If there was one thing that Dirk would never understand, it was theater kids.

He understood basic physics, advanced chemistry, calculous that would make a normal high schooler throw their pencil down and cry, programming, engineering, and he was essentially the go-to guy in the school if you needed something done electronically. But, despite all of this, Dirk could not wrap his brain around the kind of thought process that theater kids had.

Had he actually cared about this enough to take it seriously, Dirk might have been intimidated. There were kids practicing singing without a care for how loud they were being. It was noisy in the hall outside of the theater, but hardly anyone was talking to each other. They were running lines out loud, some even reciting them backward, and looking severe. There weren't enough kids interested on the campus to inspire a proper theater class, but the few that were around were intense.

As it was, though, Dirk was very content to lean on Jane's shoulder, close his eyes, and ignore them all.

Even though it had been a while since they last spoke, Dirk was quick to hit it off with her again. She apologized for putting her boyfriend first, and Dirk apologized for not checking in on her. Roxy had them hug, and now, it was like nothing had changed.

Jane was a plump girl, which Dirk liked. Roxy was all bones, and while he loved her like a sister, hugging her for extended periods of time was… hard. Literally. Her elbows were like bony daggers, and they always dug into tender areas. By contrast, Dirk could happily fall asleep against Jane; she was so soft and warm…

One of Dirk's hands was stroking through Roxy's hair, as she had placed her head on Dirk's lap and stretched out to fill four seats. The other was resting between him and Jane, because despite how nice it felt to cuddle, Dirk didn't like being too affectionate in public. It rubbed him the wrong way.

"Wvell, wvell, wvell…" a mocking croon sounded from above him, and Dirk had to bite back a sign. Speaking of things that rubbed him the wrong way…

He lifted his head at the same time that Roxy and Jane did, and the three of them looked up at Cronus Ampora with disinterest. He was kind of a dick, but other than that, Dirk didn't really care about him.

Cronus was known in the school for being rich, but it was more than that — his family was beyond rich. They were somewhere between Bruce Wayne, and Scrooge McDuck. As a result, the school more or less did what he wanted. He tossed a few names at some kids, and everyone would collectively sigh, and move on. The consensus of the school was to just ignore him, and eventually, Cronus would walk away. He wasn't the type to get physical — Dirk thought that it was only because money wouldn't stop a kid from decking him, if Cronus chose to pick a fight with the wrong person.

"I see that you'vwe got some talent wvith the ladies after all, Strider." He winked at Roxy, who grimaced. Out of the corner of his eye, Dirk saw Jane's expression tighten, as Cronus completely ignored her existence. And even though it was just Cronus, Dirk still felt a knot of displeasure tighten in his gut. He slipped his arm around Jane's waist properly, holding her closer in what he hoped was a comforting way.

"What do you want, Cronus?" Dirk asked, his voice taking on a warning edge. "Don't you need to go run lines for the part of the bush? For what it's worth, I think you've got it nailed. But with an IQ like yours, I think a bush might be too intelligent of a role for you to handle."

Still resting against Dirk, Roxy chuckled a little, turning her head to hide her smile against his thigh. Biting back a laugh of his own, Dirk was quick to smooth his expression over once more.

Cronus's face turned a faint shade of red for a moment, as his embarrassment flared, before he calmed down. He held his hands up in mock surrender, a fake expression of hurt on his face. "Wvowv, chief. I'm actually offended by that. I just wvanted to congratulate ya. I wvas startin' to think that you wvere just some kinda faggot, but I see that you'vwe only been holding out for a fine piece of ass." He turned his head, and nodded towards the direction of Meenah. "I like your game plan, Dirk. Might havwe ta try it myself, if landing the lead don't work." He grinned unpleasantly, fishing a cigarette out of his pocket. Cronus didn't light it, merely placing it between his lips before slinking away.

Dirk relaxed a little, flicking Roxy on the back of the neck to get her attention. "Get up for a second, Rox." He said before she could complain about having to move. "I might as well warn Meenah about Mr. Smooth Talking over there, just so she knows what she's getting into." Roxy didn't seem very pleased, but regardless, she nodded, sitting up.

Meenah Peixes was… something unique. Dirk knew that, like Cronus, her family was incredibly wealthy. But unlike Cronus, she didn't use any of it. At all. She worked two minimum wage jobs, dressed as sloppily as she could, and acted more like a child that was raised by a mafia, rather than one who was raised by the richest woman on the planet. The story was that she and Cronus were friends as children, but had since drifted apart. She enrolled at a low-level school like this just to spite her mother, and Cronus enrolled too because, well, it was where Meenah was. He was the definition of desperate.

