I wiped the sweat from my brow with the shoulder of my tank top. After the first twenty minutes or so of hauling materials into and out of the old potting shed, I'd opted out of the flannel button-up that served as my jacket. It was just after school on a weekday, and the drama club was meeting at the usual time. Inside the auditorium the thespians bustled busily, reciting lines and discussing blocking. I tried to avoid the crowd when I could- the echoes in the old gymnasium overwhelmed my senses too easily.
I set about working on the sets just outside the auditorium. The emergency doors exiting to the outside lawn sat propped open, cooling the mass of people in the gym and simultaneously offering me an escape. I was conferring with my blue prints for the set, checking and re-checking dimensions of the stage. The materials the club had gathered were scant, mostly scrap wood and refuse from construction sites, but it was better than nothing.
I headed back into the gym to retrieve my backpack, which I'd left against the wall, and looked up in time to see a familiar form in the double doors at the opposite end of the gym. Warren strode in, searching the crowd for something, and I was pleased when I realized it was me. Several people greeted him on his way by, and he nodded back. One young freshman caught him in the middle of the room, talked to him, and gestured to my corner with the point of a hand. Warren caught my gaze, thanked the freshman, and headed towards me. I waited for him in the doorway.
"Hey, Peace!" Steven called from the stage with a smile, and heads turned. "We're down an actor and need a fill-in. You game?"
"Absolutely not," Warren called back with the shake of his head and a good-natured smile, and laughter rumbled through the nearby students. They turned back to reciting as Warren reached me.
"Hey," He greeted me, and surprised me when he bent down to hug me. I wrapped my arms around him quicker than I meant to, and breathed in the smell of his jacket- leather and engine grease. It was quickly becoming my favorite scent.
"Hi," I heard my own voice come out a pitch higher than normal. Warren let go and we stepped into the fall air.
"What're you working on?" He asked, sitting on the grass next to me and observing the blueprint I was contemplating.
"Just some sets," I responded, taking a carpenter pencil out of my backpack to begin marking pieces of wood. "God only knows what they're gonna look like when I'm through with them."
I was only half-joking that time. I had no idea how to build sets. I had done model airplanes or Lincoln logs as a kid, but the more time I spent working on the sets the less confident I felt.
"You seem like you have it pretty well-planned," He complimented me, and I smiled nervously. Images of the sets falling apart during the play flashed through my mind, and I wondered if I could be held legally responsible for injuries occurring on-stage.
"Do you want some help putting them together?" He offered, his voice hopeful. He looked at me expectantly.
"Yes!" I answered a tad too desperately, "Please. That would be great."
Warren smiled.
For the next several hours, he helped me assemble the pieces of wood. He modified the braces for the backdrop walls so they'd be more stable (and less likely to fall on an unsuspecting passer-by), and Warren somehow managed to borrow power tools from the evening janitor. I was grateful for the aid, but mostly I was just glad that it was Warren who was helping me.
We took a break around dinner time to eat. Although the cafeteria was closed, I'd gotten into the swing of late-night drama practice so I'd packed food. We sat on the back lawn facing the sunset, and I handed Warren half of my sandwich.
"How do you feel about tuna?" I asked him, handing over the food. He wiped the sawdust from his hands onto his dark jeans and took it gratefully.
"I'm partial to it," He responded, eating it in a couple bites like a typical teenage boy. I rummaged in my bag and found a granola bar, which I handed to him next.
"Ha, joke's on you," I said between bites, "Now we both have tuna breath."
He laughed a real laugh. His eyes turned up into dark slits and his dimpled cheeks looked rosy in the sunset. His teeth shone brilliant white in the dimming light, and his skin glowed golden.
"Come here," He teased me, grabbing me suddenly by the arm and pulling me in towards him playfully, "Tell me if I have tuna breath- aaaah," He breathed at me with his mouth wide open, and I squirmed away from him, giggling.
"EW, STOP!" I laughed loudly as he forced my face closer to his, "Gross, it really smells like tuna!"
"You liiiiike it," Warren tormented me, exaggeratedly breathing in my direction. I got so distracted by what little space remained between our bodies, that I dropped my sandwich on the grass by accident. It was probably better that way- a minute longer of him teasing me and I might've just reached out and kissed him.
"Hey, look what you made me do!" I squeezed out, barely forming coherent words between laughs. I snatched the food back up from the ground and looked at Warren. His face was flushed and his honey eyes shone mischievously as he righted himself, detaching his limbs from mine. Immediately, I wished he wouldn't.
