Starry Days & Sunlit Nights: Volume 2 - Haze of Shadows

Chapter 1.1 - The Way Things Are

"Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth. A million fail, confounding oath on oath."

A young man dressed as Puck the pixie was hoisted up by a rope above the stage. The stagehand, another young man with rusty blonde hair and a huge build, held onto the other end, pulling with all his might.

While the theater troupe conducted their rehearsal of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream below him, they were unaware that the old cord tied to the floating fairy was about ready to break from the strain. By the time the stagehand himself noticed, it was already too late.

"Look out!" he cried, interrupting the performance, to the actors' annoyance.

The rope snapped and Puck plummeted down to earth, landing on an actress too slow to react to the warning.

The director shot a glare up at the young man on the catwalk.

"Impudent monkey! Is it your mission to ruin everything for us?"

"We ought to have him thrown out," the lead actor suggested bitterly.

"And lose our only monkey? No, he will clean up this mess, and reimburse us for the damage he's caused."

"Hey! I can barely afford—!"

"Zip it, monkey! If you want to keep your job in this troupe and avoid a lawsuit from my father, you do as I say, capiche?"

The stagehand opened his mouth to speak, but could only bow his head and submit. Downcast, he clambered down to fix things up for the next take of the rehearsal.

Meanwhile, at the last row of seats in an otherwise empty audience, two young men watched the whole thing.

"Wow, he does have it bad," said one of them, a bespectacled youth with chocolate brown skin and dark hair and eyes. On his lap was an open textbook on Trigonometry, as expected of the top pupil in the whole Rivera Academy.

"Told ya, Rajeev, now could you please stop bullying him back?"

The other boy had fair skin and slicked up brown hair. His eyes were olive green--a natural human mutation for his race. His feet rested on the back of the seat in front of him.

Rajeev pushed up his glasses. "I'll refrain once he apologizes to me for his acts of aggression. Remember, Jay, I still have it worse. You've seen that yourself."

Jay rolled his eyes and sighed, but didn't deny that. Looks like a bit more mediating was in order. Really, the list of things he had to accomplish had been growing steadily, to his chagrin. But as much as he would have liked to just slack off and play games all day, they were things he had to do.

The two continued to observe as the stagehand and local bully, whom they knew as Marcel, was forced to bend down and be used as a footstool for the director to tie his shoes on. For a moment, Rajeev was reminded of someone else, someone whom he should call father, who had prostrated himself in that same undignified manner so often. It made him feel sick to his stomach.

"Every hierarchy has their slaves, huh? Seriously, why does he put up with that?"

"Dude loves theater that much. Sure, everyone he interacts with here treats him like trash, and they threaten to make sure he can never enlist with another group on the outside, but theater's always been special to him."

"Let me guess, I'll have to hear the whole story out of him?"

"Yup."

"Not interested, " Rajeev said with a nonchalant wave. "In the end, he makes it all another reason to terrorize students outside of this primadonna club, just because he doesn't get what he feels entitled to here."

Jay sighed deeply. He still had a lot of work to do if he was going to get through to both of his bros.

Rajeev got up from his seat. "Well, I've seen enough." He smirked. "Don't you have a date today?"

Jay's cheeks flushed a shade of pink. "It-It's not a date, okay? I'm just helping out a good friend with something important."

"Right." Rajeev wasn't convinced in the slightest. "So, is it the warrior princess or your smoking hot landlady?"

Jay smirked dryly and decided not to humor him. "Go ahead if you like, man. She and I will be meeting up later, so I got time. She said she has something to do first."

"I see," Rajeev said with an arrogantly bored tone. "I'm off then. Try not to get in too much trouble."

Jay grinned as his friend made his way to the door. "When have I ever, dude?"

He relaxed himself and continued to watch the rehearsal, as difficult as it was. He wanted to help him, but for all his guile, there was little he could do against a whole group of people on his own. As far as he thought, the way things were right now, sticking around was the best way he could show his support at the moment.

Indeed, there were many things he had begun desiring to change, but he was just a sixteen-year-old high school boy. There wasn't a lot that he could do, and it was a fact he hated. Maybe in time, he hoped.

Marcel positioned himself above the stage once more, ready to continue assisting the rehearsal. As before, he was expected to lift Puck for a certain scene while out of sight from the action he so desired. The boy dressed like a pixie floated upward, a little more slowly and carefully this time.