Talia went up to the library during her free period for the 3rd time that week. Auriana and Iris had their free period after her, so their lunches were seperated. It was getting lonely having a table to herself, so she came up to the library instead.
There were a lot of people, maybe 30 students, but it was a big enough space that everyone could keep to themselves.
She wandered over to browse the aisles and found a collection of poetry books. As she was flipping through the first one, she overheard two people talking through the aisles.
"Whaddya say?"
"A poetry club? Yeah why not, it sounds fun."
She recognized that voice, it was Nathaniel, but who was the other girl?
"Yeah! Now we just have to find members!"
Her voice was almost whispered, but it still managed to project easily enough across the aisles.
"Sure thing Brenda. How do we do that?"
Should I ask to join? Would that be too obtrusive?
Talia was contemplating and decided to just step in before she overthought matters in her head, "Uh-"
Oh man, why am I just confronting them? Wait, why am I even worried? I already know Nathaniel there's no need to feel awkward.
"Sorry, but I heard you mention a poetry club?"
"Oh yes," Brenda replied sweetly, "We're trying to start one, but not many people are interested."
"Could I join? I mean, I'm not very good, but I really like writing and poetry. . ." She trailed off into nothing and was probably blushing way too much.
Nathaniel spoke up, "That'd be great Talia! Now we've got 3 members! Up top Brenda!" The two high-fived. Talia smiled and felt more at ease, "So when's the first meeting?"
"Well it's not an official club and there aren't any teachers who can watch us, so we'll just be meeting up during lunch. Is that okay?"
"Sounds perfect."
"Great! See you two tomorrow!" Brenda waved and rushed off.
Talia was about to walk off too when Nathaniel stopped her, "Hey, uh sorry to ask you now, but is everything okay with you, Iris, and Auriana? I haven't heard much from any of you lately."
"Well, Iris and Auriana have been pretty caught up with working on the play, I'm sure that's all."
"Do you think either of them would be interested in joining our club?"
"Well, I can ask them, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. Theyve been pretty busy this week."
"Ah, okay." his smile faded. "Thanks anyways, Talia." He patted his hand on her shoulder and walked away.
~~
The rest of the week passed by in a blur.
Iris and her friends sat on the edge of the stage rehearsing lines until Ms. Laura arrived. When the cast list was announced, Iris was ecstatic that she would be playing Wendy; she'd audtioned in the hopes of getting Peter, but she didn't have the same experience as the other members. Besides a main role was still good for a freshman. Praxina was to be playing Peter. Lev had the second largest role as Hook, Talia was Tinkerbell, and Auriana one of the lost boys.
Since Auriana had one of the smaller roles, she had asked Ms. Laura about making costumes for the play. The budget was quite small, so she was told she would need to fund the costumes herself. Iris was full of ideas for how to improve upon the production.
"I've been thinking, there aren't many of us. So how could we recruit new members? I've been working on posters, what do you guys think of these designs?"
Iris layed out three different exanples she'd made, all handwritten, colorful, and decorated with glitter. Any one of them would work well as a final design.
Talia focused more on the writing, "Hmm, there isn't much information on these about what exactly we're doing. So maybe you should change the wording to make it clear?"
Auriana pitched in, "I think I like this one," pointing to the 2nd design, "But maybe the heading saying "play" should be bigger so you can see it in the hallways."
"I do like the designs though. It really doesn't need much work, I coukd help with changing the text. How many copies do you want to make?" Talia asked.
"Well we should definitely hang them up in larger spaces like the cafeteria, gym, and on the front doors. That's where most people will see them. But there's still plenty of more room like near bathrooms, classrooms, and in the library. So at least twenty." Iris said.
"I'll be busy once costumes start, but right now I'll have time."
Ms. Laura walked in so their plans had to wait.
"Alright everyone. Today's gonna be a pretty easy day. Cast will just be reading through their lines so that you can get a feel for working together onstage. These first few practices you'll be welcome to look at your scripts, but do work on getting it memorized as soon as possible. Mephisto, I've printed out some set designs if you want to start looking through and choosing which ones to paint."
With that, everyone got in place to act out the first scene. It was really more like monologing, but it was starting to paint a clearer picture of what it might look like.
Iris was doing really well. Even while reading out of the script, she sounded really natural.
Ms. Laura commented on this, "Praxina when you're speaking in this scene it's supposed to sound more like a conversation. Although this is a performance, try to tone your voice back. Like Iris is doing."
Praxina didn't seem fased, "Right, I'll try that."
She took Ms. Laura's advice, and practice continued as usual. Iris felt uneasy at the indirect compliment. She wanted to ask Praxina about it, but when practice was over, she hurried out with Dani and Mephisto. Maybe she was just overthinking it. Yeah, Praxina would've said something; it must not have bothered her.
Why make a big deal over nothing?