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Scarlet was getting exasperated with all this play business. She truly regretted getting caught up in the mess. On the day of the tryouts, she should have stood up in that woman's face and made Ms. Hope listen to her. That's what her grandmother, the toughest woman she knew, would have done. She had been bored out of her mind all through lunch listening to Cress and Winter speculate about who would get what part and what the plot of the play would be.
At least Cinder seemed to be in the same boat as her. Well, Scarlet couldn't tell if Cinder didn't want to talk about the play or if she didn't want to talk, period. Her friend had been quiet all morning, and Scarlet didn't blame her. She had never had a sibling, but she could imagine what it would feel like to not know if a beloved family member would ever come home.
Then again...Scarlet could think of one family member who she wouldn't mind if they didn't survive.
Her father, that cowardly, untrustworthy, sneaky idiot who didn't have two pennies to rub together deserved everything that happened to him. Everything.
Pushing that thought aside, she concentrated on following Cress and Winter down the hall, with Cinder on her heels. They were going to see the list of parts that had been posted near the auditorium by the director.
Looking around, Scarlet noticed Winter's friend Jacin lurking behind them. Wherever the girls went, he always seemed to be there too, regardless of the fact that she wouldn't consider him a friend. Scarlet had asked him to trust her, but he continued to act constantly overprotective of Winter. That's going to get them into trouble one day.
She also noticed an older girl gliding across the entrance hall of the school to where Kai, Thorne, Levana and their friends walked just ahead of Scarlet's group. It was Channary Blackburn, Levana's older sister. Someone had told Scarlet that even though she didn't attend the school anymore, she helped organize the musical every year and even got a small part. Scarlet glared at her designer clothes and expensive purse, her perfect nails and hair. Must be nice, she thought bitterly, to not have to work your butt off all the time and still make bucketloads of money. Scarlet thought partly of herself, but most of her grandmother. Michelle Benoit had served in the airforce for years, the youngest wing commander in years, and she made enough money to retire peacefully without a worry. But she had denied the life of luxury and instead chosen to open up her own farm, working day and night to supply the best produce in the state.
Scarlet had always been proud of herself for being tough and hardworking just like her grandmother. She was independent, not needing to rely on any friends. She was smart - almost always top of her class. And her grandmother - a single mom - had raised her to believe that you didn't need boys.
But now, with all that had been happening lately - storming out of class, getting into fights, swept up in all sorts of drama with a certain boy, unloading some of her farm work onto her grandmother so that she could be in the school musical - she just wasn't sure that she was the same person anymore.
Cinder had been quiet all morning. But she went full Invisible Girl mode when she saw Kai in the hallway during lunch. She hated being back at school. Everyone had seen the article in the news about Peony and everyone was reacting differently. Most people eyed her when she passed them in the hallways, pointing and whispering with friends. The nerdy kids came right up to her and tactlessly started asking all sorts of questions about Peony's sudden illness, using medical mumbo jumbo and fancy lingo. But worst of all was the fake-sympathetic people: they flocked her the second the saw her and gave their simpering condolences, pretending to be all sad and empathetic. Cinder knew for a fact that none of them would have paid her the slightest bit of attention if her family hadn't been in the newspaper.
But Kai was a different story. She wanted him to talk to her. She wanted him to treat her as more than a random girl he was faintly acquainted with, even though the sensible side of her brain screamed at her to stop. Cinder had always been the practical, sensible girl who didn't have a million crushes like all the other girls. What was happening to her?
Still, the fact that he had barely looked at her since she had come back to school still hurt.
Shrinking back behind Scarlet and Jacin as they neared the auditorium, Cinder tugged her gloves farther over her hands (a nervous habit). She was suddenly worried about the play, a topic she had forced her mind off of for the entire week Peony had been in the hospital. What if she wasn't allowed to wear her gloves in the play? She shuddered at the thought of the director forcing off her gloves and boots and revealing her freakish prosthetics. Relax, Cinder. You're getting ahead of yourself.
Either way, Cinder found she wasn't as excited about the prospect of doing the musical as she had originally been. During the period of indecisiveness when she had been debating whether or not to do it, Kai's innocent, earnest face had popped into her head every time she had almost decided to just forget about it. That, coupled with Peony's urging and Pearl's snide remarks about what a terrible actress she was had been enough to tip the scales. But now, with Peony in the hospital, Adri and Pearl accusations, and Kai's sudden coldness made her doubt the decision.
