Page 15 of Love Me Not
Watching the target across the yard, I caught him rolling his eyes when Gloria wasn’t looking. It seemed like a safe bet that her coworkers didn’t like her any more than we did.
Chapter Five
The first drama club meeting of the year and we already had multiple award-worthy performances.
Emma continued to pout about my decision to veer away from musicals. This was her year to shine, she declared, in a whiney voice that tempted me to stick her in the background instead of the lead role. Madison Park had the opposite reaction. A budding fashion designer, Maddy had run the costume department since her freshman year, when she’d displayed an impressive talent for making corsets.
Period pieces were not her passion, however, and she’d nagged me for two years about doing something more modern. To say she’d been ecstatic at my announcement would be the understatement of the year.
Personally, I was struggling to show my usual enthusiasm.
Three members of our nine member club graduated in the spring, taking us down to six. Sadly, one of those chose not to rejoin, but an incoming freshman filled the spot. Of the six we had, two were off stage options only—Maddy in wardrobe, and Hannah as her assistant, who was also in charge of makeup and props.
Regardless of her attitude, Emma would take the female lead of Darcy, a good girl struggling between choosing a future that would please her parents and choosing her own potential happiness. Jackson Cruz, our resident musical genius and an absolute natural on stage, could be the male lead, but he was much better suited for the villain of the story.
That left Nick Lowell as the only other boy in the club, a sophomore with little experience who couldn’t possibly play the lead. Emma would eat him alive in every scene.
How were we going to do this?
Employing my own acting skills, I pretended this wasn’t a problem. We simply needed to recruit, which was the reason for pivoting off musicals in the first place. Kids were more likely to sign up for material to which they could relate. The lack of a singing requirement would also help.
“Listen up,” I said, propping my bottom onto the corner of my desk. “We have two tasks to accomplish today. First, we’ll go through the summary of the play so you know what we’re doing.”
“Copies are here,” said Gina Lee as she entered with a stack of play summaries. Surveying the room, she paused. “Maybe we didn’t need this many.”
Science teacher extraordinaire, Gina could be mistaken for one of the freshman she taught, only with better style.
“We’ll need them once we bring in new members,” I said with more conviction than I felt. “Pass these around.” I counted off five sets and handed them to Emma in the front row, who took one and passed them on.
“Choices?” Madison said once she had her copy. “Never heard of it.”
“It’s a newer production. Does everyone have a summary?”
Gina pulled my desk chair around to sit beside me as a mumbled yes came from the group. “Is this a comedy?” she asked.
“There are light moments, but no. The play is about exactly what the title says. Choices. Immediate ones and the long-term variety. It’s also about the consequences that come from those choices.”
“This says we need eight to ten people,” Hannah said, looking around the room. “We have half that.”
“Like I said a minute ago, we’ll be recruiting new members. Let’s go over the summary so you know how to sell the idea to your friends.”
“With all due respect, Ms. P.,” Jackson cut in, “the drama club isn’t the biggest draw for extracurriculars.”
This was not news. After sports, which would always hold the top spot, we ranked far down the list behind newspaper, yearbook, and the debate team. Though they only took third thanks to cool field trips to big cities for competitions.
“At least we aren’t the chess club,” I offered as a point of encouragement.
“They have nine members,” Gina pointed out. “And matching sport coats.”
She wasn’t helping. “This is the year that the drama club becomes the club everyone wants to join.”
“Are we gonna start paying?” Jackson asked.
Where was the loyalty?
“No, we aren’t paying,” I replied. “We won’t have to. Let’s get back to the summary. Most of the characters are high school students much like yourselves. The two leads are staring down big life decisions, as well as lots of expectations and outside influences. There’s parental pressure, peer pressure, and the typical teen angst that comes with both.”
“We have to create a party,” Emma said. “We’d need at least twenty people for that.”