FicWad

Here you go, guys! I hope you like this chapter! I only updated so quickly because it's the weekend and I have no life. OMG I saw Ice Age 4 yesterday in the cinema, shit it was funny. Seriously, it's awesome, you should go see it! And I don't know where the chapter title came from, so don't ask.

Chapter 5; Anti-Drama Talents

“It’s over?” said Penina, rubbing her eyes. She had fallen asleep within the first ten minutes of the movie. Yay for extra-long periods of extraordinary boringness. Thankfully, the teacher had skipped the first half an hour to when the actual romance bit of Jane Eyre started. Thankfully? Well, we got to ski the intro bit.

Frank and Jenna were still playing Speed, like they had been for last hour or more.

“I win!” shouted Frank, smacking his last card down on the pile. Jenna groaned and threw her deck down.

“Why did that take so long?” I asked, wincing as the lights switched back on. “The light burns!”

“Because stuff,” said Penina, yawning. The bell rang to signal the ten minute break until the next lesson.

“What’ve you got next, Gee?” asked Jenna as we packed up our bags.

“Um... that Drama thing,” I said. “Then... Chemistry, with you, lunch... oh boy, maths then physics.”

“Oh, you have a shit afternoon,” said Frank, smiling.

“And? Yours can’t be better,” I said, grabbing his timetable. He had Drama and Chemistry, like me, for the next two periods, then Music, then Art.

“Yeah, it really is,” he said, snatching it back.

“I do Music tomorrow, and Art on Thursday and Friday,” I said. “Lucky ass, I get stuck in equations for two whole hours this afternoon.”

“Do all three of you have that extra curriculum thing? You know, the Drama they were going on about in assembly yesterday?” asked Jenna, as we walked out the classroom.

“They said it assembly?” I asked, as Penina and Frank nodded.

“Yeah. Weren’t you paying attention?”

“I never pay attention, do you not know me?” I said.

“You have a good point,” said Jenna, opening her locker and shoving her books inside. The corridors were crowded but at least we had a bit of breathing space.

“Oi, watch it, midget,” said Candace appearing out of nowhere, shoving Frank aside as he bent over to re-do his converse’s laces. He fell on the floor and smashed into the locker.

“What did you do that for?” I asked, immediately grabbing a fistful of Candace’s shirt. I didn’t give a shit that she was a girl, nobody hurt my friends. Her sneer instantly gave away to a look of terror.

“Do you need a hand?” asked a quiet but deep voice beside me, probably talking to Frank. I growled at Candace before letting her go, and she ran off like a terrified rabbit. I turned to see a figure helping Frank up off the floor; it was Ash, from my year, the guy we never spoke to.

“Um, thanks,” said Frank, dusting himself off.

“You alright, man?” I asked. He nodded. I looked up at Ash, into his scarily bright blue eyes. “Thanks for helping him.” Ash said nothing, but nodded and stalked away. He was a weird kid. I’d have been more than happy to let him hang about with the rest of us freaks, but he seemed content on his own.

“She’s a dick,” said Penina, glaring at the space where Candace had disappeared.

“Literally or metaphorically?” asked Frank. I grinned.

“Yes, Frank, literally,” I said, hitting him lightly on the head. He poked his tongue out at me.

“Come on, guys,” said Penina. “We should get to the theatre, see what this Drama thing is about.”

“What I don’t get,” I said as Frank and I made our way to the theatre, “-is why you got chosen. You’ve only been here for a day.”

“I don’t know, maybe they’ll tell us,” said Frank. “Miss James said she likes my music taste, perhaps she put me in.”

“That sounds like the sort of thing she’d do,” I said. Frank smiled and scratched his head.

“So... uh, what do you do? I mean, artywise... or, to be selected for this, I mean.” He sounded cute when he was confused.

“I sing, I guess. I was Peter Pan in the play when I was little,” I said, grinning at the thought. Frank laughed.

“I can sing, I guess. I play guitar... and scream. I don’t think that’s a talent they want, though,” he said. I grinned.

“You can scream? I’ve never tried, really,” I said.

“Imagine if they put on Rock of Ages. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”

“Yeah, but this is our school we’re talking about,” I said. “It’ll probably be more along the lines of Grease and High School Musical. Eugh.”

“I wouldn’t mind grease, really,” said Penina, running to catch up with us.

“She loves bad musicals. It’s really annoying,” I said.

“Grease is not annoying! It’s amazing!” she said. I rolled my eyes.

“No, it really isn’t.”

“Is.”

“Isn’t.”

“Shut up,” said Frank. I raised my eyebrows at him.

“Ooooh, he’s all big and tough now!” I said, pouting. Penina laughed, and Frank just rolled his eyes at me.
____________________

“Hey guys!” said Miss James, striding into the room where the collection of students selected for the Drama sessions waited. I sighed with relief. With her in charge, things wouldn’t be so disastrous.

I was sitting next to Ray, who’d probably been selected for his guitar skills, and Anna, who also had a thing for cheesy romantic musicals. Frank and Penina were also sitting near us. There were only about twenty other people, including (as if they didn’t quite know how they got there) Candace and Sapphire.

“So, you all know why you’re here, you’ve been chosen for this extra credit curriculum. It’s a new thing that the headmaster came up with over the summer. You’ll all get first dibs on auditions for school productions, and some of you won’t have a choice.” At this, Miss James glanced at me. I grinned; she knows me well. “This year, we’ll be doing two productions, stretched out over the four semesters. We’ll be doing one at Christmas, and one at the end of the year, in Summer.”

