After school, Auriana went down to look at the bulletin board to meet up with Talia and Iris. When she saw them, she waved them over, "Girls look! There's going to be a school play this fall!"
"A play huh?" Iris inquired, "That does seem fun!"
Talia added, "Yeah, but is there anything more musically themed? Like a band or choir?"
"It doesn't look like it, but maybe the play is a musical?" Iris suggested.
Auriana jumped back in, "Well, at least we'll be performing, so why not give it a shot and see? It can't hurt to try, and maybe it'll be fun!"
Talia smiled, "Yeah you're right, we won't know if we don't try!" She took a pen from her binder and wrote her name on the sign up sheet. Iris and Auriana followed suit. Just as they were finishing signing their names, someone came up from behind them.
"Uh you losers are joining the play? Well, what would I expect from the girls who still play dress up."
Iris turned around and glared, "So what if we're joining play, what difference does it make to you Missy?"
"A lot actually, when I'm on stage I can't have you three polluting the background."
Talia intervened, "You're joining play? You've never had any intrest in performing arts before."
Auriana added on, "Yeah for our grade school concerts you'd always skip out on practices with friends, but then show up on the day of the performance not knowing what to do."
Missy was a bit taken aback, "Well, I've been going to acting lessons over the summer, and they said I had a real talent. I figured why not put it to use here, so there." She wrote her name on the sign up sheet, and walked away. She turned around again to say, "Maybe you should reconsider joining, they won't need you for too much."
The three waited until she was out of earshot before Talia broke the silence, "Maybe we should reconsider joining, I don't know if I want to work with Missy."
"Yeah, we got lucky that she isn't in any of our classes." Auriana added, "I don't know if it's worth the trouble, but play seems like it'd be kind of fun. What do you think Iris?"
For whatever reason, Missy seemed to pick on Iris the most. If it was up to anyone whether they would try and join with Missy there, it was up to her. The look on Iris's face was livid, her eyes narrowed, her decision already cemented.
"Missy may not want us there, but we can't let her make us back out from trying! Let's go and see for ourselves. We can't let her make the decision for us."
Talia checked the sheet again, "It says the first meeting is this Friday after school."
"Friday it is!" Auri chriped, "I can't wait!"
Iris now cooled down breathed a sigh of relief, "Yeah, we'll be there."
~~
Friday came and Mephisto headed over to the auditorium after school. He was actually looking forward to the play this year. He'd only joined last year because his sister Praxina was going to be in it. She'd asked him to join with her and as it turned out, Mephisto had no knack for acting.
However, between practices, he'd found himself much more drawn to the work of crew members. One of the seniors in particular, welcomed him and taught him all about working the lights and building sets. So this year, he'd just be helping from behind the curtains.
He walked onto the stage and saw that Praxina and her friend Danielle were already there. They didn't notice him walk in, so he resolved to wait in the corner until practice started.
Looking around, he noticed there were significantly fewer members than last year. It wasn't surprising considering the mess that erupted last spring, but that only accounted for four members. Coupled with the few seniors they had lost, there were now only six people on the stage for practice. Two were Prax and Dani, Lev was by the back wall and seemed to be entertaining two younger, identical looking boys. Plus himself, they didn't have nearly enough people to put together a play.
At that moment, four girls walked onto the stage. Mephisto recognized one of them as the girl who'd spoken to him the first day in math class. What was her name again? She hadn't tried to talk to him after their teacher scolded them, but she definitely told him her name.
Why am I blanking? It wasn't that hard. Did it start with an O? Opal? No. Oprah? Not ringing any bells. Oli- definitely not it.
She looked over and recognized him, giving a small wave and smile. Once again, Mephisto was taken by surprise at her demeanor, and it took a second for him to react and wave back.
The one in pink spoke first, "Hello, is this where we're supposed to meet for the play?" No one responded at first, until Praxina glanced over and said, "Yeah, it's in here." She then turned back around and continued talking with Danielle.
Besides the girl from math, there was one in pink, another in blue, and another in red with dark hair who seemed to be standing further away from their group.
Er wait, where did she go? There's only 3 of them now.
"Hey Mephisto!"
The girl was standing in front of him now when moments before she'd been talking to her friends.
"Uh, hi- there."
That's right, I forgot her name. What was it? Come on, Ori- Orianna? That was it! Auriana!
"I know it's been a bit since we talked, but It's good to see you again. I would've said something in class, but honestly, I was scared to try with Mr. Gramorr watching."
