"The role of the Prince will be played by..."
My heart starts to race again. Cold sweats drop from my forehead.
Who will it be?
"The Prince is Boruto," she continues.
Oh my...
Does anyone want to slap me? I think I'm dreaming.
"Sarada..." Cho-Cho shakes me. I look at her and give her a (*o*) face.
"I can't believe what I have heard," I utter.
"No way!" Yodo says all so mad.
"Namida is the narrator," our adviser adds.
"Wasabi is the scriptwriter and Tsubaki is the floor director," she continues to enumerate everyone's roles.
"The rest of the class are the facilitators."
Indistinct chatter starts to echo inside the classroom.
"Aye! It's Boruto and Sarada," Cho-Cho giggles.
I think my cheeks flush again. I secretly glanced at Boruto. He is smiling while talking to Mitsuki.
"Boruto is my Prince..." I thought.
"The practice will start this afternoon, same time and place, and everyone must be there, understood?" she demands.
"Yes!" we respond in chorus.
"Okay, let's start our lesson today," she continues and everyone flips on the pages of the book to where we stopped yesterday.
After an hour, the bell rings and it's break time. Cho-Cho and I go to the canteen to get something to eat.
We settle after the serving of our snacks. We sat facing each other. After a few seconds, her mobile phone beeps. She immediately grabs it from her pocket and taps on its screen.
She started tapping continuously on the screen like she is typing a long message.
"Was that him?" I ask. My curiosity again. She did not respond. I pout at her while she is busy typing a message for him.
I confirmed that it is him when she is unconsciously smiling like an idiot. I am not jealous or something, okay?
"Cho-Cho, let's eat," I tell her.
"Okay," she replies then puts her phone on the table.
I start munching on my sandwich and sip on my soda after. She does the same thing.
Another beep from her phone and she suddenly gets fluster. She checks who texted her and she again is smiling like an idiot.
I think I'll be watching her smiling stupidly like that until the break is over. I exasperatedly look at her while I am sipping on my soda. She seems not to notice my presence.
"I'll go ahead, Cho-Cho. I'm done with my snack," I say and stand up from my seat.
"Hey, wait!" she tries to stop me.
I look at her while still pouting.
"I haven't finished my snack yet," she states.
"Of course, you could not finish it because you're busy chatting with a friend," I say and I turn my back at her.
"Hey, Sarada wait up. I'm sorry okay?" she says and I think she follows me.
"Is everyone here?" our adviser asks when the time for the practice comes.
"Yes!"
"Namida and Wasabi, come over here for a minute," she calls out to them while we are patiently waiting for our roles to be executed.
She seems to instruct them about what to do.
"Facilitators, come over," she adds and a group of five people walk in her direction and take note that includes the jerk.
As what she did to Namida and Wasabi, she seems to instruct the five too.
"Alright then, before we start, can we clean this place first? It's a little messy and dusty in here. The room has not been used for a while," she says gesturing to the floor.
"Okay!" we say at the same time.
We started from sweeping the floor to wiping the dusty windows. We put the tables and chairs on the side so we can occupy the rest of the room.
As soon as we finished, our adviser calls out to us, actors. She is with Namida and Wasabi.
"Wasabi has finished the script and Namida is ready for the narrative," she informs us.
We nod as a response to her.
"Tsubaki and Kawaki, come here," she calls out to them. I can see how dull his expression is. Not interested at all.
"I have witnessed Tsubaki's skills in the directory and she was the assistant director of the Beauty and the Beast play during the Winter Festival last year and it was a success. And for Kawaki, I assigned him to assist Tsubaki in this play," she explains.
Tsubaki was the one who had lost interest in the play and even criticized it yet she is the floor director?
Maybe she doesn't like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or she's too annoyed with the plays already? Well, I have guessed. I don't know the reason at all.
"What?" the jerk snaps.
"Is there any problem?" she asks him.
"I don't have any idea about the play and it's not my subject of interest at all," he explains.
"It's okay Kawaki. You'll just assist Tsubaki in the flow of the play. All you need to do is follow what she has to say," she tells him about his role.
"Like her watchdog?" the jerk sarcastically says.
"Kawaki! That's not what I meant," she almost scolds him.
"Whatever," he says and turns on his side.
Our adviser sighs and shakes her head.
"Here are the scripts," Wasabi says and hands over the script to all the casts of the play.
"You read them first and see how you put the words into action," Namida says while smiling.
I smile at Wasabi after I received the script from her. I flip on the pages, it's actually a ten pages script.
