In all fairness, Michelle really should have seen this coming when Adelia Edelweiss showed up to school this morning in a short leg cast and on crutches.

  Michelle was helping with making the costumes of the cast, so she did know who was pying as which character. Their upcoming py had a rger cast than usual, which meant that most of their active members were involved in it.

  The news of Adelia’s injury had reached the ears of most of the drama club by the end of the school day. Nicole, sitting next to her in one of their few shared csses, confided that she heard it was obtained through an egregious misstep during a soccer game. At that time, Michelle had made noises of sympathy, not thinking more of it.

  Now, she stared at her club president, who was looking at her with pleading eyes, without even trying to disguise the look of dismay on her face. She had gotten to her club room early, intending to finish up the st bit of the forest backdrop.

  “Can’t someone else do it?” she protested.

  It had been so long since she’d had an acting role that required more than one or two lines. Furthermore, she would be working on an extremely tight time limit.

  “Please,” Crissa begged, reaching out to take her hands. “There is no one else. You’re the only one who isn’t already in the py and who has enough acting experience to be comfortable on such short notice. I’m just asking you to give it a try.”

  Michelle recoiled. “The py’s in six days!”

  “Exactly!”

  She almost asked why Adelia went to py soccer during a crucial period like this. At the back of her head, a tiny voice piped up, berating her for being rude and unsympathetic. Adelia was already suffering from an extremely severe ankle sprain. If Michelle had inadvertently hurt herself while enjoying a hobby, resulting in an injury that required her pulling out of a py, she would’ve been guilty enough without being shamed for it.

  “Come on, it’s only a few lines,” Crissa urged, widening her dark eyes at her and batting her eyeshes. “And we’ll have that rehearsal tomorrow, so you’ll get some practice.”

  “The final full dress rehearsal,” Michelle reminded her dryly. “The only time I would get to practice with everyone else is literally tomorrow.”

  It was really the thought of messing up in front of the entire auditorium for being so ill-prepared that held her back from saying yes.

  “I’ll schedule another one on Friday,” Crissa said. “I’m sure everyone will understand. And it’s not like you’ll be filling in for the female leading role or something like that. It’s just Vilger C!”

  Michelle’s eye twitched. Vilger C, the unnamed character Adelia was originally supposed to py as, first made her entrance as a worried mother whose son had gone missing in the woods. She’d seen Adelia’s performance at their many rehearsals, howling and weeping during her two appearances—when the son had gone missing, and then when his clothes were found but the person was still missing.

  That was not just.

  It had been several months since Michelle had had a part in any of the pys. She had enjoyed crafting the props and backdrops and costumes so much, she hadn’t bothered trying out for any acting roles.

  “Six days,” she repeated, trying to let the horror that was stirring up in her reflect on her face.

  “It’s only a few lines! And you’ll have the whole weekend to practice as much as you need! Come on, Michelle, the club needs you.”

  They both looked to the door of the club room when its opening sound reached their ears. Crissa loosened her grip on Michelle’s hands, and Michelle pulled them away.

  “Hey, you guys are here already,” Barnaby said, fshing them both his trademark easygoing smile. “Did css end early for you too?”

  For a second, Michelle almost suggested to Crissa to have Barnaby do it instead. He was a very versatile actor and had pyed in many different kinds of roles before. Then she remembered he was pying as the male protagonist’s best friend.

  “Great timing, Barnaby,” Crissa said. “Help me convince Michelle to sub for Adelia’s role.”

  Behind him, Levi, the MVP of their drama club, stepped into the room and closed the door. He was already holding onto a copy of the script for their py in his left hand. He barely afforded them a gnce before returning his attention to the script.

  “Hi,” he said.

  Although he was conventionally attractive—tall, lean yet toned and with very symmetrical facial features—and very popur with girls as a result of it, Levi was more of the strong, silent type. His taciturn nature meant that he hardly spoke outside of their rehearsals or discussing about club administrative matters.

  “Adelia’s role?” Barnaby’s face scrunched up for a moment. A second ter, realization seemed to dawn on him. “Oh yeah. What are we gonna do? The py’s this weekend.”

  Crissa looked exasperated. “That’s exactly what I was saying. Michelle can fill in for her!”

  It was staggering how Barnaby promptly turned to Michelle with hopeful eyes.

  “That’s a great idea. You’re the best person we have for the job!”

  “See? Everyone thinks so,” Crissa said, giving her puppy dog eyes again. “I’ll run through the lines with you today. You’d be saving our py!”

  The problem was that even when she’d stepped into an acting role, Michelle had always been the cheery, optimistic side character.

  She’d never taken on a role that needed her to expand her acting repertoire or step out of her comfort zone.

  “You do know that I’ve never, like, done a crying scene before, right?” she asked. “Just so we’re clear.”

  “It’s totally fine!” Crissa insisted. “I’m sure you’ll do great.”

  “Isn’t this confidence a little too mispced—”

  “Desperate times call for desperate measures,” Levi piped up expectedly. Upon catching the look on her face, he added, “Not that you aren’t good at acting. But this is an opportunity to try a different role.”

  This was the first time Levi had directly spoken to her. They rarely crossed paths. She was a little stunned at being addressed, in part because she hadn’t realized he even paid attention to her acting.

  “Yeah, Levi’s right,” Barnaby said. “I can help you too, if you need someone to practice the lines on.”

  Her shoulders sagged. “Okay, I’ll do it. Just don’t be too disappointed if I’m not up to scratch.”

  Everyone, excluding Levi who cracked a grin, cheered.

