Catching Geoff L. Afterwards on Quidditch Pitch

Manfred Bulla

April 01, 2009 1:08 PM

End of Year Concert by Manfred Bulla

It had been the ready made seating capacity that had decided it. Combined with the extensive amount of room and the skills of the elves in somehow putting up a proper curtain, a well sized stage and some nifty little Charms that he was quite proud of, which made every sound from the stage clearly audible in every seat on the field (and some in the lower stands that were being used for overflow). The Elves had done the school proud, really. Manfred made a mental note to ask Paul Simon to pass on his thanks and congratulations on a job well done to the Elvish horde who worked behind the scenes so well to not only make things like this happen (or at least easier) but keep the school running smoothly at regular times as well.

The students were taking their seats, in houses rather than simply anywhichwhere. Manfred watched them, thinking.

Time passed while he watched the students finish assembling, and all of a sudden there was a tugging on his robes and he looked down to see an Elf.

"Sir Headmaster should be starting the concert," the elf said in a stagewhisper, eyeing the students with what were definitely nervous glances. Manfred nodded, and climbed the stairs to the stage.

The charms already in place meant that a Sonorus wasn't necessary, but Manfred still waited a moment before he started to talk.

"If it's all the same with you, I think we'll start with an announcement I'm sure you've all been waiting for. The House Cup. In fourth place, with a worthy score of 205," if he was disappointed, Manfred masked it well, "Teppenpaw. In third place, with an excellent score of 213, Pecari." Mims, he knew, would be well pleased about that, if not so much about the next part. "In second place with the well earned score of 290, Crotalus. And I'm sure all our Aladrens know what that means! If The Head Boy, Head Girl, Prefects and Quidditch Captain would like to join me..." He didn't think it would take them long to arrive, and he was quite correct. A couple of elves came onto the stage, tottering over with a cup that they could both have easily have taken a bath in, and presented it to the gathered students. "Congratulations Aladren. 303 points is indeed a considerable amount of points to amass. Feel free to take back the cup to show your housemates what their efforts over the past year have earned."

With a gesture, however, he kept Christobel and Izabella on the stage.

"The second announcement is, of course, the new Head Boy and Head Girl for next year! Firstly, before I call those students to the front, I would like to thank Christobel and Izabella for the exemplory job they have done. You two have done both your house and the school proud with your conduct over the past year, and I wish you - and the rest of your yearmates - the very best with your lives beyond Sonora in the years to come." He paused a moment after saying that, a slightly off focus look on his face before he snapped back to the topic at hand. "Professer Powell? If you could join me?" He waited for his now official Deputy (Kiva had talked to him recently, and given him her decision not to return to that position of responsibility) to join him on stage, taking the time to take a small box from his pocket and open it, to take out the interim Head Boy and Head Girl badges.

"Would Mr Geoffrey Layne of Aladren and Miss Briony O'Leary please join us on stage?" Again there was the pause while he was joined on the stage by the two students called up. "Congratulations," he said to them, when they reached the stage, "you two have been chosen by your peers to be Head Boy and Head Girl of Sonora Academy next year." He was immensely pleased to see a Teppenpaw getting the position for the first time in some years. He handed the badges to Sadi to formally pin them on the two students. "It is, as the position of Prefect is, a position of great responsibility and privillage, and I'm sure that these two will do the school proud, in the tradition of Head Boys and Girls before them." He shook all the students hands before letting all four leave the stage, but asked quietly (but still, thanks to the charms audibly to all the audience) for Professor Powell to remain on stage.

"I have one final announcement to make before I let Mr Tellerman take over proceedings," Manfred nodded at the Groundskeeper who was waiting in the wings, and who would MC the event. Manfred, now that the moment had come, found he didn't have the words. He looked down at the stage, blinking a few times, and then up at the sky. The stars were so bright, even though the sun had only been gone a short time. He looked at them fiercely, trying to imprint the image of the clear sky and the multitude of stars into his memory.

The was a slight touch on his sleeve, and Manfred closed his eyes before opening them again.

"I'm sure you've all noticed Mr Jenkins around the school this past year. He was here for the Council, collecting data for them about the school and, as it turned out, me." He wondered why he was being so free with information. It felt odd, even as it came easily to him. "I've been made an offer I can't rightly refuse," he said. "Which means that this is my last year at Sonora. I'll be going to work for the Council, next year. Professor Powell will be taking over as your new Headmistress. I trust," Somehow, he managed to fix the crowd with an expression that few students wouldn't think was directed directly at them personally, "that you will all continue to work hard in your studies and do your school - and your new Headmistress - proud."

He paused, then nodded slowly.

"But for now, I believe we have an end of year concert to witness. Mr Tellerman, if you would like to start proceedings?"

OOC: You read that right, folks. I'm off and Sadi is taking over. It's been a grand few years, but all good things must come to an end, and I have high hopes that this transition will lead to even better times for you all and for Sonora. Best of luck to her and her chosen deputy, and I hope you all continue to enjoy your time here at Sonora.

Regards,
-Kat (aka Manfred)

Subthreads:

Teppenpaw Solo by Paul Simon Tellerman with Afton Stokes

Pecari Solo by Simon Tellerman

Crotalus Group Act by Simon Tellerman with Crotalus

Aladren Group Act by Simon Tellerman with Aladrens

Aladren Solo by Simon Tellerman with Geoffrey Layne

Crotalus Solo by Simon Tellerman with Anabel McIntosh

Pecari Group Act by Simon Tellerman with Saul Pierce, Holly Greer, Elly Eriksson, Mike Song

Teppenpaw Group Act by Simon Tellerman with Teppenpaws

Catching Geoff L. Afterwards by Saul Pierce with Geoff Layne

39 Manfred Bulla End of Year Concert 2 Manfred Bulla 1 5

Paul Simon Tellerman

April 01, 2009 8:25 PM

Teppenpaw Solo by Paul Simon Tellerman

Simon waited on the edge of the stage while Headmaster Bulla went through his announcements. He had not been made aware of the results of the elections beforehand (possibly out of fear that he'd divulge the information to his cousin), so names called forward were as much a surprise to him as anyone.

He clapped politely for Geoffrey Layne and Briony O'Leary, though he honestly sparred more attention for his stunned looking Pecari relative. He rearranged the cue cards in his hand to give Saul a few extra minutes before he needed to perform.

When he was urged forward, Simon took the center of the stage and glanced once more at his top cue card. He had them all memorized already, but it wouldn't do to make a mistake a simple glance could have prevented.

"Thank you, and welcome everyone to Sonora's End of Year Concert. Our prefects and student leaders have all put in a lot of work toward these performances and I'd like everyone to give them all a hand before we begin. They did a great job organizing their Housemates into coherent acts."

Once the applause quieted, Simon spoke up again. "We'll start out with the soloist from Teppenpaw, Afton Stokes, who will be singing us all a song from the muggle television show, The Simpsons. Everyone, let's hear it for Afton and her rendition of 'See my Vest.' Afton Stokes!"\r\n\r\n

1 Paul Simon Tellerman Teppenpaw Solo 14 Paul Simon Tellerman 0 5

Simon Tellerman

April 01, 2009 8:32 PM

Pecari Solo by Simon Tellerman

"Afton White, everybody!" Simon called out, stepping back up onto the stage as the Teppenpaw soloist finished her act. He lead the crowd in applauding her then waited for her to exit the stage before making his next introduction.

Given how much his cousin talked about his friends and fellow Pecaris, he had a little bit more to work with when writing this next introduction.

"Next up, coming all the way from Tennessee is the Bounding Blonde Tumbling Wonder. She'll be performing a gymnastics routine for the honor of Pecari House. Everyone please welcome Meredith to the stage. Meredith Lail!"

1 Simon Tellerman Pecari Solo 14 Simon Tellerman 0 5

Simon Tellerman

April 01, 2009 8:56 PM

Crotalus Group Act by Simon Tellerman

"That's Meredith Lail, folks! Let's give her a big hand."

The curtain was closed behind him and underneath the sound of the applause, he could just make out the sounds of people moving around and talking quietly as Crotalus prepared to put on the first of the group acts.

He let the applause go on a moment or two longer than he would have if a soloist was up next, but waiting too long would only make the crowd impatient.

"Next up is the group act from Crotalus. This group was organized by Lila St. Martin, written by Laurie Cider, and showcases the talents of Helena Layne, Geoffrey Spindler, Josh Santoro, Laurie Cider, Gwen Carey, Adelita Garcia, Lila St. Martin, Earl Valentine, Amelia Smythe, and Charlotte Abbott. I invite you all to put your hands together for the Crotalus remake of Romeo and Juliet! Crotali!"\r\n\r\n

1 Simon Tellerman Crotalus Group Act 14 Simon Tellerman 0 5

Simon Tellerman

April 01, 2009 9:16 PM

Aladren Group Act by Simon Tellerman

Simon stepped out in front of the closed curtain, clapping along with the audience in response to the conclusion of the Crotalus act.

"Great job, Crotalus. Great job." He led the crowd into an extra half minute of applause while the Crotalus sets came down and Aladren's went up behind him.

"Next up, we'll be seeing the act organized by Sonora's own Head Boy, Head Girl, and the remaining two Aladren prefects. This play written by Grayson Wright, and will be performed by Anne Wright, Taylor Li, Daniel Nash, Izabella Santoro, and Chris Dupree. It's narrated by the author, Grayson Wright."

He pause another moment, to give the people backstage another second to ready themselves. "Everyone, enjoy Everyday Stage Life. Aladren!"

1 Simon Tellerman Aladren Group Act 14 Simon Tellerman 0 5

Simon Tellerman

April 01, 2009 9:31 PM

Aladren Solo by Simon Tellerman

"That was Everyday Stage Life, by Grayson Wright, performed by Aladren House. Great job, people." He clapped as he spoke and continued to do so while the Aladrens took down their sets. Fortunately, it was another soloist next, so he didn't have to stall quite so long this time.

"Sticking with the Aladrens, we'll next be hearing Geoffrey Layne playing the violin. Give it up for next year's Head Boy! Geoffrey Layne!"

1 Simon Tellerman Aladren Solo 14 Simon Tellerman 0 5

Simon Tellerman

April 01, 2009 9:45 PM

Crotalus Solo by Simon Tellerman

"Thank you, Geoffrey. Great job."

The turn around between two soloists was the shortest, so he didn't need to waste much time before the next performance. He waited until the applause died down, then introduced the soloist from Crotalus.

\r\n"Next up, we'll be treated to the singing talents of Anabel McIntosh. She'll be performing Popular from the musical Wicked. Everyone, give a big hand for the Crotalus soloist. Anabel McIntosh!"\r\n\r\n

1 Simon Tellerman Crotalus Solo 14 Simon Tellerman 0 5

Simon Tellerman

April 01, 2009 10:02 PM

Pecari Group Act by Simon Tellerman

"Great job, great job."

Simon clapped along with the audience while the Pecaris set up their first scene. Saul had told him the first set was the most complicated of them, so as much time as Simon could stall would be appreciated.

"Up next is the Pecari Group Act. They'll be putting on an adaptation of the traditional Fountain of Fair Fortune story. The script was put together by Echo Elms and Saul Pierce. Morgaine Carey and Holly Greer-Thistle star. Raoul Delachene and Irene Liddowe hold supporting roles. Prefects Saul, Connor, and Elly would like to thank the entire House for their help in putting together this next act. Without further ado, Pecari!"

1 Simon Tellerman Pecari Group Act 14 Simon Tellerman 0 5

Simon Tellerman

April 01, 2009 10:22 PM

Teppenpaw Group Act by Simon Tellerman

Simon led the applause while the Pecaris took down their Garden. "How 'bout that George Washington? That was graduating seventh year, Connor Pierce. Good luck on your promising acting career, Connor." He paused, in case anyone wanted to laugh at joke.

"Rounding out the concert, we close with the group act from Teppenpaw. Under the direction of Eavan Valentine, they'll be putting on a space themed Cirque de Soleil performance with aerial aerobatics and dance. Everyone, here they are: Teppenpaw!"

1 Simon Tellerman Teppenpaw Group Act 14 Simon Tellerman 0 5

Geoffrey Layne

April 02, 2009 1:31 PM

Getting classical by Geoffrey Layne

Geoff Layne was, to say the least, tense as he made his way to the Quidditch Pitch.

First of all, he would be performing a solo in public for - if his memory served - the first time in about eight years. He was still in practice, but that was different.

Secondly, they would be finding out the results of the Head Boy and Girl elections today. He knew he'd lost - he wasn't Saul Pierce, with all the loyal groupies that implied - but the stupid corner of his brain wasn't ready to concede yet.

Third, they were having all this on the Quidditch Pitch. He had approved of Anne getting into the Concert - he was sure having something else to focus on had kept her from falling completely apart at the seams after the Quidditch debacle - but not of her coming anywhere near here. Add in this being the effective close of her time at Sonora, and this evening was a meltdown just waiting to happen.

Fourth - and most on his mind as he sat down with the other Aladrens - he had asked his sister what Crotalus was doing, and she'd told him their act was basically one big make-out session between her and Josh Santoro. If this was true, she was never leaving the house again and Josh Santoro and Lila St. Martin were both dead.

"If it's all the same with you, I think we'll start with an announcement I'm sure you've all been waiting for. The House Cup."

That announcement was enough to temporarily distract Geoff from thoughts on the potential objectification of his baby sister. Helena was obviously more important than points or public recognition, but...Aladren had never won since he'd been at Sonora, but it never got old to think that it was, at long last, their year. Hanging out with Anne, the self-proclaimed Aladren cheerleader, probably had some scrap of a thing to do with that.

Teppenpaw was in last place. That was nothing new - Aladren and Teppenpaw seemed to pass that honor back and forth. The next announcement, though, caught him completely off-guard: Pecari had come in third. Beside him, Anne inhaled sharply. It was impossible, but...Crotalus came next. Geoffrey never heard the final score, because Anne jumped up and shrieked at the top of her lungs as soon as Bulla said 'Aladrens'. Before he had recovered enough to touch his possibly damaged ear, she was off with Chris, Bella, Guenther, and Paul.

She'll never give that thing up, he thought, wincing as he clapped and she tried to hug Chris and Bella with one hand still clutching the House Cup. She'll shrink it and wear it for a necklace. As embarrassing as it was for a friend of his to barely stop herself short of hugging their Headmaster, it was good to see her so happy. It wasn't that often that he got to do so.

She looked on the brink of hyperventilation by the time she and the prefects got back with it. Her knuckles were almost white on one of the handles. As she waved to the crowd with her free hand, a flashbulb went off; Geoff looked up to see Gray Wright lowering a camera and giving Anne a thumbs up.

Aladren would probably be partying all night, but they were made to pay attention to the front quickly enough. The Head Boy and Girl were both Aladrens, and it would have been un-Aladren to ignore them while they were being recognized. As Professor Powell was called up, Geoff felt himself tense up automatically. Here it came. The announcement. The one they had all been waiting for, even though one of the elects was a given.

"Would Mr Geoffrey Layne of Aladren and Miss Briony O'Leary please join us on stage?"

Geof - wait, that was him!

Too shocked to really react to that revelation, or even be aware that Anne had somehow jumped back up without letting go of the House Cup, Geoff made his way to the stage. This had to be a joke...but it wasn't. Bulla was really handing over the interim badge. He was actually shaking hands with Bulla. He finally recovered enough to wave to the audience and congratulate Briony before they left the stage, but he still hoped Gray Wright wasn't aiming to make a scrapbook. His expression had probably been something less than Head-Boy dignity most of the time.

"Party!" Anne hissed, her voice shrill with excitement, as he sat back down. He smiled at her, then turned around for the next announcement...

Which proved to be even more shocking than everything else that had happened put together.

"What?" Anne blurted, though she kept her seat this time. He seriously should have found her a sedative before they came down tonight, but how could he have predicted all of this? Aladren winning the House Cup, him winning Head Boy for next year, Bulla winning a new job...It was enough to give a guy whiplash, and he was emotionally stable. Well, most of the time. At least Powell had, from what Geoffrey had seen in her classes, a steady head to work with. That would be essential to a transitional period.

The Concert proper seemed to rush by in a blur of people he knew pretending to be people he didn't, the groundskeeper's commentaries, and fading shock, and then it was his turn to perform his solo.

Having just been on stage made it at once better and worse. On one hand, the stage didn't seem quite as intimidating as it might have otherwise. On the other hand, he couldn't get it out of his head that the crowd was staring at him two or three times as intently as it might have otherwise. For the second or third time, he began to wonder if this was really such a good idea, but it was too late now; Anne would serve his head as the main dish at her party if he botched things up for Aladren now.

He'd had a script, but he couldn't remember what he was to say, so he decided to make it up as he went along. "First, I'd like to thank all of you who voted for me," he said. A faux pas or a brilliant move, he didn't know, but it felt, well, necessary either way. "Hope I live up to all of your expectations. Now, Milland's Eighth Violin Sonata."

The entire piece was barely five minutes long, but it still took focus to pull off. Luckily, Geoff had learned it years before this and had been practicing - probably to the total dismay of his roommates - on a daily basis since Anne threw him into the candidate pot. The first few seconds were just a tad awkward - he was playing a violin, in front of a crowd of people he went to school with, was he out of his mind? - but quickly got lost in the music.

For that reason, it was something of a surprise to realize he'd reached the end of the piece. Geoff had to blink twice to get his bearings before he could take his bow and thank the audience.

OOC: Soooo, that got a little long...Since wizard music doesn't exist, we'll just say Geoff's act sounded a bit like J.S. Bach's Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major: Largo.

16 Geoffrey Layne Getting classical 72 Geoffrey Layne 0 5

Afton Stokes

April 02, 2009 2:25 PM

See My Vest by Afton Stokes

Afton had no idea why she’d agreed to do the Teppenpaw solo. Way back when she’d talked to Saul she hadn’t really wanted to do anything with the concert. (Or, as certain first year newspaper staff referred to it, talent show) Then, she saw that nobody had signed up to do the concert in Teppenpaw, at all and Afton liked to help the downtrodden, the little guys. Her house had become that in this aspect.

She was a little nervous. Fortunately, Afton could sing all right. She even had the perfect song picked out. Afton was going to sing “See My Vest” from the Simpsons. Originally, the Teppenpaw was going to do something from Family Guy, but for the life of her, she couldn’t find anything appropriate. The “Aids” song was wrong on so many levels. “Somewhere That’s Green” actually mentioned a character name and she didn’t really want to explain to the purebloods that she didn’t have a boyfriend named Chris Griffin. It was also more mushy than funny, despite it being sung by Herbert and Afton wanted clearly funny. “We’re Off On The Road to Rhode Island”(which would have paid homage to her home state as well) and a few other songs were duets between Brian and Stewie. Besides, Afton didn’t have any of these songs memorized and there was no internet access where she could look it up at Sonora. On the other hand, she’d had “See My Vest” memorized since she was nine.

Of course, this song was not without its own problems. Afton ran the risk of looking like she believed in skinning animals for clothing, which she didn’t. The muggleborns and halfbloods would get it hopefully and remember the song from the show. They would know the context. Mr. Burns was a villain.

If nothing else, she could claim it was a political statement, mocking those who didn’t care about animal rights. Or those who were so fashion obsessed that they didn’t care about anything else.

Her turn was announced and Afton took the stage. “I’ll be singing the song “See My Vest” from the Simpsons”. There, that took care of that. The non-purebloods would get it and the purebloods would write it off as “some muggle thing.” She looked out over the audience and said. “You see, some men hunt for sport, others hunt for food, the only thing I’m hunting for is an outfit that looks goooood” Afton made eye contact with a third year Aladren girl here who usually appeared well dressed and fashionable. She normally would have looked at Samantha Hollister because she was so the type of person who Afton would be mocking with this song if she had to claim that, but Samantha apparently was boycotting the concert due to not getting Aladren's solo since Afton didn't see her in audience, even though she saw Chrissy.

“See! My! Vest! See my vest! Made from real gorilla chest,” Afton gestured to the vest she was which indeed looked like it was made from real gorilla chest but of course wasn’t. The people who made the costumes had done a really good job. “Feel this sweater,” She felt the arm of her sweater, which she was looking forward to taking off after she performed because it was kind of warm out for it. “There’s no better, than authentic Irish setter. See this hat,” Afton pointed to the “hat” she was wearing, which was no more than a floppy stuffed cat. “Twas my cat. My evening wear vampire bat.” She spread her arms like Dracula to show her cape.

Afton walked over to a make shift “closet” and pulled out a pair of white slippers. “These white slippers are albino African endangered rhino” She picked up a pair of giant underwear that looked like they might fit a grizzly bear, there had been no way she was showing her own on stage . “Grizzly bear underwear, turtle’s necks I’ve got my share” Afton gestured towards a rack of turtle necks that had turtle shells sewn onto the them. “Beret of poodle on my noodle it shall ressst!” She threw off the stuffed cat and put on a beret with a stuffed poodle attached to it. “Try my red robin suit” Afton took two suits with feathers sewn on them off the rack, “It comes one breast or two. See my vest, see my vest, see my vest!” She pointed at her vest again.

“Like my loafers, former gophers.” The sixth year pointed out her feet at the audience as if to show them her shoes. “It was that or skin my chauffeurs but a greyhound fur tuxedo would be best. So let’s prepare these dogs. Kill two for matching clogs” Afton had to sing that part herself even though in the show, Mr. Burns had not said that line. For one thing, she didn’t want to hear Quentin say at the next Aronos meeting that her solo had not been a solo because of someone else speaking that one line.

She went for the finish, Afton was actually having quite a bit of fun here. “See my vest, see my vest, oh won’t you pleeeeeeeease seeee myyyy vessst” She looked out at the audience one last time and said, “I really like the vest.”

Afton waited for the applause and then took a bow. She then left the stage to get out of her sweater and help Tepp prepare for the group act.

11 Afton Stokes See My Vest 77 Afton Stokes 0 5

Saul Pierce

April 06, 2009 10:51 AM

Fountain of Fair Fortune by Saul Pierce

OOC: Okay, Pecari guys and gals, I'm just going to write the whole thing and assume that everyone but my character remembers their lines (if you want to have forgotten, Saul will be just off stage, ready to prompt you). I will no doubt write for your character at some point, but I have no better ideas on how else to do this conveniently. Feel more than welcome to write reaction posts afterward to either react to the show, critique your own performance, or throw in minor adjustments to how you did. I tried to be vague on the portrayals of everybody's roles to give you maneuvering room. BIC:

\r\n\r\n\r\n"Geoffrey Layne." The name repeated through Saul's head in endless repeat. He stood up mechanically and clapped for Geoff and Briony. He even managed to shout out Briony's name in congratulations, but his heart and mind weren't really in it. He was glad for them, both of them, not just Briony, but it didn't stop him from being disappointed. He'd really thought he'd had a chance to win. He didn't think he could have done anything else short of tying Echo to his bed and preventing him from leaving the school to increase his number of votes.

This must have been what Stephen felt like.

Except Stephen didn't campaign, so it was probably worse.

Saul took a deep breath and sat down from his ovation for the new Head Girl and Boy as mindlessly as he'd stood. He took another couple of deep breaths. He didn't hear the rest of the Headmaster's speech. He barely noticed Simon introducing Afton.

By the time Afton took the stage, he had come to the conclusion that Harvey was insane. Putting in all that effort, and then losing. But then Harvey never expected to win. Maybe he should have taken campaign advice from someone who could at least get 10% of the popular vote.

By the time Simon, came up beside him during Crotalus's group act and whispered quietly if he was all right, Saul could nod and be honest about it. He was even able to grin and compliment Simon for the 'Bounding Blonde Tumbling Wonder' stage name that he'd come up with for Meredith.

By the end of Aladren's group act, he was actually paying attention to the performances and clapping as enthusiastically as he should have been from the beginning.

By the time Simon told him Pecari was on deck, he began signaling for his cast and crew to get ready to move backstage once Geoff finished his violin solo. As Geoff and Anabel switched off, he herded his group out of sight on the wings and began giving one of his Quidditch Captain pep talks, but with less talk about Quaffles and Snitches and the opposing team and more about scenery, effects, music, acting, magic, fountains, and broken legs (in the good luck variety rather than the bad kind). Then Anabel was leaving the stage, and they were up.

"Okay, people, let's do this. Coopers, get the set up, Holly, Morgaine, be ready. Caedence, you signal the band when the curtains go up. Elly, bring up the curtains when I'm done with the first monologue." They'd all practiced and rehearsed, of course, and they'd even done the full thing on the stage in yesterday's dress rehearsal, but it made himself fell better to remind everyone of what they should be doing. "Extras, start milling while I'm narrating, so it looks like you're already going about your business while the curtains go up."

And then Simon was done introducing them and signalling Saul to get them started.

Saul took a deep breath, stood in the middle of the stage, with the curtains still down, and began to project with a solid narrator's voice:

"High on a hill in an enchanted garden, enclosed by tall walls and protected by strong magic, flowed the Fountain of Fair Fortune. Once a year, between the hours of sunrise and sunset on the longest day, a single unfortunate was given the chance to fight their way to the Fountain, bathe in its waters, and receive Fair Fortune forevermore. On the appointed day, hundreds of people traveled from all over the kingdom to reach the garden walls before dawn."

As he finished the last word, he nodded toward Elly, darted off stage, and got ready to give Holly and Morgaine their marks for when they should make their entrances.\r\n\r\n

1 Saul Pierce Fountain of Fair Fortune 82 Saul Pierce 0 5

Holly Greer

April 06, 2009 11:45 AM

... with Princesses by Holly Greer

Holly waited on the edge of the stage a little nervously as Saul Pierce gave his first narrative. She reviewed the lyrics for the play's only musical number and reminded herself that she'd practiced ad nauseum and had even helped with the choreography, so she really shouldn't be worried that she'd forget any of it. But this was her first real public performance, and Danny had done his part perfectly in the previous act and she was just a little bit anxious that she wouldn't do as well as her little brother.

Never mind that her baby brother was already a professional actor.

The music started. Saul nudged her. (When had he finished and gotten off stage?) "Go," he whispered. Her mind went blank and she stared at him with a terrified, horrified look on her face. He gave her the first line and gave her a push out onto the stage.

After that it went better. She sang her first verse solo, the words and choreographed steps coming back to her as she began. As she wanted to be a princess every bit as much as Nina did, it was like her part had been written for her. Which it had been, technically.

When Morgaine joined her for the second verse, explaining how much she wanted to be a hero, Holly forgot about the audience entirely and just performed as they'd practiced over and over again. Later, she might attribute that to some kind of inherited acting gene, but she didn't think much about it at all in the moment.

They finished out the song with the full chorus of extras and they stepped offstage as the curtain came down. Saul was grinning widely at them all and holding both his thumbs up, so she guessed they were doing well. "Coopers," he instructed, waving the two set people out, and going with them to help break down the town set. This was the biggest and fastest set change of show, so the extras helped too and it came down with practiced precision and was replaced with a cardboard 'stone' wall in under five seconds.

The curtains came back up with the crowd of extras, Holly, and Morgaine all gathered in front of the wall.

From off stage, Saul began the narration again. "Wanting to help each other, Nina and Eve agreed that, should the chance befall them, they would unite and try to reach the Fountain together."

"Here we are, Eve." Holly told Morgaine, gesturing toward the wall.

Saul continued, effects mirroring the actions he described. "The sky was rent with the first light of day. A chink in the wall appeared. Creepers reached out and grabbed Eve. Keeping her promise, Eve took hold of Nina as they were dragged into the garden."

Holly shrieked Morgaine grabbed her and dragged her toward the opening in the stone wall. She ran into Irene and they pretended to stumble, while Raoul moved in to help. "Nina stumbled into another young woman and they both would have fallen if they hadn't been caught up by a young man. Neither the young man nor the young woman were able to detangle themselves from Nina before all four are swept into the garden. The walls seal once more."

They all fell through the hole in the wall and the Coopers, hidden behind the cardboard set, pushed the hole flaps closed again. The curtains dropped and a flurry of activity rushed the cardboard wall off the stage and replaced it with potted plants, many of them borrowed from the Gardens or the Hall of Plants, to show they were inside the enchanted garden now.

The curtains went up again when only Holly, Morgaine, Irene, and Raoul were left on stage. They'd sorted themselves out and were now standing up, facing each other.

"Only one can bathe in the Fountain! It will be hard enough to decide which of us it will be without adding two more!" Morgaine snapped at Holly.

Saul's voice spoke over a response Holly didn't have a scripted line to give. "Now Riley, the young man who had inadvertently gotten caught up with Nina, was a chivalrous sort and he saw these three ladies were most likely in greater need than himself."

"You need not concern yourself on my behalf. I will withdraw." Raoul told them chivalrously.

Script or no script, the idea of Raoul leaving made Holly's response heartfelt. "No! Draw your sword, sir, and help us reach our goal!" Then, more acting was required as she included Irene, "You, too!"

"I have no sword," Irene pointed out.

Details. She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Well, neither do I, but you can still help us reach our goal," Holly insisted.

The lights faded and they headed off stage, the curtains coming down as Saul narrated, "As they ventured further into the garden, they introduced themselves to each other. The young man was named Riley and he wished to find true love. The young woman was named Haley and she wished to find her missing family."

When the curtains went up again, the plants had been moved to a slightly different configuration, and a blue cardboard stream had been added. In front of the stream, Saul stood, wearing the most ridiculously overdone cliched evil sorceror costume she had ever seen in her life. And she watched Disney movies.

