There was a sense of anticipation in the auditorium of Royal Woods High the following Friday afternoon when the thespians had assembled for theater club that week, because it was then that they would learn who among them their drama teacher, Mrs. Bernardo, had chosen for their upcoming production of the Shakespearean comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Some of the thespians were quite confident that they had exceled in their auditions from the previous week that they felt they were a shoe-in for these roles, such as Amy and Rex, who had fully expected to be cast as young lovers, Hermia and Lysander; other thespians, however, were far less confident that they may not have made the cut, such Spencer, who not only doubted he would be cast as mischievous sprite, Robin 'Puck' Goodfellow, because of how he repeatedly stumbled through his lines during his audition, but he also still had the internal conflict that he was faced with over the decision he would have to make regardless of whatever direction Mrs. Bernardo went.
Speaking of whom, once again, their drama teacher had made yet another one of her grand entrances, but at least this time, the thespians were a little more enthusiastic about it, if only because they knew that this meant that they would finally receive the news they had anxiously awaited for the past week. Tucked underneath her arm were a number of copies of the script for their production, and although the thespians had previously been given copies of the script to familiarize themselves with the text for their auditions, these copies had the individual parts that were to be assigned to her chosen performer highlighted, so that they would know for certain which role they would play, what their specific lines were, and when to deliver them when performing on stage.
She pulled one copy of the script from under her arm which had Rex's name scribbled across the title page, as she approached the Asian boy in the pressed shirt and trousers.
"Rex, my dear boy, you certainly have a touch of a romantic in you," she said as she handed Rex his copy of the script. "You will, I have no doubt, make for an excellent Lysander."
He marveled over his stroke of good fortune to be cast in such a major role in the school play.
"I'm Lysander?" He asked at first before he exclaimed. "I'm Lysander!"
He and Amy threw their arms around each other and bounced about in excitement over Mrs. Bernardo's decision.
"I knew you would be!" She also exclaimed. "I just knew it!"
With Rex cast in the part of Lysander, it just stood to reason that his girlfriend, Amy, would, without a shadow of a doubt, be cast as Lysander's love interest, Hermia. As they pulled away from each other, Mrs. Bernardo pulled another copy of the script from under her arm:
"And the part of Hermia will be going to…"
Amy was quick to stick out her hand in full anticipation of this particular copy of the script being given to her, but was in for an unexpected and probably unpleasant surprise…
"… Shannon!"
"WHAT?!" Amy shrieked.
Mrs. Bernardo approached the bespectacled brunette to enlighten her with her reasoning for casting her in this particular role: "My dear girl, never before have I seen a young thespian who is so in tune with not only the character, but Shakespeare's writing in general!"
"Well, I am a big Shakespeare buff," said a modest Shannon as she humbly accepted the copy of the script that was handed to her.
"I know you'll do me proud!" Mrs. Bernardo said, but before she continued with her other casting decisions, she had one last thing to address: "And, I just LOVE the added authenticity with your British accent, but try not to sound too cockney…"
Shannon nodded, "I'll try…"
As the drama teacher moved onto other thespians, the recently-cast Lysander sidled up to who shall be his on-stage Hermia.
"There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee, and to that place the sharp Athenian law cannot pursue us…" He recited from memory.
Not only that, but he also took hold of Shannon's hand and kissed it in such a gentlemanly manner; Shannon, meanwhile, unsure of what to make of this, could only respond with a demure giggle as her cheeks started to tinge a little… but while her cheeks may have turned pink, Amy's entire face had turned blood red as she seethed with pure rage over this casting decision; how could any other girl play Hermia opposite her boyfriend's Lysander? And to make matters worse, the one girl who had crossed her since their first day of the school year? Was Mrs. Bernardo totally blind to the fact that she and Rex were made for each other on stage as well as off? This outrage was almost too much for the ginger-haired girl to bear, she could have erupted like a volcano at that very moment; there was no way she would allow anything to happen between her sworn enemy and her sworn beloved.
As Amy stewed in her rage, Mrs. Bernardo continued to assign the other parts in the play, as Benny and Luan were the next thespians she approached.
"Benny, Luan, there was no doubt in my mind that a playful pair such as you would be perfect for the king and queen of the fairies…" she explained while she handed each of them the copies of their scripts with their highlighted parts. "So, here you go, Oberon and Titania!"
The two of them were quite pleased with their drama teacher's decisions as they happily accepted their parts.
"How about that, Benny Boy?" Luan asked. "You and me, king and queen of the fairies?"
"Sounds rather spritely, if you ask me!" Benny quipped as she and Luan shared in a chuckle.
