“All right, everyone,” says Lady Austin. “We’re going to assign parts for the Spring Play.”
All of us grin at each other. Luther wraps his arms around me from behind as we sit down on one of the new couches in the classroom. He kisses my cheek, and I giggle, holding my arms over his.
The chairs have been replaced because Lady Austin wants us to practice our lines in here before going to the stage now. Any skits that we have to write ourselves will be for homework.
“This play is a suspenseful mystery.”
A few people murmur in excitement.
“The writer is unknown, but it’s a great play. Now, there is a girl detective, the leading role, who I want to be played by Violet.”
She perks up, her eyes wide. “What?”
“I want you to be the detective named Christine.”
She grins. “Sweet.”
“Emmeline,” says Lady Austin, making the girl look up, “you will be the victim.”
She cocks her head.
“The beginning scene will be your death scene. The murderer, Eliot, will be wearing a cloak so you won’t see who it is until the end. He will stab you in the back with a retracting dagger that we have for a prop. It’s not actually sharp, so it won’t hurt you.”
Emmeline lets out a soft sigh. “Thank goodness.”
“So, when you die, your friend Alana—who will be played by Henrietta—will discover your body and scream or whatever. The lights will dim and go to black. We’ll change the set to a home scene. There, the mother and father of Lily, the victim who died, will be sleeping because it’s late at night. The father will be played by Luther, and the mother by Lexi.”
“Of course,” everyone laughs at once.
Luther kisses my cheek again.
Lady Austin finally stops laughing. “All right, all right. Lily’s boyfriend will be Crescent. His name will be Blaine. The best friend of the girl is Ellie, who will be played by Nellie—kind of ironic—but these are the two suspects. So everyone else will be the police. This is important because each of the police will have their own personalities. You will all interact with Violet a lot. Any questions?”
No one says anything.
“Okay. I’ll hand out your scripts. “
When we receive them, I lean into Luther. We read over the beginning scene quickly, but when we get to our part, my heart starts beating hard.
Luther and I have to be in a bed together. Pretending to be asleep. Quite close together. How awkward.
Luther chuckles and points to a line. “We get to kiss before the phone rings,” he murmurs.
I laugh. “It’s like the only thing you see on the paper, isn’t it?”
Luther shrugs. “Kind of.”
I roll my eyes. “Sometimes you disturb me.”
“Hey,” he says, “we get to sleep together!”
I nudge him. “Not literally, Luther,” I laugh.
“Not yet,” he says, kissing me on the lips.
Somebody across the room whistles. “Whoa, guys. PDA.”
Luther only laughs and pulls me closer, deepening the dramatic kiss.
YOU ARE READING
Castleside Academy
RomantikLexina Talon has always tried to be the best princess she can be. In a school full of princes and princesses, though, it's pretty simple. Just don't mess up, and you'll be fine. The goal is to graduate and at least be engaged to someone. That's the...
