The weekend had finally arrived after a long week. Though it only meant that she would be spending the whole day at the shop, at least she didn't have to face too many people like she had to in school.

…. Or so she thought. As she walked into her room, drying her hair with a towel after bathing, it suddenly occurred to her that she should check her phone, which she had left in her bag ever since the morning. She took it out and flipped it open to see a new message.

'Hey DC members! Sorry for taking up some time of your weekend but, we need to have a session tomorrow. 8am at the Drama Room. Shouldn't be too long if we all work fast. Reply whether you can make it or not. Thanks!'

She would have sighed at the hassle of this situation, that she had to take more time off work and have more time with a lot of other people. She would have, a few days ago. But somehow, she felt like she didn't mind it as much as she would have.

She was about to put her phone away when she remembered Teresa's message yesterday. She hesitated awhile before navigating and pressing at the keys awkwardly to type out a reply.

'Ok.'

A short and straight-to-the-point message would suffice. She flipped the phone shut and placed it on her table, but a few seconds later the phone vibrated.

'Good that you replied. I almost thought that you were going to ignore what I said. It's getting late, go sleep!'

She didn't know why, but she couldn't help but smile at the message

The next morning, as Clare was about to turn the corner, she spotted a familiar figure at the other end of the traffic light. Even though the long luscious hair was trademark-worthy, she almost had to take a second look to conform that it was indeed Galatea because of the pair of spectacles that sat on her face. When the green man lit up, the senior strolled her way across, noticing Clare halfway through and gave her a warm smile.

'Look who I found. Good morning to you Clare.'

Instead of her usual look, the lilac-framed glasses with really thick lenses distorted the appearance of Galatea's eyes from the viewer's point, giving her a nerdy look. She noticed Clare staring and gave an exaggerated sigh.

'Please do not say a word about this antique. They disgrace my magnificently sparkling eyes, but I happen to run out of contact lenses for the first time in who knows how many years. As aesthetically unappealingly as it is, at least it can get me to school without me getting knocked down by a car. And the colour is not too bad.'

They made their way down the lane leading to school, walking side by side on the pavement. It somehow didn't feel as awkward as Clare thought it would be.

'You… live near this area?'

'Yeah, just a few paces away. Been around this neighbourhood my whole life.'

Maybe that was why Galatea expected Clare to sort of know her? Because she had seen Clare before in the vicinity somehow? Not that she ever remembered seeing Galatea before.

They arrived and stepped through the school gate soon enough. Galatea reached into her purplish-black flower-patterned tote bag to retrieve her handphone.

'Still a few minutes early. That's good. Then again, the punctuality of our members is astounding. I bet they're all early just to take a few more glimpses at Teresa.'

It was the first time Clare saw Galatea's phone, and what caught her eye was the pale violet dreamcatcher that hung as a phone accessory. Most dreamcatchers have intricate and unique designs like this one, but Clare immediately took a liking to it, taking in the details of the design and the ombre purple feathers that hung loosely at the bottom. It really was a pretty piece. She observed the dreamcatcher until the image of it was etched into her mind…

…Or was it?

Did she just memorize what she saw… Or did a similar image just popped into her mind?

'You've seen this before?'

Galatea's words made her tear her gaze from the accessory to her senior. She was looking expectantly at Clare, as if she was expecting some positive reply to her question. Clare shook her head slowly, though she wasn't sure about what she felt. Sure, it wasn't the first time seeing a dreamcatcher- she has seen many aplenty at boutique shops around. But she was sure that it wasn't just the memory of seeing it somewhere before that triggered that weird feeling. Galatea fingered the feathers gently, looking at them wistfully.

'A really important friend of mine gave it to me a few years back. It's really beautiful, isn't it?'

Galatea's gaze fixated on the accessory for awhile before looking to Clare. She abruptly chucked her phone back into her tote bag.

'But I guess it might not have meant much to her as it does to me. Anyhow, let's get going before early becomes late.'

The disappointment that oozed from Galatea's words was palpable, and Clare couldn't help but wonder who that 'important friend' was. It really was none of her business, and she didn't like probing other people's matters, but she was rather curious in any case. Perhaps, she could ask Galatea about it sometime - if they ever got closer and more comfortable.

When they arrived at the Drama Room, the place was already occupied by many of the members, randomly sitting in clusters and engaging in small talk. Out of all the people, Clare's eyes inadvertently fell on their Drama Club President who was sitting with some of the members, chatting up naturally with them. It was as if she blended among the crowd, that she could so easily connect and communicate with another person. Any previous thought that perhaps, she might mean something special to Teresa, crumbled up in that instant. It suddenly dawned upon her that she was just one of the juniors or fellow members of Drama Club – to Teresa, she's merely one of the many. That thought brought a strange pang of loneliness. But why should she care about how Teresa thought about her? Why or how was that person able to make her feel that way, when she wasn't even intentionally doing anything at all? It was so hard to comprehend or explain, even to herself.

At that moment, Teresa's gaze shifted and fell on Clare, and her faint smile seemed to widen ever so slightly as they locked their gaze. Or was that just part of Clare's imagination?

'Alright, our last two attendees are here, time to get working.'

She stood up with grace, motioning for the rest of the crowd to gather towards her, in turn which everyone obediently followed.

'Last two? What an honour. And to think that both me and Clare thought we were going to be early.'

Together with Galatea, Clare settled down at the back of where everyone was seated on the floor. Len was sitting right in front of her and turned to give a small wave. Teresa stood at the front facing everyone.