At the very least, Meenah was nice enough. Dirk had a few classes with her, and she was aloof and self-absorbed, but not a flamboyant jerk like Cronus was.

As far as Dirk was considered, that was a good enough reason to talk to anyone.

He got up, walking over to where Meenah was silently running lines in her head. He wasn't entirely sure how to approach her. Dirk didn't consider himself to be easily shaken, but Meenah had a very intense, "don't fucking talk to me," air about her. Before he could even open his mouth, though, she sighed, lowering the script she was reading over. "Take a picture, it'll last longer." She narrowed her eyes. "What'd'ya want?"

"Uh…" Dirk noticed that she was holding a completed script. The lines for the role of Sandy were highlighted, and he realized that she was all but certain that she would be getting the part. The name "Sandy" was familiar to him, but he couldn't remember why. He decided to ignore it. "Just thought that I should pass on a bit of a warning about our mutual good friend, Cronus."

Meenah's eye twitched at the name, and she sighed. Setting her script down in the empty chair next to her, she crossed her arms, staring up at Dirk with more interest this time. "Yeah? What 'bout him? He's been clinging to my tailfin since I was old enough to realize that I could do betta." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and smacked her lips, before blowing a huge bubble of gum. Dirk was, admittedly, impressed. She must have been using bubblegum made with glue or something, because it got about the size of her head before she sucked it right back in and continued chewing. "Well?" Meenah raised an eyebrow.

Dirk took the seat next to her, and sighed, leaning back in the chair. "He seems to think that being "subtle" will help him win you over, or something. Not that he would know "subtle" if it flew through the air and cracked him in the skull. I mean, you're auditioning for Sandy, right?" He gestured at her open script. "I think he's trying out for her love interest so you two have to kiss."

At this, Meenah snorted. "Yeah, a'right." She smirked, biting back a laugh. "I'd like ta see that talentless bucket o' tears land the lead. I doubt that he could get the role of Danny even if he paid for it." She joked.

"Yeah," Dirk agreed with a faint laugh, "Now that you say it, it does seem kind of ridiculous that he would— Wait." He blinked, and suddenly, a wave of terror hit him so hard that he almost feel over. He whirled on Meenah. "Woah, pause right the fuck there. Did you say that Danny was the lead part?" Oh, this was bad. This was really, really fucking bad.

Meenah blinked. "Uh, yeah. No duh. Haven't you ever heard of Grease?" She held up her script for emphasis, looking annoyed. "It's 'bout the middle-workin' class of America in the 1950s. It centers around the two leads — Danny Zuko and Sandy Dumbrowski — who had a romance o'er the summer, but comin' back to school, are influenced by peer pressure and their own personal values, and hav'ta learn to balance it all without losing their love in the process." She crinkled up her nose, looking disgusted. "I hate it, but hey, the lead is the lead. And the lead gets all the attention." She grinned. "What? Did you seriously come to audition without even knowin' that you were tryin' out for the lead?"

Well, when she put it like that, Dirk felt his face turn an embarrassed shade of red, and shrugged, turning away. "I lost a bet." He mumbled, seeming annoyed. "I didn't think that— look, I was just going to try out for one of the male parts, not get the part, and then move on with the rest of my life unchanged from this pathetic failure. I didn't— had I known that Danny was the lead, I would've picked someone else." He hunched down in his chair, groaning. "Fuck, I don't want to try out for the lead. I was just going to take a minor character that no one cared about in order to minimize my embarrassment." Dirk bemoaned.

"Hmm." Meenah considered it for a moment, and then sighed. "Look, you're overreacting." She put a hand on Dirk's shoulder, the other on his back, and yanked him back up into a proper sitting position. "Don't be so overdramatic." She chastised. "If ya don't want the part, then ya might as well have fun while you're in there." Meenah grinned. "Just do a poor impression of Cronus or somethin'. Grease is pretty much his entire personality. He's been obsessed with it since we were little."

Dirk didn't reply for a moment, turning the thought over in his head. "...huh." He considered it, and then slowly nodded. "Yeah, I can do that. Making fun of Cronus is child's play."

With a smirk, Meenah nodded. "Yeah, that's the spirit! Gimme five." She lifted her hand, gold bracelets jingling loudly with every faint movement, and held her palm up towards him.

There was a moment where Dirk hesitated, but then he shrugged it off. "Oh, what the hell?" He thought. Their hands clapped together, and Dirk was surprised when Meenah immediately wrapped her fingers around his. She pulled him close, enough that her lips could brush the shell of his ear. Dirk felt discomfort rise in his chest, and tried to move back, only for her to tighten her hold.

"For what it's worth," she murmured into his ear, "I think you'd make a great co-star for me."