A sudden hush came from the front of the groups of kids making their way toward the auditorium. They must be looking at the list.
Cinder, tall and gangly, could just barely see the simple piece of paper printed with the names of the students and what part they had. However, people in front of her kept shifting and it was nearly impossible to read through all the chaos. Cress was having a much harder time. She was so tiny she barely came up to most of the kids' shoulders and she had no hope of being able to see over them.
"Here, let's just wait over here," Scarlet shepherded them into the back corner to wait.
As the crowds cleared out, Cinder and her friends pressed in slowly. All the popular boys were hooting and slapping each other on the backs, while their girlfriends squealed and twined their arms around each other. Cinder watched Kai's back recede down the hall, Levana'a pale arm around him protectively. At the last second, when their group was about to turn the corner, she shot a glare over her shoulder as if she could feel Cinder watching her.
He's mine, those narrow, fathomless eyes seemed to say.
Cinder swallowed and turned back to her real friends.
Scarlet and her friends were in plain view of Wolf, skulking near the back of the hallway. She ignored him, the way she had done since their...whatever it had been. Fight? Disagreement? Interaction?
She was standing a little bit back from the others, looking on as the other kids in the play finished reading the list of parts, some reacting with surprise, others with excitement, others with disgust and fury. Scarlet looked around at her friends. Cress was staring dreamily into space, eyes closed as though imagining herself in costume onstage. Cinder, a few feet away, was staring after the vanishing backs of the popular kids. Namely, at one specific black-haired person. And Winter was flouncing around talking to everyone joyfully, head raised and curls spilling down her back like a true princess. Every few seconds, she shot a glance at the glowering blond figure next to Scarlet, as if wanting him to notice her.
Chancing a glance at Wolf, she found his intensely green eyes on her once again. He didn't look away, holding her gaze in a deep, thoughtful sort of way.
She sighed. They were all caught up in problems that would be more trouble than they were worth.
Cress nudged her. "Let's go look," the shorter girl urged, pointing forward to where the crowd was dispersing. She was still practically hopping up and down with excitement. Scarlet plowed forward to clear a path for her friends, jaw set grimly. She could not care less about what part she got but figured she might as well get it over with. Fully expecting to see her name at the bottom of the list with all the characters who had like one line, she looked at the list and gave a start upon seeing her name close to the top.
SCARLET BENOIT - RED RIDING HOOD
Stomach turning over unpleasantly, she scanned the lines around her name.
ZE'EV KESLEY - BIG BAD WOLF
KAITO LEE - PRINCE CHARMING
CINDERELLA - LEVANA BLACKBURN
JACIN CLAY - PRINCE #2
WINTER HAYLE - SNOW WHITE
CARSWELL THORNE - PRINCE #3
CRESCENT MOON DARNEL - RAPUNZEL
Levana's taunting voice echoed in her head. Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. What did that girl have against her? Scarlet would've bet anything that Levana had influenced the director into choosing them for some of the lead parts. There was no way they were that good.
Scarlet broke into Cress and Winter's excited squealfest with a dark scowl. "You have got to be kidding me." Eyes narrowed in fury, Scarlet gestured toward the list.
Cress beamed. "It's wonderful! All three of us have lead parts!"
"It is most certainly not!" Scarlet snapped, causing Cress to shrink back a little. "You guys know! I never signed up for this! I don't want to do this!"
" 'Least you've got a part," came a voice from behind her. Scarlet whipped around to see Cinder fidgeting with her gloves, beneath which she knew there were metal and wires instead of flesh and bone. Suddenly deflating, Scarlet looked at the list again. She scanned the entire list, having to read all the way to the bottom before she saw Cinder's name - exactly where she had expected her own to be.
SELENE LINH - PALACE SERVANT #5, CINDERELLA UNDERSTUDY
Cinder shrugged when she saw her friends' sympathetic gazes. "I should've expected it. I'm terrible." She tried to make her voice sound nonchalant, but Scarlet knew her well enough to detect an undercurrent of bitterness.
Scarlet was furious now. "Cinder, that was supposed to be me!" she cried. "Trust me, I would switch in a heartbeat. You're way better than I am! I bet you anything Levana's behind this, she has a lot of influence over the director." Her brain was churning as the gears clicked slowly into place. "This is the perfect plan - you have a super small part that you're way too good for, she gets to watch me miserably fail to handle my lead role, she can tease you about not being any good, and she can tease me about the Wolf thing-"
"What Wolf thing?" Cinder asked curiously. She glanced at the list again. "And what kind of name is Ze'ev? That's even worse than Selene."
