Hallway Talk
You entered the school after Sage dropped you off in the morning. It took you all your effort to wake him up after Joanna didn't answer any of your calls. She probably fell asleep after watching the Deadpool movies while procrastinating her Statistics project again.
The walk to the front doors was normal, looking straight ahead and listening to your favorite playlist to get you through the rough Wednesday morning. The good thing about Sage driving you to school is that he let you get Starbucks if you bought him something to. So holding onto your (whatever you like from Starbucks) felt like a good start.
You tried to yawn but the pressure of a body on yours cut you short.
"How dare you" Joanna hissed.
Joanna's hard push almost made you collapse to the ground, but you stay up. "Huh?" You covered your mouth, almost dropping your drink too.
"I can't believe you! All of these years of friendship and you couldn't tell me about the most interesting thing that has happened to you?!" Joanna's eyes squinted looking at you as if you did something horrible to her.
"What?" Your brows creased, genuinely confused as to what happened to get her this angry at you. You stopped walking then turned to your friend making everything stop. "I'm in the mood for this I have to go to class right now so either tell me or I'm leaving" You exclaimed.
"You were going off on Foolish I heard some girls talking about it" Joanna said. "If Mandy Fabbri tries to start a fight or whatever don't be surprised. Foolish is kind of her reserved prom date or that's what I've heard"
You scoffed, thrown off by such a thing. "Prom is in April"
"Better late than never" Joanna nodded. "Okay so what happened? Tell me everything I'm listening" She said pulling you to the side of the hallway to get a little more privacy.
"He's a jock" You rolled your eyes remembering what happened yesterday. "Explains the pretty smile and charming personality. Gosh how could I be such a fool to be hypnotized by him. I knew he couldn't be so damn perfect and happened to want to be a part of the play. I need to talk to George" You began to ramble, telling her your side of the story. You wanted to walk away but Joanna held you firmly and pulled you back.
Joanna looked at you, keeping you in place in front of her. "Woah woah slow down"
"He's an athlete Jo! You know what these dumb jocks do at theater productions. Remember what happened in the second act of Romeo and Juliet?" You said.
Joanna tried to remember what happened last fall. She thought about it so hard that she looked up at the ceiling. "Uhhh was it the sauce thing?"
Last year during Romeo and Juliet there was a part where one of the main characters insulted the other calling them a 'saucy boy'. In first three shows everything was perfect, everyone did what they were supposed to be doing and the audience loved the hard work. But during closing night one of the athletes from the soccer team poured actual sauce on the character being called this name. It wasn't horrible but it did stain the actors skin. It ruined the rest of the play.
"Yes the sauce!" You exclaimed. "I know I pretend like I don't care about this play, but I do care! I don't want this to be the laughing stock of everyone just because of Foolish" You began to complain.
"Isn't Tommy also an athlete though?" Joanna argued.
"He's different he isn't a lead" You explained. "There are layers, rules to these things. Yesterday he was talking to his friend and he denied being in the play like he didn't spend two hours with us in that meeting room! He's embarrassed and the worst part is that he's probably planning his way to ruin my play" Something about the way you spoke about Foolish pulled out a new side of you.
"Damn you know a lot about the theater department huh?" Joanna said, shocked by your knowledge.
"It's just obvious gossip" You sighed, looking down at your feet. This was so upsetting you didn't get to watch a couple episodes of your favorite show, instead you actually did you English reading. Ms. Parker will sure like to hear you participate in your class discussion today. "It's just— ugh. I don't want my play to become a meme or something that goes viral on tiktok. you know" You said, facing Joanna directly. "I talked to George last night about the play and all these cool things that were going to happen for the scenery and stuff right? It was felt so profesional. It made me think that— what if this is something good? What if I can prove to myself that I can be better than what I think I am?" You explained.
The illusion and constructed dreams spark of your eyes were new to Joanna. Something you lacked was passion for your craft, and this was the first time you spoke without second guessing yourself. She was also surprised about the call with George you didn't tell her about.
Joanna looked at you, no joke in her expression. She rubbed your arm to comfort you with a relaxed grin on her lips. "I get it" she said.
"You do?" You asked, head tilting to the side.
"You're falling for him" Joanna said, her eyes widening with amusement.
"What?" You asked, extremely confused.
"Yeah what?" George chimed in. He wanted to talk to you but his ears were stronger.
Both you and Joanna snapped their heads his way. George was looking down at his phone, typing with one hand and holding an iced coffee with the other. This morning he was wearing a pair of glasses you've never seen before, but he somehow made them fit his face.
"Nothing" You laughed nervously and shooting Joanna a look to make her stop talking. "Good morning"
George looked up, turning off his phone and ripping off the thin round glasses off his face to keep them in his pocket. "Oh hey. I need to speak with you. What did you do to Foolish?" George asked.
"What?" You bursted out laughing in embarrassment. "Me? Why? What? Hey— No I did not do anything why would you think that?" You stammered ending with an offensive tone.
"Chill out" George said. "He just looks down today and I heard from Mandy Fabbri that you were telling him of or something I didn't care to listen much. He also asked me about what would happen if he wasn't going to be able to be in the play"
"Well she's lying because I was never telling him off" You defended yourself. "I just had a little talk.."
"Shit" George said, his face looked tense. "You did tell him off" George said, his eyes finding some guilt in them.
You sighed. "George did you know he was an athlete?"
"Umm yeah he's like the biggest basketball player in the school?" George questioned.
"Well do you know what athletes do to theater productions in the school?"
"Y/n don't be ridiculous" George rolled his eyes. "That only happens to musicals or the big budget productions parents put out so they never get in any trouble"
"Oh" You said a little defeated. "I just.. I didn't want anything bad to happen"
"Well that's fine I guess? But whatever you did can you fix it?" George asked you.
"What is there for me to fix?" You replied.
"I don't know but keep him in the play" George shrugged then walked away with no hesitation.
