Zelda woke up to find Midna standing over her, gently shaking her by the shoulder while she repeated her name over and over.
"Zelda… Zelda, you need to get up," Midna whispered.
"What?" Zelda mumbled, reaching up to rub the heel of her hand against her eyes.
"We have to get up, there's rehearsal today."
That made Zelda sit up in her bed, her heartrate already speeding up drastically.
"What? Are we late?"
Mentally, she was already recalling the last time this had happened, back when her and Anju's alarm clock had failed, resulting in her only making it to class on time by a combination of pure luck and Midna already having secured her breakfast.
"No, we're not late," Midna said, shaking her head, the movement causing a few strands of her hair to brush against Zelda's cheek, "but Marin needs to be there half an hour before us, so she doesn't have a lot of time right now, but we didn't want to turn on the light before you were awake as well."
That did a bit to make Zelda's heartbeat return to a healthier rhythm. "Oh. Well, I'm awake now, so just turn on the light."
"Okay, cool."
Zelda heard Midna move through the room, and the sound of Midna searching for the light switch by the door. A second later, the lamp hanging from the ceiling turned on, the light it emitted making Zelda instantly close her eyes as the sudden light in the room blinded her.
"Yeah, sorry, perhaps it would have been a better idea to start with just turning on the bedside lamp," Zelda heard Midna say, the source of the sound moving through the room as Midna came back over to sit down next to her.
"No, I just need a second." trying to prepare herself, Zelda opened her eyes and tried to ignore the way the sudden increase of light made her head hurt.
"Still doing that, I see," Midna commented, "I would have thought you would have learnt to let your eyes get used to the light after you did this exact thing back when we were twelve only to immediately walk into a door."
"Not fair, you know that I got glasses less than a week after that, for all we know, that could have been the reason for it," Zelda countered.
Midna just pouted at her. "I doubt it. Your sight isn't bad enough to explain it that way, and I don't even think that is how bad eyesight works."
"Well, I'm the only one of us who has glasses, so you'll just have to accept my word for it."
"I sure do," Midna said, pausing to extend her hand towards Zelda, "but right now we need to meet up with Anju and Cremia to get breakfast. Cremia just texted me that there is pancakes, so hurry up, because I want to get down there before they are all gone!"
Zelda took Midna's hand and let her pull her to her feet.
"Okay, if there is pancake for breakfast, I think I might just be able to hurry."
"I would sure hope so," Midna said, heading over to her dresser where she began to rummage through its contents before spinning around and throwing a dress over at Zelda, "come on, get dressed, we need to leave now."
Looking down at the teal design that had been printed onto the black fabric of the dress, Zelda decided that it didn't look like it was way off in size. Hopefully that would be enough.
Barely using more than a few minutes on getting ready and running a brush through her hair, Zelda was soon ready to leave the room.
They met up with Anju and Cremia in the dining room where the couple had kept a chair for them at their usual table, something that turned out to be fortunate as the room was bustling full of people despite how relatively early in the morning it was, at least considering how it was Saturday.
"It would appear that I was right when I said that we would have to hurry," Midna teased her as they sat down.
"I never said you weren't."
"That's true as well."
"Okay, you two, if you could refrain from bickering for a second, I think you might still have a chance to get pancakes for breakfast," Anju cut in, pointing towards the buffet table, "but you'll have to hurry up a little."
"I'll have you know that Zelda actually was ready to leave the room only five minutes after she woke up," Midna said, draping her arm around Zelda's shoulders.
Cremia raised an eyebrow. "So that's why she's wearing one of your dresses."
"Yup. We didn't have time to go back to her dorm to grab some of her clothes so I let her borrow mine."
"Seems like poor planning to me," Cremia responded.
"Okay, never mind what the reason was," Zelda said, "at least it actually fit me. Now, Midna, should we go over and grab some pancakes?"
"Sure!" Midna said, beaming down at her. "Lead the way."
It turned out that Zelda truly did have to lead the way, pushing past a few students—mostly first-years who had stopped in the middle of the dining hall, a desperate look on their faces as they tried to find an empty spot at a table—and mumbling an apology as she almost knocked the plate out of the hands of a boy. But they were in luck, and despite Midna's warnings that they might have run out, there was still a tall stack of pancakes left on the buffet table, so they returned to their table with plates loaded with the treat.
"Trying to drown your pancakes I see," Cremia said when Midna placed her plate on the table, looking over at the amount of syrup, "what have they ever done to you to deserve such a fate?"
