by Maisy Morgan
“Yeah, it’s a big deal,” Kara said.
“What showcase?” Tripp asked, a little louder this time.
“Oh, that’s right,” Hannah said, laughing. “I always forget he’s not from around here. The theater groups and the choral department do a big showcase at the end of the year. I’ve been going to them since I was in elementary school. They’re really cool. It’s a bunch of skits and musical performances that give everyone a chance to showcase their talent versus doing a regular play or choral concert.”
“Wait, we have to perform on stage?” Tripp questioned, his stomach jumping around now.
“Don’t worry—you’re in the beginner class,” Kara said. “It’ll probably just be a short skit with a bunch of people, but that’s the way the showcase works. I was in chorus last year, and we did a crazy musical number from Annie. It was so much fun. My friend Tammy is in the advanced theater class, so she was the one telling me everyone would be getting scenes today.”
“Tammy is the one who played Abigail Williams in the Crucible performance back in November, right?” Draco asked.
“That’s the one,” Kara said shooting him an emphatic finger gun.
“She was really good,” Tripp admitted. He had only gone because it had been required by their drama teacher for them to do a review of the show, but he had enjoyed it more than he had expected. So much so that he had already bought tickets for next month’s comedy performance the advanced students were putting on. While he had not exactly signed up for drama, he had been enjoying the beginners class more than he had expected. Mostly because it was the only class that he had with both Hannah and Draco, and the three of them always tried to partner up on assignments together.
First bell rang, so Tripp and Hannah headed off to their English class together, bidding Draco farewell until the afternoon. All of the theater and chorus students were gossiping all day about getting their assignments. The advanced students all seemed very excited about the showcase, saying it was their opportunity to show their director what they could really do to help them land better standing with her for next year’s plays. Tripp was growing a bit nervous about the whole thing. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about performing for a crowd larger than his classroom.
At last, his final class of the day arrived. And, truthfully, his nerves had started to disappear. He and Draco had Spanish class with one of the more popular advanced drama students, and the boy had actually gotten them a bit pumped up about the idea of participating in the showcase. He had shown them a video from last year’s performance, and it had looked well done. Tripp found his seat between Draco and Hannah, and soon their drama director was sashaying out of her side office.
Mrs. Smitz was an always painfully enthusiastic woman with enormous, curly hair. Tripp had been taken aback by her when they first met, but after spending a semester in her beginners class, he had grown a bit fond of her antics. The bell rang, and she wasted no time in handing out papers she had graded over the break. She was always really behind on actually grading their assignments; she had graded their theater reviews they had done back in November, and Tripp smiled to see that Mrs. Smitz had scribbled him a friendly note at the bottom of his about how she was glad he had taken the assignment so seriously. She also passed back quizzes from September on theater directions, which got a slight laugh from everyone over how behind she had gotten.
“Yes, yes, laugh at me,” Mrs. Smitz sang. “But that’s the artist in me. These will be showing up on your next report card as I didn’t get them all in for last semester. Everyone did a wonderful job. Now, groups of three or four, please. Same groups we were in right before break—you’re going to be giving each other your performance reviews for the last monologues we did in class. I know it’s been a while, so make sure you pull out your composition notebooks where you wrote out the reviews, please.”
Tripp didn’t care about hearing his monologue performance review. He wanted to know about the scene he would be doing for the showcase, and it was obvious that everyone else in class felt the same way. Mrs. Smitz always liked to keep them waiting, hanging on edge when something exciting was about to happen. Tripp supposed it was the theater performer in her. At last, they were back in their seats, and she stood behind the little podium she kept up in front of the classroom. “Now, as I’m sure you all heard, I’m handing out scenes today for our showcase. This is your opportunity as a beginner student to shine on stage as we don’t usually have beginners in our plays. This is my chance to gauge how you would do in perhaps one of my more advanced auditioned-based classes. So, if you’re wanting to sign up for advanced theater next year, I suggest you take this assignment very seriously. Note that this won’t be until the end of the year, so there isn’t much pressure just yet. I like to give my students plenty of time to prepare for the showcase because, for many of you, it will be your first time performing on an actual stage. There will be other assignments before the showcase.”
