It was the passing period between lunches which meant Iris was waiting outside the cafeteria doors. She saw a hoard of students flood out, some of them stealing a glance at the posters they'd made on the door.

Yes! They're working!

"Hey Iris"

"Nathaniel!" She gave him a side hug. "Congrats on the job."

He stepped back, "Oh thanks. I started about a week ago now."

"Really? I didn't know it'd been that long."

Nathaniel rubbed his neck and looked away, "Well I knew you were busy. I didn't want to bother you. You made those posters right?" He nodded towards the one on the door.

"Yes! Talia, Auriana, and I worked on them yesterday! And the week before that-" She caught herself with the realization of what he'd just siad, "Nonsense- you're not a bother. You know that right?"

He looked up and gave a small smile. "Yeah, I didn't mean it like that. Don't worry about it Iris."

They only had five minutes together before bell rang. Nathaniel slowly started towards the doors and gave a small wave, "Well I guess I'll see you around Iris."

She returned the gesture, "See ya."

He walked in the cafetria and another swarm of students came flooding through the doors. She watched him leave, following his path until he was lost amidst the crowd.

~~

At practice, Auriana and Iris listened to Talia as she relayed poem ideas for the posters.

Across the stage, Praxina, Danielle, and Mephisto, as well as Lev, Deidos, and Keikos formed their usual cliques.

But there was one new face in their midst, a boy with blonde hair and a grey beanie, leaning against the wall of the auditorium.

Ms. Laura walked in, "Alright it seems like everyone's here, so let's get to work. Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to a new member," she motioned to the new boy, and he shuffled with his head ducked toward the front of the room. "This is Matt, he came to me today and asked about joining us behind the scenes on crew."

She looked at him, "Mephisto, the one in the long coat, is our only other full-time crew member. He can show you the ropes a bit." She gave him a nudge, and Matt stuck his hands in his pockets and walked over to where Mephisto was standing.

She clapped her hands, "Alright for the rest of you, I want to go over that first scene again, so Praxina, Iris, Deidos, and Keikos, get ready. The rest of you come down here you're welcome to rehearse your parts independantly."

As everyone was moving around, Ms. Laura stopped Auriana on the shoulder and held out her hand.

"Here are the keys to the storage room, there should be a costume rack in there. You're free to use whatever you like, either for altering or scraping the fabric."

"Really? Thank you!"

As Matt and Mephisto walked by, she stopped them as well.

"Mephisto, Matt." She waved them over. Why don't you two go as well and take a look at props and stage sets."

Before indicating where said room was, she walked off to direct the other students.

"It's this way." Mephisto indicated a door to their right. Auriana tried the key first, but it kept jamming. She couldn't open the door without it getting stuck, and ended up dropping the key.

"Dang it!"

Mephisto picked up the key, "It normally gets stuck like that. You have to do it like this or else it won't work."

He used both hands to hold the key in place while turning the knob. Pulling the door towards them and then he kicked.

It opened.

Inside the walls were stacked on all sides with old props and material. The room itself must've been big at one point, but now they could only fit single file. It was L-shaped, so there was a path cleared in the middle of the room that took one left.

Mephisto went ahead and started digging through paint supplies. While Auriana tried to move some of the stuff out of the way, Matt tried to start a conversation, "You're Auriana right?" He hadn't talked at all yet, and even now, his voice was hardly above a whisper.

"Mhm, we were in the same school last year."

He nodded, "Yeah I remember you. You were always with your friends out there, Talia and Iris."

Auriana looked up, surprised. She hadn't thought he knew anything about her.

"Can I ask-" Auriana wanted to confirm her hunch, "What got you interested in joining the play?"

"I saw a poster for it outside my classroom. A week ago I had no idea there was a play. But I mean, they're all over the place, I would've run into one eventually."

"Really? We made those!"

"Huh?"

"Taila, Iris, and I!"

"Oh! That's cool, they look really- good?"

Auriana turned away again, "Oh, thanks."

After neither said anything else, Auriana went ahead in search of a costumes. Matt stayed back looking at the materials available.

Mephisto led the way to the left side of the room, and there, amongst a hundred other things, was a costune rack.

She walked around him, partly climbing on some of the props, to get to it. The hangers were getting pretty dusty, so the first item she pulled out came with a cloud of dust.

"Why hasn't anyone been here? Didn't you use this last year?"

"Not the costumes, people just brought their own stuff."

Auriana took a box down from a shelf, inside was full of hats. She put on the one that looked like Carmen Miranda's fruit hat.

He made a face, "Eww, you don't know who's worn that."

She laughed, and tossed a scarf at him, "Here, try this one. I think you might like it."

He swatted the scarf away.

She persisted, half-jokingly, "You don't know unless you try it."

To her surprise, he picked it up off the floor and flipped the end around his shoulder. For once he was trying to make serious face but holding back a smile.

"Maybe you should try to drape it this way," Auriana went to grab the the part of the scarf that was bunched around his neck, but when she did so, Mephisto staggered back. This sent them both falling towards the wall. Mephisto landed on the boxes of costumes while Auriana managed to catch herself on one of the hangers. That only worked for a second before it snapped and she fell the rest of the way to the ground.

Matt heard the commotion and came around to check on them. What he saw was Mephisto sitting on a bunch of squashed up boxes and Auriana faceplanted under the costume rack.

"Are you guys okay?"

Auriana looked up and met Mephisto's gaze. They both turned to Matt and said, "No."

After Matt helped them clean up- thankfully without asking what had happened- they spent the hour sorting through stuff to find anything they could use. When they got back, they saw practice was just wrapping up.

Auriana looked panicked, but Talia came up and eased her nerves, "Don't worry Auriana, she didn't get to your scene."

Iris approached with her head hanging, "It's my fault. We had to keep redoing my lines like 10 times."

"You did well." Talia placed an arm across Iris' shoulder, "You just had-- unique interpretations."

"Yeah well it cost everyone's time." Iris then raised her gaze from the floor, chin up, "It's just that when I'm reading my lines, I can envision what this play could be. If I could just change it a little bit, it would be so much more. But Ms. Laura only allowed that so much."

"Well what's wrong mixing it up a little?" Auriana encouraged. "Can't she see it another way?"

"Maybe, but I'd have to do a better job first," Iris lamented.

Just then, Lev came up to them. "Hey girls, how're ya liking play so far? Did you get enough practice today princess?" His last comment was intended as a jab at Iris.

Was he eavesdropping? Auriana wondered.

Iris shoulders slumped at his words. Talia spoke up, "Hey what gives?"

"What?? I'm just messin with ya. You know that right?" He nodded at Iris, she didn't respond.

Praxina, of all people, had been the one to step in. "Screw off Lev." She gave him what was meant to be a harmless shove, but he lost his balance and almost fell onto the floor.

"Ouch," he mock rubbed arm, "You could've warned me if you wanted to talk to princess first. I would have shared"

Praxina had no tolerance for his antics. Rolling her eyes she said, "Don't you have to go be a bother somewhere else?"

"Not until four." He sighed, "Alright guess I'll see ya around," he said to all of them, "This one is gettin cranky with me."

Praxina stood with her arms crossed watching him leave.

Iris looked up at her, "Thanks."

She turned so the girls couldn't see her face anymoe, "Don't mention it. I can't stand him when he's being annoying either." Once she was sure Lev had gone, she walked away as well.

Auriana saw her and Mephisto leaving together. She tried waving goodbye, but he didn't look up.

"Let's go," Iris said, "I've kept you waiting long enough." The three of them grabbed their bags and walked out of the auditorium. They didn't say anything about practice.