Welcome to the stage, where romance, mystery, comedy, drama and fantasy all play a vital part. The curtain opens to a rehearsal in progress. But what's this, an accident…..the male lead is injured. Who will step in to take his place? So come in and sit down, take out your program and enjoy the show. Let your imagination paint the picture of a high school auditorium and the cast of a show yet to be played.
Elaborate Lives Chapter 1
The cast lounged around the stage waiting for the director to announce Radames's double. Seiya would be out for 4 weeks, at least, leaving the role open. Minako, playing Amneris; Raye, playing Mereb and Serena, playing Aida all discussed who Ms. H would call in. Serena lay across the edge of the stage, eyes closed and hands under her head. Raye and Mina both leaned on the edge.
"Won't Yaten get the part now?" Raye speculated. "He was the next best at tryouts."
Serena's face scrunched at the idea. Yaten was a foot shorter than her and she couldn't imagine having to work with him. "eh, he wasn't that great at memorizing lines. We need someone who can pick up the play really fast."
Minako chimed in. "What about Umino, he's good at memorizing and he has a good voice."
Serena shivered in disgust. "eww, no. He's got no personality, plus Radames is supposed to be handsome."
"Ouch" Minako replied. "So a "no" on Umino and Yaten. Hmm, so by your standards he has to be able to memorize fast and be good looking?"
Serena nodded. "Everything Seiya was." She sighed in happiness.
Raye rolled her eyes. "Well the next best thing would be…a graduate…." she trailed off leaving a hint of humor in her voice.
Serena shot up. "Don't even mention him in my presence."
Serena felt the tears begin to come to her eyes. She had tripped over the bench again and was now sprawled across the floor in the wing. The worst part is that no one even moved. They were all used to this happening. Her elbow was definitely going to have a bruise. Not that it meant much when she was in the chorus. Stupid big dress, why did people have to dress so formally back then. She wished she could be out there. Not as Dolly of course, she left the big roles to her friends Mina and Raye. But she'd like to have played Irene or Minnie. Something like that.
"Fall on your face again Odango?" chimed an amused voice behind her.
Serena took that back, she'd never want to play Irene. To have to play opposite to Darien who was playing Cornelius was her worst nightmare.
"I didn't fall on my face!" she retorted "And stop calling me that ridiculous name. My name is Serena. Se-re-na"
"O-dan-go," he pronounced slowly.
By this time, Serena's face was becoming red. She turned to walk away but in her state of mind didn't think of the bench. Soon enough she was on the floor again, tears again in her eyes from both humiliation and from the pain. This time she had hit her face.
"He's finally gone from this stage yet all I hear is" her voice changed to a higher pitch. 'I miss Darien…….Wouldn't this show be better with Chiba?" her voice returned to its normal frequency "His fans need to get a life."
A raised eyebrow from Mina didn't go unnoticed from Serena. "Do I sense a little bitterness? You never did get over your little crush on him."
"Yeah, your flirting last year had everyone either betting or gagging." Raye added.
Serena gave her a confused face.
"The betting was for when you two would finally be found in a closet making out." She explained
Serena gapped at them."There was no flirting! When was there flirting?" then she turned to Raye. "There was no making out" she faced Mina again "And I most certainly didn't and don't have a crush on him. That jerk just happens to be one of the few people that pisses me off." With that she laid back against the stage, cushioning her head with her arm and closing her eyes. "I admit he's damn cute, but looks aren't everything."
"Why thank you Odango. I didn't know you were so attracted to me." A chuckle followed the statement voiced from above her.
She tensed up as she recognized the horrible nickname only 'he' called her. Taking a deep breath and hoping it was a good imitation of it from someone else, opened her eyes. Dammit, she thought. Serena quickly shut them again after seeing her worst nightmare standing above her staring down at her. Please be a hallucination. Opening them again she let out a quiet curse. Taking a deep breath, she reigned in what sanity she had built up over the past few months.
Sure enough, standing next to her, or should she say over her, was her dark haired nemesis wearing of course that ugly green jacket and black turtleneck sweater.
"Don't let your head explode prick," she recovered. "I'll admit you're good looking. But in my opinion if you have good looks you have nothing else." She ran her eyes from the top of his head (indicating brains) to his lower half (indicating something much more personal) Deep inside she felt a little happiness at the old routine of put downs and comebacks.
Darien's eyebrows went up in surprise. That was a relatively good one-liner. It seemed his favorite victim had changed into a new person. The Serena he remembered would have blushed at being caught saying such a nice comment about him followed by an unimaginative retort that probably wouldn't have made sense anyway. After that she'd storm out of the room or generally away from him with a quick sticking out of the tongue as a finale. And he was really looking forward to their banter again; it always gave him such pleasure.
Shrugging off the earlier comment he gave that famous smirk. "Good to see you, too, Odango."
Mina and Raye watched from the audience along with Lita who was doing Stage Crew for the show and Ami who was running the light board. "Here we go again." Raye commented. They had seen Darien's approach and, not wanting to get in the way of the reunion, had backed away.
"Do you think they'll figure out that they're in love with each other?" Lita asked.
They looked at each other for a moment. "Doubtful" they all said at the same time.
"What about Seiya?" Ami said timidly. "Aren't he and Serena still going out?"
Mina grinned and nodded to her. "Ahh, I love high school dramas" She felt like such a mischief maker, after all it was her who made the suggestion of bringing Darien back to the Juuban High School Stage to the director. Serena would murder her in cold blood if she ever found out. But she knew no one other than Darien could make Serena happy. Not that she didn't like Seiya, but their relationship was a bit one sided. A lot of the times, Seiya cared more for his fame than for Serena. Even beside that, Mina just had this feeling inside her that Darien and Serena were meant for each other.
Now they were going to be spending two weeks together whether they liked it or not. "I give it a week." She stated firmly.
Lita shook her head. "I don't know, Serena's become a tough nut to crack. A week and a half I'd say."
Raye thought for a moment, watching the two. "I agree with Lita, it's going to be a while."
Ami stunned them when she agreed with Mina. "Serena and Darien are bound to have pent up sexual tension. And they're playing lovers on stage, so logically it shouldn't be that long."
"Let the games begin." Mina said gleefully.