Hey guys, how are you?
Here is chapter 7 of this little adventure and I hope you enjoy it a little ;)
Have fun!
Beastars –Into the spotlight
Chapter 7 – The fox
Normal POV
"What?" he asked, almost saying it out loud although the was alone in the room. The headline in the newspaper had immediately gotten his attention, the pictures below it made him shiver.
"Cherryton Drama Club students performed Shakespeare in the city theatre hall. Energetic performance impressed even the regular theatre visitors."
Below that headline was a whole article about it, accompanied by some pictures and even some short interviews with a few of the actors.
The faces in the pictures were all very familiar, that´s why he could believe his eyes even less.
"Is this a joke? Now that I´m not there anymore they get to play in front of a real theatre-audience in the city hall?"
He began reading the article from top to bottom, and he could believe it just less and less with every line of text.
"…probably one of the most famous tragedies ever written, given a new refreshing twist… …simple stage built, simple requisites and not the most expensive costumes, but a lot of heart and passion made this performance very enjoyable… …a convincing display of Romeo and Juliet…"
The biggest picture on the page showed an action-shot of two wolves on the stage, one kneeling in front of the other in a dramatic pose, illuminated by one single spotlight from above. Now that he had read further into it, he found out that it actually were Legoshi and Juno playing the roles of Romeo and Juliet.
"Legoshi in a lead role? Are you kidding me? Wasn´t that supposed to be somebody like Bill or Aoba? What was that pelican thinking?"
"…all in all a very enlightening and thrilling performance the Cherryton students delivered" it said at the end of the article, "…the mayor was very pleased with his decision and already considers inviting them back to the city theatre hall for presenting their next production as well."
He couldn't deny that he was not just positively surprised by this. He never got to play outside the school-theatre, although he always was the big star at the school.
"And who was Legoshi? Just some shy wolf-boy pretending to be a weak, although he´s really not. I´ve seen him tear apart the Shishigumi… …but apparently he has not just a strong physique…did he start to realize that finally?"
Louis couldn't help shake his head in disbelief. Never in a million years had he expected him to change that drastically.
"…how did he even get to play that role? How could people like his performance? Did he really have that much talent and never showed it to anybody?"
He reached out for his Laptop and searched for the city-theatre´s website. Besides a whole selection of trailers for their shows, he immediately found a hastily cut together video-montage from yesterday´s performance of the Cherryton drama-club.
He watched how Bill and Legoshi were displaying a quite convincing fight on the stage. Then Aoba´s death scene as Mercutio and the chocolate poisoning scene at the end.
"Just how could he hide behind his lights for all this time?" he asked himself. Now being genuinely impressed by Legoshi´s surprisingly versatile abilities as an actor, "Why did he never audition before?"
That discovery just left him sitting in front of his breakfast with mixed feelings. His coffee was cold already but he didn´t care about it.
"What was I doing right now? Why didn´t I stand in the spotlight of the city theatre hall?"
Today, for the first time in quite a while, he was playing with the thought of what would happen if he would come back to school. Now there finally was some real concurrence in the drama-club, and that alone was tempting already. But was that possible over all? Would he still be welcome? They would be asking questions, that was for sure. Before he continued reading the rest of the page with the short interviews of the actors, he rubbed his tired eyes with the back of his hand and then rested his head on his palms for a moment.
"What the hell…" he whispered lowly, although there still was nobody around who could have heard it, "…what the hell am I doing?"
POV Legoshi
"Excuse me?" somebody asked, knocking against my shoulders carefully.
My head hurt. It almost felt too heavy to lift it off the table. I didn´t even know what the topic of the lecture was right now.
"Hey" the female voice repeated, "…hey, Romeo? Do you have a…"
"Huh" I asked, turning my head towards her slowly. It was not just my head that hurt, everything hurt.
"Hey, I´m talking to you" she chuckled, "I was asking if you could give me a sheet of paper, please? I forgot my exercise book today…"
"Oh…" I said, "Sorry."
I bent down towards my backpack and searched for it quickly. Then I found my notebook, ripped a sheet of paper off of it and handed it over to her. "Here you go."
"Thank you" the hen girl told me, still looking at me with a little giggle.
"What?" I asked tiredly, "What´s so funny?"
"…well you seem to be in a great shape today…" she chuckled.
This was the first time she was actually talking to me.
"Yeah" I said, yawning into my hands, "Didn´t get a lot of sleep last night."
"Troubles with Juliet?"
"What?" I asked, being a little shocked that she actually knew things about me, "No…no, it´s not that" I chuckled, "I´m really just tired. And her real name is Juno by the way."
"Oh I know" she chuckled, "I´ve read the school-paper as well you know?"
I nodded with a little smile, then I rested my head back down onto the table before me. I was glad I finally got to normally talk to her for a couple of words, but I wasn't really in the mood to talk about all that once again.
"You know…" she began after a short pause, "I never knew you could be like that on stage…"
"Like…that?"
"Yeah…" she giggled, "…I really enjoyed that performance."
"Thank you" I told her with another, hopefully not too fake-looking little smile.
"Was she expecting that I could never be able to accomplish something in my life? Did people really think that about me before? …well…thinking about it, I never really had anything to do with her except sitting next to her in the class. I never was one to be chatty or interesting either. I think it was understandable she thought like that in the end."
"Is it true that you really get to play that in the city theatre though? I´ve heard rumors…"
"That was yesterday…" I said with a little nod.
"Oh, so that´s why you´re so tired?" she chuckled.
I just nodded a little, closing my eyes yet once again. Damn, I was so tired.
… … …
"Hey!" someone woke me up again, "Hey Romeo!"
"W-what?" I asked, getting used to the lights of the classroom once again, "What is it?"
"Lesson is over, Romeo" she giggled.
"Shit. Did I just sleep through the entire lecture?"
I took a look through the lecture hall and noticed that most of the students had indeed left already.
"I really need to get some coffee."
"Oh…" I said, "Yeah. Thank you."
