Chapter 3

It was the night of the big show. It was the biggest item for the drama department: the spring play. Louis and Twitty took their comfortable seats from the balcony of the school auditorium. Twitty was at the event because Louis was there. Louis was there to check out the girls, and see Tawny too. Unfortunately, Louis was not much on drama because halfway through the first act he was snoring. Twitty had to nudge him when it was intermission. "Hey, Lou, wake up . . . Lou!!"

Louis was slumped in his seat, was drooling, and of course, snoring. "Wha? Yeah, oh! Bravo! Magnifico!! Encore!"

"Relax, Louis, it's only intermission."

Louis stumbled to his senses, "Of course. I knew it was the whole time." Louis let out a big yawn and tried to stay focused and awake.

After the intermission and after the play finished, Louis and Twitty ran out to the lobby in order to see the cast lined up. Louis made his way through the line and tried to make small talk with the kids who were in the play even though he paid no attention to the play at all. He went about the line and finally made it to the end where the two leads were standing and still smiling: Tawny standing alongside her male counterpart Corey Richmond. Corey had a tall, strong build. He had auburn hair and blue eyes. He had a few subtle freckles on his cheeks, had a big wide smile, and had biceps that could crush Louis in a matter of seconds. "How ya doin', Core? Ow! Ow!! Whoa, buddy. Easy on the hand there," Louis welped as Corey crushed Louis' hand.

"Louis! You made it to the show!" Tawny exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, I thought I might make a little cameo appearance, take some time out to see my adoring fans." But then Louis looked around to see that nobody had really wanted to talk to him. In fact, he could swear that he heard crickets in the background! "Yeah, well, anyway. Nice job, Tawn. It was great."

Tawny graciously smiled and Louis was off. Twitty was a little behind and caught up. He said hello to Tawny and Corey and was off, "Hey, Louis! Where'ya going? You took off pretty quick."

"Oh nothing, Twitty. Hey, you wanna see a movie?"

"Um, sure, man. Whatever."

Slowly but surely the weekend came and went and three productions of "The Long Walk Home" came and went. Louis was out most of the weekend partying with friends, hanging with Twitty like always, and watching movies. It was just another weekend for ol' Louis Stevens. He was walking out of the theater Sunday afternoon with one huge popcorn bucket in each hand and walking under a movie poster that read, "Attack of the Incontinent Squids from Neptune IV." Meanwhile, at that very moment across town at the high school auditorium, Tawny and Corey were helping break down the set after the final performance of "The Long Walk Home." All those hours working together during rehearsals and performances, Tawny and Corey had acquired a bit of chemistry, which was healthy for the play.

While tearing down a wall of the set, Corey started up a conversation with Tawny, and he said, "Gee, it won't be quite the same."
"What do you mean?" Tawny wondered.

"Well, we've worked on this play for months and months and all of a sudden it's over."

"Yeah, I know."

"Say, Tawny, there's something I've been wanting to ask you for some time now."

"What is it, Corey?"

Corey, staring straight into Tawny's eyes with his big blue eyes and drawing himself closer to her said, "You know, since we've been doing this play, I feel like I've grown to be close with you." He paused to let the words sink into Tawny's mind. "I guess what I'm saying is . . . that I've grown to really like you. And since prom is in a month, I was wondering if you would like to go with me?"

Tawny didn't answer. She was a bit startled to say the least. She had been working with him for awhile and yes, they had grown together a little bit, but that happens a lot between two actors. Tawny had a chill run down her spine and took a deep breath. "Um, Corey, I don't really know how to say this. It's not that I don't think you're a great guy or anything. And I don't even know if I want to go." The hopeful smile on Corey's face faded away. "I'm sorry, but I can't go to prom with you."

Corey took a deep sigh and said, "OK," and they went back to tearing down the set.