parts about you being in the role, if you don't mind me saying, is we don't have to do much make-up on you!" she laughed. Here, Lincoln was confused.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked.
"With your white hair, you already look enough like an old man we don't have to add anything to it," she replied. Lincoln suddenly felt as though his lungs and stomach were crushed between two blocks of lead.
The walk home from rehearsal didn't get a word out of Lincoln. His friends and Lucy's friends parted ways with them when it became necessary, and when they came to their home, Lincoln allowed Lucy to enter the doorway first.
"Well there's our two little actors! How was rehearsal?" asked Luan from the couch, she and Luna were watching 'Monsters Inc.' together with Lisa, Lana and even Lily.
"I don't really want to talk about it," said Lincoln as he made his way upstairs. The sisters looked at each other in disbelief.
"What was that about? Lincoln's got all his energy pumped out about this play. I've even seen him at rehearsal a few times, he loves his role," said Lana.
"Maybe we should see if he needs a shoulder to cry on," suggested Luna. She and Luan got up. The other sisters were about to join them but Luan stopped them.
"You three just wait here and continue watching the movie, if we need you we'll call," she told them. She and Luna got up to Lincoln's bedroom, knocked on the door and asked if they could come in.
"The door's open," Lincoln replied from inside. Luna and Luan came in to see their brother gently hugging Charles who just looked at the boy with gentle eyes. The two girls sat down on either side of their brother.
"Did something bad happen at rehearsal? For weeks you've been going batty over your part! Get it?" asked Luan, hoping to relieve some tension. Luna shot her sister a look that said: 'Now's not the time.'
"No, it's just that after rehearsal I told the teacher how excited I was and she said that because of my white hair they don't need to dye it. Now I'm convinced that the only reason I was cast in the role of Prof. Van Helsing is because I already look like an old man," Lincoln replied glumly. Now the sister's understood the predicament. When Lincoln was younger, he was a tad sensitive about his white hair. Kids sometimes teased him about it, and it made him hurt emotionally. Fortunately, he grew to love his white hair and actually enjoyed it because it made him unique.
"Bro, y'can't let that get t'yeh. You got that role because you auditioned to be in the play, and clearly the teacher saw something in your performance that made her feel that you were the right choice for Van Helsing. I mean, this whole time, you've been excited about playing him, and you got us all hyped up to see you perform," Luna told him, as she put an arm around her brother.
"Yeah, there's a saying in show business, scripts contain skeletons, not full bodies. Besides, look at all the stuff you're into. You like watching that show about a guy going into haunted houses to infiltrate ghosts. You like superheroes who face down terrible monsters. You once said it yourself, Abraham Van Helsing started doing all those things first. He was in a way, the first spook catcher," added Luan who then wrapped her arm around Lincoln. Lincoln looked up at his older sisters and actually smiled.
"Yeah Lincoln," said a voice, everyone jumped to see that Lucy had entered the room.
"When I auditioned, I myself was hoping that I might play Mina because she's a strong, straightforward woman who was ahead of her time. I got Lucy instead, and I felt it was odd that I would be playing a character who had the same name as me. But I felt it necessary to continue on, because that was the role I was given, and I found that I actually enjoyed playing her just like you enjoy playing Van Helsing," she said.
"So, you guys are saying, no matter what the reason I was cast, I shouldn't worry about it and continue to have fun with the play?" suggested Lincoln. Everyone nodded and Luan suddenly spied Lincoln's copy of 'The King of the Rings.'
"Lincoln, do you mind if I take a look at that?" she asked. Lincoln shrugged in compliance and Luan picked it up and browsed quickly through the accompanying paper that acted as a guide to the DVD extras.
Moments later, the siblings were watching an extra on the DVD that explained how the cast members were picked. (They had to convince the younger ones to relinquish Monsters Inc. for a little bit, but in a house that crowded, everyone was used to sharing.) In one scene, it was revealed that the actor who played the dwarf was a head taller than everyone else, so that actually came in handy when they were doing a scene with the Fellowship gathered together. The filmmakers were able to get away with having all the 'shorter creatures' together. Lincoln laughed at that.
When the night of the first performance came, the majority of the Loud family took up a good chunk of one row to see the performance. Lori had little Lily on her lap so she wouldn't get into too much trouble.
"I hope this play is good," said Lola.
"Remember, two of your siblings are up there, support them just like they support you dear," said Rita, just as the play was beginning to start. It was a great play, Silas made an excellent Dracula. Rocky was putting in grunts for his dialogue, and constantly pawed at the ground. Lincoln did seem to wince as Rusty 'drove a stake' through Lucy's heart. Fang did just as he had been instructed by Lucy to act as Silas' bat form. When it was over, and Liam said his character's dying words Lincoln said the closing statement: "There is a light at the end of the tunnel. The night is darkest before the dawn, and the nightmare truly is over." Everyone applauded. The actors took their bows, and a few of them even hugged each other onstage.