"What were you doing all night?" she wondered, still very amused about this.
"We played it twice in a row" I explained while rubbing my eyes, "And then we all had to help the stage-crew as well because we had to get all of our gear out of there."
"That does sound like a tough night" she chuckled.
"Anyway" she chuckled before leaving the row, "I do think you and that grey wolf girl look quite cute together."
"Thanks…" I chuckled while beginning to pack my stuff as well.
"You should get something to eat by the way" she told me as she went on her way, "Might bring you back on track."
"She´s right. I am kinda hungry. And today is Friday, so if I hurry I might still have a chance to get some egg-salat-sandwiches! And caffeine…I need caffeine too…"
The thought of that immediately put me in a better mood. Just thinking of those sandwiches made my day a little brighter. Just one more class and a quick briefing in the drama club and then the weekend started. I really needed that after this week.
POV Legoshi (later that day)
"Now…" Sanu continued after his thankful speech about our great efforts yesterday, "…let´s get to the thing you´ve all been waiting for: The assignments for our next show. Some of you knew about this already, now it´s official though. This piece is a really challenging one to pull off, so I hope you´re all motivated and ready to step up your game even more. We will be performing a great piece by Ben Jonson, which is called: ´Volpone, or the fox´."
"Oh yes" Bill said while excitedly rubbing his paws together. This was his lead role. He´s been talking about that ever since.
Just in that very moment though, I somehow sensed something coming up. It was something about the way Sanu was looking at Bill in that moment. The pelican seemed a little nervous all over sudden.
"Aoba" he announced first of all, "The audience loved you as ´Mercutio´, I think they will love you as ´Mosca` as well."
"Yes!" Aoba said happily and relieved, pumping his fist in celebration.
"As Volpones side-kick and freeloader, that´s a pretty complex and your first real lead-role I believe" Sanu continued, obviously contented with his reaction, "Congratulations."
"Thank you!" Aoba told him, "I´m thrilled."
"Congratulations, man!" Tao the black panther told him while rattling his shoulders with a proud smile.
"Juno" Sanu continued right away, "As there are just two female roles in this piece, I want you to play Colomba, the Wife of Corvino, who is one of the three legacy-hunters. Not a lead role this time, but a quite important one nevertheless."
She nodded understandingly but still with a little smile.
"Oh, I see where this is going" Bill commented in excitement. It was obvious that he´s been studying into that story already.
It really made quite a lot of sense though. I would be ´Corvino´ then, playing her significant other once again. Not a bad call from Sanu, actually. That would work out quite well, the audience would probably really enjoy it, and I didn´t have to play another lead role on top of that.
"That´s the part I was afraid of" Sanu surprised us yet once again, "Because this is exactly not where I was going with this."
"What?" we all asked in unison
"You see…Corvino and Colomba have a quite complicated relationship. Corvino has a lot of control over her and also a lot of pride, since she´s one of the most beautiful women in all of venice. But in order to get to be the only legacy owner in the end, he still offers her as a gift to Volpone if he wants to…you know…"
A few of us nodded understandingly.
I wasn´t quite sure if I understood the entire script of the piece yet, but I had a slight foreboding.
"…that scene is going to be a quite intense, dynamic and also quite complicated one to play."
"Yes…" Bill said, "…and?"
"And that´s why I want Legoshi to play the fox" Sanu got to the point quite plainly now, getting it over with rather quickly than trying to bring the message across carefully.
"What?!" Bill and I asked almost at the same time. Bill was asking much more aggressively than I, being equally confused about it though.
"Yes" Sanu affirmed defensively.
"Why?" Bill wanted to know, "I mean…why?!"
"It´s just for that essential moment in which Colomba will cry for help and Leone will come into Volpone´s house to save her. The audience loved seeing Legoshi and Juno together on stage. I want that magic to appear once more and in that scene exactly."
"What?" Bill asked even louder now, "But you promised that I would get the lead role in the next play! I was supposed to play Volpone!"
"That doesn´t even make any sense" I agreed with Bill, also to calm the tiger down a little, "Volpone is supposed to an evil but genius villain who has a very dark sense of humor. A cunning fox who´s not afraid of any troubles, not afraid of going through extremes. I´m just not the type to play that kind of character."
"To be honest" Aoba chuckled, "I never believed you´d be the type to play Romeo either. But then you freaking crushed it. I believed you in the sad scenes, I believed you in the fighting scenes and I also liked how you handled the light and humorous stuff."
"That´s true" Juno agreed with him.
"Exactly" Sanu agreed, "This is a very complicated piece with a lot of complicated emotions to display. We carefully selected the cast so it would fit all the roles the best…"
"Are you kidding me?" Bill asked in pure disbelief, and I could already feel the rage boiling up inside him.
"He got the role of Romeo just because he´s a wolf and now he gets the lead role again? Are you serious?"
"No" Sanu told him quite plainly, "He got the lead role again because he convinced not just the audience but also the principal himself. The only other student who ever got close to that was Louis."
Now that shut him up for a moment. We all just dumbfoundedly stared at the pelican after that quite brutal statement. That was not his style, normally. But he seemed to be dead-serious about this.
"…I…I´m sorry, Bill…" Sanu sighed, a little calmer now, "…I know he got the role of Romeo because he fit right in as a wolf…but…he had proven himself with this one chance he got, and…"
"…let him have it" I interrupted him.
"Excuse me?" the pelican asked in surprise.
"Let him have it" I repeated what I said, "He´s earned his chance."
"You´re turning down a lead-role?"
"Yes…" I affirmed, "Bill´s been working hard for this. I was always happy with my job as a light-technician, I just did this because I didn´t want to let you guys down. Let him have it."
They all stared at me now with big eyes, but I was serious about this too. I didn´t want to get into a fight with him about this, and I also didn´t want all that attention anymore.
Bill now stared at me as well in pure disbelief.
"But…" Sanu tried to say.
