3: High Flying Adored
Monday morning, Katniss dragged herself to the Theatre's doors to discover her fate. Clove and Glimmer went with her. There were nine principal roles, and a dozen more spots for ensemble members. Only one principal role was for a woman.
And Katniss had gotten that role. She would be playing Mary Magdalene.
Katniss stared, mouth open, as Clove and Glimmer congratulated her. "Maybe this won't be so unbearable for you after all," they mused.
But Katniss could tell it would be. Playing the Messiah, Jesus Christ himself, would be none other than Peeta Mellark. Jesus was supposedly her love interest in the show. Beetee Latier would be playing Judas.
Rehearsals began that same afternoon. Right away, Katniss could tell that many of the theatre geeks didn't trust her. They were clearly suspicious of why she had auditioned in the first place, treating her winning of the Mary Magdalene role as some kind of coup pulled off by a brazen usurper. Ironically, the only person who seemed to treat her nicely was Peeta. Never mind the fact that just a few days before, she had purposefully tripped him. Everyone else's feelings seemed to ooze out of the very scenes and songs they were singing. But so did Peeta's confusing ones. Beetee began the third number of the show, getting very invested in his character's condensation of Katniss.
"It seems to me a strange thing mystifying, that a man like you would waste his time on women of her kind," he musically mused to Peeta as Jesus. "Yes, I can understand that she amuses, but to let her stroke you, kiss your hair, is hardly in your line. It's not that I object to her 'profession' – but she doesn't fit in well with what you teach and say. It doesn't help us if you're inconsistent. They only need a small excuse to put us all away."
Peeta gave as good as he got in the singing; indeed it seemed as if he was really coming to Katniss's defense as much as he was Mary Magdalene's in the scene: "Who are you, who, to criticize her? Who are you, who, to despise her? Leave her, leave her – let her be now. Leave her, leave her – she's with me now. If your slate is clean, then you can throw stones. If your slate is not, then leave her alone!"
Katniss almost blushed at the protection, contrived as it might or might not have been, especially when Peeta pulled her to him by the waist while singing 'she's with me now', as if he was a young man trying to defend his girlfriend.
Trinket was apparently oblivious to this strange blurring between fiction and reality. She was just pleased that staging was off to such a good start. As a final order of business, she put everyone off in pairs – with 21 people in the cast, the odd man out was put in a group of three. Predictably, Peeta and Katniss were paired off for private practice sessions at home. Peeta immediately suggested meeting the next evening after rehearsal at the Mellark family bakery; Katniss agreed to simply put the matter to rest.
The next night, Peeta and Katniss walked silently to the Mellarks' place after rehearsal. They had to practice one little moment between the two of them going into Katniss's big solo. It quickly became clear that Katniss was not into it, to the point that a normally patient Peeta grew frustrated. After Katniss botched her cue for the fourth time, Peeta turned off the recording.
"Katniss, why did you audition?" he asked honestly.
Katniss didn't try to hide her scowl. "I didn't want to. I was forced to. It was either that or get suspended from school for the rest of the semester just for tripping you and your silly books!"
"Ah," Peeta nodded calmly, though his anger was barely hidden. Then it came out when Katniss said, "It's your fault I'm even in this mess."
"You know what, 'this mess,' as you so cleverly put it, may not be important to you, but it is very important to the rest of us! You know, I have to actually stick up for you when my friends say that you are some kind of intruder, barging into our little group like this! And then they give me grief, reminding me of all the things you've done to people like us! You don't realize how good you have it, Katniss – the looks, the adoration of the cheerleaders and the football team, the status! Now, you may think of this as some kind of prison sentence, being forced to practice with me. Well, trust me when I tell you that the feeling is mutual!"
Katniss stared at him, agape. Never, in her entire life, had anyone spoken to her like this – except for maybe Mr. Abernathy, but even he wasn't as harsh. And it had come from Peeta Mellark, of all people! At a loss for what to say, Katniss awkwardly mumbled good night to Peeta and raced home.
