Author's Note: Okay, well I'm writing this at 11:11... -Makes a wish- Okay, sorry about that… Random superstition… Well, hopefully I can finish this chapter before midnight. If I do, then I'll have technically updated when I said I would.
For a little while, I debated turning their play into a more modernized version of "Romeo and Juliet." But… Well, let's say I had plenty of ideas for what to do, but writing them didn't seem to work out very well… So instead, I'm keeping it as the original play.
A lot of the people cast will be minor characters that have showed up in the show. Sometime in here, I'll have a cast list, and if you don't remember any of them, you can just ask me and I'll tell you who they are. However, Itachi, Kumi, and Chikao are three random characters that I made up.
Oh, and a few random things- I'm going to act like this is the English version (even though there isn't one for the second season) and Sana just calls Akito by his first name and he calls her by hers. I decided that Fuka and Takaishi have moved to Tokyo, but they're already a couple. And I'm sorry if I get anything wrong, 'cause I've never been to an audition before, so it might be kind of screwed up. I do know that the results aren't usually decided so fast, but for my purposes, they will be here.
Okay then, my final note for today (sorry about the super long note): Many thanks to my reviewers, especially creativecutie11 for sort of giving me one of the ideas in here (you'll realize what it is). I hadn't really ever thought of it before, lol.
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Akito found a chair and sat down, watching as Sengoku went to stand in the back. Then, he looked at the people around him. He knew almost all of them. To his right was Sana. To his left was Tsuyoshi, and behind them were Itomisu, Yasuda, and Gomi. They had probably been forced to try out, too.
Other people spread throughout the room included Aya (sitting next to Tsuyoshi, of course), Hisae, Mami, and even the Nosebleed Guy… What was his name again? Oh, yeah, Ishida… Mr. Suzuki and Principal Narunaru were there, too.
Akito turned to Sana. "Yo," he said.
Sana looked over for the first time. She had been staring at the stage. Strangely enough, it would be her first play at school. When she saw Akito her eyes widened. 'Oh my gosh, how am I supposed to act around him now?' She was panicking, trying to remember how she had acted before she realized she loved him, and she finally managed to give a half-real smile and say, "Hi!"
Akito gave her a slightly suspicious look, wondering what the look on her face was about but didn't say anything.
Sana suddenly realized that Akito was here. As in, at auditions for "Romeo and Juliet." Then, she asked the obvious question. "Umm… Why are you here?" Quickly getting back into talking to him like she usually would, she decided she had to make fun of him a bit. "Aww… Does Akito have a soft, romantic side that nobody knows about?" Secretly, she wondered what it would be like if he really did have a side like that, but she didn't mention it aloud, obviously.
Akito looked at her, expressionless. "I was forced to come here. Sengoku decided detention isn't a good enough punishment. Anyways, when did you get back?" he asked.
Sana gave him a confused look. "Didn't I- Oh my gosh, I forgot to call everyone when I got back!! I'm sorry!" What she did next was something Akito definitely wasn't expecting. She jumped out of her seat and hugged him, clinging to his neck. Apparently, it was supposed to be some sort of apology.
Everyone was staring at them by now as Sana yelled out her 'sorrys' over and over again and hugged him. Her eyes were closed, so she didn't notice, but Akito did. He sat awkwardly, aware of all the eyes on them. After a few seconds, he gently pushed her back down to her own seat. Which she then stood on. She looked around, noticed that most of the people she knew were there, and yelled out, "I'm not sorry for calling you all when I came back from the mountains!"
There was a chorus of acceptance and forgiveness throughout the room before Sana sat back down. "So, you still never answered my question," Akito said.
"Oh, right! I got back on Saturday!"
Akito nodded, wondering what else he could possibly say. Then, the question he had been thinking about for a while now spilled out. "Are you trying out for Juliet?"
Sana nodded enthusiastically. "Yep! It's going to be so much fun! I hope I get the part!"
"I'm sure you will," Akito said. It wasn't a lie, either. He knew she could do anything she wanted to, and acting was her strong point, anyways.
"Thank you, Akito! It's so great to know that you believe in me!" Sana shouted. 'He doesn't even know how much it means to me.' "Oh, I know! You should try out for Romeo! It would be so great if we both got the leads!" she said with all the innocence of a very blunt kindergartener. Akito figured she hadn't ever actually read the play before, but he left his thoughts unspoken yet again. He also didn't reply to the fact that she wanted him to try to get the male lead.
"Okay, first of all, I would like to introduce some new students who just came and are going to try out!" the drama teacher finally spoke up. The room instantly quieted down as everyone turned to look at her. She was up on the stage, and two kids their age walked out onto the stage. "This is Fuka," she said, motioning towards the brunette girl standing beside her. "And this is Takaishi," she said, pointing to the boy, who was holding Fuka's hand.