He hadn't thought much of it before, but slowlly, his doubts started to creep in.
Wait, why does she want to talk to me? We met two days ago, and I haven't done anything remotely interesting. Why would she want to be friends? There was something too familiar about this. . .
Mephisto's initial doubt grew into suspicion when he blurted it out, "Why do you want to talk to me?"
His tone came off a little more curt than than he intended, and Auriana's smile faltered. "Oh- well I guess I was just hoping to make new friends and it kinda seemed like you could use one."
"Pfft. What's that supposed to mean? I don't need pity; I already have friends. They just don't feel the need to act overly excited to see someone they've only known a week."
Okay, that was rude. What am I doing blurting that all out? It's not her fault we just met. I just let my suspicions get ahead of me. I need to say something else anything.
"Ah- I guess I am being overbearing huh? But don't worry, I won't bother you anymore if that's what you want." Before he could say anything to make ammends, she walked back over to her friends. Just then Ms. Laura walked in.
"Alright everyone sorry I'm late, I just got off of my shift. Those of you here interested in joining the play, please have a chair. I'll give you the whole spiel."
Everyone sat within the first two audience rows, and Ms. Laura took the stage.
"Hello, my name is Ms. Laura and I'm an extracurricular faculty member for theatre. Our play this semester will be Peter Pan and we'll be performing it on December 16th. That gives us four months to prepare which should be plenty of time. Practices will be after school and usually on and Fridays, but I encourage you to practice with your castmates as much as possible. As for some of our older members it'd be great if you'd assist the newer recruits with their tasks and help them navigate. Any questions?"
The girl with jet black hair looked around in disgust and spoke up, "Uh, yeah is this," she pointed in a circle at everyone in the crowd, "all the people we have to work with?"
Ms. Laura ignored the tone of the question and gave her best answer, "Well, I know we certainly have fewer members than last year, but I know we can manage. It'll just be a larger commitment for those of us here."
"Mm, well I've been to performance schools, and they didn't have such a dinky room for an auditorium or a bunch of dorks and goths putting it together. So I think, I'll pass. Have fun trying to put together something other than a mess." With that she scoffed and walked out.
Ms. Laura, sensing the tension in the room, tried to wrap up quickly. "W-well, all I had left were these scripts. Each of you can take one and look it over to study for auditions on Wednesday. That's allfor today." With that, she left a stack of papers on the stage and walked out the door.
When Praxina went to grab a copy for her and Dani, one of Auriana's friends tried to introduce herself, "Hi I'm Iris what's your name?"
"Praxina." She wanted to keep the conversation as short as possible.
"Okay Praxina, these are my friends Talia and Auriana. We look forward to working with you."
After what that other girl said, something about Iris made Praxina want to trip her up. She was too friendly, too giddy. Praxina was not up for false appearances, "Gee, thanks for not minding my being a 'dorky goth kid.' That other friend of yours sure seemed to mind."
"Oh you mean Missy? Please don't mind her, she can get a little heated at times."
"You mean annoying?" Auriana joked, "The way she talks you'd think she got woken up by a fire alarm every morning." She and Iris snickered, Talia kept her lips pursed in a smile to hold back her laughter.
Iris composed herself, "Sorry, she's not really our friend."
The burgundy haired girl walked closer to them, unamsued. What started as a sarcastic joke turned to disgust. "Yeah I can tell. Waiting until one of you is out of the room to talk behind their backs? That's no friend if you ask me."
Auri tried to clear up the misunderstanding, "No really, she hates us. Ever since grade school she goes out of her way to make our lives miserable. Especially Iris." She gestured to her right.
Praxina looked back at Iris unconvinced, "Well Iris, what exactly is it that brought you here?"
Iris cleared her throat, "Actually we're really involved with the performing arts. Really anything involving singing and dancing. Since there weren't any clubs of that nature here we are."
"So this was your second choice." Praxina quipped. "Look this isn't some Disney fantasy show- it actually takes work. So if that's not what you're looking for, no one's making you stay."
She took her scripts and left with Danielle and Mephisto. "If we weren't so short on members, I'd make them leave for sure. They just want to mess around and not take it seriously."
Dani, piped up, "Well we don't know them that well yet. Maybe it's just a bad first impression?"
"I hope so, but what about the way they treated their other friend? Not that she wasn't irritating, but at least she could be honest instead of putting on a good face."
Mephisto stayed quiet as they walked home. After all, Auriana had given him two very different first impressions, and he wasn't sure which one to trust. But it would be nice to have a friend.