Life of Phoenix - 3. LIGHTS, CAMERA, CURTAIN!!

Current Time

“Okay everyone, welcome to the first day of auditions!” Mr. Parks, our drama teacher roared through the theatre. Theatre started like a month ago, but we've been playing games and getting to know each other. It's a 'bonding process as he explains it. “As you know we are doing Peter Pan this year. You've already given me the roles you'd like to play, and now it's time to see who will be the best for what role!

“Since this is a class, casting characters is a little different than a regular production. I'd like to not call in any outside help if I can avoid it. That being said though, I have a limited supply of actors and actresses and everyone here will have the largest priority!” Mr. Parks always makes this speech every year.

Lyric giggled, “This dumb speech again. He makes this every year.” Told you.

“Yep yep!” Lakota spoke from the seats in front of us. Our school is so small that we can fit grade eight through twelve in one class and still only have thirty kids in the class. That mean Lakota is here and Max.

“Ya...” I was kind of zoned out on Max.

Lyric punched me. “Earth to Nix, anyone home?”

“Ya sorry... Who are you trying out for this year?” Lyric is quite the actor; I'm more of a techie. “Let me guess; Wendy and Peter Pan.”

“Who cares about Wendy, I want to be Peter! Mr. Parks better keep to tradition and cast a girl for Peter.” Lyric is right; it is a tradition to cast a female as Peter in Peter Pan. She elbowed me in the ribs. “Who do you think Max is going to try out for?”

Lakota laughed. “He's not trying out; he's going to be part of the tech crew.” He looked up at me dead in the eye. “Good luck with that one technical leader.” The technical director of the theatre may have dubbed me in charge of the technical for the class.

“Who's all in the crew this year?” Lyric gave off a sly smile.

“Myself, Max, Theo, and Cooper are the notables. There are a few others who are helping out with the costumes and makeup.”

Lakota had to speak up again. “Don't forget Keon.”

Lyric's face immediately turned sympathetic. “Good luck?”

“Thanks?” Seriously, I think I need all the luck in the world to handle this.

“Now that Mr. Parks has had his speech, I'll have mine.” Charlotte started her speech. “Welcome to the tech crew of the Peter Pan. I will be in charge of you for the most part. Mr. Parks is still your teacher, but he will be more focused on the actors than the technical stuff for a while.

“Second in command of this unit will be Phoenix, he has the most experience out of all of you and knows his way around the theatre. If I'm busy, just ask him whatever questions you may have. I'm sure he'll be able to help.

“First things first though, I need you guys to take this quiz on safety. I will accept a minimum mark of sixteen out of twenty. Anything lower and you have to retake it. If you fail three times, you're not able to do any of the fun stuff.” Charlotte handed everyone but me a study sheet. “You four, study. Phoenix, here's the test; you're more than ready to take it.” I may have marked all of them for the tech club this year... and gotten 100%.

“You said it was a quiz!” Cooper nervously shouted out.

Charlotte nodded. “It is! It also happens to be the second most important piece of paperwork you'll be doing in the next couple of days. Study hard.

False, false, true, true, false, false, false, true; the answers to the true and false section of the quiz. Then the short answers are easy; call what you're flying in, wait for someone to say clear. Something is falling, get the fuck out of the way. Lift with your knees not with your back, ask for help if needed. Oh, the questions? How do you fly stuff in, What is the meaning of, and how do you respond to 'heads up', and How do you lift things.

Oh, I should tell you about my... the crew. Well you know Max and me, Cooper is Max's little brother and looks like a mini Max. Theo is Lyric's boyfriend, but you knew that. And, of course, there is Keon... my ex-boyfriend.

“How am I going to remember all of this?” Keon asked rhetorically. See Keon has changed a lot since we dated, by that I mean his looks. When I first met him, he had baby cheeks and blonde hair. Now his blonde hair has darkened to a black, and he has some very white streaks in there. His eyes are as amber as ever though.

Cooper thought it would be cute to reply to Keon and his dilemma. “I don't know, by reading it maybe?”

Max smacked his little brother. “Cooper!” Cooper looked kind of insulted about the hit. “Be nice...”

He rolled his eyes. “Says my brother who just smacked me...” Max threatened to do it again. “Okay, I'll be nice.”

Keon looked up at me. “How do you remember it all Nix?”

“Don't call me that.” I always hated how he says 'Nix', even when we dated. He has this attitude around it. “I read the sheet over and took the test. Passed the first try.”

“Teach me your ways oh great one!” Theo joked. “Seriously though what should we know from this two-sided piece of paper?”

“All of it. Read it over and you'll be fine I promise.” Okay one or two of them won't be but meh. It's seriously pretty straight forward though.

While they were busy studying, Charlotte took me up to the FOH. Front of house for those who don't know. The FOH is where most of the lights are hung over the seats where everyone sits. Don't worry they are safely attached to a bar, they won't fall.

Anyways, she took my up there to talk... and fix a light. “So you're going to be my sound guy this year. Wrench.” I passed her a wrench. “That being said, who do you think should go where? We need a lights operator, backstage manager and fly men.”