"He doesn´t even want it himself" Bill now found his voice again, "…and you promised me that role long before the premiere of Romeo and Juliet!"
"But…but…you can´t go back to the art-department" Sanu told me, sounding almost a little heart-broken, "...we need you as an actor!"
"Kai wants to be on stage" I reminded him, "Why don´t you give him a chance?"
"Yes!" the mongoose agreed with me gladly, "I can do this!"
"Legoshi" Juno stopped me lowly, but still so that everybody could hear her, "You´re basically the new Louis now. We need you on stage!"
"Juno is right" Sanu said, "And we don't need you just as a side-role, we need you as the lead actor for a very difficult character. You´re the only one who´s able to portrait the emotional depth and the cunning genius of Volpone at the same time."
"Bill can do that too" I told him distinctively, "And I´m not even sure I can do that role either. I would do that other role, if you really need me to."
Sanu still didn´t seem to be happy with that suggestion though. He was really serious about this.
"Is there really no way I can make you do this?" he wanted to know.
I looked at him, then at Bill, at the rest of the drama-club and then back at him again.
"I think Sanu is right" Aoba suddenly stated, pretty much to all our surprise, "I think Legoshi fit´s that role pretty well…"
"What?" Bill asked in disbelief, being a little shocked by that statement of his good old friend.
"I thought you were the one not wanting to hide the truth from anybody?" Aoba asked him with a little smirk, "I think Legoshi does fit that role better. And he´s closer to an actually fox on top of that."
I noticed that some other members of the drama-club were actually nodding to what he said.
"Well…" Sanu sighed, "It actually was pretty much decided already, but since we can´t agree on this right now, I want to propose a vote."
"I don't want to stand in between this" Els immediately explained, "I don't want any grief with either one of them!"
"Yeah, me neither" Ellen immediately agreed with her.
"I…I would never hurt you because of…" I wanted to tell them while raising my hands defensively, but Sanu immediately interrupted.
"We make an anonymous vote. Every member of the drama club gets a sheet of paper, writes the name of their preferred ´Volpone´ on it and the superior number decides in the end. Is everybody okay with that?"
I nodded hesitantly, Bill didn´t seem too sure about that either.
"It´s the only right way " Aoba supported that suggestion.
Since they all continued looking at me with pretty determined eyes, I really began thinking about this again.
"Playing Romeo was quite a lot of work, and not that easy to pull off, …but could I do that role too? It was a lot of work, but it also was a lot of fun on stage. Maybe this could be fun as well…"
"I would do it if I get the vote" I just said, "Just know that I would gladly give the role to Bill. I have no problem with that."
"The votes will be final" Sanu assured once more, "Whoever gets the vote gets the role, whether he likes it or not."
I just nodded with a shrug of my shoulders.
"Alright" Bill agreed to it as well with a little sigh, "I just want you all to remember: Legoshi already got his shot at a leading role. He did good, no doubt about that, but I think I deserve a chance as well."
They all nodded slightly, while Sanu already went into his office to get some ballpoint pens and pieces of paper. This meeting wasn't quite going like I was expecting it too, but now I was in this and there was no going back. The vote of the whole drama-club would be the final decision.
POV Aoba
I knew this would hit Bill hard, but I also knew that Sanu was just right about this. Bill was good at the fighting scenes, good at being loud and aggressive and also at funny stuff, but Legoshi was the better actor overall. That dark, calm but yet sympathetic nature, that deep growl in his voice when he spoke lowly, his precise and well-defined movement. I believed we all knew that, but we all knew how badly Bill wanted this as well. I was really curious what the result of this vote would be.
When Sanu got back out of his office, he handed a piece of paper and a ballpoint pen to everybody, except Bill and Legoshi of course, and left us to our decision.
Writing down what I really wanted was not that easy for me though. I´ve been close friends with Bill for as long as I knew him, but Legoshi was just the better actor. I loved playing Mercutio alongside with him as Romeo. The audience was really captivated by our scenes, I could literally feel that in every performance we did. I never experienced anything like that playing alongside with Bill.
Playing Volpone and Mosca with Legoshi could be even more fun. This was my favorite theatre piece in the whole world, and I was so excited ever since had Sanu chosen it.
I was actually the last one who returned their folded piece of paper to Sanu, and in my hurry I just quickly scribbled an "L" onto it, hoping Bill would not find out about this too soon.
He collected all the pieces with everybody´s votes into an old shoe-box, shook it a couple of times and then picked the first one.
"Bill" he read out loud, handing it over to the Tiger.
That first pick already filled him with great hope and confidence. I was really curious about the over-all result though, I was pretty sure I wasn't the only one who voted against him.
"Bill, again" Sanu read out the next one. I could already sense how the other members of the drama-club got a little more nervous at this point. Legoshi on the other hand just watched it happen, being totally relaxed, even a little contented I believed.
"Legoshi" Sanu read out the next one, handing it over to the wolf now.
"Bill" he read out next, and that really boosted Bill´s confidence now. He already nodded contentedly. But then his confidence faded just as quickly as it came. The next five papers Sanu opened he handed straight over to Legoshi. It seemed like it was just by chance that Bill´s votes got opened so early.
"Legoshi" he read out the sixth one.
Bill didn´t look happy at this point. Legoshi didn't seem to be too jazzed either, but he kept on collecting the papers from Sanu nevertheless. It seemed like I wasn´t the only one seeing the truth bright as day before me.
"Legoshi" Sanu read out the next one, "…seems like a lot of people want to see you again…"
"Yeah" he sighed.
"Legoshi" Sanu said while handing him yet the next one.
"Oh come on" Bill complained loudly now, "This is bullshit!"
"Bill" Sanu said.
"What? It´s the truth! Why would they all…"
"Bill!" Sanu said again.
Bill obviously hadn't seen that Sanu was just reading out his name on the next piece of paper and already reached it over to him.
That made all of us chuckled a little. Bill took his vote quickly and Sanu picked the next one.
