Shakespeariance: Chapter 5

Friday

The alarm sounds at six twenty-five to Nicole's ringtone "I'm sexy and I know it. WIGGLE WIGGLE WIGGLE." It's catchier than it sounds. Trust me. . . wait. . .

I put on my contacts and sparkily silver shoes and walk down to breakfast with Nicole in my VIBE sweats and t-shirt. With no make up on my face and the fact that I am wearing pajamas, I felt naked in the sense that THIS is what I look like in the mornings. Great. It's fine.

I eat breakfast next to Claire, Andrew, Blaine, Annekkeh, and shortly Nick joins us. I was the only one with the morning face. Awesome. I find out that the hot chocolate is made of a water base and I flip. I get my hot chocolate and there is that awkward smile on my face BECAUSE I am so pleased.

Blaine is tired and cold, so I make him jog around the hotel with me... in the freezing cold. I enjoy it much more than I should and I come back into the hotel. I run upstairs to put on the ensemble costume. I put on my basic make up and go to the second floor to wait outside Mr. Shelley's room.

He's registering us for the Competition as we sit outside his door. Imagine: 24 high schoolers, estimated, sitting in a hotel hall. Waiting. Wearing black.

He comes and we go inside his room and sit everywhere, waiting to be make-up upped. I talk to Nick about a whole bunch of random stuff. Finally, I ask a question.

"Nick, tell me a story." I say... granted it was more of a demand, but that's okay.

He pulls out his video camera and shows me all these hilarious videos of Shakespeare Competition past.
(Mr. Shelley, leg wrestling students... and winning.)

I stand in the natural light as Taran begins to turn my white face into a more orange-ish hue. I am so glad to be a fruit this fine day. I hear Mr. Shelley and Mr. Wilcock speaking in a French/Spanish/Portuguese dialect and tongue, and I just think how cool they are.

We load the busses and go to Nellie. Nick grabs Blaine and I to go see Orem's Ensemble Scene. It was wonderful. The intensity was brilliant and their acting was supreme. I loved it. I met some of Nick's friends from when they were in Joseph at the Siera and we ran back to Nellie. We had just missed the choir sing, but we know that they sing like angels.

We do soft focus practises and eat lunch. Nick sits by someone else and I struggle to eat the food because it's KFC chicken without a fork or a knife. I would have to use my hands. . . Nightmare.

Something happens and Blaine has sprained his ankle. The famous saying goes against his leg-The show must go on. He hobbles around and is carried and just stands as we run through the scene. We don't know what we're going to do. It's freezing. Blaine can barely walk. We perform in twenty minutes. It's fine.

We get called to be back stage of the Adam's. At this time, we say a cast prayer. Right over left. Then, we hear Mr. Shelley say, "Build a barricade." I'm thinking the chairs and table sort of baricade from Les Miserables two years back; however, I follow the motions of my peers and just turn my back.

You hear a key chain jingle.
You hear Blaine hobble to the ground.
You hear Mr. Shelley ask Eric, a newly eighteen year old, to come forward.
You hear Mr. Shelley ask Blaine what his middle name is.
And you hear a Priesthood Blessing begin.

All you want to do is cry and give thanks to the Lord.

The men are strong as most of the girls have tears falling down their powdered cheeks. We wipe them away franticly as to not mess up our make up. We must perform flawlessly.

We go over the stage for ten minutes and then go back stage. Our name is announced and we begin.

Elsinore is created. No longer are we a plethora of students wearing black, but a flawless castle-home to Hamlet.

Blaine doesn't even hobble.

The scene ends and the judges meet us.
We were flawless. We were different. We were unified perfectly.
We had accomplished what we wanted.

The day continues and we wear our costumes still. We go see the Dance Team perform their ensemble dance of Juliet's Dream, and they did beautifully.

A judge said to me, "I love your berets. Who is the designer?"
"I... I don't know," I reply, flustered.
"Well... where did you get them?"
"My director."
"That's nice... do you speak French?"

Yes... yes I do.

The lonely I felt commencing shattered my being. I didn't know who to hang out with. My normal friends had dissappeared and my new friend was with someone else. Time to make new friends-a terrifying territory. A territory that is best made with lonely strangers. I like making friends with strangers.

I buy Shakespeare Insult Gum with Jeneal for the people that taught me French and we return back to Nellie for Dinner. I have no idea what we ate, but I am sure I have it written down somewhere. My new friend is still with someone else and I teel totally awkward. Jeneal is a fantastic friend that I made that day.

We watch the Junior High perform their King Lear scene and they did beautifully.

I feel terrible at this point in time. Lonely and cold. A school is wandering around campus wearing "FREE HUG" signs, and I need one more than ever. I hug a group of three people, feeling great afterwords.

"Guys... I just hugged strangers. I really needed those hugs," I say to my friends, Olivia, Mary, and Macie.
"I'll give you a hug!" Josh Brown says to me.

He begins to give me a hug and I'm about to return it when I remember that under no circumstances may I hug someone in my troupe.

"Wait!" I exclaim, "No huggy-body kiss face!"
"What?..." Josh says, slightly hurt.
"Talia, you're so unique," says Nick, with a smile upon his face.
"What... do you... mean?" I ask.
"You just are."
"Oh... okay...."

I run down stairs to tell my Junior High friends how wonderfully they did as they changed into normal people clothes... lucky...

I come back upstairs and I still have that awkward feeling about me that just makes me feel off and not know what to do with myself. I see two strangers sitting on a bench about my age. Time for me to be inside my comfort zone.

"Hi, I'm Talia... who are you?" I say.

They tell me their names and their high school. They like my beret and we begin to discuss costumes when Nick comes over and stands by me. I introduce him to my new friends and I feel an odd pain in my shoulders. I tell Claire, from the Junior High, and she sets me down on the stairs to fix it. She leaves and Mary begins work on it as well, when I realize that I am simply stressed.

I have not run my scene in about two days and we perform tomorrow.

I go to Nick when he is not talking to anyone.

"Nick, when you have time...do you think we could run our scene before tomorrow?" I say feebily.
"Sure, right now?" He asks.
"That'd be nice."

We tell Mr. Shelley that we were going outside to run the scene. Nick leads me outside. Toward the fountain. The fountain is a huge monument. Totally chick-flicky. The confusion wells up within me as we begin our scene. I become oddly aware of what little make-up I am wearing and that I am still wearing black. And my hair was in my Katniss braid. . . not princessy. At all.

The end the scene and he says something. Then I say something. Then he says this:

"Ah! Talia. You're so cool!" and all this other great stuff that I have never heard before.
"What... what do you mean?" I ask, completely confounded.
"I love it when you're being you. I love you being you."

Okay. Oh, my mom. What is going on?

We run the scene again, and that same question is running through my mind. WHAT IS GOING ON? Finally, I speak my mind after we end the scene, "Nick, what happened?"

"What do you mean?" He says innocently.
"All this, 'Talia, you're so great. Talia you're so cool. I love you being you.' You weren't like this before." I say.
"Well, I didn't know you before." The innocence oozing into his words.

I let it be and he informs me that he will be sitting next to me while we listen to Fred Adam's speak.

Pinkie promises were made and we're friends for life.