"Mr. Simmons I don't seem to remember an opening musical number called "Bang Crash Crash: The Boat Goes Down" being in Twelfth Night…" Helga muttered as she looked over the words in her script. The entire thing was about two hundred pages long, filled with silly modern translations and at least five musical numbers. She groaned and shook her head.
"This is ridiculous, I thought we were doing the original play!" Nadine piped out from her seat in the theatre. Mr. Simmons sighed from his stance upon the stage and rubbed his temple as he looked out at the eleven boys and girls.
"I know boys and girls, but, the principal wanted a…very…special…version of the play so he hired a co-director to help us make this play a success." Mr. Simmons' whispered lowly.
"He thought making it a musical would get more younger kids interested in seeing the play." Mr. Simmons finished. Helga rolled her eyes and placed the script down on the seat beside her.
"And the talking shark comes into this how?" Helga asked raising a brow. Mr. Simmons laughed nervously as he picked his own version, scanning through the lines for a moment before rubbing his head.
"Well it says here that the captain of the ship is actually a dare-devil shark who doesn't play by the rules…it's his…foolishness that makes the ship crash into a u.f.o and because of his guilt he raises Viola as his ow- I might need to talk to him about these revisions." Mr. Simmons whispered softly. Helga rolled her eyes as Mr. Simmons coughed and held up his cast list.
"Alright well let's make sure that everyone's here, uh, Sir Toby?" Mr. Simmons called out. Harold groaned and raised his hand.
"Maria?"
Rhonda snorted and shook her head.
"Unwillingly here."
"Sir Andrew?" Mr. Simmons asked looking around. Eugene eagerly stood up and waved his arms around, promptly falling over his own seat before standing up again quickly. Mr. Simmons shook his head gently.
"Are you alright Eugene?"
"I'm fine Mr. Simmons!"
Mr. Simmons nodded and continued down the list.
"Sebastian?"
"Well I reckon I'm right here Mr. Simmons" Stinky called out from the front row. Mr. Simmons nodded and laughed gently under his breath.
"That you are Stinky, how are you feeling by the way?" He asked tilting his head softly. Stinky waved his hand easily before leaning back into his chair some.
"I'm feeling just dandy sir, why I gotta fancy cool scar on my stomach and I get to eat all the ice cream I want." Stinky noted, pulling up his shirt to show off the scar going down his side. Harold and Sid both leaned in closely, whispering 'cool' under their breath before Rhonda pulled them back by the ears.
"Well I'm glad you're back, we all missed you very much. Now Antonio, you're here" Mr. Simmons whispered motioning to Sid while scanning over the room.
"Feste?"
Gerald coughed from his seat next to Stinky before looking away, it was obvious he wasn't in the mood for talking.
"Malvolio?"
"HERE MR. SIMMONS" Curly yelled out from the lighting booth.
"…Curly, what are you doing up there?" Mr. Simmons asked cautiously. When Curly didn't answer he merely shook his head and continued down the list.
"How about the maids?" Mr. Simmons called out.
"Present." Phoebe called out from beside Rhonda, Nadine raised her hand as well from beside Gerald and slowly looked at the two girls who were now staring at her in anger. She was going to be in all of the scenes with the two girls who hated her most. Great.
"And of course we've got our Viola, Olivia and Orsino...that's great, it seems like everyone's here." Mr. Simmons announced happily. The bell rang, making everyone's eyes cast a glance up at it, since all classes were over with already there was no reason for it to be going off. It was ear splittingly loud making all of the people cover their ears quickly.
Mr. Simmons looked down as he felt his pocket vibrating, he pulled out his cell phone quickly and pulled it to his ear, placing a finger in the other in an attempt to drown out the high pitched whine from the alarm.
"What's that Principal Lopez?" Mr. Simmons yelled. With a sigh he started to nod.
"You want me to hassle? Hassle who? An-and why?" Mr. Simmons asked tilting his head. A light bulb seemed to go off as he laughed, a bright blush raised to his cheek.
"OH, CANCEL, ok, well…uh, alright if you insist, though I'm sure the students are going to be very disappoint-" Mr. Simmons turned around to see that nearly all of the students had disappeared from sight. He clicked his phone shut and sighed softly. He walked over to the stage and started to pick up some of the props he'd brought for practice.
"You need a hand?" A soft voice asked. Mr. Simmons looked up to see a blonde haired girl climbing up the stairs toward him, her hand outstretched warmly as he smiled.
"Oh…yes, yes thank you Helga, that's very thoughtful of you." He whispered as she picked up some of the papers he'd accidently dropped. Helga slowly moved the scripts up onto the desk that now held all of the props and directions they had collected so far. She slowly moved past Mr. Simmons as she picked up his dropped copy of the script.
