The Beauty Underneath

Chapter Three: Drama Club

Jennifer, Howard and Charlotte and I became instantly friends. Howard was really a good person and he’s my first guy friend. Believe it or not, I don’t have any male friends back in my school in New York. Somehow the opposite gender makes me self-conscious but with Howard, I could act normally. Charlotte, his girlfriend, was equally good as him. She’s overly-obsessed with Taylor Swift and she always sings her songs. Jennifer’s my closest friend in the three of them. She told me sometimes she feels out of place whenever she’s with Howard and Charlotte since both of them was a couple. She’s really glad that I came to the group.

It was still my first day in school and I was eating lunch with the three of them. We were talking about the Drama Club.

“You should really join,” Howard told me. “But you need to know how to act and sing since we do musicals.”

“Sing I can do. But act… I have a problem with stage-fright,” I admitted with a sheepish smile.

“You can do it,” Charlotte assured me with a polite smile. “The only ones who are going to watch you is the drama teacher, Mrs. Parker, her new assistant, Wendy and Howard.”

“Why Wendy and Howard?” I asked curiously.

“Wendy’s the leading actress and Howard’s the leading actor,” Jennifer replied. “They’re basically like the god and the goddess of the Drama Club.”

Howard nudged me in my arm softly. “I think you’re going to make it.”

Before I could reply, a guy sat down beside Jennifer. He has wavy long black hair, though not that long. His grey eyes were glued to mine, as if he was studying who I was. His lips were set in a thin line, but I have a feeling that he smiles very often. The red polo shirt that he was wearing looked really good in him and I caught some girls checking him out from other seats.

“Hi,” he greeted me slowly.

I nodded, and I felt blood rushing up to my cheeks. Okay, he really has a sexy voice. Plus, he has a thick Britishaccent. “Hello,” I replied back.

“Erin, this is Hugh Stanford,” Jennifer told me. “He’s a very good friend of mine. My family used to live in London, but we moved when my father died. Hugh was a close friend of mine back there. Then his family moved here in Chicago and we met again – like destiny.” Jennifer slightly blushed.

“And you must be?” Hugh asked as he lifted the left corner of his lips.

“E-Erin Maxwell,” I stammered. Damn it. I sound like a stuttering nervous girl. And most people say that first impressions last.

“Nice to meet you, E-Erin.”

Howard snorted his laugh while Charlotte giggled. Jennifer covered her mouth, but I know she’s laughing in the inside. I narrowed my eyes at him. “Excuse me?”

Hugh blinked at me innocently. “Isn’t that your name? E-Erin?”

“My name’s Erin. Not E-Erin.”

“Well, it was a simple mistake,” he said, shrugging his broad shoulders. He looked down on his lunch – which consists of an apple and a pudding – and began eating. “So, are you, like, a new student?”

“Yep,” I said and began eating. Goodness, Hugh’s really handsome… and sexy.

“Where’ve you come from?” he asked, raising his eyebrow.

“New York.”

He raised the other eyebrow in surprise. “Really? That’s awesome. Why did you move here in Chicago? I think New York’s better than Chicago.”