Just Revenge

Chapter Ten: Play the Game

So, if anyone ever asked me, I'd totally deny it, but rehearsals got a lot more fun after that. Before, I knew everyone there, but I wasn't really part of a group. Abbi and Lis weren't huge parts, so they hardly came to rehearsal and I normally ended up sitting in a group of kids I barely knew and forcing myself to act interested. Technically, that was how this should've still been, but it wasn't. I could hate them as much as I wanted, but these kids were fun, and I started looking to rehearsal a heck of a lot more than I used to. It became the highlight of my day, the thing that pushed me through my work day so I could get to it. Even Harper seemed to settle down with her dagger stares and side comments, and I started to feel almost like one of the gang. I guess I should be glad that they reminded me of why I was there.

It started off as a regular rehearsal. I got dropped off two minutes after rehearsal technically started, laid my sweatshirt down, and stretched out under the tree in the spot that had somehow become mine between Max and Diana. The sun was blinding and the sky the kind of blue it is in beachy movies. Harper and Aurora were sipping on some kind of fruit smoothies they'd picked up on the way and just about everyone was there. Luke, Alex, Izzy, Diana and Aurora were arguing about who was cooler – Adrien or Cat Noir – while Max, Harper, and Cortland debated some political ad that was running for the primaries. I didn't particularly feel the need to jump into a conversation, just laid on the grass and listened to the rest of them talk. I was comfortable, content, happy even and totally unprepared.

"Guys," Harper's voice cut through the two conversations, "You know what we haven't done yet?"

Everyone just kinda turned to look at her.

She pulled a sheet of stickers from her bag, "We still haven't put stickers on our scripts."

"Right. I almost forgot we were five." Cortland dead panned.

Harper just laughed, "It's a tradition. We all get a sticker, so you know what script is yours."

"Cuz the highlighted lines and Sharpied names left some people confused." Luke's jokes were almost as sarcastic as Cortland's sometimes. Almost.

To be entirely fair, Harper had a point. Just about everyone in the cast bought their scripts from the same place. I printed mine offline, but the thing was almost 50 pages and needed to be held together by binder rings. It was cheaper, but way less convenient.

Instead of passing around the sheets, Harper stood up and handed the stickers to each person individually.

"Luke, you get a crown because you're playing the king. Aurora, you get the sunshine because you're a little ball of it. Cortland, you get the dog because your character is the only loyal one in the whole show."

She handed each kid their sticker as she announced what they got. Then she stopped when she got down to just me and Max."

"I saved the best for last. Max, you get the little python because your character is such a snake."

She shot me a significant look before she sat back down.

Max smirked at her, "Oh yeah, I thought it was representing something else."

"Probably just wanted to give it away before anyone made her take the snake sticker." I whispered under my breath.

I thought nobody heard me, but Diana choked on her water next to me and Max broke into this huge grin and bit down on his lip to keep from laughing.

"What about Carmen?" I grew so much more respect for Aurora in that second.

Harper had the smile of a snake, "Carmen doesn't need a sticker to separate her script. It's already" she paused to look at my cheap, printed version of the script "one of a kind."