I am an updating machine! Clove's play premires at last! Sorry in advance, I suck at writing out plays and such so bear with me. REVEIW PLEASE.
I've been trying to do it right
I've been living a lonely life
I've been sleeping here instead
I've been sleeping in my bed,
I've been sleeping in my bed
The Lumineers, Ho Hey
Chapter 16- Opening Night
Gale
This summer is progressing quicker than I want it to. It's been two weeks since Madge and I started dating. Rory listens to me talk about her and I listen to him talk about Prim. She gave him an "extra special" hug when she heard about him winning the soccer tournament. Vick and Posy like Delly, they hang out with her more than I used to. For some reason, it makes me upset, even though I think I Delly's a good person for both of them to be around.
Katniss will be getting married on August 23, exactly one month and five days from right now. Delly's friend's play premieres tomorrow night at a theatre out of town. She's going to be performing it for the next week and- being their rich selves- her friends have decided to stay at hotel for the week. Of course, mom wants me to go. I said no, that I wanted to be with my family. But then Delly asked me to go so I could help set up and because my truck could carry the props and such. Goddammit when she smiles her eyes light up like a blonde puppy-dog and you can't say no. This is why at four in the morning I'm standing in the parking lot of Hidden Springs Country Club. Nobody's here yet, except for a few old ladies I saw to into a sauna and a group of pretty hot girls- including Foxface- who came here for the Early Bird Yoga. Other than that, it's just a bunch of high-school kids cleaning the pools and getting the club ready. They're all Seamsters and they keep giving me looks because either they know me and don't understand or they think I'm a traitor. Apparently this place has a theatre and that's where Delly's group has been practicing. Delly and Clove are inside getting things to pile into my truck. Foxface is still at yoga. Another truck pulls in. Big, black, and polished. Behind it is a blue hybrid. Peeta comes out of the hybrid. You've got to be kidding me. Well, at least it's not a Prius. Rue and her older brother Crush hop down from the giant gleaming black thing. Next to each other, our trucks look like a red ant and a black bear. Delly and Clove come out of the building carrying folding chairs.
"Hey!" Rue says walking over.
"Help us!" Delly says laughing.
"Get the prop box." Clove tells her. I open up the back of my truck and they throw the chairs in. Rue runs inside. "Okay. Glimmer and Cashmere are taking the convertible, they've got costumes and makeup. Who's Felicia going with again?" Delly pulls a folded piece of paper out of her pocket.
"You Cato and Marvel. You're going in Cato's truck with the programs and posters. We're going to put some up around the area, your mom got the local paper to post an ad, and a radio station is giving away a free set of four tickets. We'll get plenty of publicity, don't worry." Delly pats Clove on the back.
"Le me see that." Clove says pointing to the paper. Delly hands it over. "Me, Marvel, Cato, Foxy in Cato's truck. Then Rue and Thresh with the set. Peeta with props. Glimmer and Cashmere with costumes and makeup. You and Gale with smaller set pieces. Is that everything?"
"I think so." Delly says. Rue throws bean bag chairs into the back of my truck. What the hell is this play even about?
"Anything else I can get?" Rue asks.
"Double check the list with Delly. Peeta and Thresh will get the set." Clove says. "Where the hell is Felicia?"
"Here." She says walking over. "I just called Glimmer. She and Cashmere are brining coffee. So that's why they're late."
"Usually I would get pissed off but we're running late and I really need caffeine." Clove says rubbing her temples. Her phone rings. She picks it up. "Where the fuck are you guys?" Pause. "Get your Adonis-ass over here, I don't give a shit about traffic." Pause. "We need to be there by ten, which really means nine thirty and it's a four hour drive, not counting gas stops and traffic."
"Four hours?" I whisper to Delly.
"You'll soldier through it." She replies.
"I see what you did there Goldilocks." I say.
"It's actually Alice." She says. "Alice in Addiction-Land." I furrow my eyebrows together. "You'll understand if you see the play."
"Unlikely." I say. The freckle-faced killer hears me and whips her head around. Oh shit.
"Gale?" Clove asks. I nod my head. "Okay, that's your name. Go help Peeta and Thresh. The idiot and my boyfriend aren't getting here fast enough for my taste." I'd seen this girl in action during a dodge ball tournament. I didn't want to get on her bad side. I run into the building to help Pita bread and Hulk-Smash. The sets are fairly heavy, and I think I got a splinter, but I manage to get the first third into the monster truck. When we come out with the second- and biggest- piece there stands Miss Legally Blonde in a tiny baby blue skirt and fuchsia lips. Her outfit leaves little to my imagination, mostly because everything to imagine is already exposed. Delly didn't seem to notice me checking her out. But Glimmer did. She smiles at me and wiggles her tongue, playing with the foam in her latte. Her mom handed out steaming cups to everyone but me. Delly holds out her cup to me. I chug about half of it in two seconds.
