Three's Company

2.24 | Silencing Her Voice

Silencing Her Voice

destroy: [dih-stroi]; verb; to render ineffective or useless; nullify; neutralize; invalidate.

    Monday came quickly after that terrible Friday, and with it came the first day of tech week for the school musical. Performances would begin on Friday and continue through Sunday, which meant that they had only five days to perfect the entire musical. And three of the cast members were at extreme odds with each other.

    Mrs. Freedman began the rehearsal by addressing the very clear elephant in the room.

    "To everyone who thinks that they are going to even slightly mess up my tech week, you are very sorely mistaken." she began, glaring at each and every cast member individually. Her stare hardly lingered on Nova, Ethan, or Ryan; she clearly didn't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing she was talking about them.

"Mr. Hunter, the English teacher, came to me Friday afternoon to explain a certain incident that happened in his sixth period senior English class. He felt it necessary to approach me after realizing that all three of the students involved played primary roles in my musical." She took a long pause, this time focusing on the three students in question. "This disagreement will be put behind us. If you wish to pick up where you left off after the curtain closes Sunday evening, be my guest. But you will not ruin my musical with your petty high school drama."

The auditorium was silent as everyone gave slight nods to show that they understood what was being required of them.

    "Very good. Now find your places. Rehearsal begins in three minutes."

    Everyone immediately rushed to put on their costumes and touch up their hair, returning to the stage as the lights dimmed for their very first complete run-through.

    Ethan could feel the panic in his chest start to fade as he took deep breaths and thought of Scarlet. He was completely fine, because he had his girlfriend. They had had a long discussion after the fateful Friday class, in which Ethan had essentially convinced her to blame Nova for everything instead of Ethan. He had figured it was safer for her to be angry with someone she never saw than with her boyfriend.

There was nothing left for him to do now but complete this musical and hope that everything would go away afterwards--the stigma, the drama, the feelings.

    The rehearsal went well enough, despite a slight hiccup where Nova forgot her line towards the end. But there was no fighting, no dirty looks, and nothing to make Mrs. Freedman angry.

    Ethan finished changing out of his costume after rehearsal to find Scarlet waiting for him at the entry of the auditorium, watching everyone scurry around her. He greeted her with a happy kiss, wondering how much she had seen of the performance.

    "Couldn't wait until Friday for a peek?" He joked, slinging his arm around her shoulders. Scarlet's eyes remained stony.

    "I just figured I would see what you've been spending all your time doing lately." She replied, staring straight ahead. "Is everyone leaving?"

    Ethan nodded.

    "Yeah, everyone's leaving. Rehearsal's over."

    "Has anyone actually left?"

    Ethan looked around.

    "No, I think everyone's still getting changed."

    "You." Scarlet snarled, her attention snapping in the direction of someone across the room. "What kind of person do you think you are?"