Alright, you caught me. I mentioned something weird back in the 2nd chapter. The play. The Wizard of Oz. You remember that? Course you remember, that’s an important part of the story! When is it important? Uh, right now, of course!
So the Elementary School puts on a play every year, and the actors they hire are the students. It would be held at some random theater nearby the school, and it was a big theater, too. I never was able to fully process how the school was able to rent out the theater with its budget. I’m assuming the tickets were high as balls or something like that.
Before this year, I’ve never gone to a single one of the school plays. I never found any use in any of going to one. Waste of my time, and I could be doing other things, so not only was it bad, it was… bad. Like, I don’t need to watch kids sing about Aladdin, I can just watch the movie!
Oh- yeah, I said ‘before this year’, which means that I’m going to the play this year. There’s a reason, don’t worry. A… big reason. I dunno.
I was walking into school one day, like, sometime in April, and I noticed a sign. There was a new, big sign that was on the wall where there’s like a lot of papers, those things? I-
On the sign, there was a big sentence in bold written at the top. ‘Last chance to buy tickets for ‘The Wizard of Oz’! Only 15 dollars!’
I, again, didn't care too much. But did notice what was written below the title. It said ‘Cast’.
Hmm. I’m caring slightly more now.
I looked down the list. There were expected people listed at the top, who were written next to the cast members ‘Scarecrow’, ‘Lion’, and ‘Tin Man’. And, of course, the most popular girl in the school got Dorothy. Whatever.
That’s- that’s not what mattered. Below the four main cast members were the major characters, and that’s what caught my attention even more than the cast list, which caught my attention even more than the big heading.
I’m not gonna do that joke a third time, don’t worry. Unless you want me to? I can, of course.
Ahem, anyway. Course, the top Major character was the Wicked Witch of the West, who was played by {REDACTED}, and the Good Which of the North, who was played by {REDACTED}, and the Wicked Witch of the East, who was played by {REDACTED}
You get the joke. But, it technically wasn’t the same joke every time- re-read the good witch of the north- see how it’s ‘which’? If you noticed that, you’re slightly smart. If you didn’t, you’re a blustering idiot.
That’s not important. There’s a few more Majors to talk about, starting with the Wizard of Oz. You know, the big guy? Well… Oh, hell.
It’s goddamn Westley.
When I saw that he was the Wizard, the first thing I did was laugh.
For a really long time.
“Holy- you’re the Wizard?”
I called him.
“Yeah, what?”
“Don’t you need to be above 3 feet tall to be an actor?”
“Shut up, Becky!”
Do you even remember Westley? Probably not, I said his name, like, once, so it’s okay if you forgot.
NO IT ISNT IF YOU FORGOT ONE OF MY CHARACTERS THAN SCREW YOU STOP READING THIS BOOK
Westley was the short kid, remember? Oh, did I not- hmm. I never really talked about him.
Hmm… he’s super gay-
Sorry, sorry, that’s a recurring joke between me and him at… some point in the story. I shouldn’t be foreshadowing anything this early in the story. This is the dumb part of the story. Yeah, no.
Uh, he kinda has buck teeth? Not really, but his front teeth are all pretty big. I… guess that means kinda having buck teeth.
Okay no he doesn’t have buck teeth but now you have an image of what he looks like to you and that’s good enough
Again, he’s short, he has flat brown hair that looks like it’s always the same length, he’s INCREDIBLY lanky, which feels weird for me saying, cause he’s literally one of the shortest kids in the grade- again, still confused on how he got the wizard part in a play- but lanky doesn’t mean tall, it means… awkwardly long limbs, or something like that. I never really described someone as long as I am for him. This is weird, I’m gonna stop- he looks weird, and definitely doesn’t fit the part for being a wizard.
“I can’t believe that no one else tried out for the Wizard, cause there’s no other way you could’ve gotten the part, unless you cheated or something.”
“Hey, you remember when you and Caitlyn-”
I hung up. I knew he was gonna do the ‘S Thing’ again. You know what I mean by that. Synonymous for boating. No, I’m not scared of the word, I just don’t like saying it. It’s kinda cringe.
Anyway, uh, so he knows about the Caitlyn and I thing from last year. That’s cause he’s part of the group. The Friend Group? Yeah, he’s tall enough to ride.
I- I’m still trying to get over the fact that someone who’s literally probably not 4’4” is playing the Wizard in the play.
What made me EVEN MORE caring about the play was the next Major character.
