They went to Abril's room, sat down, and opened their books which contained lyrics to the song in English and Spanish. Abril made them read through the lyrics, and talk about the feelings these lyrics provoke. Juanjo still felt uncomfortable with the lyrics and the upcoming acting felt weird in his head. He was going to act in a way that could become his reality if he were a bit braver and that thought was scary.
Abril decided that they should start with the basics, looking into eyes and holding hands. Hand-holding was not anything new to them, as they had been holding hands just 30 minutes ago, but keeping eye contact with the younger boy was going to be more challenging. As they began, he felt slightly uncomfortable, but Martin kept giving him reassuring squeezes while holding his hand and even joking around for a while to give Juanjo a break that he truly needed.
"Okay, boys do we feel comfortable with the idea of this performance? It's going to be a first date in a movie theatre and the two of you will be sitting next to each other and will be having a bit of physical contact during the performance." Abril asked. Both of them nodded, only Juanjo thinking about the amount of physical contact they were about to make. Abril said that it's going to be hand-holding and a lot of eye contact and that would probably be enough to create the intimacy this song demanded. So, they started to practice the song with physical contact, and to Juanjo's surprise, it was easy. They started to feel more comfortable and even added a few extra contacts during the song, but kept it still minimal and not overly affectionate.
The class was a success and after Abril had left the room, the two of them stayed on the sofa. They practiced for a while and the song became easier, acting too. Juanjo felt comfortable with the character of the performance, and Martin noticed that too. "Can I ask you something?" the younger boy said. Juanjo nodded.
"Do you think that this performance will become good"? Juanjo frowned at that. "Isn't it good in your opinion? I think that it is good already," he said in return. Martin answered: "I meant that you still seem a bit uncomfortable even though you have this character we created and so, that's why I'm scared that you feel already uncomfortable when it's just the two of us practicing, so what happens when we have to perform tomorrow in front of the teachers and other contestants"?
"You know, because I already told you about this but the character helps me to get through this assignment and I will be professional about this so yes, I can do this and perform the song. The more we will practice. easier it will be for me to have physical contact and so on." Martin looked at me, understanding everything I was saying perfectly. Juanjo still felt a bit unsure about the bus pass tomorrow, so after they had practiced enough he went to look for Naiara. She had been one of the first people Juanjo connected with at the castings and along Denna, had been the person who Juanjo goes to to talk about his feelings, or at least be there when he tries to open up and be vulnerable.
Naiara was practicing with Lucas when Juanjo approached her. She smiled at him and asked him to wait while she finishes her song. That gave him some time to think about what he was going to confess and say to the girl for the first time. This conversation was not something he wanted to do in front of the cameras, so he asked Naiara to come to the showers with him.
They went to the showers and Juanjo began talking: "I can't feel anything else but uncomfortable about tomorrow and the bus pass. It's not because of Martin or the fact that we are two guys, but about the fact that if I let my true emotions and feelings show, I can't hide the fact that I like the boy." he confessed.
"Would that be a bad thing? Wouldn't it be much nicer to be able to be yourself truly and experience your connection and feelings freely and openly while you're in here together?" she asked.
Juanjo had obviously thought about it, but the idea of being truly open about his feelings towards the boy felt so far away and not something he was willing to do during the competition. But what he knew was, that the acting class with Abril had truly changed his life at least a little bit.