"Pay me the price of your pain," Saul intoned, somehow managing to sound like a different person than the narrator.

Morgaine charged, brandishing her sword. Saul waved a hand dismissively and she stumbled back. Raoul tried the same tactic and Saul made an annoyed expression and flicked his finger at Raoul as if discarding a bit of lint from his robes. Raoul collapsed to the ground.

"Riley!" Holly cried out, only barely remember to use his character's name. She knelt down beside him. "No! He's dead!"

Morgaine knelt down, too, checking his pulse. "He's not dead."

Holly pretended not to hear and screamed at Saul. "You awful awful thing! He's dead!" Tears fell down her cheeks. Saul had asked her months ago, back when he was still writing the script, if she could cry on command, and she had promised him she could. She didn't let him down now. She jumped up and wailed on him, both with tears and fists. "I hate you! Riley's dead!"

She even if she hadn't been faking the punches, Saul probably could have ignored them. He just reached down and caught a few tears off her cheek. "Passage granted," he intoned, and then the trapdoor built into the stage under him (this was the advantage of having your play's prefect be related to the guy building the stage) opened and he dropped down onto the mat underneath.

Morgaine, still kneeling next to Raoul said, "Nina, he's not dead."

Raoul sat up and said "Ow."

Holly ran back to him, jumping on top of Raoul in a happy embrace held little consideration for any injuries he may have sustained. "Raoul!" She realized her mistake and turned red. "Riley!" she corrected herself, though it was probably too late and just drew attention to the mistake.

The curtains closed again, and she buried her head against his shoulder. "I'm an idiot," she mumbled into his tunic.

1 Holly Greer ... with Princesses 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Saul Pierce

April 06, 2009 12:21 PM

... and George Washington's Famous Portrait by Saul Pierce

Saul got back up onto stage level just as the curtain came down on his only on-stage scene. Holly seemed to be having a breakdown, though he wasn't sure what had set her off. Aside from the rocky start, she and everybody else had been doing fabulously during every part that he'd seen. He hurried to her side with one of the calming draughts she'd supplied him with in case of just such a situation. "Here," he told her passing her the vial. "You're on again in seconds. Calm down."

She gulped the contents down and seemed to be better. She let Raoul up and took their places. He took the empty vial and hurried off the stage as the curtains went up again. He came up alongside Elly as she used a wind spell to keep the actors from moving as they walked across the stage.

"We're not, not going anywhere," Holly complained, recovering with only a small hitch to her voice.

"Maybe if we run," Morgaine suggested and they began to run. Saul added his own wind spell to keep them in place.

Holly actually lost ground. The other three seemed able to keep up. Holly stopped running, leaning into the spell to hold her place while standing still. After another moment, Raoul and Irene slowed, too, and Saul did a bit of tricky spell work to narrow his stream of air to only affect Morgaine, who was still running.

"Courage, friends! Do not yield!" Morgaine encouraged the other three. She wiped imaginary sweat from her brow. (Or maybe it was real, Saul couldn't tell for sure from here.) Hannah Cooper pulled a lever and the sign reading "Pay me the fruit of your labors" fell to the ground. He and Elly dropped their spells and Morgaine stumbled forward several steps and the the other three wavered as well. Elly dropped the curtain.

The Coopers put up the final scene, the one with the Fountain, and the blue cardboard stream returned to the stage. The curtain went up one last time.

The actors looked at the sign that replaced the last one. This one read "Pay me the treasure of your past"

Raoul tried to pay a sickle to the sign, but nothing happens. Morgaine and Holly try to cross the stream without paying, but pretend to run into a barrier when they reach the blue cardboard. They all look at the sign again.

Irene speaks up, "Well, I have this famous portrait of George Washington." She waved toward the edge of the stage where Conner stepped on for his cameo. Saul grinned, any lingering distress from losing the Head Boy position completely wiped away by the sight. He was sure Conner was going to kill him in his sleep sometime before he left Sonora for good. But the seventh year prefect had said he did a mean portrayal of a famous portrait of George Washington. Saul hadn't been able to pass up the chance. This moment was totally worth getting murdered over.

At Conner's appearance, Elly cast a spell which unconcealed a cardboard rock in the middle of the stream. The actors crossed using the stepping stone and came up to the fountain.

"Your tears got us past the Evil Creature of Black Sorcery, you bathe, Nina," Morgaine suggested to Holly.

Raoul shook his head. "Nay. Nina wishes to be a princess, and a princess she shall be. Nina has been kind to all of us, allowing Haley and I join you on your quest. She was genuinely upset when she thought I was dead, even though I never told any of you that I was a prince." Raoul knelt down on one knee and held out a tiara for Holly. "Nina, I have found my true love. Will you be my princess?"

Holly squealed and clapped her hands together. There were times Saul wasn't sure she remembered she was supposed to be acting. She ran forward hugging Raoul and kissing him on each cheek. She claimed the tiara and put it on. "Yes! Yes! Oh, Raoul! I love you!"

Yeah. She was not getting the acting thing. Fortunately, she and Raoul didn't have any more lines.

"This was your quest from the beginning and you got us past the second obstacle. You bathe." Irene continued the scene after only a few moments of shaking their heads at the corny lines Saul and Echo hadn't been able to find a better way to write. Holly liked them, though, so that was good enough. This was her consolation prize for not getting the solo.

"What of your family?" Morgaine asked Irene.

Irene smiled. "Once you have bathed in the Fountain, I believe I will have found a hero to find and save my family."

Elly dropped the curtain and Saul finished off the narration. "Once Eve had bathed in the Fountain of Fair Fortune, the three ladies and the prince left the Garden arm in arm. All four led long and happy lives, and Eve was able to rescue Haley's family from the clutches of a terrible ogre. None of them ever knew or suspected that the Fountain's waters carried no enchantment at all."

Once the applause began, Saul was the first person backstage to join in. "Whoo! Great job, guys! If any of you want a job performing this summer, let me know, I can probably get you a role with my family's caravan. Let's get everything down so Teppenpaw can go, and then big party in the Common Room tonight!"

\r\n\r\n

1 Saul Pierce ... and George Washington's Famous Portrait 82 Saul Pierce 0 5

Elly Eriksson

April 06, 2009 2:36 PM

What a magnificent performance by Elly Eriksson

It was one of those days when excitement was buzzing tangiably through the air within the enchanted walls of Sonora. Not only would the concert be today, but Headmaster Bulla would be announcing the Head Boy. Elly had all her fingers and toes crossed for Saul - he had worked so hard for the position. As it turned out, his hard work had amounted to nothing, as Geoffrey Layne was voted in. Elly applauded anyway (especially as she was already clapping hard for Briony), and thought that although she loved Saul, it was probably best that he wasn't given such a position of responsibility. She could understand why the majority of students had voted for Geoffrey Layne - if Saul hadn't been on the voting paper, Elly probably would have voted for him herself.

Elly was quite pleased when the announcements were over. With Pecari only coming third in the House points competition, and Saul not getting Head Boy, and Bulla leaving (Elly didn't take Runes and wasn't in Crotalus so she didn't even know what Professor Powell was like) she just wished that the concert would start and bring back the cheer. She wasn't disappointed; even after the first act Elly found she was enjoying herself. When Meredith performed, Elly cheered loudly for her friend and even set off some celebratory fireworks from the end of her wand.

Before long, it was Pecari's turn to perform their group act. Elly thought that Saul and Echo had done an amazing job and the script, and practically everyone in the House had pulled together and worked really hard to get to this point. Not wanting to let her House down at this crucial stage, Elly tried to concentrate really hard on getting all the timing and the effects perfect - her spellwork had really developed in preparation for the show. However it was tricky on occasion to keep her attention off the actors, and by the time Holly had finished her lines Elly was doubled over with silent giggles at the younger girls' mistakes.

Almost as soon as it had begun, the play was finished and Elly was joining in the backstage cheering. "Great job, guys! If any of you want a job performing this summer, let me know, I can probably get you a role with my family's caravan," Saul said, and Elly thought she would like to help out backstage, if she was allowed, over the summer. Then, everyone helping together, they vacated the stage and went back to watch the rest of the concert.

0 Elly Eriksson What a magnificent performance 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5

Saul Pierce

April 07, 2009 2:57 PM

Catching Geoff L. Afterwards by Saul Pierce

Saul applauded enthusiastically for Teppenpaw, then impatiently waited out the closing statements. As soon as they were released, he promised the other Pecaris food and drinks for their big post-concert party planned for the common room pretty much as soon as they could walk back there, but, first, there was something he felt he had to do.

"Catch you in a few minutes," he told Elly before breaking off from the main Pecari herd, "Need to talk to Geoff. I'll be back with the food soon." He navigated his way through the dispersing crowd, waving at Simon when he caught his cousin's eye and mimed a complicated series of gestures that he was about 75% sure Simon understood to mean 'send elves to Pecari with food.' If not, all the sets and props and stuff from the Pecari act was going to be dumped off in his room.

Matt would love that.

But then Saul spotted the target of his search and he squeezed between a couple of different groups and called out, "Geoff! Geoff Layne!"

Once he got the new Head Boy's attention and had caught up to him, Saul ran a hand through his hair, knocking back the hood he was still wearing for his Evil Creature of Black Sorcery costume. He was also still in his stage make up and the false curly villain mustache and goatee. But all that was going to require a warm, wet washcloth to remove.

"I just wanted to say congratulations. And I think I mentioned it at the debates, but I'll say it again, because I really meant it and it wasn't just propaganda to get me elected: if you need me to do anything next year, I'm totally glad to help out. Like I said, RATS mean nothing to me, I've already got a guaranteed job when I get out of here, so I'm expecting to have huge amounts of free time. Way more than you and Briony, anyway. That's why I ran in the first place. I get bored if I don't have twelve thousand things to do, and without a campaign and a concert to run next year, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself."

He might have to study for his RATS just so he could have another big project. But that was a last resort. He was sure he could find something more interesting to do. If nothing else, he was sure he could get Flatt to assign him another twelve foot paper.

On the other hand, after last time, Flatt might be afraid to do that to him.

"Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I wasn't gonna be a sore loser or anything. I'll think you'll make a great Head Boy, and if anyone got it besides me, I'm glad it was you."

1 Saul Pierce Catching Geoff L. Afterwards 82 Saul Pierce 0 5

Mike Song

April 07, 2009 5:59 PM

Supporting with my Spoons! by Mike Song

Mike had managed to pass most of his school year in relative obscurity. It wasn't from any particular form of trying or anything; but more from a lack of participation. That all ended the moment he was conscripted into Pecari House's concert event. Sure, he played a mean guitar- on Rock Band. And he wasn't that bad on the drums there, either. But real instruments?

Hardly. Not unless you counted a shoebox guitar or a kazoo.

Or the spoons.

It happened mostly by accident. Mike had been bored; a classmate asked about chopsticks, and since there hadn't been any on hand in the Cascade Hall, Mike had improvised with a pair of spoons. The end result had oddly enough sounded like music- it had a distinct rhythm, and when joined with a few slick knocks of his knee and palm, was almost, maybe, kind of cool. Apparently, though, his newly discovered talent with the spoons had been reported, and suddenly, Mike found his previously much enjoyed free hours being spent learning the spoon/percussion portion of Pecari's musical element.

For those who knew him- namely his older sister Euna and cousin Bae- it was not surprising that Mike managed to attend many a practice and not digest any of the play's actual elements. When it finally came time for the actual performance, after a series of announcements that he only paid slight attention to- he was focused on his spoons, for Odin's sake- Mike realized, with a great deal of relish, that the play was actually pretty awesome. Thousands of times better than the day time Korean dramas his mom used to force him to watch.

Plus that one girl, Nina or Pina or something, was kind of cute.

Not that he'd noticed in particular or anything.

Still, once the final scene played out and the applause began, Mike found himself standing with the rest of his House in mutual congratulation. Perhaps it hadn't been too awful participating after all; perhaps, in the next year, he'd make more of an effort to stand out and get to know the rest of his House. Regardless, he knew one thing for sure: playing the spoons was definitely going down on his future resume as a special skill.

0 Mike Song Supporting with my Spoons! 0 Mike Song 0 5

Geoff Layne

April 08, 2009 10:43 PM

Something fishy going on? by Geoff Layne

After the Teppenpaws finished their group act, Geoff gladly made his escape. After his failure to agree with her on the cute couple potential of Helena and her costar, Anne's only activities during intermissions had been continuing to hang onto the House Cup and lecturing him on feminism and why it was none of his business what his sister did. Since she had only just gotten to why it would probably be good if Lena hooked up with someone when the Teppenpaws began their presentation, Geoff accounted himself lucky.

And, really, it did seem like the events of the night were pretty much conspiring to go his way. He'd been elected as the next Head Boy, which all but guaranteed him a way into whatever college he chose to go to. His violin solo hadn't gone awry. The weather had cooperated with the Concert and nothing seemed to have gone hideously wrong. Maybe, Anne's little rant aside, he was finally getting a break.

Or maybe something really, fantastically awful was about to happen. Whichever.

He stopped, a little surprised, when someone called out his name. People didn't normally do that, though he supposed he would have to get used to it now. It took Geoff a moment to spot the shouter, at which point his relaxed mood failed to completely stave off consternation. This could not go other than poorly.

"Hey, Saul," he said, deciding to just ignore the costume for the moment. "What's up?"

As the other sixth year went into his speech, Geoff found himself wondering, again, what had gone wrong that he had gotten the interim badge and Saul hadn't. Short of Bulla, Powell, and the other Powers That Be deciding they really liked having Aladrens in power and rigging the elections, he couldn't see how he'd gotten more votes, even removing Saul's groupies from the voting pool. Maybe the admitting RATS meant nothing to him thing?

"Thanks, man," he said, oddly impressed. He wasn't sure, if their positions had been reversed, that he'd have been such a good sport about it. Actually, he was pretty sure that he wouldn't have been; while he wasn't one for Anne-like flip-outs ending in the destruction of personal property, he had never bought into the theory that regular loss was good for character development. "I'll keep your availability in mind next year."

He might actually do it; he had to make top RATS, and to do that, he had to study. If the next Midsummer event took the kind of planning and organization this one had, and that on top of something else and regular Head Boy duties and being Aladren Quidditch Captain, he would eventually be forced to delegate something. "Honestly?" he said. "I came out here figuring it was going to be you."

16 Geoff Layne Something fishy going on? 72 Geoff Layne 0 5

Teppenpaws

April 08, 2009 11:11 PM

Cirque de l'Espace by Teppenpaws

Though her brain was screaming at her to think about what a bad idea this was, Allie waited until the players had taken their places, took a deep breath, and moved up to the front of the stage, trying hard not to wipe her damp palms on the white robes she wore to differentiate her, the Narrator for the play, from the real participants. She tried even harder not to see the audience. Her voice wavered as she spoke her first two lines, but then she succeeded in believing it was just another practice.

