Curtain Call

ACT 1: SCENE 6

ALTHOUGH NUMEROUS GUIDES ON NAVIGATING HIGH SCHOOL POPULATED THE INTERNET, none covered the consequences of smuggling chickens.

"Isn't it too early for senior year pranks?" he asked upon encountering Damien and Liam's attempts to control the clucking bird. After drying his hair with a towel, he entered the combination for his locker. On the top shelf rested a stack of folded clothes next to a pair of shoes.

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" Damien grinned behind the flurry of feathers.

"To get to the other side." Groaning, he hung the towel on the pair of hooks and changed out of his running shoes.

"And what's on the other side? An education!" Liam chimed in.

With twitching hands, Aarav removed his glasses and wiped the lenses. Maybe they were too fogged up from a shower for him to see properly. However, to his displeasure, the chicken was still there when he slipped them back on. "Bring it back to whatever farm you stole it from. It doesn't belong here."

"Hey, the chicken deserves to go to school just as much as you do," Damien argued. "Besides, the whole cross country team is in on it and you're the captain."

"As captain, I say return the poor helpless chicken to whatever home you two kidnapped it from." His nostrils flared while he pulled a jacket over his t-shirt and straightened the collar. Right after he shut the locker, his foot spasmed with a sudden, pulsating pain.

"Come on, it's senior year. Lighten up a little."

Ignoring Damien, Aarav grabbed his foot and pressed a palm against the bottom, stretching it back until the pain ebbed into a tolerable throbbing. "I have a spotless record and I'd rather not add animal theft to it."

"Are you gonna snitch to Coach Steiner?" asked Liam.

Aarav rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. "No, but if anyone asks, I had absolutely no involvement in this."

Without another word, he grabbed his bag and stalked out the locker room, shoulders relaxing once the door shut behind him.

A second after the warning bell, he slid into his usual desk in the middle row of AP Calculus. His hair was still damp from a shower, and dark eye circles stained his skin. If it weren't for cross country, he could've gotten an extra hour of sleep, but Coach Steiner had been increasing practices. Not to mention that he also had theatre rehearsals, schoolwork, NHS organizing duties, and debate club. Add in college applications, and Aarav found himself running on too little sleep and too much caffeine.

Simultaneously fixing her makeup, Iris Saetang slid into the chair in front of him, and scanned him up and down. Her skin was smooth and perfectly powdered—no hint of dark circles under her hooded eyes.

Abruptly, she paused from her lip gloss application. "You look like hell."

"I'm tired." The first period bell hadn't even rung and already Aarav wanted the day to be over.

"You always are." Humming a lilting lullaby, she rummaged through her Chanel bag and thrust a pale glass tube of cream at him. "Concealer fixes everything."

Shaking his head, Aarav offered her a half-smile. "You and I have completely different skin tones."

The teacher finished scribbling the agenda on the whiteboard. 'Group project' glared at him in bold black letters. Gritting his teeth, Aarav stifled a groan. Group projects always had one person doing 99% of the work—mainly him—while others contributed only by writing their names on the back of the poster. Hopefully, the teacher would be merciful enough to let everyone choose their own groups.