Chapter Four: The Rehearsal

Tori

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." ~ William Shakespeare

Robbie slams his fist down on the table, eyes hooded and glazed over. Jade, who is sitting at the other end, flinches at the sound. Beck places a hand on Robbie's shoulder in an attempt to calm him.

"Your Majesty, it's okay, it was just a suggestion."

"No." Robbie says stonily. "She will do as I say."

"But Father please, this isn't fair. You can't force me to marry..."

"You will be quiet!" Robbie cuts Jade off. "I am your father, and I know what's best for you."

"But this isn't about me!" Jade explodes, standing tall. "This has nothing to do with me and all to do with the fact that you don't want me to be happy. Because if you can't be, then no one can, is that right?"

Robbie grips his chair, pushing himself up until he's looming over the table. "How dare you talk to me like–"

"Stop!"

We all look at Sikowitz in surprise. There was nothing wrong with the scene, as far as I could tell.

It's our seventh rehearsal and, it seems to be going well so far. Cat was allowed to do costuming as well as act, due to her bizarre skill of guessing peoples measurements, and so was happy with only acting in a small part of the play.

"What was wrong?" Jade asks, irritated. "We were almost finished."

"Nothing was wrong." Sikowitz states. "That was a good scene. But it's 5:30, I have a dinner to get to. Goodbye children."

Sikowitz stands up and leaves. We all stare after him, confused.

Andre shakes his head. "He's a strange man."

"He knows what he's talking about." Beck pauses. "Most of the time...sometimes."

Cat looks at Robbie and tilts her head. "Robbie's kinda weedy." She states randomly. She swings her legs against her chair. "He looks too skinny to be the King, even a depressed one. Ha, ha."

Robbie's face falls, while Jade smirks. Poor, poor Robbie.

"I'm not weedy." He protests, his practice crown falling over his eyes as he does. Cat laughs again, and Robbie buries his face in his hands.

"We'll just get you a smaller crown buddy." Beck pats his back reassuringly.

"Yeah well, if I'm too weedy to be a King, then Jade's too cruel to be a princess." Robbie snaps.

Jade glowers at him, really only proving his point, but it scares Robbie enough to mumble what sounds like an apology and he is suddenly engrossed with the floor.

"I don't even want to be the princess," Jade says spitefully, "She's selfish and stupid."

"Sorry what? How do you get that?" I question.

"Easy. The whole curse thing. It's the princess's fault it happened. If she hadn't cast the spell, and just left everything how it was, the curse wouldn't have happened."

"But it was for love. Surely that means something, even to your black, soulless heart."

"Yes, I understand that it's sad her true love or whatever died, I'm not a robot, I just think that she should have thought it all through, consequences and everything."

"She didn't know the curse would happen though." Beck reminds us. "Remember what the story said."

"Ha. See." I say smugly. "She truly thought she could be reunited with her love."

"Whatever. This is getting boring, I'm leaving." Jade rolls her eyes and picks up her bag, stalking out the door. She is very rarely in a good mood.

Andre grabs his bag as well. "I better go too. My Grandma now believes that the people across the street are secret agents out to arrest her. Last time they came over to see if we had any spare sugar, Grandma tried to answer the door with a baseball bat and I had to wrestle her out of the way."

"Once my brother went around a shopping mall, hid around corners and hit people with baseball bats. His 'special doctors had to come and get him. They didn't let him have day trips after that." Cat pauses. "Well, bye everyone!" She beams and skips out.

"Some people have strange families." I mutter to Beck as we walk out. He grins in reply.

"Because you have the sanest sister in the world."

"Touché Beck." I admit. "Touché."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"So, how was school today?"

Trina perks up in her seat, excited. "Well, Nathan Lewis, this really, really hot guy in my year, told Macy Jennings, who then told my friend Hannah that he likes someone in the dance class we have together. And today, when we were all doing our solo performances, he wouldn't look at me during mine, he kept turning away all shy and stuff, and then after, him and his friend Ian kept looking at me and whispering and I just know they were talking about me."

Yep. They would have been talking about you all right. I think it's just easier sometimes if I let her believe whatever she wants to believe. And anyway, the more embarrassment she gets, is just more entertainment for me.

"There are about fifteen other girls in that class honey, I wouldn't get your hopes up."

"Mum!" Trina says, hurt. "He was totally checking me out though. I saw it."

"I just don't want you to be disappointed later, that's all. It's just better if I tell you now." Mum says nonchalantly, taking a bite of her dinner. Roast pork. Yum.

"What about you Tori, how was school?" Dad asks, turning to me. Trina scowls, and stabs at her vegetables with her fork. She looks about ready to murder me.

"Oh, you know, just normal school stuff. We had another rehearsal for our play today."

Mum leans in close to me, whispering. "You mean the lesbian one?"

"Yes Mum." I sigh, rolling my eyes. "That one. Seriously, it's just a play; I don't know why you're so weird about it."

"I'm not. I'm not." Mum says quickly. "How is the play going then?"

"Good, I guess. There's only one scene that isn't finished yet, and I think we're doing that one tomorrow."

"Oh, okay. Well Trina, honey, you'll just have to stay late again to take Tori home after." Dad says.

"What!" Trina says so loudly that we all jump. "Uh, no. I'm going to Felicia's tomorrow, remember? We have a science project due next week. I told you two days ago."

"Oh. Well, Tori, do you think one of your friends can drive you home then?"

"Yeah, I guess." I say uncertainly. My last experiences having lifts with people didn't exactly go well. But, going home from school Andre won't have his grandmother with him, so he actually might be okay.

In any case, I'll memorise the bus times, just to be safe.