White Noise (The Inadequate Experiments 1)

1. Fireworks at the Theatre

Sera

The applause from the crowd was so loud that it threatened to shake the walls. Cheers were almost piercing, and many audience members rose from their seats to show their amazement in a standing ovation. On the stage, twenty actors joined hands and bowed. The show had been a celebration of the Jackson Theatre in New York being open for a hundred years, and it was proof that even after so long, they certainly knew what they were doing in the theatre business.

Beside me, my best friend Tia poked me in the ribs. She pointed to the blond actor standing at centre stage. "Isn't he dreamy?" She yelled over the applause.

"Hey now," her Soul Mate, Derek interrupted, "are you forgetting about me?"

Tia rolled her eyes before turning to Derek with a smile. "Don't worry, you're perfectly dreamy as well."

Zoning out of their banter, my eyes travelled back to the blond actor on the stage, jealousy surging through my veins. Dreamy or not, I knew exactly who he was, and the moment I laid eyes on the boy in person, I hated him for it.

Oliver Jackson. The oldest son of Edmund Jackson, and the heir to the Jackson Theatre Company. Since that boy was born, he had been handed my biggest dreams on a silver platter.

There was nothing I wouldn't have done to be standing on that stage as the pride and joy of the Jackson Theatre.

However, the circumstance of my birth compared to that of Oliver Jackson was certainly... different.

After a lifetime, the applause died down, and the grand curtain was pulled closed. The lights mounted on the walls and the huge chandelier on the roof slowly flooded the auditorium with light, and people began to wrestle their way out to the foyer.

"What did you think of it?" Tia asked as her and Derek were pushed towards me by an unpleasant audience member who must have sat beside them. I stumbled at the impact, gripping onto the plush seat in front of me.

"They certainly know how to put on a show." I commented. "The scene in the rain was written beautifully."

My best friend's eyes widened. "I know, right? That boy could kiss me in the rain any time."

"Tia, you can't say that!" I gasped, glancing around, searching for Officers. I only really had one friend; I didn't particularly want her to get taken away. The word 'Inequit' flashed in my mind, but I pushed the foul word away. I wouldn't lump Tia in with the diseased.

"Keep your voice down, Tia." Derek muttered, his voice so calm it scared me. The two of them had been Soul Mates for five years, and I knew Derek would break if Tia was taken away.

"Ease up, you grumps!" Tia said, turning to me, her violet eyes sparkling. "You scream over him for me, Sera! It's fine for you to do it!"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, don't remind me. It's not like I don't get enough crap from Audrey Cummings at school for not meeting my Soul Mate yet."

A smirk appeared on Tia's face. "I thought you didn't care about it anymore?"

A face flitted through my mind; a mass of dark hair, a slim nose, glasses framing piercing blue eyes. It was a memory from a dream. It was the small slither of hope I had left when it concerned my Soul Mate. Cooper. But I pushed the thought aside. "I don't." I said to Tia. "But being teased about it still sucks."

"This isn't teasing," Tia insisted as I pushed myself onto my tip-toes, trying to see why people were taking so long to leave the auditorium. "This is envy. I wish I could comment on other people's looks without getting death glares."