What that was supposed to mean, Dirk would probably never know. The door to the theater, which Meenah was sitting right next to, suddenly opened. She let him go, and Dirk hurriedly moved a seat over. He was nervous for more than just the upcoming audition. He really didn't like being touched in public.

"Alright," the student director for the play, a pretty female student named Meulin, stared down at the clipboard in her hand, "we'll be doing the two leads first. Who's here to audition for the role of Danny Zuko? Please stand up." In Dirk's experience, Meulin was a genuinely nice girl, if not somewhat loud and silly. But clearly, she wasn't joking now. She surveyed the room with a stare cold enough to freeze over hell. About half of the males in the room were now standing, but it was easy enough to see that she wasn't impressed. "Okay," she sighed, and pointed at Dirk, "you're closest, so you're first. Everyone else, line up outside the door."

Dirk was all too happy to follow after her. He didn't want to be in a room with Cronus for longer than he had to.

The door shut behind them, and Dirk took a moment to look around. He had never actually been inside of his school's theater. It was good-sized, or at least, he thought so. The seats could fit about 300 people, and the stage was huge. He followed Meulin down the aisle, pausing with her when she stopped by a row of seats about seven rows back from the stage. In the middle, two teachers were sitting, and Dirk assumed that they were the actual directors.

"What page are you going to be reading from?" Meulin asked, script already in hand. She flipped through it, and raised an eyebrow at Dirk. "You do know the page number you took your lines from, don't you?"

Dirk stared dumbly for a moment, and then snapped back into reality. "Um, y-yeah, I do. It's—" He took the script from Meulin's hands, flipping through it and scanning the lines frantically before settling on the page that looked familiar. He had only memorized a few lines, and this was it. "Here, it's, uh— these are my lines." He handed the script back to her, his face hot with embarrassment.

Meulin definitely didn't look impressed, but she just sighed, pointing to the stage. "Get up there. Make sure that we can hear you from where we're sitting." She gestured for Dirk to get going, and worked her way into the row to take her seat.

He nodded, and headed up the aisle to get onto the stage. As he did, he took his phone out, discreetly opening his camera app and setting it to record. Hopefully, the audio would satisfy Hal... Dirk felt nervous as he put his phone back in his pocket, and repeated his lines in his head again and again, just to be certain. Of course, Dirk didn't actually want to get this part, but he didn't want to humiliate himself, either. That would be easy enough, right?

He faced the three sitting in the middle of the theater, and crossed his arms just to have something to do with his hands. "Ready?" Meulin's voice carried over the seats between them easily. "I'll be reading Sandy's lines for you, so just start whenever you're ready."

Dirk nodded. "Alright!" He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes behind his shades. This would be so much easier if he didn't have to look at them… He thought about Meenah's advice, and ran over Cronus's voice in his head a few times. He had a really weird accent, but Dirk thought that he could pull it off. He cleared his throat. "I'vwe found you at last." He said in a smooth drawl, doing his best to sound sleazy and a little off. He heard one of the teachers snort, and fought to keep a smile down. This was supposed to be a serious scene, after all.

With his eyes closed, Dirk wasn't sure if Meulin was annoyed, or amused. Either way, she took a moment to reply before reading off of the script, "What do you want from me?" She sniffed in disdain. "Go back to your Cha-Cha."

"I don't wvant to." Dirk recited passionately, earning another short laugh from the teacher. "Listen, Sandy, baby... that wvas only a stupid contest. There's nothin' betvween her an' me. She arrived with Kenickie at the ball, ya understand?"

This time, Dirk opened his eyes, and found a small smile on Meulin's face. She glanced at the script. "I imagined a completely different night." She said breathily.

"Me, too." He replied. "I'm sorry, sugar. Wvhat'd'ya think 'bout seeing a movie at the driwve-in tomorra' night? I already havwe the tickets." Despite himself, Dirk was actually starting to enjoy being on the stage. Meulin knew who Cronus was, and Dirk had no doubts that she knew he was making fun of him. It felt like an inside joke, and he was beginning to like it.

""I'm sorry," isn't enough." Meulin continued with the scene. "Do you know that?"

"Come on, wvhat d'ya vwant me to do…" He shrugged helplessly. "I hawve a lot of friends here, evweryone knows me… They expect a lot from me, doll."

The nickname made Meulin laugh. She gave up on hiding her smile, though her voice was still calm and serious as she spoke her lines. "Oh, yes? Well then, go back to them. Be like them!"

"And you," Dirk gestured at her, being as overdramatic as possible, "wvhat do you expect from me?" He asked.

Meulin only scoffed, flipping the page in her script as a smirk tugged at her lips. "Only that you are yourself!"