Midna pointed her fork at her. "I'm going to be the Hero later so they were probably evil anyway." She began cutting up the pancakes into smaller bites.
"Actually, that reminds me—how was the date?" Zelda asked, changing the subject.
"Oh, it went well, right, Anju?" Cremia said, turning to look at her girlfriend. Anju nodded and Cremia mirrored the movement. "We just hung out in my room, but I had managed to smuggle a slice of carrot cake up," at that, Midna began to cough loudly, hardly trying to mask how she leant over to whisper that she had been right to Zelda. Shooting Midna an amused glare, Cremia continued, "so we decided to watch the newest episode of Hyrule Warriors. It's not really the same as going to the cinema, but it's the best we can get without leaving the school."
"Hey, as long as you're there, it doesn't matter where we are." Anju reached out to place her hands on Cremia's, making the other girl turn around to look at her, a smitten glint in her eyes.
"Goddesses, I think I might vomit from that one," Midna said, making Cremia turn to look at her.
"Please, it's obviously the pancakes that has made you feel that way," Cremia laughed before leaning over to kiss Anju.
"Zelda do you think they would notice it if we just got up and left?" Midna whispered loudly. "Because we need to go to the drama room soon to be there on time."
"We could try."
"No, no," Anju said with a laugh, already getting up from her chair, "we'll be coming with you guys." she turned around to pull Cremia up with her as well, and soon, they were all heading over towards the drama room.
They made it on time. In fact, they were even a little early, and most of the members of the orchestra were still busy with getting ready in their chairs when the group stepped into the drama room.
Almost all of the other actors had not even arrived yet.
But despite all of that, Thelma still came over to them the moment they entered the room, looking at Zelda with a relieved expression.
"Ah, there you are. I had hoped you'd be a little early so that I could show you how it will work with the platform you'll be standing on during the song at the end of this scene." she said, already heading back towards the makeshift stage, Zelda following behind her. She could hear Anju and Cremia telling her that they would be waiting for her. Midna, however, followed Thelma over to the stage as well.
"I'm sorry what? What platform?" Zelda asked.
"Well, we can't use the actual platform that'll be raised up into the air just yet since you need to know exactly what to do so that we are sure you won't accidentally fall off." there was a pause as Zelda tried to figure out if Thelma was joking. She would have to stand on a platform where there was a risk of falling involved?
Thelma seemed to notice how she had gone silent, for she paused to turn around and give Zelda a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, there will be a cable attached to each of the four corners as well as a railing keeping you safe while you are up in the air, so you'll have to really try to be able to fall off. The part that might give you some problems is when you have to get onto the platform given how we can't actually lower it enough to touch the ground, so you'll have to make sure not to trip while stepping on and off, and then everything will be okay. But we still thought it best to use a wooden pallet right now so that you'll get used to the song without also having to be up in the air. You're not afraid of height, are you?"
"No," Zelda answered, feeling more at ease now that there seemed to be at least some safety measurements put in place, "no, I'm not."
"That's good to hear. I should have told you about it at the audition, but to tell you the truth, we were not exactly certain that we would be able to use a platform to create the illusion of flying." Thelma said. The sound of something falling to the floor with a loud crash made her direct her attention towards the orchestra. "Sorry, but I have to go and see what that was," Thelma said, not pausing for a moment before she walked back to join Kass in the task of trying to pick up a music stand that had fallen over and to place the mess of paper the music sheets created on the floor as they had fallen off the stand back in the right order.
"Worried?" Midna asked, pulling Zelda back into the moment.
"No." Zelda shook her head. "Not really. I mean, I will just have to stand on a pallet right now, I'm not even up in the air."
"Yeah, right now it's just about standing there and looking beautiful while singing and I know for a fact that you are going to do well at both."
"Did you just compliment your own dress?" Zelda laughed. "Are you trying to make me like wearing dresses now?"
"Maybe." Midna smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes as she averted her gaze from Zelda's. "You do need to get used to it though; Hylia wears a dress in the musical after all."
"You don't think I could pull the same trick as you did and get that changed?" Zelda asked, making Midna grin at her
"I doubt it. Both of my ideas wouldn't require new costumes, but your idea of letting Hylia wear not wear her dress would. And just to top it off, you and I both know that her big, flowing dress is a big part of the role."
"You are right," Zelda admitted, leaning back to get a look up towards the ceiling, trying to imagine herself standing on a platform as it was hoisted up in the air, "it would look a bit weird if I was wearing something close-fitting."
"Exactly! Now, let's get back over to the others, I think Thelma is about to say something."