"Since when do you drink black coffee with just sugar?" I ask.
"Since I knew it was what you like and I brought a can of Arizona tea." She says smiling. Her eyes are her best feature. Cato and Marvel pull into the parking lot. Clove points to the building.
"The last piece of the set is in there." She instructs. "You guys go get the costumes. Foxface and I are going to check over things." Delly follows me into the building but then goes backstage. When the guys and I have finished unloading into Thresh's truck, Delly comes out with a bin full of glittery things. Rue carries five costume bags in each arm. Glimmer has a box of regular clothes. They pile them into the back of Glimmer's Barbie car.
"Did everyone put their suitcases in Peeta's car?" Clove asks.
Everyone's responses mix into, "Yeah-es."
"Let's hit the road then. Follow our lead." She shouts hopping into Cato's SUV. Delly gets into my truck and I rev the engine up. Everyone looks at my growling heap of red rust. Delly simply ties her hair in a ponytail of blonde curls.
"If you watch the play, I'll drive on the way back." She says.
"Okay." I say. "You should know that I don't like other people driving my truck." Delly's face falls. The first car pulls out, Thresh goes second, Glimmer follows, then Peeta, finally Delly and I play the tortoise to Cato's hare. I put my sunglasses on, even though the sun is just beginning to peak. I turn my CD player on, the Lumineers go on shuffle. Ho Hey is first on the list. Delly rolls down her window about one quarter, and it's just the right amount of breeze.
"Do these seats recline?" She asks.
"If they do, it's a surprise to me." I reply somewhat coldly.
"I'm just tired." Delly says cracking open her can of tea. She takes a long sip and places it in the cup holder. Her hand rests on the tiny seat between the two of us. It's not really a seat since there's no seat belt; but during the time when we were dating, once in a blue moon Katniss would sit there, place her head on my shoulder, and curl her legs up where Delly sits when she got really tired. I turn the volume up and Delly begins to doze off.
So show me family
All the blood that I will bleed
I don't know where I belong
I don't know where I went wrong
But I can write a song
She nods like a bobble-head. Then like a drunk man at a baseball game. One millimeter of the sun is visible, far off in the distance.
I belong with you,
you belong with me,
you're my sweetheart
Her head rests to one side and her eyelids cover her oh-so-blue eyes. Two centimeters of the sun can be seen. The lights begins creeping slowly.
I belong with you,
you belong with me,
you're my sweet
Delly's asleep. Everyone switches lanes. I make my turn as sharp as possible. Two good things come out of this; the driver behind me gets off his cellphone and Delly falls onto my shoulder. The sunlight makes her pale skin glow and her hair becomes spun silk. Who knew a little sunlight could change your perspective on everything?
I belong with you,
you belong with me,
you're my sweetheart
There are moments in life when you say, "This is the first time I'm really experiencing [insert noun or emotion here]. Wow." This is one of those moments. It's the first time I'm really experiencing a sunrise. The first time I could really drive the road blindfolded. The first time I feel like I'm really understanding this song.
I belong with you,
you belong with me,
you're my sweet
Delly wakes up about twenty minutes out of our destination. Clove was incorrect, we didn't have any terrible traffic and there were no gas stops. Her head comes off my shoulder and I'm sad.
"Did I really sleep the whole time?" She asks. I nod. Delly grabs her tea and drinks half of what's left. Dead Sea plays for the third time as we go into a tunnel. It's one of the kinds that takes all of its sound and scoops it up into a funnel. The walls are concrete and the yellow lights create a hazy look. Delly rolls her window down all the way and unbuckles her seatbelt.
"What the hell are you doing?" I shout. The tunnel makes me sound like I'm talking underwater. Delly sticks her body out the window from her waist up. She tilts her head back, pieces of her ponytail come out and whip her in the face. Delly climbs back inside. She's smiling like crazy.
"So that's how Charlie felt." She sighs.
"What?" I ask.
"In one of my favorite books, the main character Charlie goes through a tunnel. A tunnel like this one. Except he stands in the back of a pickup truck rather than putting his head out the window." Delly says. "He says, 'In this moment, we are infinite.' In the movie anyways. In the book he just says 'I feel infinite.' But it's still the same idea. That the moment you're in is life well spent, that you could go on forever."
