Happy New Year, lovelies ~ ! I hope you all have had a great start to the new year (*waves goodbye to the burning viking ship that holds the dumpster fire that was 2020*). My New Year's gift to you all is a new update for 'Bayley's Universe' (I'm also currently working on another Pokémon and wrestling crossover fic if you'd like to check that out...it's called 'All I Want For Christmas is a Pokémon'). Last time, we saw Sasha give Bayley a fairly positive update on how her day had been going so far. Then came something that put a bit of a damper on her day. And that something was...*insert dramatic music sting here*...an instance of bullying. What should she do? What is a Gem to do about something like this? Read on to find out, my loves. =)
"I beg of you, Thomas. Do not pursue him. You know nothing of the mind of that man!" Sasha shouted, remembering the lines of the script she was given in her fifth period class, which was Drama with Mr. Matt Hardy.
"And just what would you know of him, Cecilia? He is as much a mystery to me as he is to anyone else!" her scene partner, a boy with shoulder-length dark brown hair who Sasha remembered was Mustafa Ali from her Physical Fitness class, responded as he peeked at his lines.
"I know that that man is not human. For I have seen him! He is an animal! A beast! A monster that would prey on your greatest fears and weaknesses before he eventually catches you and makes you suffer agony and pain the likes of which no man has ever endured," Sasha said, trembling to show fear in her role. "I implore of you, my love. Do not seek him out. Please."
"But I must, my dear. I must help the others find this monster and destroy him before he can think to bring harm to you or to anyone else," Mustafa responded. Taking hold of Sasha's hands, Mustafa said "I ask of you. Be my light. Be my strength. For I will come back to you after we have slain this beast."
Nodding as she willed a tear out, Sasha responded "Yes, my love. I will be your beacon, your hope. I will be your strength as you set out to vanquish this beast. May you and the others succeed with this most arduous quest."
"We shall, my dearest Cecilia. We will and we shall," Mustafa said, bringing their scene to an end.
At first no one said anything until, one by one, the class applauded the two teens onstage, with some even cheering.
Standing from his seat, Mr. Hardy, a man with long brunette hair clapped as he made his way to the stage. "That was wonderful, you two. Simply, a wonderful read. Mustafa, you really embodied the role of Thomas. And Sasha, I'm quite impressed. Your first day of school and this class, and already you've shown you have quite the aptitude for the stage."
"Thank you, Mr. Hardy, sir," Sasha nodded with a bow. The Gem had found Drama to be yet another class she had taken quite a liking to. Her fourth period class, which was Math 2 with Mr. Heenan, seemed to go by a bit slower than her other classes had, so being in Drama right now felt like a more than welcome change from learning about the equations she would read about on her own time-'Seems to be quite the tricky bit of mathematics. I'll have to see if Seth or Bayley can help me out with it,' she thought.
"Yeah, he's right, Sasha. Just the way you really seemed to embody the role of Cecilia was pretty impressive," Mustafa said with a smile.
"Thanks, Mustafa. It was nothing. I was just thinking back on when one of my ...uncles would take me to see plays in some theaters. I was even lucky enough to get the chance to be in a couple of them," Sasha smiled, thinking back to days long since passed when she and Seth would go attend plays at many a theater-'I guess my time watching plays and being onstage all those years ago was quite helpful here. ...This was actually pretty fun.'
"Really? That's pretty cool. Maybe you could audition for the next play we'll be putting on. I'm not sure when it'll be or what it'll be, but I'm sure you'd get a pretty good role in it," Mustafa suggested.
"Really? You think I'd do well enough to get a role like that?" Sasha asked, feeling pretty surprised to hear this.
"Yeah. After all, you'll never know unless you decide to audition," Mustafa said.
"OK. Well, I'll be sure to keep this in mind," Sasha said with a nod.
The two onstage went back to their seats as Mr. Hardy took the stage.
"And with that quite impactful read, we welcome Ms. Sasha Ambrose into our class," Mr. Hardy said as he applauded his newest student with the rest of the class joining in along with welcoming the magenta-haired teen to their class. "Now, as we were discussing in class yesterday, how you project yourself can really help with getting your audience immersed in the scene you'd currently be having. Whether it's a comedic scene or a more dramatic scene…."
As she sat and tried to listen to her teacher's lecture, Sasha couldn't help but seem to find her thoughts drifting back to her earlier encounter with Mia. 'I should tell someone about what I saw. ...But, Bayley says not to get involved with that. ...But I took and made an oath as a Gem warrior to help and protect humans. What should I do about this? What should I do?' Sasha had been so lost in her thoughts that she wasn't even aware of the bell ringing until she heard someone calling her name.
"Hey, uhh…. Sasha? You awake in there?"
Blinking as she snapped out of her inner mental storm, Sasha looked around and saw that the class was almost gone, save for a few students that had stayed behind to talk with Mr. Hardy. Looking up to see who it was that had brought her back-so to speak-the magenta-haired teen saw that it was a girl with pink hair whose name she remembered was Liv Morgan. Shaking her head as she finally felt level-headed enough, Sasha said "Yes, I'm awake. My apologies, Liv. I was just ...thinking about something for a class of mine. Nothing to worry about."
"OK. If you say so," Liv said with a shrug before she turned and headed for the door where who Sasha guessed were two of the pink-haired teen's friends, one a girl with green hair and the other a girl with brunette hair, were waiting for her before they all walked away to their next classes.
Feeling a bit lonely, Sasha decided to take that as her cue to leave the classroom for-
'Wait. My next class is Free Period. What am I to do with a class like that? Maybe I can use that as an opportunity to find the school's library. I'm curious to see just what it is that older humans have available for those that around Bayley's age to read.'So, I guess we can say that Drama was another successful class for Sasha, another one that she seems to have taken a liking to. I guess it helps that she's got a pretty good Drama teacher in Matt Hardy and a great scene partner in Mustafa (and trips to theaters she and Seth would take many years ago and plays she had roles in). ...Then she finds her thoughts drifting back to what she saw happen between Mia and Shayna. If only she could figure out something to do about that. Hopefully she'll figure out a way to help Mia deal with her bully problems ...after she can take care of finding the school's library. Seems like Sasha's got quite a bit to deal with here. Hopefully (again), she'll be able to find a way to deal with all of that. Until then, don't forget to RR please. =)(Stay safe, warm, and healthy, lovelies. *sends love and good vibes out to you all*)
