Part Two of my Hat Series. Bad grammar, I don't own Grojband, and fluff.
Hat S: The Prince and Prince(ss)
"–and first-grader Corey Riffin has been chosen to play Princess Persephone, and fifth grader Nick Mallory has been chosen to play Prince Nico. Congrats, you two; other listings will be posted outside the drama room."
The intercom makes a weird buzzing sort of noise and then it clicks off. Corey is frozen in place. His ears and cheeks are burning red-hot. Here he is, writing in his journal, as they were to do at the beginning of every day as part of their morning exercises, when a bombshell like that is dropped on him. Corey thinks the world must hate him. He is playing a princess, the opposite role to Nick Mallory; Katrina's crush since like forever. Did they want him die?
"Corey!" his teacher says, "I believe a congrats is in order." His teacher, Ms. Hattie, walks over. She bends down to his eyelevel and he just stares at her. Mouth agape. It takes a moment for him to gather his bearings and finally protest.
"Ms. Hattie! I can't do this! I'm not a girl and I didn't even ask to be in the play, I bet there are tons of people wanting to play princess!" he rushes out. His teacher places a calming hand on his shoulder.
She gives him a gentle smile and squeeze. "Calm down, Corey. Take deep breaths. That's it; it's okay. I bet you'll be amazing as Princess Persephone, and who says a princess has to be played by a girl?" Ms. Hattie wrinkles her nose, her brown eyes twinkling. "You know, Peter Pan is a boy, and in Broadway they always cast a girl to play him, and way, way back then, only boys were allowed to be actors. They played all the girl roles happily."
Corey finds himself nodding along with what Ms. Hattie was saying, but it still didn't take away the feeling of impending doom or the embarrassment of facing Nick onstage. He supposes he can't wiggle out of this problem; he just has to go with it.
"Ok," he finally relents. Ms. Hattie sends him a blinding smile and eases back up. She starts going to the front of the classroom, leaving him alone. Like he said before, there was nothing he could do besides flowing with it, so, he picks up his pencil and starts to finish the rest of his journal entry.
*Peter Pan Transition*
Corey learns a lot words over the course of two months, words like responsibility and stalker. His mother had personally told him it was his responsibility to balance his school life, the play, his chores, and his after school music lessons. That means he has to be in control of everything, and he couldn't over indulge in one activity for too long unless his schedule would crumble.
He learns the word stalker when his sister practically glues herself to him. She questions him on every aspect of his life because he deals with Nick Mallory, and the older boy makes an effort to talk to him. She watches him with hawk-like precision. It's creepy, but every time he voices his opinion his parents would write it off as Katrina wanting to bond with him.
Yeah, and Santa Claus didn't exist.
So, he learns all those words and more. The most interesting new word he's learned by far is crush. He looked it up in the dictionary with the help of doddering, Mrs. Maybelle. Crush means a lot of things, mainly to bring something down; destroy. There's another definition to crush and that's infatuation. Corey asks Mrs. Maybelle what that means, and she giggles just a little.
Mrs. Maybelle turns the tables and asks him if he had ever gotten shy around a girl, did he get butterflies in his stomach, did his face feel hot, or anything like that? He merely stares at his aging librarian like she's from Mars. Why would he feel like that around girls?
Girls were so weird! They didn't want to get dirty. They hated bugs, and their voices were loud and screechy. Plus, Kin once told him that they carried a secret infection called Cooties. He was sure to die if he ever caught them!
But he kept all that information to himself and nodded shyly to Mrs. Maybelle. He has felt all those symptoms before, but not around icky girls. No way! He feels them whenever he does play rehearsals with Nick. He doesn't know what's wrong with him, but he can never fully look Nick in the eye when it's his turn to read his lines. He stutters and blushes; it's like has no control over his body.
It gets worse whenever Nick holds his hand or touches him in some way. He wishes he could stop having these reactions because he doesn't want to be weird. Nick is such a cool guy and surely he'd stop hanging out with him if he figured that he was acting all weird because of him.
He's getting all jittery from thinking about it. He fiddles with his hat. His hat that Nick got him after his horrible haircut, his face grows hot at the thought. He wears the beanie twenty-four/seven and only takes it off for a solemn hour and thirty minutes every week on Thursday for a wash and dry.
He feels almost naked without it.
"Okay, Corey, I'm done. You can go out now," Mr. Foster says softly with a small smile.
"Huh?" Corey asks, confused.
Mr. Foster laughs quietly, "You can go out now. Everything is ready."
Corey looks at the Art teacher with his eyebrows raised, he wonders what the heck he's talking about until it hits him. He's ready now! He takes a couple of seconds to glance to the left where the mirror is located. "Wow," falls from his lips when sees himself.
He's amazed; he looks like the better version of Carrie Beff (his eternal rival). His hair falls down to his back in soft curls, the extra length clearly highlighted extensions, and he wears a fake diamond circlet. He's dressed in a simple white dress outlined in blue. It's nothing extra girly, thank God, and he's still allowed to wear white tights underneath. He really looks like a girl…
"Go on," Mr. Foster pushes him along from the backstage to actual stage, where he can be seen.