The two transfer students waved with their free hands, and Sana ran up to them, jumping on stage. "Hi! Welcome to Jinbo Junior High!" she said excitedly, shaking their hands wildly. Fuka and Takaishi gave each other a weird look, but Fuka was soon running off to sit by Sana, giving her boyfriend an apologetic smile. The two girls quickly became best friends. Meanwhile, Takaishi sat by Akito and Tsuyoshi and talked to them. Well, actually, Tsuyoshi was doing most of the talking, but oh well.
After a few more minutes of letting the students chat, the drama teacher climbed the small set of stairs back onto the stage. "And now, I have a special surprise before we start auditions! We got some guest stars to come and join our play! The people who will be joining us are Mayu, Tomomi, Naozumi Kamura, and Zenjiro!" As she said each name, they walked out from behind stage.
This caused another uproar as they stepped down and into the seats, so she gave everyone another minute to quiet down. During this minute, Sana ran to hug everyone. "Why are you here? Oh, and do you know what parts you got?"
Akito, hearing this, cringed as he thought that Naozumi might have been cast as Romeo.
"Well, we haven't auditioned yet, but Nao got here early and tried out," Mayu said.
"That's great! Who are you going to be, Nao?" Sana asked, jumping up and down.
"Well, they offered me the part of Romeo," Nao said, his eyes following Sana, making him dizzy.
Akito glared at him, but Naozumi was too dizzy to notice.
"But I didn't want to compete with you for the spotlight again," he said. "Especially since it's your school. So I took the part of Paris instead."
"Oh, Nao, thank you so much! But you didn't have to, silly! You should take the part you deserve!" Secretly, though, Sana was glad. She was still hoping Akito would be Romeo in the play and she would be Juliet.
Behind her, Akito was staring expressionlessly, but his actual emotions were a combination of relief that Naozumi wasn't going to be Romeo and annoyance that Sana wanted him to.
"You guys still haven't told me why you're here!" Sana exclaimed, managing to find her way back on track.
"We wanted to see you again!" Tomomi and Naozumi said at the same time.
"I was dragged her by Tomomi," Mayu said, trying to act like she didn't care. In reality, though, she had been happy to come and be able to hang out with her fellow actress.
Zenjiro shrugged sadly. "I can't get any gigs on TV lately."
"That's okay, I'm sure you'll finds some jobs soon, Zenjiro!" Sana said, ever the optimist.
"Okay, okay, settle down now! It's time for auditions!" The drama teacher was finally ready to start. Luckily, everyone finally sat down and went silent. "First up is going to be the girl who are auditioning for the part of Juliet!"
Since there weren't very many girls auditioning for Juliet, the auditions went by quickly. Sana was the last to go up. The teacher handed her a piece of paper with a few lines on it and told her to say them, acting like the other people were on stage, too.
"Come hither, Nurse. What is yond gentleman?" Sana asked to the invisible person standing in front of her. "What's he, that now is going out of door?" She paused between each line, as though listening to the answers. "What's he, that follows here, that would not dance?"
"Go ask his name. If he be married,
My grave is like to be my wedding bed."
"My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late!
Prodigious birth of love it is to me,
That I must love a loathed enemy."
"A rhyme I learnt even now
Of one I danced withal."
Akito and Naozumi watched, Akito with a small look of amazement in his eyes that few people would ever catch, and Naozumi with wide eyes, looking as though Sana had written the play… Again. Both were astonished by how much emotion she put into her work. Akito was also thinking of the fact that maybe she wasn't as dumb as she sometimes seemed, and maybe she actually did get what the play was about.
The drama teacher took the paper back as Sana went to sit by Akito again. While the instructor was talking to a few other people, Sana asked, "So, how did I do? I was so nervous!"
"You were nervous?" Akito asked, flabbergasted. ((Author's Note: Sorry, I just love that word, lol). "Well, you did okay," he said, smirking a bit.
Sana pouted. "Fine you did good, okay?" Akito said. "I was just kidding."
Sana grinned at him, then turned to listen to what the teacher had started saying. "Congratulations to Sana Kurata for getting the part of Juliet!" As Sana and all of her friends cheered, she continued talking. "Now I would like to call up everyone who is auditioning for the part of Romeo. However, there's a surprise. You're going to be saying your lines with Sana!"
A wave of shocked whispers went through the crowd. At the same time, Sana stood up and walked towards the stage yet again, this time dragging Akito with her. He didn't try to resist, but he didn't walk by himself, either.
Unfortunately, these try-outs didn't go as quickly as the first set had. There were a lot of boys trying out, and Akito was the last of them. Sana stood on stage the whole time, saying her lines well, but looking extremely bored. The teacher and a few other people sat at a table and wrote notes and talked after each person went up.
Finally, it was Akito's turn. Sana perked up a bit, wondering how this would go. Akito grabbed the paper, read it over for a few seconds, and then looked up at Sana. He was expressionless as usual, but the emotions could be heard clearly in his voice and seen in his eyes the whole time. Everyone was shocked at how good his "acting" was. He was the only one who would ever know it wasn't acting.
The scene for auditions was part of the famous balcony scene, but they were supposed to skip the kissing and just say their lines. Akito and Sana stood at opposite sides of the stage.
