All of a sudden, it was the day before the play performance. It had seemed to sneak up on everybody, hence why the entire school had fallen into chaos. Rehearsals had been going on for most of day and now Carmelita was trying to get the auditorium ready.
Klaus, Violet, Duncan and I were sat at dinner, all of us eating in silence. Klaus looked terrified and I didn't blame him. Somehow we had fought off Carmelita in all of the previous practices but tomorrow was the day he would have his first kiss, on stage, in front of the entire student body. He was picking at his food, pushing it around the plate, both his eyes and hopes low. I felt bad but there was nothing else I could do. In the rehearsals of the infamous kiss I had blocked Carmelita with my script, tripped her up so she would miss, thrown a coughing fit to distract her and pushed Klaus out of the way on one occasion when Carmelita had gone in the for kill especially fast. I had even held back Carmelita physically, without offering any excuse other than the fact I didn't want her to do the scene. She was vibrant and snooty but she wasn't stupid; she knew exactly what I was doing. And each time, she would throw me a smug look, as if she knew that my struggles to stop the kiss from happening would make the real deal even more satisfying to her.
Around us, people were running through the canteen with sparkly material and tree standees, some were wrapped up in fairy lights and others couldn't see for how many boxes they were carrying. They were all at Carmelita's every beck and call and she took full advantage of that. She also took advantage of a large amount of the play's budget and spent it on fifty different outfits for herself. She claimed that they were for the play but instead they were just for her amusement, it seemed, as every time I saw her enter the room she was wearing a different dress, each one more flamboyant than the last.
After abandoning her last emerald green number, Carmelita strutted into the canteen wearing a mix of yellow velvet and chiffon and headed straight over to our table.
"Cakesniffers!" she hollered, as if we wouldn't be able to hear her if she spoke normally, despite her standing right next to us, "What are you doing?"
I gave her a weird look, "We're eating dinner."
Carmelita scoffed and rolled her eyes, "What I mean is: why aren't you trying on your costumes? We need to have a dress rehearsal and everyone is waiting for you, you idiots. Hurry up and follow me."
We said goodbye to our siblings and hurried after Carmelita, even though she looked like a chewed up banana and her matching mustard tap shoes seemed to tap more annoyingly than usual.
She led us to a room just off the auditorium where there were rails upon rails of sequined dresses and metallic outfits, all with signs that read; "Don't touch, cakesniffers."
"Here you go," Carmelita announced, stopping in front of a rail where there was a suit hanging up. A singular suit.
I frowned, "What am I wearing?"
She feigned surprise, "Oh of course! Let me grab it!"
At that, Carmelita hurried off and I barely had time to share a concerned look with Klaus before she tapped her way back in, something rustling behind her back.
"Ta-da!"
I rolled my eyes, "Real funny, Carmelita, where's my actual costume?"
Her signature smirk made a reappearance, "This is your costume. I mean, we had to made budget cuts somewhere. It's purely coincidental that it's yours though, nothing personal."
She threw it at me and giggled towards the door, "The scissors are on the table, okay?"
The door slammed on her way out and I sighed. My outfit was a bin bag, an actual black bin bag and, to make things even more irritating, Carmelita hadn't even bothered to cut arm or head holes. I would have to do that myself.
"I guess we'd better get ready," I said, trying to figure out if there was anyway I could make this less terrible.
Klaus nodded, "I'm sorry your costume... isn't a costume. Only Carmelita would make someone wear a bin liner."
"She's the one that should be dressed as a bin."
"Agreed."
I left the room while Klaus changed, taking the bag and the scissors with me. Deciding there was no point in trying to make my outfit anything special, I messily cut the three holes and looked at it. This is a joke. My entire life is a joke.
The door behind me opened and there stood Klaus. The blazer of the suit was a little bit long in the arms but otherwise fit him perfectly and I caught myself staring.
"You look nice," I said. He looked more than nice but I couldn't bring myself to say anything more than that without sounding awkward.
Klaus probably said "thank you" but I didn't hear it because I was too busy nudging my way past him and into the room so he wouldn't be able to see how flustered I was.
I quickly slipped into my bin bag before catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I'm not sure what I had envisioned but the finished product was somehow even worse than I'd expected. For a thin bit of material it looked bulky and was almost too short to the point where I wish I'd had tights on. Oh well, I thought to myself, there's not a lot I can do about it now.
At that, I tore my eyes away and tried to erase my reflection from my mind. I figured the whole experience wouldn't be as bad if I didn't know how awful I looked, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the image out of my head. And it didn't exactly help when I stepped into the auditorium and everyone laughed at me, Carmelita doubled over in a fit of giggles.
"Here, Isadora, let me help you," she said once she had recovered. In her hands were scissors and a roll of duct tape and, before I could stop her, she basically attacked me with them.
She mostly wrapped the tape around my middle, all the while saying she was trying to give me curves. Good luck, I thought to myself, trying not to get dizzy as Carmelita danced around me, winding the tape as she went.
When she deemed it good enough, she stopped, snipped the end of the tape, and stepped back to admire her work.
"Much better!" She squealed, and went back to ordering everyone around.
I begged to differ. Although the bin bag was big and unflattering, at least it had been relatively comfortable and easy to move around it. But now, after Carmelita had mummified my mid section, the material had been pulled tight and was verging on being painful. Nevertheless, I tried to stay positive and hobbled over to where I had left my copy of the script. It had fallen onto the floor (or perhaps Carmelita purposely knocked it off) and I bent down to pick it up.
But that was when I heard it. The sound made my heart drop. It was the sound of an almighty rip and, of course, it had come from me. The back of my bin bag dress had split. I quickly tried to cover myself as everyone started laughing again and Klaus dashed to my side, taking off his jacket and giving it to me to wrap around my waist.
This is a complete nightmare, I thought to myself as Klaus and I vacated the auditorium and headed into the night.
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A/N:
Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Jut a heads up in case you didn't see the announcement but this story will only be updated on Wednesdays from now on for a couple of reasons. If you're bothered about the details you can always go and check on the announcement on my profile instead of me typing it all out here and boring you all to death.
Anyways, if you enjoyed then please consider voting and I'll see you all next Wednesday :))
