The Dollhouse

Part 8

Chapter 8

"Why is there no light on me?" Serena asks.

"Sorry about that," I respond.

I adjust the light. Serena likes it to hit her 'in a particular way'. I've been in the play as a stage hand. Serena looks up at me and I can tell she is just extremely annoyed by my presence. Maybe it is the fact that I've had a makeover. Maybe it's something else. I've been working on this play with her for a while now and it's not getting any better. In fact it's just getting worse at this point.

"Is the lighting to your liking?" the stage director Mrs. Lindsay states, "Can we keep on track this time and get through at least one scene?"

Mrs. Lindsay is annoyed. We all are. Rehearsal for the play was early in the morning and Serena came extra late. Not only was she late but she brought with her an attitude.

"Maybe I would be able to get through one scene if The Help wasn't fucking everything up," Serena states.

She looks at me as she says it. It's been a week now that I've found out that Serena was my birth sister. I see none of myself in her, but at the same time it's all kind of scary. I could have been her. I could have been just like her if I hadn't been raised the way I was raised. Seeing her now for the first time I'm really seeing a resemblance. What would she do if she knew that we shared the same father? Would she still treat me like shit.

"Start from the top."

Adonis steps into the light, "Tony: I- I didn't believe hard enough."

Adonis has a sparkle in his eye. He is just fucking fine standing there. He almost causes me to move the light off of Serena and incur her fucking wrath. I adjust myself and focus though. I watch how Serena barely tries to remember her lines.

"Loving is enough."

"Not here. They won't let us be."

"Then...then...shit...line!" Serena states.

She is looking over at Ivy who is sitting out in the crowd. Ivy isn't paying attention though and doing her role as another stage hand. The poor girl is in her cellphone taking a selfie with the dog filter on Snapchat. I can tell because she keeps randomly sticking out her tongue.

"LINE!" Serena barks again.

"The line is 'Then we'll run away'," I state.

Everyone's a little surprised that I butt in the way that I butt in at that moment. It's not my job to memorize the lines and help the actors. That's Ivy's job. Ivy could care less though. Mrs. Lindsay gives me a thumbs up acknowledging the fact that I'm at least paying attention to what is going on in this play. It's hard not to know the lines. We've been doing this every morning before class for a week now.

Serena as Maria smiles, "Then we'll run away."

Adonis nods, "Yes we can..."

Serena just stands there. She just stands there looking stupid, "Um...LINE!"

"Yes!" I say out of nowhere, "The line is yes. That's all."

Serena is annoyed. I can tell. She isn't prepared. She doesn't even know her lines. I'd like to say this is the first time she's done this but it isn't. She's forgotten her lines every fucking day and to say it's annoying as hell is an understatement. I don't get how she got cast in this play in the first fucking place. She was fucking horrible.

"These lines are dumb. Why is this script so goddam boring?" Serena is going off, "Nothing about this fucking script is original!"

I assumed she would go here. Now it's the fault of the screenplay. It has nothing to do with her. She walks right off the stage at that moment.