Perhaps (Book 1) | ✔

ACT I - Scene 1

Accent Academy — a dance studio

My last class of the day was 'A History of Theatre'.

I sat cross-legged on the polished floor of one of the dance studios, picking away at what remained of my salad while I glanced over the syllabus and course schedule I had printed out the night before, marking the important dates in my planner. History of Theatre was a general education course and theatre major requirement at Accent Academy—the private college for performing arts that I was enrolled in—and I expected it to be exactly like all standard general education courses: an easy, yet boring, class featuring a mountain of pointless busywork so that it could be made to feel more relevant than it actually was. My History of Dance class had been the same way. Of course, I had been studying dance for the last sixteen years of my life; and I had already known everything that the course was attempting to teach us. With theatre, I had only just started my study of it a year ago after becoming fascinated by the idea of performing on a stage as something more than just a dancer. So, perhaps, I would learn something worthwhile.

Somehow, I doubted it.

As I finished writing down all the important dates, I picked up the syllabus and began to file it into my binder. My eyes fell upon the professor's name. I had only found out recently who would be teaching this class: all summer, the class instructor on my schedule had read "TBD"; but, last night, I had received an email with this syllabus and schedule attached from a "Daniel Lee". He was to be our instructor.

He was new to Accent Academy; there were no reviews for him present on the university's Rate Your Prof webpage. His short bio on the theatre department's homepage read that he had graduated from a very renown and very expensive university on the other side of the country with degrees with theatre and production. He had received a master's from another university in theatre, and there were several Broadway and West End productions listed that he had starred in. The listings further included smaller productions that dated back several years. Apparently, this Daniel Lee was ridiculously talented.

Well, maybe he would have something to actually teach us.

I picked up my phone to check the time after I shoved my binder back into my backpack. I had about thirty minutes left before History of Theatre was supposed to start, and I let out a sigh. My eyes drifted over towards the ballet barre against the wall. How I'd rather stay here and dance than sit through another boring history class... Sealing up the remains of my lunch, I reluctantly packed it back into my lunch box. I traded my ballet shoes for sneakers, stowing the former in my bag, and stood up to leave.

It took me less than five minutes to go from the dance building to the performing arts building where theatre classes were usually held. When I arrived at the classroom, I immediately claimed the desk in the back by the window. Any time I had a class where I worried about dozing off or zoning out, I always chose a seat in the back. The professor would (hopefully) be less likely to notice that my mind was definitely not in their classroom if I was this far out of sight. I didn't kid myself too much, though: they probably still noticed when their students weren't paying attention.

I took out the required textbook, as well as a spiral notebook and a pen; and then, I took to staring out the window, my eyes on the dance building. I wanted this class to pass quickly so that I could get back to practicing. One of my dance classes had already given us a preview of some of the choreography we would be studying this semester, and I was eager to get into it.

Having reached full-on daydreaming mode by the time the class started, I jumped slightly as the idle chatter around me suddenly stopped, and as a man began to speak to everyone. The moment the first word left his mouth, I felt a strange warmth spread over my face. My heart began to pound in my chest, and my mouth ran dry. Was this—was this really our professor speaking?