swim ↳ hamliza

【3】drama class

By the time the fourth period rolled around, Eliza was more than done with the day. She found Martha again and made her way toward their fourth period. Drama. She recognized that she and Alex had this class together but had forgotten to bring it up. 

"You're gonna love it, okay?" Martha tried to reassure, seeing her best friend visibly nervous. They piled into class and awaited the bell ringing.

"Okay class, I'm Mrs. Hayes, so we have to start pretty early in order to have the play ready for the first showing." the teacher said, looking around the room. "We will be doing The Little Mermaid."

Everyone either squealed excitedly or groaned. "Now, you will all have to choose your audition songs, so you'll be put into groups to rehearse them. If you don't want to or can't sing, then don't bother auditioning for the main role."

"That's a bit harsh." a random girl called from beside them.

Eliza daydreamed until she heard her name called for her group. "Elizabeth Schuyler, Martha Dandridge, Alexander Hamilton, and uh- Aaron Burr."

Martha grabbed on her friend's arm and yanked her over to where Alex and Aaron were standing and took a seat on the chairs arranged in a circle.

"Hey Eliza," Alex grinned, sitting down next to her. 

"Hi."

"Ok so, who wants to start?" Martha asked, and of course, no reply. "Eliza, why don't you give it a shot. Sing uh- prom dress or something?"

"Why don't you start?" She asked back, feeling her cheeks burning up at the thought of Alex hearing her sing. 

"I'll pass." Martha grinned, trying to get Eliza to use her gorgeous voice for once. 

Eliza grunted and then began to sing her favourite song.

Prom dress.

This song represented how she felt in a lot of ways. Lonely and blocked off. Her guard was always up, no matter how hard she tried. It was so hard to let people in.

"Wow, your voice is beautiful." Alex beamed in awe. Though Aaron still hadn't spoken yet, he was head deep in his phone texting someone.

"Thank you." She blushed, holding onto the hem of her flannel.

ღ

Finally, the first day of school was over. Eliza practically ran in the door and up to her room. Her body ached with tiredness as she set down on her bed and collected her pile of clothes off the end of her bed. Picking up her sweatpants and blue t-shirt, she pulled them over herself and laid down in bed. Drifting off into a nice, calming sleep.

"Eliza!" Peggy screamed from downstairs. "Elizabeth!"

Her eyes slowly widened to the sound of her name. Quick footsteps sounded from right outside her room. "Eliza!" 

"What is it?" She jumped, looking at her sister in a haze around her vision.

"Angelica needs a ride from the party she's at. I can't drive and mom's not home so-"

"Okay, go start the car." Eliza yawned, rubbing her eyes. She threw on a sweater and made her way downstairs, almost tripping over herself at one point. As the front door opened, the alarm system dinged softly. She trotted over to the car and pulled it out of the driveway. She paid attention as much as she could in the tiredness she felt. 

"What time is it by the way?" She asked Peggy, curious as to how late Angelica was out.

"Uh- 1 am."

What the hell?

"First of all, why are you even up right now? Second of all, why is Angelica at a party on a school night? Third of all, why does this look like Thomas Jefferson's house-" she said, rolling up to the house party. It was the dead of night and there was the loudest music they'd ever heard radiating out of the house.

"Well, I was texting my friend in bed when Angelica texted me trying to get a hold of you. Then, Angelica got invited out last minute by Thomas to come, and yeah this is his house." Peggy replied, her lips pursed.

"Okay, text her and tell her I'm here." Eliza took out her phone and checked her notifications. She had from Snapchat, mostly streaks, but one caught her eye.

Alex.

It was probably just streaks as well but, she quickly opened her phone and realized it was two hours ago. She opened it to a picture of the ceiling, saying: "hey, how are you?"

She took a picture of half her face and replied: "good, you?"

Then waited. For both Angelica, and a reply from Alex.

Ding.

"really good. high school here is so fun."

     "i'm glad your enjoying it. :)"

Ding.

"yeah. meeting you made my day a lot better too."

Eliza blushed, she didn't know what to say. She just sent a picture of her smiling when Angelica finally made an appearance. The smell of alcohol retched off her as they drove back to the house. Peggy was practically dragging Angelica into her room and Eliza swung her legs back onto her own bed. That's when she noticed another notification.

It was a picture of Alex's face: "I gotta go to sleep now so I'll see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight."