The Quirky Art of Preformance

Prettiest

Darren stood in the middle of the stage, he looked nervous and kept taking calming breaths. About a meter away was Kao who didn't look bothered.

"Come on dad, you're an actor. Act!" Charlie folded over her arms with a grumpy expression on her face. Namiyo was snickering to herself while I watched on.

"Okay, okay," Darren whispered, turning to look at Kao. "Just pretend she is your wife. Just pretend she is your wife," he whispered to himself, taking a deep breath yet again.

"If it helps, I'm thinking of my wife too," Kao commented as Darren looked at her with an unimpressed expression. "She's prettier than you."

That seemed to anger darren as he grumbled under his breath, "I'll show you pretty."

Charlie slapped her forehead as she watched her father scheme on how to show up Kao's wife. "Dad, please don't."

"Oh, you know I will! I'll go get Karren, she'll make me look so pretty I will outshine her wife a million times!"

Charlie was silently disappearing as she listened to her father's ranting. Kao was smirking to herself, proud of her work. "I see you're no longer worrying about the scene," she pointed out making Darren stop.

"You're evil."

"Yep. That is what's on my CV."

"Guys! We have ten minutes before the day ends, can you at least do this once before the performance tomorrow?!" Charlie was at the end of her tether as she got her dad and Kao to recite the closing scene to the play.

When Charlie called it to an end, I swear I heard Darren mutter that he will 'show us pretty' under his breath.

Namiyo smiled as she dragged us- Charlie and I- away. Over the few weeks, we had been practicing at every hour of the day, but with the last day of the internships tomorrow and the performance, she was planning to have a relaxed day with movies and popcorn. Not that they didn't do that every day anyway but this time she said it was going to be the best cassicals.

I was a little sad that I was leaving but I still have to go back to U.A and Kirishima was having a bit of a hard time getting some of his stunts right so I promised him that I would help him when I got back. He had Tetsutetsu to help him- the two having become great friends over the intern- but sometimes you needed a fresh pair of limbs to work with.

"Come on! I've got pizza on the way and the camera is on charge, time for movie night!" Namiyo pushed us into the couch, popping the popcorn down in Charlie's lap as she put the fizzy drink on the table. She put on a true classical musical and hopped down next to me.

"Why is the camera on charge?" I titled my head with a confused expression.

She looked offended as she smiled brightly. "Because I want to see Charlie's dad looking super pretty!"

"He won't do it tomorrow," Charlie stated, "Mum won't be willing to do it in the morning and risk ruining the makeup dad will have to wear for the performance. You might get it after the performance when we are celebrating though."

"Great, I get to watch your dad pretend to be pretty." We all let out a happy chuckle as we pressed play and started to sing along.

Tomorrow is the performance but in thirty years time, this is what I will remember.

Everyone was running about. The stage was set, the crowd was in, the actors were not ready but they didn't have any more time. Charlie was barking orders while Kao had her makeup finished. Karren- Charlie's mum- was rushing about and advising the other hair and makeup artist, her blond hair was pushed back but had come undone in the chaos and fell against her blue rimmed glasses. She had bags under her eyes but strangely didn't look tired.

I was going over some of my lines with Nami who was waiting to go- though she was more excited to see Darren in makeup rather than actually performing.

The lights dimmed and the narrator spoke.

Everything actually went well. Which was a bit of a surprise considering it was us and the week of performing we have had. There were a few lines we forgot but we easily made up stuff to fill the gaps.... we think they didn't notice... maybe.

We were just coming up to the kissing scene between Darren and Kao. We had changed outfits for the last scene while we waited. That is, until I noticed Charlie wasn't here. Quickly dashing off to go find our missing actor. I spun around when I spotted her thankfully strange silver hair and chased after her. "Charlie! Our que is about to go, we need to be getting back to the stage!"

Charlie spotted her looking at me as she sighed and put away her phone.

"What are you doing out this far?"

"I wanted to look for a signal, I promised some friends of mine that I would talk to them around now as their performance would be over," Charlie explained.

"Oh, those people you keep talking to our performers. No wonder you like them."

"I don't like them!"

I tilted my head in confusion, "then... why are you talking to them...?"

Charlie seemed to freeze before laughing. "Oh, innocent Izu. Come on, we should be getting back to the stage before we miss the cue." Charlie Rushed up to the stage, shee Nami running towards us.

"Don't you get it, I don't care about them," Darren shouted from the stage, coming up to the finish.

Nami, quickly grabbed my wrist as she readied to pull me out onto stage. She was saying... something but she was drowned out. We were pushed back and an intense heat covered our bodies. A loud ringing screamed in our ears and a bright light made it impossible to see.

"...Dad...? Dad?!" Charlie ran forward towards the stage but I grabbed her and pulled her back. Panic and fear ran through my veins as I pushed her and Nami out the back door, barely getting out when the second explosion went off.

The stage was gone. The crowd was gone. The actors were gone. Everything was gone.

Charlie was screaming, clawing at my arms as she tried to get in. Get back, just get to her family. I already knew, there was no point. So I held onto her, and kept her away from the fire that slowly slowly burned my back, sneaking a glance at Nami who had collapsed to the floor.

"...But- but, he hadn't become pretty yet..."