Sandcastles

Chapter Fourteen

"Cute outfit you got there." His voice comes to my left. I smile weakly and adjust the strap of the dumb dress that my character has to wear. The play starts in thirty minutes so all of our costumes and hair and makeup need to be perfect.

I look over to Alexander, seeing that his smirk grows wider the more he looks at me. I snap my fingers at him and his attention goes back to me. At least his character is wearing something normal. Although he has to be burning up. It's extremely hot backstage and he's wearing a long sleeved white shirt with a red polo over it.

"Not so bad yourself." I tease him. He chuckles lightly and stands behind me so I can see him in the mirror. His arms wrap around my waist from behind.

"So I was thinking-"

"Oh no." I joke. He sighs and shakes his head in the mirror.

"I was thinking that you should totally come to the fair with me on Friday. We can't be dating if we haven't been on a date, right?" he asks. I turn around so I'm facing him now.

"What makes you think I want to go on a date with you?" I ask with raised eyebrows. He smirks at me.

"You kissed me like three times last night so I just assumed." He says before trotting off somewhere. I roll my eyes and go over to do my hair.

Troy told me earlier that I have to straighten my hair as if it isn't straight enough. But I do it anyways and finish in a record of like ten minutes. My makeup is already done so all I have to do now is wait to go onstage. The chatter of people in the audience is getting louder and I'm starting to feel more nervous, but I know I can do this. If this is what I plan on doing when I get older, then I need to be more confident when I go out.

Troy walks backstage with a headset on and a clipboard in his hands. He gathers all of the actors together in one big circle with him standing in the middle.

"Alright guys, we go on in five minutes. I know that we're ready. Just go out there and do what we've done in rehearsals." Troy says. A clear sheen of sweat is on his forehead and he's extremely jittery. He must be really nervous.

"Well if we do what we've done in rehearsals then the kissing scene between Alex and Isabelle won't be in there. How do you expect us to do that when they haven't practiced it, Mr. Director?" a girl, I think her name is Kate, asks. I don't really know her, but when we talk at rehearsals she seems really cool.

Troy shakes his head and rolls his eyes. His jaw clenches tightly and his teeth are gritted together when he talks. His glare is glued to Alexander.

"I don't think that scene will be a problem for them." He says as nice as he can. But you can just tell how angry he is by looking at him. Alexander just grins before walking away to his spot on the stage.

The play, which is called "The Sandcastle", is actually a lot better than it sounds. It's about a group of friends who are all seniors in high school and most of them are going to different colleges. It takes place the summer before they all move, and the main character who is played by Kate, comes up with the idea that they all need to do something really epic before the summer ends and they all move away. The group of seniors then goes on this really cool beach trip where Alexander's character actually signs up for a sandcastle building contest. Every one of the friends helps and throughout the play they all become closer than they were and find out stuff that they didn't know. In the end they realize that their epic thing was simply building the sandcastle together, even though they didn't win the contest. It sounds really lame, but the script and songs are so well written and it's a really good play.

My character doesn't go on forever it seems. I first come in during the second scene where everyone is heading to the beach trip. After that, I'm in the whole play.