"Of course his name can't be Wolf," said Scarlet, pretending that she had already known that, when it fact his name was news to her too. She attempted to tactfully avoid the first question. "But that's beside the point-"
"I'm afraid," Winter broke in, in her usual mystical, dreamy voice, "that Levana's plan failed in a very significant way."
"How?" the other three asked. Jacin was smirking, seeming to know what Winter was going to say. Sometimes it felt like those two had a telepathic connection.
Winter waved an elegant hand behind them. "Ms. Hope cast you as the Cinderella understudy, Cinder."
"So?" snapped Cinder. "All it means to me is that I have to do extra work to learn a part I won't even play."
Winter cast a significant look at Jacin, as though amused that the rest of them were so slow. "It means," she said airily, "You'll be practicing with Kai."
Thorne fumed all the way down the hallway to his fifth period English class. His friends hadn't even noticed how angry he had been throughout the rest of lunch, too focused on the fabulous parts they had gotten in the play as well as relaying every detail of their stunning and wonderful lives. Am I the only one not living a fairy tale? Thorne thought angrily, yanking open the classroom door a little harder than necessary. He was the only one who wasn't spoiled silly by parents, he had to work for everything he earned - a foreign concept, he assumed, to most of those brawny jocks and airheaded cheerleaders.
Prince #3. Seriously. Prince #3. He had already flicked through a draft of the script and seen that Prince #3 had a measly twenty or so lines and even less solo singing. Ms. Hope had given the script to him secretly - after all, he was her favorite student. Well, that's what he had thought. Now Thorne realized that he was her temporary star, able to be flicked aside without a backward glance the second someone better showed up.
But they're not better than me! his mind continued to rage. The injustice of it all! Thorne, star or at the very least co-star in every musical for the past three years, now relegated to Prince #3! Heck, he would've been fine with Prince #2 or the Big Bad Wolf - of course, he had been aiming for the lead Prince Charming, but there was no hope of that now that Kai had been given the role. But Prince #3 was a whole other story. He had also noticed, during his perusals of the script, that he was to be part of a love story - minor to the plot - in which the female part was played by who he thought of as the Opera Bathroom Girl - Cress, was that her name? Getting her as a tutor was one thing, but having to play her lover was quite another. It was no problem acting out a romance when you had a hot girl in your arms, but Opera Bathroom Girl was about five feet tall and quite plain-looking, with hair that was always tangled and messy and a million freckles on her nose.
Thorne sighed dramatically, hoping someone would notice his sorrowful state as he swept into the classroom (no one did). He had no problem losing to Kai, but being bested by total losers was simply humiliating. He supposed the director had gone on looks alone for the other male leads, considering that the boy he thought of as Wolf Man because of his muscular build was playing - surprise, surprise! - the Big Bad Wolf. Judging from his audition, the guy had never taken a singing lesson in his life... The other one, Jacin Clay, was actually semi-handsome and Thorne could definitely see him playing the part of a prince - though certainly not better than himself!
There's only one thing to do, Thorne decided. He would take the matter directly to Ms. Hope. Surely it was a fluke or something. He would clear it all up. And if that didn't work... Well, he had more than a few tricks up his sleeve.
After school was over, Thorne cut across the school through the main courtyard to the auditorium, next to which Ms. Hope had an office. He assumed that she would be in there getting ready for the first day of practice tomorrow. Upon arriving in that hallway, he noticed a familiar figure pacing up and down a few feet away, anxiously twisting her hair in her hands and tapping her phone. She startled like a scared cat when he strolled up to her.
"Good day, fair lady," he said with a winning smile. Thorne remembered that he was going to ask her to tutor him and decided to act nicer than usual. "Something wrong?"
She was blushing so hard her entire face and neck were turning pinkish. "No - I - uh, my dad wanted me to run to the supermarket, but I didn't bring my car, and I was trying to find a ride, but all of my friends left already-"
"Whoa, whoa, slow down." He smiled again comfortingly. "You really expected a kind soul like me wouldn't stumble upon you and offer you a ride? I mean, it's my duty as a civilized gentleman."
Her nervousness seemed to melt right off her. Cress smiled shyly back, brushing her hair out of her eyes. "Thank you."
