The foil and the harem (unedited)

Twenty-nine

JAIDYN

Monday morning

I walked into the auditorium with the rest of my dance class. I was talking to Nala, Ami, and Paris as we sat down near the front. The music students, the other dance class, and the theatre students were the only ones in the auditorium currently.

"I'm not that big on musicals." Ami said, crossing one leg over the other as we sat down, "I just prefer ballets." She shrugged.

"So what I'm hearing is, you don't like high school musical?" Paris said to her in disbelief.

"I hate it actually." Ami said, and Paris' mouth dropped.

"If you had to choose between a classic, The Nutcracker ballet, and the children's movie, High school musical, what's your pick?" Ami asked us.

"High school musical!" Paris shouted.

"What you know about HSM?" A boy behind us said out of nowhere, causing us to look back at him. He grinned at us before snapping his eyes to Ami's hair.

"Have you ever considered playing the part of Annie in Annie: the musical?" The boy asked her as he stuck a hand in her hair. "You just have the right hair consistency..." he said.

Paris and I cringed as Ami slapped his hand away.

"You know, not all theatre kids are like him." Paris said to Ami as she turned away from the boy.

"Oh I know." She said, a look of annoyance on her face.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, coming between us again.

I caught a glimpse of someone behind the boy's head as he started to argue with them.

Crash was sitting a couple rows away, by himself, looking down at his phone and bobbing his head. He looked up and made eye contact with me, and his face lit up as he waved at me. I smiled at him and waved back.

"You should go talk to him." I heard Nala say to me.

"Talk to who? To Crash?" I asked.

"Yeah, he looks pretty lonely, and he seems to like you, you should go give him company." She told me.

"But..." I gestured to Paris and Ami who were still arguing with the boy.

"I'm going to go sit with Marigold, let's escape while they aren't paying attention." She said to me.

We slowly got up as they argued and snuck away, going to sit with our separate friends. Nala had gone towards the front row while I made my way near the back.

I sat by Crash. He took his earphones out of his ears as I sat down.

"Hey!" he said as he looked at me, his face was slightly red.

"Hey! I didn't know you were a fine arts main, I thought you were culinary?" I said to him.

"Oh yeah, I took culinary as a side because who doesn't love food and cooking? Especially when you get to eat what you make after! But I love music more so I made it my main..." He told me. I nodded at him in understanding.