"This one says just ´L´" Sanu explained, handing it over to Legoshi, "I assume that means you…"
He just nodded a little. I believed he now had understood what the overall result of that would be.
And it was like that in the end. He got the entire rest of the votes in the shoe-box.
"I think that result is pretty clear" Sanu said contentedly.
"Oh well" Legoshi sighed.
"Great" Bill said coldly, before he threw his votes onto the ground and went on his way towards the locker-room, "Have fun."
"Bill!" Legoshi yelled after him.
"Bill" Sanu tried to keep him from leaving as well, "Don't you want to know the role I wanted to give you?"
He didn´t even answer to that question. He just went through the door and left us standing there.
Nobody said anything for a really long moment.
"Ouch" the Red Panda from the art-department commented with a chuckle, "Looks like a no!"
Some of us chuckled a little about this, but Legoshi still wasn´t too happy about it.
"I…I don't want him to quit the drama-club because of this" he stated lowly, "I really think he can do that role too."
"He really can´t" Ellen told him dryly, now that Bill was not in earshot anymore, "Not nearly as good as you could."
Almost the entire drama-club, including myself, found themselves nodding to that statement.
"It might not seem fair to Bill" Els agreed, "…but I think it has to be fair to consider who the drama-club thinks would do the best job."
"Yeah…" Sheila agreed with them as well, "…and Bill had gotten his chance as a lead actor already, remember? When Louis couldn't perform on the second day…"
"Yeah" I agreed, "that's right!"
There was no way Legoshi could argue against any if that right now. He seemed to have come to that conclusion as well and just nodded with a little sigh for now. Then he looked back at Sanu.
"Don´t worry, Legoshi" he told him, "I´m going to talk to him later, I´m sure we can figure something out."
The wolf just shrugged his shoulders quietly.
Sanu got back to the rest of the roles and to the parts of the dance team and to the tasks for the art-department and stage crew. It really was quite a lot more to do for all of us this time, but it still sounded quite doable to me. I was so excited for this.
After all that was discussed to everybody´s liking, Sanu quickly went into his office and came back with a few printed-out versions of the script we had to learn. They were quite a lot thicker this time, but I was sort of expecting that since I knew the piece already. He handed one to everybody who had lines in the play and then sent us into our well-deserved weekend. Everybody except me, because I had asked him about a quick personal talk earlier. I was glad he hadn´t forgotten about it, so while everybody else already moved towards the exit and into their weekends, I gladly followed him into his office for a few more minutes.
POV Legoshi
"Hey Bill" I wanted to tell him, as I entered the locker room and found him still sitting on the bench in there, "I´m really sorry they…"
"Oh great" he muttered, "Look who it is. The over-night broadway-actor! Are you here to humble me even more?"
I just shook my head in pure disbelief. I really didn´t understand this behavior right now.
"Why would he think that? Hasn't he noticed I was on his side with this the whole time?"
"I even tried to convince him of giving the role to you" I told him, trying to stay calm, "Haven´t you noticed that?"
"Well that turned out very successful, didn´t it?" he asked cynically, now standing up and coming closer towards me quite aggressively.
"Hey!" I told him loudly, as he tried pushing me against the lockers quite vigorously, "What do you want me to do? Quit the drama club?"
"You could just have declined it! You could have just said you don't want to do it! They cant force you into anything!"
"I don't want to get kicked out of because of this" I explained distinctively, "It´s not my decision, Bill. They even voted on it!"
I couldn´t believe he really tried to shift the blame on me now, but that was exactly what he was doing.
"Oh come on!" he yelled, "Don't tell me they weren't in on this!"
"Did I or did I not try to convince them?" I asked back, getting really annoyed by this as well now, "I told all of them that I´d leave the role to you, but they still decided against it!"
"That was all part of your plan!" he accused me now stubbornly. That decision really must have gotten to him.
"I didn´t have a plan, Bill" I sighed, "I never wanted to become an actor. I would have given you that role without asking twice."
He still kept on shaking his head as if he didn´t believe a single word I said. He really was enraged about this, and I could sort of understand him to some extent, because he was promised a lead role for the next performance, but it also began really annoying me that all of this was claimed to be my fault once again. But this wasn´t everything yet.
"Alright…" he growled lowly now, looking me directly in the eyes, "…so that´s how it is: I make you a star of this school and this is how you thank me?" he asked, coming a step closer once again.
"Just what are you talking about, Bill?"
"What did you have to do with that?" I asked him in confusion. His body-language was stirring up my nerves quite badly in the meanwhile, but I really tried to stay on top of this.
"Oh, was it not me who elevated you like that at the Halloween-Party? Was it not me who pushed you out of the shadows you kept hiding in?" he asked, aggressively pushing me backwards a few steps.
"You pushed me out of the shadow, that is right…" I told him, pushing him back a little myself now, "…but it was me who dedicated almost all of his spare time into this role. I wanted to deliver the best performance I can, I wanted this performance to be a success for the whole drama club…"
This really annoyed me, I couldn't help but get a little aggressive as well right now.
"…and I think I did alright. You´ve heard Sanu today, he doesn't want me to play the lead-role once again just because of nothing!"
"Was this my own ego boiling over right now? Did it really come that far? I really had to get myself under control right now!"
"Pah!" he shouted in a provoking way.
"Pah what?"
"Without me you wouldn´t ever have gotten this close to her in the first place, you idiot! And without that you wouldn't ever have gotten that sort of hype!"
"What are you talking about?" I growled
I was really interested in that right now. This sounded so brutally suspicious already.
"Did you or did you not lose your virginity that night of the party?" he asked.
Just that he knew about that made me completely lose myself already. Before he could even look, I had pushed him against the lockers behind him and started pinning his neck against it with my forearm quite brutally. He tried freeing himself, but there was no way I would let him get away right now.
"Oh, so now you realize?" he asked, struggling for air but still with that superior little smirk.
"What did you do?" I growled, pushing him against the lockers even harder.
"Remember the rabbit-blood you smashed out of me on the stage at the Grim Reaper-performance?" he asked, "Guess what I gave Juno to put into her fur."