"Did you feel infinite?" I ask her.
"A little bit." She says smiling. We come out of the tunnel and people walking down the streets notice our trucks filled with sets and costumes and props. Our group comes to the theatre and we drive around back. Clove checks in and the unloading begins. The girls-except for the brunette herself- take in costumes and props. The rest of us carry the set in. Cashmere sets up the dressing rooms with two people per room and their costumes inside. A makeup table sits in the green room. Peeta touches up pieces of the set that have chipped paint. Then he and Marvel check over lighting. Cato sets up the microphones. Delly helps Cashmere iron the costumes. I stand around awkwardly with Thresh. It's almost six when everything is finished.
"We need to run the show." Clove announces.
"We should check into the hotel. Then we can come back and run the show." Marvel suggests. Clove agrees with his idea. Our group of automobiles migrate to the hotel.
I've been to three motels in my life. This place could've been a castle, that's how amazing the experience was. Glimmer and her mom had a room they'd rented on their own. Clove's mom Enobaria had gotten four rooms for the rest of us. After a lot of teasing, complaining, number guessing, and six games of Rock Paper Scissors, they finally divided up the rooms. Clove and Foxface have the first room, next to them is Rue and Delly. Peeta and Cato are across from them. Marvel, Thresh, and me are across from Clove and the redhead. I stay behind when all of them go out and don't come back until almost midnight. I can hear Clove whisper loudly,
"I said I didn't want any hangovers at my premiere!"
"Sorry hon." Marvel says. "I can get him sober by the premiere."
"Alright. Peeta open the door so I can get Cato on the bed." Thresh grumbles.
"I can't. My arms are full." I look through the peep hole. Peeta carries a sleeping Delly. Foxface stands in the doorframe of her room.
"You got him drunk and you slipped that pill in her drink. You guys can fix this." She says pointing at Thresh and Peeta. Who put what in Delly's drink?
"It was for me! We had the same drink and she must've grabbed mine." Peeta says. "Wedding planning keeps me up half the night these days and my doctor gave me a prescription."
"She's not going to die is she?" Rue asks.
"No. She's just going to be knocked out for a while." Peeta responds swiftly. I open the door.
"Give me Delly." I tell Peeta. "You get the drunk into your room." Peeta hands me his little sister carefully. He then opens the door to his room and helps Thresh carry Cato who is mumbling something about a Marilyn and the Solider porno. Oh. He means me and Delly. Rue fumbles with the card and takes a few moments to open he door. Delly nuzzles her head into the crook of my neck. I dip my head down and touch my forehead to hers for a moment and close my eyes. The door opens and I bring my head back up. Rue turns on the light and Delly barely stirs. Whatever pill Peeta put in his drink is strong.
"I'm going to get her retainer." Rue says smiling awkwardly. Delly wears a night retainer? I pull back the sheets and place Delly on the bed. Rue comes forth with a neon yellow piece of plastic and opens it like a clamshell producing a retainer she places in Delly's mouth.
"Isn't that weird for you?" I ask. Rue pulls Delly's skirt off and I look away.
"Once I got so sick, that... I ummm, ruined a pair of shorts." She says. "Delly took care of me. We're sisters. She's dressed you can look now." I turn to face Rue. Big brown eyes and porcelain skin the color of brown sugar. Yes. Her name was definitely on the list.
"You were on my Slag Heap list." I say. Rue blushes a soft pink. "I think I owe you by now anyways." I kiss her softly on each cheek and she smiles, then hugs me.
"I'm going to check on Cato, talk to my brother, and... Y'know." Rue says walking out the door. What does twiggy mean by "y'know"? Is she really going to do that or leave me alone with Delly because she thinks I like her? I set Delly's head on her pillow then pull up her covers. With all the good she's done for me, maybe this is the only way I can repay her. If that's true, I am pathetic. Delly turns over in her bed, exposing a bare shoulder, reaching out for something- possibly in a dream.
"Come back to me." She moans softly. "Don't... ...afraid. Stay." I would love to Delly, believe me. But my physical desires aren't as strong as they used to be and I'm not as attracted to her as I used to be. It's probably because of Madge, and I'm glad in a sense. So I just leave the room.
The next morning everyone means business. Anyone who's acting holds a script and reads it over and over. We break into our driving teams and plaster the town with any posters that didn't find a place last night. Clove micromanages everything from the hanging of the glass-framed poster hanging outside the theatre to the arrangement of the wireless mic battery packs. I stand around backstage helping with whatever I can. They run the play twice and I stay outside smoking for the entire time. Glimmer finds me.
