"This is all your fault, director's pet. This is a play. I'm not falling in love with you, and I would never ever go out with you, Jack Garrison."
Jack and Shayna can't get through a rehearsal without fighting.
Cheerleader Shayna loathes perfect Ja...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
**** Content Warning for Abuse and Violence****
The prop room in the theater was a bit spooky. Hundreds of random items sat on shelves unorganized and thrown haphazardly around the room. It looked like a bad episode of Hoarders.
Carson and I were trying to sort through it all to find anything we could use. So far, in the mess, the only useful items I'd found were a fake sword and a crumpled bouquet of plastic flowers. Carson unearthed a plastic rock and a fake tree in the corner.
He had headphones on his ears and was rocking out to some song on his phone. I couldn't hear it, but I could see him bobbing his head to the beat.
I pulled a rubber chicken from the rubble. I should have volunteered to paint the set like Jules and Rita or offered to show Lilly how to run the lighting board. I didn't know how the lighting board worked, but I was starting to regret volunteering to sift through all this junk. It felt like the walls were closing in, and we'd be buried six feet under.
Lilly got along well enough with Kai when I introduced them. My sister was happy to help with the production since it got her away from our dad. Today, I'd set Maddy up on a play date, and Mary was at some school academic competition, so they weren't at home, which was a relief for both of us.
Dad didn't protest when Lilly told him she was joining the play. She was his favorite, after all. Lilly never did anything wrong in his eyes.
When I'd first told him I was staying out after football practice for a play, he laughed. He thought I was wasting my time. Then he let me know theater would get me nowhere in life.
I still joined. Uncle Anton needed me in the production to keep his favor with the school. I might have been the reason the school district even gave the play a small budget. They couldn't have their school quarterback in a ragtag production at the festival.
Dad usually didn't leave his mark on me. He might have been an angry man, but he was still intelligent. He knew if my teammates saw marks on me in the locker room, they might get suspicious.
The girls were more vulnerable. Mary got so scared some nights she'd sneak out and sleep in my jeep. Lilly's arm got broken when she tried to keep Dad's belt away from Maddy after she dropped a pitcher of orange juice on accident. He'd pushed her through a window, and she landed on her arm.
Last night, I'd tucked the girls in bed. Then, I headed to the kitchen to grab an orange and a protein bar before starting my homework.
Dad had been sitting on a kitchen bar stool, nursing a bottle of bourbon and a shot glass. He poured another drink as he looked at some case papers.
"Feeling brave, boy?" He said, and the smell of alcohol stank on his breath.
"No, sir," I'd said.
"I saw that B on your last math test," Dad said and drained his glass. "You can't be in a play, be a big football star, and make A's all at the same time, Jack?"
