Flashback to 5 months ago
Ah, the first day of high school. For most teens, this is usually a tumultuous time that's full of confusion. Not just confusion over simple things like starting a new school and trying to get used to new classes and routines and whatnot, but also confusion over more complex things such as growing up and possibly dealing with having a new crush.
The second period of the day was about to begin, as was indicated by the thunderous school bell echoing down the hallway. Various students, from fresh faced freshmen to strong wise seniors, scampered to their next classes while chatting and some of them stopping by their lockers. Due to the hullabaloo, the corridors were anything but quiet.
Luan Loud was wandering down the halls, her eyes darting about as she tried to take in the sights of her peers who seem to be happy and carefree. How could they possibly be so cheerful? And if some are conflicted about starting a new chapter in their lives, they sure put up an excellent façade of knowing what they're doing.
Prior to this, Luan had completed her very first class, which was homeroom. Homeroom is a class in which the freshmen were explained the various rules and routines of high school; including receiving their schedules for the year. Unlike most classes, homeroom occurs twice in the day; at the beginning and at the end.
Homeroom seemed simple enough; just a basic introductory class that merely involved introducing herself to her teacher and students. However, the rest of the day was going to be much more difficult to get through since she'd actually have to learn new things.
Luan stops walking and once again looks closely at her schedule. Her schedule was as followed: Homeroom, Drama, English, US History, Lunch, Gym, Art, and Homeroom again. Luan started to rush towards trying to find her next class because she was afraid she was going to be late on the first day.
Smack!
A metallic sound filled the hallways as Luan ran face first into the door of an open locker. Although a few students glanced at the mishap, most of them were unfazed and continued doing what they're doing.
A strong breeze brushed across Luan's forehead as the locker she smashed into swung closed and slammed shut; allowing Luan to rub her head.
"Oh my gosh, are you Ok?" A voice called out to her.
As Luan continued to rub her forehead, she looked up at the person who spoke to her. He was a boy who stood to be roughly her height; if not a few inches taller. He had dark brown curly hair that seemed to nest perfectly on top of his head. The boy's attire seemed to be fairly normal; just a blue and white button-down shirt, gray pants, and white shoes. The thing that stood out the most was probably his eyes; dark eyes that seemed to have a real sincerity about them. That is to say, he looked strangely…handsome.
"Uh…yeah, I'm fine," Luan replies as she continues to rub her forehead.
"Lemma see," The boy steps closer and examines Luan's forehead to make sure there's no bumps or other signs of damage. Luan could feel her heartbeat increase at a boy being so close to her.
"Doesn't seem like you're hurt," The boy replies, "Name's Benny."
Benny, what a nice name. "I'm Luan Loud," Luan introduces herself.
Benny smiles, "Nice to meet you Luan. Where you headed?"
"Drama class," Luan answers.
Benny's eyes widen in surprise, "No way! I have drama right now too. We can walk together."
Luan takes Benny's suggestion and the two of them walk down the hall towards drama class together. As they walk, Luan glances at Benny curiously while tilting her head. She wasn't used to having someone be so nice to her right away; and it felt rather nice.
"Mind if I see your schedule so I can see where we're supposed to go? I left mine in my locker and I don't wanna go all the way back," Benny chuckles.
Luan holds the schedule so that both she and Benny had a clear view of it.
"Oh, it's upstairs. In the…dance studio? Huh, odd," Benny says. The two of them walk up the stairs nearest to them. What they see when they reach the top was another corridor full of chatty students.
It only takes them 20 seconds to reach the room they are looking for. It had double doors and next to the doors was a small plaque that read "Dance Studio/Drama Class". Taped to the right door was a white piece of paper that had an unusual message on it: "Please remove your shoes when you enter."
"Why do we need to take our shoes off?" Luan asks Benny.
Benny shrugs, "Probably to protect the floor from being scuffed up or something." He proceeds to do what the sign says and takes off his shoes, revealing white socks underneath.
"I don't wanna leave my shoes out here. What if someone takes them?" Luan says with worry.
"I'm sure the teacher will let us keep them inside," Benny says as he holds his shoes in his hands.
As Luan proceeds to take off her shoes, Benny knocks on the door. A woman with light blonde hair tied in a bun answers the door. She was wearing a light pink long sleeved shirt, a blue and purple scarf wrapped loosely around her neck, blue jeans, and light gray socks on her feet.
"Ah, welcome," She greets, "I'm Ms. Joy, and I'll be your drama teacher for the year."
