Break 9: Anomalies of Acting
"All the world's a stage,"
-Shakespeare
No one could speak as the roles for the (student-written) play were handed out. Kiyo for once was very serious as he and his vice, another third year by the name of Kagawa Masahiko, were quite determined to get things right. Kagawa was easily much more normal than his fellow club member. But that didn't stop him from completely supporting his president's more, ahem, crazy schemes. This was one of those times.
The basic premise of the story was a love-triangle between the three main leads. The girl (Ueno, the poor girl had been subject to Kiyo's insistence that she play the part) was currently trying to work out her feelings for a childhood best friend gone bad and her old bully who is trying to make amends. Some of the other conflicts adding on to the main was, a clingy, jealous girlfriend of the childhood friend, and a lot of history between all of them none of it good, 'A tale of three star-crossed lovers!' he said. Kiyo had almost added in an attempted suicide and murder but Kagawa had convinced him not to under the fact that they were trying to get new members. Not scare them off.
Kiyo had been very pushy about their roles, Ueno as the girl, Yoko, Kise as the childhood friend, Rikuto (mostly because he was supposed to end up a lonely old cat man, Kise commenced whining), and himself as the old reformed bully, Benkei. Other roles such as the clingy girlfriend, Chouko (to be ironically played by Ume, much to her pleasure and Kise's horror along with the jealousy of many other girls) were divided up promptly. At this time the only people in the auditorium were Kise, Kiyo, Masahiko, Ueno, Maiya, Etsu, and Kaed, plus a few of the other drama club members going through all the props.
As she read through the script, Etsu couldn't help but note the similarities the normal 'Romeo and Juliet' plays had. At this Kaed had to question whether any of them had read the play all the way through. When she did ask everyone, even Kiyo and Masahiko (the two said they always preferred Macbeth and couldn't stomach all the Romeo and Juliet references) shook their heads in a negative. This caused Kise to pipe in, "You read Romeo and Juliet, Tsujicchi?" he couldn't quite believe it. Kaed never struck him as the type to have romances hidden in her closet. From the looks on everyone else's faces they couldn't quite believe it either.
Kaed huffed in annoyance at the looks on their faces. Was it really that hard to believe she had read the play? Obviously quite so. "Yes, I did. And I can't believe how many people got it so wrong."
"But didn't it end well for all of them. Like after going through a bunch of trials true love came through?" Maiya asked, quite confused by Kaed. Romeo and Juliet was supposed to be the best love story of all time. Why would she say they got it wrong? Maiya never once heard anyone compare an unhappy love story to the play.
"They all died in the end actually," Kaed said nonchalantly, as if they were talking about the weather or breakfast. The group's reactions were, well, interesting to say the least. Both Masahiko and Kiyo choked on air, Maiya went pale, Ueno seemed to be in the midst of processing that information, Etsu's jaw dropped as all of her assumptions went up in flames, and Kise was just blinking dumbly.
Well that went on until. . ., "What?!" was the exclamation of them all. The other people in the auditorium with them momentarily looked at them like they were crazy before returning to what they were originally doing. It was probably for the best as well since their expressions nearly caused Kaed to burst out laughing. She internally thanked Kuroko for teaching her how to keep a straight face when confronted with these types of situations.
Deciding to explain the circumstances in order to snap them out of their stupor, Kaed spoke again. "You see in the end Juliet pretended to die in order to get out of her marriage to Paris. But things went sour when Romeo found out and actually killed himself to be with her. Then Juliet woke up, found Romeo dead and then killed herself, for real this time. Paris found the two dead and then he killed himself. In the end the two families reconciled because of the loss of their children. Moral of the story: Don't rush head-first into romance," she summarized.
"I…see," was all Etsu managed to get out before returning to her shock-induced catatonic state. Kiyo and Masahiko also were quite surprised by it, the latter excusing himself to go discuss some of the backdrops with the Art Club. They all pretty much stood there in awkward silence until Kaed glanced over to where the props were and called out.
"Kise! Duck!" she yelled, to the startled blond.
"Huh? Duck? Where-Ouch!" Kise's head jolted forward as he was hit on the back of the head with the incoming prop. Rubbing his now aching head, he bent down to pick up the fallen prop and frowned. "It is a duck!"
Kaed stared at the prop in minor disbelief, it was a plastic duck. Or was it a chicken. . .That aside she smiled apologetically at Kise, who was glaring at the duck prop. "Sorry Kise, I did tell you to duck."
