Roxanne's senior college year was her most busy one yet. She continued to get her excellent grades for her college classes and she continued to be a great assistant teacher at Unique Flowers School. And she continued to be a great cheerleader and Spoonerville College's best cheerleader captain ever. (I'll explain more about her cheerleading for this year in the next chapter).
For the college theater production that college year, Hayden chose to do the most ambitious production Spoonerville College had ever done yet: the musical Wicked by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman.
Roxanne auditioned for the role of Elphaba, but she didn't get it. It wasn't because she wasn't talented enough for her, which she was. It was because of her fear of heights. When she tried the platform to lift her up for the bit when Elphaba flies above and out of the Emerald City during Defying Gravity, her fear of heights got the better of her and she felt she just couldn't do Elphaba, even though the flying bit only lasted under two minutes. And because she couldn't handle that, she didn't bother auditioning for the role of Galinda because she knew she wouldn't stand a chance flying or hovering in Galinda's bubble. So she got the part of Madame Morrible, a character that was no one's favorite but still an important one for the story. Roxanne didn't mind, anyway. She didn't have to do any flying and she had never played a villainess before, so she was very happy to play that role. Her friends Valeria got the role of Elphaba, Vicky got the role of Galinda and Kenny got the role of Fiyero/the Scarecrow.
While Roxanne and her friends were rehearsing for the show, I was helping behind the scenes and helping the crew build the sets, make the costumes and build the props. I remember helping the crew build the Clock of the Time Dragon for the whole stage, the Wizard of Oz Head operated by the Wizard himself, Elphaba's broom, Galinda's flying bubble and the curtain with the map of Oz among them. While I was helping behind the scenes, I saw Roxanne and the cast rehearse for the show. After watching Roxanne appear in the last three shows for the last three years, I always knew she was going to be good in this show, but when I watched her rehearse, she still exceeded my expectations. I even helped Roxanne rehearse when we were at home. She didn't really need my help for that, though she always said she did because I acted in high school and college stage productions before she started acting. She was very talented. I just kept thinking it was because she liked doing it with me, ever since she did Spamalot and we continued to do so for A Chorus Line and Mamma Mia. Anyway, I liked doing it with her as well, so it was a win-win for the both of us.
Then in February 2009, the show premiered and yet again I had the honor to go and see it on its opening night. Like I said before, I always knew it was going to be a good show and everyone was going to be good in it, but when I saw the show properly, it still exceeded my expectations.
After the show's first nigh was over, I went to tell Roxanne how much I enjoyed the show and how she played Madame Morrible very well in it. She thanked me for my praise and for coming to see her.
As usual, my dad, Sylvia and Hannah went to see Roxanne in the show one night when they came to see me and they really enjoyed it and they told her how much they enjoyed it and how great she was in it. And yet again, she was very grateful that they came to see her.
After its successful two-week run, Hayden, as usual, invited me and everyone who helped behind the scenes on the stage with the cast to thank us all for making this college production of Wicked a massive success. Yet again, this production won the Best College Theatre Production Award, Hayden's fourth Best Director in A College Theatre Production Award and Roxanne won her first (and only) Best Supporting Actress in A College Production Award for her incredible performance as Madame Morrible. Then as if all this wasn't rewarding enough, we had guest appearances from the real show, including Stephen Schwartz, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth themselves, who came to congratulate us for an excellent college production of Wicked.
For Spring Break 2009, Roxanne and her college mates went to Miami, Florida and I went with them and we all spent two weeks having lots of incredible fun there. We really liked the hotel we stayed at. Roxanne and I liked our lovely hotel room with the nice bathroom and the large TV in it and the massive balcony outside it. And we all enjoyed the breakfast we had in it every morning.
I remember one day when we went to Zoo Miami and we enjoyed walking around it and seeing a lot of amazing animals and learning about them. I also remember when the day when we went to Vizcaya Museum and Gardens and we enjoyed walking around everything and learning everything about them. And we spent the rest of the days exploring Miami, which included going to plenty of beautiful gardens and vast parks, going to see a lot of amazing museums and just chilling on the beautiful beaches and swimming in the lovely sea. And we enjoyed the food we had at every café and restaurant in Miami for every lunch and dinner.
The only thing I didn't do with Roxanne and her friends was go to the mall. Well, I only went with them a couple of times. So, whenever they were shopping at the Dolphin Mall, I would hit the big gym and large swimming pool at the hotel or I would go and do some water sports, with water skiing, jet skiing, tubing and banana boating among them. So yeah, it was an awesome Spring Break trip.
As for my relationship with Roxanne, it kept growing stronger and happier. We continued to do many things together. We, along with Roxanne's friends, helped Spoonerville College help the poor and homeless during their Thanksgiving service for Thanksgiving 2008. We went to Big Sky to celebrate Christmas 2008 and New Year's Day 2009. And we went on day or weekend trips together, sometimes by ourselves, sometimes with my family and sometimes with our friends and our godchildren.
Because I had been with Roxanne for more than three years now and dating her for more than two years now, I both thought and felt like I had gotten over what Mona did to me and I felt like I was ready to propose to Roxanne. But I didn't want to rush into it for two reasons. The first one was because Roxanne was very busy so I thought I would wait until she graduated college and the second one was because I hadn't forgotten what Mona did to me, despite getting over it, and I just wanted to make extra sure I wasn't repeating that incident in my life ever again. Besides, Roxanne and I did a lot of talking about getting married and having kids together for the last three years and the more we talked about it and I thought about it, the more I felt willing to start my own family and make them my number one priority.