No Rules To Love

Chapter Four - Part Two

No-one needed telling twice, and the noise level rose once more. Mindless babble of hormonal young adults filled the entire auditorium. I rolled my eyes at Ashley and Michael, who chuckled in response. I wasn’t sure whether the situation or my annoyance amused them. Ashley’s eyes lit up. It appeared she had a mischievous idea. She bent forward to the row in front of us and tapped one of the excited girl’s shoulders. The platinum blonde whipped her head around. Her hair cascaded around her shoulders, her eyes brightened with exhilaration. She pulled her lips into a perfect smile.

“So, what’s all the excitement for, then?” Ashley asked her, getting straight into interrogation mode.

“It’s for Hunter, duh!” the girl — Tia, I thought her name was — replied. “It’s going to be great having him help with the rehearsal! And isn’t he gorgeous?”

“Oh, the cutest!” Michael stepped in, hands flapping about the place. His voice pitched in a high falsetto. I wanted to laugh aloud at him, but I settled for something between a snort and a choke instead. Ashley’s eyes bugged out of her head, but a small smile played on her lips. Tia gave him a weird expression and then eyed his girlfriend. As if to make sure that Ashley followed the situation. Tia must not have been that bothered, though, because she scoffed and whipped her head back around. I watched her inspect her nails for what must have been the millionth time.

Ashley and I turned, almost in unison, to look at Michael, who shrugged in response. It appeared he was helpless in the situation. “What? There aren’t a lot of guys here. I wanted to get involved with girl talk.”

We didn’t have to wait much longer for the rest of the cast to turn up. Everyone was rather punctual, as it was something that the school had instilled in us. But my friends and I tended to be the most punctual. Ms Carter was efficient in starting rehearsals as we had a lot to do. She started by introducing Hunter to us — though he needed no introduction. She then took time to introduce him to the lead roles, one by one.

“And this is our leading lady, our Maria, Talia.” Ms Carter said when she got to me.

Hunter’s eyes lit up when he recognised who I was. He took my hand and shook it before winking at me.

“Ah, you’re the feisty one from yesterday,” Hunter commented. I froze for a moment, not sure how to respond. My teacher stood close by, and I was very aware of that. She wouldn’t appreciate it if I started hurling insults and sassy remarks at her protégé. I settled for rolling my eyes and refusing to answer him. I also refused to let him know it affected me when he bent down and placed a kiss on the back of my hand. Though I resisted a strong temptation to wipe his saliva off the back of my hand, to piss him off.

Ms Carter called the cast to the stage, thus stopping our lackluster conversation. I sent a silent thank you to our director. We worked on the finale, getting used to the new setting before we ran through the song America. I wasn’t in that song, so I sat down and read my script, carefully making notes, so I could remember the slightly adjusted blocking for the stage.

The first run-through of America had ended. Everyone panted after the exertion. The cast then set themselves on getting back in their positions, ready for the second run-through. Ms. Carter looked around the auditorium, and he spotted Hunter sitting at the edge of the row. He looked engrossed in what had happened on the stage.

“Ah, Hunter.” Ms Carter called. I sensed something coming because she scanned the area, looking for me too. My body tensed. Please let my instincts be wrong. To whatever higher power there was, I prayed. “Talia and Johnny aren’t doing anything at the moment. We might as well make use of time. Would you be able to take them into the other room and run through Somewhere with them, please?”

Oh crap.

“Of course, that’s no problem.” Hunter threw Ms Carter a dazzling smile. It seemed to throw her off her train of thought for a moment, which — to be frank — was quite unsettling.

I sighed and stuffed my script inside my bag and got up — stretching as I did so — to follow Hunter and Johnny.

Johnny Smith was my leading man in this show. He had been cast as Tony. He was very good-looking and, again, one of the most talented students in the school. Though, in my humble opinion, Michael’s talent exceeded that of Johnny’s. And I was not only saying that because Michael was one of my closest friends and dating my best friend.

Johnny had longish brown hair. It was a sort of post-puberty Justin Bieber style, although that wasn’t exactly in style at the moment. He had broad shoulders, but he remained an able dancer, despite his physique. Johnny — although talented — was quite flaky and unreliable. He didn’t turn up to all the rehearsals because he always had some excuse, but he got away with it because of his talent. A dancing tenor was something to behold in the musical theatre industry. This annoyed me to no end. No-one else would get away with that. But he always put in an almost faultless performance, every time. Despite his lack of rehearsals.

Looking at the stage, I spotted Ashley, and she threw me a sympathetic look, but I shrugged at her. I had no choice but to accept it. I was talented, but certainly no diva. I couldn’t throw a hissy fit and claim I couldn’t work under these conditions.

“Oh, actually Miss,” Johnny said as he stood up, looking at his watch. “I have to go now. It’s my doctor’s appointment today and I can’t miss it. I’m sure I told you about it earlier.”

See what I meant about unreliable?

“Of course, how silly of me to forget,” Ms Carter said, rolling her eyes. “Yes, you may go.” Johnny grinned at her before grabbing his bag and making a fast exit out of the auditorium.

But now, what was I meant to do? Was there any point in me rehearsing without my leading man? Almost as if she’d heard my thoughts, Ms Carter turned to face me.

“You don’t mind rehearsing without Johnny, do you?” she asked me. “I’m sure Hunter will sing in for you if you ask nicely.”

Oh, crap.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as I turned to face Hunter. When he clocked me looking at him, he grinned at me and sent me a wink.

Double crap.