"What?!" I asked in pure rage.
"You heard me…" he growled.
I just saw red at this point. He had to pay for this. I grabbed him by his neck with my hand and slammed his whole body onto the floor as hard as I could. Even the floor vibrated from the brutality of his impact.
"Ah fuck…" he groaned in pain, before he tried to get back up on his feet again. I just kept staring down at him in pure hate.
It seemed like that still wasn't everything he wanted to tell me though.
"…and…" he panted, holding onto his shoulders in pain, "…take a guess who´s put Viagra in your drinks later that night!"
"You piece of shit" I screeched, as I already had prepared myself to hit him with my next swing. He managed to block it just in time, but that was not nearly enough didn´t stop me.
"I hated to admit it, and I hated that I didn´t figure that out myself, but all that made so much sense all over sudden. That explained everything I didn´t understand before. I knew something wasn´t right on that evening! It wasn´t just my fault after all! It was him who ruined my relationship with Haru!"
Just like when I was fighting that lion-boss of the Shishigumi, there was nothing which would keep me from defeating him right now. I did a quick step to the side, let him stumble forwards a little and then punched into his stomach with my fist. While he was collapsing because of that impact, I got onto my knees quickly, grabbed him by his chest and then quickly stood up once again. I took him with me on my way upwards and lifted his whole body into the air quickly, flipped him over and then slammed him down onto the floor for a second time.
That hit was even more substantial. This time he wasn't getting up that easily. He just remained laying on his back, helplessly winding himself in great pain and looking at me with a mixture of rage, grief and fear. But his rage was not even nearly as bad as mine right now.
"You piece of shit" I repeated, "I should have known it."
"C…come on, Legoshi…" he panted lowly.
"…so it was you who ruined everything for me" I told him from above dryly, "I should have known it."
"Wh…what´s so bad about it anyway? At least you´re not a virgin anymo-"
"I never wanted to have sex with Juno. You know just as well as I that it was her who wants to be my girlfriend…"
"…an eye for an eye…" he panted lowly, still inflicted with pain.
"What did I ever do to you? Is it because I got the role of Romeo? Is it that?"
"No…" he said, still much too weak to even get on his palms, "I actually thought I was doing you a favor with that…" he told me weakly.
"A favor? With fucking Viagra? Really?"
"Why the hell did Juno agree to this in the first place? Was she really that desperate? Or did Bill just talk her into all that to promote the show?"
Whatever the reason was, I´ve never been this mad before in my entire life. I believe I´ve never even used swear words against anybody before.
"Fuck you, Legoshi" he said, "Quit whining like a little bitch already. What more could you want?"
"I never wanted to be an actor, I never wanted to be the ´star´ of the school" I told him coldly, "I believe you knew that all along…"
Saying that out loud gave me a really good idea all over sudden. I left a short pause and then I stared back down on him with a devilish smirk. Now I knew how to properly take revenge on him for all that.
"…but you know what…" I told him, "…I think I´m getting kinda into it now. I think I´m going to enjoy playing the lead-act once again. Have fun being some little side-character for the rest of your time here."
"You little dick!" he screeched behind me, but I didn´t care. With that I left him lying there on the floor, leaving the locker rooms and then the drama-club altogether.
He would get up on his feet eventually, I was pretty sure he wouldn't die in there, but everything else I couldn't care less about right now.
He was not the only one there was to blame about this though, and she would get that as well soon enough. But first of all, I really had to calm myself down a little.
Most of the other drama-club members had already left the rehearsal room and prepared for their weekend as it seemed like, and since I didn´t have any more business here either for today, I went on my way outside as well.
On my way I met Els and Ellen in the hallway, but I pretended that nothing had happened when I walked past them. I was a little scared of myself because I was able to act it down like that right now.
It was a weird mixture of "what´s the point of anything" and "I don't care what everybody thinks" that drove me right now, and I couldn´t recall that I´ve ever felt like that before. It felt kinda cool right now though.
"Hey Legoshi" Els told me with a short little wink, "I´m really glad you´re doing this! You´re the better pick for that role."
I just gave her a little smirk for that comment. I didn´t stop on my way though, I had other thoughts on my mind right now. There was only one person I wanted to talk to right now, and I met her right outside the drama-club, where she was chatting to the girls from the dance team right now.
"Hey Juno" I casually asked her while joining them, "Wanna get something for dinner later?"
"Oh hey, Legoshi" she said, sounding a little surprised, but also really excited that I was the one who asked, "Uhm…yeah, sure!"
"Oh don't celebrate too early" I thought to myself.
"Okay, nice" I told her contentedly, "The fox is getting kinda hungry, you know?"
I assumed she expected a pun this bad from me even less, but just like the others she couldn´t help but giggle happily when she understood it. It seemed like none of them were really mad about the results of that vote earlier.
"I think you´re going to be great in that role, Legoshi" Sheila told me with a warm smile, "I´m glad you got picked after all."
"I´ll try my best" I told her with a little smirk, as I went on my way towards the dorms already. I wasn't in the mood for further chit-chat with them right now.
"Uhm…Legoshi?" Juno asked behind me, "When do we meet?"
"I´m gonna pick you up from your dorm later" he told me, "Around seven…Is that okay?"
"Yeah…that´s fine…" she agreed.
"Cool" I said, as I waved for the farewell, "See you later!"
POV Aoba
First I thought: "What the hell was that racket about that came from the locker rooms?", then, when I finally left the president´s office, I just witnessed Legoshi leaving the rehearsal hall and the door to the locker-room falling back into its lock slowly.
That alone had me a bad foreboding coming up already. I was pretty sure I knew what happened. Too bad I wasn´t there to stop it yet once again.
But my discussion with Sanu had been pretty important to me too, sadly.
When I opened the door a moment later, the worst thing I could think off turned out to have become reality. Legoshi must have found out about what happened at that Party.
