I let out a breath, making sure my lapel mic wouldn’t pick it up. For the first time, I was calm enough to really take in my surroundings. Prior to this point, I was laser-focused on performing everything correctly. I glanced offstage and saw Looney smiling proudly. Then I looked out at the audience and saw Elle clasping her hands anxiously while Zuka grinned. Here on stage, I was surrounded by my beloved classmates, including the guy who gave me the courage I needed: “Pedestrian B,” who wasn’t wearing a mic at all since he (tragically) didn’t have any lines.
Gosh, this past month has been so much fun, I thought to myself out of nowhere. Maybe Looney’s spontaneity had rubbed off on me, because I was just suddenly so…happy. Everyone was so awesome, and the costumes, the set pieces, the sound, the lighting… Everyone’s talent and hard work and perseverance had gotten us this far. I was truly blessed to be here, standing among them. And without Looney’s ambitions, this whole play never would have happened. I could never admit it to her face, of course, since she was such an oddball. It’d be too awkward.
She knew exactly what she wanted to do, and she went out and did it without ever hesitating. As for me, I was terminally wishy-washy, and not in a cute way. I simply couldn’t decide what future I wanted for myself. My mind was an ocean of pluses and minuses… Ugh, if only I could stop being pathetic and focus on what I want to do with my life like everyone else…
“…Huh?”
Then, at long last, I realized I had done the unthinkable. I had zoned out. While I was still on stage. I had gotten lost in thought and forgotten everything. And it wasn’t until the girl next to me was forced to nudge me on the shoulder that I realized it was my turn to speak.
Oh God, I can’t believe I screwed up here of all places!
Hastily, I adjusted my lapel mic. It was the final piece of dialogue in the play, just three lines long.
C’mon, I gotta say it right! Everyone’s counting on me! Looney’s dreams are riding on this! Looney’s…dreams…
The girl next to me looked at me with concern.
I know, I know. It’s my turn. It’s my last line.
Looney had instructed me to boldly direct my final line at the audience; I remembered that much, at least. So I turned my body to face them. The stage lights shone into my eyes, penetrating my skull until my mind went as white as a sheet.
I had never experienced anything like this.
“Wh…wha…huh?”
It felt like I had fallen into a bright white abyss. An endless abyss. And I was trying desperately, desperately, to remember everything that had led up to this moment, but there was nothing to grab onto, and I kept falling, falling, falling.
Uh…uhhh…uhh…wha…what…what…what’s my line?
My silence dragged on a little too long, and now I could feel everyone else on stage starting to panic. Then the audience picked up on said panic and started to whisper amongst themselves. My five senses were oddly sharpened, so I could hear it all:
“What’s wrong?”
“Brain fart?”
“Ugh, right at the end?”
“That’s so sad…”
Wait…n-no…it’s not that… I didn’t forget… I swear, I remember… I mean, we did this scene a dozen times… C’mon, c’mon, I gotta say something! I know I gotta say something, but…I can’t…think of anything… I can’t remember! I can’t, I can’t, I can’t! Right when I finally stopped being scared… C’mon, everyone’s counting on me! Looney’s dreams are riding on this! At this rate, I’ll…I’ll ruin everything…!
I knew this, and yet the words wouldn’t come. Why? Maybe my throat was blocked, because they came out through my eyes instead. In the form of tears.
Miki—you tend to stumble headfirst into trouble whenever you’re feeling cocky.
Why now, of all the worst possible moments? My legs were jelly again, except worse this time. It felt like my knees were ready to give out at any second. I can’t pass out, no matter what! Desperately, I struggled to stand my ground.
But truth be told, I was fighting a losing battle. In the end, the only thing that kept me upright was the person who dashed out from backstage and wrapped their arms around me to prop me up. I was still in panic mode, and I couldn’t think straight. But as murmurs rose up from the audience, I heard a voice in my ear that lodged itself straight into my brain.
“It’s okay, Miki-chan. Don’t worry. Just take a deep breath.”
“…Looney?”
At last, I understood. Looney was holding me. She had removed her lapel mic, but I had accidentally spoken into mine, and my voice carried across the gym. For better or for worse, however, I was no longer worried about screwing up the show. All I knew was that she wasn’t supposed to be onstage.
“L-Looney, you can’t be out here!”
“Hmm?”
“You dummy! You’re messing it up! Your dreams, your college, your goals, your beam…it’ll all lean negative!”
I was babbling like a crazy person, and everyone in the room heard me. They must have felt my panic. The audience was uncomfortably quiet. And as a result, my lapel mic picked up Looney’s voice.
“But Miki-chan…you’re crying.”
What are you talking about?
“Who cares? Your dream—”
“Friends come first. Only an idiot would stop to worry about that stuff.”
No, that’s backwards! An idiot WOULDN’T worry about it!
But my feelings didn’t reach her. Instead, she hugged me tightly and whispered so only I could hear: “I’ll handle this.”
Then, still dressed in her villain robes, she walked over to the narrator. What was she planning to do? How was she going to fix it?
Then she snatched the narrator’s mic and addressed the audience directly. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to apologize to you.”
I’m sorry… This is all my fault…
“We’re sorry for deceiving you, but…we were putting on an act.”
I could practically see the thought bubbles over everyone’s heads, including my own: No kidding, Sherlock!
Looking back, no one understood what she was getting at.
“Yes, this was all an act. You see, it occurred to me that, in this world of unending strife, perhaps humanity could never truly unite unless there was a greater evil. And so, to become humanity’s most formidable foe, I had no choice but to transform myself into evil incarnate. But once the people vanquished that evil, I knew they would need a leader. So I forced my friend to take up that mantle. And once she defeated me, I was prepared to never set foot in the civilized world ever again. But she couldn’t bear to subject me to that…and I couldn’t bear to abandon her when she was hurting. So our plan failed, all because we were too naive. We were only ever pretending to be superhero and villain. But think about it: when the time comes that a true villain reveals themselves, are we sure that a true superhero will rise up to fight? If we don’t join hands today, we might be too late by tomorrow. And that’s the moral of this story.”
Once Looney’s speech came to an end, classical music started to play—that was our ending theme. Then the stage lights slowly faded to black, and the curtain fell. One or two people hesitantly started clapping, and after a moment of hesitation, the rest of the audience joined in until eventually the applause was genuine.
“That’s the moral of this story” was the cue I was supposed to say to signal the end of the show. But Looney hadn’t simply recited my lines in my place. Whatever speech she gave just now, it wasn’t in the script at all.
Then it dawned on me: perhaps she had prepared an alternative ending in advance, just in case I messed up. Feeling sad and guilty, I took off my lapel mic and thanked her in a shaky voice as we stood there in the darkness.
“Hoo boy. You know, I wasn’t sure what I was doing when I took that mic, but maybe I just have a knack for improv.”
Are you kidding me? That was all off the top of your head?
There was no denying it—she was a lunatic, through and through. That speech could have gone wrong in any number of ways! Instead of simply letting me take the fall, she could have single-handedly screwed us up even worse!
But…she didn’t.
I wouldn’t call our play a success, but somehow, Miss “Friends Come First” managed to brute-force her way to a happy ending. Ugh… I never wanted to admit it, since it’d be awkward, and I wasn’t even trying to flatter her, but nevertheless, it trickled out with my last tear.