He places a rose in her hair

He stops for a moment and stares

Her beauty's a wonder,

Makes him forget about the end

Cause when it's all over

Who's really gonna care?

We walk, we walk

We just keep walking

We move, we move

We just keep moving on

We sing, we sing,

We sing at the top of our lungs

We walk, we walk,

We walk like nothing's wrong

We walk like there's nothing wrong ~

Before I could get off the floor, Jace grabbed my wrist. I gave him a questioning look as he removed something from his pocket. A tiny, flat and rectangular box with black and white stripes. It looked pretty classy. Colors Jace wore.

'What's that?' I asked, my excitement getting the better of me. He smiled and handed the box to me? 'Keep it.' He said, looking at my confused expression. 'What?'

'Keep it, Jessie. But don't open it yet.' With that he got up, and helped me up. 'When can I open it, then?' I asked 'I'll tell you.' He replied. We walked out the library together, my hand tightly gripping the box, no questions asked.

Once we reached the drama room, we were made to carry the props and carefully get them inside a truck sent by the theatre in Gate-out. Our bus was gonna leave in a few minutes so I decided to say goodbye to my pack, but since they had classes, I could only use the mind-link to say bye.

I had to sit next to Ashley in the bus, while Jace sat with some dude behind us. It was a long journey, but it was surprisingly fun. We all were singing songs from the musical throughout, and when we ran out, we started singing other popular songs. I laughed hard, and so did Ashley. We had fun. I wasn't expecting her to sit next to me. I thought she would be with one of her other friends, so it was strangely refreshing when she sat next to me. I was sitting by the window, Ashley next to me and Jace was behind Ashley. I know. I peeked.

I felt the box in my pocket. What is it? I was dying to know. I trusted Jace, as weird as that sounds, and I know opening it when he tells me to will have a perfect result but darn this curiosity.

It was chaotic when we reached Gate-Out. Other schools had already reached and were moving everything to their prop rooms. There were a lot of people moving around. No one was staying in one place except our school students, as we were all too busy watching the crowd of people already engrossed in their work.

'This never gets old.' Mrs. C whispered, snapping me out of my little moment. 'Okay, kids! Let's get to work! Here, that's our room and we have to move all out props in there. Ask the driver of that mover's truck to open the... trunk? Tell him to open the trunk please! Okay, move it, move it! Come on!' And we followed her orders. The other members of the props team were being very paranoid about something happening to the props and it was actually kind of funny to watch. A few actors also helped out, unlike Ashley who went off to chat with her besties. Even Noah was helping. Noah, Jaden, Jace and two other guys were carrying the bed towards the room and I did the job of clearing their way.

It took us about 45 minutes to finish up the prop moving work. Mrs. C was finally smiling and she happily told me that we have a lot of time until our show. There were three days left, after all. By that time everyone had already gone off to the hotel we all were to stay in. I waited until everyone had gone- everyone from my school that is- and took a little walk. Brytin High school was currently practicing so I wasn't allowed inside the theatre. I just asked them how long it would take them to finish up and a kindly fellow told me it would be half an hour more. I thanked him with a smile and decided to be in the hotel for a while. My roommates were some three other girls who were actors. They weren't communicating much with me and neither was I talking to them, making it very boring.

I sighed. Four more days of this torture. Really? At least we can leave as soon as our play gets over. Since our play is the last, the results will be announced right the next day, so we don't have to stay here any longer. Soon, it was 6:00pm and time for the first school to showcase their drama. People from many schools, theatres and other places were invited and seeing them didn't make me nervous at all. Yep, not one bit. I got dressed quickly and moved to the theatre, alone. My seat was at the center of the entire theatre, along with the rest of my school's drama students. The important people filled up all the front seats, getting a clear view of the entire stage. This place was not at all lacking, it resembled a real Broadway stage perfectly.

The Brytin High school was the first school to go, with A Phantom of The Opera. Well, it was mind blowing alright. Acting was almost flawless, props were good, and the main actor had girls from other schools fawning over him. Obviously, students from my school had seen better. We've got werewolves after all. And Jace. Who was human, but still. Boy, he got the looks. I've seen many girls staring and him and whispering among themselves, and they're not all from our school. Well, I was pretty awestruck too, looking at his muscles when he was doing all the heavy lifting of props when we had to move them. Damn, he must be working out every other day for sure. I mean, his muscles were better than some of WereStone's trainees!

Before Brytin's play could finish, however, I saw Jace standing and waving to me from the left end of the row I was seated in. I looked behind me to check if he was indeed waving at me, and yeah, he was as there was no one from my school from the thirty other seats next to me. Wait, where are students from my school seated then? Ah, maybe that's why Jace was here; to take me to wherever students from my school were seated. I waved back, smiling and stood up, low, and tried to get through the forty-something people sitting and watching the play, trying not to get disturbed by the stupid girl who was blocking their view and stepping on their feet. Accidentally, alright?

