Page 28 of Love Me Not

That was one way to put it. “No, I’m good. The wine is hitting me more than usual, that’s all.”

Her eyes followed my gaze to where Jacob and Trey were talking to Ryan. “Are you sure it’s the wine?”

“I’ve been pretty upfront about disliking him, right?” Neither of us needed to clarify who I was talking about.

“You have been to me. Is he not getting the message?”

“Hard to tell.” He could have just wanted me to stop being openly hostile, which was a fair request.

Donna nudged me with her elbow. “Looked like a deep conversation during that dance. Maybe you don’t dislike him as much as you think?”

As if. “I dislike everyone, remember?”

The snort she let out was quite unladylike. “You keep telling yourself that, but you’re just as susceptible to an unexpected love story as the rest of us.”

What a terrifying thought.

This had to get better, because it couldn’t get any worse.

Let’s just say auditions weren’t going well. Emma was completely out of her element, Jackson was overacting more than usual, and Kaitlyn was trying so hard she would be eating the scenery if there was any to be eaten. Madison and Hannah were resisting my best pitch for them to take parts, and no one outside of the current members showed up.

Including the football players.

In an unexpected twist, Nick Lowell was the only one who came prepared and presented an authentic, understated audition. Why did the rest of them think that a serious play meant sliding into melodrama? This was real life stuff. Or at least close enough to be relatable.

I had much higher hopes than what I was getting.

Aiden and Burke not showing up didn’t surprise me, but I was still disappointed. Nick wasn’t lead material, and Jackson was dead set on playing the villain. I couldn’t argue because the part suited him perfectly. That left us in a tough situation, and I started to question whether this play was the right way to go.

“Let me try again,” Emma pleaded. “I’ll do the karaoke scene. That’ll be better.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Emma, I know that you can sing. I need to see you act. Darcy is a girl just like you. Play her that way.”

She crossed her arms. “She isn’t like me. I know what I want to do with my life. She’s all what should I do, woe is me. I can’t relate to her at all.”

“But you could relate to a prim librarian from 1912 Iowa?”

The teenage diva had no response.

“I can relate to her,” Kaitlyn said. “Let me do the opening scene again.”

I appreciated her ambition, but the experience wasn’t there. Flipping through my script, I decided to have them work together. “Jump to page seven and do the part of Darcy’s friend Rebecca. Emma, you play Darcy.”

The rivals were not happy about my suggestion, but if they continued as competitors, we would get nowhere. Even if they never faced the same problems as the characters, they were teenagers. They could absolutely relate to these kids.

“Emma, your character doesn’t want to go to this party, but Kaitlyn’s character is trying to convince you. She’s questioning whether you’ve made the most of your high school years. How would you feel if someone told you that?”

“I’d say there’s more to high school than parties.”

“Perfect. That’s what Darcy says. But at the same time, she’s curious what a party would be like, and doesn’t want to have any regrets. You don’t get a second chance to be a high school student, so what you miss you miss. Relatable, right?”

Both girls flipped through their scripts. “I guess,” Emma said.

“Kaitlyn, you really want your friend to go, and you think she’ll regret it if she doesn’t. It’s coming from a good place, but it’s still peer pressure. That’s one of the major themes in this play. The pressure you all face. You’ve all felt it, right?” I said to the full group.

They all murmured agreement. This play was going to hit very close to home for some, if not all of them. Which was the exact reason we had to do it. If we could get the rest of the student body to pay attention, we had the chance not just to survive but to make a real impact.

This was never my goal in the past, but maybe it should have been.