Heather in Small Heath

Omnipresent Orion

"Give me the waters of Lethe that numb the heart,

if they exist,

I will still not have the power to forget you." ~ Publius Ovidius Naso

December, 2012. Pennsylvania.

Heather Tremblay pushed her dark hair behind her hair and nervously fidgeted with the necklace around her neck. The auditorium's lobby was already fully decorated for Christmas; red, green, and cold decorations elegantly cascading over every surface available and causing even the most Grinch-like attendee to feel a spark of excitement for the coming holiday.

The young Tremblay woman had been admiring the ten-foot Christmas tree in the corner of the room when she had then spotted a familiar, red-haired girl entering the main doors of the lobby. Heather watched as Seraphina Dobbs' pale face flushed a deeper shade of red from the change of temperature, and the Tremblay girl smiled slightly as she made an immediate beeline towards the one familiar face in the crowd. It took Sera only a few seconds to find her tall, brunette friend in the crowd, and the Dobbs girl met her friend halfway.

"I have never been anywhere so fancy," murmured Heather under her breath, glancing specifically up at the huge chandelier which looked to be made out of crystal. "I feel like the doorknobs for the bathrooms are worth more than what my dad makes in a month."

Sera snickered at that, glancing around the lobby and taking in the extravagance of the room.

"I am surprised they let Theo within a mile of this place," the Dobbs girl pondered teasingly, noting how there seemed to be multiple people taking coats off of peoples' shoulders and putting them somewhere else. "He's a hazard on a good day, so I am shocked that he hasn't been asked to leave yet."

"It's because he hasn't had time to plot anything," Heather joked back, intertwining her arm through Sera's and walking them towards the main performance hall, smoothing her hand down her black, velvet dress as they walked. "They're keeping his mind busy with all the non-stop practices for this play. No time for idleness, and that is how he gets into trouble: too much time on his hands."

Sera merely hummed in agreement as they both walked into the main hall itself, her breath becoming caught in her throat at what she saw. Heather turned her gaze from her friend to see what had caught her red-haired friend's sudden attention.

What caught the Tremblay's girl attention first were the paintings which danced upon the high ceiling. From what she could tell, the paintings were of guardian angels if the feathered wings and mighty swords and helms were anything to go by. The golden light which shone from the stage lights reflected upwards and gave the mighty angels an ethereal look to them.

The second thing which caught Heather's attention, but only after she had gotten the playbill and had seated herself next to Sera, was the sheer size of the stage and hall.

"Sometimes I forget just how talented our idiot is," Heather spoke admittingly, looking around at the hundreds of seats which were quickly filling up around them.

"Well," Sera started, a smirk gracing her lips. "It's easy to forget that when he burns ramen in your kitchen at 3am because he forgot to check on it for thirty minutes."

Heather, crinkling her nose at the memory of the stench which had permeated her parents' kitchen last Friday, merely chuckled at Sera's point.

The lights of the theater suddenly started to flicker, signaling for the straggling show-goers to quickly find their seats before the show was to begin.