The Unfortunate Occurence at Shenandoah High 2020 - 16. Chapter 16

When Monday rolls around, I'm out of bed and showered before my alarm goes off. Dad looks surprised to see me when I walk into the kitchen before seven. I pour orange juice into a glass and join him at the kitchen table.

“You’re in a good mood,” he remarks as he watches me from over the top of his glasses.

I shrug and take a swig of juice. The weekend may have started off a complete and total disaster but things have definitely taken an upswing. Keisha now knows all the details surrounding me and Finn kissing although she was a bit miffed about being the third person to find out about it. Unfortunately things between her and Sheldon continue to be on ice since he’s still not answering her texts and phone calls.

The best part of the weekend, however, was spending the afternoon with Finn. What started off as a simple lunch at one of his favorite Japanese restaurants turned into ice cream at the park followed by a double-feature in the theater in Finn’s basement. I ended up falling asleep on the second John Wick movie but when I woke up, the two of us were spooning on his sofa. If this is what Finn means by taking it slow, I think I’m going to quite enjoy this phase of our relationship.

“Don’t forget, rehearsals start this week,” I tell Dad. “I won’t be getting home until late.”

“Just make sure you get your homework done.”

“Will do.”

“By the way,” he says, folding the morning paper. “I spoke to Mom and Dad while you were out yesterday. I mentioned to them that your fall break is coming up soon and they wanted to know if we’d come visit.”

Grams and Pop-Pop live in the Middle of Nowhere, North Carolina. Dad and I usually see them a few times a year, but since they are getting older Dad has been pushing for us to see them more. Not that I mind. Grams has been like a second-mom to me and Pop-Pop and I are super close. I wished they lived closer to us or vice-versa so we could all see each other more.

“Sounds good to me,” I say finishing the last of my orange juice.

“Great. I’ll talk to Sharon tomorrow and work and ask for that week off.”

“It’ll be nice to get away for a bit. Plus it’s the perfect time of year from Gram’s chili.”

I get up and take my glass over to the sink. My backpack is on a hook next to the door that leads out to the garage.

“I think I’m going to walk over to Keisha’s,” I say. “She’ll probably have a heart attack me being up this early.”

“Be careful. Text me when you get there.”

I grab my backpack off the hook and then check to see if I have my wallet, keys and phone, which is working fine now. I kiss Dad on the cheek and tell him goodbye before I head out the front door.

I don’t know why, but I feel like this is going to be a really good week.

~

“I have two papers due by the end of the week and then midterms are next week."

Keisha presses her forehead against the door to her locker and lets out a groan. She then lifts her head and looks over at me.

"On top of all that, we have practice until 6:30 every day until the show starts. I guess I can kiss my social life goodbye. Not that I even have a social life since someone won't pick up their phone."

Keisha glances down at her phone which has been perma-glued to her hand all day.

"It's only Monday and it's already been a long week," she says.

"It's going to be okay," I say shutting my own locker. "We'll just have to budget our time wisely. We can work on our English papers tonight at my house and then tomorrow we can start on that research paper for Economics. We can spend all weekend studying for midterms."

Keisha frowns and says, "It's Monday - how can you be in such a good mood?"

"Maybe I've decided that this is our last year of high school and I want to enjoy it."

"Well, I'm glad at least one of us is enjoying ourselves," Keisha says.

The two of us start walking in the direction of our sixth period classes which for me is Speech and Debate.

"Have you at least seen him today?"

"No, which means he's definitely avoiding me."

"Well he's definitely going to be in Theater so he won't be able to avoid you then. Remember, that guy he knows is coming to teach us the choreography for the show."

"I totally forgot about that," Keisha says shaking her head. She looks over at me and asks, "Why did we sign up for Theater again?"

"There you are," a voice screeches from behind us.

Before I have a chance to turn around, there's an arm around my arm and a head on my shoulder. Leah smells like strawberries and desperation as she manages to keep the pace me and Keisha are walking at.

"Tristan, I've been looking all over for you," she says.

"I just saw you in AP Calculus," I say.

"I know," she says. "But we were so busy with that assignment I didn't get to say hello."

"Hi," I say through gritted teeth. "Is there, um, something you needed?"

"Oh - well, I'm sort of having this small gathering for my birthday and I wanted you to come."

"You want me to come?"

Leah and I have probably spoken like a paragraph of words to each other since we've known each other and now she wants me to attend her birthday party.

"Well yeah. I figured since we're like besties now, you should definitely be invited. It's Saturday at six at the Walton Club. Hope this isn't too short of notice."

"Besties?" Keisha asks.

"Oh and Keisha can be your plus-one," Leah says.

"Plus-one," Keisha says. "You hear that, Tristan? I can be your plus-one."

I roll my eyes at Keisha and say to Leah, "Um, Leah, I'd love to come ..."

"I feel a but coming," Leah says.

"It's not really a but," I say. "It's more of a however."

"Same thing," she says.

"It's just that midterms are coming up and me and Keisha plan on studying this weekend. The whole weekend."