"Hey, just wanted to to know we're setting up now. If you wouldn't mind ushering we could really use the help." She pops the P as much as her bra straps would pop if she tightened them anymore.
"Okay." I say following her in.
"BTW, girls prefer the taste of mint to ashes and smoke." Glimmer whispers.
"Stop flirting and help with costumes!" Cashmere teases. Clove comes forward in a black corset and slip glaring at Glimmer.
"Seriously though, you need to be into your costume and the box of shirts is missing." Clove says. She runs off somewhere. I walk past the dressing rooms and hear the sound of grunting and wheezing. Inappropriate thoughts come to mind.
"Tighter!"
"I'm trying! But the strings are stuck!"
"God, why did Cashmere want me to wear this?!"
"She wanted all of us to wear different corsets! Mine is designed to flatten my already-flat chest and yours is designed to make an hourglass figure."
"And I though PMS was bad!"
"I might ask if I can keep this for those days."
"Ha!" I peek my head into Rue and Delly's dressing room. Rue is dressed in a little white dress and a long silk red cloak. Delly wears a black and blue corset with a fluffy white skirt. Let me remind you; I am a male, I have eyes, I am not blind, Delly is wearing a corset, and you're on my side. So when she stands there with Hooters-worthy cleavage, I have to look.
"Hello Gale." Delly says. For once, her voice isn't the perkiest part of her. She grabs a baby blue dress and pulls it over her head. The neckline is low- cut in a U shape with a little white collar and the skirt fans out over the fluffy underskirt.
"Hey." I say. "If I watch tonight will you never let me hear the end of it?" Delly breaks into a huge smile. "I'll take that as a yes."
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" She says hugging me. "It's really important to Clove that a lot of people show up."
"Rue, you're up for makeup." Cashmere says peeping her head inside the dressing room.
"Yay!" Rue says skipping past me. Delly grabs a pair of knee-high black and white striped socks and slips into a pair of black Mary Janes with white bows. She walks past me and heads toward Glimmer and Marvel's dressing room. Only Glimmer is still there.
"Hey, could you check my curling iron?" She asks Delly.
"It's hot."
"Perfect. Wanna help me out?" Delly is already curling Glimmer's hair. I walk out, bored with the two blondes playing hair salon. I walk into the Green Room to find Rue applying false eyelashes as Cashmere paints her lips as bright as her cloak. Clove is still running around in her slip trying to micromanage.
"Clove, you need to get into your costume the doors are open. People are coming in already." Cashmere says.
"We did a mic check, everything's good to go." Cato says peeking his head around the corner.
"Get in the sound booth." Clove snaps. He obeys. "I'm going to get the rest of my costume on. Finish Rue's makeup because you've still to do mine, Delly's, and your daughter's. Where the fuck is Foxface?" Clove wanders off. Rue ties her hair into pigtails with red ribbons. Glimmer comes scurrying into the room. Cashmere applies bright pink lipstick, cats' eyes eyeliner, and false eyelashes. Delly wears baby blue eyeshadow, eyeliner, and soft pink lipgloss. She glues her eyelashes on when Clove comes into the room and Cashmere begins work on her. Foxface is behind her dressed in a gold bikini top and a shimmering blue skirt designed to look like a mermaid tail. She flat-irons Delly's hair. Oh. Fairy Tale characters. I get it now. I go out the back door and in through the front.
"Ticket." Says the teenage zombie at the desk.
"I'm a friend of one of the actors." I say. He nods onward the door. Cool. Only a third of the theatre is full. And half of that third look like parents. I take a seat close to the back and wait awhile. The lights dim. The stage is an octagon shape comes out into the seats like a peninsula. There's no curtain, the set stands there. It looks like a shrink office. The door opens and Marvel sashays onstage with a clipboard in hand. His outfit is something that would get you beat up in middle school. Bow tie, sweater vest, khakis, clean shoes, hipster glasses.
"Oh, mahye Gohd. The girls are going to be here any minute now!" His voice is so gay. I don't mean to be offensive, but he's gay. Marvel sticks a "HELLO MY NAME IS" sticker to his shirt. I glance at my program.