"As a matter of fact, I've been wanting a word with you." Thorne decided to spring the question now while she was feeling grateful to him. "I've been struggling a lot in some subjects lately, and I was wondering if you would like to tutor me? Since I know you're so smart and all," he added as an afterthought, laying on the flattery. There was no way in hell she could refuse this. It had been years since he hadn't been able to charm a girl into getting what he wanted.
She beamed and opened her mouth to accept graciously, but they were interrupted by Ms. Hope's office door opening. "Well?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at Thorne. "I don't have all day, you know."
Thorne gave Cress a wait-here-for-me look and entered her office, which was decorated as usual in posters from musicals and plays Ms. Hope had attended, only they were from different shows than last year.
He was about to launch into a spiel that he had been rehearsing during his mind-numbingly boring history class, but Ms. Hope knew him to well and anticipated the words. "I take it this is about your part in the play?"
Thorne blinked. "Uh, yeah. Director, I just wanted to say-"
She looked him square in the eyes. "You get what you get and you don't get upset. You should know that better than anyone, Carswell."
The use of his first name irritated him even more. "But I don't even have a solo! It's my last year at Commonwealth, I wanted to maybe have a big role-"
Ms. Hope had turned away from him now, casually shuffling a stack of papers on her desk. "You've had a lead role every year since you were a freshman. It's time to give some other people a chance. Jacin and Wolf-"
"Have no talent!" Thorne blurted out before he could stop himself.
"Are very nice boys who deserve a chance," she corrected, raising her voice. "Honestly, I expected better than this from you, Carswell."
Thorne stared at her, thinking. He changed tactics in a blink. "Director, I was also here to raise some concerns about Wolf Man - er, Ze'ev."
She raised her eyebrows in a "go on" sort of way.
"It's just that - he gets into a lot of fights, you know. He's part of a gang, one of those fighter groups on the streets - I'm sure he does drugs and smokes, Ms. Hope. He's on the football team with me - a very nasty temper, he has. Last year he hit a boy on the opposing team after we lost - he could do it again! And I heard a rumor that he abducted Cinder, you know, Selene Linh -"
But Ms. Hope had lifted a hand to stop him. "I appreciate this information, Carswell, but it does not change my casting decisions the slightest."
He could hardly believe his ears. Would he be shoved from the coveted position of the director's favorite student to the low-ranking Prince #3? "But-"
"That is enough!" Ms. Hope, though, quite a small woman, could transform into an intimidating figure in the blink of an eye. "I have never seen such atrocious actions from a student! You would do well with learning some sportsmanship! Now, if you don't get out and stop complaining, I will cut you from the play!"
Heart in his throat, Thorne emerged from the office shocked and stomach churning like he might be sick. Now that was two people threatening to cut him from the play. That row was nothing, though, compared to Cress's reaction.
Her lips were pressed together very tightly and her hands were wound in piles of hair once again. "I heard that," she whispered, barely making a sound in the silent corridor.
He tried again for an easy grin, though it felt like his jaw was locked in place. "Yeah, I just-"
But Cress, so much like Ms. Hope, transformed before her eyes. "You're despicable!" she cried, fists clenching and bunching up her hair. "I can't believe you! You'll do anything to get ahead of other people, won't you." Her eyes were filled with so much disgust that he shrank back a little. "I don't trust Wolf any more than you do, but it's just plain cruel to try to take this opportunity away from him. Cruel."
"Cress-"
"And what about me! I supposed you didn't want to play the suitor of a girl - a-a girl like me!" Now she was shaking, and she looked on the verge of tears. "I'm too short and ugly for you, I suppose!" Thorne tried to defend himself but fell silent as he remembered those had been the exact thoughts running through his head a while before.
"You know..." Cress was shivering and hugging herself, hair limp and bedraggled from all the fidgeting. She was a shell of the confident self she had been in the bathroom, but Thorne could see her determination burning through. "I really don't think I should tutor you after all."
Thorne stood there dumbstruck. This had to be a bad dream... It was the Kate Fallow incident all over again.
Flouncing angrily past him, Cress flew to the end of the hallway, fists still clenched. Thorne stared after her.
"Don't you need a ride?" he asked feebly. It was some five miles or so to the nearest supermarket.
"I'm perfectly fine, thank you very much."
And he stared after her listening to the cold echoes of a voice that had been so warm and enthused toward him earlier.
Wow...that turned out really long. I was going to make it two chapters but didn't want to make you guys wait any longer. Hope you liked it!