Have to give this chapter a funny title, because in another two chapters it's gonna get serious.
Thank you for reading!
Ephemer gave the cast sheet one look and he immediately grinned from ear to ear. Finally, after a good three years of trying, he had landed a spot as a lead role. He was disappointed to find that Anora was not a lead as well. But it made sense, honestly, in the grand scheme of things. They could still rehearse together, so it wasn't much of a loss.
Speaking of rehearsing, today was the first rehearsal practice. With it, everyone who had been given a role in the play had to be in the auditorium for a script reading. Ephemer wasn't the first in the auditorium. Quite a good handful of other students were making idle chit-chat with each other. Anora wasn't there yet- which made Ephemer a bit disappointed. But he knew she was going to show up, she had to.
"Are you here for the table reading?" a random student asked Ephemer. Broken from his thoughts, Ephemer looked at the student for a moment before nodding.
"Sure am!" he agreed.
"Good." the student then said, leading him up onto the stage. On the stage were over 50 foldable chairs arranged in a box-like shape. As Ephemer admired how neatly the chairs were arranged, the other student went on to explain, "Skuld wants a hierarchy during the script reading. The lead roles are to sit on the far left, next should come secondary roles, background roles, then everyone else. She might have labeled them."
"Got it." Ephemer nodded. "Thank you."
"Not a problem." the student dismissed with a wave of their hand. "We've got pizza coming in about another hour or so, so you can just chill until Skuld decides we're all here."
Ephemer gave the student another nod of agreement before they left. Not sure of what else to do until he saw Anora or Skuld, Ephemer took a seat. Just sitting probably made his mind roam a bit more than he intended. He thought about Anora, and Skuld, and the mild panic of being in the play hitting him all at once. The rest of May was going to fly by quickly, he could feel it in his bones.
"Alright everyone!" Skuld's voice resonated through the room- apparently she had borrowed Ms. Tremaine's megaphone, had it not been apparent by the 'April D. Tremaine DBA' written on the side. "It's time to start the table read! Kris has already told you how we're doing the seating, so get up there."
Some of the students groaned as they made their way onto the stage. That was when Ephemer finally caught sight of Anora- but it was far too late to make small talk with her now. As everyone took their seat, it quickly became apparent that they were one chair short. Of course Anora was the one left standing.
Ephemer was about to give up his seat for her before one of the other understudies insisted she take theirs. Anora gave a small smile, too meek to deny them, before sitting down.
"Hello everyone," Skuld announced to the group, "My name is Skuld, and I am this year's lead play director."
"Hello Skuld." the students chorused with various rounds of interest.
"I'd like to start by thanking you all for coming out." Skuld then told them. "In a few moments, I'll pass out the scripts, but I'd like to talk about the play in general first."
She gave the group some time to process this information, and when no one objected, she went on.
"The play this year will be set in two acts. Today, I'd like us to read through both acts, make the proper notes and changes, then start with the revisions on Monday. Since each act is about 30 minutes long, we'll take a 20 minute break after reading through the first act. Sound fair?"
When no one voiced an objection, Skuld gave a brisk nod before getting out the scripts. Ephemer immediately started to skip through the pages when he received his copy.
"Are we cutting out the big kiss at the end?" Ephemer questioned.
"Yes." one of the scriptwriters agreed before Skuld could. "This year, we decided to not do a traditional fairy-tale romance, and instead are trying to make something more realistic. Something less pandering to a strict moral."
"So the play's a whodunit, huh?" the boy smirked.
"No!" the scriptwriter argued. But at everyone's judgmental glare, they shrunk a bit before quietly saying, "Yeah..."
The rest of the script reading went on pretty well. Every so often, Skuld would interrupt to get notes on certain stage directions, or how she wanted the lighting to go. Any of the jokes in the script that fell flat were given ways to make it better. The auditorium was filled with a lot of laughter that mid-morning. It felt as if time had flown by before Skuld called for a break. No one needed to be told twice, many student getting up to grab a slice of pizza and others decided to chat with a friend.
Ephemer didn't waste any time going over to Anora. She was almost afraid to move from her spot- her eyes tracking everyone left on the stage, her face slightly paler than usual.
"How're you holding up?" Ephemer curiously asked her, succeeding her making her jump several inches. She look at him with wide eyes and it was all the answer he needed. He offered a sympathetic smile as he offered his hand out to her.
"Let's go find Skuld before getting a slice of pizza." he suggested. "I didn't see her at breakfast this morning."
Anora nodded before taking his hand to help her stand up. The two then went on a short search for Skuld. They found her talking to a mousy looking girl who seemed pretty intimidated to be in Skuld's presence.
"Hey Skuld," Ephemer casually greeted. The mousy girl let out a sigh of relief at the distraction, but Skuld didn't seem phased. "Wanna get a slice of pizza with us?"
"Not now." his friend absently waved. "Olive and I need to go over the first act's costume changes."
Ephemer gave a small pout. "What about after that?"
"Sure, sure." came the easily dismissive answer. "I'll find you when I'm ready."
But this wasn't enough to assure Ephemer. He started to open his mouth to say something, but hesitated. He knew what Skuld was doing and he wasn't sure she knew about it yet. A big part of him wanted to force Skuld to come with them. But he didn't. He even wondered if he could. Hiding his doubt, attempting to humor her, Ephemer put on a bright grin as he told her;
"You better believe I'm going to hold you to it!"
Skuld only nodded- she hadn't looked him in the eye once during their conversation. Ephemer forced another grin before he and Anora left. The boy occasionally looked behind them, trying to see if Skuld had changed her mind, but was only met with disappointment.
"I'm worried about her." he carefully mumbled to himself a little later on. "I've never seen her work this hard on anything in awhile. And if she isn't going to listen..."
Anora looked up at him with a curious tilt of her head. The boy wasn't quite paying attention as he picked up a slice of pepperoni pizza and placing it on his paper plate. His eyes were focused on something else, as if he was trying to mentally recount something important. A small frown was drawn on his face the longer he was left to his thoughts.
"It'll be alright." he then said, sounding like he was trying to assure himself. "Skuld knows when to ask for help. I'm sure she'll be fine."
Not sure of what else to do, all Anora could offer was a short nod of agreement.