Dark Valentine (Monster High; Book 1 of the DV Duology)

Chapter 23: Dress Rehearsal

Kieran

Following the morning of Drystan's appearance, I visited Jackson on a daily basis. Jackson's mother brought a pair of headphones to him along with their phone, so I was also able to see Holt. And fortunately, the teachers emailed them any missed work so that they wouldn't fall behind.

Once Jackson was released from the hospital, he was able to replace his glasses and it didn't take long for him to return to school. Thankfully, he was healing rather quickly and rehearsals started going a bit better. Jackson noted how the noisier people in the cast actually started quieting down a bit more backstage, and everyone remembered their lines by the time the dress rehearsal rolled around.

The way it worked was, Jackson's class had two drama days and the dress rehearsal would take place in the afternoon of the second one. For both of those days, none of their class was to attend any other class and the teachers were notified of that.

"If you want, you can come watch the rehearsal," Jackson said to me the morning of the second drama day, just as he was about to head to the clawditorium. "Other people might leave class to see it, too, so I can't see why the teacher wouldn't allow it."

"I will, for sure," I agreed. Giving me a kiss, he proceeded to make his way down there. I went to class after that, during which Frankie decided to take Jackson's usual spot in order to talk to me. Today was mostly just a work period for some assignment we were working on, so this was her window of opportunity.

But I quickly shut that window by simply focusing on my work. There wasn't anything that really needed to be said, anyway. I'd said all I needed to, so I was leaving it up to her to learn to trust me on her own.

The first half of the day was otherwise fairly uneventful. I didn't really have anyone to hang out with at lunch since Deuce and Heath were also in the drama class. So after I finished my lunch I headed straight for the clawditorium. The class was still in the green room eating, so I just went inside the clawditorium to wait.

A few other people showed up to watch, just as Jackson had said. The play opened with a pre-recorded clip of Jackson reciting the prologue, which was followed by the first song in the play, 'I Need to Know'. And I was finally able to see what Deuce and Heath had been talking about that day in the creepateria—Jackson could sing very well.

And as I continued to watch the rehearsal, I had to praise his acting abilities, too. Everyone else's acting was pretty good, as well. There came a scene during which Cleo had to kiss Jackson, but I knew it was coming so it didn't really faze me. It was just part of the play, after all.

One thing to point out was that during one scene, I heard some sort of commotion backstage, presumably between a couple of the girls. But Mr. Where couldn't do much about it since he was running the lights. It eventually died down though.

Mr. Phantom and Operetta were helping out with the musical side of things, and to be honest I thought that was a better idea than having the tracks pre-recorded. And speaking of songs, my one complaint was Toralei's singing. It wasn't as awful as it apparently used to be, but it wasn't all that great either. It was sort of in the middle, so I was glad she was cast as Lady Beaconsfield. That meant she wouldn't be doing as much singing as some of the others.

Jackson met up with me after the rehearsal was over. "So what'd you think?"

"You were wonderful, for starters," I said, "and I loved all of it--other than Lady Beaconsfield's singing. By the way, what was going on backstage earlier?"

"Oh, that," Jackson shook his head in irritable remembrance. "Frankie and I had to listen to Toralei and Cleo get into an argument over Toralei touching props when she wasn't supposed to. Basically, there were a couple of suitcases sitting on a bench and Toralei started trying to open them and stuff, so Cleo told her not to and...yeah. I eventually had to put a stop to it because we were listening for our cues and I couldn't hear anything over them."

"Fun," I said sarcastically.

Jackson chuckled. "Yeah, not really. That sort of thing happens way too much in here. Although I'm surprised they waited until the dress rehearsal to start it up again."

"Well, if Toralei would just keep her paws off things she doesn't need to be messing with, there wouldn't be any issues," stated Cleo, walking up to us.

"Hey, no arguments here," agreed Jackson, "Hopefully none of that happens during the real thing."

"Agreed," said Cleo.

"Hey, good job today," I told Cleo, "You were pretty good."

"Well, thank you," she replied, "Indeed, I was better than good—I was magnificent. I always am."

"Now, don't be too modest," Jackson joked, making me laugh.

Nearby, Heath was talking to a couple of the other girls in their class. "Good job during 'Façade' today—you girls sizzled!"

"A whole world of fire-related puns," Jackson shook his head once again, "and he goes for 'you girls sizzled'. He usually does a lot better than that."

"You realize this is Heath Burns we're talking about?" replied Cleo.

"You've heard his puns," Jackson stated simply.

"Hey, Jackson!" Heath then made his way over to us. "Do you know where I can find Abbey?"

"No," Jackson told him, "She's probably in class, why?"

"I need to talk to her, that's all," he replied before sprinting out of the clawditorium. "Bye, guys!"

"I can't be the only one who wishes they would just get together already," I said once he was out of earshot.

"You're not," Jackson and Cleo replied simultaneously. Cleo then went to go catch up with Deuce, who was waiting for her by the door.

"I should probably change out of my costume now," said Jackson, "Meet by my locker?"

"Of course," I replied, giving him a loving kiss, "See you in a bit."