Major Drama

"HOW COULD SHE?!", a wailing cry echoes from across the hallway of where the result of the Romeo and Juliet cast was pinned. An enraged Claire Hopkins and her troupe: consisting of Mandela Diaz and Lila Giani, push the crowd, slamming their low heel boots across the marble school floor in their identical matching outfits: light tight jeans under a neutral checkered sweater dress with matching high pony tails.

Claire's eyes were fixated on me. "Is it me or she coming towards us?", I grabbed Gabriel's hand, tangling our fingers into each other tightly as he shrugged in confusion watching the entourage. "Why is she looking at me like that?", I whisper to him before he could answer Claire intercepts, standing directly in front of us.

"YOU!", she points at me sharply with her eyes, squinting, while her harsh words flow out of the irritated mouth. "How even-- How-- How could you!", she breathlessly pauses as she fixes her sentence, "I don't know how you did it or what you did to get the lead, but I will find out and expose you!", she threatens.

"What?! The lead? What are you talking about?", I shrug puzzled by her uncomfortable approach.

Mandy aka Mandela mentions with attitude in support of her friend, "Erm, have you not seen the cast list on the school board? You stole Claire's part!"

"How? What's Claire's part?!", I ask in genuine concern as I really don't need to make an enemy in the drama community.

"Oh please... like you don't know!", Lila imposes a snotty tone.

"I really don't!"

"Erm Juliet??! The audacity to take a part you failed in perfecting at the auditions!", Mandy mentions the lead as she savagely tells me off.

"She must've done something, like bribe the judges!", Lila connivingly suggests with a snort.

"What?! Bribe? Look Claire if you want to be Juliet that bad then you can have the part", I try to call a truce while all 3 click their knuckles close together showing their inferiority as a horde.

"No. I don't want your pity! Everything I do is naturally accepted. I don't have to bribe someone to give me a part because I actually have talent!", she exaggerates the I's while disregarding my offer throwing insults at me as if I had really stolen a precious thing of hers.

Gabriel couldn't just stand by watching anymore, they hit a nerve, "Hey! Back off! It's enough one of you is having a go at her for something she's unaware of, but all 3 of you? Shame. Can't fight your own battles can you Claire without hiding behind your posse", he didn't want to involve himself into female drama, at the same time, he's aware that he's my boyfriend, thus the instinct to protect me kicks in.

"Be careful Gabe, you don't seem like you're doing any different for Jen", Claire tackles with her aggressive tone.

Having heard enough, I snap back, "He's my boyfriend. Ever had one of those, Claire? Or is the theatre all you have, besides your little gang?.", I have never been so furious, since my efforts to make amends failed.

"...I'm going to find out Winston, I'm going to expose you. Watch your back!", infuriated Claire waves her index finger threatening me as she prepares to walk away with her herd.

A couple seconds later, as Claire and her gang disappeared into the crowd, Kylie springs up on us from behind as Gabriel comforts me.

"Heyyy, what was that? I couldn't see. I just came from the board. Congrats on Juliet, Jen!", Kylie salutes with a hint wonder and excitement.

"I'll see you later", Gabriel heads to his advanced Biology class, untangling our fingers as he pulls away.

"Oh it's nothing Ky. Claire was annoyed about me getting the lead", I brush off the incident with Claire to Kylie.

"Screw Claire, I'm glad she didn't get it! How did you even get the role? Just curious by the way", surprisingly supportive response as I was sure Kylie wanted the lead role.

"I honestly don't know, I thought my audition wasn't that good", I shrug with concern as I literally have no possible idea how I could have gotten such a role. I'm not a professional, I don't have any history in acting/performing. As much as I hate to say it; claire was right, I have no real talent.

"In all honesty, I have seen better, but...", she becomes distracted by the emerging numbers of the time on her new flashy iPhone.

"What?", I question her, taken back by her but...

"Nothing! I am going to be late, I'll catch up with you after Spanish", she changes the subject and rushes off to her lesson. Just as well, I have French to study and learn myself anyway.

While walking to my lesson, I was in a wandering state of mind where I just felt and seemed lost. Was it because of the whole Claire situation, was it the professor, was it Kylie? All this thinking and I hardly notice Chad waving at me for the first time in a long time, "sup? You seem like you're in a trance", he queries.

"It's just... I don't know, Chad. I have French to get to, but-- it's so weird how I got the Juliet part, I was so sure Kylie had it in the bag", presenting my distress.

"Juliet? That stupid play? When will the Drama community come up with something new. Shakespeare is too repetitive now", he rolls his eyes in such disapproval.

"It's a classic", I nudge him as we walk side by side.

"It's no longer a classic if it's on a loop hun, it's plain annoying", expressing his annoyance with a baring amount of loathe.

We joke and chuckle about Shakespeare, and lightly dispute our opinions of him. I see myself finally arriving in French class, before heading in I wave farewell to my old buddy. As I go inside, I start pacely looking where to place myself somewhere the teacher wouldn't pick me to speak first when the time comes, I hide myself in the back corner of the room. When suddenly, our French teacher, Mrs. Beauvais, introduces a new french exchange student, Estelle De la Croix, "Bonjour, je m'appelle Estelle", she announces herself.