"Welcome one, welcome all,
To our small show where we have a ball.
We hope you’ll enjoy yourself today
As you watch our astronomical play.
With shooting comets, dancing gypsies, aliens, too –
Our only aim is to amuse you!"

Flushed and feeling - though thankfully not looking - a bit shaky, she walked over to her new stage-side place to allow Gabrielle to get the action started.

Once Allie had finished the introduction, it was her cue to begin. She started her dance. Her hips swayed with the rhythm of the background music and at the appropriate points she twirled around. The just above the knee skirt flowed ever so slightly out from her bare legs. She had fashioned a skirt from some fabric that she had her mom send her. The top and bottom of the skirt were a deep blue while the middle was shiny silver, which followed up through the top of the bodice. The bottom layer was the same shade of blue.

Wrapped around her waist was a lacy scarf with an intricate silver design. Bordering the edge of it were silver medallions. The same design was seen on the edge of the skirt and the sleeves (minus the decoration.) Normally, a headscarf and boots were customary for the complete gypsy look, but since this was space themed, she opted for silver slippers and a chain of the silver medallions wrapping around her head. She had used makeup with glitter in it so that it would catch the light and give her a mysterious sort of look. Hopefully, her song added to it.

“As I dance, whirling, whirling,
Up above the stars are unfurling
Scattered silver across the sky
Twinkling, sparkling, pleasing the eye
As the night goes rushing by.”

At her last word, the floor of the stage changed to match the starry backdrop, which made it look as though she were dancing in space.

“But look! One small jump into the air
And I am dancing among the stars fair.
Twirling down the Milky Way
In a world that has no day.
Another leap, and oh, it’s super,
I’m visiting a moon of Jupiter!”

Right on time, the backdrop changed to Jupiter. So far everything was going well.

“Amalthea, that’s its name
But it seems no place for a game
For over there, I’m sad to say,
I see beings who do not look like they want to play.”

Slowly, she stepped back to allow the little ‘aliens,’ which were really first years to come forward with their robotic march.

Elliot wasn't happy with the role he had landed. Just because he was a first year! Just picturing Ethan sitting in the audience, laughing hysterically caused a blush to appear on his face. And he was in this stupid alien costume. He was never going to forgive Eavan for this, but their cue came and with one last sigh, Elliot stepped forward and said his lines.

Nathaniel laughed and jumped up behind the scenes, clapping with excitement. How excited was he to have this role. He'd once been a tree in a school play that had been the greatest moment of success for him until the next year where he was rattle shaker. But they paled in comparison to alien. Who else could say they were an alien? Well, Pippa and Elliot probably. And real aliens. Another clap when their cue came on, and Nathaniel marched in happily, saying his lines and trying not to laugh.

Pippa had never felt so nervous in her entire life. She hadn't minded making props for the show, that had been fun but she had never wanted to go on stage. Her heart was beating super fast and she felt like she might throw up. She took a deep breath when their cue came and walked forward with the boys as they said their lines. Pippa was glad not to be alone and especially that Nathaniel was there too. She couldn't imagine having to sing a solo like Afton had or even have a bigger part in the group act like Gabrielle.

“We are the Amaltheans, this is our land
Our society needs no helping hand
We work and work and work all day
And do not waste our time on play.”

Elliot, Nathaniel and Pippa stopped in front of her to continue their singing.

“We do not know this strange creature
Who with us has no common feature.
Who are you, and why have you come
To our gray place beyond the sun?”

Gabrielle danced around the little aliens. In a playful singsong, she continued on.

“I came to dance, and celebrate the day,
But I find your land is cold and gray.
Why, Amaltheans, do you look so dour?
Has something here gone sour?”

Elliot rolled his eyes as he said his next lines. The audience might believe that the alien was bored with the Gypsie's dancing, but that was far from the case. He glanced at the two other aliens to see if they were equally as annoyed with the part they had been given.

Nathaniel was not annoyed; he was having the time of his life. The older girl danced in a swaying motion, and Nathaniel followed with his head. He probably looked like the weakest link, wanting to jump up and dance with the older girl straight away. But he stayed in his line with the others, practically pouting as he continued his lines.

Pippa wasn't really annoyed either. She was just very nervous. She probably looked like she was scared of the gypsy but really she was just anxious about being onstage in front of the whole school.

“We work and work and work all day
And do not waste our time on play.”

Gabrielle placed her hands on her face in mock shock as though it were unfathomable that they could say such a thing.

“But it is not a waste of time to play
It only makes for a better day.
Life isn’t life without some pleasure –
A celebration is a complete treasure!”

Elliot realized that if he ignored the words and just stared at the gypsy, then it made time fly faster.

More and more, he was getting the urge to stand up and dance with the gypsy, but Nathaniel stayed still. Glancing at her and back, he tried to look like he was work-work-working. Ugh, boring. Dance! He wanted to dance!

Pippa, like Elliot, wanted it to all be over. Still, she wasn't looking forward to what came next.

“Not for us, whatever you say
We work as long and hard as we may
For rewards we earn in our society
Are based on dedication, not gaiety.”

As soon as the first years finished their lyrics, Gabrielle sang hers.

“But rewards are meaningless if they are not enjoyed
Without that, they might as well be destroyed.”

At this point, Gabrielle pulled out a wand, but this one was nothing more than a prop for the performance.

“I can’t explain it for you this way,
So instead I’ll charm you to dance all day!”

Waving the wand, multicolored sparks came from it.

This was the part Elliot had been dreading. The sparks cued them to dance and he performed the steps with a forced smile on his face, only missing a few steps and accidentally stepping on someone's foot.

Finally. FINALLY. The second the spark came, Nathaniel literally jumped up and began his dance. Wincing as he felt Elliot step on his foot, but stepping back and giving the boy a big grin wasn't hard. It didn't hurt, and Nathaniel wasn't thrown off too much, as his own dancing was very random compared to the actual steps.

It wasn't as if Pippa had never danced before. She and her sister had taken private dance lessons, along with other things that were deemed important by her grandmother for young pureblood girls to learn, but Pippa had never danced in public before and she was scared to death of tripping and falling on her face in front of everyone.

“Dancing, dancing away our day
Instead of working, we’ve been made to play!”

Gabrielle laughed and sang with the first years in their alien costumes.

“So, Amaltheans, isn’t this fun?
Dancing so far away from the sun?”

They finally got to the last verse that the aliens had to say alone, though the dancing continued. Elliot was panting as he said the words; he wasn't used to dancing for long periods of time.

Nathaniel kept singing, kept dancing, until their voices finished alone. His face was flushed, but he was bright and happy, and at the end he tripped up his own little bow at the end of the glitters.

Pippa was glad it was almost over. When they finally stopped singing and dancing, a wave of relief washed over her. She was just glad she'd made it through without embarrassing herself.

“ Yes, oh, yes, it’s tons of fun
Dancing so far away from the sun.”

Altogether, they sang the last bit as they faded into the background.

“So let’s keep dancing through the day
And learn to take time for work and play!”

As the Quidditch team, trailing glitter as its members flew overhead, entered and Gabrielle and the Aliens danced back, Allie stepped forward again to finish the act. Her shoulder-length brown hair and a good portion of her white dress had a new sparkle to them from the team's efforts, but luck was on her side in that none had gotten in her eyes. Smiling as broadly as she ever had, she recited the last of her lines.

"And so everyone danced for hours and hours
Till the news spread even to the government towers.
And all the Amaltheans saw the virtues of dance
And decided to give leisure time a chance."

When the others reached her, she began to dance with them, which - along with the fact that it was all supposed to be in unison - made the final couplet a challenge to say, but it felt like most vestiges of seriousness were gone by now anyway.

"We’ve done it, we’ve done it, we’ve done it, hooray!
We’ve learned to balance work and play!"

She started to giggle as they continued to dance and the Quidditch team landed to take its place in the final bow that ended the show. This had actually been fun.

0 Teppenpaws Cirque de l'Espace 0 Teppenpaws 0 5

Saul

April 09, 2009 1:07 PM

We're in a desert. I wouldn't know where to find any fish. by Saul

"Honestly," Saul repeated with a shrug and a slight grimace, a concession to his very real disappointment, "So did I." He must have miscounted. Or maybe he hadn't remembered to subtract Echo's vote from his tally. "I mean, I knew it was going to be close - there were as many people firmly against me as there were solidly for me - but I was hopeful." He spread his hands, a what-can-you-do? sort of gesture and let out a sigh. "You did good in the debate and Geoff S didn't really show much interest in being Head Boy, so I guess you got everybody I didn't. And half my support base was too young to vote."

He shrugged again and made himself grin, though it wasn't quite up to his normal standards. "Anyway, Head Boy," he laughed and tried to pretend he hadn't really wanted it anyway. "Even I know the Class Clown isn't supposed to get Head Boy. I'm still not convinced that getting named prefect wasn't some kind of clerical error, and the Headmaster was just too embarrassed to ask me for the badge back." He laughed again, more genuinely, as a new thought occurred to him, "Dude, with the other two I already have, I wouldn't've known where I could've fit the Head Boy badge on my robe."

He shook his head, still amused by the narrowly avoided badge dilemma. "Anyway, I never needed the title. I'm just gonna be a festival performer. No use for fancy honors there. 'Sides, Neil probably would've teased me if I'd won. I mean, dude, I am way too cool to be Head Boy." He grinned at Geoff, unrepentant that he'd implied the other sixth year wasn't. Geoff was an Aladren and played classical music on the violin, he probably thought it was a compliment. Besides, he was trying to convince himself more than he was trying to rib Geoff; there was no meanness behind his words. "I would've had to give up my Cool Guy membership and turn all responsible and stuff."

His grin sharpened and he tapped his finger tips together in malicious glee, looking every bit in character with the costume he was wearing. "Now I can do a senior year prank." He twirled his mustache and tried to look evilly mysterious for a moment before breaking into a grin and beginning to move away. He sent off a jaunty wave. "See ya! Got a party to get to and guests to feed!" He held his thumb to his ear and pinky to his mouth as he walked backwards, though it was possible Geoff had no idea what a telephone was, "Call me if you need me next year!" He snapped his villainous cape theatrically and did his best to vanish into the crowd.

1 Saul We're in a desert. I wouldn't know where to find any fish. 82 Saul 0 5

Aladrens

April 12, 2009 12:02 PM

Everyday Stagelife by Aladrens

Cast

Professor Nadine Gauthier – first time director – Anne Wright
Cynthia Monroe – actress playing Honoria – Taylor Li
Gilbert Newbury – actor playing Adoniram – Daniel Nash II
Patrice Reardon – actress playing Justina – Izabella Santoro
Kenneth Burns – actor playing the corpse of Horatio – Christobel Dupree

**************

Taking his cue from Mr. Tellerman, Gray walked out onto the stage, looking uncomfortable in his formal robes. He went straight into his prepared introduction, very obviously reciting by route. "Scene: The New School of Wizarding Drama. Providence, Rhode Island. Professor Nadine Gauthier is about to direct her first show, and there's already tension among the cast as performance day draws nearer." Finishing his spiel, he withdrew to the sidelines as the four main actors walked out on stage.

Bella walked onto the stage, her body poised as though she were born for Crotalus. “I just don’t understand why you’re playing Honoria and I’m not,” she said to Taylor in a slightly whiny tone.

As directed, Chris walked onto stage and waited for everyone to be positioned as necessary. Before he began, he closed his eyes and thought of Bella and Lexi in order to get the right mix of anger and exasperation, which of course, he would never admit to having to resort to. Opening his eyes, he stated his first line as Kenneth, “Oh, shut up, Patrice. It’s not Cynthia’s fault you were flatter than the stage in auditions.”

“I was not!” Bella insisted, looking rather indignant by such a statement.

“Yes, you were. You only got Justina because the playwright’s your uncle,” Taylor replied, sneering in a most Cynthia like way, which felt slightly odd since she was doing it to the Head girl. One hand was on her left hip, as she pointed at Bella with her right index finger in an accusatory manner.

“Cynthia,” Daniel said, partly impatient, partly reproachful. He didn’t approve of the comment, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected. It was the same tone he’d used to say his sister’s name on occasion, so Gilbert’s attitude toward Cynthia was quite familiar and easy to portray. “There’s no need to be nasty.”

Taylor gave Daniel a ‘who me?’ look before putting up her hands in self-defense. “Hey, I’m not the one who goes around talking about ‘my uncle, Septimus Spiers’ all the time.”

Because Bella knew what it was like to argue with someone who believed certain things only went her way because of her last name, Bella had no problem folding her arms and hissing back at Taylor “Only because you don’t have an –“

Anne started her dramatic walk out onto the stage as soon as Bella began her third line, the long earrings and mess of silver rings she'd donned for the part sparkling under the lights. "Fifteen minutes are up!" she announced, going over to the director's chair that was their main prop and would put her in profile to the audience. "Honoria! Horatio! Adoniram! Act V, Scene iii."

Taylor gave a long-winded sigh, rubbing her temples out of frustration. Whining a bit, she asked Anne, “Can’t you call rehearsal back to order before you start calling us character names, Dina?”

Anne glared at Taylor. "No." She hopped down off her chair, half-facing the audience and half-facing the actors with her arms thrown wide. "You must not act your parts, ladies and gentlemen. You must live them. You must –"

“We know, Nadine,” Chris answered like he was trying to keep the condescending tone out of his voice. It had taken forever to get just that part right. In a lower tone, he added, “And this, ladies and gentlemen, is what you get with a newbie.”

"Good," Anne said with a nod, then climbed back into her chair while Chris moved to lay on the floor and Bella exited the stage. "Now, Scene iii. Start on your first line, Gil."

This, Daniel found, was the part that was the most fun to play. Playing Gilbert took some skill, but playing Gilbert playing Adoniram was hilarious. It wasn’t acting, it was playing. The hardest part was keeping a straight face.

At Anne’s cue, Taylor and Daniel moved to take their places standing over Chris’s ‘dead’ body. Daniel spread out his stance, because a guy named ‘Adoniram’ took up way more space than a guy named ‘Gilbert’ did. Besides which, Adoniram was just bigger. He was a bigger character, in a bigger situation, with a bigger voice, bigger expressions, and bigger motions. Adoniram was just bigger than life, which made overacting him not only all right, but necessary, which is why he was fun to play.

“Honoria,” Daniel declaimed, “what have you done?” Gilbert wasn’t putting in enough juice for Adoniram to live properly yet, and his enunciation and voice projection was so clear and perfect that it was completely unrealistic. Daniel made a wide gesture, for the sake of making a wide gesture rather than to actually add anything to the performance. Gilbert wasn’t nearly as good an actor as Daniel was.