"Memorize your lines, okay?" Wasabi reminds us.
"What we are going to do this afternoon is to familiarize ourselves with your roles and to scrutinize the script," our adviser says.
"Okay," we respond.
"Alright, let's start," she adds and we settle at the center of the room. We form a circle sitting beside each other and our adviser is standing in front of us.
We discuss each role first then the flow of the plot. Tsubaki explains what we should do and who will appear first, what will be the first scene, and what will be the last.
"Tsubaki is awesome!" Cho-Cho comments.
"Yeah, being the director of this play suits her best," I agree with her comment.
"Are you ready?" she asks me.
"Um... not yet. I have to memorize my lines and prepare my acting tonight," I answer.
Cho-Cho is one of the facilitators. She did not audition for any of the roles though. She said, she just wanted to eat and I laughed at her.
"Okay, that is all for today and we will start our practice after class tomorrow at 4 o'clock sharp right here, don't be late," our adviser announces.
"Yes, Ma'am!"
"Hey, you keep staring at your phone since then," I tell Cho-Cho. She keeps staring at it like she is waiting for a call or a text message. We are heading home at the moment.
"Hmm... I am just wondering why he hasn't texted me yet. It feels weird," she replies.
"Maybe something came up like his phone has shut down, or it's in a silent mode or—"
"Okay, stop! I don't want to overthink," she cuts me off from speaking.
"You are sure addicted to his messages. What does he send you by the way?" I ask out of curiosity.
"Hmm. He is making poems and he sends them to me," she responds.
"Huh? I didn't know he is kind of poetic. What I know about him is he is a quiet type," I remark.
"Well, he told me he wants to be a poet in the future," she reveals.
"Really?" I ask in amazement.
"Yes," she confirms.
"Oh cool, I think he likes literature so much," I guess.
"He does and I like his poems," she responds.
"You seem to know a lot about him already," I tease her.
"Not really. It's just that we sometimes talk about personal things like our dreams, hobbies, and many more," she states.
"Now, I am really jealous of you," I say.
"You should not. Nothing is going on between us," she says and her eyes gloom.
"What do you mean?" I ask because I am a little worried about her sudden change of expression.
"He said that he wanted to focus on his studies first so he could achieve his dreams in the future and that only means I will keep my feelings for him until then," she says and tears are in the corners of her eyes.
"So what about the letter?" I ask.
"I decided to still write him one but I will keep it until the time comes," she says.
I never thought Cho-Cho would be this madly in love with him. What if Boruto is like him too?
"Don't tell me you'll wait until eternity?" I ask.
"Stupid! Of course not! I will give him the letter when I am ready then it's up to him if he will accept it or reject me," she says and smiles bitterly.
She is so brave. Cho-Cho has always been so strong. If I were in her place, I would have been on my knees crying.
"Are you okay with that?" I ask.
"And why not? We will not know until we try, right? And besides, it's an advantage for me so I can move on with my life, forget about my feelings for him, and maybe it will come back one day and we can be together in the end. How is that?" she confidently says.
"That's too painful to bear," I utter.
"Yes it is, but we should not give up on them or there must be one person who is meant to be with us in the end and not with the people we like now. We never know what will happen tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next week, and in the coming months and years. Let's just wait and see," she says a lot that I could say that she is a different person now and not my best friend that I used to know.
"You're too deep but..."
"All you have said were right. Boruto might not be the one for me in the end but I cannot regret not telling him about what I feel for him," I say.
"That's right. Therefore, we still need to write down our feelings on a piece of paper and send it to them," she says and winks.
"Getting along with him makes you realize a lot of things, Cho-Cho," I tell her.
"I can tell that he is mature enough to understand the things around him. He thinks like a real man now. From what I have read from a book, 'get a man who has dreams for his life is in the right path," she says. Well, that's kind of true.
'A man with dreams, huh?' I repeat in my mind.
I wanted to know what is Boruto's dream.
"Alright, cut!" Tsubaki says and we stop doing what she told us to do for the scene.
"Is it okay?" I ask her.
"Good job there, Sarada," she says.
We are in the part where Snow White enjoys cooking the food of the seven dwarfs when she found their cute house and the little men were out for the mine.
"Thank you," I tell her.
"Okay, let's have a break first. The next scene will be the seven dwarfs find out that Snow White is in their house," she says and she turns to face Kawaki and talks to him. The jerk is not paying attention at all.
"You did a great job there, Sarada," Cho-Cho makes me lose sight of the jerk.