"Who would like to volunteer and help Estelle settle in, make her feel welcome until she becomes comfortable to manage by herself?", Mrs. Beauvais queries the onlookers with such enthusiasm.

"Is something wrong with her?", Asks Francis. Francis Granger, an astonishing French student with a lot of potential, so says our Mrs. Beauvais, until today.

"No, she's new. If you were new wouldn't you want someone to help you find your way around your new school?", she tries to resonate without sounding rude.

"I'm pretty sure I can figure it out myself. Have you even bothered asking her if she wants help?", Francis so bluntly questions attempting to call out Mrs. Beauvais for not having considered how Estelle felt.

"I-I'm sure she does", the redness of her pale cheeks pierce out as she nervously responds, cracking her unwary voice.

Without a second thought, an uptight Francis turns his head to Estelle with his nose held high and his proud French, "Hé Estelle, tu veux de l'aide pour trouver des choses autour de l'école ou tu préfères le découvrir par toi-même?"

"Ce n'est pas parce que je suis un étudiant étranger que je ne comprends pas l'anglais. Pour répondre à ta question, I don't mind, I would prefer someone show me the ropes to avoid any delays", Estelle shuts him down in such confidence, it's breathtaking.

The class snickers alongside Mrs. Beauvais from Estelle's stark reply, a hand shoots up, waving for attention, "I don't mind helping", a warm feminine voice expresses from the owner of that hand. I can't help but sense its familiarity, like I knew them but not really. She introduced herself, getting up and exposing her identity, Vanessa, Gabriel's Ex. Though I have been warned about her, I see no threat.

Mrs. Beauvais started the class as everyone settled down. We all had our notebooks out to take notes of our first French lesson since starting school again. By the time class was over I had only picked up 1 word: bonjour, I know its pathetic. I will pick up more probably by next week, hopefully.

It's only the beginning and I am exhausted. I hear a distant call, "Jennifer!", it howls louder the closer I walk. There stood Professor Vanderwalt, by my next class, asking for me to come in early to discreetly discuss a matter before the lesson starts, "you have heard about the lead role?", he asks with a less concerning voice implying as if I wasn't aware, to which I nod my head. "Okay, good! It wasn't easy convincing the others about you--"

I disrupt his speech preventing him from finishing that sentence, "You? You did this?", outraged by his actions I become so agitated, my head shaking in disappointment.

"Well yeah, I thought you wanted the role", he bafflingly utters noticing my expression.

"I don't!", I yell.

"But it's a good step ahead--", he tries to convince me before I cut him off again.

"I don't want it! I never did. Oh great! Now everyone will actually believe Claire about the whole bribe thing!", this is the point I realise how screwed I am.

"What? What bribe?", reacting stupified.

"Claire... her stupid posse, said something about me bribing someone into giving me the lead. I mean clearly I didn't get the role for my talent, did I", I hesitantly enunciate, almost breaking into tears. I couldn't even look at him, just kept glaring at the cold marble flooring within the class.

"But this is where you can prove them wrong. I had to get you the lead so it can help build your confidence--", again he tries to convince me sympathetically, placing his hands delicately on my shoulders.

I take a step back brushing away his manly fingers from my presence, finally locking eyes with him to show my disenchantment, "No! You didn't have to give me the lead. I never asked you to do that!"

"I-- we will discuss it later...", swivel-eyed, he locks up his desperate unsettling emotions as other students start to enter the classroom and take their seats. Upset, I take my seat and avoid looking at him throughout for the whole hour.

Time seemed to be going slow each time I would look up at the the clock that hung on the left side of the almost empty wall. At some point, I did notice the Professor's sorrowful eyes gazing towards me with such worrisome sentiment, I almost felt bad for him had I not been fuming, as class was ending soon with an eerily quiet atmosphere.

As soon as the bell went off, Professor posed with a professional posture when reminding everyone about Friday, "Remember everyone, assignments to present in 2 days, please make sure you get it done soon as you can since you will be assessed",

"Ah man! Why?!", grunts a familiar boy from the past few years, Nathaniel. I once had a crush on him, not sure if it was because of the warmth of his kindness he had towards me during the Michael phase. But now, like many of us, he's changed, a lot.

"Because I need to know if you need extra support before your actual exam next year. So from here on out, I will be assessing everything as I want everyone in my class to pass", Professor justifies swiftly.

"What sort of support?", an irritated Nathaniel continues to push.

"Extra homework and assignments, extra tutoring if I feel you're failing, also a one on one, etc", he lists.

"I wouldn't mind a one on one with you!", Estelle lets out a sly yet visible wink as she flirtatiously flatters her french from the back, drooling and oogling our Professor up and down like a ravenous predator.

"Haha, thank you. I really appreciate your enthusiasm", he laughably shut her down.

"Oh I think it's more than that sir...", dissatisfied and still hungry for his intimacy, she tries another attempt with her irresistible accent to court him.

From what myself and the other students can tell, Mr Vanderwalt seems very uneasy by Estelle's behaviour, so he ignores her wooing affections.