"Speaking of spritely…" Mrs. Bernardo continued as she handed out another copy of the script to Spencer, "you, Spencer, shall be our mischievous sprite, Robin 'Puck' Goodfellow."
"Really?" Spencer asked in surprise as he saw his name written on the title page of his script.
"You have a natural talent, Spencer," assured Mrs. Bernardo. "If you can nurture that talent, and overcome your little hurdle, I just know you'll make for a marvelous stage actor!"
Of course he knew of what hurdle she spoke: his hang-up of mistaking certain words in his lines during his delivery… but for the moment, that was the least of his worries – now that he knew for certain that he would be in the play, he would have to break the news to Coach Rubiner that he will be unable to participate in training for football season… or, at least, break his fabricated news to the coach that a family matter is the cause of the conflict in his schedule… and hope the coach will buy it.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Bernardo finished passing out scripts to Ruby, Lyberti, and Parvana, who she had cast into the roles of fairies; Errol and Jackee were cast as Demetrius and Helena, who are bretrothed to Lysander and Hermia, respectively; Leo was cast as young Indian boy whom Titania wants as a servant, while Oberon wants to make into a knight. With that, she reminded them that they would begin to meet up after school every day starting the following Monday for their rehearsals to prepare them for their big production in the weeks to come.
For the first time since she started high school, Shannon had actually looked forward to a new school week ahead of her; the aspiring young thespian was most excited to perform a major role in one of her favorite Shakespearean comedies. She opened her locker to put away her backpack and gather the proper text book she would need for her first period class, but when she closed her locker shut, she nearly jumped out of her skin to discover Amy angrily stood on the other side of the previously opened door with confrontational intentions.
"You just better stay away from my Rex, got it?!" The girl in the green t-shirt spat.
"What are you talking about?" Shannon asked.
"If you think you're gonna charm your way into my Rex's heart, you've got another thing coming!" Amy barked.
It took Shannon a moment to figure out what Amy had even insinuated in regards to she and her boyfriend, until she realized…
"Wait… is this about me and Rex playing Hermia and Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream?"
"Oh, so you are a genius, huh?" Amy snarked while she circled her index fingers and thumbs around her eyes, as if to imply that Shannon fit an outdated stereotype that people who wear glasses must have rather high intelligence.
"Nothing could possibly go on between me and Rex…" Shannon tried to insist.
"Sure, that's what you say now, but I know how these show-biz romances go!" Amy continued to bark. "Pretty soon, your on-stage romance will spill over off stage as you and Rex fall in love with each other, and there is no way I'm gonna let that happen!"
"That's just silly! Look, Amy, all we're doing is playing roles… that Mrs. Bernardo cast us in…" Shannon pressed in feeble hope of getting her message through to Amy. "Besides, I'm not even interested in Rex, anyway!"
She hoped in vain that her assurance would calm Amy down a bit, but unfortunately, that last remark only provided her with another round of ammunition to blast into this argument.
"Oh! So my Rex isn't good enough for you, huh?!" She asked to defend her man's honor as her fists met her hips.
Shannon's eyes could have rolled right out of their sockets; clearly there was no civilized way to reason with Amy, and this silly argument had become a big waste of her time.
"Look, Amy…" she continued in one last ditch effort to talk some sense into her, "I'm not interested in Rex because he's your boyfriend, and the only reason I'm playing opposite him is because Mrs. Bernardo cast us in those roles… I swear to you that absolutely nothing is going to be happening between us, okay?"
"Yeah, well, you just better not try to do anything with my Rex, you… you… floozy Jew!"
Shannon's brow practically collapsed from the dead weight of that pathetic attempt at an epithet, and apparently, she was not the only one who was not at all impressed with it…
"'Jew'? Really? That's, like, the best you can come up, Ginger?" A very familiar voice spoke up while arriving on the scene.
"What do you want, Ruby?" Amy asked as she turned to confront the maroon-clad girl who approached them.
"Actually, I, like, have a message for you," said Ruby in a nonchalant manner.
"Oh, yeah?" A confused Amy asked. "What is it?"
"The cat shelter called..." Ruby continued with a look of absolute smugness on her face, "they, like, want you back in your cage after school."
An eruption of snickers that came from behind her back caught Amy's attention as she turned around once again to see said Jew failing to repress the snickers she got from Ruby's sick burn… now, Amy was all the more livid to not only have been insulted, but to be laughed at on top of it. With lightning fast reflexes that were actually quite fitting for her catty personality, she attempted to take a swipe at the snickering brunette.