"Thank you," I respond. She shows me a paper and she opens it, it has snacks inside.
"Shall we?" she says while rolling her eyes. I laugh at her and we settle on the vacant seats and enjoy our snack. Everyone's having their snacks too while memorizing their lines.
After the twenty minutes break, we get back to work again.
"The last scene before the ending is the Prince kisses Snow White and breaks the spell," Tsubaki says.
"H-Huh?" I utter.
Boruto will kiss me in this scene? Well, we are not going to kiss each other, for real. Kissing is prohibited though.
But I don't know if I can withstand him being so close to me especially since his face will be so close to me during the kissing scene.
"Are okay, Sarada?" Tsubaki asks in confusion. I glance at Boruto and he has the same expression as Tsubaki.
"Y-Yeah," I stutter.
What the hell were you thinking, Sarada? I am pathetic (T-T)
"Okay, shall we start?" Tsubaki asks and we both nod. I am very nervous, to be honest.
It is Boruto for cat's sake!
I lay on the bed provided for the scene. Then Boruto enters the picture.
"Oh, my beautiful Princess. It is so sad to see you sleeping on this bed for years and not hearing your beautiful voice like the singing birds in the forest..." he starts with his line. He is kneeling in front of me.
I can feel my whole body trembles as he is moving closer to me.
"It came to my knowledge that the true love's first kiss will break the spell cast to you by the cruel Queen," he continues.
He leans over to me, a few inches away from my face. I think my cheeks turn red.
"Now, I will end the Queen's truculence and free you from the spell," he says and his face moves closer to me, approximately an inches away.
It's the kissing scene!
I think my heart will break out from my chest. It is beating so fast and I bet Boruto can hear it.
Calm down, Sarada.
Tsubaki, cut this scene off already or I will die at any moment...
"Cut!" Tsubaki shouts and I feel relieved.
Boruto's face slowly moves away from me. I can hear the claps and yells from the crowd.
"You did a great job there, Boruto, Sarada," Tsubaki says and everyone applauds. I stand next to Boruto.
Cho-Cho dashes in our direction.
"Oh my...Sarada!" she yells and hugs me tight.
"Cho-Cho..." I utter.
"I'm so happy for you," she tells me and smiles.
"Thank you," I am grateful to Cho-Cho for supporting me.
"I think everyone's ready for tomorrow's event," Tsubaki says joyously.
Oh yes. The big day is tomorrow and we are ready.
"Let's call it a day. You guys really did a great job. Rest well tonight and be ready for the real show tomorrow. Goodbye," our adviser waves and leaves us right away.
I am very excited about tomorrow. I'll be part of the Drama Club soon. I can't wait for that moment to come.
"What about the costume? Where are the shoes? Where is Sarada's headdress?"
Cho-Cho is in panic mode. As the facilitator, she is readying our costumes to be used later.
"Give me the curtains," Iwabe orders, and Dae gives them immediately.
"What do you think of the decorations?" Do they look good?" Denki and Lee are in-charge.
"So, are you ready, Namida?" Wasabi asks her.
"Yes," Namida replies and nods.
"Kawaki, focus the camera on this spot before the play starts, okay?" Tsubaki tells Kawaki and he seems to be nice today.
I am watching them prepare for the play this afternoon. Everyone is busy and I am here watching them do all the work. Tsubaki and our adviser do not want me to engage with the preparations. They want me to relax.
"Hey Boruto, can you put these stickers up there? The wall's too high I can't reach it," Dae asks for Boruto's help.
"Sure," he replies and climbs up the ladder and puts the stickers in their right places.
When Boruto's about to step down, he accidentally slips on the ladder and falls.
"Ahhhh!" he shouts.
"Boruto!"
Everyone rushes in his direction. Even I rush too. I am worried, so damn worried.
"My leg hurts!" he is in pain.
"Call the nurse, please!" I shout.
"Y-Yes!" Lee startles and immediately runs to the clinic.
"Boruto, hang in there. Everything's going to be fine," our adviser assures him.
"I-I can't move my leg," he says almost crying.
"Boruto..." I utter in dismay.
"T-The play..." he struggles to talk.
"Don't worry about the play, we need to attend your safety first," our adviser tells him.
"I...I think... I won't make it..." he says and he prickles in pain.
The nurses came rushing with a stretcher and they slowly put Boruto on and rush him back to the clinic.
Boruto...
I hope he is going to be okay.
The play...
I don't know if it will still be happening...
"If Boruto won't make it by the time of the play, we need to pick someone as his replacement..."
No way...