“What’s this year’s theme?” a girl in the back of the room asked with excitement. Evidently, the showcases were themed.
Mrs. Smitz smiled. “This year’s theme is: Live, Laugh, Love. Each performance will fall into one of those categories. Now, it’s clear that each of you has found a little niche you enjoy, but for this assignment, I very intentionally picked scenes that will challenge you to try something new.”
Half of the class went wide-eyed at this. Tripp wasn’t quite sure what that meant; he had mostly done comedy scenes in class because getting serious up on stage made him nervous.
Mrs. Smitz continued, “Keep in mind, this performance will count towards a rather large percentage of your final grade in my class. We will work on your scenes sporadically throughout the rest of the year, of course, but most of this you will be handling on your own. Now, who’s ready to see what they will be doing?”
The class all gushed. Tripp was on the edge of his seat, and he was bouncing his left leg slightly with nerves. She came and stood over Draco, a handful of papers in her hand. “Draco, you will be playing Lieutenant Daniel from A Few Good Men in the dramatic courtroom scene.”
Draco went pale. “What?” he questioned, looking at the thick script she had handed him. It was a very dramatic scene—quite unlike the usual sci-fi and fantasy scenes Draco preferred. “Miss Delila, you will be playing the judge in Draco’s scene. Thomas, you’ll be Colonel Nathan.”
Delila raised her hand. “Isn’t the judge in that movie a man?” she asked.
“I expect you to put your twist on the character, Miss Delila,” Mrs. Smitz said with a grin.
Tripp watched in amusement as Draco skimmed through the intensive scene and all of the monologues and lines he would be memorizing. Scribbled at the top of the script was the word “LIVE” in bold inking. Mrs. Smitz continued passing out scripts, being quite dramatic with each one and really enjoying the look of horror with Samantha, a student who almost always did dramatic performances, who was given a scene from Friends as Phoebe Buffay.
The bell rang before Mrs. Smitz could finish handing out scenes, so it became a mad dash for everyone who hadn’t been given their assignment yet to try to get theirs before leaving for the day. She passed them out rapidly, saying they would discuss the scenes in detail the following day and for everyone to start reading through their scripts. Mrs. Smitz slapped Tripp’s very short script down in front of him before chasing another student out the door who was trying to dip out without getting his assignment.
Tripp frowned to see how short his scene was compared to Draco’s pamphlet, wondering if Mrs. Smitz thought he couldn’t handle a longer scene. He leaned forward, and to his horror, saw the word “LOVE” written boldly at the top. He felt like the breath had been taken out of his lungs. Had he just been handed a romance scene? This was far worse than drama.
He picked up the couple pages of dialogue, thumbed through quickly, and saw that he would be playing a character named Jack, and the woman in the scene was named Rose. Jack and Rose? “No…” he mutt
ered under his breath when he realized what movie this was from. He could feel his pulse race just thinking about performing a scene from a famous romance movie, much less this one. It was a scene from a classic chick-flick, for crying out loud!
“Seriously?” he heard Draco saying. “Why couldn’t I have gotten something short like that? Look at this giant stack of paper!” Draco was leaning over to see what he would be doing. “Whoa! They make out in that scene!”
“Shut up!” Tripp said hoarsely under his breath, not wanting anyone to hear.
He skimmed through the scene and he was horrified to see that Draco was right. There weren’t a lot of lines to memorize, thankfully, but it was the stage directions that were making his heart skip. There were directions for touching and caressing and kissing and singing and humming and things that Tripp didn’t want to do up on stage in front of a crowd of people. His face turned bright pink when a horrifying thought hit him—who was playing Rose?
He shook his head, disturbed. Did Mrs. Smitz really want him to do this scene up on stage in front of actual people? Hannah leaned over. “So, what did you get stuck with?” she asked, and then she laughed. “Titanic! What, we’re in a scene together—oh, geez, that’s going to be fun and awkward, huh?”
