Project: Socialize

The first thing the next morning, Muria, Irina, and I headed straight for the club room. Our intent was to wait there for a while before heading to the student council room for the Committee meeting since it was scheduled to be later in the morning to allow for students that have other obligations such as clubs to help prepare for their events or for their classmates to check in with them in regards to any concerns that might still have to be addressed during the meeting.

Loyd had stayed behind to continue the decoration process for our classroom. That morning when we had arrived their to take roll, I saw that it was mostly complete already, which is a good thing since it was Thursday. The tables and chairs that the customers will be seated at were substituted using the student's desks and chairs. This was done by pushing the desks up against one another to create a larger table. In addition to that, white tablecloths were draped over them in order to hide the fact that they were actually desks. The walls of the classroom were also decorated. My classmates had used wall drapes to conceal the normal classroom walls and used ribbons to give it a dash of color here and there.

It would appear that the plan for today was to set up the separator in the classroom so that the customer dining area will be separated from the makeshift kitchen. From what I've seen in the few minutes of loitering around that we did in the classroom to observe, the plan seemed to be using those rolling curtain stands to separate the two. I also saw the students had moved in some long rectangular tables that they will be using for the kitchen counters. What they'll be putting on top were the portable stoves and blenders that were piled up in boxes in the front corner of the class. There was also a mini refrigerator that someone must've brought from home to store the food ingredients that will be used during the day of the Festival. From what I've heard, all the classes that will be offering food items will store the bulk of their ingredients in the large refrigerators in the culinary classroom in order to free up space.

Anyhow, that has nothing to do with me. None of that is my job. Even during the day of the Festival, I wouldn't be required to help out in the classroom because I already did plenty of work in the Committee. However, I am kind of intrigued by how happy they looked when working. They seemed to be enjoying themselves as they tried on some of the finished maid and butler costumes, although some people were quite embarrassed to be wearing them.

"My dear Verinel," Irina read her lines out loud with plenty of emotion and body language to act out the scene. "Why must we hurt each other? Is it because we both love the same man, the great Emperor Lezus?"

From what I know, the story that the theater club had someone from the literature club wrote was about a fictional Emperor of Vilheim and two of his beloved wives. Apparently, these two were the ones the Emperor Lezus loved the most, and because of this, the two were always in conflict with each other. I believe the characters the two chose were quite reflective of who they were in real life as well.

"I do not understand, dear Mary," Muria read her line, although with not as much emotion due to the fact that she was still somewhat embarrassed to do so although her bodily motion was extremely fluid and smooth. "Why must thou love the man I love? Aren't we dearest of friends since the merciful Goddess had planted our lives onto this world?"

"Hmm..." Irina frowned. It seemed that she had interrupted the acting for the moment. "I feel like something's missing..."

"What is it?" Muria asked, stopping the act.

"Something in the way you say your line," Irina continued. "I don't feel that sense of dismay Verinel is supposed to feel from you."

"I've never experienced something that the character experienced," Muria sighed.

"Me neither," Irina responded. "But you have to imagine it." Her body posture and hand gestures at the moment gave off a sense of professionalism, like a teacher trying to teach her pupil the arts of acting. "Imagine that your best friend also has a crush on the person you have a crush on."

"Hmm..."

Muria frowned. She seemed to be having trouble imagining what Irina had wanted her to imagine. Besides, does she even have a crush? If so, who is it? I'm curious.

"Ready?" Irina then asked after giving Muria a minute to think.

"I think so," Muria sighed.

The two started over once again. This time, Irina was as professional as before. Her acting almost made her appear to be the Mary in the story, the epitome of a good actress. As for Muria though, this time, her facial expression and the emotions felt behind the lines she said felt more genuine than before. It was definitely an improvement from before, and it might actually be on par with some of the actresses I see on television.

"There you go," Irina smiled as the two finished the scene.

"Was that acceptable?" Muria asked as she sighed.

"Of course," Irina responded. Then, she turned her face towards me. "Right?" She asked, seeking my opinion on the matter.

"It was pretty good," I responded honestly. "Better than some of the actresses on television."

"Really now?" Muria chuckled. "Your mouth can actually spit out words of compliment?"

"Why're you making it seem as if my mouth only contains the pessimism of this world?" I shook my head and sighed.

"Irina," Muria then said with a worried expression on her face. "When the stage directions says hug... how intimate does it have to be?"

There's hugging in this? What else?

"Well..." Irina frowned. "Our characters are the wives of Lezus, so as wives, it should be quite intimate. But don't worry about the kisses. For plays, those are usually done using perspective, meaning you won't really be kissing the guy."

"..."