"Bill!" I yelled as I found him on the floor besides the bench in the middle of the room, bleeding from his nose and winding himself in great pain, "What the hell happened?!"
"I…" he screeched lowly, "I told him about the rabbit-blood…"
"Oh shit" I sighed, "You dumbass! I knew this would come back at you one day!"
"He´s lucky he caught me off guard" he said, trying to lift himself off the ground, really struggling with it.
"There is no shame in admitting it" I sighed, shaking my head while trying to help him up, "That wolf is disgustingly strong as well…"
"Yeah…" he sighed, still rubbing his face in pain, "…I underestimated him a little."
I wasn´t quite sure in how many ways he meant that right now, but there surely was more than just one option that would fit.
"A lot of us did that, apparently..."
"This is not over yet…" he said stubbornly, "He´s going to pay for that!"
"Not gonna lie…" I told him with a little chuckle, "…I´m not quite sure I could easily forgive you for that either… …did you tell him about the Viagra as well?"
"Oh shut up" he muttered, "What´s wrong with you today anyway" he asked, "Why did you stab me into the back like that at the vote?"
"I didn´t stab you in the back. I told you before that that role doesn´t fit you."
"You know how much I wanted that lead role!" he snapped at me stubbornly, "I could have done that as well!"
"I know you tent to overestimate yourself. And also: you´ve gotten the chance to play a lead-role already, remember?"
He just sighed deeply once again, at least being able to sit upright on the bench now.
"You just want to play on stage with him like Romeo and Mercutio again, isn´t it?" he asked, looking right at me now with a serious expression, "You´ve enjoyed that…"
"Come on" I told him dryly, although he might really have a point with that, "Grow up a little. This is just a school drama-club in the end. And Legoshi has just the calm nature and the …charisma… for that role..."
"Yeah right" he sighed grumpily.
I took a seat beside him now, waiting with him until he felt a little better.
"So he did noticed it as well. I loved playing alongside with Legoshi. We created a dynamic that no one else in the drama-club ever accomplished. I´ve heard that from so many students about the Romeo and Juliet performance. Even the article in the school-wave mentioned something pretty close to that in one of their lines. And I wanted to do that again, there was no denying it."
"You look properly beat up" I told him after a few moments, "You should get yourself checked in the infirmary later."
"Bullshit" he replied coldly, "I´m a Tiger, those little nose-bleed won´t kill me."
"So…what about the performance?" I asked carefully, searching for the extra script I took with me in my backpack for him, "You wanna know which role you get to play?"
"Fuck that!" he waved it off, "I´m done here."
"Oh come on" I sighed with a little chuckle, presenting it to him when I finally found it, "Can´t be that bad? You´re just a little mad right now, but you´ll get over this!"
He just shook his head stubbornly, but I just ignored it. I knew him a little after all this time.
"This is quite a good role too, and we really need you for this one!"
"Fuck off, Aoba…" he grunted.
"So the role you´re going to play…" I ignored his comments with a big grin, "…is going to be the main enemy of Volpone in this play, and…"
POV Juno
"Oh wow" Sheila giggled, as Legoshi was out of earshot eventually, "Romeo asking Juliet out for dinner?"
I nodded with a happy little smile. I wasn´t really expecting that either to be honest, but I managed to play it cool right now nevertheless. But I was really excited about this, naturally.
"He has changed quite a bit since the premiere" Els chuckled, who just joined us outside with Ellen by her side.
"Suit´s him well" Sheila grinned, "Doesn´t it?"
"Oh, I think it makes him so much more likeable since he has a bit of self-confidence" Ellen agreed, "Not to mention he´s almost as good as Louis on stage…"
"What do you mean almost?" I asked her with a little chuckle, "He played the role of Romeo just perfectly I think."
"It was pretty good" she admitted, "But Louis has just more experience. You can clearly see that…"
"Louis is committed and quite popular because of his looks" Sheila said, shaking her head a little, "Legoshi is just talented."
"I would like to see both of them on stage, actually…" Els mentioned lowly.
"I think we´re doing just fine without him…" I commented dryly.
"Oh, you just say that because you´re in love with Legoshi!" Ellen got a little louder now.
"You just don't like him because he´s a carnivore!"
"That´s not true! That has nothing to do with-"
"Guys" Els tried to slow us down once again, "Don't go there once again, Please!"
I didn´t really want to fight right now either, but I just couldn't listen to that zebra-girl denying the truth yet once again.
"Legoshi is the better actor and that´s just the end of it" I stated.
"He´s not!" the she disagreed loudly.
"Did the drama-club ever perform in the city theatre before?" I asked dogmatically, "Don´t tell me it wasn´t for Legoshi that the principal let us do this!"
"The principal is a carnivore as well!" Ellen yelled, "This has nothing to do with his acting!"
"That´s not true! You´re just jealous!" I yelled back at her.
"Please stop" Els became a little louder as well now, "Please stop fighting about this! What is the point? They both are good actors! We have many good actors!"
We both noticed that we really have gone too far with this yet once again.
"Just why did we bring that up time and time again? Els was right. We´ve had all this before, and I didn´t want to go there once again either. We should just stop arguing about this. Louis was not here anymore anyway, no matter if she accepted that I was right or not."
"You´re right" I agreed, trying to calm myself down a little, "I´m sorry for yelling."
"Yeah…" Ellen agreed, noticeably calmer as well now, "…me too. We shouldn't start our weekend like this."
That was followed by an awkwardly long moment of shameful nodding.
"I think we can all agree on one thing though" Sheila chuckled, "We´d rather see Legoshi than Bill performing as the lead-actor."
Els and I nodded and even Ellen agreed to that statement. Although I had no personal issues or grief with Bill, he just wasn´t made for that role.
"You think Bill will quit the drama-club because of this?" Els asked lowly.