"What are you laughing at?!" She growled in rage.
So much for Amy's bark being worse than her bite – for once, she actually did attempt to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. Just as quickly, something likewise snapped inside Ruby, but something that was far more beneficial to Shannon… a protective instinct of sort that prompted her to grab ahold of Amy and try to subdue her before she could bring any kind of physical harm to her friend.
"Hey! Leave her alone, Amy!" Ruby barked as she wrestled the catty girl away from the scene. "Why don't you, like, put an egg in your shoe, and, like, beat it?"
"Fine! Whatev!" Amy snapped. "I am so done here, anyway! I've got better things to do than waste my time with you losers."
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Amy," snarked Ruby.
The freckle-faced ginger turned tail and stormed off in a loud huff, leaving the other two girls behind; the bespectacled brunette released a loud huff of her own, though hers was one of somewhat defeated frustration, which caught her friend's attention.
"You okay, Shannon?" Ruby asked.
"She's insufferable…" moaned Shannon.
A loud sigh passed through Ruby's nostrils as she nodded in agreement, "I told you she was a bitch…"
"Thinking I'm going to try and seduce Rex…" Shannon continued to moan. "Talk about being paranoid…"
To see and hear the exasperation coming from her friend, Ruby gave her best attempt to bring some levity to the discussion to try and lift her spirits:
"Maybe she can't handle a little competition," quipped Ruby.
"Ruby…" Shannon moaned at such ridiculousness.
"Just sayin'," continued Ruby with a playful shrug. "She could be jelly."
Now Ruby was just being silly; Shannon continued, "Please, what reasons could Amy have to be jealous of me?"
"What about your fab hair?" Ruby pointed out.
"Oy… I hate my hair…" Shannon demonstrated with an attempt to run her fingers through her thick and wavy locks, which only caused them to become tangled within the natural curls she possessed. "I can't do a thing with it…"
"Are you kidding?" Ruby asked in admiration of what she saw as a lustrous and flowing mane. "I'd, like, totally kill to have volume like yours!"
Still, Shannon herself could do without never-ending tangles and snags as she tried to slip her fingers out of the curls, which caused some obvious pain and discomfort from the tugging she felt on her scalp. A sudden ring of the bell alerted students that school was now in session; if you were not in your class, then you were tardy, and a student mustn't be tardy.
"Uh oh," mumbled Ruby. "Gotta go; Ms. Borutski doesn't need to see me late for class!"
"Yeah, see you…" said Shannon as she and Ruby took off in opposite directions to race for their respective first period classes in hopes that neither of their teachers will have noticed they were late.
Much to Shannon's relief, she, thankfully, shared no classes with Amy during the day… however, that still did not mean they did not still see each other, either in the halls, in the cafeteria, or at any point out on school grounds. Since the freckle-faced brunette had no reason to associate with the even more freckle-faced ginger, to avoid Amy was a relatively easy accomplishment for Shannon; similarly, Amy did not usually go out of her way to associate with Shannon, either. On this day, however, it did not take rocket science for Shannon to figure that Amy was sending out icy vibes throughout the rest of the day: to pass each other in the halls, or to enter one another's field of vision in the cafeteria, Shannon could see the death glares Amy would cast towards her. It also did not help that Shannon felt something of a delayed, residual sting from Amy's earlier epithet... sure, even she knew that Amy just blurted out the first thing that came into her angered mind... still, for Amy to spit it out in such a venomous manner as she had felt like a personal attack against her faith, which was rather hurtful to the proud Jewish girl.
Given her lack of real-world social skills, and her personal aversion to confrontations of any sort, Shannon had begun to consider that if she wanted the bad blood between she and Amy to clot and prevent it from bleeding out any further, some kind of tourniquet would need to be employed… even if it meant making big sacrifice.
Spencer was, under ordinary circumstances, always ready, willing, and able to accept physical challenges, however, this day had brought forth a mental challenge that made it rather difficult for him to concentrate on any of his school work during the day, as the dread of having to face Coach Rubiner after school, and whether or not he could convince him of his reasons for having to miss out on football training, hovered over him like a little black rain cloud… at a time like this, the young jock had begun to regret enrolling in theater as an elective – he figured that, since theater was to meet after school only on Fridays, that it would not conflict with his schedule with the sports club… so much for not having to worry about that sort of conflict.
