Get The Girl ✓

37 | puck's poison, pt. 1

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puck's poison, pt. 1

     We're all backstage with costumes on and make-up caking our nervous expressions. People are setting up props. Runners are everywhere... running. And Mr. Allen is in a frenzy. It's the night of the play that's been in the back of our minds. Now it's right in front of us.

     I peek behind the curtains. Oh, God, the whole auditorium is packed.

    "Listen up, actors and actresses!" Mr. Allen gathers us in a circle and I'm scared to meet anyone's eye. Mostly because everyone in this room hates me. "This is the time to be a team, alright? I don't want any shenanigans on stage. You've all watched High School Musical?" Complete silence. "Yeah, just be that, and we'll be fine."

     I let out a loose breath. Quickly meet Trey's eyes. He nods.

     We'll be fine.

A C T  I ,  S C E N E  1

     Justine, Trey and Vic are the first ones to show up on the stage, during the Duke of Athens' wedding where Justine is demanded that she be married to Vic and not Trey.

    "Give up, sweet Hermia..." Vic coos, making a lavish hand gesture that looks ridiculous if it weren't for his acting skills, "and Lysander, give me my certain right."

    "You have her father's love, Demetrius; let me have Hermia," Trey responds ever-so-clearly with his authoritative voice, looking like his late sixteenth-century costume suits him. He steals all the attention in the room. "My love is more than his, my lord, and, above all, I am the beloved of beautiful Hermia. Why shouldn't I prosecute my right?"

     There's tension somewhere in the air that the audience think is pretend. It isn't in the slightest.

     Trey and Vic are having a showdown, but while the latter's stare is merely uncomfortable, the first is actually strained — like his lines come directly from him. Then there's Justine herself, knowing she's being treated like an object, even if it's only a play and she's only a character.