  “You’ll be great, I’m sure of it!” Barnaby patted her on the back.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Cire gasped out, csping Michelle’s hands in hers again. “You have no idea how thankful I am!”

  Michelle gave her a reluctant smile. “Seriously, don’t kill me if I suck, okay?”

  “Are you kidding? I’m grateful you’re even willing to try!”

  That was how Michelle wound up spending lunch period the next day poring over the lines she had to memorize before their rehearsal ter.

  Her friends all looked mildly surprised when she showed up to their table with it in her hands.

  “You’re actually pying a part this time?” Hailey asked. “Who are you going to be?”

  “A side character who freaks out when her son goes missing,” Michelle said. “Then ter she breaks down when they find his clothes but not the person.”

  Sylvie’s eyebrows rose. “That’s intense.”

  “It’s sudden, that’s what it is,” Michelle corrected. “The girl who was supposed to py as her got injured and can’t do it anymore. Guys, I have five days left to memorize my lines and act them out.”

  Autumn winced. “No pressure or anything, right?”

  “How many lines do you have?”

  When Hailey got up from her spot to go around the table, Michelle was impressed. She couldn’t believe her script had gotten her friend to peel herself from her boyfriend’s side, even if it was only for a moment. Hailey looked over her shoulder at the script, where Michelle pointed them out to her.

  “I technically have, like, five lines,” she said. “But the number of lines isn’t the problem.”

  True to her word, Cire had helped her to run through them and guide her on her acting yesterday. The issue y with the emotion—or rather, the ck thereof—Michelle was putting into it. The president, obviously not wanting to discourage her, hadn’t commented much on her stiffness and poor portrayal of devastation the character was supposed to be filled with. But Michelle knew it was there.

  Caledon leaned over to see where she was pointing.

  “I have to act like a mother who doesn’t know if her child is dead or alive,” she told them. “Five days to practice that, guys.”

  “If I went missing, my mom would go absolutely insane looking for me.” Hailey pced a sympathetic hand on her shoulder for a few seconds before she returned to her seat.

  “Yeah, it’s the acting crazy part that’s hard for me,” Michelle said. “I spent all of st night trying to practice that.”

  “Look on the bright side,” Sylvie said with a sympathetic gaze. “It’ll all be over in six days.”

  Michelle couldn’t help but ugh. “I mean, you’re not wrong.”

  She winked back. “I’m usually not.”

  Sylvie stole a tater tot from Jordan’s pte. He wrestled it away from her fingers and proceeded to feed it to her by hand. She beamed at him as though he hung the moon. Suppressing the urge to gag, Michelle regretted ever looking up from her script. She turned to Caledon for commiseration. She was greeted by the sight of the vaguely nauseated expression on his face, clearly elicited by the soppy dispy before them.

  Upon noticing her stare, he quickly schooled his features into a faint smile.

  She snickered, pleased that she wasn’t alone in her feelings. His perfunctory smile grew into a genuine one.

  “Sounds interesting,” he said. “I’d like to see your meltdown as a distraught mother.”

  She perked up. “Want to buy a ticket?”

  “How much is one?”

  “It’s eight dolrs.”

  “Yeah, I’ll get one.”

  “Yes! Come find me after school ter.”

  “Alright.” Caledon took another bite out of his sagna.

  Across the table from them, Xavier rested his head on Autumn’s shoulder and closed his eyes. He had already finished both his food and drink. Autumn reached up to stroke his head, causing him to nuzzle up into her hand.

  Hailey was sharing her orange juice with Carter. After she had a sip, she passed it to him so that he could drink from the same straw. Gazing into each other’s eyes, they smiled.

  As she kept her face straight, Michelle leaned sideways until her head was only a couple of inches away from Caledon’s.

  “Imagine how much worse it used to be for me,” she whispered.

  “We can do this too,” Caledon whispered back. “Why should we be the odd one out?”

  “You’re right.”

  She beckoned for him to put his head on her shoulder. It felt odd when he did, the extra weight on her shoulder something she wasn’t used to. His brown, wavy hair was soft under her fingers.

  “I was thinking more along the lines of sharing my drink,” he murmured. “But this works too, I guess.”

  Michelle blinked. “We’ll try that next time.”

  The couples at her table were too lost in their own worlds to notice anyone else.

  Dissatisfaction ate into her veins. Xavier and Autumn appeared so content. She was doing the exact same thing as them, so why didn’t she have the same sense of fulfillment?

  “Wow,” Caledon said. “This feels kind of nice. No wonder my friends like it so much.”

  She was stroking his head like how she imagined she’d pet her future dog—gently and affectionately. In her mind’s eye, her imaginary golden retriever panted happily at her, its eyes practically closing at her touch as she stroked its head. His comment brought a smile to her face.

  “Really? Think my future dog would like it if I petted it like that?”

  “Definitely. If I were a dog, I’d love it.”

  “How would you pet yours when you get it?”

  Caledon’s hand was big enough to cradle the back of her head in it.

  “Like this,” he said, running his fingers down her hair in light strokes. “How is it?”

  A pleasant tingle ran down the back of her neck. Michelle shivered.

  “Yeah. It’s nice. Seriously reminding me again how good pets have it.”

  Her word seemed to draw her friends’ attention back to them. They took in the sight of her and Caledon mutually petting each other’s heads.

  Sylvie shot her a ‘um-what-are-you-doing’ look. Michelle merely smiled back pleasantly and continued petting Caledon’s head.

  “What?” she said. “Autumn and Xavier are doing this too.”

  While Autumn squinted at them, the way she always did when she thought her friends were saying something ridiculous, Hailey shook her head.