"Yeah, yeah," Kise grumbled, still massaging his sore noggin. "Who threw that-ssu?!" he yelled over to where the Drama Club members were still sorting out props like they hadn't just hit the basketball team's ace. No one said a word causing the tall teen to cross his arms and pout like a stubborn child.
After that little happening Kiyo pretty much kicked Maiya, Etsu, Kaed and Kise out of the auditorium to get practice time with Ueno. The slightly offended quartet then made their way over to the gym to drop off a whiny Kise at practice. Aforementioned model was greeted with a foot to the back by Kasamatsu who seemed quite ticked off that he wasn't notified that Kise would be late. Quickly leaving the basketball player to his fate, the girls promptly made their exit.
"You know I actually think Kise would make a good actor," Kaed said, "if he copied someone of course." The girl's had ended up wandering around the streets of Kanagawa again and chatting about the play. Or more accurately, poking fun at who was playing who and the hilarity of the script when you thought about it. As of now they had pointed out the oddity of Kise/Ume (probably set up by Kiyo to spite Kise), bet on how long they would last on stage, and debated on who would be the victim of the traditional female sports club's prank. The tradition stretched back to when the girls teams' were victim to the boy's having the bright idea to stick unidentifiable goop in the girl's washroom. Needless to say, the girls sport's teams had created an alliance where every year they would pick out whoever had the worst bone to pick and humiliate them publically…it was never very pretty. Over the years the target pool had grown to include females as well.
Maiya nodded in agreement, "Most likely, I wonder how Ueno's going to hold up with two guys vying for her attention. Especially when one's her crush, who only thinks of her as a friend as of now, and the other is a very determined senpai."
A devious smile flickered onto Etsu's lips, "Well, that's what we are here for ladies." She (tried to) swing her arms around her two taller companions, clutching their shoulders and bringing their heads down to whisper to them. "See, at this time we'll be observing who is better for her; and then we set them up! Ue-chan will finally get a boyfriend!" at this point Etsu attempted to laugh manically; only for it to come out like a dying cat and a pig, drawing stares from people on the street. Maiya and Kaed promptly pretended not to know her.
Kaed silently wished Ueno luck in dealing with Etsu. Though, she was somewhat glad that Etsu had shifted her attention away from her and to someone else. Etsu had given up on matchmaking Kaed their last year of middle school when it was evident she had no desire for anything other than a platonic relationship at that point.
Evening came quickly for the group how said their good-byes before heading home. Kaed was about a block down from her house when her phone started ringing. Too lazy to check who it was she held the phone up to her ear, "Hello?"
"TSU-CHAN! HOW ARE YOU? What have you been doing? Are you and Ki-chan toge-," Kaed briskly jerked the phone away from her ear and snapped it shut. Of course it took less than ten seconds for it to ring again, now knowing who was on the other side she held the phone a few inches away from her ear. The auburn eyed girl made a mental note to always check the caller I.D first to make sure her eardrums were not blown out the next time she answered a call.
"Yes Momoi?" she asked calmly.
"You didn't have to hang up on me you know!" Kaed could almost hear Momoi's small frown in her voice. "I was just calling to see how you were doing. You never call or visit!"
A soft smile worked its way across Kaed's face, "Nice of you to think of me Momoi, I'm doing fine. A little busy now, but I'm well. How about you?"
"I'm fine, but," she could hear Momoi hesitate on the other end of the line, "Aomine-kun has been skipping practice and games more often now."
"I see, so that's how it is," Kaed said, stopping outside of her house, "Seirin should be playing you soon. You'll be seeing Kuroko-kun soon."
"Right," for once Momoi wasn't fangirling about the phantom man, something was obviously bothering her. Kaed decided not to pry as Kuroko could probably fix that in person.
"Well, see you soon than Momoi," Kaed said, ready to hang up.
"Same to you Tsu-chan, tell Ki-chan I said hi!" with that the line was disconnected.
Unlocking the door, Kaed stepped inside the cool house. Slipping off her shoes, she made her way upstairs. Placing her bag down on her bed she moved to her desk where the many sheets of paper lay. Finding what she had been looking for, she gently picked up the scrap of newspaper and made her way down to the kitchen. Taking the lighter she went into the backyard and to the small fire-pit in the patio. Placing the clipping into it, the girl switched on the lighter and lit the small scrap ablaze.
She had only just found the will to finally do the deed after five years. It was time she let go of that one piece of history. Not for herself, but for a friend who trusted her to do what they couldn't. It was strange, she thought, that the last word to burn was the first to start everything. Yet, it so perfectly fit the way life was moving somehow. It was a poignant part of life, but so simple in which it was. Anomalies, Kaed thought, were a strange and familiar part of life.