It turned out that Anju and Cremia had once again secured a spot for them in the circle of chairs, so they didn't have to fight anyone to find a place to sit as Thelma stepped into the middle of the ring. A few murmurs of general excitement echoed around the circle as Zelda's sports teacher strolled through the room as well. Jolene waved back at one of the second-year student who looked like she was about to consider running over to give her a hug as she walked over to stand next to Thelma.
Zelda looked over at Jolene. She had not seen her enter the room, but then again, she had been so busy talking with Midna that it would not surprise her if she had failed to notice her presence entirely.
"Okay, I'm sure that some of you are a bit nervous given that this is one of the bigger scenes and how the blocking is a bit complicated and how at least some of you will have to dance a little. But," Thelma said, emphasising the last word, "that is why Jolene will join us to help. Jolene?"
Jolene nodded. "That's right. I know that all but a couple of you probably don't feel like you are that good at dancing, but—as I'm sure you have noticed in the schedules—we have taken that fact into account by giving ourselves a lot of time to learn it all." She looked around, stopping for a moment to look at everyone.
As Zelda made eye contact with her, she found herself wondering if maybe the people who were on the dance team saw a different side of Jolene than the rest of them did during sports class. While Zelda usually thought of Jolene as the teacher who was paid to make them run around outside no matter the weather, a few of the other students almost acted like they were friends, nodding along as Jolene continued. "We have also tried to simplify the different dances and cut as many as we could since it proved impossible to make the schedules work out so that enough people from the dance team would be able to participate as well, so don't worry, I know it will look great in the end." She went silent and shot Thelma a questioning glance.
Thelma cleared her throat. "Yes, thank you. So, as Jolene said, there's nothing to worry about. But now, let's not waste any more time. Will everyone who has to be on stage during this scene please get over there?" Thelma pointed towards the stage.
The sound of chairs scratching against the floor filled the room as almost everyone got up.
Zelda had already known that almost everyone would have to be present during the scene, both from having read the manuscript and from the bootlegs she had seen with Midna, but as she found herself in the middle of the crowd of people, she was thankful that she would at least spend the part of the scene where she had to be on stage up in the air, up above everyone else. Granted, right now, she would have to make do with a pallet, but at least she had the fact that she would not have to learn a complicated dance routine to look forward to.
Stepping up onto the pallet, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder and turned around.
There was a boy standing in front of her. Zelda knew that she had seen him before, recognising him as the quiet student she shared a math class who preferred to sit in the back of the classroom, but other than that, she was not really sure who he was.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Oh, sorry, I just wanted to say hi. And maybe also ask you if you could move a little to the side seeing that I will have to stand up on the pallet with you." he said. Zelda stared at him in confusion and he began to explain. "You see, I'm the voice of the Loftwing and all that—"
The Loftwing, thinking back to when the list telling who had gotten which roles, Zelda tried to remember who was playing the Loftwing. Then it struck her.
"Of course, I'm so sorry, Shad, I didn't know that you would have to be up here as well," she began, but Shad just waved his hand at her.
"I didn't know it either until Thelma told me that the Loftwing was not ready yet five minutes ago." He must have noticed her quizzical look, because he pointed towards the wooden pallet she was standing on. "Well, it's not as much the Loftwing that wasn't ready; it was more a question of the microphone I'm supposed to be wearing not working properly, so we have to wait to use it. You know, I was actually supposed to be able to stay behind the stage through the entirety of the show, since no one could figure out how to make a costume that would make me look like a Loftwing without it costing thousands and thousands of Rupees, so instead, I would sing and then the microphone—"
"Yeah, I know that," Zelda said, not wanting them to keep on talking after almost everyone else had gone quiet, "and of course I can move a little."
She took a step to the side and Shad stepped up on the pallet to stand next to her. There was only barely enough space for both of them there. Zelda supposed that she should be thankful that she wouldn't also be lifted up in the air.
Walking over to stand right in front of the stage, Thelma looked up at them, and Zelda could see how she was trying to make sure that everyone was in the correct spot. After asking a couple of people to move a bit to the side, it seemed that Thelma was satisfied, and she clapped her hands together.
"Good. Now, since we don't have the technical components ready, there are a few things here that are going to be different than the real deal. First of all, Zelda and Shad won't be onstage yet during this part, but given that there also won't be space for them to walk over to their pallet during the scene, we will just have to pretend that they are not there. It won't have any effect on the blocking though, given that we don't want you to walk around underneath something heavy that is going to be lowered down onto the stage later, so you can just ignore it." she pointed towards Zelda and Shad, making almost everyone else turn to look over at them as well.
