Tuesday & Max

15

SLOW HEAT, I NEVER COULD

GET OVER THE FLAME

MEMORY, SLOWS ME DOWN

EVERYDAY THE SAME

The drama studio begins to heat up as it creeps toward Christmas. Small slits of window fog with the heat of stress; cut, do it again, fix the costume, hit your mark, damn it, cut.

"Hello there, Miss Tuesday," Harry says, tape measure in hand, his Santa hat swinging madly behind his head. "Back down to earth with you."

Tuesday blinks, eyes coming into focus. She's staring intently at the staging area where Jess sings the first number, staring so hard that the lights strung up to celebrate the imminent time of year have blurred into a rainbow.

"Sorry."

"No, no, it's fine. It's not like we have the entire cast to dress before Christmas."

Tuesday blinks, shaking her head slightly to try and clear it. It's her fourth Wednesday at the drama club meetings, but it feels like she's been here longer. The textiles team meet multiple other days a week as well, stitching until their wrists go numb.. Even though Candice made her the head of design, Harry always takes the lead. He's bossy, but Tuesday doesn't mind. He knows what he's doing.

She's distracted today, as she has been for weeks, by Max's growing distance. They haven't studied together since November because she hasn't needed the help, but he's been signing into Lost World less and less too. His replies to texts have become sporadic and short and he's never available to talk on the phone. When they're in lesson, he behaves normally, if a little quieter than usual; but when she asks what's wrong, all he has to say is that it's 'Mom stuff' again.

"I'm sorry," she says to Harry. "I'm here. I'm focused."

The pressure rises as they get closer and closer to next year. The show opens in April, and Candice wants ample time for dress rehearsals. It's hot in the studio today, condensation fogging the small, high windows, and Candice fans herself as she interrupts Jess' singing for the sixteenth time.

"I'm sorry," she says, voice high-pitched. "I really-I really am, you know, but it's just... you've missed your mark, again."

"Have I?" Jess says, looking down at her feet, trying to locate the black X of tape that indicates where she's supposed to end up.

"Oh my God," Alexis mutters from her chair near the staging area. "Can we not just move on?" Her script hits the surface of her lap with a hard slap sound.

"I know it's annoying," Candice says, twisting her hands. "But it really is important."

"More important than us getting to a scene where more people than just Jess can practice the lines and songs they've been learning for weeks now?"

Jon, dark curls shiny under the studio lights, pipes up from where he stands beside Candice, watching Jess' performance. "Shut up, Alexis, the point of this is so the lights hit the right fucking person-"

"We don't even have lights. We won't have lights for you to set up, Backstage Boy, until we get to practice in the actual theatre in March, so why are we even wasting our time thinking about stuff this early?" Alexis argues, crossing her arms atop her script.

"Just shut up and let us do things properly!"

"Properly?" she laughs. "You want to talk about doing things properly? That's-"