Author By Chance

Thirteen; Another persona, another me

There was something about the feeling that goes along with acting someone else's life. Besides from the obvious nerves I possess every single time I try to act. No, the feeling that goes along with acting is the feeling of life that gets breathed into you. The feeling of getting possessed by a new persona, one that broadens your perspective on your surroundings. Sometimes you even become the persona, like I did once before.

It was for the role of a bird and let's just say I may have or may have not accidentally hit someone in the face while trying to fly away.

I smooth and straighten down my black overalls for the third time once more. I have to admit it but when it comes down to performing my nerves tend to always get the better of me. You would think that I would have grown used to this feeling of acting and willingly becoming someone else for a brief time period but you would be wrong.

The tapping of Lincoln's shoes on the ground sounds as he continues to pace in front of me. I could already tell that he was becoming restless as the time passes by before my audition was due to be performed and judged. I mean the only real reason he was even pacing back and forth outside of the drama room with me was to see me actually go through the door.

"How long do we have to wait for?" Lincoln whines, like the child that he is.

"Lincoln, you do realise you don't need to be here. You can just go to the football meeting that you are the captain of, that you could be kicked off of if you have the decency to even care."

Lincoln rolls his eyes and stops pacing but instead directly stands right in front of me. Great, another lecture from Lincoln coming right up.

"Yes that may be true but since Ian isn't here to be your moral support after your audition today I may as well be of some assistance. And furthermore I know you are going to be great, I mean you didn't lecture me on the ethics of Shakespeare's work for nearly a whole hour for nothing."

"True but..."

Opening up his pocket Lincoln throws a pen at my face stopping me from continuing with what I was about to say.

"But nothing. The use of said word is like the use of Donald Trump's leadership and words, worthless."

I laugh as the door opens up and my drama teacher's warm and inviting face pops out.

"You ready Ms Langford?" Her overly enthusiastic voice asks as I take my copy of Shakespeare's Hamlet out of Lincoln's palms.

Standing up I smooth my black overalls for the last time and take a deep breath in. Here goes nothing I thought as my nerves latch onto me slowly piercing my skin as I shut the door behind me.

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Lincoln's POV:

"It can't have been that traumatising." I say as Langford and I walk further down the corridor.

"It was though! I tried to perform the monologue for Hamlet and I just sounded completely insane." I take notice that her face falls to stare at the ground, as if in total humiliation and defeat.

"Hey now, don't be so damn down on yourself. There will be plenty of other opportunities that will pop out at you and introduce themself to you." I say as I try to reassure her and make sure that her hope doesn't die out before Lucas Worthing approaches us. With might I add an overly pissed off face etched onto his skin.

Oh boy. Here we go again.

"Well, well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in or shall we say hag dragged in." Lucas sneers with ice lacing his voice.

He steps towards us with so much intimidation that is supposed to belittle us but it obviously doesn't work with me, or even Langford for that matter. Removing his football letterman jacket and placing it over his shoulder Lucas starts to chuckle.

What the heck is he up to now?

Turning to face Langford I could tell that she was beginning to feel uncomfortable already and the fact that this is one of the boys whom taunted her of her feminist views, makes it my mission to protect her. Ian is counting on me and Mrs Langford as well.

"So, you miss the football meeting, to be here with this goodie goodie? Are you dating or something, is this one of your endeavours to becoming an artist? Is this one of your ways of stating that you want to quit being a football player and becoming a total outcast? Cause this could happen you know."

"So I missed one meeting, who cares? There are an abundant more important things than football you know, like making sure people's sense of hope is still intact." I wrap my right arm protectively around Langford making sure that she is still there right next to me.

"Your team cares! This girl here does not even remotely care about you. She is just here to boost her popularity." Lucas shouts, causing Langford to hug me in fear.

"She is more of a friend than in comparison to you! She cares about me and you know what? I quit football." I shout, earning the most satisfying reaction from Lucas at the sound of my words resonating in his head.

"Fine! Quit football, let's see how your family and coach react to this sudden decision." Lucas sneers making sure to enunciate every word so they can get straight through to me.

Turning to walk away Lucas leaves out of the double doors that he had entered through at the start of this incident. The defeating sound of silence falls onto the corridor that Langford and I are in. Until Langford's copy of Hamlet audibly falls to the ground with a loud thud.

"I didn't mean for that to happen, I don't want you to quit football. This is all my fault!" She says, during which her hands run through her hair.

"It's not your fault, I have been meaning to quit football for ages on end and now I have. I would much rather pursue a career that I have been yearning to come true than pursue a career in something that I don't feel that invested in. And I have you to thank for that, you helped me to realise that dreams can never burn out, unless you physically put them out. And I guess I came to this realisation when I tried to cure you of your writer's block." I explain, causing her hands to drop to her sides and her eyes to look up with a twinkle of hope.

Bending down to grab her copy of Hamlet the ping sound of Katherine's phone goes off. Turning to face Katherine I analyse her face, which at that very moment her face depicted one of deep upset. I could easily tell that the person behind her upset face was of course Lucas. Just because he can't manipulate me, now he thinks it's okay to cause Langford pain.

"It's Lucas isn't it?"

"It's nothing, don't worry about it... we'll talk after school if that is okay. Anyways I need to get ready for my next classes." I take notice that her eyes don't hold the same twinkle of hope that she once had mere moments ago.

I yearn for the day when Katherine becomes successful and shows everyone up with all of her successes. Her stories could save a heap of kids if only she had the confidence to actually bear through the trials and tribulations of those who try to knock her down a peg or two. Letting her walk away I immediately go to her Wattpad account to come to find a bunch of hate comments all from the same group of assholes that I used to call my teammates.