Taylor tried to hold a look of calm on her face as she said her line, but failed as soon as she looked over at Daniel. A twitch of the corner held the promise of a smile and her line came out a little more rushed than was meant for Honoria, “Protected us.”

Neither Daniel nor Gilbert let her cracked defenses get by their own defenses. He balled his hands into fists, paused a moment too long, and said with the same clear projection, “By killing my best…” He stopped talking with an annoyed sigh, reducing his posture back into Gilbert’s normal stance, as Anne As Nadine broke into the scene.

Anne had begun waving her hands frantically at the actors when Daniel said 'killing'. "Stop!" she interrupted him two words later. "Stop. You both sound like script-readers on the wireless. Act!" Clasping her hands in her lap, she perched on the edge of her seat and watched the resumed action intently as Nadine just waited for another mistake.

Daniel grimaced and apologized, “Trying, ma’am.” Putting a bit more into it, he dropped to his knees beside Chris’s prone form. “Honoria,” he declaimed again, with a bit less precision and bit more horror and disbelief. “What have you done?”

This time, Taylor’s face held an eerie look of calm in Honoria off balance fashion, as she said her line, “Protected us.” The answer sounded like it should have been obvious from the start.

“By killing my best friend?” Daniel demanded, still with a healthy amount of disbelief, but he was starting to get angry now, too. He gripped Chris’s dead hand and stared up at Honoria as befit a character like Adoniram.

“He found out about Florence. He was going to turn us in,” Taylor defensively plead with the tinge of hope to be believed for Honoria would rather die a thousand deaths than be without Adorniram. “You would have gone to prison, too.”

“I should,” Daniel stated, anger abandoning him before it fully formed. He bowed his head over Chris’s body, grief beginning to take hold. “We both should,” he added, his voice low, but loud enough to carry.

A shocked expression played over her features and she opened and closed her mouth a few times for good measure on being flabbergasted. “You don’t mean that,” Taylor choked out.

Daniel’s head snapped up and the anger was back. His eyes flashed with anger, shame, and remorse. “We covered up a murder, Cyn-” Daniel shook his head, cutting himself off mid-name in annoyance. “Honor-” He grimaced and looked over at Anne. The flow was broken. His voice took on Gilbert’s tonal qualities again. “Can we do that over, Nadine?”

Anne pressed her lips together and settled back in her seat at "Gilbert's" error, but nodded anyway. "Back to ‘you don’t mean that’," she said, the resignation clear in her voice.

In a mixture of boredom and whining, which wasn’t very hard to do since he was just lying there on a hard floor, Chris asked, “Can I get up?”

Anne didn't deign to look at Chris after his inquiry. "No," she said shortly. "Cynthia?"

“You don’t mean that,” Taylor said again. She repeated the whole play by play, but this time added a bit of hurt into her voice, as though it were impossible to think that Adonarim could possibly wish that fate on her.

Daniel looked up at her again from where he still knelt beside Chris. Anger had made him make a mistake so this time he was just upset. “We covered up a murder, Honoria.” He looked down at Chris and shook his head. Regret and grief colored his tone, but they didn’t have any other options at this point. “And now we’re going to cover up another one.”

Adonarim’s cues were ignored as necessary, because Honoria only picked up on the key words of ‘cover up another one.’ Taylor’s voice be told of this fact as she replied, “At least we’re agreed on that.” Self-satisfaction was written on her face.

Daniel frowned. “No, that’s not what I -”

Bella walked back onto the stage looking at the two first years with a little confusion for her role, “Honoria? Adoniram? Wha –“ she screamed loudly when she pretended to notice Chris on the floor for the first time. Bella had loved the screaming part because practicing in the common room meant startling unsuspecting students. It gave her a bit of entertainment while she rehearsed.

“Justina – “ Taylor started in a falsely soothing voice. Palms up as her arms stretched out in what she hoped appeared to be a submissive manner. All the while she was edging towards Bella.

Bella ignored Taylor for the time being, her eyes focused on Chris while she tried to convey fear, confusion, and uncertainty within her voice, “Is he alive? Why haven’t you called the hospital? The Aurors? Why – “

Daniel pushed himself too his feet. Guilt and depression made the motion laborious and slow. His voice was nearly as heavy as his movement. “Because he’s already dead, Justina.”

“You called the Aurors?” Bella asked, focusing her gaze onto Daniel now.

“No,” Taylor continued in that same sort of calm voice. Her eyes focused on Bella. Honoria needed Justina not to be paying attention to what was really going on.

Bella’s eyes went back and forth between Daniel and Taylor. She could only hope that her expressions were conveying the right type of angst for such a moment as this, “You’re going to call the Aurors?”

“No,” Taylor drew the word out as she brandished a wand. A smile of sadistic pleasure warped her features while she spoke, as though she was talking to a child, “I’m afraid we can’t do that. Obli-“

“Cut!” Daniel shouted suddenly, loudly and a bit panicked, falling back into a Gilbert stance. He stared at Taylor’s wand, one hand held out in the universal sign for ‘Stop!’

Anne whipped her head around to look at Daniel when Gilbert called for a cut. "What?" she snapped, sounding half-annoyed and half-alarmed at the interruption to rehearsal.

“What?” Taylor asked in unison to Anne’s, but hers was not alarmed in the least so much as aggravated. The rehearsal had been going so well up until then that Cynthia could not imagine what Gilbert could find fault with. It wasn’t even his line yet!

“That’s not your prop wand!” Daniel exclaimed, still a bit edgy and panicky, pointing insistently at the wand in question.

“It isn’t?” Taylor asked, half-confused and half-surprised, before turning the wand over in her hands to examine it from every angle. She knew this wand. She pursed her lips and shook her head before speaking to Chris, “Kenneth, you’d better be glad I’m a lot nicer than Honoria.”

Chris asked in a sleepy tone from the floor, as though Kenneth might have fallen asleep, “Huh?”

Kenneth’s cluelessness on what he just nearly caused to happen caused Cynthia to burst out in exasperation. “You put your real wand down next to my prop! I almost Obliviated Patrice!” Taylor shouted as she waved her hands around in a ‘don’t you get it?’ fashion at over how serious this mistake was.

Bella feigned complete shock and outrage as she sputtered, “Oh – h – h – h!”

“What?” Chris asked, bolting upright to look at the wand in Taylor’s hand. Realization dawned and he ran a hand through his hair. “Oh, Merlin. Sorry, Cynthia, Patrice. Thanks Gil.”

Calming down a bit, Daniel tried to wave off the thanks. “Don’t mention it.”

Anne half-raised her hands to her mouth, then let them drop back to her lap. "Put that thing away, Monroe, and go get your prop wand." As Taylor left, she turned a look of death on Chris. "Burns, another stunt like that, and I’ll make sure you never do anything on a stage but sweep again for as long as I’m directing at this academy."

Chris nodded at Anne. “Got it, Nadine.” It was apparent that there was more that Kenneth wanting to say, but he bit his lip from saying anything more. While it was intended as such, it could have given Nadine the impression that Kenneth really believed her to be the ultimate power.

Anne nodded once. "Good," she said shortly, then shouted offstage, "Hurry up, Cynthia!"

“Here!” Taylor called out as she walked out with another wand. This one was a bit of a lighter wood than the last. Stopping on her mark, she turned to Anne to ask, “Where are we starting over?”

"‘You’re going to call the Aurors’," Anne said. "Go, Patrice."

Returning to the look of angst she had been trying for all along, Bella repeated her line, “You’re going to call the Aurors?”

“No,” Taylor drew the word out once more as she showed off the wand like some prized pet. The sadistic smile from before returned while she ran the fingers of her free hand along the grain. “I’m afraid we can’t do that.” Suddenly, she pointed the wand at Bella. “Obliviate!“

Bella crumpled to the floor when the flash of light ‘hit’ her. She had practiced the falling for the last month before the concert to make sure she got it down right. It hurt at first since she always landed hard and ended up hurting herself, but eventually she found the trick to it (with some help, of course) and could fall to the floor now without thinking twice about it.

“She’ll stay that way long enough to be found,” Taylor told Daniel with a nod for Honoria’s plan was wrapping up quite nicely. She reached for his hand. “Come, Adoniram.”

Daniel stepped toward her, complaining, “You cannot mean -” His foot pressed lightly down on Chris’s fingers, as he made to pass by the body, but he was careful not to actually put any of his weight on them.

Anne sat forward in her seat in apparent alarm when Chris let out a yell. "Kenneth!" Daniel stumbled back, as though knocked off balance by Chris reclaiming his hand out from under his foot. He winced sympathetically and gave Chris an apologetic look.

“He stood on my hand!” Chris cried out, cradling his ‘injured’ hand before waving it a couple times, trying to get rid of the pain like it could be shaken out.

Anne dropped back in her chair, an incredulous expression on her face as her hand made its way to her temple. "He stood on your hand?" she asked, getting to her feet. "What are you going to do if he stands on your hand when we perform?"

Chris gave Anne a look like she was some pathetic child that couldn’t even figure out the sum of one plus one. “Well, that’s what blocking’s for, isn’t it?”

Anne gaped at Chris, all shock. Then she gathered herself up indignantly. "Hopeless," she declared, almost in a shout. "Hopeless! Hopeless! All of you are hopeless! None of you will ever have a career on the stage – but you will not ruin mine!" She paused dramatically, then continued, almost in a screech, "I quit! And if you can’t throw together a performance before he demands one of you, you can explain why to the dean!" And with that, she turned on her heel and stormed off the stage.

Bella, who had sat up from her spot on the floor when Chris had yelled out, now scrambled to her feet to chase after Anne. She raised her voice to sound as though she were in panic-mode, “Nadine, wait! Nadine! Professor Gauthier!” Once she was offstage, Bella cried out one last time before falling silent, “Professor Gauthier!”

0 Aladrens Everyday Stagelife 0 Aladrens 0 5

Aladrens

April 12, 2009 12:03 PM

Part II by Aladrens

In the moments of silence following Anne and Bella’s departure, Chris stood up and stretched from having been on the floor. With a shrug, he broke the quiet with, “Well, I guess rehearsal’s over. That’s what you get when you play with the new ‘uns.”

“She’ll be back in twenty minutes. You shouldn’t provoke her, Kenny,” Taylor chastised the Head boy with a shake of her head causing some of the dark strands to fall into her eyes. Pushing them back, she turned to Daniel in exhaustion, “Draw us up some chairs, will you?

Daniel took out his wand, his real one, because he was actually supposed to cast this spell. As he was only a first year, this had proved the hardest part of the entire play for him. He hadn’t really gotten it until last week. For a while, it had looked like Anne or somebody else would have to cast it and he’d just pretend to be the one who did it. “I’m too tired to do anything but stools.”

“Well, that’s better than lying on the floor while you two botch your lines,” Chris looked at Daniel, the sarcasm dripping in his voice. Daniel made a face at him.

“Shut up, Kenneth. Just shut up.” Taylor replied, rolling her eyes at him. It wasn’t like Cynthia had been alone in botching up the play with the way Kenneth had nearly destroyed the entire production with the fake wand and then yelling about his hand. Really.

“Indeed,” Daniel agreed. He cast the spell to create the stool. It was about the best one could reasonably expect from a twelve year old’s conjuration, but as long as Taylor didn’t try jumping on it, it should hold long enough to finish the scene. He gestured Taylor invitingly toward his creation. “Just think about two years from now, Cynthia. We’ll be out of here in two more years.”

Taylor sat down, crossing her legs and leaning back with a sigh while Daniel began to rub her shoulders. Closing her eyes and allowing what she hoped was a dreamlike state to fall over her face, she asked, “Do you ever think about quitting this miserable excuse for a school and running away to Barbados?”

Daniel huffed a humorless laugh. “Not since Mom’s last letter. They finally changed the will after they heard a rumor about us.”

Taylor gave a snort at over how uptight Gilbert’s parents were, but it was quickly erased. She reached up a hand to brush against one of his at the knowledge of just how much he loved her. Softly, she asked, “Bad enough that you decided to be an actor, but then you went off and married an actress?”

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Something like that,” he agreed dryly. “Anyway, Gerald gets everything, now, so no Barbados.”

“Wait, wait…you two are…” Chris trailed off like Kenneth couldn’t believe Cynthia and Gilbert could possibly be more than friends.

Taylor chortled over “Kenneth’s” expression over this sudden realization. She supplied the necessary word, “Engaged.”

“You’re not wearing a ring,” Chris replied like it was necessary to and pointing at her left hand.

Daniel grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck, and admitted with no small amount of embarrassment, “I’ve been a little short on funds.”

Taylor gave a meaningful look to Chris as she stated very seriously and almost commandingly, “And we don’t want everyone and his brother – by which I mean Nadine and the administration – knowing about it. So it’s not in your best interests to go telling Patrice and Eileen and Trevor and Mac and half your Topics in Modern class about my mad passionate love affair with Gilbert. Unless you want me to put a Babbling Curse on you as soon as you start talking on opening night.”

His eyes shifted away from Taylor’s intensity before giving her a grin. “Think I’ll turn you down on that one. Thanks, though, Cynth.” Chris folded his legs under him as he took a seat on the stage. He shook his head with a bit of a disbelieving laugh. “First Patrice falls in love with an instructor, and now this. We’re one twisted bunch.”

“It’s why we’re here,” Daniel agreed merrily.

“You got that right,” Taylor answered with a smirk on her face as the play finished with one last quip.

0 Aladrens Part II 0 Aladrens 0 5

Crotalus

April 30, 2009 4:41 PM

Romeo and Juliet - Act I, Part I by Crotalus

The irony of the moment wasn't lost on her, as Laurie moved to the front of the darkened stage, straightening the enlarged name-tag on her chest that read Professor Baer. That she was playing the roles of the two professors who most intimidated her was no small thing. There was also the fact that despite many hours of practise, her New York accent was still terribly lacking. Still, the play was supposed to be funny, so she could only hope that the worse it was, the better.

Hopefully.

There was no time for further considerations as suddenly she was bathed in a bright light and began to send her badly-accented voice over into the audience.

"Four households, all alike in dignity
(In fair Sonora, where we lay our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal imaginations of these four foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers do bad things with their life,
Whose misadventured (yet hopefully entertaining) overthrows
Doth with their hijinks bury their houses’ strife.
The fearful passage of their oft-marked love
And the continuance of their students’ rage,
Which, but with large amounts of silliness, naught could remove,
Is now the-"

With an exaggerated exactness, she raised a pocket watch to her eyes.

"Is now the forty-three minutes and twelve second traffic of our stage- that is, pitch-
The which, if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend."

