The Stars Among Us

Chapter 8

ELAINE

     The next day, I woke up late. I only woke up because I could hear Grayson’s and Echo’s voice shouting at each other about some bow ties or something stupid and there's someone who’s sitting at the edge of my bed. I'm guessing that it was Wini. I suddenly got up and quickly picked out an outfit. After that, I jumped into the shower.
     “Grayson, are you serious about being a janitor?” Wini asked for a hundredth time. Grayson came up with a plan for us to dress up as janitors, so no one will recognise us when we’re sneaking in the  backstage.
     “Well, I am. I don't know about you guys.”
     “I'm coming with you, Woods,” I said as I had just done my hair.
     “Wini? Echo?” Grayson called.
     “Fine, we’ll come too, I guess.” Wini let out a sigh.
     “Great, now let’s borrow that uniform. I think there's some in the storage,” Grayson said. “I'll be right back.”
     “I’ll come with you,” I said.
We got out of the room and into the janitor’s storage. When we found one, we opened the door and looked inside. There were a lot of things in here; mops, polishes, vacuums, brooms, buckets and other cleaning stuff.
     “Here!” screamed Grayson. It sounded like he found the uniforms. He picked one up and hung them in the air.
     “What are you doing with it?” I asked.
     “I'm trying to see if they are different sizes or not,” he said. He picked one up again, then another one, “I don't think they have sizes,” he finally decided.
     “Let's get out of here. Come on!” I said when I heard footsteps in the distance, a loud one. Sounded like they stomped their feet to the ground. “Cover your face!”
     “Hey!” said a voice. Grayson quickly turned around and covered half of his face with his hand, the other hand reaching for the uniforms. I covered half of my face as well and grabbed the small cleaning stuff with my right hand. “Get out of here!” he screamed. I turned around and he must be one of the janitors here. I grabbed Grayson’s hand and started running into the person. I gave the janitor a push with my right hand. The cleaning supplied swung in the air. When he stumbled to the back, I ran to the side so that he couldn't catch us. We ran down the hall like the wind. We didn’t look back, we just ran.

     When we were already in my dorm, I quickly closed the door and locked it. Grayson handed the uniforms to Echo and Wini, who’s sitting on the bed. I put all of the cleaning supplies down.
     “Why were you running?” Echo asked.
     “We got caught,” I panted.
     “Elaine?” Grayson looked at me, still breathing heavily. “What's with the cleaning stuff?”
     “Well, we’re going to want to bring something and pretend to clean.”   
     “Now, come on. We have 5 minutes left!” Wini said, putting her uniform on. As the others did the same, I unlocked the door to see if it’s clear to go. The hallways were deserted, I'm guessing they were already at the auditorium. We headed towards the auditorium and got into the backdoor. The people are busy here, and some of the actors are panicking why the important character is not there with them. Jack, the professor who’s leading this club, gave away the characters to new bodies. Now we are watching the people who got our characters, struggling to memorise the script. I kind of feel bad, but I’d feel more embarrassed if I'm the one who’s struggling on the stage.
     “Okay, guys,” said Grayson, turning around to us. “Spread around. Don't want them to see four janitors talking and having conversations like old friends.”
     “Alright, I’ll go to the other side of the stage,” Echo whispered and then she walked out.
     “Wini, stay here. I’ll go to the makeup room,” Grayson said. Wini gave him a nod.
     “I’ll go to the costume room,”  I declared. When I walked towards the door to the costume room, I saw that the door had been opened and someone forgot to close them. Or maybe someone’s still inside. I pushed the door wider and took a peek inside the room. But, when I did, I saw no one. I came in and closed the door behind me. Now, I don't know what to do. I looked around the room, and there were stacks and stacks of costumes. Costumes on the floor, hanging on a chair, folded on the table, hanging by the hanger. I walked towards the one that is in the far back. And I saw the costume I wore on our first ever play here, Hamlet. I played Ophelia back then. The dress was the colour of air force blue. The hem of the dress is gold, with beautiful small details and laces around it.