"He´s a bit sore now" Sheila waved it off, "But I doubt it will stay like that. I think he´s gonna be fine with his role of ´Leone´ in the end. Let´s see what that all looks like after the weekend…"
"I think so too" Ellen agreed, "Bill is quite the drama-queen sometimes…and I think that role fit´s him much better anyway…"
With that, that topic was done for now as it seemed. I didn´t mind talking about something else right now either.
"So…" Sheila changed the topic after another little pause, "…what are you guys doing this weekend? You´re going out as well?"
POV Legoshi
"I´m going to see my family this weekend" Miguno told us, when Jack asked him what he was packing his backpack for.
I´ve just joined them in the dorm and they all were kinda busy preparing for something.
"Me too" Collot explained, "My grandparents will be there too, I haven't seen them in forever!"
"What about you, Legoshi?" Durham asked, who apparently wanted to leave the dorm as well this weekend but had his stuff packed already.
"I have to learn for quite a few tests" I sighed, "And the script of the new drama-club-performance…"
"Phew…" he chuckled, "Exhausting…"
"Yeah…" I sighed, "…but I think it´s worth it."
"What´s the new play?"
"Volpone."
"No idea what that is…" he chuckled.
"Quite a cool story, actually…" I told him, taking the script out of my backpack and showed him the cover with the title, "…I think I like it even more than Romeo and Juliet."
"Okay…" he said, "…I´m kinda hyped already…Which role do you get this time?"
"…Volpone" I sighed with a little smirk. I already knew what was coming next.
"Another lead-role?" Jack asked excitedly.
"Yeah…" I affirmed, "…didn´t want it at first, but then almost the entire drama-club voted on it."
"Damn, Legoshi!" Collot grinned, "Told you you were good!"
"Doesn´t surprise me" Voss commented from his bed, dryly as ever, "I doubt there is anybody else in the drama-club who could perform that role convincingly."
"You know that piece?" I asked, actually being a little interested in that right now.
"Had to watch it with my parents once" he affirmed, "It´s a good piece, but I think it's a pretty hard one to pull off for a high-school drama-club…"
"Yeah" I agreed.
"Who is playing Mosca?" he wanted to know, apparently really knowing the piece well, "That role is even harder to do..."
"Aoba does that one" I explained.
"The bird who played Mercutio?" he asked.
I nodded. That fennec fox surprised me yet once again. He was kind of a douche sometimes, but there was no doubt that he was really smart as well.
"Good choice" he said, "This could be really interesting."
"I think so too" Miguno agreed, "Hope you can provide good seats for us again!"
I winked him with a little smirk shortly, before I put my backpack and the script besides my bed and rested myself on my matrass for a moment.
"Durham, what were you packing for?" Voss wanted to know now, "You going home as well?"
"Yeah, my best friend celebrates his birthday. Gonna get wild!"
"You´re gonna get picked here up again?"
"Yeah, my brother is coming with his car to take me home later."
"Could you drop me off at the train station again?"
"Yeah, sure thing" he affirmed, "No problem."
"Thanks."
Now that was settled, Jack surely looked a little sad all over sudden.
"Oh" he sighed, "Looks like this is going to be a quiet weekend in our dorm…"
"Are you staying?" Durham asked.
"Yeah" he said, "…nobody at home to visit right now."
"Awww" Collot tried to build him up a little, "…well…at least Legoshi´s here..."
Jack nodded slowly but yet with a cheerful little smirk towards me.
"Not tonight though" I told them lowly, "I have a dinner…engagement…"
"An engagement?" Collot chuckled while folding the sheets of his bed, "You mean a rendezvous?"
"Yeah, kinda" I sighed with a little smile.
"Oooh, Romeo is on a date with Juliet!" Durham grinned.
"Yeah…a date…"
If they only knew what was going through my head right now. This wouldn't be like a date at all. I wanted to tell her off once and for all, that was all I cared about. That was the only reason why I wanted to do this.
"Somebody is getting laid tonight" Miguno chuckled with a big grin.
I deployed my acting once more, showing him a faked dirty little smirk and winking him quickly as well. That was nothing but a lie, and by the look Jack sent me in that moment I believed he knew that as well, but at least I was getting that topic over with pretty quickly this way. I didn´t want to explain all that to them right now.
"Yeah, yeah…" Durham chuckled, "…just keep bragging like that, Legoshi."
"Sorry" I sighed with a little smile towards him.
They just kept shaking their heads about it in disbelief.
"Can´t deny I´m a little jealous though" he confessed, "She is one of the hottest girls of the school right now…"
"That is really not something you should be jealous about, Durham. You don't even know half the story."
"Yeah" Collot agreed with him excitedly, "She´s one of the most-pretty girls I´ve ever seen and this lucky wolf right here is the guy who she falls for."
"Come on" I chuckled, "There are a lot of pretty canine girls at this school, aren't there?"
"But there is just one Juliet" he grinned.
"And just one Romeo" Jack added with a chuckle. Although he knew that was bullshit as well, I was glad he played along to this so well right now.
"I´ll hear that for the rest of my time here, won't I?" I sighed with a little smirk.
"Yeah…probably" Miguno agreed, "I think you´ll be Romeo for the rest of your time here at this high-school."
"For me you´ll be Romeo for the rest of your life" Jack grinned, "That is something you gotta live with now…"
POV Juno
"Hey! It´s Romeo and Juliet" a female voice in line behind us giggled excitedly, as Legoshi and I got ourselves our trays from the self-service.
"Hey" I greeted the friendly vixen behind me with an amused chuckle.
"I…it´s an honor to meet you! I…I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the performance!"
"Thank you" I told her with a proud little smile, "So nice of you to say that!"
Legoshi nodded with a friendly little smirk.
"Can I ask, what´s the next play going to be?"
That question made me smile even a little more. She was a vixen, that fitted even better.
"You´re probably going to like this" I grinned, "We´re playing Volpone."
"What?! Oh my gosh! This is soo cool!" she said excitedly, "I love that piece!"
It seemed like I guessed correctly, she really did like to hear that.
"You know it?" I asked, while I got handed my tray with the food I ordered.
