“For this last part, I’d like to go over the action blocking for the finale between me and Miki-chan. Everyone else is free to go. Sorry it’s so last minute, Miyazato-chan, but could you adjust the size of the villain costume?”
“Sure!”
Luckily, the costume in question was just a plain floor-length black robe with a fox mask and a staff.
“Anyway, don’t worry about the hiccups. The worst of our bad luck is already behind us. Now go home, eat a nice big dinner, take a bath, and get lots of sleep. Come tomorrow, no matter what happens, we’re gonna have a blast. So that’s that! Dismissed!”
After that…reassuring?…farewell, everyone filed out of the auditorium, buzzing with excitement and anxiety. The numbers dwindled one by one, and once it was just the two of us, what I felt most wasn’t loneliness but fear. It was still the same auditorium we’d visited a thousand times, but without everyone else there to fill the space, I felt strangely out of place. Why was it so hard to breathe all of a sudden?
“L-Looney, let’s hurry up and get this blocking figured out! Oh, and you had better wear a bra tomorrow, got it?”
“Heh heh heh. No promises.”
One look at her stupid smirk and her spinning beam, and the fear inside me faded away. For once, her ability to make people ask themselves “Why did I ever bother worrying?” had actually come in handy.
Fortunately, we figured out all the stage blocking without much trouble. For the most part, I was the one doing all the jumping around while the villain moved her staff accordingly to block my attacks. Even Looney could handle it, and this was the same girl who somehow managed to take thirteen entire seconds to complete a fifty-meter dash.
“That was perfectamundo, Miki-chan! Now all that’s left is for me to spend the rest of the night learning to embrace the dark side… Yeah, that’s right. I’m not going to eat any of my carrots at dinner!”
“Wow. Diabolical.”
After we toweled off our sweat, took off our tracksuits, changed back into our school uniforms, and sprayed the whole auditorium with deodorizer, we locked up for the night and headed for the staff room, side by side. As we walked down the dimly lit hall, we could see light spilling out from inside. And when we finally reached the entryway, we arrived right as our teacher was stepping out.
“Here’s the key, broski!”
“That’s Sensei to you,” he replied sharply as he accepted the key.
I laughed. “Sorry, Sensei!”
“Be careful on your way home, now. Especially you, Miki—you tend to stumble headfirst into trouble whenever you’re feeling cocky. We’re all expecting big things of you tomorrow.”
“Just leave it to me, Teach! I’ll knock your socks off!”
“How many times must I tell you…” He sighed and then chuckled, as we turned and ran off.
You tend to stumble headfirst into trouble whenever you’re feeling cocky.
At the time, I hadn’t paid it much thought…but it wouldn’t be long until I came to regret not listening more carefully to that warning.
After a full night’s sleep and a balanced breakfast, I was in top form. On the way to school, everyone kept whispering about how nervous they were, but as for me, my heart was racing with excitement right from the moment I woke up. At the shoe lockers, I said hi to everyone, pulled off my outdoor shoes, and while I was at it, I went up and threw a friendly kick at Zuka’s back. On top of my game, baby!
As our director, I figured Looney would be a little nervous herself, so I checked in with her at the first opportunity. But she apparently really had embraced the dark side, because she kept referring to herself as a “Demon Lord.” She had this creepy blank look on her face, too. So I snapped her out of it by making her eat one of my carrots at lunch.
“You’re incredible, Mickey. I’ve had the jitters since yesterday. Couldn’t get a wink of sleep last night. Ugh, I’m such a loser… Break a leg, okay?”
Somehow Elle was even more nervous than the rest of us, and she didn’t even have to worry about going onstage. She had finished readjusting the villain costume, and sure enough, it fit Looney perfectly. Oh, and when the original actor walked in with his arm in a cast, we all ran over to doodle on it. This was a fitting punishment, I think.
That morning, Looney and the sound/lighting crew went to the gym to do a quick final check. When they returned, they told us that the gym windows were now covered in blackout curtains, which meant backstage would be even darker than usual. Fortunately, this wouldn’t be a problem, since we wouldn’t need to shuffle around too much while the lights were off.
The costumes and everything else had all been relocated to the gym storage room. We were ready. All we had to do now was knock their socks off.
After morning homeroom ended, we all filed into the hall and walked to the gym in an orderly fashion. We weren’t quiet about it, though. We were all way too worked up.
“It’s finally happening!” I whispered to Elle behind me in line.
She blinked at me for a minute and then shouted “Break a leg!” in an uncharacteristically loud voice that got us both in trouble with the teacher. But even that wasn’t enough to put a damper on our high spirits.
Arriving at the gym, I took a deep breath…and stepped inside.
The mood in the room was tense and curious and apprehensive and excited—nothing like it usually was. It felt like our thumping heartbeats were vibrating the floor, and everyone’s beams were going crazy, tilting positive and negative. And then there was Looney’s, spinning out of control, like always.
This is awesome. I am LIVING for this.
Today’s schedule was as follows: first up, the club performances—dance, band, choir. Next, the class performances. Then, lastly, we’d finish the day with a performance from the theater club. See, our school’s theater club was actually kind of a big deal; they put on a musical every year, and it was always a huge hit. And as it happened, the stage manager for our performance was a theater club member. With her help, Looney’s script had really taken on a life of its own. Plus, she was going to be acting in the theater club performance later today, so I was really looking forward to that.
We all sat down in our assigned section. Then they started off with the opening speech, and before we knew it, it was time.
The dance, band, and choir performances were all really good, and I recognized my friends from other classes among them, which was fun, but…my heart was focused on our superhero show.
Applause filled the gym as the club performances came to an end. At last, it was time for the five class performances. During the fifteen-minute intermission, the first class set up their stage while the second class got ready in the dressing rooms—and we were the second class.
There were two dressing rooms, one for boys and one for girls. But these rooms were too small to fit all of us, so the stage crew—costumers, prop designers, etc.—would stay behind while the cast members, including me, changed into our costumes. Then, when the first class finished their performance and the curtain fell, the crew members would rush to change out the set pieces while the cast waited backstage. Naturally, we had practiced this process during yesterday’s dress rehearsal.
As the cast rose to their feet, I could hear our classmates whispering “You got this!” and “Break a leg!” Meanwhile, set-designer-turned-villain Looney exchanged a fist bump with the injured actor—using his non-broken arm, of course. And with that, we headed to the dressing rooms. Everyone’s beams were flip-flopping around, even the people still seated.
The girls’ dressing room smelled like old sweat, but I used to do track back in junior high, so I was used to it. If anything, it put me in a competitive mindset.
“Gosh, Elle’s so talented,” Office Worker A commented behind me as I pulled an oversized tracksuit on over my superhero costume. And it was my costume she was referring to. Elle had designed it to incorporate both Looney’s overall vision and my own suggestions. It was an indulgent masterpiece, far surpassing our allotted budget and forcing our class adviser to pay for it out of pocket.