Curtain Call

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

       I feel my eyes try to close the longer I pay attention to the current lecture in my social studies class. Normally, I'm able to stay awake during lessons, but this is not a lesson so my brain tells me it's not important enough to pay attention to.

       I mean, it probably is important otherwise my teacher wouldn't be talking about it for the past fifteen minutes, being on the verge of yelling. But my memory has completely disregarded everything he has said. Something about eating food in class or being late or maybe not doing homework on time. Basically anything teachers usually have rules about that some students like to ignore.

       I still try my best to keep my eyes open because the moment it closes, I feel like that will give my teacher another thing to yell about.

       Alan is sitting in the desk beside me, so he leans over and whispers in a quiet voice, "What's he talking about?"

       I shrug, not wanting to take the chance to reply, even if I whisper as quietly as Alan. I can handle the teacher yelling at the class collectively. I can't handle being yelled at individually so I'm trying my best not to draw any attention towards me.

       Alan sighs heavily, either from not knowing what's going on or for boredom. Maybe both. Either way, the sigh is loud enough to get our teacher's attention. He immediately stops talking and looks harshly at my sibling. "I'm sorry, am I boring you?"

       "Yes," Alan admits bravely, causing some of our classmates to giggle. "You're lecturing the whole class when it probably doesn't involve half of us. Just lecture the ones you're talking about on your own time."

       By now, the teacher is completely fuming. "Are you telling me how to teach?"

       "What? No. I'm too dumb for that. And lecturing isn't exactly teaching."

       I lean over towards my sibling. "Alan, I think you should stop talking," I say quietly.

       "Oh, yet another Prince child trying to talk over me," the teacher says.

       I furrow my eyebrows. "I-I was just..."

       I'm unable to continue the sentence for fear I'll get yelled out, so Alan continues. "Dude, he was just telling me to stop talking. Don't get mad at him. Or me."

       "I am mad at you for interrupting my lecture. And since you think I should be lecturing students 'on my own time', you'll be staying after class."

       "But this isn't the last class of the day. I still have to get to fourth period. I can come in after school, if you'd like. But I do have rehearsals for Grease at three so it would have to be done by then."

       I can't handle Alan anymore. They've dug their own hole and I'm not going to help them get out of it. I love them and everything, but I'd rather not get in trouble too.

       But apparently, Alan isn't even in trouble because the teacher just rubs his forehead. "Forget it. Please, don't stay after class and don't come in after school."

       I don't know why I'm even surprised it worked out this way. Alan is notorious for passing classes or being excused from detention simply because they know how to push everyone's buttons.

       If anything, I wish I can be like that but my anxiety gets too much for me.

       My teacher doesn't even go back to whatever lecture he was giving, probably because Alan's comment about it not applying to all of us actually works.

       The final period actually goes by a lot faster than third period because we're actually learning something and not listening to our teacher rant about whatever. Once the class ends, I head to my locker to put my stuff away before going to the theatre for rehearsals.

       I'm happy that today, it's one of the days I can relax in rehearsal since we're going to be choreographing a number I'm not part of. I'm way too tired to focus right now, so I curl up on one of the seats right away and close my eyes.

       Shortly after, I hear someone sit down beside me and if I had to guess, I'd say that it's probably Jerome. He tends to sit beside me every single rehearsal, and more than enough times it's to give me a pick up line.

       "Someone likes sleeping," Jerome says.

       "Mhmm," I mutter.

       "Well, since you like sleeping, maybe you should sleep with me one day?" If I was looking at Jerome, I probably would have seen him wink at me, but I'm too lazy to open my eyes.

       Without opening my eyes or lifting my head, I reach over and slap his arm. "No."

       "Fine," Jerome says before sighing heavily. "One of these days, I'm going to get you good." He leans over towards me. "But for real, are you okay? You look tired."

      "I'm fine," I say. "Just wanting to get some sleep since I'm probably not going to be learning any choreo today. Does Ms. Salazar let people sleep if they're not working on any scenes?"

       "For the most part, yeah," Jerome says. "She knows it's not easy being a teenager, and that some students may be exhausted by the time school is over. So I wouldn't worry about her getting mad or anything."

       I nod, happy I might be able to get some rest before having to head home and do a lot of my homework. Honestly, I'm happy we didn't get anything assigned in social studies. Normally when the teacher is in a bad mood, we get a lot more homework than usual.

       Maybe he guessed that Alan would have annoyed him into not giving us homework.

       Which has definitely happened before. More than once. Probably happened once a week, in fact.

       They were a hero among students. Many people appreciated their ability to annoy the teachers into not giving us homework.

       Once rehearsals started, Pilar shows up once again to choreograph the next number; Look at Me I'm Sandra Dee. Before the cast included in this number gets on stage, Orchid decides to apologize to me since she'll be making fun of my character.

       "It's fine," I say.

       "No, it's not," Orchid says. "You're too nice for the world, and I'm going to be making fun of you."

       "You're going to be making fun of my character. Not me. And if it makes you feel better, Alan is in the scene too, so you're not my only sibling making fun of me."

       Orchid looks over at Alan, who's already on the stage. "Alan. Come apologize to Nolan."

       "Sorry, Nolan," Alan says.

       "Do you even know what you're apologizing for?" Jerome asks.

       "No, but Orchid said I should so I did."

       "That's... a bit questionable, to be honest. You shouldn't do anything just because someone told you to."

       Alan shrugs. "It's easier than questioning their demands, or arguing with them."

       "Yeah, that's still very questionable."

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alan always does questionable things but that's what makes them one of my favourite characters lol. 

alan supremacy.