all i want :: s.m

6: theatre

wednesday ¬ january 27, 2016

So far, Shawn's plan on trying to avoid Ella for the rest of the year was leaning towards failing completely. Despite the major flaw on the procedure (going to the same school as her, and so it was inevitable to see her five days a week), he also had three classes out of six with her, plus lunch, where she had to pass by his table to get to the line. He had Algebra, Physics, and Theatre with her. Theatre was his favourite block.

Was.

She ruined that for him, too.

"Can anyone please tell me at least three acting techniques when you are performing on stage: What to do and what not to do." Miss Lawrence, a young teacher who never ceased a smile and an ebullient attitude, said to her small class of sixteen. Shawn's whole group of friends—Matthew, Cameron, Nash, Jack Gilinsky and Jack Johnson—were in the class, and so were Alice and Ella, and eight other students.

"Never face your back to the audience. Don't depend on the microphone; learn how to project your voice. When you're on stage, everything is exaggerated, so exaggerate your words, facial expressions, and movement—but not to the point where it's messy." Alice answered quicker than light, not giving a chance to the other students. Her eyes never even left her notebook, in which she drew flowers all around with a blue-inked pen. Alice didn't need to think twice before answering; she's been playing lead roles in the school plays since kindergarten. She was the best actress in the school.

Miss Lawrence raised her eyebrows, shocked yet not surprised (she was aware of what Alice knew when it came to acting), "Correct, correct, and correct. Thank you, Alice." Alice responded with a nonchalant shrug as she averted her full attention back to Miss Lawrence. "So I hope all of you were listening when Alice said those three strategies, because it is going to be helpful in our next unit. We're going to be starting improv!"

"Oh, yes!" Alice blurted out ecstatically with a gasp, almost jumping up from her chair, the wide smile on her face unable to be concealed.

Miss Lawrence laughed at Alice's sudden burst of happiness, and she laughed for a while. Then her eyes shifted to the right of Alice, where a girl was seated, whose attention wasn't at all on the teacher; instead, she looked out the window, chewing on her bottom lip. "Ella Rose," she called, but Ella didn't respond, unaware that someone had called her name, so Miss Lawrence repeated, but louder, "Ella Rose!"

Ella jumped a bit, turning her head quickly to the front of the classroom. All eyes were on her, and she could feel it. Ella cursed profanities and scolded herself in her head, and with a tentative volume, she replied to Miss Lawrence with, "Yes?"

"What did I just say?"

Ella compressed her lips together, face heating up, knowing damn well that she wasn't giving Miss Lawrence enough of her attention to know what she said thirty-seconds ago. "I...um...I don't know. I'm sorry."

"Pay attention." Miss Lawrence warned and Ella nodded her head up and down quickly, crossing her right leg over her left knee and straightening her back. "So as I was saying, our next unit is going to be improvisation. I want to test your ability on making up a scene and acting it out on spot, in front of the class. Starting next week, I'm going to call a pair of random students, and that pair has to improvise a scene."

Nash raised his hand, "Can the scene be about anything?"

"Of course. Communicate with your partner through your improvisation, because I won't be giving you any time to speak with each other to plan something out. The scene can be anything; a fight between friends, a love interest, or a heartbreak. It's all up to how you and your partner play it out."

Ella's gaze went to her lap at the mention of a heartbreak, and Shawn's gaze went to Ella. He burned holes through the back of her head, and Ella could feel Shawn's eyes glowering through her skull.

Shawn wished that he wasn't able to say that he had his heart broken—he wished that he still didn't know how the first thing of having his heart shredded to pieces felt like—but too bad he made the mistake of falling in love with Ella Rose. Because he faced the consequences, having been lied to and left alone to choke on air.

If a heartbreak was one of the options, Shawn would rather not choose it. Because Ella Rose had already given him his worse heartbreak yet; and whether real or fake, his barely durable heart didn't need to experience another one.

-

filler chapter (kinda).