Already feeling a bit uncomfortable with the amount of people looking at her, the fact that she was not really supposed to be there not doing much to ease her nerves even if it wasn't her fault, Zelda was relieved when Jolene cut in.
"Yes, the choreography during Ghost Attack won't be affected as well, and when it's time to move on to Ballad of the Goddess, the platform with Zelda on it will also have been lowered onto the stage, so that part will be almost exactly the same when we can go over it with everything in place."
"Exactly," Thelma nodded, "Now, let's get started. We are going to go through the entire scene once where you all stand still during the song, just to make sure that everything else is working, and then we can begin to rehearse the dance as well. Understood?" when no one protested, she smiled. "Good. On the count of three."
The scene began, and Zelda did her best to keep her face expressionless as she watched the story of the Hero and the goddess unfold around her, not wanting to let her presence accidentally affect anyone around her.
However as the first hard notes of Ghost Attack filled the room, sounding strangely out of place and yet like there was still meaning to it all, Zelda had to fight to keep a smile off her face. There was something magical about standing up there on the stage and watching the other actors discuss the demonic attacks that had happened, even if she was supposed to stand still and pretend not to be there, almost like she was watching the legend happen right in front of her.
Zelda supposed that that was also what was happening, but there was still something amazing that she couldn't quite name about the experience.
They managed to get halfway through the first song before an incident happened.
From her slightly elevated position, Zelda could see how two of the townspeople standing towards the front of the stage—one played by Anju and the other played by Ruto if she remembered the name correctly—both turned right during the break in the song, rather than going to the opposite ends of the stage, walking directly into each other as Anju was too busy counting her steps to look up, resulting in a collision with Ruto that made both girls let out a surprised shriek as they jumped backwards.
"Whoa, there!" Thelma exclaimed, motioning for everyone to stop. "Are you two okay over there?"
"Yeah, it's nothing, I was just not expecting that," Ruto said while Anja rubbed her face, managing to utter a sentence to confirm Ruto's assurance that they had not been hurt at all.
"Okay, then let's start over from the start of the song, and remember, Anju, you and Ruto are supposed to end up on each side of the stage when the lyrics come in again!"
The second attempt of the song went much better. Zelda could see how Anju was focusing on remembering to complete her twirl and still face towards the right side of the stage at the end. Before she knew of it, Ballad of the Goddess had already begun, and Zelda tried to envision herself descending from above, counting to herself to make sure that she came in at the right moment, still making sure not to look down at her feet while stepping of the pallet to walk over to where Midna was waiting for the goddess.
Their duet began, and although they were practically surrounded—all the other people on the stage forming a semicircle around them—to Zelda, she and Midna might as well have been there alone.
Midna reached out to take her hand as she sang about how the Hero was not yet worthy to fight in her name. As she stood there, gazing directly into Midna's eyes while she handed her the plastic stick that was acting as a stand-in for the actual prop-sword, Zelda found it hard to focus on the phrasings, but somehow it worked out, and they progressed into the song, reaching the last verse, where everyone else joined in as well, singing to Hylia as she left them once more.
Even though Zelda could see how everyone tried their best to make way for her to get back to her pallet, there was still something slightly unnerving about it all. She wasn't sure what had changed for her, she hadn't minded being in the middle of a crowd when she had been standing on the wooden pallet although she knew that she had been just as surrounded as she was now, but she did know that all of the noise around her was enough to make her look forward to the day where the platform would take her up above the stage.
"Wonderful!" Thelma said as the song finished. Even Jolene gave them an approving nod. "Just wonderful! Now, let's begin to work on the choreography during the dance, and then we might have time to go through the scene once more but with the rest of the choreography incorporated as well…"
Trying to calm down her heart that was beating so hard that Zelda would think it was planning to jump out of her chest, Zelda followed the others down from the stage as they went back to sit in the circle.
Someone took her hand as she sat down, and when Zelda looked over, she saw Midna beaming at her.
"You were amazing, just like I had said you would be," Midna whispered, reaching out to place her hand on top of Zelda's.
"But I don't understand," Cremia said after having swallowed a handful of popcorn, while she pointed towards the computer screen situated on the other bed, "why couldn't Elphaba go back with Glinda?"
"Because the citizens would turn on her as well," Midna answered, not taking her eyes off the screen for a moment.