The light dimmed back into darkness, and she fought back the urge to inhale sharply. The charm was still in place after all- plus, she needed to focus on donning her 'Flatt' wig, coke-bottle glasses, and cigar. The light re-appeared across the stage, hi-lighting the actors playing Professors O'Leary and Taylor. She spoke carefully, mindful to inch her way to her new position beside the faux Professor Powell. "Meet the fair Houses of Teppenpaw and Pecari, with their ever more fair heads, the Professors O'Leary and Taylor."

Even after a good deal of rehearsing, Amelia still couldn’t figure out how a slightly overweight second year girl was supposed to pull off a convincing Professor O’Leary. Of course, as they’d progressed with this truly bizarre play, she’d been increasingly sure that this didn’t matter. As the lights rose on her, wearing a black bat-like robe and with her blonde hair hidden away under a dodgy O’Leary wig, and Lila as Professor Taylor, Amelia fell into character. “We Pecenpaws know how to have a good time,” she told the audience in a deep voice (that sadly didn’t sound at all like her character), as she spread her arms, allowing the robes to spread in a fashion most reminiscent of a vampire. “We aren’t afraid of taking risks. More importantly, we’ve produced the best Quidditch players for several generations.” She’d initially been somewhat wary of speaking this line, considering the Crotalus Quidditch captain was a lead role in the concert, but any concerns were quickly forgotten in the interest of showmanship. “We far outstrip the Croladrens,” Amelia finished with a flourish.

Professor Lorraine Taylor always seemed to wear slacks, which proved something of a problem for her portrayer. Lila St. Martin did not wear pants. Ever. That was just that. So, for the purposes of her role as the matriarch of the Pecenpaws, Professor Taylor was in a dark knee-length skirt that actually belonged to Allie. Shying away from “O’Leary” with a pained, long-suffering expression after his exposition on the virtues of “their House”, Lila stepped forward for her first line, denouncing the Croladrens. “They’re always so cold,” she complained. “So prim and repressed. Plus, they all think they’re better than everyone else, when they’re so not.” That last bit sounded much more like Lila St. Martin than Lorraine Taylor; she had never liked Aladren House.

Laurie paused long enough to allow 'O'Leary' to show off his vampire like cloak and the terse nervousness of 'Taylor,' while the two exchanged a brief declaration of themselves. A second light appeared overhead, and she stuffed the cigar into her mouth, nearly choking on the realization that it was a real one- and just who had come up with that brilliant idea?- and she continued, hoping that her lips didn't move too much. "And here we have the ever lauded House of Aladren and Crotalus, their heads joined in equally as lauded marital bliss."

As previously suggested, she made a show of glaring and scratching her protruding stomach, while 'Powell' glowered with a handful of runes. "Where's my food?" Laurie-as-Flatt cried, attempting for a growl. 'Flatt' was promptly answered with a rune to the head. Charlie was disappointed to not be dancing the solo for Crotalus, but she got that she was just a first year, and Anabel was pretty good, anyway. It was a consolation prize to be in the group act, but Charlie was still enjoying herself. In costume of plain brown robes and her hair tied in a neat knot, Charlotte thought she even looked a bit like Professor Powell, in minature. Plus getting to throw runes at older students on stage was not an opportunity to be missed.

A third light landed on stage, and the first two returned to darkness. The light displayed the obvious re-enactment of Coach Fox in full Quidditch gear, brandishing her broom and the school medic, Nicolas Wolfe inspecting his robes and frowning.

Hurriedly, Laurie discarded her Flatt props and returned to the narrator's corner, tucking her blond hair back under and slapping on the name-tag, terrible New York accent still intact. "More importantly though, meet our fated ones: Amy Fox, the darling Quidditch pro reared and regarded dearly by the Pecenpaws and Nicolas Wolfe, the wunderkind medical genius whose fastidious ways were guarded by the Croladrens.”

Taking her cue from the light falling on her, Helena struck a dramatic pose and began waving her broom around. It had been suggested that she try spitting while doing this, but there were limits to what she was willing to do in the name of fun and showmanship. People she knew were watching this, and one of them was her brother, the Head Boy elect (a fact she had yet to completely wrap her mind around).

As the spotlight picked him out, Geoff took a deep breath and made a great show of picking nonexistent lint off the pristine robes he was wearing. He studiously ignored the audience and Helena, over the other side of the stage, but the increasing pinkness of his face gave him away.

"So please, dear Audience, do watch and listen as we recount the fateful story of dearest Fox and her faithful Wolfe, er- Wolfe-io."

The stage returned to full darkness once more, and Laurie got out of range of the stage sound amplification charms before releasing the nervous cough that had sat in her chest during the entire opening. She was clear for a while yet- time to get the Flatt gear back in place.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Helena concentrated hard on not seeing the audience she was making a colossal fool of herself in front of. She was going to murder Lila and Laurie when this was over. “Boys!” she declared, leaning on her broom. “I say ‘boys’ because none of them ever grow up – they just get taller. They’re all such babies, always all about ‘look at me’, and ‘take care of me’. None of them understand me the way my broom does. My broom is the only one that understands me at all.”

She looked morosely down at her broom for a moment. “Flying around the Pitch, that’s the only way to spend one’s time.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

With only a second's hesitant glance at the audience, trying to spot Wolfe and hoping like anything that the Medic wasn't there Geoff stopped thinking that and wished whole-heartedly that the whole staff would spontaneously disappear. He wondered how he had been convinced to take the lead and then remembered the lack of male volunteers to help. He glanced at Helena, colored even more furiously and tried to throw himself into the role and not think.

At least it wasn't hard to come up with things to say in this instance. Years with his mother certainly had their uses sometimes.

"Women and Quidditch - Quidditch in general!" He stuttered a little at first before warming to the role. Sniffed in an exaggerated fashion, and already feeling a little less silly, he continued. "Brings out all sorts of uncouth sorts. Port and Cheese! That's the ticket, a civilized way to spend ones time." Geoffrey realized a moment too late that he'd forgotten his prop bottle of port and was incredibly glad as the light dimmed again.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

When the lights came back up, Helena was perched, rather awkwardly, in a tree, throwing rocks aimlessly at the ground. Beneath the tree, a safe distance away from the falling rocks, was Gwen Carey, her hair all pinned up under a beret. Trying not to laugh hysterically at the sight of one of the prettiest girls at Sonora pretending to be a man – a task made much harder by the fact that Gwen had always practiced as herself – Helena called down, “Paul Simon, I am not going to this stupid party. Give it up.”

Gwen craned her neck to see Helena properly, only just stopping herself from flinching as a passing rock got way too close to her eye for comfort. “Come on, Amy,” she drawled, her attempt at lowering her voice to match the groundskeeper’s exaggerating her accent without making her sound any more like a man than she usually did, which was to say not at all. “It’ll be fun.”

Helena threw another rock. “Will not.”

“Will so,” Gwen cajoled her, really wishing she would leave off with the rocks. “There’ll be lots of food, and people to beat up.”

Helena tilted her head, “considering” this. “Okay, fine,” she said, throwing all her remaining rocks at once. “I’ll go. But I am not dancing!” She jumped down from the tree, which precipitated a minor crisis. While she managed, as rehearsed, to land on her feet, she was just enough off that she knocked Gwen, who hadn’t been expecting it, over. The older girl went down with a most un-masculine yelp.

Her face burning red, Helena thought as fast as she ever had in her life. “Wow, Paul Simon,” she said. “You’ll sure impress the girls with that move.”

Gwen got back to her feet and managed a pained smile, over which she gave Helena a murderous glare. “I know, right?” she said, in her own voice. “Let’s go.” With that, she hauled Helena off stage with more force than was strictly necessary. As Geoff and Adelita exchanged lines, she muttered under her breath, “Lila St. Martin is going to wish she’d never been born after this.”
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Geoffrey was already midway through stowing some vials on a shelf when the sides of the stage switched illumination. He put them away with overdone care to order before starting to rolls swaths of bandages neatly. Behind him was Adelita-as-Tarquin.

"Tea?" Geoff/Wolfe asked, looking up from his task. "Oh, it's you, Tarquin. No, no, I'm busy. Can't you see I've got a lot of work to do? There might be a medical emergency! What? Oh, I'm sure your cat is alright. o, no no. Seriously, I'm quite happy here. And besides, I daresay they won't have any quality port there. Butterbeer and other uncouth drinks. Firewhiskey, I shouldn't wonder. Besides. I have work- I'm sure there will be plenty of hot men- Yes, but you see I'm not interested in- Oh fine, fine. Anything to shut you up! I'll come."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Geoffrey entered stage left, clutching a medical bag and wincing at the "noise" of the party, like he imagined that Wolfe would do. He glanced at Tarquin.

"See your, er, your man?" he asked, turning red again as he hoped that the Librarian wasn't in the crowd. He didn't hold out much hope, however.

At Geoff’s question, Lita looked disappointed as her ‘man’ was not at the party. The look quickly vanished, however, when she spotted a display of tea and quickly wandered away from Geoff to have a closer look.

"Right," Geoff said. "Well." He looked around at the revelers, with more than a hint of distaste. "Lovely!" The sarcasm positively dripped, and Geoff felt like he was really getting the hang of this - he'd even stopped turning red every time he was in the light.

He moved towards the side of the room and started fiddling around with the gauze in his pocket. It had been specially altered before the play to hold a simply ridiculous amount and it was just about now that that became obvious, as he started pulling it out of his pocket and attempting to wrap it into rolls to pack away into the medical bag.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Acting natural at a party was one of those things Helena did not know how to do. This was at least in part because she’d never been to anything like the sort of party she was pretending to be at; even Crotalus victory parties, when they happened, tended to be kind of subdued. Luckily for her, “Fox” wasn’t supposed to be having fun; she was supposed to be trying, largely in vain, to fend off her stalkerish would-be boyfriend, Patrick Jenkins. Helena really hoped Josh never decided to take up a career as a stalkerish would-be boyfriend.

“Listen,” she said finally, reaching the correct spot on the stage and turning on him. “Stop following me around. I’m starting to get creeped out he – “ halfway through the word, she knocked over a vase strategically placed for that very purpose. It fell with a clatter, and she grabbed her arm as if injured. To defer Josh’s fluttering, she said, loudly, “It’s just a flesh wound!” Did anyone actually say things like that? She felt ridiculous. “Really. Just – “ She looked up, met Geoff’s eyes, and fell dramatically silent, secretly trying not to laugh. This was so absurd.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Geoff felt most of his composure and growing confidence in his ability to do this role - in front of this audience - leave as Helena looked at him after her line and his face flushed bright red. He promptly dropped everything and scrambled around to pick it up and make his way over.

"That looks bad," he said, not really looking at her arm at all. He started to cover it in gauze, awkwardly and with none of the precision he had brought to the role thus far (for the main part, at least), especially now that he was in front of an audience and he realized that Coach Fox had to be out there too.

Wait. No. That was wrong. He'd forgotten something. Geoffrey fumbled his wand out of another pocket and his eyes met Helena's.

Hell, she was going to laugh. "It might be serious," he insisted. "You probably should take some pepper-up or- er... something. I'm sure I've got some around here somewhere," he started to go through the medical bag he had been carrying.

Regaining her composure, Helena raised her eyebrows. “Pepper-Up?” she asked. "For a scratch? Where in your class did you graduate from the Healer's Academy, anyway?"

"Top," Geoff said. "With honors," He added. "Are you claiming to know more about this than me? You're a Quidditch player for Merlin's sake. You need to have pepper-up because.... er... because," Geoff dried and froze for a moment. "Because," he said, recovering. "you look a little peaky. Probably shock."

"Peaky," Helena repeated. "I look peaky. Because that vase is so much more damaging than a Bludger that I've gone into shock. " She shook her head. "And you Croladrens claim to be smart."

"I should rub some of this in as well," he said, pulling a jar marked 'Bruise Balm' from the bag, ignoring her completely and starting to unscrew the lid.

“There is nothing wrong with me,” Helena insisted. “Just…go away, won’t you?”

Geoffrey shook his head.

"Trust me," he said. "I'm a medic." And he wrapped her arm even more, slowing down to savor the process as he slowly mummified her arm.

“I thought you were a Healer,” she said, sounding more than a little inane. Absurd? ‘Awkward’ was suddenly a better word. It had to be the audience or…something.

16 Crotalus Romeo and Juliet - Act I, Part I 0 Crotalus 0 5

Crotalus

April 30, 2009 4:44 PM

Romeo and Juliet - Act I, Part II by Crotalus

“I thought you were a Healer,” she said, sounding more than a little inane. Absurd? ‘Awkward’ was suddenly a better word. It had to be the audience or…something.

Gwen came on stage at that point and did an exaggerated double take at the sight of “Wolfe”. Hands on her hips, she marched over to Laurie in her Flatt wig. “What’s going on with that?” she demanded, pointing to the happy, gauzy couple. “He’s not supposed to be here.” She paused. “Wait, dude, you’re not supposed to be here.”

Laurie gulped internally; while the play was intended to allow for improvisation, she wasn't the best at it really. Still, though, in proper fashion, she adopted a (hopefully) Flatt-esque expression of seriousness and stuffed the cigar back into her mouth. "You mean you didn't hear? I brought the karaoke machine."

“Karaoke?” Gwen said, suddenly brightening and forgetting all about the gate-crashers. “Excellent!” She headed off the for the indicated corner while the spotlight switched back to Geoff and Helena, the latter of whose arm might never be the same by the time she got all that gauze off.

16 Crotalus Romeo and Juliet - Act I, Part II 0 Crotalus 0 5

Crotalus

April 30, 2009 4:48 PM

Romeo and Juliet - Act II by Crotalus

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"So, dearest Audience, our fated ones have finally met: the dashing Wolfe, heroic with his handy gauze, and the devilish Fox, ever devious with her non-wounds." Laurie reminded herself to slow down, her breath still short from the quick costume change; once again, she was in Professor Baer regalia. "But all does not bode well for our couple: Jenkins seeks Fox's Quidditch hand for his own, and Wolfe is out of nearly twelve feet of gauze. Will a night-time visit by his darling Fox help him in his re-stocking? Let's watch and see."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Balancing on a stationary broom while holding rocks with one hand and throwing them with the other wasn’t exactly easy, but neither was it especially harder than passing a Quaffle while the same broom was speeding. As Helena had some experience with that, her main worry was that she’d accidentally concuss Geoffrey before he could say his lines. Finally the “window” broke and what was left opened, allowing her to stop throwing rocks at him.

The stage had been altered to reflect a pristine bedroom. Sitting in front of a set of drawers with the bottom one open and a pile of rolled up socks to one side, Geoffrey/Wolfe took great pains to put them in a very specific order - despite them all being exactly the same. There was a smashing sound, and Geoff ducked hurriedly as the "prop" rock nearly hit him square on the noggin. He scowled for a moment, but remembered to stay in character and not complain about health and safety. Until he remembered he was Wolfe.

