With thanks to William Shakespeare.

Day 10: Royalty

"But, room, fairy! Here comes Oberon."

"And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!"

Ulrich knew from the click-clack of heels on wood that Sissi had taken her cue and come on stage. Of course she would come to the very first rehearsal in her full costume, or whatever she thought her full costume would be. He wondered just what her idea of a medieval fairy queen was. He doubted Titania dressed like a fifteen-year-old, in any case.

"Oh, Oberon?" Sissi's voice was artificially high and affected, as it got whenever she was acting. "Oberon? Oberon?!"

It took Ulrich a few seconds to register that, oh right, that was him. He grabbed the script, nearly tripping over the cardboard donkey's head that someone had left lying on the ground, and ran onstage, fumbling for any line that might be his. "I got this, one sec," he said, flipping around. "Uh, all I see is "Fairy" and "Puck"…"

"Next page," Odd whispered from upstage. He hadn't made any effort to dress like Puck, but he'd talked Ulrich's ear off the previous night with his plans for the costume. (He was going to see how far he could influence Mr. Chardin to get it to look like Mister Puck without actually informing him of Mister Puck's existence.)

"Right, right." Ulrich turned the page and found exactly what he'd been looking for. "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania-"

"What, jealous Oberon!" Sissi stamped forward, looking livid, and giving him an excellent view of the purple eyeshadow she'd applied. The rest of her outfit looked not unlike a witch's costume from a Halloween store, and in fact he was sure that was exactly what it was. "Fairies, skip hence: I have forsworn his bed and company."

Can we have that line in a middle school play? Mr. Chardin hadn't made any kind of comment. Ulrich couldn't even tell if he was awake. "Uh, hold on," he said. "Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?"

"Cut, cut!" Sissi said, waving her hand in front of his face. Mr. Chardin started - he had fallen asleep. "Ulrich, what kind of a performance is that? It's wooden! It's boring! It doesn't even sound like you understand what you're saying!"

"For once in Shakespeare, I do," Ulrich said. He knew Oberon was pissed off at Titania, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. "But I'm not performing, I'm a stand-in, remember?"

"Even if you are a stand-in, Ulrich dear, you're still responsible for giving me a performance I can work off!" Sissi crossed her arms and click-clacked across the stage. "And how am I supposed to be mad at you if you're just going to be a dopey doormat?"

"You seem pretty mad right now," Odd said.

"Hey, shut up!" Sissi said. "We're doing this over again - and remember your cue this time!"

She stepped back, leaving the shivering sixth-grader who'd been given the part of "Fairy" to follow behind her. Mr. Chardin, perhaps wisely for the future of his career at Kadic, had waited until Sissi had finished her tantrum before taking over as director. "Ve are starting from Oberon's entrance!" he said. "And dees time, Ulrich, give it fheeling! Lots of fheeling!"

Feeling. But what was Ulrich feeling? Frustration at Sissi, mostly, for getting him involved in another play. At least this time it was the genuine article and not some weird adaptation of the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene that Nicolas had written. But that didn't make him any better of an actor. He'd already accepted this wasn't something he'd ever be good at. Best to leave theater to Odd, or Aelita, who'd been cast as Hermia. They thrived in environments like this, and he didn't.

Still, frustration seemed to be was Oberon was feeling, too. And even if he didn't know why, he was sure he could still channel that into his reading.

"Would that he were gone!" served as his cue, and he strode on from backstage, trying to look as powerful as possible. "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania."

- Carth