“Cooper could do lights if he wanted to. Max can be backstage manager, and Theo and Keon can be fly men. Sounds good to me!” Seriously, keep Keon away from me.

“I get that you and Keon have a bad past, but I think he's better suited for backstage manager.” Damn it, that means he's going to be on headset. “Max looks stronger than Keon. That's the logic I'm using anyways.” She's not wrong... Max is stronger than Keon.

“Ya, I guess that makes more sense.” Charlotte looked over at me. “Ya ya, I get it, get over it and be a man and stuff.”

“I was going to say here hold his base but ya that too.” She handed me the base for the light. “Remember don't touch the light bulb...”

“Or else it turns funky and costs you money, I know.” She says it like every time we touch a light.

A kid's booming voice echoed through the theatre. “But Wendy!” I looked down to see who it was.

Charlotte did as well. “That's Oliver, the new kid from England. I hear he's a great actor.”

“He did really well in theatre sports. Think he'll get Peter?”

“Over Lyric's dead body.” We both had a laugh. Oliver was pretty cute, and his accent was to die for! His flowing black hair was just messy enough to look good. It came down a little bit shorter than mine, but it was longer in the back. He had really pretty brown eyes too. I really had to pay attention to get that. “No crushing on the English boy Nix.”

“Pfft, can't I look a cute boy over without being hassled?”

After the class had finished, I met the group outside the theatre. “Nix, you got to help me study for this quiz. Everything I'm reading is gibberish to me.” Oh Theo, you’re hopeless.

“How's the crew looking this year?” Lyric has the lead actress complex to her. She wants everything to be perfect so that she can look good. “Better be great!”

“From the looks of things I'm going to be on sound this year. Everything else is kind of up in the air.”

Lakota looked at me. “Where's Keon going to go?”

“Backstage most likely. Better than in the booth... he'll still be on headset though.” I groaned. “I got to get going though; I have a science eight class to help out!”

“Doesn't Braxton have science this block?” Lyric puzzled. I nodded. “Good luck with that!”

I rolled my eyes and walked off. Theo started to ask why I needed luck for dealing with Braxton. I'm sure Lyric and Lakota can tell him how madly in love he is with me.

I walked up to the door of the classroom. Mr. Smith was just getting ready at his desk. “Hey, Mr. Smith.” I had him for science last year; he's a good teacher.

“Hello Phoenix, how is your day going?”

“Could be better. How about you?”

He smiled. “Better now that I have a bit of help in this class. Many of the students are having trouble grasping some of the basics, and I'm falling behind fast. With your help, I should be able to catch up in no time! Thanks again for taking on this task for us, it's greatly appreciated.”

“No problem sir. I look forward to helping out!” Mr. Smith showed me to a seat beside his. We were on either side of the projector.

The final bell went, and Mr. Smith got up and started to address his class. “Hello everyone, I hope your days are going well. Starting today, Phoenix Russell will be in this class helping out. He'll be a sort of TA for the class.”

I gave a little wave. “Hey.” I could feel my cheeks burning.

“Now since he has joined us, I'm going to take a step back and have today as a review day. I'm going to hand out a series of worksheets on things that we've been working on. Please do as many as you can, there isn't that many I promise.” He had seven stacks of paper on his desk... not that many my ass. “Phoenix, you mind helping me hand these out?”

“No problem!”

I got up as one last straggler came into the class. “I'm sorry I'm late Mr. Smith! I was helping Alex to the nurse's office. She twisted her ankle walking down the...” Braxton stopped and stared at me. “NIX!! What are you doing here?”

The class giggled at his excitement. “Mr. Russell has generously volunteered to help out the class for the semester. Now please take your seat Braxton.”

He scurried to the back of the classroom. Why is he back there? The kid won't pay attention to anything if he's that far away from it. After handing out the worksheets I looked for the seating chart, Mr. Smith always has one. When I found it, my theory was correct; they were placed in alphabetical order.

I pulled Mr. Smith aside for a moment. “You have them in alphabetic seating still...”

He looked down at the sheet, and then at the room. “I guess I do. Why, do you think a new seating plan is in order for next week? Get to know the kids a bit, take notes and get them placed where you think they'll learn the best. I'll get you a clipboard.” As I said, Mr. Smith is a great teacher.

We spent a lot of the class going around helping the kids. Braxton's hand would always spring up whenever I was free, but he was never next on my mental list. Mr. Smith got to him first; he looked disappointed, but he was getting help.

I got a couple of notes down about certain kids. Some that should be nowhere near each other and some that work well together. I never thought seating would be such a hard thing to do.

That was the last class of the day, and I was taking care of Braxton after school, so we left the room together. “How come you didn't tell me you'd be helping my class?”

“To be honest, I didn't know until this morning and I kinda forgot when your science was.” He gave me a little glare. “Sorry?”

“Forgiven! So I'm going to see you a lot more now then, huh?” I nodded. “Cool! What's the plan for tonight Nix?”

