Dear Ocean Sky

Chapter 10 | Alex

A week after rehearsals started, Alex sat with Mr. Benj, eating her lunch quietly. She wasn't having the best day.

"Alex," Mr. Benj said. "You seem like you could use a pick me up." Alex arched her eyebrow because usually, that phrase implied alcohol. "So I'm going to give you the best drug I know of."

What the hell?

Mr. Benj's face faded into a smile. "Performance." Alex relaxed visibly and grinned. "Did you actually think I was going to sell you drugs?" Mr. Benj laughed. Alex just shrugged, laughing a little. Mr. Benj looked at her empathetically. "You really do look like you could use a pick me up though, and I've found that performance is almost always guaranteed to help actors when they're upset. There's just something about the stage." Alex couldn't argue with that. "So," Mr. Benj continued. "I'm going to put you with our stage manager and y'all can choreograph 'the great Gabriella solo.'" Mr. Benj dramatically flourished his hands. "Or we could just talk about whatever's bothering you if you wanted." Alex shook her head.

She didn't think she would ever really be ready to talk about the things bothering her.

***

"I've already gone over the notes with Kata," said Mr. Benj to Alex, pointing to a girl up on the stage, facing away from them. "She has my binder and knows what you're going to be doing. I want you two to go to the back of the cafeteria to work so you don't bother anyone. Mr. Faist is going to be here for the first twenty minutes of rehearsal if you need any help with the singing."

Alex knew she didn't need help with the singing. She practiced it on her own time, and while it probably wasn't the best, she knew the song well and wanted to focus on getting the blocking down today. She did have one question though.

"Is Kata the stage manager?" Alex asked sheepishly. She thought she should probably know this, but she could hardly remember everyone's names, much less their roles and positions.

"Yep," Mr. Benj answered. "I need to go start rehearsal, why don't you and Kata start working?" He gave Alex an encouraging smile as he walked off to a huddle of people and started assigning them things to do.

Alex tilted her head up to the stage where Kata stood. It looked like she was teaching a group of what were probably sixth graders a dance. "5, 6, 7, 8," she clapped out the beat as the sixth graders did the dance. Kata sighed and told them all to stop. She turned around so her back was facing the students she was teaching and told them to mirror her. Alex noticed that Kata was a lot taller than she was. Kata counted off again and began doing the movements with the people behind her. Though the moves were simple, Kata seemed to be a very good dancer and she kept in time perfectly, adding her own flourishes at the end of each move. She made it look so natural and calming like she was in complete control of everything.

Kata kept working with the sixth graders, getting more and more intense with each time they messed up. Alex could tell she was doing all she could to not scream at them. Alex saw her clench her fists and close her eyes. She imagined Kata was probably taking some deep breaths to calm down. "Okay everyone, keep practicing, I'm going to go get some water," Kata said. She definitely didn't have any problems with projecting.

Once Kata stepped off the stage, Alex could get a better look at her. The first thing she noticed was that she and Kata were actually around the same height, Kata was just so much more confident and in control of her body than Alex. Kata was wearing black combat boots that looked like they were made for work. They had no lift on the soles and were very sturdy. She had on black skinny jeans and a grey shirt with black lettering that read: Keep Calm and Han Shot First. She had a yellow and dark grey checkered flannel tied around her waist, which she unknotted and tugged on over her t-shirt; unbuttoned so you could still see the words underneath, after drinking out of her water bottle. Kata messed with the buttons of the plaid shirt, making it go farther over her hands. She ran her hands up and down her arms slowly like she was cold, but Alex knew she must have been sweating.

Kata's hair was tied back into a ponytail that went a little ways past her shoulders. Her hair was very wavy, but not the kind of wavy you would get from a curling iron. Her hairstyle was natural, besides for the fact that it was dyed a dark shade of teal, but she even made that look natural somehow.

Now that she thought about it, Alex thought she had Kata in a good amount of her classes. She knew they had ILA together and was pretty sure they also had math and history together. Kata was someone most people avoided in her classes actually. Like Alex, she sat in the back of classes and didn't seem to want to have anything to do with people. Unlike Alex however, Kata had such a "don't come near me" demeanor, that Alex guessed most people didn't want to go near her. From what Alex knew, Kata was very smart and got amazing grades in everything, so much so that people would call her "Asian," which in Alex's opinion was extremely racist.

Alex realized she was staring and knew that was rude, so she took a deep breath and walked over to the table where Kata was standing.

"Oh hi," Kata said, displaying a smile on her face. Alex wanted to respond but her vocal cords refused to work so she gave a little wave.

"Alex, right? We're going to be blocking and choreographing 'When There Was Me and You' together?"

This time Alex got her stubborn mouth to form words. She didn't want to make a horrible first impression or have Kata think she was some weirdo. "Yeah, that's what Mr. Benj said. He told me we should probably head to the back so we don't disturb anyone."

"Probably smart," replied Kata as she turned away from Alex to grab her binder. "Do you need to learn the song or something?" Kata asked when Alex didn't make a move to go anywhere. She was too busy staring at Kata's suddenly very interesting boots.

"Oh, um no, I think I have it down." she was about to add that she watched the movies more times than she could count and really knew all the songs and probably all the dance moves as well, but she didn't want to sound like a childish dork. Instead, Alex decided to throw in the fact that she had been practicing a lot with the tracks that had been sent out.

"Hm, a lead that gets ahead whenever they can," Kata considered. "I like it." she laughed and then dashed off to the last row of tables, and man could she run. Her athletic body carried her to the back of the room in no time, leaving Alex and her much less athletic body trailing behind. As far as first impressions go, Kata sure made an interesting one, and Alex was sure she had made a pretty unique one too.

***

A/N: Thank you so much for reading!!! It means a lot! If you are enjoying this story please consider leaving a comment and/or vote before clicking onto the next chapter!!

Love,
Sunny