When school had concluded for that day, Spencer's anxiety was at an all-time high as he reluctantly made his way out onto the playing field, where he could see some of his friends and teammates were already out and suited up in their helmets and shoulder pads, while others still emerged from the locker room. Standing off to the sidelines was a relatively tall and slender man with salt-and-pepper colored hair upon his balding head, a graying beard upon his chin, thick-rimmed glasses before his eyes, and, of course, a whistle hung about his neck; in his hands was a clipboard which contained the roster of the players who had signed up for football season, as well as their corresponding numbers, and at that moment, he could see that the player who was listed as number seven on his roster was about to approach him.
"Hey, coach," croaked Spencer as he stroked his arm. "Can I have a word?"
"Ah, Banks, I knew you wouldn't let me down," exclaimed Coach Rubiner when he saw Spencer had arrived.
"Yeah, about that, you see…" Spencer tried to continue, but was interrupted by his coach.
"I've been looking forward to training you," he continued, "you've shown a lot of promise so far this semester!"
"Thanks, coach, but…" Spencer once again tried to resume his explanation, but still was unable to get a word in edgewise.
"What position are you trying out for?" The coach asked. "You seem like a lineman to me."
"Look, coach…" Spencer was finally able to speak, "I was really looking forward to football season, and I wanna play for the team more than anything, but… there's… a conflict…"
Coach Rubiner furrowed his brow at this metaphoric fumble, while Spencer continued…
"It's… really difficult to talk about… but… it's… it just came up, it's a… family matter, you see? And… I…"
Although Coach Rubiner initially looked disappointed when Spencer told him there would be a conflict, he suddenly, to Spencer's surprise, became rather understanding.
"Banks… you know what I've always said about being a team?" The coach asked as he tucked his clipboard under his arm, and rested a hand on Spencer's shoulder.
"That there's no 'I' in team?" Spencer asked.
The coach nodded, "Yeah, I have said that… but, there's something else I've always said about being a team, and that's being a team is like being a family, and like a family, we all look out for each other, on and off the field, on and off the court… understand?"
Spencer nodded, "Yes, sir…"
"We'll be sorry to lose you, Banks," said Coach Rubiner. "But, I admire your sense of priority."
Spencer could sense a wave of relief; his may not have been a rock-solid alibi –if he could even call it that- but at least his coach was willing to buy it; Coach Rubiner did not even need to hear all of the sordid details to know that even in the competitive world of team sports, some things are more important than the game itself, and if Spencer had family matters that would have a negative impact on his training and/or gameplay, then it would be best to let his young player get these matters sorted out, rather than keep him during a time when any sort of distraction could make him a liability to the rest of the team.
"Th-thanks, coach," said Spencer as he scratched the back of his head. "I… really don't know what to say…"
"We still got the rest of the semester ahead of us," said Coach Rubiner. "As soon as you're ready, let me know, and we'll be happy to have you back."
"Yes, sir!" Spencer exclaimed before he hustled away, while the coach went back to take one final count of the other players that were out on the field at that moment to see if, even without Spencer, he still had enough in the club to make a regulation team.
Spencer, meanwhile, raced over to the other side of the facility to make it to the auditorium for the first day of rehearsals for A Midsummer Night's Dream; as much as he loved football, and really did not want to miss out on it, it was something that he had done many times before; a school play was something he had yet to participate in, and was ready to seize the opportunity. Moments later, he stormed into the auditorium where he found that he just barely made it in time for rehearsals… he could tell, because, apparently, he had missed out on another one of Mrs. Bernardo's entrances, as she had already begun to break down the scenes they would be going over today; once he spotted Ruby, he raced over to her.
"Like, there you are," she said when she saw he had arrived and noticed he was panting. "What did you, like, run a marathon over here or something?"
"Just about…" he panted.
Mrs. Bernardo then dismissed most of the other thespians to take a seat in the auditorium, while she instructed Rex and Amy to remain on stage – something the ginger-haired girl found curious.
"Why me?" She asked.
"Shannon has relinquished the part of Hermia," explained Mrs. Bernardo, who sounded a trifle disappointed.
"Really?" Amy asked; at first, she was quite confused, but quickly figured that this would put in her in a hot seat, as she insisted, "I mean, I didn't have anything to do with it!"
"No, she relinquished the part on her own accord... the poor girl feels she has not what it takes to make for a romantic lead..." Mrs. Bernardo continued as she pressed the back of her fist into her forehead. "But, she did make the suggestion that I try you out for the role, so you shall be our new Hermia."
"Oh?" This had initially blindsided Amy, but she was quick to realize that this would mean that what she perceived to be a major problem had been resolved, and she gladly accepted. "Oh! Well, don't worry, Mrs. B.; Rex and I can so pull this off."
