Alone on Stage with a White Rose

.Act one: scene one

I walk up the backstage steps, ready to step out from behind the long white curtain, on my cue. My name is Jessica Maria Aquafina. I wait to hear the opening number, Day's Drag On, from the play Aligned in a line. It is a book written by Nikky Nikera Nickole, and it was turned into a play by our director/ Language Arts teacher Mr. Frank Diselle. I hear the first chords of the piano and step out from behind the curtain. I walk to center stage and sit on the one foot wide bump between upper and lower stage and start singing the opening song

~Beginning of song~

Days drag on as bills fall behind.

The days are getting shorter and

The dogs are barking louder.

Day after day,

Week after week,

The same old boring life.

~End of song~

As I hold the final note in the song for 24 seconds my costar, Julia, walks on stage from behind the curtain with a smile so convincing it seems she just won the lottery. She convinces everybody but me. At heart she is a wicked, twisted, diva that's pretty much the definition of a mean girl. Julia's black hair is cut close to her shoulders in a bob that's angled towards her face. Her face is covered in about 10 pounds of makeup. Her look is so fake. She grabs my hand and helps me up like directed in the script. Julia helps me stand up, puts her arm around my shoulders, walks me to upper right stage and starts reciting her long monologue. She looks me in the eye. As she says her lines, I see her deep green eyes have a small trim of brown around her midnight black pupils.

Julia: "Everyone wants happiness. No one wants pain but you can't have a rainbow without a little rain. Look here, Amy, you can't live your life so sad and blue, you hate blues music. Trust me, just because you were fired from your job and your brother Ryan is sick and in the hospital, you have to look on the bright side. The same happened to me but instead of my brother being in the hospital, it was my sister who died in a sudden car crash with me in the car with her! I turned out OK. I am still a little strange and you learned to love me for it but I know it's going to be OK. Trust me."

Julia in the play is Ellana, I am Amy in the play. During the play Amy loses her job and her brother becomes fatally ill with cancer. Ellana helps Amy get back on her feet. They go through this long journey of friendship. They are forced to face things that would have destroyed every other friendship. But when not in the play, Aligned in a line, it's completely opposite in the real world. Julia and I are more enemies than friends. She is the popular girl in the seventh grade. I am more of the nerdy girl with purple leopard glasses, pink braces, president of Student Council, and vice president of National Junior Honor Society.

I am becoming more popular and Julia is trying to destroy my popularity by spreading rumors that I only became president of student council because I threatened the other candidates. That is completely opposite. I wished the others luck, and I didn't win the vote by much. Only 2 people voted for me more than they voted for Max (He plays my brother Ryan in the play).

I finish rehearsing the opening scene with Julia , and I run to put my winter coat on. I pull on my camo hunting coat. It is the middle of December and there's about 5 inches of snow on the cold Pennysylvania ground. I grab my copy of the script and run out the door of Snowy Spile Middle School. I hear the door slam behind me as I sprint down 4 blocks of Icing blvd. Sprinting down all 4 blocks from school to my house didn't take to long. As soon as I came to my house, 6677 Licorice Lane zip code 11234, I just push open the door because it's never been locked .

I'm welcomed with a quick blast of warm air. I throw my book bag on the ground next to the wood stove, put my coat on the coat rack and sat down on our leather couch and I immediately turn in the TV.

I turn the channel to football. Minnesota vs. Baltimore. 1st quarter, 3rd down, Baltimore with 7 points and Minnesota with 3 points. Baltimore has the ball, OK it's third and goal. TOUCHDOWN RAVENS!!! Yes I know that I'm in Pennyslvania and that I should be a Steelers fan but according to my statistics the Baltimore Ravens are a much better team. So it's a commercial break and I walk into our freshly painted kitchen that's reeks with chemicals. I grab a water out of the fridge. I sit back down on the couch when the phone rings. I groan and get up to answer the phone as I look at the caller I.D. It's Max from school, I pick it up cautiously because he never calls my house phone. We had a short conversation that went like this:

Me: "Hello?"

Max: "Hi Jessica. It's Max from school."

Me: "Oh. Hi max."

Max: "Do you have any plans tonight?"

Me: "Maybe. Why?"

Max: "My neighbor, Austin, has a half a mile long drive way, literally, and he said he would pay me $20 to shovel it and I was wondering if you wanted to practice for our big scene we're rehearsing tomorrow?"

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OK guys. This is the first story I've ever written. So please leave kind comments.

Btw Aligned in a Line is NOT a real play and if Nikky Nikera Nickole is real she didn't write it.

Let me know what you like and don't like about Chapter 1 of Alone on a Stage with a White Rose. PLEASE also leave suggestions and feel free to ask any questions if you don't understand anything or want to know more details about something. But I won't spoil anything for the future. Now I'm going to be uploading this story part by part and I never know when I'll come up with more ideas that I can't go back and fix so I'll let you know. Also I'm open to any requests but I'm always really busy with school and other things so I'll do my best to do a story for you. Have Fun Reading:):):)