My Best Friend's Brother

High School Play

Aria sat in Maggie’s room with the rest of the girls as they did their homework and gossiped about anything they came to mind. Their homework was forgotten as they laughed, there wasn’t much homework anyways.

“Hey, did you hear that Malcolm is going to be in the high school play?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, I think he’s playing a changeling boy or something.” Aria replied as she tapped her pencil against her knee.

“I heard from my brother that he’s actually a lead in the play now.” Maggie said.

“Really? That’s cool.” Tess smiled.

“Imagine being a lead in a high school play.” Emma sighed dramatically.

They eventually moved on from the topic of Malcolm and the school play, they talked about anything else that came to mind. Aria made a mental note to congratulate Malcolm next time she saw him.

~~~

“Hey, Malcolm!” Aria called out.

Malcolm stopped and waited for Aria to catch up. The two of them walked side by side to school, Reese and Dewey were farther ahead. Aria took a minute to catch her breath before she threw her arm around his shoulder.

“What’s up?” 

“I heard you managed to get the lead of the high school play.” 

“Oh yeah, I was gonna tell you at lunch.” 

“Well, don’t forget about me when you’re famous.” Aria teased as she ruffled his hair.

Malcolm pushed her away as the two laughed and he fixed his hair. They talked about the play a bit more before they switched to a different topic. The topic of their annual day trip came up.

“Hey, my dad said he’d drop us off at the pier and would give us a little extra money on top of the money we saved.” Aria told him.

“Okay, when are we going?”

“In two days.”

“Okay.”

~~~

Two days passed and Malcolm had begun to blow off Aria and she was getting irritated, she decided to confront him and apparently she wasn’t the only one. Malcolm sat on the ground reading the Midsummer’s Dream script when some of the Krelboynes and Aria walked over.

“We need. . . to talk.” Stevie said.

“You’ve missed our last five secret meetings, and our test run is in less than 20 minutes.” Lloyd glared.

“And you’ve been blowing me off whenever I try to talk to you about our day trip.” Aria crossed her arms. 

“Why do you hate us?”

“Guys, I don’t hate you. I’ve just been really busy. We’re still friends.” Malcolm assured them.

“Really?”

“Of course.”

“So you’re not bailing on the project?” Lloyd questioned.

“And we’re still hanging out later?” Aria added.

"No, I’m not bailing and yes, we’re still hanging out.”

“Then you have the final figures?”

“Yeah, I worked on them all night after rehearsal. They’re in my desk.”

“Let’s see them.” Eraserhead demanded. Malcolm went inside to grab the paper, leaving them standing there to wait for him.

“What’s your day trip?” Dabney asked the girl.