Bow Ties and Chickens

Karen

The museum was buzzing. 

People walked around and seemed to be just about everywhere; why did they have to practice here today? 

"There are so many people," Karen said. "We shouldn't have to practice in front of this many people." 

"There are a perfectly sane amount of people," the play director, Ms. Joyce, replied, smiling. "Tomorrow there will be 'so many people'." 

Tomorrow. Karen shivered. Tomorrow was the day of the play, months of practicing and careful consideration of every factor lead up to tomorrow. 

The rest of the group soon followed them inside, consisting of Hope and her sister Faith Leaon, Lexi Elane, Lili Massa (Karen's best friend), Ruby Brown, Olivia Frain, Grace Dalmoore, Felix Mayar, and Liam Camara. 

They quietly got to work, reciting lines and perfecting movements. This sort of play was a very new concept, where instead of the actors going up on a stage and doing one scene at a time, they acted all throughout the area, and many scenes could be going on at one given time in different locations. 

This play was about a place called 'Wizard Academy', and Karen had the lead part, a young mage by the name of Ubine. Ubine was struggling in many classes, and so her friends Etorne and Ritior helped her. There were some evil warlocks and witches, but at the end of the play, Ubine befriended a dragon and they all go on to next year. There's another play for the next year part, but Karen and the others were simply acting out this first one. 

When they were right in the middle of scene six, a deafening roar sounded from the back of the museum, and Karen was reminded uncomfortably of the live dinosaur they had back there. She'd seen Jurassic Park, and she knew that keeping dinos in captivity never ended well. 

After the rehearsal, Ms. Joyce clapped approvingly. 

"Wonderful! But Karen," she said. 

"Yes?" Karen asked. 

"Try to have the exchange between you and the dragon be even more affectionate. Liam, Olivia," she turned to them to scold them about being more careful with the dragon prop. Felix suddenly broke in. 

"Ms. Joyce, if the dragon looks so unrealistic, why don't we use the T.rex they have out back instead? I mean, what's the point of having a forty-foot lizard here if we can't use it for theater?" 

Ms. Joyce gave him a you-know-very-well-why-not look and continued with her harping until she finally decided that they were going to do the play over again. 

Karen sighed. 

This was going to be a long day.