"You should be more careful," he said, getting up and looking through the broken "window", and then peering further down to where Helena was hovering on her broom. He used his wand to open the window, so he could see her better and, to avoid being cut by the broken glass while he continued to speak. "Aside from the dangers of broken glass - lacerations, cuts - you could have done me a serious injury, and I'm the medic! It's all very well and good for you, not that you should be doing anything that might endanger- You know there are anti-flying charms around here, don't you? It's very dangerous to be flying when there are charms like that around. You could be seriously injured."

“I don’t care!” she called up, in what sounded more like schoolyard taunting than the Quidditch coach. “Lonely up there, Wolfe?” A major problem in this scene had been having no idea how to hit on anyone as Helena Layne, much less as Amy Fox. “Because I could totally come keep you company!”

Geoffrey shook his head. Helena was devoutly glad she couldn’t make out his expression under the bright lights and with the distance. “Listen, Miss Fox,” he said. “Your interest is – I mean to say, I really, er, don’t think we have that much in common.”

“Well, I – “ she began, then cut herself off as the character broke the anti-flying wards. Pretending to crash was considerably harder than doing the real thing, so it was lucky she didn’t actually have to slam into the stage. Pretending to be summoning-charmed through the window was easier.

“I think I hurt myself again,” she informed him, proffering her perfectly intact arm. Geoff took out his wand to summon gauze.

“You know,” he said. Helena carefully looked a little past him, for both their sakes, “You are somewhat attractive.”

As her arm was, once again, being wrapped in an excessive amount of gauze, she leaned in as if she were going to kiss Geoff, hoping the angle hid the fact she was blushing. It was one thing to tell her brother she was going to spend the entire act making out with someone just to see his expression, but it was quite another to actually be forward, even if it was in character. In the background, the door slammed open, ending the “moment”.

“Wolfe, I need some Sober-Up potion, immediately,” Charlie said with her arms folded, trying to look more imposing than she felt barging in on two much older students. She cast a disdainful look at Helena, but otherwise ignored her. “Flatt’s been on the Firewhiskey again,” she complained, wondering whether they would get into trouble for implying the History of Magic professor was always toasted.

"Stop all of that talking woman and get me my cigar!" Laurie yelled in her best drunk!Flatt impression.

Ignoring the exchange, Helena Summoned her broom and flew back out the window, managing to hit her head in the process. At least the lights went down at almost the same time and it wasn’t real stone.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Adelita stood near Geoff, watching him silently for a moment as though contemplating something important. “Now, as a mother, I have much wisdom to give.” Lita informed the Wolfe imposter. “Amy and you should really have a meeting with the Headmaster, Professor Flatt, and Professor O’Leary to discuss running your relationship by the administration.” Lita wasn’t quite sure why Flatt and O’Leary had to be present, but she assumed that was there just for something the audience could laugh at.

Geoff looked up from cleaning his shoes, his wand still pointed at them. “The solution you propose is quite flawed,” he pronounced. “Professors Flatt and O’Leary hate each other, and the Headmaster is hardly going to approve of coworkers…dating.”

At that point, Helena made her entrance. Her Crotalus Quidditch robes weren’t quite what the Coach would actually wear, but considering how difficult it was to manage the scenes where she was and wasn’t supposed to be dirty, she thought she could be forgiven for not going all-out on her costume. This was a scene where she was supposed to be dirty and hitting on Geoff, making it doubly uncomfortable.

“Well, I’m here, Wolfe,” she said, trying for a suggestive smile and turning about the same shade of red as her robes. This had been awkward in rehearsal; with an audience, it was excruciating. “What did you want me for?”

At the sight of the more aggressive Fox, Wolfe’s nerve failed him. Instead of trying to frame an answer to that, Geoff hurried to try to hide behind Adelita. Since he was considerably taller than her, that didn’t work out too well.

Adelita was amused by the fact that Geoff had to cower behind her. She wasn’t even 5 feet in height and was a petite thing that the wind could probably blow her over if it blew hard enough. “I’m a mother,
you know.” She commented lightly while the two of them went back and forth.

Helena shook her head as Geoff retreated behind Adelita. “Nicolas,” she said sternly, “this is not going to work if you keep avoiding me. Are we in a relationship or are we not?” A relationship. She should win an award for ‘most awkward phrasing’ or something.

“You can’t blame me for being worried about the repercussions,” Geoff argued back. “I’d rather not be fired, you know. And besides – “ he remembered to pause dramatically – “you’re all…dirty.”

“The two of you should get married.” Adelita suggested to the two of them. “Then no one can do anything about it.”

Geoff gaped at Adelita’s suggestion. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said. “What would people think? A Croladren and a Pecenpaw?”

“And we just met,” Helena sputtered, crossing her arms. “I mean, I know we work together, but – he’s a Croladren, and I’m a Pecenpaw. We’ve never interacted before the other night.”

“You know, as a mother-“ Lita stopped in mid-sentence as the interruptions from Helena and Geoff came about.

“Fine, fine!” Geoff interrupted the first year, throwing up his hands to avoid hearing any more of the lecture. “I’ll marry her.”

At the same time, Helena threw up her hands. “All right, all right,” she said. “We’ll get hitched.” That said, they looked at each other incredulously as the lights went down.

16 Crotalus Romeo and Juliet - Act II 0 Crotalus 0 5

Crotalus

April 30, 2009 4:55 PM

Romeo and Juliet - Act III by Crotalus

Despite having gone through the entire story too many times to count, the silliness still got to her. It was with a voice heavy with laughter that she re-appeared on stage, her Professor Baer name-tag slightly askew. "Love is in the air- and sometimes it falls as well, it seems. Fox loves Wolfe, and Wolfe seems to love her back- and with Professor Kiva on their side, what could possibly stop them now?" She paused, acting as if waiting for an answer. "You mean beyond the fact that Flatt and O'Leary hate each other and would rather see their bodies torn asunder than find them trading love letters over the breakfast table? Let's wait and see how our faithful couple manages this challenge."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Gwen didn’t personally think the library set looked all that much like the Sonora Academy Library, but to be a set thrown together in under a minute, it wasn’t bad. And considering just how unlikely it was that the librarian would ever let anyone, staff or not, sing karaoke at the circulation desk, it didn’t really seem to matter much. She knew nothing about music, which made hitting wrong notes for Adelita to spill tea over much easier.

Newlyweds were supposed to be happy, and Nicolas Wolfe was supposed to be a happy newlywed. So Nicolas Wolfe, when he entered the library to discuss this development with his good friend Tarquin, was smiling broadly in spite of the facts that he never smiled and Gwen Carey couldn’t play karaoke to save her life.

Gwen looked at the smiling Geoffrey indignantly. “What’s your problem?” she demanded. “You don’t like my music? You mocking me?”

Adelita, who had been sitting at the ‘back’ of the stage holding a stuffed cat and pretending to spill tea everywhere during Gwen’s solo, stood and as awkwardly as she could tried to intervene between the two of them, “Now, now, let’s remember that this is a library! Inside voices.”

“Oh, shut up, man,” Gwen snapped, then used her microphone to smash his teacup. At the sight of the smashed teacup, Adelita fell to her knees in silent agony over the lost substance.

Seeing that Paul Simon was a danger to himself (herself?) and others, Geoff-as-Wolfe whipped out a roll of gauze. Tying Gwen up with said gauze was both awkward because she was, well, a girl and painful because she didn’t fake-struggle very well and nearly elbowed him in the eye in addition to kicking him in the shin. Several times.

This was one of the parts Gwen hated. Not only because she had to let Geoff Spindler wrap her up in gauze – something that just seemed vaguely wrong – but because, as she “struggled” with the gauze, she was at serious risk of being trampled under the rush of Amelia, Charlotte, Lila, and Earl. Two of them, at least, had definite motive, and the other two were excitable little underclassmen.

“What’s going on?” Amelia bellowed, trying to make O’Leary as scary as the students rumored him to be. Noticing mummified Gwen, she pointed in an accusatory manner. “Look what’s been done to Paul Simon! I demand justice!”

Laurie rushed in as well, back in full Flatt mode. At her cue, she threw in the necessary quip. "And Tarquin's lost a damned good cup of tea- where's his compensation? Where's the justice there?"

Lila rolled her eyes. “Tea is such a weak beverage anyway,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Go get a cup of coffee already.”

Joining in, Charlie put her hands on her hips and retorted to Lila, “Never mind the beverage – if you want to talk about weak then talk about teaching charms. It’s barely a subject.”

Earl didn't know how he ended up in this play. He had been convinced by Eavan that doing the sets would be fun. And that part had been. It was his first real foray into using magic for painting and drawing and it had definitely been interesting. But somehow Lila had coerced him into playing a small part. The Headmaster, nonetheless. The Headmaster who was no longer going to be the Headmaster after this year. It put a serious damper on the supposedly 'funny' part. And the wireless strapped to his back was awkward. At least he had the common sense to put a featherlight charm on it.

Earl burst into the scene, supposedly to see what the annoying screeches were. He pretended to look affronted at everyone arguing and at the loss of tea. “Now, calm down everyone,” he said almost too soothingly. He patted the wireless as though comforting it too. He turned to Geoff and tried his best to look stern. “This loss of tea is so egre—egre—bad...” he ad libbed because he still couldn't pronounce the word in the script.”...so bad that death is not good enough. Instead you shall be fired!” he ended with a flourish, pointing randomly into the distance. He patted his wireless for good measure. He glared at Geoff until he walked off stage. Okay, this was a little fun.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Helena was pretending to polish her broom when Adelita, once again her role as Professor Kijewski, came onto the Pitch set with the light. “Hey,” she said. “What’s up?”

Adelita gracefully made her way onto the stage. Like her other scenes as Professor Kijewski, her hair was done in massive curls while she donned capris and a tee-shirt. She was hoping her attitude was giving off the ‘Mother Nature’ vibe. “I have terrible news for you, Amy.” Lita tried to look as though she was about to give the news of death to Helena. “I’m still a single mother! No, wait, that’s not what I meant to tell you. I meant to say, Wolfe has been banned from Sonora for good.”

Laying aside her broom, Helena crossed her arms. “Well, that sucks,” she said. “Long-distance marriages never work out.”

Lita waived off Helena’s cynicism. “Non-sense! All we have to do is prove to the Headmaster just how important Wolfe is to the school.”

“Yeah, right,” Helena scoffed. “What are we gonna do, poison half the staff?”

Lita’s face lit up when Helena said poison. “Oh, that’s actually a good idea!” She hit her fist against the palm of her hand like she had seen her father do a thousand times when something came to him rather suddenly. “You should poison the school and then send for Wolfe to save everyone!”

“I’ve heard worse plans,” Helena said finally, deciding just not to deal with the weirdness of pretending to plan murder with a firstie. “Let’s do it.” With that, the lights fell on them and almost immediately came up on the group of O’Leary, Taylor, and Jenkins.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

“How about this,” Amelia suggested, still trying to maintain the lower voice she’d been using for O’Leary, but fearing it was getting worse by the line. “I promise to arrange a date between you and Coach Fox, on the condition that you can acquire for me some new decorations for my dungeon.” She frowned, knowing the expression would look more believable – and hence more amusing - on the real O’Leary. “I think the gloom and doom look might be on its way out.”

Josh sat in the chair, leaning secretively towards Amelia trying hard to act as though this were a common occurrence. He looked thoughtful for a moment at Amelia’s compromise before finally giving her an answer, “Alright, it’s a deal.”

As they negotiated, Lila leaned in to hear “O’Leary” and “Jenkins” as they made their deal. “I’ll go along with it if you’ll stop trying to figure out how to get into our common room,” she said, tossing her perfectly straight hair over her shoulder. “It’s frightening the students.”

She didn’t get the gist of the joke – Allie told her nothing about Teppenpaw, just as she told Allie nothing about Crotalus – but had stopped consciously thinking about what she was doing a long time earlier. If she hadn’t, she would have already fallen down gibbering over the fact that they were all highly likely to be expelled.

Offstage, Helena fake-sneezed violently, then said, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” while picking at her nails. The light moved off the second set of plotters and back to the narrator.

16 Crotalus Romeo and Juliet - Act III 0 Crotalus 0 5

Crotalus

April 30, 2009 4:59 PM

Romeo and Juliet - Act IV by Crotalus

"Things seem to be heading down a dark path for our fated couple. Wolfe's been canned, Tellerman's been gauzed, and Fox is being setup for a blind date- what could possibly happen now that could be worse?" The requisite pause was given, Laurie fighting back a grin from the ridiculousness of her lines. "Wait, that's right. Kiva and Fox plan on poisoning the school in order to bring back Fox's lover-man Wolfe. And so a messenger is sent to Wolfe's hotel, to tell him of the plan. The messenger, it seems, though, is hardly reliable. Somehow, I don't think this bodes well. . . let's wait and see."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

To play the part of Professor Schmidt, Gwen had needed to get creative. The warped aspect of her, of all people, playing the ugliest human being she’d ever laid eyes on had appealed to her enormously, but…she wasn’t ugly in a normal way, much less an ex-Potions-Master way. And there was no way she was going to produce the effect magically – what if it got stuck?

The answer had come to her in a flash of inspiration, and that flash of inspiration was why she was wearing a very bad mask.

The lights came up on a hastily-assembled hotel-room scene, with Geoff Spindler circling job ads in a paper. Gwen, oversized robes thrown over her Paul Simon Tellerman costume but with her hair still pinned up under the same beret, strolled in casually, as though nothing at all urgent was afoot.

Geoff looked up in surprise at Gwen’s appearance. “Who – “ he began, then stopped. “Oh, I remember you. You’re that Potions professor who barely showed up before you left. What was up with that?”

“I’ve got this disease,” Gwen explained, gesturing blithely to her mask. “I can only appear for three lessons. Good for you that this all came up between the Advanced and Intermediate classes.”

Geoff laid down the newspaper slowly. “What is ‘all of this’?” he asked suspiciously. “Why are you here?”

Gwen wished she could screw her face up in thought, but that was a tad difficult when it was a stationary mask. Instead, she looked toward the ceiling, drumming her fingers against her thigh as she 'tried to remember'. “Oh, yeah! Amy Fox – the Quidditch Coach at Sonora? She got poisoned, and we need a cure.” She shrugged. “Guess there’s one thing John Fawcett can’t do, huh?”

Geoff sprang to his feet, upsetting his chair. “Dearest Amy!” he exclaimed. “I must go at once!” Not pausing to throw anything into a medical bag, or otherwise do anything rational or normal, he grabbed the huge roll of gauze sitting on the nightstand and ran offstage, leaving Gwen behind as the lights went down.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

When the lights came back up, Helena – still in Quidditch gear – was sitting behind a cauldron on the Pitch set, holding up a huge mock-book entitled How to Brew Bad Stuff. She looked up as Josh walked out on stage. “What do you want?” she asked, making it clear that what she wanted was for him to go away.

