Step by step

Chapter Three

"Yes mom, I will. I will." I groaned. "Yes, Tommy's doing well, why don't you call his phone?" I speed walk passed all my classmates who gave me occassional waves and 'Hellos' which I gave back with a pleasant smile. "Of course, I'll tell Matty you said hi. Okay, bye mom. Tell dad I said hi, okay? I love you. Take care." I slid my phone into my pocket and quicken my pace towards the theatre.

"Oh! The great actress of Mount High has decided to grace us with her presence." Jasmine frowned from center stage together with the other aspirants. They all had their smiles upside down as I walked down the aisle in between the rows and rows of seats.

"I am so sorry. I got held up with the prom committee with the designs and theme. I'm sure you understand that, Jazz." I gave her a quick glare as I ran up the side stairs up the stage. I quickly put my bag down and jogged over where Jasmine was.

"You know how much I'm looking forward to prom but! You should have your priorities straight, El. Seriously, not all of us has that time management magic you have." Jasmine flipped her beautiful blonde hair over her shoulders and crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her left foot impatiently.

"Well, for starters if you do not have this time management magic that I possess, the heavy mahogany two doors are open for you to leave." I gave Jasmine a look and she quickly went backstage to prepare for today's lesson. "I know I am late today but I have never been in my 8 years of theatre in Mount High. This is my 9th year and I'm pretty sure anybody who has an older sibling who has passed through Senior year will understand how much pressure I am on right now."

Jasmine comes out with a box full of costumes. Fluffy pink scarfs spill from the box's lids and the messily folded princess dresses tower over Jasmine's head. She let it drop down on the stage, a loud thump echoing through the theatre. She runs backstage again and gets another box, dropping it the same way she did.

"Aspirants, today's lesson, and challenge, is dress up."

Excited murmurs and mumbles fills the air, aspirants who were lined in single file were whispering and nudging each other in anticipation.

"But, of course, like all challenges it has a twist." I dramatically paused and walked from the end of the line to the other end. "You will pick one outfit, from a dress to a wig to an accessory. Anything will do. Tacky, wacky, simple, plain, formal, casual. You take your pick but," Another dramatic pause. I glanced over to Jasmine who had an evil smile on her face. This challenge was our first when we both first entered theatre during 4th grade. "You will be given different scenes and you will have to make us believe in that scene. Jasmine, care to explain further?"

Jasmine nodded with a proud smile on her face as she takes my place in front of them.

"For example, you choose to dress as a clown but you are given a role of a business woman about to give a presentation for a client. You have to make us believe that you are a business woman, just dressed as a clown. You have to make us feel, make us smell the office, make us nod our heads in agreement with your presentation." Jasmine, as expected, has a very strict voice when it comes to the aspirants.

A thought crossed my head. Shit.

I walked over to my bag and quickly descended the stairs, throwing my bag into one of the seats. I forgot to tell Mark, our technical man, to come for today and so I had to do his job. As I was running down the aisle, towards the stairs ascending to the technical room on the mezzanine above, the strobe lights began to flicker and then went still. Red, blue, then green. The rest of white lights were soon on and so was the spotlight.

"That's the cue, you have 30 minutes to pick and prepare. Go!" Jasmine clapped her hands once and the students were all over the boxes, turning it upside down and emptying it. Their voices chatting and excited. I was too absorbed in squinting at the small window of the technical room to notice Jasmine had already descended the stairs and was beside me. "Who did you get to run technical?"