Sealed with a Kiss | ✓

january 13th

On Sunday morning, Mia wanted nothing more than to stay in her bed, but she had work to do. First she needed to visit the art department and ask for some volunteers to help make decorations for the ball, as well as design the posters advertising the event. As soon as it was a somewhat acceptable time to be awake, she hopped out of bed and made her way up to the art rooms.

The art rooms were on the top floor of the old school building, meaning the ceilings were much higher than most of the other classrooms in the school. Mia hadn't done art since she had been in year nine (she was terrible at art), but she still missed the beautiful classrooms that were overflowing with art that was constantly changing and shifting and growing.

The corridor was empty and quiet as Mia made her way towards the rooms. As it was the weekend, very few people were ever in the art rooms, unless they were behind on work. As it was the second day after the Christmas holiday, no one was doing any sort of work. Mia rounded the corner and knocked on the bright red door at the end of the corridor. A muffled "come in" came a few moments later, and Mia pushed open the door into the art room.

The skylight was propped open, letting the early morning sunlight stream into the room, and a cool breeze ruffled some pieces of paper that weren't completely secured down. The walls were covered with self-portraits, models, pieces of lumpy clay pottery and photography from previous years. Several dress forms were adorned with stunning costumes in one corner, and the floor was stained with paint splatters from over the years that were too stubborn to come out. The head of art was in another corner by the sink, rinsing and cleaning paint brushes. A younger student sat at one of the tables, sketching in a large sketchbook, and didn't look up as Mia entered. The teacher looked up and smiled when she saw Mia

"Mia! I haven't seen you up here in a while." Mia laughed nervously at that. "What can I do for you?" Mia walked over to her so she could hand her the sheet of paper she had been clutching.

"I was wondering if you would be able to ask your students for any volunteers to help with preparations for the Valentine's ball and fundraisers. I could really use the extra help. Oh, and there's a meeting on Wednesday for it." Mia leaned in closer. "It might also be worth mentioning that anyone who helps out gets free tickets to the ball." The head of art laughed at that.

"I'll be sure to let them know."

As Mia left, she called over her shoulder a quick thanks before heading down to the drama department on her next errand.

The drama department was a very different area to the art rooms. Both rooms were overwhelmingly busy, and whilst the art rooms were filled with, well, art, the drama department was filled with weird miscellaneous stuff. Masks and odd props and costumes littered the back room of the stage, and with only one single bulb lighting the whole room, it was incomprehensibly dark. Despite it being barely gone 9 AM on a Sunday morning, voices drifted through from the stage and auditorium. Mia carefully picked her way through the clutter and made her way out into the wings. On stage was the head of theatre, Miss Holloway, a young woman with a ponytail and sneakers who was reading through a script whilst the rest of the society and students were scattered around the auditorium; some were simply lying on the stage on their phones, other were dotted around in different seats and chatting idly. The head of theatre noticed Mia's arrival and closed her script.

"Ah, you're here, excellent. Everyone," she clapped her hands together briskly "we're going to start rehearsals now. This is Mia Valentine, she's the head girl and the reason we get to do this extra production this year, so I want you all to put your best foot forward today. I also sincerely hope that you all took the time to learn all of your lines over the holidays. Right, we'll run through from act one, scene one, skipping the prologue for the time being."

As all the students flicked through scripts and moved on or off stage accordingly, Mia sat down in a front row seat next to Miss Holloway, with her notebook out to make any notes. This play needed to be ready in less than five weeks' time, as the play was scheduled for the end of the week long fundraiser, the day after the ball. After a few moments, Miss Holloway looked up at the stage then down at her list, frowning slightly.

"Has anyone seen David? He's in this scene," and she muttered under her breath "and he's one of the biggest parts in this scene too." After a few moments, she sighed and rubbed her temples. "Well for the moment, Cassandra, could you fill in for David? His role is Sampson, so just read from those lines in the script would you? Andy, I expect you to be perfect, understand?" Andy, who was onstage alone, nodded nervously.

Eventually, a dirty blonde haired girl appeared from the wings with a dog eared script in hand. Mia furrowed her brow, trying to place the scruffy girl standing in. Mia was fairly familiar with everyone in school, but from this distance, she couldn't quite place who this girl was. Mia couldn't remember anyone at school with the name Cassandra. The girl shuffled a bit with her script when it suddenly clicked. Cassandra was Cass Frost, the openly gay rugby player. What on earth was she doing in a theatre production of Romeo and Juliet? Mia would have thought that Cass would rather die than be caught in a production. Cass and Andy stood flicking through her script, murmuring and pointing at various pieces on the page, before Cass nodded and the pair exited the stage, reappearing moments later with swords in hand.

"Gregory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals." Cass started, adopting a somewhat ridiculous medieval voice.

"No, for then we should be colliers." Andy came in, quick to match the pace Cass had set. The pair continued their scripted back and forth, and Mia zoned out for a bit, lost in thought. She was certain she had never seen Cass in any previous productions, so what motivated her to take part in this year's one? It couldn't be that it was Romeo and Juliet could it? Cass didn't exactly strike Mia as a hopeless romantic, or a lover of Shakespeare.

"Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?" The entrance of two more actors pulled Mia's attention back to the stage.

"I do bite my thumb, sir." Cass quipped back, sword in one hand and script in the other as she faced the two students playing Abraham and Balthasar.

"Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?" The actor playing Abraham pressed. Cass leaned back to Andy dramatically, and lowered her voice to a stage whisper louder than her previous talking voice.

"Is the law of our side, if I say ay?" she whispered, earning a few chuckles from the watching ensemble.

"No." Andy shook his head solemnly.

"Then no, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir, but I bite my thumb, sir." Cass continued, earning a few louder laughs this time.

The scene continued, with Miss Holloway pausing the action every now and then to position and block out the actions with the introduction of more characters. After an hour or so, Mia decided to leave, happy that the play would be ready in time.

Cass's performance continued to play on her mind for the rest of the day, as Mia set about finishing off her French homework, and brainstorming new costume ideas for the Valentine's ball (as all the couple ideas she had had involved having a boyfriend to match with). Cass was one of the best players on the girls' rugby team, and it seemed so odd that she was doing acting as well. Mia didn't like to admit it, but from what she had seen, Cass seemed pretty good at acting as well. Mia caught herself thinking about Cass and shook her head. Whatever the reason was, it was none of her business, and besides, why did she even care?

//

next part will be updated on thursday

h.