Quentin Coler... Marvel Quaid
Snow White "Winter"... Clove Fuhrman
The Little Mermaid "Shelia"... Felicia Emerson
Alice in Wonderland "Alice"... Delilah Cartwright
Little Red Riding Hood "Scarlett"... Rue Stenburg
Sleeping Beauty "Rose"... Glimmer Rambin
Stage Crew
Peeta Mellark, Cato Ludwig, Thresh Stenburg, Cashmere Rambin
While reading the program I missed half the entrances. Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and The Little Mermaid are already onstage.
"So, once everyone gets here we'll start. We're missing two..." Marvel trails off. We hear a loud scream from offstage. "Ohmigod what the fuck was that?!" I laugh little. SB falls asleep. "What happened?"
"She's narcoleptic." Snow answers. TLM continues brushing her hair and humming. SB wakes up.
"I'm fine." She announces. Someone screams again. Alice opens the door and closes it behind her.
"Please! She's going to kill me!" She screams grabbing Quentin by the collar. "The Queen wants my head!" Something in the distance catches her attention. "Oh look, the rabbit is back. Hop, hop, hop..."
"Okay then. Just one." Quentin mutters. Snow gets up and begins wiping things down with disinfectant wipes. SB is asleep. Alice continues to state at things we can't see while TLM combs her hair. Red makes an entrance skipping in, then crying when she sees a wolf. It reminds me of my therapy group. They go around the circle stating their names and problems.
"Hi, I'm Quentin. I'll be your guide for these next few weeks."
"Call me Winter. I have OCD."
"I'm Sheila! I'm here because I have 'communication' issues."
"Alice. Drug addict."
"I'm Scarlett. Two weeks ago I was diagnosed with schizophrenia."
"I'm Rose and-" snore. Normally I'd think something like this is stupid. But this is hilarious. And not just because I'm watching Delly portray a drug addict. The play goes on. It's clearly a dark comedy, and reminds me of Silver Linings Playbook. The funniest moments include Scarlett's random bursts of "HOLY SHIT THE WOLF!", Winter cleaning everything, and all of Quentin's stereotype gay moments. There's a fifteen minute intermission and then the play continues. After everyone returns with modern day outfits resembling their elaborate costumes Quentin narrates a series of "where are they now?"s. A single spotlight on an otherwise dark stage. Only Marvel's voice- his voice- is heard.
"Rose met a nice young man. Several nice young men actually." He begins. Glimmer steps forward in a low cut pink dress. She removes a diamond ring from her ring finger. "She's had four husbands, Rose keeps waiting for the right guy to break the spell." She falls backward as if about to sleep and lands in Cato's arms. They walk off stage together. Rue steps into the light in a jean skirt and a red hoodie. "Scarlett came to realize that her dead grandmother wasn't coming back. And the wolf was just a figment of her imagination. It was really her fear of death chasing her around. She leads a normal life as your stereotypical teenage girl. But every now and then, she still sees them." Rue smiles and a single tear falls down her cheek. She skips out. "Winter has made several appearances on different reality shows about OCD. But last year after eating an unwashed apple, her body didn't know how to react to the germs. She met a doctor and they are now married with seven children." Clove steps into the circle applying Purell to her hands and walks out of it just as fast. "Nobody has seen Alice for a long time. Some people say she overdosed or committed suicide. Others say she ran away somewhere." Delly steps into the circle sticking a needle into her arm her head snaps up, eyes wide and crazy. "I guess she just couldn't stop." She runs off. "After working things out with her dad, Sheila finally married the man she wanted to. They're trying for a baby." Peeta carries Foxface bridal style into he circle. He kisses her on the cheek and they exit the stage. "As for me, I still think about my friends I met in that special group. I think there's a piece of all of them in us." Marvel steps into the spotlight. "My parents still don't accept me. But there is one man who does." Thresh steps into the circle. With goofy smiles they hug each other.
"I love you man!" He says.
"I love you too!" Marvel says back. "My daddy always told my sister, there's no guy out there in tights unless he's looking for another guy in tights. I guess he was right.
"While fairytales remind us of our childhood, they give us expectations and ideas to live up to. We might want to revisit them, but we need to live our lives and not theirs. Here, now and in this moment. You can't live in the past and it's useless to always think for the future. Sometimes you just need to go somewhere you've never been, or take things from a stranger, disobey you parents. If you don't let go of things- even things we hold dear- then life is useless. So while we thought that our princesses and princes were telling us otherwise, they were teaching us messages hidden in cryptic message. It just boils down to this; while we need to remember, it's important to forget and live on." The lights go down. They come back on and the cast takes their bows. Then the stage crew. Then everyone together.
"The end!" They all shout when it's done. The audience is small, but we give them a standing ovation.