Dirk waited a moment, giving it a pause. At this point, the script had said that Sandy was walking away... He counted to three in his head before speaking. "Sandy, wvait…" He sighed. "Can I call you t'morrow?"

That was the end of the scene. Dirk watched the two directors writing something down on a clipboard, whispering to each other. At one point, Meulin added something that had them scribbling frantically again. While they did that, she set the script down, and focused back on Dirk. "Do you know any of the songs yet?" She asked.

Immediately, Dirk went about five shades paler. "Uh…" He silently thanked his dad for teaching him how to maintain a poker face. "I wasn't… told that singing would be part of the audition."

Giving a sigh, Meulin rolled her eyes. "Well, of course it would be. This is a musical." She looked annoyed, but after a moment, relaxed. "Look, it doesn't matter right now. Danny is a tenor, so as long as you can sing at that range, it should be fine. Are you a tenor?"

Dirk blinked. Fuck, he knew that he should have paid more attention when Roxy talked about singing in choir. "Um… I don't know…?"

And thus, Dirk ended up spending ten minutes on that stage doing vocal exercises. He wasn't sure what the point of them was, but his throat felt sore and his mouth was left dry when they finished. He knew that he wasn't a good singer, but regardless, Meulin informed him that he was, in fact, a tenor. Great.

He left the audition feeling… well, he didn't know how he felt. He was pretty confident that he wouldn't be getting the part, though, which was nice. He turned the recording on his phone off, and taped the next guy on his shoulder, sending him in. Feeling tired, he sat back down next to Jane, and leaned on her shoulder.

"Tired, hun?" Jane questioned, putting a consoling hand on his shoulder.

Dirk groaned. "Ugh, remind me the next time Hal dares me to do something, to just stick a fork in his throat right then and there and call it good." His statement earns a laugh from both Jane and Roxy, and it does make Dirk feel a little bit better. He's happy to see that his friends are happy. "How long do we have to stay here for, again?"

Roxy, who had been sitting on Jane's other side, got up and moved around to sit next to Dirk. "There, there…" She patted him on the leg solemnly. "I'm auditionin' for one of the minor characters, so if no one else wants the part, I get it by default. I might not even have to audition." She grinned. "So, it won't be long, Dirk, I promise."

As it turned out, it did take long. Very long. It took about two hours to get through all of the guys auditioning for Danny, and while the girls went faster, there was more of them. Dirk cursed himself for spending his Saturday doing this, but now that Roxy was involved in the play, she was genuinely excited to have a part. So Dirk spent five hours in his school on a Saturday, watching people slowly move in and out of the theater. At the very least, Cronus wasn't there. He left as soon as he was done auditioning, looking smug.

It was impossible for Dirk to care any less than he already didn't.

After the two leads were done, Meulin just stood in the hall, calling out names of side characters. She grouped people up depending on what part they wanted, and surprisingly, Roxy was actually alone. A few other people were, too, and they were all afforded the parts, albeit with Meulin's threat that they had better be good, or else.

Dirk would never understand the intensity of theater kids.

When all was said and done, he and Roxy went to walk Jane home. Dirk was Roxy's neighbor, so they would be walking together, anyway, but neither of them wanted Jane to walk home alone. That, and their time apart meant that they had missed out on a lot of gossip.

"Really?" Jane was saying, looking at Roxy with disbelief. "I knew that Porrim always, um…" her face went a faint shade of red, "saw a lot of men, but really? Kurloz? Are you sure?"

Roxy nodded, grinning. "Yep." She drawled, popping the 'p.' "Guess that he and Meulin are going through a rough patch. I don't blame 'em, though. A girl like Porrim? Anyone'd want that." She whistled lowly, and laughed when it earned her a sharp elbow to the side from Jane. "Oh! Speaking of romance…" she wiggled her eyebrows, "have you guys heard about that gay guy who came out on the school website?"

Dirk stopped walking. A gay guy? Okay, so someone at their school was gay. Big deal. Why should he care? But then, Dirk realized, despite it all, he cared. His chest felt tight. He wanted to know who this "gay guy" was, and… talk. He swallowed hard. "Who is it, Rox?" He asked offhandedly. "Someone we know?" His anxiousness was pliable.

"Nah." Roxy flicked her wrist dismissively, uninterested. "I dunno, it was some kind of anonymous confession. He posted it under the name "Blue," I think it was? No one knows who he is, but he's getting all kinds of shit for it." She explained.

"...oh." Dirk forced himself to start walking again. Jane's house was just a few more blocks, and then he could run home, boot up his computer, and… and try to talk to this stranger. He wished that he didn't care, or at the very least, that he knew why it mattered so much to him. "Gay, huh?" He muttered. "...what a weirdo."