Its A Deal!

D-R-A-M-A

"I'm sorry what?" I asked Mr. Kennly after class on Tuesday.

Mr.Reed Kennly who was my fiction writing professor,had dropped a bomb on us that afternoon,or well at least on me,everyone else seemed more excited than shocked. Needless to say I felt pretty betrayed.

"A production Ms.Evans" He said stacking papers that were scattered all over his table into proper order. "Its not as bad as you think,this can be a good thing"

A good thing? has he lost his mind?

"I'm sorry sir,but how is converting our short story- which by the way was supposed to be due at the end of this year- into a production and act the whole thing out, a good thing?"my voice comes out almost exasperated and panic and fear can be heard in every word but it doesn't seem to surprise the 24 year old sitting in front of me.

Mr.Kennly takes a deep breath before closing the his laptop halfway to provide me with his undivided attention. The class was already dismissed and I was definitely late for Calculus, but right at this moment,I honestly didn't care.

"Ms.Evans, no one understands the story and characters better than the writer themselves, and so when I was informed that the drama team couldn't perform in the fest because they had to leave for an inter school competition, I provided Principal Roberts with a solution,which happened to be my class"

I watched him speak and even heard the sound of his voice, but those words of his refused to register in my head, it's like I know he was making sense, but the fear of what I might have to do according to that sense of his overrode all other senses in my body.

"Summer, can I call you Summer?"

I nod slowly.

'Well Summer,I honesty feel this is a great opportunity for you all, to bring your characters and stories to life on a platform like this and it would be a shame if you let it go just because of fear"

I wanted to feel inspired or even motivated by his words, but my fear was so deep rooted I don't think his words made it through all of it.Despite this I knew there was no point in arguing or trying to get out of this, it was a done deed, and with literally no other student on my side, I was not in a position to get this idea shut down on my own. So I did what I probably should've done fifteen minutes ago. I nodded silently and left the classroom without so much as a backward glance.

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By lunch that day the entire school was buzzing with the news of the production and everyone wanted to be involved, Never before in the history of Fairview High had a play written by students been performed at all, let alone at The Fest. So it was naturally a very big deal with the students.

"So you will be doing this too, I assume?" Chris said nonchalantly before taking another bite of his chicken and ham sandwich. I looked around the cafeteria biting onto my nail nervously as I considered my options.

1) I could try to drop my elective- but that would be too much and I didn't want to let go of the opportunity of learning from someone as good as Mr. Kennly .

2) I could sabotage the whole play thing one way or another- but I really didn't want to ruin it for the ones who really wanted and needed this.

that left 3

3) I could suck it up and face my fear.

"I don't know" I say pushing away my salad- my appetite had died along with my options.

"What do you mean, you don't know Sam?, your work is great and this is a great opportunity for you to bring it in front of people and for you to grow"

I sighed. Everybody seemed to be giving me the same advice today.

"It's not that easy Chris" I said leaning back in the chair.

"I can't explain it, but the things that come easily to you don't necessarily come easily to me too"The words came out a little more harsher than I intended and I half expected Chris to get annoyed or leave.

Instead I felt his hand hold mine from across the table and for a second, just a second it felt like maybe everything really would be fine and maybe I can do this, But then that second passed and I pulled my hand slowly away.

Chris still had not brought up our encounter this weekend at the party and as much as I did want to be cool about it,the amount of real drama that was going on in my life had my patience running really thin.

"What's wrong? did I do something wrong" his voice was low and tinged with a slight tone of hurt,I immediately felt the guilt flood in my conscience. He was only trying to be nice.

I shook my head and tried to flash him a genuine smile. "No, absolutely not, I'm just not having a great day that's all"

Chris studies my face for a few minutes. "Date night tonight?" He asks. "It will give you an outing and we get another appearance out of it"

I almost said yes before he said the second half of that sentence.Almost.

Ever since I grew real feelings for the guy, the whole faking thing makes me sick to the stomach,Its almost like a mockery and I dislike myself for continuing it. But that's just it,If I stop now I may not only have a lot of questions to answer to for Chris, But it will also probably mean,saying goodbye to my only way to truly know if he does or ever will feel the same way about me. Besides for now its the only thing keeping Noah away from me, well as away as possible, seeing as we now have a production we need to work on together.

"Sam? you there?" I look up and smile.

"Yes, of course, It's a date" Chris smiles and I get back to Ignoring my salad. I don't think my appetite was going to make a reappearance for a while now.

After the excitement that the school witnessed during lunch, it was like the students of Fairview started working with a new found surge of motivation for the upcoming fest. The halls were bustling with seniors who were either clicking pictures for the final memory band that took place at the end of the fest every year, or collecting idea for the theme, the musicians were seen picking up their guitars for practice and the artists were seen making posters, geeks took their first real interest in extra curricular in the four years they have been here, and the jocks helped in the heavy lifting.

Students from every clique or social group,weather they had ever before spoken to each other or not, came together to make the event,their last event as seniors,as big a success as they could.

This was one of the only things I liked anymore about The Fest.

No matter what our equation has been with one another for the past four years,no matter how we have behaved with each other,or what opinions we hold regarding different topic,the fest has this magical power of uniting the entire senior class,for one last celebration, one last rendezvous before everyone gets back to trying to get out of this place called high school alive,and try and never look back.

Maybe it was seeing all these people come together forgetting their differences, or maybe it was the emotion of this being my last shot here, or maybe I just figured I'll be leaving this place anyway so what the hell?

Either way standing in that crowded hallway I figured I had one more option:

I could give this play all I've got and ace the god damn class before getting out of Hell school.

My bad ... High School.

They want drama?

I'll serve them the biggest platter they've ever seen.

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