My Firsts With You

Chapter 9

RACHEL'S POV

Today is the D-day of our musical play and we are all busy walking around to make sure everything's set. We are doing the musical play in our school's theater room, so we're feeling nervous. While checking everything, I kept repeating my lines in my mind to make sure that I wouldn't miss anything. "Here. To calm your nerves," Martin handed me a bottle of chocolate milk drink with a relaxed smile. I took the drink and thanked him. Chocolate drinks will surely calm me down, especially right now. "Don't you feel nervous?" I asked Martin after taking a sip of the drink.

"I do, but most of you are nervous and someone needs to not show it to calm the others. That happened to be me, so yeah. I'm nervous, but nothing will happen if I show it too," he explained and smiled at me. I chuckled at him because he had a point. Everyone was nervous now, so why would he make it obvious too? No one would have calmed us down if it wasn't for Martin. "That's so sweet, but I hope you still remember all your lines and songs," I reminded him, and he nodded while chuckling.

I told Martin that I'll get going and went to Claire, who is in charge of the music. "Do you want to go over it again? Or do you get it now?" I asked her as she checked the songs again and made sure that it was all in order. "It's okay, I got this now. You've been practicing me for this," she laughed. I patted her shoulder and went to the dancers. I saw them practicing the choreography over and over again and kept fixing whatever mistake or confusion they had. "Come on, guys. Don't be hard on yourselves, we can do this!" I told them and we all shared a high five.

"Good afternoon, class. I have the judges with me now, so greet them," our teacher arrived with three more teachers and we all greeted them. They sat in their respective seats and talked quietly to each other. This musical play is a mini-competition between the classes that Mr. Davis handles and as you can see, we're one of them. "Okay, everyone. No pressure, you can start after 10 minutes," he informed us, and we all made our finalizations for our play. After 5 minutes, we all went to our places for the first scene.

We began the play in a classroom setting wherein the class president announces the school's foundation day and the various activities that can be attended by anyone. It was activities for academics and talents. The protagonist, who is me, was expected to join the singing competition, but she doesn't want to because of her father's words that she should not get involved in singing. All of us in the scene sang 'Memories' by Maroon 5 to make my character sing and make her join the competition.

In the end, she agreed to join, and suddenly, she met her rival in the hallway and they had a mini-showdown by singing. The play went by quickly and my last song for the play was 'Speechless' by Naomi Scott. That last song was a bit difficult for me to sing because I was worried that my voice would c***k in the high notes, but luckily, I finished the song with satisfaction. We finished the play with the singing competition where my character won and everyone congratulated her, including her parents. Martin's character also gave my character a rose to "congratulate" her, but in fact, it was a confession.

When the curtains closed, we all clapped and celebrated the product of our hard work. The curtains were opened again and there we saw our teacher talking to the judges. I am so nervous right now, but no matter what, I have no regrets about our musical play. "Okay, class. Congratulations! You did the task perfectly!" our teacher said and the judges clapped with him. We all smiled and bowed at them. "So you guys were the last class that performed for us and out of all the performances, we clearly understood your plot and the challenge that the main character was facing. You all executed your roles very well and we enjoyed the play from the beginning until the end," he explained, and I could feel my heart leaping in joy.

"What I'm trying to say is, your class won, and congratulations on passing my subject for this whole quarter!" Mr. Davis exclaimed and we all screamed in delight, knowing that our hard work paid off. "WE PASSED!" Jessica yelled in joy and all three of us hugged and jumped in circles while screaming because of how happy we were. I wasn't just screaming because I passed, but because our talents and efforts were appreciated and that is what made me the happiest today.

We looked for the three boys and found them smiling from ear to ear. "Congratulations! You three worked hard," I congratulated them and patted their backs one by one. "Nah, it was all thanks to you. If it wasn't for your idea and effort in guiding us every practice, we wouldn't be this happy," Jeremy said, and we all laughed. "You sounded so serious, Jeremy," I joked and hit his arm jokingly. "Now that I think of it, that doesn't sound like me," he replied with his fingers under his chin as if thinking deeply and we all laughed once again.

