So yeah… obviously I am Natalia and purplepicaso1 is Ariella…..

Robin

Natalia

Three weeks later or so I walked into rehearsal to find a surprise: there were chairs all over the stage! The people who had already arrived were 5taking them off. What was more surprising was one boy that was helping. It was Robin Goodfell, a ninth grader. Although Robin didn't know it, I had a grudge against him ever since last year. We were both in the school's Glee club. Our teacher Mrs. Hearth thought that Robin was such a good singer that she overlooked everyone else. And he was extremely arrogant about it, too.

"What's he doing here?" I hissed at Ariella. She glanced at Robin and shrugged. "No idea," she answered. I rolled my eyes and turned toward the stage. There was only one chair left. Robin appeared to notice it at the same time. "I'll get that one…" he said. Pointedly, I stalked over to the stage and grabbed it. When I turned around, I almost bumped into Robin. "…or Natalia will," he finished lamely. I almost dropped the chair in surprise. He knew my name? I mean, I guess he had heard Mrs. Hearth say it a bazillion times, but still… he knows my name? I walked to the closet and put the chair away.

"Okay!" Mr. Iceberg said, clapping his hands. We all sat down in the semi-circle of chairs. "So, everyone, this is Robin Goodfell. He's in ninth grade, and is going to be our assistant stage manager, because Alexandra can't be here all the time. Robin cocked is head and smiled in that irritatingly arrogant way. I frowned and narrowed my eyes at him. When he glanced at me, his smile faltered.

Gritting my teeth but feeling slightly more cheerful, I claimed on stage with the rest of my cast.

Ariella

I was about to go onstage, and it was four fifteen on the dot; my palms were sweating slightly. It was the first day of non – open book rehearsals, and Mr. Iceberg, being the director that he was, would not stand for massive blunders on the very first day.

And of course, the fact that Natalia kept shoot ice dagger stares at Robin, who was seemingly "oblivious" to her except for the occasional lightning – quick smirk, was not doing wonders for my concentration.

I sighed. "Stop staring," I whispered, jabbing Natalia's knee. "You're being a little embarrassing."

"So is he."

"Only because you're provoking him; I'm sure that if you stopped, so would he."

As usual, Natalia declined to listen to the sweet voice of reason. "He started it." She said firmly; perhaps a little bit too firmly, because Mr. Iceberg seemed to have noticed us. I poked her again. "All right no more "funny stuff"", I snapped, infusing my voice with sarcasm. Just as cast B stepped off stage.

"Your turn, cast A." Mr. Iceberg called from upstage, and we marched onto the steps. A slight hum, the hum of nervousness (also known to be experienced during math finals, standardized "quizzes", and awkward doctor's appointments) set the backdrop to the opening lines.

"Very good, Edith…" Natalia marched onstage, partly because I pushed her forward, snapping her out of a particularly sharp glare at Robin. "You're up," I mouthed. She grinned and sauntered toward center – stage.

I was a jangle of line – nerves when it was time for me to get onstage. The lights were really bright, but as I walked through my lines, almost robotically (there's a first time for everything, right?); I realized just how informal this practice was.

Which meant that in the time between onstage rehearsals, I could focus on more important things; namely my own personal quest. This involved Natalia, Robin, and some way that I could get them to stop hating on each other… Because really, if they couldn't, wasn't the whole play really at a loss?

Besides, it wasn't a lost cause. Because I knew Natalia and Robin (well not really but kind of – ish), and it appeared that Natalia's vendetta against Robin Goodfell was precariously close to a crush.