Off to Neverland

Off to Neverland (30)

You know what sucks about barely being in a play that you have all memorized?

You’re barely in a play that you have all memorized.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“I think you look… nice,” Jack tried, but I could tell he was just trying to be nice.

“Courtney and her mother are purposely trying to make my life a living hell,” I hissed, grabbing onto the long brown skirt and ruffling it around. “They expect me to dance around in this? It makes me wish that they had more extras so I didn’t have to do this!”

Jack chuckled, ruffling my hair. He was in his costume as well, except he didn’t look like an idiot dressed as Gaston. Now, the dress that Courtney’s mother had gotten me was so long that I was definitely going to trip over it when I danced.

As we got closer and closer to opening night, the closer I got to quitting the whole entire thing. I had gotten my costume for the feather duster, but I hadn’t opened the package up yet to see what it looked like. If it was anything like the costume I was wearing right now, I did not want to go anywhere near it.

I literally had the entire play memorized so well that while I was back stage, I mouthed the lines as the person on stage was speaking them. It was pretty much all I could do at play practices. But May noticed how utterly bored I was, so she talked Candace into letting me do something a little bigger. I was one of the backup dancers and singers for the song Gaston, the one Jack and Cassidy were singing in.

“Try to be a little happier,” Jack suggested, shaking my shoulder lightly as I continued to glare at myself in the mirror. “At least we’re on stage together.”

“Barely,” I grumbled, turning back around so I would be facing him now. “At least I’m actually singing in something, even if it is just part of a chorus. I was so bored just standing on stage doing absolutely nothing. Except Simon and I get to practice our kissing scene that’s at the very end for the first time.”

Jack made a face. “Don’t remind me.”

I giggled, leaning forward and pecking him on the lips. Before he could deepen the kiss, the door opened and May appeared.

“You guys are going on stage soon,” she informed us, smirking because she had seen what we had been doing. “Make sure you both are ready and not making out backstage.”

Jack rolled his eyes at his sister, but I couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed about being caught kissing. Especially in this stupid dress…

Jack and I followed May to the stage, and I was dreading going on stage more and more. This was the first time we were all going through the play in costume, and so far it hadn’t been good at all. I was afraid to see what my feather duster dress was going to look like…

“Get happier,” Jack reminded me as we got closer to the stage, elbowing me in the ribs gently now. “At least we’re on stage together.”

“Yeah, but me being on stage means I’m going to have to listen to Cassidy’s bad acting andsinging,” I reminded him, the thought of it just making me want to shake with horror. “You know how the Lefou in the movie and pretty much every other adaption of Beauty and the Beast sings badly on purpose, but it somehow manages to sound good?”

Jack blinked at me for a second, as if he didn’t know what I had just said. “… Yeah.”

“Yeah. Cassidy doesn’t sing badly on purpose. And it doesn’t sound good.”

“I just don’t like that they still have me hitting the character even though it’s a girl,” Jack grumbled, starting to run his hands through his hair until he remembered that he couldn’t because of the wig he was wearing. “It’s like domestic violence or something.”