He has his hat still clutched in his fingers when he spots Nick on stage. He wears black pants and some sort of frilly, white shirt with a flowing red cape and a wooden sword attached to his hip. He also has a golden crown. No fair.
Corey lets a mutated, "Eck!" when Nick looks up and grins at him. His body is acting weird again with Nick's blue stare on him. He's pretty sure he's blushing as he moves awkwardly across the wooden planks to stand just a few feet away with the fifth-grader.
"Hey," he lets out quietly, waving lamely.
"Hey Cor," Nick greets back, "Nick thinks you look cute in that dress."
That offhand comment makes Corey feel all tingly inside. Stupid crush, he silently rages; he glances away from Nick before he does anything stupid.
"Enough chit-chat, people, Mother and I came to see the last rehearsal before opening night," Mayor Mellow calls from the front row; the picture of his mother is seated next to him.
Weird…
Nevertheless, Corey begins his lines with Nick's lead.
*Mega heart transition*
It's opening night and the crowd's enthralled, and so is Corey. After all these months of juggling multiple activities his hard work has paid off. He doesn't stumble over his lines nor does he ever act out of character. He is seamless as he goes from scene to scene as is everyone else.
He thought this play was sure to be a disaster, but it's proving him wrong. Maybe if becoming the biggest band ever doesn't work out, he can try acting. Now that those pesky nerves were out of the way, he can really see that he likes performing, he enjoys being in front of a crowd; it gives him a thrill!
The crowd is on edge as he's being taken to the dungeon by the evil henchmen of King Zeus and Hades. His character, Princess Persephone, parents died when she was baby and that left the kingdom in turmoil. When King Zeus and Hades went to take the throne he ordered all related to the King and Queen to be killed upon sight. Well, an old servant managed to get Persephone to a pauper's family, way, way out in the forest before he died himself.
Persephone grew up as a mere civilian and worked in the fields. When she was little she met a boy in the fields. They met every day until both of them turned thirteen and then the boy stopped coming. Long story short, they reunite under weird circumstances (it involves a donkey, an egg, and a blind old lady…). The boy, later known as Prince Nico, finds out about her parentage and urges her to take the throne. Persephone takes his advice and she begins her journey back to her home land when Ze—.
"Nico!" Corey yelps in surprise, he scrambles up from the floor and to his paper mache prison bars. "What are you doing here?"
Nick looks so heroic as he puffs out his chest. "Nico is here to save his beautiful princess from a horrid fate."
"Good luck," he whispers, and Nick says something cheesy like doesn't need luck. The evil henchmen come back, throwing Nick in prison with him and taking his sword. Corey gets to playfully slap Nick across the back of the head and call him an idiot, but he announces he has plan that just might work.
He searches over Nick until he finds a large golden pin from his cloak. Corey thinks his character is awesome; Prince Nico is a bit of a dummy, and can't save the day like a proper prince, but he, the princess, can! He uses the nail to break them out of the faux iron prison, managing to get Nick's sword back from the evil henchman.
Just as they're about to leave: King Zeus and Hades appear. Corey gasps and drops to his knees because King Zeus and Hades really scare Persephone. Corey has struggle to hold in his laughter because Laney and Lenny (Larry? He's really unsure of the boy's name…) are trying to be twins, and just doesn't work. It's amusing to see them break into small squabbles amongst themselves as the play is going on.
Laney and Lenny evilly grin as they engage Nick in a fight-to-the-death battle. This was a fairy tale and it's obvious that Nick is going to win, although, he manages to convince the audience several times that he might lose. Laney and Lenny tragically fall to their death. The crowd cheers loudly, and Corey throws himself at Nick, "My hero," he squeaks into their hug.
Mina Beff plays the priest guy who crowns Persephone the Queen of the land, her birthright is restored. Nico and Persephone still meet over the years until they're both twenty. Nico asks to join their two kingdoms and family — marriage, to be frank. His character agrees, but makes a comment that she isn't going to be some silly housewife and sit around all day looking pretty (the females in the audience go particularly wild over that line).
They're married with Mina as priest, and Kon and Kin as the witnesses. It comes down to, "You may now kiss the bride!" Corey freezes. The kiss, oh God, he forgot about the kiss. He's pretty sure he resembles a tomato and cherry as he shifts awkwardly. Maybe, they can make some excuse on why they can't kis—
"Mph!" Corey muffles wide-eye. Nick has kissed him. On the lips. In front of the all the people. He's feeling faint; he hopes he doesn't pass out.
The Narrator Voice, Mayor Mellow, proclaims the end of the play and the crowd goes crazy. They all jump to their feet and applaud, whistling and waving; Katrina doesn't look very happy though.
The cast of the play hurry to link hands and bow several times. Corey supposes this is the time to soak up in the glow of a job well-done, and enjoy the euphoria that washes over him from the audience's standing ovation, but he can't. His right hand, which is interlocked with Nick burns like he has pushed it into the oven to cook. His emotions are all frazzled and his lips are pulsing from the aftermath of his first, ever kiss.
Should he be happy, sad, or angry?
This is so confusing. He needs his hat.
Stupid Nick Mallory.