“Heh…” Tripp managed to force a slightly nervous laugh, feeling like he was going to throw up thanks to the butterflies in his stomach.
Hannah rolled out of the classroom, leaving Tripp and Draco behind. Tripp turned to see Draco staring at him with his mouth wide open. “You have to make out with Hannah,” Draco said to him, and Tripp punched him in the arm. He didn’t want to discuss it any further than that.
Chapter Four
Mary had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing as the famous balcony scene from Titanic came on the television. When Tripp had arrived at the sweets shop after school, he had told her all about being partnered with Hannah for the end of the year showcase and how Mrs. Smitz had given them this iconic scene. “I’m flying, Jack,” Rose’s voice sang on the screen. Mary had immediately dug out her old copy when they had gotten home that evening, and after dinner, they popped the DVD in to watch. Tripp had never seen the movie in its entirety.
“This is stupid,” he said grumpily, his face a crimson red. “Like, how does Mrs. Smitz even expect Hannah to do this scene? What am I supposed to do, wrap my arms around her wheelchair?”
“Rose isn’t even moving, Tripp. I’m sure Mrs. Smitz has something in mind for how to make this scene work,” Mary assured him.
“Like, the scene doesn’t even make any sense. Why are they even making out?” Tripp questions.
“Because they’re in love,” Mary said.
“They just met! I mean, he stopped her from killing herself or whatever…” Tripp sunk deeper down into the couch, stuffing his face full of the popcorn Mary had finished popping two scenes before. “I mean, they have a lot of romantic scenes in this movie. If she wanted to do a romantic scene to fit with the showcase theme, did she have to pick this one? What about one where they were dancing?”
“They were pretty close and personal in that scene too,” Mary reminded him.
“Yeah, but… they’re all over each other in this scene,” Tripp said, shaking his head back and forth.
“Tripp, if it makes you this uncomfortable, why don’t you try talking to Mrs. Smitz about it?” Mary, at last, suggested, though she would be truly disappointed if he did. She had been rooting for Tripp and Hannah since day one, but they had only consented to mere friendship.
“But… then Hannah might… I don’t know,” he said bitterly. He let his voice trail off defeatedly. “Why would she pair me up with one of my friends for this?”
“Wouldn’t it have been weirder if it was a girl you barely knew?” Mary asked. “Though I see what you mean. This scene is going to challenge you. You’ve said yourself that you’ve enjoyed that drama class. Mrs. Swartz is probably testing you to see how you do with something you’re a little more uncomfortable with. To see if you rise to the occasion. For all you know, she might be wanting you to audition for one of her advanced classes.”
Mary could tell he was upset and uncomfortable but that he didn’t know how to respond or if he could get away with changing the scene without hurting Hannah’s feelings. “Uhg!” was all he said in response.
“It’s not like you’ve never kissed a girl before, Tripp,” Mary teased slightly. “I know you and Kara were… friendly…”
Tripp avoided all eye contact with her. “I don’t want to talk to my grandma about what me and my ex-girlfriend did and did not do.” He shuddered at the thought of talking about that with grandma and left that topic closed.
Mary laughed. “I’m just saying. It’s not as bad as you are making it out to be. Have you and Hannah talked about it?”
“Well, sort of,” Tripp said. “I mean, we were given the scene right as the bell was ringing, so we didn’t have a chance to talk about it much.”
“How did she seem about it?” Mary asked.
“I mean, she just… well… laughed it off,” Tripp said. “She didn’t seem bothered by it, so why am I so bothered by it?” Mary laughed at him. She couldn’t help it. Tripp grunted and looked back at the television. “The music is nice, I guess.”
“I love the music in this scene,” Mary agreed. She rewound the scene. They had talked through most of it, and she figured it was probably important for him to watch it without being distracted. Her phone started ringing, and she figured the time couldn’t have been better for her to excuse herself for a moment. “Watch the scene, so you know how it’s supposed to look. I’ll be right back,” she said, dipping out of the room.