Muria still seemed somewhat concerned about it despite Irina's explanations. She's surprising sensitive about this kind of stuff, which didn't quite surprise me. It doesn't fit her character, that's all.

I picked up the script they had left out on the table and flipped through it. I was curious as to what type of story this was going to be, and from the looks of it, it is a tragedy. In the end, both Verinel and Mary died. None of the two actually got to spend more time with their beloved husband because of the conflict between the two. And isn't Emperor Lezus's screen time almost nonexistent? It's only near the end of the play that he appears, and when he does, both Verinel and Mary are nearing their deaths. If Emperor Lezus was actually real, he must be trying to climb out of his tomb at the moment, knowing that he's being disrespected so much.

"Looks like the two of you have it quite rough," I said, putting the script book back down on the table. "You only have today and tomorrow to prepare for the most important roles for the play."

"Luckily I have experience with acting," Irina smiled as she sat down in her chair to take a break. "And Muria is quite talented at it."

I glanced over in the direction of Muria. She sighed as she took a seat in her chair, and from the looks of it, she was extremely fatigued. Her face was deprived of vitality and she seemed quite nervous about the fact that she'll have to perform before a large group of people that most likely will be even larger than expected because of Irina.

"Stay strong," I nodded towards her.

She seemed quite disturbed initially by my act of encouragement. However, it wasn't long before a smile cracked her tense face.

"I don't need you to tell me," she muttered.

"Is your costumes ready?" I then asked.

"They are," Irina nodded. "But since it was designed for the original actresses, they need to fix the fit for us." Irina then turned to face Muria with a shocked countenance. "Didn't they say for us to head over and try the costumes on to see if it fits today?"

Muria brought a hand to her chin as she tried recalling what she was told the day before.

"You're right," Muria nodded.

"We still have sometime until the meeting," Irina said as she checked her phone. "Let's head over right now. Come on."

She got up, walked over to where Muria was sitting, and grabbed hold of Muria'd wrist, pulling her gently off of her seat so that she would go with her.

"Alevian," Irina then looked in my direction. "You too."

"Why?" I groaned, laying my head down on the table.

"I-I want an honest opinion on how I look in it. If it's you, you'll tell me the truth," Irina said. For some reason, she blushed somewhat as she said it. Is it because it was getting a bit hot in the club room? Does the windows need to be opened slightly.

"Fine," I said, forcing myself up from the desk and walking over to the doorway where the two girls waited. "What about our bags?" I asked, looking into the club room before sliding the door closed.

"Just leave it," Irina said. "Nobody's gonna come around here."

"If you say so." I slowly slid the doors closed.

As we walked down the hallway towards the theater club's room, I noticed that the secondary building was actually quite lively. Many students passed us by, some carrying boxes of stuff towards their destinations. This was to be expected since so many o the clubs have events planned. Some of the people that we passed by we saw during the Committee meetings. For example, there was a student council member that walked by as well as the two girls that I heard talking about Irina. I didn't pay them much attention since everybody was busy and so were we.

It wasn't long before we reached the theater club. We entered after knocking, and for the first time, I was exposed to the inside of the theater club's room. It was almost three times as large as our room, possibly due to the large size of the club and it's many members. There were plenty of lockers for the club members to store their stuff as well as storage areas to keep props and costumes.

"There you are," a male third year student approached us as he saw us enter. "I've gotta day it again." He bowed his head. "Thanks for agreeing to help us."

"It's fine, Andrew," Irina smiled.

"I had the costume makers rush to fix your costume," Andrew said as he led us to the corner of the club room where a clothing stand was used to display two dresses, one black and the other a light blue. They were extremely elegant in design and make, something I didn't expect from the hands of a high schooler.

"This is almost professional quality," Irina commented.

"You think so?" Andrew smiled proudly. "We put in a lot of effort for it. Try it on." He then had female club members remove the dresses from the stands and accompany Muria and Irina to the dressing rooms.

While they changed, the remaining members of the club gathered around outside the dressing room. They all appeared quite excited to see the actresses. Some boys were actually drooling a bit from imagining.

It took them about three minutes to finish wearing their costumes, and when they finished and exited the dressing room, I realized that the wait was worth it. They didn't even need to apply further makeup to appear noble and elegant. It seemed to just come with their aura. The beauty of the dress that I marveled at earlier, now that they were on their wearer, felt bland due to the fact that it was now a simple accessory to compliment the natural beauty of its wearer.

"How is it?" Irina asked shyly.

I realized that both of them were blushing and afraid to make eye contact with me.

I gulped as I forced myself to regain my composure after losing it just a few moments before when I saw their spectacular entry.