Life Imitating Art, from Drama to Myself

Chapter 1: The Art That Starts

School had been back for about a month when our drama teacher told us our first performance assessment was to be a group project. She told us to form groups of 4-5 people but warned that the more people in your group the harder the task will be. I watched everyone else quickly form groups based on their friends and the students' skills. I didn't have any close friends, I got on well with most people in my year, and have done for the 5 years beforehand, but I never really got close to anyone. While I was watching the show, 3 of the girls, all close friends with each other and nice people, asked if I wanted to join them. One of the girls, Shannon, a smart girl with a friendly demeanour, said "I think we'd make a good group, and it would give us a unique dynamic." She was right as most of the other groups were all girls and 2 of the boys were in a group. "Sure," I said, "should be fun."

I was a small boy, normally I had short hair, but I was about a month overdue for a haircut. I lived with my mum and sister, we didn't have much money, and I figured I'd save some money and put off my haircut until later in the year, mainly when the school told me I'd have to cut it. I hadn't started growing yet, I had a little fuzz on my upper lip and under the middle of the lower lip, I barely had to shave, maybe once every 3 to 4 weeks. I remember learning in year 10 that the skin around my lower parts would darken as I matured but that hadn't happened yet, so I knew I still had a lot of growing to do. I was born in New Zealand, but we moved to Western Australia when I was 5.

The teacher then gave us the task, we were to write a 10-minute skit that could be of any genre, but it had to have some relationship conflict or change. It didn't have to be a romantic relationship; it could be friends, family, or even professional. We had the rest of today and tomorrow to plan and start writing, and the double on Thursdays, today being Monday, for the next 2 weeks for rehearsal and the week after the performance. She may give us some more class time but no promises.

We sat down to brainstorm ideas with Melissa, a tall solid-built girl with fair skin and hair, someone who could be a smaller power forward in basketball or a target shooter in netball if she was more athletic, pulled out her tablet to take notes. She was a nice person, best friends with Shannon and was often called by her nickname Johnny as there were 4 Melissas in the year group and her last name was Johnston, hence the nickname. Shannon was a nice girl of Irish descent, with red hair, and pale skin with a bit of a warm tone underneath and was quite smart covering a wide range of things. Ashlee, the last person in the group, asked, "So does anyone have any ideas?" She was shorter than the rest of us, only slightly shorter than me, but well inside the normal female range and very pretty, with a warm Mediterranean skin tone and beautiful straight hair of light brown. I had a bit of a crush on her a couple of years ago, partly because of her looks, her personality, and the fact that she was one of the few people in the year group younger than me. She transferred into the school in year 9 from Over East and because they started school 6 months earlier than the rest of us, she was in the same year as us despite being born the calendar year after.

We didn't have any good ideas, we tried a romantic relationship angle or a sibling angle with parents trying to help the sisters, but nothing ever felt right. Then Shannon suggested, "What if we do a friend thing where a lonely, boy, was befriended by a group of girls and became just one of the girls." The other two were excited and thought it would be unique and give us high marks in creativity. I was a little unsure but at the same time intrigued by the idea. I said, "How do we show that he's lonely to start with and that he's happy being one of the girls and not being forced to do it." They noted that and assured me we could write it well enough to avoid letting that happen. I asked questions about costumes and asked, "How do we make sure we all get a fair go because it seems like I'm going to be carrying the whole thing?" They noted these issues and said we'd make sure to address them. Ashlee asked, "So is this the idea we're going to do?" We all agreed and started writing. It was strange that it never occurred to me that I was going to have a play a boy that transforms into a girl and that I would have to move and maybe even talk like a girl. I had no issues with that though, I know I could play the first part, I was a bit method with regards to not having any friends and being lonely at school. The second part seemed fun; I was even hoping we went with a costume change as I was excited to wear a dress.