“Miss?” asked Penina, raising her hand. “What sort of plays are we going to be doing?”

“Well, we haven’t quite decided. We thought we’d give everyone a choice. Because I know some of you-” another glance in my direction, “-have a thing against cheesy pop musicals.”

“Thank god we have her in charge,” I murmured into Frank’s ear. He nodded.

“So, does anyone have any suggestions for what we should do?”

“GREASE!” screamed Anna, before anyone else could say anything.

“No! Not Grease!” I said.

“Yes, Grease.”

“No.”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Yes,” said Miss James, smiling.

“But...what?!” I said.

“Okay, possibly. Were going to have a vote on it, and you,” she said, pointing at me, “-are not going to complain.”

“Oh, alright,” I said, sighing.

“Any other suggestions?”


“Wizard of Oz!”

“Guys and Dolls?”

“Back To The 80’s.”

“Alice in Wonderland!”

“Okay, I utterly refuse to do Alice in Wonderland,” I muttered. “How about Rock of Ages?”

“Little Shop Of Horrors?”

“I like Rock of Ages,” said Frank, agreeing with me.

“Rock of Ages, and Little Shop of Horrors,” said Penina.

“Guys and Dolls is good.”

“Little Shop Of Horrors.”

“Okay, you can be quiet now,” said Miss James. “I didn’t mean call out so I can’t make out anything you guys are saying! I heard about three suggestions, then it became too noisy. I want to you each to take a piece of paper and write down the two plays you would like to do the most,” she said, holding up a notebook. “I’ll then choose the three most suggested, and we’ll vote from them. Write your name on the paper, so I know you’re not just adding extra entries to get what you want,” she said, smiling at Anna.

“But I want Grease...” she said, sadly.

“You can do it next year, when I’m not here,” I said.

“When we’ve finally gotten rid of you, you mean,” said Ray. I hit him.

“What plays do you want to do?” asked Frank. I shrugged.

“Rock of Ages, definitely. In the summer, because it’d be my last one,” I said.

“That’s a good idea. Guys, we’re all choosing Rock of Ages in summer,” said Anna. “But! Only if we do Grease.” I groaned, and Anna grinned at me.

“No Grease, no Rock of Ages,” she said.

“Oh, alright. But I’m not writing it down.”

“But you won’t complain if we do it?”

“No. Is that good enough for you?”

“Yay!” said Anna. “Just as well, I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m already scared,” I said, turning my pencil over in my hands. In all honesty, I didn’t know what other plays there were to do, I only knew Rock of Ages because my mum had taken Mikey and me to see it in theatre.

“Little Shop Of Horrors,” said Penina. I looked up, eyebrows raised.

“What’s it about?”

“It’s about a mutant alien plant that comes down from space and feeds on blood. When it grows big enough it begins to eat people,” said Ray. I grinned.

“That sounds fun,” I said.

“The main guy’s called Seymour, and he works at the flower shop. He falls in love with this blonde girl, who’s dating this psychopath. The psychopath accidentally kills himself, then Seymour chops him into pieces and feeds him to the plant,” said Ray. I nodded, smiling to myself.

“You see, you make it sound like this wonderful gory thing, but I bet it’s all soppy and cheesy at the same time,” I said.

“Yeah, it is. But I think it’s really good!” said Penina. “I want to be one of the divas.”

“One of the who?”

“There’s three girls who are like, the singers for the entire play. I’d like to be one of them.”

“Sounds like hell,” I said.

“So hang on, we’re all agreed; Rock Of Ages in the summer, and at Christmas we’ll do either Grease or Little Shop Of Horrors?” said Anna. We all nodded.

“We’ll have to see what Miss says. If there is no Rock Of Ages in the summer, I give up and am not doing this,” I said.

“We could do Rocky Horror,” said Anna, grinning. I laughed.

“Would we be allowed?” asked Penina.
 “I guess, it’s not like there are any really little kids here. Apart from you, Anna...” I said, moving away quickly before she could hit me. Miss James stood up and the noise in the theatre died down.

“Alright, guys. Now, I know plenty of you might be wondering why I put you in here, particularly seeing as there are a lot of you who have no musical talent whatsoever,” she said. “But, you all particularly well in different areas. For example, Penina is good at piano, Candace is a good dancer, Gerard’s a good singer...”

“What?” said Candace, looking over at me. “He can sing?”

“Yes, he can actually,” said Penina, raising her eyebrow. Candace sneered but said nothing.

“...As I was saying,” said Miss James. “There are a handful of you here who can’t sing or act for your life, but you’re good at design and the like. We need set and costume designers, so that’s an option, too.”

“Nice way of subtly telling the art students they’re crap,” I muttered. Frank raised his hand.

“What am I doing here, though? I’ve only been here for a day.”

“When your father came in, he was ranting on about how ‘amazingly talented’ you are, and I thought that I’d humour him and see.”

“Oh god,” said Frank, putting his head in his hands. “My Dad’s an asshole for doing that.”

“Frankie’s embarrassed,” I said, putting my arm around him and crossing my eyes. He flushed red and glared at me.

“Stop it,” he muttered.

“Seriously, though. I’d like to hear you play sometime,” I said, removing my arm from his shoulder.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It would be cool.” Frank smiled and scratched his neck.

“Okay, then.”

Bazinga, next chapter. I feel like I'm updating too quickly for people to review now. Anyway, I hope you liked it. Rate and Review or else I won't update. IS THAT A THREAT ENOUGH FOR YOU?!

BleedingValentine xx