“Well, I got your dad to defrost some chicken for me.”

Braxton jumped and hugged me. “CHICKEN SOUVLAKI!” Yes, my 'famous' chicken souvlaki. It's famous in Braxton's books okay? That's good enough for me.

Past Time: Grade Two

The noise of small children came from the back yard of the Russell family home. Phoenix was celebrating his seventh birthday with a small party. Maxwell and his brother Cooper, Lyric and her Brother Lakota, and finally Phoenix's adopted little sister Ursula were all there.

They were currently playing tag. “You're never gonna catch me!” Phoenix screamed as Lakota chased him.

“Slow down!” Lakota complained. He continued to chase the older boy around, to no prevail. “Phoenix, this isn't fair! You're too fast!” Lakota stopped his chase and stomped on the ground.

Phoenix smiled. “You gotta run faster, Lakota!”

Being the youngest playing tag, Lakota felt it was unfair he was the slowest. Five-year-old logic at its finest. “Why don't you guys play something else then?” Mrs. Russell called from the kitchen.

“I'm a girl Mrs. Russell!” Lyric shouted back. The four boys laughed.

Mrs. Russell shook her head. “It's gender neutral in that format dear.”

“What's a format mom?” Phoenix had made his way to the window without his mother noticing. She jumped at the closeness of his voice. “I made mommy jump!” He giggled.

“A format is how words are said, dear.”

“Oh, okay!” Phoenix ran back to his friends. “We should play something else!”

“Like what?” Maxwell asked.

Everyone in the group thought of different games to play. Many of them involved running, which were shot down by Lakota. The group finally decided on a game of House. But then another problem arose.

“I'm not being the mom!” Lyric commanded. “I'm always the mom!”

Cooper whined out, “We need a mommy though... We can't play house without a mommy.”

“Well, I don't wanna be the mommy!” Lyric looked around the group. “Phoenix can be the mommy.”

Phoenix was caught off guard. “Wait, why me?”

“Said so.”

“But I'm a boy, I can't be a mommy.” The children had a dilemma that they could not solve. They needed a mother, but the only girl did not want to play the role. The children spent a few minutes trying to figure out the issue, to no resolve. Phoenix, followed by the others, went up to the kitchen window. “Mom, Lyric doesn't wanna be the mommy, so we need a different mommy, but we don't have another girl.”

“I said that Phoenix should be the mommy,” Lyric added in.

Mrs. Russell thought of a solution. “Why not just have two daddies? You don't need to have a mommy.”

“Two daddies?” The group said in unison.

She smiled. “Yes, some families have two daddies or two mommies instead of one of each. As long as parents love each other, that's all that matters. So Phoenix can be a daddy, and someone else could be a daddy too.”

They all looked around at each other. To their young minds, it made perfect sense, two parents who love each other was all it took. Now it was time to find the other 'father'. Cooper pointed at his brother. “Max should do it. He's oldest.”

“Me?” Maxwell pointed at himself. “Would you like to be my husband, Phoenix?”

“Ya, sure!” The group of children ran off and started their game.

Mrs. Russell thought over what she had just witnessed. “I just say my little boy get proposed to... Good thing he's seven.” She laughed to herself.

Throughout the afternoon, the children returned to her with their problems, as all children do. When Mr. Russell got home and witnessed this, he waited for them to go back to playing before asking anything. “Did I hear that right? Phoenix and Maxwell are 'fathers'?”

“Yes, you did dear. Maxwell proposed to my dear Phoenix right in front of me.”

His only question was, “Has he been treating my son right?”

“Of course dear.”

“Good.” Mr. Russell sat down in his chair and began to read the newspaper. “Just for the record, if Phoenix is gay...”

“We love Phoenix as Phoenix. No matter what happens he is still our child.”

“Glad to know we're on the same page. Now, what's for dinner?” And just like that the conversation was over.

The kids spent hours playing in the backyard. Eventually, Lakota and Cooper had to go home. Phoenix was only allowed two friends to sleep over; he had chosen Lyric and Maxwell. Lyric had also decided on sleeping in the spare room by herself.

As the boys changed into their pj’s Maxwell turned to his friend. “Nix, will you marry me when we grow up? We can be daddies just like in 'house' today.”

Phoenix looked over at his friend. “YA!” The two boys got into bed and before long lost in sleep. When Mr. Russell opened the door to check on them, they lay close together, their heads almost touching. Phoenix awoke to the light shining into the room. “Daddy?”

“I was just checking in on you. Go back to sleep now.” His voice gently reached the boy.

Phoenix scuttled over a bit, snuggling fully into his friend. “Love you, daddy.”

“I love you too son.” He closed the door smiling. Mrs. Russell came around the corner. “The boys are asleep.”

“As is Lyric. What's with the grin?”

“Phoenix and Maxwell are snuggling. Don't open the door, you may wake them up.” Mrs. Russell smiled and took her husband's word for it. “Let's go to bed dear.”

Chapter End.