'Right, firstly I apologize for the sort-of last minute arrangement and I thank you all for taking time to come down on a weekend. I'm going to go straight to business so that we can start and end this as early as possible so that everyone can go home and rest. Our script-writing committee has diligently worked on and more or less confirmed the plot of our play, and we now have our very first draft of the script. I thought that it would be perfect for everyone to have a look at the script and start preparing among your own committees as soon as possible, since time is scarce.'

On Teresa's cue, Galatea took out a thin stack of papers and got up, walking to Teresa's side. She adjusted her spectacles slightly and gave a sweep of all the seated members.

'Hello, if you don't know yet, I'm Galatea, the in-charge of script-writing committee. The props and actors comm will each only get two copies of the script to share first, since it is only the first draft.'

She passed the papers to a guy and a girl who automatically reached out to take the copies of the script. Clare assumed them to be the in-charge of the other two committees.

'Thank you Galatea. Before I forget, the script-writing committee members will double as directors for the play, so you all will need to work closely with the actors and props people during to direct how the play goes, like how the actors should be saying their lines and how the props should be placed and all. It's a lot of work, but seeing as how you all managed to do the script so well, I have faith that you all will continue to produce some great work.'

Even Galatea seemed surprised at the new piece of information. She looked like she was thinking about something for awhile before she smiled at Teresa.

'Sure, I think we can handle that.'

Teresa clasped her hands together.

'Alright with that said, after this please gather into your respective committees to run through the script. Approach the script-writing members if you are unsure of any part of the plot. Also, I believe the plot is divided into three parts so, the directors in-charge for the first part can probably start arranging rehearsal time with the actors and discuss with the props committee about the clothing and props that they need to prepare.'

Before Teresa could break the crowd, one of the members raised his hand.

'Yes?'

'Would it be better if the script-writing committee give us a summary of the events and the plot first before we examine the scripts ourselves? It would give everyone the general idea and consensus of how the story should be interpreted.'

Teresa nodded her head in thought, turning to look at Galatea.

'What do you say, boss?'

'Fair enough, I suppose we could do that.'

Subsequently, one person in-charge of the first two parts of the play each went up to give a rough run-through of the plot. When that was going on, Galatea turned to Clare and nudged Len to face the two of them.

'Any of you up for that task? It will be our turn soon.'

Len's face instantly crumpled in discomfort, while Clare was pondering the situation. Personally, she didn't feel like she was able to speak confidently to a group of people, and neither was she very willing to do so either. After much silence from the two juniors, Galatea just gave a sigh and pushed her spectacles inwards.

'Fine my little kids, sister Galatea will do it alright. Really don't know what to do with you two sometimes.'

The next moment Clare felt Galatea elbowing her rib, surprising her and instinctively bringing her own arm up to defend against the attacking limb. Galatea's smirk was all Clare needed to know that the senior was only kidding about her last statement.

'Alright, now for the last part of the play. Who's going to come up?'

Already starting to get up, Galatea was about to speak up when Teresa threw a quizzing look at her.

'You seem to be doing a lot of work Galatea. How about you send someone else from your group to come up? Who's in your team?'

'My precious juniors, Clare and Len, but they're a tad bit too shy for now so I thought I should just do it.'

Teresa's head cocked to one side, her eyes darting from Len to Clare and stayed there.

'Well, they have to learn to speak up and address a crowd someday anyway, why not let them have a chance to do so now. How about Clare? Can you do it?'

Her eyes stayed fixated with Clare's, and Clare felt herself put into a very tight spot. It even felt like the air around suddenly became tighter and stiffer. She wasn't sure how she should respond to Teresa's request. On one hand, she felt like she had zero mental preparation to fulfill the task, but on the other, she felt like she didn't want to disappoint Teresa, or that she couldn't let her down.

Swallowing hard, she bit down on her lower lip, keeping her eye level with Teresa's, though she had no idea why she was so determined to not be the one to break the eye contact.

She literally jerked up in shock when she felt an arm thrust over her shoulder, feeling Galatea standing by her side. It felt like a very protective gesture in some way. It made Teresa's gaze shoot towards Galatea in faint annoyance.

'I don't disagree with what you say Teresa, but my kids are really a little unprepared today so, could you just let them off for today? I'll be sure to let them do it the next time. I'll see to it to beef them up, really.'

'You're pretty protective of your juniors, aren't you.'

'Well, that's what seniors do, right?'

Seemingly unfazed by Teresa's natural authority in the room, Galatea held Teresa's slightly intimidating look for more than a few intense seconds before Teresa finally shrugged nonchalantly, as if the previous tension never happened at all.

'Well suit yourself, do continue with what you intended to do.'

'Gladly.'

'Okay, since our job here is done for the day, how about a little group bonding outing? I propose… grocery shopping at the supermarket!'

'That's not much of an outing, Galatea… and uh, I have plans already actually.'

The senior lightly pushed Len away in mock rejection. 'Fine fine, leave your poor group leader be. Clare?'

Clare took another glance at the wall clock. She was still early for her job, actually. She wasn't completely comfortable with the idea, but she didn't really want to reject Galatea since she had been really nice to them from the very beginning.

'I guess I don't mind…?'

Her acceptance of the invitation seemed to stun Galatea momentarily, as if she wasn't prepared for a positive response. But the senior recovered quickly and immediately linked her arm with Clare's, and the younger girl felt herself being dragged out of the room.

'It's settled then, a girls-only outing it shall be. Bye Len!' Galatea happily called over her shoulder to the boy who simply gave an awkward smile and waved.

As they approached the door, Clare couldn't help but catch a glimpse of Teresa's blank stare in her direction, the pair of black orbs trailing her and Galatea. Before she could register it, they already made their way out of the room, and Teresa was no longer in her field of vision.