Josh stood with air of confidence. He was trying to portray what he thought a snake of a man would look like. He didn’t know if he was making his face right or making himself look like he was constipated. “O’Leary promised me a date with you.”

“Uh, no,” she said, lowering the prop enough to give him a derisive look. “O’Leary is not the boss of me, and I am not going on a date with you.”

“If you don’t go on a date with me…” Josh paused here for dramatic effect before giving Helena a sneer of a smile, “I’ll ban Quidditch.”

Helena gaped at him. “You - !” Remembering that she didn’t have a line there, she turned beet-red, then glared at him, snapped, “Fine!” and bent back over the cauldron, hoping to get herself back under control before she had to say her next line.

She didn’t, but the show had to go on. Once Josh was gone, she looked up from the cauldron, hoping the audience would take her flush for anger instead of embarrassment. “That’s it,” she told the audience solemnly. “I can’t wait any longer, and I certainly can’t go out with that idiot. I’ve got to move the poisoning up to tonight.”

16 Crotalus Romeo and Juliet - Act IV 0 Crotalus 0 5

Crotalus

April 30, 2009 5:02 PM

Romeo and Juliet - Act V by Crotalus

Laurie made a mad sprint across the stage, arriving barely in time for the spotlight. Her Flatt wig hung haphazardly from her forehead, and the name-tag was barely legible. "A wrong message, a forced date, and an expedited timeline- oh my! What will happen now?" The light immediately extinguished, and she was back behind the curtain, shucking off the rest of the Baer-guise.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

When the focus moved away from the narrator and back to the main cast, Helena was at the back of the Cascade Hall set, her arms folded, an attempt at a deeply satisfied look on her face. The rest of the “staff” – or what of it wasn’t incapacitated from the library scene, anyway – was taking goblets. The original plan had been for “students” to drink the “poison”, but they’d run out of actors and had to make it a staff banquet. Picking up one as the tray came her way, Helena stood, drawing the attention of the group.

“I say we have a toast,” she said firmly. “To all of us!”

As she put her (untouched) cup back down, the doors burst open, revealing Geoff.

Geoff threw the doors open dramatically, letting them bang against the ‘walls’. The noise wasn’t quite what throwing the real Cascade Hall doors open would have been, which added something to the bizarre humor of the performance. “Amy!” he shouted. “Everyone, stop!” But it was too late.

At the sight of Geoff bursting onto the set, Amelia jumped to her feet, upending her goblet in the process. “He’s supposed to be fired!” she shouted, her bat-like robes billowing with every movement. “I say we kill him!” It was all getting a bit dramatic, and Amelia had to try very hard to stop herself from laughing.

Laurie threw her cigar on the ground with plain relish and roared out her one line. "Get me a new cigar!"

Lila, down the way next to their O’Leary, glanced at Charlotte and took out her prop wand, which she waved at O’Leary, the objective being for Amelia to pick up on the cue and fall over as if punched in the face. Charlotte followed suit, sending Flatt into silence. Earl stared at the beloved wireless, seemingly oblivious to the goings-on around him.

Hurrying to the front, Geoff, trying hard not to think, grabbed Helena’s arms. “Amy,” he said, “it wasn’t worth it. You didn’t have to do this. I – I was going to get a job in Tumbleweed.”

Helena stared at Geoff in mock-horror for a moment. “You idiot!” she wailed finally, grabbing the front of his robes and immediately wishing she hadn’t. Physical contact made it all seem more…real. “Don’t you see? I only travel by broom! That would take an hour’s travel time every time I went to see you!” She tore herself away. “We can’t do this, Wolfe. Our love will never survive!” With that, she snatched up her abandoned cup, downed it, and almost choked for real. She was not used to drinking that fast.

“He - Amy!” Geoff cried in horror as Helena choked. The last thing they needed was for his costar to die on stage. He scrambled for his lines. “Amy, that wasn’t hygienic!” As she fell to the ground, he fell to his knees beside her.

Coughing, she tried to look like she was slowly falling to the ground without actually falling, and ended up just kneeling normally, then falling sideways and catching herself on one hand. She really was not cut out for the whole damsel-in-distress thing, which was probably, come to think of it, why the only date she’d ever had was the garden scene with Geoff and Adelita.

Forgetting to stammer, but sounding a little strangled after almost choking on the “poison”, she looked at Geoffrey as adoringly as she could manage while still trying not to cough and blush and said, “You know, I really did – “ her plan to stop coughing failed – “like you.” She choked again, this time on a laugh at her next line. “Even if you are kind of wimpy.”

“And I really, really liked you,” Wolfe said, his portrayer somewhat assured that Helena was not in real danger. “Even if you are really frightening.”

As Helena attempted her dying act of reaching for her beloved Wolfe, Gwen, out of her Schmidt robes and mask and back in Tellerman mode, strode into the Hall, brushing superfluous bits of gauze off her arms. Since Adelita couldn’t exactly be two characters in two places on stage at once, it was her job to pick up a fallen goblet and sniff at it distastefully.

“You can cut the dramatics now, Fox,” she said. “You, too, Wolfe. And everybody. It was pretty vile, but it wasn’t poison.” She smirked at Helena. “Guess someone can’t read her potions book.”

Everyone began to cheer as Helena, recovering at last from her mishap with the drink, sat up and stared at Geoff. He stared back.

Earl interrupted, lifting his wireless above his head. "Fox. Wolfe," he said, in the overly soothing voice he associated with Bulla. "I have been truly touched by your attempted mass murder, and your trek across the desert to see her."

“Actually,” Geoff said, not taking his eyes off of Helena, “I hailed the wagons. Desperate times, desperate measures.”

"Oh this reminds me of my favorite radio drama as a child!" Earl exclaimed over-zealously. "The Loves of our Very Long Lives." Earl sighed dramatically as he took the wireless from over his head and clutched it to his chest, stroking it as he spoke. "I hereby re-hire you! As long as Fox promises not try her hand at mass murder again."

Josh, arms folded and looking very disheartened, booed loudly when Earl announced that Wolfe was rehired.

About that time, Gwen appeared to notice the karaoke machine randomly standing in one corner. “Karaoke?” she said, already heading for it. “Excellent!”

As everyone cheered again, Helena said, “Hey, Wolfe!” Oh, Merlin, she was already blushing. “I think I injured my lips!”

Tossing aside the Flatt props- the wig, glasses, and pillow-enlarged robes- Laurie held up the name-tag decrying her supposed name. "And they lived happily ever after. The end."

16 Crotalus Romeo and Juliet - Act V 0 Crotalus 0 5

Anabel McIntosh

May 04, 2009 9:09 PM

Popular by Anabel McIntosh

OOC: Kept meaning to get this up and kept getting sidetracked by RL. My apologies. BIC:

One thing was certain, Anabel was almost positive that her heart was going to bounce out of her chest and into her throat. An awful knot seemed to somehow have lodged its way into her wind pipe, making it difficult to take a full breath of air. Although she was quite positive that body was caving on the inside, she worked desperately to maintain a cool facade. Her cheeks were the only evidence that she was anything but confident, their color heightening to a bright pink.

The pink did well for her, however. It accented the pink in her outfit, yet another gift from her parents, who had been more than pleased to learn that she had earned the solo. The robes were to die for. She slid her hands over the smooth material, working hard to keep her hands from shaking.

As the concert began, Anabel began a mental checklist of everything. Props. Check. Words. Check. Music. Check. Confidence.

Shaking her head, Anabel closed her eyes and breathed in deeply as Geoffrey performed. She was better. The best, in fact. She could do this, would do this and people would love it. She'd show Jenaye and Laurie and anyone else who thought she was anything less than the amazing person that she obviously was. They were stupid anyways.

Sooner, rather than later, Anabel heard Simon thanking Geoffrey, which of course meant that it was her turn. Opening her eyes, Anabel smoothed her hands over her shimmering robes one last time before making her way front and center.

Her props were set by the time she made it to her position and swallowed deeply as she tried to dislodge the lump in her throat. Squaring her shoulders, Anabel went to take her seat on the chair her parents had also sent. Crossing her legs, Anabel situated her hands on top of her knees and faced the audience with a superior look on her face.

The music started.

"Whenever I see someone less fortunate than I-“ Anabel began, leaning forward slightly with a sly grin on her face. “-and let's face it - who isn't less fortunate than I?” In a dramatic flair, Anabel’s hand raised to her chest as she continued on with the next line, “My tender heart tends to start to bleed.” Uncrossing her legs, Anabel quickly pushed off of her chair and to her feet as she moved forward with each beat of the next line, her hands spread nearly to jazz fingers. “And when someone needs a makeover, I simply have to take over, I know, I know-" At the second ‘I know’ Anabel pointed knowingly to herself, a pert grin formed on her face. “- exactly what they need.” As she drew out the note, Anabel moved closer to the audience. Her voice was clear and on pitch. The anxiety slowly began to ebb away as she began to get immersed in the song.

“And even in your case,” she sang slowly, eyeing a particular person in the audience with a knowing look. A grimace quickly came over her face as her hand rose to her chest, “tho' it's the toughest case I've yet to face.” Her hand dropped neatly to her side as she shook her head as though she questioning the success of her mission. “Don't worry - I'm determined to succeed!” Her hands rose quickly in the air on each side of her body, her feet moving to second position before she put one foot in front of the other and wheeled her entire body around before facing front again. She waved quickly to the audience, “Follow my lead, and yes, in-deed you-“ She paused for dramatic effect. “-will-“ An inspirational look came to her face. “-be…”

Biting her lip in anticipation, she winningly sang out the next line, “Popular!” She winked winningly as she pointed at the audience, “You're gonna be popular!” Nearly bouncing on the balls of her feet, a sense of enthusiasm seemed to creep over her body as she continued word on word through the piece, “I'll teach you the proper ploys when you talk to boys. Little ways to flirt and flounce.” Moving stage right Anabel’s hand moved as though she were beginning to make a mental list, “I'll show you what shoes to wear, how to fix your hair. Everything that really counts!”

She quickly moved back to center stage, “To be popular. I'll help you be popular!” She pointed her thumb to her chest before moving her hand to her chin as though in thought. “You'll hang with the right cohorts; you'll be good at sports.” At this she mimicked the motion the actress in the play had made, a motion that looked minutely like a Beater swinging a bat at a Bludger. “Know the slang you've got to know. So let's start 'cause you've got an awfully long way to go.” As the note drew out, Anabel quickly moved her way back to the chair, sitting back down daintily.

Placing her elbow on her knee and her chin on her hand, she frankly observed the audience. “Don't be offended by my frank analysis. Think of it as personality dialysis,” she sang the line as she sat back in her chair, her hands moving in a flippant manner. She then leaned forward her hands pressed firmly on her knees as she addressed the group once more, “Now that I've chosen to become a pal, a sister and adviser. There's nobody wiser.” She brushed her shoulders off, as though letting the audience know the importance of her merits. She then quickly pushed herself back to her feet, “Not when it comes to popular! I know about popular.”

With every other beat, she placed one foot in front of the other, performing a quick jazz square, “And with an assist from me, to be who you'll be instead of dreary who-you-were,” she stopped, shrugging her shoulders as a look of impatience covered her face as she stated, instead of sung the next word, “Are.” As though mentally shaking herself, she placed another bright smile on her face as she continued the song, clearly singing out the next words, “There's nothing that can stop you from becoming popu-ler.” Here she shrugged again, “-lar.”

Sashaying across the stage in a dramatic manner, she pointed her toes as she continued singing, “Laaaaaaa la, laaaaaaaa la.” She stopped and pointed at the audience, with another winning smile, “We're gonna make you pop-u-lar!” She ended with a quick ball change.

She performed a little pirouette, before stopping and putting her hands on her hips. “When I see depressing creatures with unprepossessing features I remind them on their own behalf to think of celebrated heads of state or especially great communicators.” She walked forward and across the stage, putting her hands to each side as though weighing the possibilities. “Did they have brains or knowledge?” She stopped, her eyebrow rising. “Don't make me laugh!” She giggled, placing a hand in front of her face.

Her voice was still clear and strong. She had had little to fear. Her eyes sparkled with triump. “They were popular! Please-" She raised her hand up in a knowing manner. Rolling her eyes with dramatic flair, she moved back to her chair and sat on the seat sideways, kicking her legs into the air. “It's all about popular! It's not about aptitude; it's the way you're viewed. So it's very shrewd to be…” She drew the note out for a moment before continuing, “…very very popular…LIKE ME!” She pulled a hand-held mirror out of the pocket of her robes and began to admire herself, running a hand through her hair.

Facing back toward the audience, she crossed her legs once more, the music slowing as it began to come to an end. She placed her hand which was holding the mirror neatly on top of her knee. “And though you protest your disinterest I know clandestinely.” She picked up the mirror and twirled it between her fingers before shaking it in the air at the audience. “You're gonna grin and bear it, your new found popularity.” On beat, she kicked her right leg in the air before switching them and kicking the left as they remained crossed. “Laaaaaa la laaaaaaa la you'll be popular.” She stopped moving, and slowly raised the mirror in the air as though admiring herself. “Just not as quite as popular as me!”

Upon finishing, Anabel winked at the audience, a broad grin forming on her face as she stood and curtsied. With a quick wave to the Ladies, Anabel turned on her heel and quickly exited the stage, a quiet "Yes!" of exclamation escaping her lips.

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Paul Simon

May 06, 2009 10:41 AM

Thank you, Crotalus by Paul Simon

He'd been told it was a Sonora adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, he'd even announced it as such, but seeing the words on his index card and seeing it in performance were two very different things. He nearly fell off of his chair during the first scene. When 'Paul Simon' appeared at the party, he was slightly relieved that the Crotali seemed to like him. He even laughed and clapped when Gwen went off in search of a karoake machine. He would do that.

He spent the next few scenes feeling bad for laughing at the foibles of his co-workers, and feeling secure in his own portrayal. And then Gwen started signing.

He really hoped that she was just on Saul's level of musical capability and that wasn't a scripted critique of his own skill.

Of course, considering what they were doing to the other staff, implying he couldn't carry a tune didn't seem that horrible.

He was secretly a little relieved that the Crotali students either hadn't picked up on his own flirting with Kiva, or just hadn't put it into the script. Every other secret the staff thought they had kept from the students had seemed to make it into the play.

He really hoped he hadn't been the source of most of the rumors that sparked the script. Of course, he might have spilled some beans to Saul, and Saul could have easily spilled them to whoever would listen.

The play did come to an eventual close, and Simon stepped out onto the stage again. "Thank you, Crotalus. That was . . . a certainly unique interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. I think I have to thank you: it never occurred to me to bring a karaoke machine to a staff meeting. The next one should be a lot more fun."

He waited for the chuckles from his joke to fade before going into his introduction for Aladren's group act.

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