Lead Jitterbug / Lead Backup Dancer / Lead Flying Monkey :
Caitlyn Dahl
When I said I laughed to Westley, I burst out in an explosion at this.
MONKEY? BACKUP DANCER?
and… JITTERBUG? WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?
I decided to wait to think about it. Class was starting, so I couldn’t make a second phone call. I didn’t read the rest of the cast list, either, so who knows who else is a part of the play.
I completely forgot to ask her. It’s fine, I’ll ask her tomorrow.
I forgot again. I’ll ask her tomorrow.
Okay, this is getting out of mind. I’ll ask her before the day of the play.
Okay, it’s the day of the play, I completely forgot to ask her for a week straight. It’s fine, the play is after school today, I’ll just ask her before school is over.
Okay, I’ll send her a text or call her cause I forgot and now it’s after school.
Okay, I- you get the joke.
I forgot a few times, maybe. Eh, I’ll figure it out at the actual play.
When does that start? Oh, I’m gonna be late, aren’t I?
No, I’m not. Ha, you thought I would be late, didn’t you? I’m not a late arriver, I prefer to arrive at things early! You’ll find all about that- NO FORESHADOWING
Okay, I’m at the place. The theater. I walked through, and found my seat. My mom went to the snack bar, and I asked for some Skittles. I was just feeling like it that day. I decided I was bored, and started walking around. I was half-looking around the venue, and half-looking for people I knew. I shouldn’t have stood up and walked around.
“Anna?”
“Becky?”
I walked up to her. She was sitting down, alone. I saw that she had a pile of candy in the seat next to her, but the other was empty, so I sat down in that one. She smiled, and asked:
“Why’re you here?”
“I, uh, my mom forced me to come.”
Technically I’m not lying? We paid for the tickets, so she thought it would be a waste to not go to the theater.
“Why are you in the stands?”
“Huh?”
“Why aren’t you, like, getting ready?”
“Huh? I’m not in the play.”
“You aren’t?”
“No, duh? I’ve got other things to do.”
What could she possibly have that didn’t let her partake in the play?
“Really?”
“Duh, Becky? Didn’t you read the cast list?”
Uhhhhhhh
“Yeah, but… hmm. Okay, whatever. So, I did read it, which is why I came, and I saw that Caitlyn was a Jitterbug. What, uh, does that mean?”
“You said you came to see her?”
“I- no! No, I just- no, my mom forced me to come. Like I said.”
“Well, if you’re not gonna admit you came for her, I’m not gonna tell you what a Jitterbug is.”
“I- you’re kidding. Fine, where is she?”
“Aw, you wanna see her?”
“NO! I- shut up!”
“I mean, she just walked that way, so, I guess you just missed her, Becky. Sorry.”
“I-”
I looked in the direction she was pointing. I didn’t see anyone.
“Ugh, shut up. Whatever. I’ll just find out during the play.”
“Okay, well, it’s starting soon, so… you gonna go sit down?”
“I- you know what? Yeah, I am! You’re not telling me any good information, so screw you!”
“Just admit you came to see Caitlyn, Becky!”
“NO!”
I was walking away as she said the last thing, and screamed ‘no’ at her immediately after, still looking at her. I was paying attention, ran into the person who was trying to walk the opposite direction of me, and immediately heard insane laughter from behind me. I angrily stomped away.
The play started. Didn’t really see any Caitlyn person. I’ll save my laughter for later, I guess.
Play went by. The Haunted Forest was coming up soon. The part I was expecting. The part that I might like the most. Or just might laugh at the most. I’m expecting the latter of the two.
And oh boy oh boy was I right.
The lights dimmed to complete darkness. People in black shirts shuffled around the stage, one even tripping and causing a slight disruption (which I found amusing). I could make out the outlines of objects being pushed around, namely tree-like props being pulled into places. Eventually, everything stopped moving. I guess all the crew ran off the stage, and all the people that should have been on the stage had gotten to their places. Suddenly, the lights came on in the center of the stage.
You know how there’s the Haunted Forest in the movie, and the only thing that happens is the trees throw apples at a child and a lion runs away from a puppy? Well, this play decided to take a different approach and add a whole new scene.
A ton of butterflies walked out in the spotlight. Fast paced violin music that sounded like tarantulas or small bugs running around started playing. And then the actors started running around. They were dancing, and were both funny-looking and definitely not majestic, and they were acting like… bugs. Suddenly, the bugs split the room. They formed lines on both sides of the stage, and then a singular bug ran up through the middle of the line.