Luan and Benny smile and nod as they follow Ms. Joy into the room. As expected, the room closely resembled a ballet studio; complete with a wooden floor, a giant mirror replacing the north wall, and a bar along the mirror.
So far, there were only about 5 other students present that were all standing around holding their shoes, many having bewildered expressions.
"As for your shoes, they will be kept in here," Ms. Joy opens a supply closet along the southeast corner of the room. Each student so far walked inside the supply closet and placed their shoes inside. The closet was full of boxes and trunks containing clothes and masks.
As more students arrived, Ms. Joy once again gave instructions on taking off their shoes and putting them away in the supply closet. Once the clock read 9:00 am, Ms. Joy finally closed the door for good.
"Now, the first question you're probably wondering is why do we need to be in our socks or barefoot," Ms. Joy began, "The answer is very simple. We need to keep the floor in proper shape for the dance classes. The bottom of your shoes could not only stain the wood, but it could also scratch it up."
While most of the students just gave their teacher a blank stare, some of them replied by nodding in agreement.
"Great, now that we're all here, everyone please sit in a circle," Ms. Joy instructed.
Besides the class taking place in a dance studio and no shoes allowed, something that was guaranteed in this class is that the students and teacher would have to sit on the floor; definitely a change of pace from other normal classes.
While some students were able to sit on the floor easily with no problem, many of them slightly shifted uncomfortably. Luan and Benny sat next to each other, while Ms. Joy sat at the other end of the circle.
"Ok, so what we're gonna do now is a fun little exercise to help us learn each other's names," Ms. Joy began, "Let's pretend we are all going on a trip to Neverland. So, when we get to you, you'll say you're name aloud and tell us what you would take to Neverland using the first letter of your name. And to make it even more fun, you gesture your object."
"I'll go first. My name is Ms. Joy, and I would bring…jumping jacks to Neverland!" With that, Ms. Joy stood up from the circle and did a single jumping jack and then sat back down.
Contrary to the teacher's upbeat, silly, and energetic personality, many of her students were turned off by the sheer absurdity of this exercise. However, Luan and Benny gazed at her with eager curiosity.
"We'll go clockwise, so we'll start with you," Ms. Joy looks at a student sitting to her left; a male student with ginger colored hair and glasses.
In addition to having a look of boredom on his face, his tone of voice was also incredibly subdued when he introduced himself, "Hey, I'm Brian, and I would take…I dunno, my brain to Neverland." Brian proceeds to smack the right side of his head with the palm of his right hand.
Ms. Joy gave an unimpressed look but decided to continue, "And you?"
The student sitting next to Brian was a girl with dark brown hair in a low ponytail an wearing a blue and green t-shirt.
"I'm Anya, and I would take an apple to Neverland," Anya pantomimed taking a bite out of an apple.
"Now here comes the tricky part," Ms. Joy jumped in, "You have to repeat the name, object, and gesture of the person before and after you!"
With that, Ms. Joy repeated her own name, object, and gesture. Then she did Brian and Anya afterwards. Brian mimicked Ms. Joy, himself, and Anya; much to his dismay. Then Anya did the same.
This pattern of memorization and repetition continued all throughout the circle until it was finally Benny's turn. Before he could recite his classmate and teacher's name, he had to introduce himself first. He wanted to have his "object to take to Neverland" to truly stand out compared to everyone else's, so he thought for a moment.
Once he finally had it, Benny introduced himself. "I'm Benny, and I would take…a bear to Neverland! Roar!" Benny raised his arms slightly as he mimicked the sound and stance of a bear. This certainly caught the class and teacher off guard, igniting smiles from the former and a chuckle from the latter. Luan giggles as her fascination with him grows.
Soon after Benny repeats what everyone has said, it's now Luan's introduction, "I'm Luan, and I would take laughter to Neverland!" As Luan proceeds to do her trademark laugh, Benny smiles at her since he finds her laugh to be quite adorable.
Once introductions were finally complete, Ms. Joy stood up and held a pile of papers in her hands.
"Now let's get down to business," Ms. Joy proceeds to hand the papers out to everyone in the class. "These here are A/B scenes. I want you to find a partner, read through these, and perform them in front of the class."
Luan knew right away who she wanted her partner to be, so she turned to him. Before she can even ask, Benny gives a warm smile and gesture his head towards a corner of the room, indicating that's where he and Luan should go.
The two of them head towards a northwest corner of the room, which allowed the to stand next to the mirror.
"What are A/B scenes?" Luan wonders as she gazes at the paper in curiosity.