"O' Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name,
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet."
"Should I hear more, or shall I speak this?"
It went on for a few more minutes, during which "Juliet" confessed her love for "Romeo." ((Author's Note: Yes, I'm sorry, but I'm skipping quite a bit here.))
As she turned to leave, "Romeo" said, "O', will thou leave me so unsatisfied?"
"What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?"
"The exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine!"
"I gave thee mine before thou didst request it.
And yet, I would it were to give again."
A few more lines passed with Sana and Akito playing their parts and saying words of love. Both were putting what they truly felt into the performance, but nobody in the audience knew that. Everyone was captivated. For the first time during the entire time they had been there, the room was entirely silent other than them.
When the scene was over, they walked back to their spots. Sana felt like there were a million butterflies in her stomach, but she hid it with a huge grin. "We did great!" she said to Akito, holding her hand up for a high-five. He didn't give her one, but he did give her a tiny smile. Sana caught it, though, and her grin grew even bigger, if that were possible. Then she turned back towards the "judges'" table, crossing her fingers and waiting for what they were going to say. She expected it to take longer than it did because of everyone who had tried out, but they already knew who was going to be chosen.
The drama teacher once again stood up and looked to the group of students sitting in front of her. "Our Romeo will be… Akito Hayama!"
Sana stood up and rapped and danced around, trying to drag Akito into dancing with her, but he seemed almost glued to the seat. "Great," Akito said. Sana couldn't tell whether he was being sarcastic or not, but either way, she was happy for him. Then he continued with, "But I'm not wearing any freaking tights!"
Sana and the drama teacher both laughed. "Oh, don't worry, you won't have to," the teacher said. "Just an older-looking shirt and pair of pants." This was one of the issues that they had to work out beforehand because most people wouldn't approve of the actual clothes worn in old England. "Sana, you can just wear one of the dresses we have back with the rest of the costumes." Sana sat back down and nodded silently.
Naozumi sat staring at Akito, thinking that he should have taken the part of Romeo when they offered it to him earlier. Akito noticed the staring, but tried his best to ignore it and not turn around to punch the pretty boy actor.
Neither of the new stars of the play paid much attention to the rest of the auditions, because they were both wondering how it would work out. They also both wondered if it would be a good idea to confess their love sometime while they were working on the play together. However, they did pay attention to the final cast list as the teacher called the names out. ((Author's Note: Sorry if I only got either first or last name. I couldn't remember some of them.))
"Some of the girls who seemed like they could be more creative got the parts of boys, and most of the adults here are played by students, too. However, some of the parts did go to staff members who volunteered.
"Montague- Yuta Takaishi
Romeo- Akito Hayama
Lady Montague- Hisae
Balthasar- Itomisu
Abram- Yasuda
Benvolio- Tsuyoshi Sasaki
Mercutio- Gomi
Capulet- Ishida
Juliet- Sana Kurata
Lady Capulet- Mayu
Nurse- Aya
Sampson- Mami
Gregory- Tomomi
Peter- Chikao
Rosaline- Fuka
Tybalt- Itachi
Prince Escalus- Principal Narunaru
Paris- Naozumi Kamura
Friar Lawrence- Mr. Suzuki
Friar John- Zenjirou
Petruchio- Kumi
"Our first rehearsal will be on Wednesday after school. Make sure you're all ready by then."
Everyone started talking while they picked up their bags and got ready to leave. "See ya later," Akito said to Sana and Tsuyoshi before leaving without saying anymore. On his way out, he smirked at the look on Mr. Sengoku's face. He was still in shock that Akito had gotten the lead.
'This might turn out alright after all,' Akito thought on his way back to his house. 'I get to kiss Sana (and she can't hit me with that stupid hammer of hers), I got to see that annoyed look on Pretty Boy's face, and I got to see Sengoku's expression.'
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Back at Sana's house, she was reading over the script. Suddenly, she stopped at one part of the balcony scene that they had skipped over. "Wait, there's a kissing scene in 'Romeo and Juliet?'" she yelled cluelessly.
"Yes, Dear, several of them, actually," Misako said, driving past and chuckling.
Sana sat, stunned, for several minutes before managing to drag herself up to the stairs. What was going to happen now? In her room, she sat down on the bed and read some more. 'Just great. And then in this part, there's an implied sex scene,' she thought. Then she got side tracked for a few seconds, wondering when she learned the word "implied." And the word "sex." Soon, though, her thoughts went back to the play. 'That pervert's going to get a kick out of this.'
She fell back and covered herself with the blankets, putting the script on her nightstand. It took hours for her to fall asleep, but eventually she did.
There was no way this could end well… Could it?
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Author's Note: Well, hope you enjoyed it! Please review! Several people said I should continue this, so I did, but I still don't like it much. In fact, I like this chapter less than the first one.
Obviously, I didn't get this chapter done on time. A little past midnight, I went to bed, and I spent most of today finishing this.
And now I'm off, but I'll be back on later to write the next chapter of A Mile in Your Shoes, as promised. Bye!