"Five second rule," He conceded and reached over to pick a blade of grass off the bread, "A little dirt never hurt anyone."
I agreed, and ate my sandwich in peace. The sun was almost below the horizon then, and the lights from inside the auditorium became more pronounced in the dimming sunlight. I glanced inside at the students playing improv games, doing homework between scenes, discussing costumes. I looked sideways at Warren.
"Everyone really likes you," I commented, gesturing into the gym with a thumb. He peeped back over his shoulder.
"I'm a likeable guy," He responded with a wink, and I cracked a smile. He was in a good mood today, and a small voice inside me dared to hope it was because of my prescence.
"You're becoming a regular fixture around here," I warned him, shaking a finger at him, "You better be careful or it'll start to affect your image."
Warren reclined on the grass, resting his elbows on the ground and crossing his combat boots at the ankles. The setting sun carved his features in bronze, and I appreciated his jawline with renewed energy. He grinned up at me.
"I'm starting to care less and less about my image," He declared, and I smiled at him.
"I know," I said.
…
School continued on in just such a fashion. Warren showed up more often than not to help me with the sets, and they were done much faster than I could've done by myself. Steven had reqruited several art students to paint the backdrops we built, so at least I was spared that (my art skills left something to be desired- like creativity).
As the play drew nearer, I started on the costumes. The drama club was sorely lacking in that department, but most students had theater experience of some kind or another and were able to scrounge up materials from home. I quickly learned that improvisation was employed not only on the stage, but in the dressing room too. Old pillowcases became fringed tunics, and sheets evolved into billowing capes. There was no end to the resourcefulness of the drama club. What is it they say, "Necessity is the mother of invention"?
I became accustomed to sitting quietly outside in the crisp air, sewing on fringes and tassles, taking costumes in, working on hems. Warren often kept me company, sitting quietly beside me while doing homework or studying. During those times, our bodies sidled up to one another in the cool outdoors, silently enjoying the other's prescence. His existence made everything a little less stressful as the end of the season drew to a close. Before I knew it, it was a few days until Tech Week and the club was scrambing to learn lines, finish back drops, perfect blocking, organize costumes- poor Steven ran around, frantically trying to salvage what he could of the play, and I did my best to help.
At the same time, Layla was working on her greenhouse restoration project, working wonders with the old building. Since I'd discovered it she'd since banished the weeds and sorted through the potting tables inside. The glass that enveloped the structure was missing some panels, and although it was still hazy and hard to see through, it was mostly clean and structurally sound. In my free period I took to spending time there with her, caring for the seedlings and transplants, and working on whatever other manual labor she needed me to do.
Although, she needed little help- her botanokinesis made her the chairman of the Environmental Science club, and her relationship with plants kept all varieties in the greenhouse thriving and striving.
Between Save the Citizen practice, the greenhouse, and classes in general, I ended up spending a lot of time with Layla, Warren, and Will. I struggled to understand their dynamic and to function in it. It was easy to see how much Warren appreciated his friendship with Will, and I tried to value Will the same way. But I couldn't help but be thrown by the feeling that Will was holding me at an arm's length, regarding me politely but not quite as a friend. It bothered me more than it should have.
Tech Week came and went in a haze. Every night after school was spent in the auxillary auditorium, and tensions ran high. I was feeling stretched pretty thin between that, and Save the Citizen practice. The homecoming tournament was coming up fast, and somehow I felt myself dreading it- I was shocked to find myself reluctant to play the bracket. I soon realized that it wasn't the games I feared, but what came after them… homecoming.
I did my best to resolve myself to the present. Take one step, and then another, and take all things in stride; I had the play to worry about first, then I could take on the Save the Citizen tourney, and finally I could address my feelings towards the dance. Until then? I don't know. Maybe I'd get lucky and die before the dance came, I reckoned.
About that dance I knew one thing for sure- there was no way I was getting through it in one piece.
…..
So… this chapter is short. It's got some light fluff in it, which is a plus, but mostly it sucks. I'm admitting it, right now, that way no one else can say it haha. I almost didn't post it because of the people that said this is one of their favorite sky high fics (I feel like I'm letting you down with this crappy chapter). It's the best I got right now so it'll have to do. Leave a review if you can- I appreciate the encouragement!