I bursted out laughing. I couldn’t handle it anymore. The pain was killing me. Caitlyn had been the bug that ran up and started a dance solo. Well, kinda.
Jesus. That was a sight.
A sight that caused me to die of laughter, and as everyone around me looked up at me, I realized what I had just done. With a shrunken, red face, I sank down in my seat. The skittles I got earlier seemed like a good way to protect my embarrassment, so I asked if I could get another box (I finished the other one quickly), and my mom let me buy a new one. I didn’t want to go and sit down after the huge embarrassment, so I just stood straight up next to the food stall. Was it tiring? Maybe a tiny bit, but I’d rather stay there instead of being death glared by adults that might know me. Did my mom worry where I was? Maybe, but I’ve done this before. It’s probably fine.
I didn’t even pay attention to the rest of the act, or even Caitlyn’s dancing. Yeah, it was funny, and still snickered, but I did NOT want to make any more moves so tried my hardest to stay quiet.
The rest of the play happened pretty quickly. Nothing interesting happened. I saw some people I recognized, but still being embarrassed, barely looked up. I didn’t even really see the Wizard part of the play (either Westley was too short or the food stall was too far away for me to see), which was another thing that made me regret standing near the food stall the entire time. The play ended, and all the actors crowded around a single person who was taking a selfie with them. They took the picture and then everyone just scrambled. Lots of ‘Thank you!’s and ‘Congratulations!’ could be heard everywhere. I darted my eyes in every direction before recognizing someone I knew. Er, some people.
Anna and Caitlyn were talking; laughing. Caitlyn was wearing a blank black shirt and long pants, which I assumed was what she wore underneath her other costumes. I walked up and then Anna caught my eye, and suddenly made a mischievous smile. But why? After Anna was done congratulating Caitlyn, she ran over to a different group of people. I used this to walk up to Caitlyn and started grinning.
“Uh, hey.”
“Why’d you start laughing?”
“Uh, that wasn’t me. That was some other kid.”
“I have eyes, Becky.”
“Really?”
“Yes, unlike you.”
“Is that- is it cause-”
“Cause you’re Asian? Yeah, cause you can’t see, cause your eyes are so close together.”
She means my eyelids are so close together.
“I- what? Isn’t that like… I don’t know the word.”
“I mean, I didn’t come up with that joke, that was Anna. She and I were laughing for hours when she said that.”
“Am I supposed to be mad at that?”
“Probably, it’s like… I dunno the word, either.”
“I- s
“Well, whatever. Good job, I guess.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“Yeah, whatever.
Yikes. Another one of these conversations. Wow, great.
We kinda stood around for a second, before I looked at her face. It was dazzled with sparkly makeup. It didn’t fit for the monkey role, so I assumed she just never took it off for the… jitterbug part of the show. Hah. Still funny. I laughed to myself, but restrained from making fun of her about it.
I also noticed that Caitlyn was eyeing my hand. I looked down at my own hand, and saw a red box being held by it. I never finished my skittles, so to make sure no one stole it, I brought it down to the stage. I noticed Caitlyn eying my hand, and assumed correctly.
“Do you… want some?”
“Uh, I don’t like skittles as much as other people, but sure.”
We sat down, and started finishing the box of skittles together. Sat down on the like steps that go to the lower floor, below the stage- if you don’t understand, you’re just dumb. After a little bit of us just not talking and eating, I decided to finally speak up my opinions.
“Okay, I can’t take it anymore. You looked really funny.”
“Shut up, Becky.”
“How’d you even get that role? You try for the Good Witch, and they gave you the next best thing?”
“Shut up, Becky!”
“Okay, okay, I’m just messing around. At least you didn’t get Westley’s part.”
“Heh, that’s true. You saw what he looked like, right?”
“No, I was… uh, doing something.”
“Here’s a photo.”
She showed me a picture of Westley, who looked like he had been dumped into a bucket of green and was wearing the largest bald cap possible.
“Why- WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE THAT?”
“I KNOW RIGHT HE LOOKS SO FUNNY!”
We both cracked up at him. Thank god he wasn’t near us, or he would’ve had some choice words for me.
We finished up laughing, and finished up the skittles. We stood up, and I started to walk away.
“See ya… Jitterbug.”
“Shut up, Becky.”
I laughed and turned around, and felt angry faces being made back at me.
Yeah, I’d say that was a pretty good night.
Only cause I saw Westley look like a big green baby.
Not cause I saw Caitlyn.
Course not.
That would be weird.
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