I nearly jumped when he said the first word he startled me so much, I thought I had been alone in the theater, "Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer." I said the line weakly not sure of what to do, he stood opposite of me saying his lines with such confidence it was amazing.

"O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do! They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn into despair." Ryan's voice filled the theater. He somehow said it as if he really felt it, like I must have said it during auditions and/or callbacks. But for some reason I couldn't find it again, I couldn't find what had been there before. I was thinking of Ryan as Ryan and me as me.

"Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake." I said it loud enough but I couldn't seem to feel it, it seemed wrong- I had to change it though or else I would ruin the production. It was only the first rehearsal but I had to get used to being in character now.

"Then move not while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by thine my sin is purged." He didn't kiss me like we would have to in the real play but he did get close to me, it was awkward and I just couldn't do it.

"I just can't do it." I looked down, "You have so much confidence and can be in another world, another person so easily, I just don't see how you do it." I sighed and stepped to the edge of the stage and sat down with my feet hanging off the edge. Ryan sat down next to me,

"It's the same for all of us at first- well all of us who aren't Sharpay. She forced me to try and try back in grade school even though we were so young, she has always dreamed of being an actress but I had almost no ability but she needed me. After going through hell I could play any character, its just hard at first it'll get easier." That was by far the most I had ever heard Ryan ever say, he was usually the quiet one and let Sharpay do the talking for him.

"I'm just so scared I'm going to mess this play up…."

"I think most of us are, we just have to do our best and stay in character no matter what. "

"You're scared?"

"Yeah, but I don't let it show and that's the key. " It's odd someone you always figured would never be scared to be up on stage actually is. He's always hidden it so well. "The fear goes away after a while, you just forget about the audience and focus on your character, your lines and what you need to get across to the audience."

"Thanks." He was being so nice to me, so unlike the Ice King. He got up, "Wanna practice some more?" he held out a hand to help me up. He must have thought I weighed more or something because I came up much quicker than either of us had thought and I got closer to him then I had even been. He laughed and asked; "Do you know how to dance?" I shook my head and tried to move back from him, but he put my arm around his neck, placed his on my waist and held my other hand with his. Then he started moving and I moved with him. What had happened was odd in two ways the first being that he had actually laughed, I never saw him smiled of laugh except when he was on stage. The second was that I was dancing with him, it wasn't a surprise he was a good dancer but just the fact that I was dancing with him at all was odd. We danced around the stage for a bit- it was actually kinda fun then he read from his script, "Then move not while my prayer's effect I take. Thus from my lips, by thine my sin is purged." We were still dancing.

"Then have my lips the sin that they have took." It was a bit hard to read the script while dancing but I managed it and I had some of that feeling back. The feeling of actually being Juliet and Ryan being Romeo, it felt more natural now then it had we had been on stage saying these same lines before today. He smiled at me and said,

"Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again."

"You kiss by th' book." He then stopped dancing and let go of me, he turned a few pages of his script and came to the balcony scene, and I skipped to that page as well. He started,

"But soft; what light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun! Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief that thou her maid art far more fair than she. Having some business, do entreat her eyes to twinkle in their spheres till they return. What if her eyes were there, they in her head? The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars as daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night. See how she leans her cheek upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!"

"Ay, me!" I replied. Then Sharpay suddenly said,

"We have to go now Ryan!" How long had she been standing there? Not long by the looks of it, she was standing just inside the entrance to the theater. Ryan looked at me apologetically, grabbed his bag and said,

"See ya Monday, Auralia!" Before running out of the theater with Sharpay. I wondered about what he had said. Could it be true that all of his acting was learned and not natural born? And why did he start dancing with me? I can't help but wonder.

Throughout the weekend I started to memorize my lines. It was hard to memorize Shakespeare but if I started now I would be able to have them down by opening night. My non-existent social life made this possible.