"Oh, they're very basic acting exercises," Benny explains, "They are commonly performed between two actors going back and forth; it helps give the actors a real sense of camaraderie."
Luan looks at Benny with dumbfounded intrigue. "Have…have you taken drama before?"
Benny smiles proudly, "Oh yeah. I've been dabbling in drama since I was in third grade."
Luan blinks and shakes her head in astonishment, "Get outta here!"
Benny chuckles, "No really. In fact, the first play I've ever been in was when I was 6."
"Oooh, tell me more!" Luan begs.
Unfortunately, just as Benny was about to talk more about his past, Ms. Joy approaches them, "How you two doing?"
"Uh, we're doing fine," Benny replies.
"Great," Ms. Joy eventually walks away to check on the rest of the class.
"Sorry, but we should really work on this. Maybe we can talk after class?" Benny says.
"Aww, Ok," Luan was disappointed that Benny's backstory would have to be cut short in favor of actually working.
"So, you wanna be person A or B?" Benny asks.
Luan glances briefly at the scene and decides she'd be better suited for person A.
"I'll be person A, that way you can live up to your namesake," Luan giggles.
Benny smirks, "Oh, I get it. Since my name starts with the letter B, I'd be person B."
The two of them proceed to just read the lines as they are presented on the paper; no sense of expression or emotion at all.
Luan clears her throat and reads, "Can you believe that?"
"No," Benny reads.
"What are we going to do?" Luan asks.
"We?" Benny responds.
"This is really big," Luan says.
"We can manage it," Benny says.
"Got any ideas?" Luan asks.
"Yes. But don't tell anyone," Benny answers.
After the read through, the two of them looked at each other and smiled. They were definitely ready to perform their scene in front of the class.
Ms. Joy stood in the middle of the room and loudly clapped her hands, much to the surprise of her students.
"Ok everyone, have a seat around here," Ms. Joy gestures towards the area in front of her. Meanwhile, she stepped inside the supply closet and pulled out a chair for herself. She places it next to her group of students and stood in front of them again. After everyone did what they were told, Ms. Joy gave further instructions. "Now we're gonna perform our A/B scenes. Any volunteers for first turn?"
At first, absolutely no one in the class volunteered, much to the teacher's dismay. She glances at Luan and Benny, "You two look like you have the most enthusiasm out of everyone here. How about going first? They might learn a thing or two from watching you."
Despite not exactly being thrilled about going first, Luan knows better than to disobey her teacher, so she decides to respect her wishes.
"Sure," Both Luan and Benny say, unexpectedly in unison. After having a little laugh, the two of them stand in front of their peers.
"Excellent. Now, just do a simple read through please," Ms. Joy requested.
After Luan and Benny do what they are told, Ms. Joy could be seen tapping her chin in curiosity. "Excellent, excellent. Now let's turn it up a notch. I want you to take the exact same dialogue, but play it as if you two are siblings who just found out your parents are going through a divorce."
This was a rather odd request from the teacher; but then again, this was an acting exercise after all. So, this meant that they had to add a lot more raw emotion and inflection this time around. After briefly clearing her throat, Luan turns to Benny and actually acts.
"Can you believe that!" Luan gasps, adding extra emphasis on the word "believe".
"No!" Benny expresses genuine disbelief in what he has heard.
Luan smacked her hand on the side of her forehead to express distraught at the devastating news of her parents alleged divorce, "What are we going to do?"
Benny raises an eyebrow inquisitively, "We?"
Much to the surprise of everyone, including herself, Luan grabs both of Benny's shoulders and shakes him back and forth in a panicked state, "This is really big!"
Luckily Benny was used to reacting to improvised actions from his costar, so he held up both his hands in a reassuring manner, "We can manage."
Luan clasped her hands together and gazed at Benny with pleading eyes, "Got any ideas?" She mercifully begs.
In yet another move of reassurance for the scene, Benny places his left hand on Luan's right shoulder. Then, to give the illusion of being secretive, he leans his head forward with his shoulders slouched, with Luan imitating him. He then places his right index finger near his mouth, "Yes. But don't tell anyone," Benny whispers quietly but at a reasonable volume.
Following Benny's lead, Luan and he turn to their classmates and teacher and bow their heads. The students had their eyes wide and some had their jaws dropped. The teacher's face was enough to show that she was incredibly impressed.
"That was absolutely incredible! You both were commendable in your performance. You're naturals!" Ms. Joy congratulated as she clapped approvingly.
"Thank you," The teens say once again in unison.
The rest of drama class went by pretty smoothly, with the exception of the others not quite living up to the standards of Luan and Benny.