Rex was on the receiving end of a one-armed squeeze as Amy pulled him close to her; he smiled and responded, "Yeah, we totally can."
"Yes, I'm sure of it…" said Mrs. Bernardo.
As their drama teacher flipped through the script pages to find where they should begin their current rehearsal, Amy quietly murmured to Rex…
"Now, doesn't this work out better for everybody?" She asked him with a wink.
"You know it!" Rex bashfully responded with a stroke against the back of his head.
"Alright!" Mrs. Bernardo exclaimed. "Act I, Scene I… Lysander, Hermia, it is here that you begin to profess your adoration for one another… AAAAANNNND ACTIOOOONNN!"
As Mrs. Bernardo stepped aside, Rex began the scene as he addressed his girlfriend, who now also played his character's love interest: "How, now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale? How chance the roses there do fade so fast?"
Unfortunately, in spite of her previous audition, Amy had little time to actually prepare for this role otherwise; she very much stumbled through her first attempt to act out her part: "Like, I want it to rain…"
The smiles on the faces of both Rex and Mrs. Bernardo quickly disappeared; Rex's smile had deviated into a smirk at his girlfriend's attempts to remember the poetic dialogue as written by the Bard of Avon, while Mrs. Bernardo's smile had completely soured over her botched delivery.
"Uh… rain… from the wells of my eyes…"
"Aye, me…" Rex mumbled not only to recite his next line, but also to convey his discomfort in a subtle way.
"No-no-no-no-NO-NO!" Mrs. Bernardo cut the scene and walked over to Amy to go over the lines with her. "Amy… your line is, 'Belike for want of rain, which I could well beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.'"
A puzzled look swept across Amy's freckled face; she had to wonder why Shakespeare seemingly wrote in such a funny way – or, more accurately, peculiar, but as far as she was concerned, it was just plain weird.
Out in the auditorium, various other thespians were engaged in other practices of their own to prepare themselves for their rehearsals, however, certain few –namely Luan, Benny, Ruby, and Spencer- were far too perplexed by the fact that Amy acted in Shannon's stead; Ruby craned her neck around the entire room to scope out the freckle-faced brunette with the large glasses.
"Like, where's Shannon?" She asked.
"Beats me. Wasn't she supposed to play Hermia instead of Amy?" Spencer asked.
As they continued to watch Rex and Amy's attempt at rehearsing this particular scene, none of them were impressed whatsoever by what they had witnessed up on that stage.
"O, cross! Too high to be enthralled to low…" Amy projected with all the charm of a student reading from their text book aloud in class.
"Or else, misgraffed in respect of years…" Rex responded, if only with a little more nuance than his scene partner.
"O, spite! Too old to be engaged to young…" Amy responded, and not that much better than previously.
"O-M-G; Amy sucks!" Ruby spat.
"I don't know if I would go that far," said Luan to give Amy some benefit of doubt. "But, yeah, I think Shannon could do a better job at this than her…"
Knowing how much of a Shakespeare buff their mutual friend was, Benny agreed, "She could so nail this part."
"Something's, like, totally not right here…" said Ruby before she pulled her cell phone from one of the zippered compartments of her backpack to send out a text message...
where r u?
After a couple of moments of more torture from watching Amy attempt to embody a role she claimed was practically made for her, in spite of her less than satisfactory acting, Ruby received a response from one Broadwaygirl1924:
I found a secret place
red_ruby was quick to reply to Broadwaygirl1924's text:
where?
As I explained previously, A Midsummer Night's Dream was one of Albertson's contributions to the story; he felt that to have Shannon cast in a role that Amy badly wanted so she could act opposite her boyfriend as romantic leads could be what establishes their ongoing feud. I was initially resistent, as this story is already expanding on three minor canon characters (Shannon, Ruby, and Spencer), and I really wasn't interested in expanding on any others (Amy and Rex)... however, I was quick to realize this scenario was actually a stroke of genius, because not only can it provide some actual context for Shannon's comment about Amy being her arch-nemesis in "Stage Plight," but this particular plot thread will provide us with an intriguing parallel to Ruby and Spencer's thread as well.
We would also like to stress that although Amy is clearly an unlikable character, she is still only human, and prone to making such a mistake as speaking out of anger without really thinking about what she's saying, like any of us are, undoubtedly, guilty of... in spite of her epithet against Shannon's faith, she is not an anti-Semite.
And, I meant for Ruby's social media screenname to be more than just "red_ruby," however, it would appear that FFN does not allow for the use of certain characters in story documents; otherwise, a heart made from a left angle bracket and number three would be included in her screenname.