The Tale We Lived

Chapter 2: Part 2

The friends collectively cried out and whipped their heads around to find the source of the voice. Otus Faye was grinning stupidly over Syren's shoulder, his already dead hair colored a new shade of neon lavender.

"What the hell, Otus?" she cried, punching his shoulder.

Carina moved the umbrella so that it wasn't covering him. He didn't seem to mind as he held his tongue out to collect a few droplets and then gulped, wiping his mouth.

"Look, all I'm saying is, who the fuck cares if two people you don't even know, split? What's it to you? Why aren't you more interested in things that actually have relevance to you?"

"Look Otus, when you live close to someone and know them, you're going to care what goes on in their life." Naya snapped.

"Yes, I know, but why are you thinking about this when there is something so much more exciting to think about?" He raised his eyebrows expectantly.

Carina would've thought he was talking about college, except that this was Otus' signature way of segwaying into an advertisement for his stupid theater group.

"What exciting new project does your group have planned?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, I'd say it's a lot more large scale than that." he whispered dramatically. "But don't take it from me!"

He took a dramatic step back to reveal his four other devoted theater friends and it could only be assumed that there was some sort of order they were supposed to be in. However, the four had their backs to the friends, and were joining in on a sub-group conversing about the Robin-Ana split.

"Guys!" Otus snapped.

Clarice Aquallis looked over her shoulder.

"Oh!" she turned around and sucked in a deep breath, putting on a theatrical voice, "Now, tell me what you think when you hear the word Ulethasia?"

"Oh, I was just there this summer—" Belle said.

"What do you think?"

"Look, we're really not interested." Carina sighed.

The theater kids were hardly popular for anything more than how annoying they were.

Clarice stopped and threw her an irritated expression.

"If you think you're so above this, would it interest you to know that practically every other person knows about this project already?"

By now, Alex Badin had retired from the gossip as well. Lucky for the friends, he was a lot more relaxed.

"Ulethasia is running a pretty big project, giving exposure to a bunch of up-and-coming towns, including MageTown. You're supposed to come up with an interesting presentation, be it an act or a story or dumentary-- whatever; something interesting about the town that makes it special, so that the city people can appreciate our existence a bit more. We," he motioned at his dispersed group, "were thinking of making a small film and we would love to include some serious actors. It would help with representation."

The girls stared at him open mouthed. Carina absorbed the information and racked her brain for something that she could possibly enter. Her mind was already whirring and excitement was slowly taking over her.

"Can anyone enter?" Naya asked excitedly.

"Uh-oh." Syren whispered, "We haven't talked about Naya yet."

"Yes..." Otus said reluctantly, "But you have a much better chance of getting recognized with us. We'll be posting more details on the college notice board. You guys are joining tomorrow, right?"