She went into her office to talk when she recognized the number as Matthew’s. They hadn’t heard from them since Christmas. “Matthew,” Mary answered the phone somewhat shortly. She was still very irritated about the whole ordeal, but she took a breath. She knew that none of this was Matthew’s fault. “How are you?”
“I’m doing really well, actually,” Matthew said. “I wanted to update you about Lilly.”
Mary smiled. He was a good guy, so it seemed. “Oh, that’s very sweet of you. How is she doing?”
“She’s been out of the center for about a week now,” he said. “And, she’s doing great. No incidents and she went with me to get my headshots done yesterday and wound up getting some done herself. She’s thinking about taking some acting classes.”
“Really?” Mary asked. She could instantly recall a twelve-year-old Lilly who wanted to be a superstar one day, and it made her smile. “That’s nice to hear that she’s looking into career options. I suppose having a boyfriend in the business is a plus if she’s thinking about getting into that.”
“I’m not sure how serious she is about it,” Matthew admitted. “But she is doing good right now.”
“I’m thrilled to hear that,” Mary said. “You have no idea how thankful I am for you, Matthew. You’ve been taking good care of my daughter. I wish it wasn’t like this, really…”
“From what Lilly’s told me, you were an incredible mom to her,” Matthew said reassuringly. “What happened isn’t your fault.”
“Thank you for saying that,” Mary said.
“There is something else I’ve called to talk to you about,” he said. “I wanted to let you know about a job I got.”
“Oh?” Mary questioned. “An acting job?”
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “It’s, um… going to be filming in Georgia. Out in Senoia.”
“Oh!” Mary exclaimed. She knew Senoia well. They were a five-minute drive from the town. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Matthew said. “And, Lilly doesn’t have a steady job at the moment, you see, so I told her she could come with my assistant and me. I’d rather keep her close by right now anyhow since she’s fresh out of rehab. I wouldn’t want to leave her out in LA.”
“Oh…” Mary said again. “So you two are going to be staying here in Georgia durin
g the filming? How long will you be in town?”
“Couple of months at least,” he said. “It’s a full-length film, and I play the lead’s best friend, so I’m going to have a lot of screen time.”
“Congratulations,” Mary said.
“Yeah, thanks,” he said, his voice growing a bit in nerves. “Well, as I’m sure you guessed, Lilly is hoping to see you both while we are out that way.”
Mary exhaled. Truthfully, there was nothing she would want more. “I personally would love to see you both,” Mary said. “But I’m not going to force Tripp to if he doesn’t want to.”
“I totally understand, and I know Lilly will too,” he said. “Honestly, she wanted me to call because, er… well…”
“She was afraid to ask me herself?” Mary asked.
“Yeah.”
“Well, she doesn’t have to worry about me,” Mary said. “I would love to see her and actually meet you. But like I said, if Tripp doesn’t want to see her, he’s not going to see her. And, I mean that. It’s entirely up to him because after what happened in December, I’m not going to put him through all of that again.”
“I hear you,” Matthew said. “So, you’ll talk to him?”
“Of course, I will,” Mary said. “But not now. I don’t… I don’t want him to be disappointed again if something comes up.”
“Oh,” Matthew said remorsefully. “Yeah, you’re right. You’re definitely right. I appreciate it.”
“Thank you for letting me know, Matthew,” Mary said. “When will you be in town?”
“We fly in on Wednesday,” he said.
“Oh, wow,” Mary said. “Okay, well, I’ll probably talk to Tripp Wednesday morning then. Once you tell me you’re boarding.”
“Seriously?” Matthew questioned, but Mary could tell he regretted saying it. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I’m just thinking about Lilly. I know you have Tripp to worry about, and I get it.”
“Believe me, I’m thinking about Lilly too,” Mary assured him. “And thank you. I can tell you’re very good for her, Matthew. We’ll talk again soon?”