"Yeah, of course! I love theatre in general! Everything that involves great stories!"
"Why did you never consider joining the drama-club?" Legoshi asked her, which right now actually surprised me a little.
"Oh, I´m way too shy to go out on stage" she waved it off, being pretty convinced of her statement, "…anyway, I´m really looking forward to your new show!"
"I´m glad to hear that" I told her with a friendly chuckle.
"Who´s playing the fox?" she asked curiously and with a girly little giggle, just as Legoshi got his meal handed by the cafeteria chef.
Legoshi just winked her with a little smile, and that probably made her freak out even more on the inside. Just like me, she couldn´t hide a big grin about this. Legoshi enjoyed that reaction as well, there was no doubt about it, but he managed to play it quite cool nevertheless.
He really knew how to make people like him in the meanwhile. I didn't know what the exact reason for that kind of change was for him, but I was really proud of him for finally showing some self-confidence.
With that little wink and a friendly smile, we left the fox girl at the food pick-up and searched ourselves a nice table further back in the cafeteria. It wasn´t very busy right now anyway, it rarely was at a Friday evening since a lot of students already went home for their weekends, but we still didn´t want to sit right in the middle of the hall. People were talking to us about the performance quite frequently anyway. At least for our dinner we wanted a big of privacy.
"You seem to have accepted it by now" I chuckled as I took my seat and hungrily began eating.
He just shrugged his shoulders and reached out for his knife and fork as well now.
"I agreed to the vote, now I gotta live with it" he said, before taking his first bite.
I couldn't quite understand why he still had this cold look on his face right now. He seemed a lot more excited about this this afternoon. But since we left the food pick-up he was barely open to talk to me.
He never was known for talking a lot, but right now it seemed like he really was just here for the food.
We continued eating silently and pretty soon I felt kinda lonely sitting here with him.
When we both were nearly done with our meals, I carefully tried starting our conversation again.
"You think Bill will quit the drama-club because of this?"
He just shrugged his shoulders about this as well. Slowly but surely, I was getting the impression that something was really not right with him. He didn´t care about anything as it seemed. Or had it something to do with me? His behavior was quite different when he was talking to that random fox-girl earlier I just noticed.
"So you are glad that you got the lead-role in the end?" I asked boldly, hoping that would get his attention a little more.
"I don't care about which role I play" he stated dryly, totally mismatching my expectations once again, "But I´m actually glad it went that way today, because otherwise Bill would never have told me about it."
He had looked me right in the eyes while saying that, and that felt really scary all over sudden. It almost felt like when my mom was telling me off for something stupid I did. I already had a bad foreboding about this. There was a reason he was this cold right now.
"About…what?" I asked in confusion.
The look he sent me now said more than a thousand words. He raised his eyebrows a little and slowly exhaled while staring directly into my eyes.
"Fuck. Why would he tell him about this? Why now? Because he didn´t get the lead-role as he was promised?"
Whatever the reason was, I was not excited about what would follow now. And I wasn't prepared for it either.
"I…I…what?" I stuttered, "What do you mean?"
"Save your acting for the stage, Juno…" he explained coldly, "…Bill told me everything."
"I…I…I don't know what you m…"
"The rabbit blood you´ve had in your fur that night of the Halloween-Party" he sighed.
I just remained staring at him with sad eyes. I was so nervous that I wasn't able to talk right now.
"…and let me guess" he added in a cynical tone, "You didn´t know anything about the Viagra either, right?"
"Where the hell did he get that from now?"
"V-Viagra?" I asked in total shock.
I didn't know about any Viagra. I really didn´t.
"Oh stop pretending…" he growled with a cold and serious expression, "…Bill told me everything in the locker room today."
This situation shook me so bad right now I already had tears in my eyes.
"I…I swear to god, I didn´t know about any Viagra!"
"Sure you didn´t" he sighed.
"No!" I yelled in all honestly, really feeling like crying at this point. I realized that some people had already started looking towards us, so I lowered my voice and tried to explain it to him, "He gave me the rabbit-blood, that´s true…but he was never talking about Viagra!"
He didn´t say anything about that but still stared at me, slightly shaking his head in great disappointment. It took me another moment until I found my voice again.
"It…it makes sense now, considering how you went down on me that night…"
"That would never have happened without the rabbit blood" he told me dryly, "I knew your smell was different from the first minute I met you at the party, but I couldn´t tell why I liked it so much…"
I wasn´t expecting him to confess it that openly right now, but I didn't really want to accept it either.
"Was he still clinging on to that rabbit? Was it really that addictive to him?"
"I´m sorry, okay?" I told him lowly and still under tears, "I was a little desperate that night. And it wasn't much more than just sex anyway, was it?"
He just shook his head in disbelief about that. He really seemed to be pissed about this.
"As if you didn´t enjoy yourself a little too!" he snapped at him in pure annoyance.
"I lost my virginity that night" he explained low- but distinctively, "…and that while being drunk, drugged by rabbit-blood and Viagra. And on top of that: not with the girl I´m in love with."
Hearing those words out of his mouth now hurt a lot more than I initially believed they would.
"How could he be that cruel to me? Could he not understand my point of view a tiny bit as well? Couldn´t he tell that I had feelings too? Did he really not have any feelings for me at all? Was every kiss faked that we shared on the stage?"
"I did enjoy it while it happened, I´m not even trying to deny that…" he confessed, putting his knife and fork onto his now empty plate, "But I would never have done it, had I known what was going on."
He now grabbed his tray with both his hands and stood up from his chair already. I wasn't able to do anything but watch him in pure consternation of what was happening right now.
"What disappoints me even more is that I heard it from Bill first" he said with another little sigh, "…but at least you admitted it."
And with that he turned around, took his tray with him and left me sitting here.
Sorry I ended that chapter on such a dark note, but I promise it´ll make sense soon. Hope you still enjoyed it a little.
As always, I really would like to know what you think and also be glad to discuss with you in the PMs ;)
Stay safe and have a great day!
~furr