I hadn't seen Jace since the props were moved. I wonder where he was the whole day. I'll ask him, I thought.

I didn't get a chance to. As soon as I reached him, the first words I heard were 'Allyn, there's a problem.' I blinked and he elaborated 'Mrs. C is throwing a fit.' I paused and the person I was blocking –a girl from an unknown school- glared at me. 'What? Why?' I asked, as I moved out and Jace grabbed my elbow as he led me out of the theatre. Now I know how the alligator from that game Where's My Water felt. I need water.

It was quite a long walk so he took the time to explain. 'Green River High School had to cancel their viewing because the actress and three others students got injured when they were told Tom Cruise had come to see the drama, they all fought to run down the stairs, got a bit tangled, and fell. Actress broke her arm.' 'Well then why don't they use the back-up?' 'Back-up was one of the three who also fell and got hurt. This one broke her leg. Silly, really, how this happened.' I still didn't get it.

'Then do they have anyone else who can at least do the girl's dialogues?'

'They probably do.' Jace noted

'Then why not use her? Maybe they won't win, but it's better than cancelling!'

'But the male back-up wasn't trained properly either.'

'Why would they need the male back-up?'

'He fell, too. Broke his leg.'

I shook my head, sighing. 'Well, what's that got to do with Mrs. C?' I asked 'She's nervous about our play.'

'Why now? She was so happy today.'

'Allyn, Green River was the school showing before us. Now that they're gone, our show is day after tomorrow. And other than that...' 'What else, Jace?' I realized Jace had led me to where the big props were kept. We stopped walking.

My mouth fell open. 'No...' The damage done on the props was visible. The pink door of Elle's bedroom and another pink door were both covered with green paint. I breathed in. 'It's okay. It's only two doors. We can handle it.' 'That's not it.' He sighed and walked closer towards our big props. Right next to our exterior prop was a cardboard box full of the little things that matter. Elle's pink stuff, all turned green. 'What the! How the heck did the paint get here anyway?' And why only our props? 'Apparently, there was an open can of green paint on the steps and that's a reason why they all fell and this,' he gestured towards the holy green mess 'happened.'

That's when I finally heard Mrs. C or rather; I heard Mrs. C's sobs. Jace and I looked at each other and rushed towards her cries. 'Mrs. C!' I barged into the room where she was sat on a couch, covering her face, her red hair messy. I almost didn't notice Noah standing behind the couch. Almost.

'Jessie!' She looked up as soon I entered and she just resembled a puppy so much that I resisted the urge to "aww". 'Mrs. C! I saw what happened to the doors!' She pouted and covered her face again, crying. Everyone looked at me 'Uh... it's okay, Mrs. C. Jace and I can fix the doors! You don't have to worry a bit!' She looked up again 'What about the other props? Everyone has to practice and you have to fix the doors, what about the other thiiiiiings?' she whined and I was a bit taken aback by the mascara that was all over her face. It was the first time I had seen her like that. I contemplated taking her car keys and buying all the small props we needed to replace but then I remembered when I was bullied but no one ever helped me. And then I remembered how hard she worked all these days. 'Hey... Mrs. C?' she whimpered 'I think... I think I can, you know, buy the things we need and, you know, I can take your car, and there must be a Walmart somewhere,' Yes. Excuse me, we're in the middle of a forest 'It won't take too long either, so I can return and finish working on the doors too.' So this is how it feels to dig your own grave. Nice going, Jessie. But it was worth it when Mrs. C wiped her tears and gave me a smile. It made me feel better.

Later, I was given a list of the damaged props that we needed to replace and the car keys of someone's beat up truck which smelled of dirty socks. So the thing is... I can't drive. Never learnt how to. Never wanted to. After my parents' accident, driving just didn't feel right. I knew how everything worked, seen it a thousand times from the passenger seat, but I never did it myself. And now here I was, in the driver's seat of a pick-up truck and all I could do was breathe. My hands were actually shaking. I breathed out again. Darn...

Someone opened the door of the driver's seat and I jumped. 'J-Jace! What happened?' Don't stutter, Jessie. 'Well, I was pretty free and bored so I thought I should come along with you, and help out a bit.' He sounded very perky. Uh-oh. If he came along, he'd find out that I can't drive. I gave a shaky laugh, trying to find an excuse to make him leave, even though I wished he could stay. 'Now, aren't you getting down?' He opened the door wider and my eyes widened. 'Huh?' 'Come on, the job will be done faster if we both do the shopping, come back and finish the doors together. And, by the way, I want to drive.' On the inside, I felt the most relief I had felt in a while. Jace is coming with me. And he's driving. I sighed and realized that I was totally out of character. I raised an eyebrow 'And why should I let you drive?' Jace shrugged 'Alright, you can drive then.' And I immediately panicked 'No it's okay, you can drive!' I quickly got down and went to the passenger seat. I avoided eye-contact with Jace, but I thought I saw him smile and my heart skipped a beat.

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