CHEMISTRY 001

(2)- "You're not in the wrong room"

When I was in middle school, my grade music teacher organized a musical. And in spite of the fact that our school was small, we had two music teachers. They were called Mrs. Gallagher and Miss Trevor. 

Mrs Gallagher had been married for about 5 years, and she was already on her fifth pregnancy. (I know what you're thinking. Yeah, I know.) She had this goal- she wanted to have six children before the age of 30. After having all these children, she wanted to devote time to building a revenge body so she could travel the world. I know you're thinking this is ridiculous.

 She must have imagined telling someone later on that "I have six children." Then, the person would be intrigued before looking her over and exclaiming "wow! You don't look a day older thirty! That's amazing." She was a very conceited person. She would have loved something like that! The fact that she had to go on maternity leave during each pregnancy she had was the main reason why Miss Trevor had been employed.

While Miss Trevor wasn't married, she was very much in a relationship, at least I think she had been . I learnt this little information the day I walked in on her kissing the English teacher- Mr Xander- in the music room. I was not particularly shocked, because they weren't the first couple that I had seen making out. I was only scarred because- they were my teachers, who wants to walk in on their teachers making out? She had looked terrified at being caught by one of her students, but I wasn't one to gossip. So, from that day onward, she became this overtly protective person in school. She protected me from bullies, she didn't send me to detention if I didn't do my home work. She became very laid back when it came to dealing with me. It was so obvious that my classmates started hating on me.

As part of our grading, the eighth graders were required to present a musical. It was something that other eighth graders had done in the past, and there was no skipping it.

I had a lot of inabilities, and one of them was being non-musically inclined. I could not sing to save my life. Obviously, I was planning to find a way out of being one of the lead roles until... until Miss Trevor decided to make me the female lead role. From rehearsals until the day of the musical, it was very clear from the way my classmates acted that nobody thought I deserved the role. I didn't blame them one bit, I didn't think I deserved it too. But there was nothing I, nor they could do.

So, on the day of the musical, we had all had to get to school extra early to prep for the performance. Myself and Ryan, my partner left the others in the school hall to meet Miss Trevor in the music room where we were to practice. The musical was by 11, and we had to leave by 10:30am to get changed. In between Ryan's jibes at me, my responses and Miss Trevor's interference, we managed to achieve a kind of synergy that the lead roles needed for the performance.

I remember walking into the backstage of the hall, and hearing everyone fall silent at the sight of me. Everything was quiet. Like the calm before the storm. Our first scene was an opening that included only me, and the costume was quite difficult to put together. So, two of the girls in my class (who really hated me) were put in charge of the costume. Once, all the boys had been shooed out, they got to work. I wasn't keen on the whole idea, because I was quite insecure about my body.

All I wanted was to get my makeup done (with the hope that I didn't look like a walking disaster once I stepped out), so that I could kick them out and get changed. But, Tori smiled at me, and told me quite sweetly that I should put off my clothes so I could change. Everything was going quite slowly and I was very worried about the time, I had about three minutes left to get on stage. Then, as I made a grab for the costume when I was down to my undies- a bra for my nonexistent boobs and panties, I was pushed to the middle of the room. It took a lot of balancing to not land on my butt. A few seconds later, the curtains were pulled aside and I was standing before the whole school, practically naked. I remember the feeling of horror that filled me. I think I lost all of my self confidence and pride that day.