"You should do what you want." She muttered. Mr. Simmons looked up quickly.
"Beg your pardon?"
"You should do the play how you want…this is your play Mr. Simmons, you're the director, I'm sure your ideas will be just as good as any flashy piece of crap like this." Helga whispered handing it to him. Mr. Simmons laughed weakly and tilted his head.
"I couldn't, it's really not my place…besides, the principal seems to really like this new version…" Mr. Simmons whispered.
"The principal gets to call all the shots when it comes to this school, but he's not the director. You're in charge. Just don't let yourself get walked all over just because you're scared to put yourself out there." Helga wiped her hands of the dust that had transferred from the floor before stretching out. She felt a light shock in her heart but ignored it lest she scare the teacher in front of her.
"…Thank you Helga, I'll…I'll defiantly keep that in mind." He whispered happily. Grabbing his bag Mr. Simmons headed down the stage and off towards the hallway that led out into the parking lot. He looked back at Helga as she stood in the front of the stage, observing, her eyes wandering off in the theatre.
"Helga I was going to lock up, are you coming?" He asked. Helga slowly shook her head as she sat down.
"Yea yea sorry…I just suddenly got this…comforting sense of home I guess." Helga whispered. Mr. Simmons looked at her in curiosity as her sad and melancholy eyes glanced about her. Even without words he could feel the sense of loss and fear that moved about her body. With a slow sigh Mr. Simmons looked around and lowered his head.
"Look I'm not supposed to do this but…if you lock up the stage afterwards, I can let you stay here for a little while." Mr. Simmons whispered with a small smile. Helga looked down and across the theatre seats to him before smiling.
"Thanks Mr.S…"
"…You're very welcome Helga."
The door closed behind him leaving Helga to her thoughts as she stretched out across the stage, her fingertips playing with the crease's in the wood, she took a moment to smell the dusty fabric of the theatres curtains, the polyester of the seats, the mixture of lingering perfumes and colognes. One stood out more than the others however…
In fact it was very strong, almost as if the person was standing right above h-
"Hey Helga."
"GAH"
Helga's eyes shot open as she stared at the football headed boy above her. He smiled that devilish smirk and offered out his hand to help her up. She rejected it and jumped to her feet quickly, looking around for an exit. Helga never trusted herself around Arnold, especially alone.
But he smelled so good…
"Jeez you nearly scared my half to death Arnoldo, is that what you're trying to do now? Murder me?" Helga asked in a high pitched tone as she backed away toward the door.
"You've got it all wrong Helga…that's the exact opposite of what I want to do to you" Arnold said with a shrug.
"T-then what is it you want to do…." Helga gulped as he laughed gently under his breath.
"I want to make you feel alive…like only I can" He smirked at her and walked ever so slowly toward her body, his hands in his pockets, his eyes half lidded, his beautiful lips curled into a devil-may-care smirk.
"That's rather egotistical don't you think…football…head…"
"Ah…" Helga let out a soft whimper as she felt the prick of the curtain ropes behind her. Arnold placed an arm on the wall, his shoulder nearly touching her own as he leaned his face closer to her. It was no use, Helga was trapped. Against her better judgment her eyes traveled into his own beautiful green orbs.
This wasn't like being with Arnold….it was his body staring back at her, but this feeling that he brought about him, the aura that he sent drifting into her soul, it wasn't that peace loving Arnold she knew it was more- more-
Dangerous.
And Helga kind of liked it.
Though she'd never admit it to anyone but herself.
"…You've got something in your hair." Arnold whispered against her skin as he leaned forward, his cheek brushing against her own as his soft fingers worked through her messy ponytail before slowly bringing out a small wad of paper. Helga felt flushed as he blew it past her face.
"…I look forward to working with you Miss Pataki…I think we can have a lot of fun together." Arnold whispered with a smirk. Helga bit her lip and pushed him off before running away from his heated body. She slammed the door closed behind her as she hid her now bright red face in her hands.
This wasn't Arnold, this wasn't Arnold, this wasn't Arnold.
"Mmmmm! But it is Arnold!" Helga whimpered as she nuzzled against a nearby locker.
Arnold watched the girl go with a bit of amusement as the grin faded from his face and was replaced by his usual neutral stance. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, open and lit before glancing down at the glowing screen.
"Can I stop now…?" Arnold asked with a sigh as he brought up the phone. He heard a gentle, evil laugh on the other line as Rhonda clicked her tongue.
"No…let's play this out a while longer, after all it's been a while since I've had any entertainment."