"Yeah, I know that she says that, but we also see that Glinda has the power to tell wizard to leave and gets Madame Morrible thrown into prison, so if she could do all of that, and she supposedly is telling everything that takes place during the musical to the inhabitants of Oz, why couldn't she also clear Elphaba's name?" Cremia argued, bouncing slightly on the bed.
Anju shrugged before inching closer to Cremia, moving slowly to make sure she would not accidentally end up kicking either Zelda or Midna who were sitting on the floor in front of the bed. "I don't know. Probably because it would feel like a cheap way to resolve the problems."
"Who cares, I just wanted to see Elphaba and Glinda admit that they are in love."
"We all do," Zelda assured her.
"Speaking of dating," Midna chimed in, "Ruto actually asked me if I would be interested in going to the cinema with her sometime next week."
That pulled Zelda right out of her enjoyment of the musical so fast that she was lucky she didn't pull a muscle as she whipped around to look over at Midna.
"What? When?" Cremia asked, also tearing her gaze away from the screen.
"Just after rehearsal had finished," Midna said. She seemed so casual about it all, and Zelda wondered if perhaps she was just overreacting. But there was something about the way her chest had tightened at the news that made her think that even if that was the case, she had to know all of the details to be able to relax about it. However, it Midna didn't appear to have noticed her response, as she continued looking at the computer, "she asked if I had a moment, I said yes, and then she told me that there was this film she had been meaning to see—no, I don't remember which one—and if I would be interested in going with her to see it and if it could be 'just the two of us, like a date'."
"And what did you answer?" Anju asked, also turning to look at Midna rather than the recording of Wicked, leaving Midna as the only one still engrossed in the musical.
"I said that I appreciated her thinking about me, but that I didn't have the time for dating right now," Midna shrugged, "you know, musical and all of that. Although I'm by no means Zelda, I still want to at least not fail my classes, so I have to make sure I will have time for the rehearsal sessions as well as for doing my homework, and if I stated dating as well, I don't think I would have much time left to spend with you guys." Midna finally looked away from the screen as well to instead glance over at Zelda who, having not expected the movement, hurried to wipe the relieved look off her face.
"Whoa, Midna you don't actually want to fail you classes?" Cremia teased her, reaching out to lightly shove Midna. "That's a new one. Perhaps you shouldn't spend so much time arguing with our teachers then; I think that would also help you achieve your goal."
"I didn't say I wanted perfect grades, I just don't want to not be allowed to be in the musical."
"And the Midna we know and love is back!" Cremia declared. "Seriously, I was beginning to fear that you weren't actually Midna."
Zelda tried to focus on Midna's response, tried to focus on everything but the horrible, hollow sensation that had settled in her stomach at Midna's reason for not accepting the invitation. She tried to look on the screen, tried to ignore the feeling. For a couple of seconds, she thought she might have succeeded, but the next moment, the words fought to get out, and Zelda couldn't stop them anymore.
"But had it not been for the musical, you still wouldn't have gone on a date with Ruto, right?"
The effect was immediate. Midna and Cremia stopped their teasing to instead look over at Zelda. She tried to focus on Midna sitting next to her, searching for any sort of clue while ignoring how she could feel Anju's s worried stare.
"What?" Midna asked, a line appearing between her brows as they settled into a puzzled expression.
"You said that you declined the offer because you were already busy with the musical," Zelda repeated. She could feel how her brain was screaming at her to stop and tell them that it was nothing, but the hollowness in the pit of her stomach was urging her on, "well, I was just wondering, even if you didn't have the musical to think about, you would still have said no, right?"
Midna lifted an eyebrow and smirked at her. "You certainly seem to care a lot about my love life, don't you?"
"I'm you best friend, so I obviously care about you," Zelda said. Rationally, she knew that was she was saying was true, but there was still something in her that said the opposite, "and I just don't think that Ruto would be good for you—she's practically your polar opposite."
"What's wrong with dating someone who's your polar opposite?"
"Nothing! It's just—" Zelda struggled to finish her sentence. To be honest, she was not even sure if she knew what she had meant.
Cremia saved her. "Well, Midna said no, so do the reasons for her answer matter all that much? Had she said yes, it would be another story entirely, then the question of why would matter a bit but still ultimately only be Midna's concern, but she said no, so we can just continue on like we have always done." Cremia said before pointing towards the computer. "Now, can we get back to watching how this plays out? Maybe Glinda and Elphaba actually end up together in this one."
They all went silent, redirecting their attention to the witches on the screen.
But no matter how much she tried, Zelda found it hard to focus on the story, and she knew it couldn't be explained by the fact that she had missed some of the plot.