"We should celebrate, you guys!" Jessica suggested and we all nodded. Oh, I remembered something. "Hey, Kenneth. Didn't you say you're going on a date with Sabrina after the play?" I asked Kenneth and they all looked at him, also waiting for his answer. "It's tomorrow, you dummy," he answered and I gasped. "Dummy? Did you call me a dummy? Come here," I said and gestured for him to come near me so that I could hit his head. "No. Go away," he said as he took steps backward every time I stepped closer to him and, in the end, we started running around backstage like little kids.

== CELEBRATION ==

After that Tom and Jerry scene with Kenneth, our friends decided to grab us and we are now at a pizza shop, waiting for our order. We ordered three kinds of pizza and they are all in family size. "This is great. We're all eating together again after a while," Claire said while looking around our group with a sweet smile on her face. "We've been busy these past few days, so we couldn't get to do this until now," Jeremy answered and Jessica and I immediately looked at him with judging eyes. "You? Busy? With what?" Jessica interrogated him. You know, sometimes, I wonder what it would be like if Jessica and Jeremy were dating. Will they go on dates at clubs? Drinking until they're crazy? *Shivers*

"I was busy with my personal and social life, so mind your own business," Jeremy responded and Jessica narrowed her eyes at him. I looked at both of them, back and forth, as I sensed something fishy between them. What was that? "Here's our order!" Kenneth exclaimed like a little kid who got ice cream after throwing a tantrum. The waiter put down our pizzas on the table and we all looked at the pizzas hungrily. "Let's dig in," I mumbled and immediately took a slice of the supreme pizza. My favorite is supreme pizza because it has my favorite toppings! I also love the balance between the tastes of each topping, which makes it perfect.

"Oh! That's so tasty!" Jeremy exclaimed while fake crying to show how delicious the pizza was. We may bicker at times, but if you give us a family-sized pizza, we are going to sit down, forget about our bickering, and deeply appreciate how delicious a pizza is. "Now, I want some of those mojos," I said as I reached for the mojos, but I couldn't reach it because of this jerk (Kenneth) beside me. I huffed and decided to get some later when Kenneth leaves. I think Martin saw me because he pushed the plate of mojos near me, then I smiled at him and said 'thank you'.

We ate every single bit of the pizzas and mojos and when we were done, the plates were clean. "Now that was satisfying," Kenneth commented while sitting back on his chair and we all did the same because we were full and satisfied. "That was a good prize for having the best musical play," I said and everyone nodded in agreement. We then asked for the bill and we all split the bill to be fair. We all left the restaurant and went back to the parking lot.

"Hey, Rachel," Martin jogged to me and I turned to him while waiting for what he was going to say. "Are you free tomorrow? I could use your help in finding a gift for my older sister. She's coming back soon," he asked. His sister is studying college in Australia and hearing what he said, it must be her break, and decided to come home for a while. "Of course! I would love to! I haven't seen her in forever either, so I might as well buy something for her," I replied and he nodded in understanding. "I'll pick you up tomorrow, then. I'll just text you what time," he informed me and I nodded.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye guys!" we all waved goodbye to each other and went on our respective rides. Kenneth and I entered the car at the same time and he started the engine. "You're going out with Martin tomorrow?" Kenneth asked as he drove out of our parking spot. "Yeah, he wants me to help him find a gift for his sister. Have you heard that she's coming back soon?" I asked and I saw Kenneth look at me from my peripheral vision with an unknown look. "Uh, yeah. Martin told us yesterday," Kenneth answered with an unsure tone in his voice. That was suspicious. What's with him now?

"How about you? You're going on a date with Sabrina, right?" I asked as I turned to him. "Yeah, we talked about it a while ago. We're taking her father's yacht," Kenneth proudly said. Her father's yacht, huh? I have a yacht. "Have fun then," I said and looked out the window to appreciate the view as we drove home.

I wonder why Kenneth sounded unsure when I asked him about the arrival of Martin's sister.

END OF CHAPTER 9