I hear Leah sigh and now I feel bad. Or at least a little bit bad. The idea of spending even an hour outside of school with Leah Platt sounds awful.

"I get it," she says after several moments of silence pass between us. "It's just that when I asked Finn earlier he said yes and asked if you were coming, too..."

Oh, is this the game we're playing.

"So, Finn's coming," I say.

"Oh yes. His parents know the owners of the Walton Club so he's going to get us a discount."

"You know, Tristan, I'm sure you can spare a couple of hours to go to the party," Keisha says. "We can always pick back up with studying after it's over."

"I promise not to keep you out too late," Leah says. I can hear the pout in her voice. She is not going to let this go.

"What time is it again?" I ask hoping she doesn't hear the reluctance in my voice.

"Six - at the Walton Club downtown."

"I guess I will see you Saturday then," I say.

"Tristan, you are the best," she says squeezing my arm.

The warning bell rings and I have never been so relieved.

"Shit, I'm going to be late," Leah says, relinquishing her hold on my arm. "See you guys in class."

Before Keisha and I can respond to her, Leah takes off in the opposite direction. I look over at Keisha and shoot her my best version of a death stare completely forgetting that she is completely impervious to any and all of my most threatening looks.

"So much for being my wing-woman," I mutter as we slowly climb the stairs to the second floor.

"As your wing-woman I was totally looking after you," Keisha says. "I figured you want to spend as much time with your boyfriend as possible."

"He's not my boyfriend."

"I thought you said you two were taking things slow."

"We are," I say quietly.

"Well, in my book that means you're dating and if you're dating that means he's your boyfriend."

"That feels so weird to hear out loud. Boyfriend."

"Maybe I'll get to have one of those someday soon," Keisha says with a sigh.

"Hey - it's not too late to fix things with Sheldon. Just be patient and let's see what happens."

The two of us reach the top of the stairs and this is the part where we go our separate ways. We wave goodbye to each other and I turn to walk towards my class.

In forty-five minutes I will get to see Finn. As if this day couldn't get any better.

~

"Good afternoon my fellows thespians. I hope you all had an amazing weekend but as I mentioned last week, today starts the real work."

Sheldon's standing at the center of our somewhat misshapen circle. Today he's wearing a Morehouse sweatshirt, a pair of dark denim jeans and loafers. He really looks good and I know if I'm noticing this surely Keisha's noticed, too.

"I have reached out to the art department and they have agreed to work with us on the set. I will be meeting with them on Wednesday so we can discuss my vision on how I want everything to look.

"As far as costuming is concerned, since we're working with very little budget this year, I thought we would all agree on a time to meet at one of the local thrift shops to find clothes. Leah and Finn - we may have to go to the costume shop downtown since your costumes are more period-specific."

"He looks good," Keisha whispers in my ear. "I gave him that sweatshirt. Got it off Amazon."

"Well, that's it for announcements," Sheldon says, "so let me introduce to you all the man of the hour."

Sheldon steps out of the way and gestures to the older guy sitting in Nick's seat.

"Care to introduce yourself?" Sheldon asks him.

"Sure," the guy says slowly rising to his feet.

The first I notice is how tall he is. At five foot nine I'm not exactly short but next to this guy I would be a hobbit

"I'm Colin McNamara and as Sheldon has already told you, I'll be here all this week helping you guys with the choreography for the musical."

Colin tugs at a loose thread on the gray sweatshirt he is wearing as he manages to avoid eye contact with each of us.

"A little background on myself," he continues. "I'm currently a junior at UCLA where I'm enrolled in the Theater program. That's actually how Sheldon and I met. This past summer I was a counselor at a theater camp in Nashville, Tennessee and Sheldon was one of my campers."

I look over at Sheldon who is busy shuffling through papers in his backpack.

"Sheldon has explained to me that for many of you, this is your first time acting so I promise to go easy," he says a slight grin on his face. "But not too easy."

"Is it just me or is he ridiculously hot?" Keisha asks so that only I can hear.

Colin's no Finn but I concur - he is quite easy on the eyes. I've never really been into redheads but Colin's mop of reddish-brown curls are actually appealing. His eyes are dark brown which are a personal preference and there's a smattering of freckles around her rather wide nose. His only attempt at facial hair is this pencil-thin mustache which sits above his full pink lips.

When I look back up to his eyes I see that he is looking at me. I quickly flick my gaze down to my feet.

"He looks alright," I whisper back to Keisha.

"Alright - before we get into anything dance-related," Colin continues, "The first thing I want to do is teach you guys some breathing exercises. Singing is one thing. Dancing is one thing. But singing and dancing can be a monumental task without knowing the proper breathing techniques. So, I want everyone to get up and we're going to do some breathing and stretches to get our bodies ready."

"He's hot, right?"

This time it's Finn whispering in my ear. His breath is warm against the side of my face and smells like cinnamon.

Great, so now my almost, sorta, kind of boyfriend is perving over the new guy, too.

"He looks okay," I whisper back as my face flushes red-hot.

I roll my eyes and try to focus on what Colin is saying. Keisha is right. This is going to be a long week.