Since people liked "Voices" so much, I went back and wrote something in the same sort of style. This one is from Jen's point of view... from before Kate broke up with the boy... I hope you like it...
I glance up as the sound of the door opening, daring to hope for just a moment that it’s him. But no, it’s only Leah coming in for rehearsal. I bend my head again, forcing my mind back to studying my lines.
You’ll hang for this. I am the Lady Merle, I read, Cousin to Prince John. And this is Maid Marian…
The door opens again, and eyes fly back to the door. It’s Kate. Not him.
"Silly girl,” One says. “He’s just a boy.”
“He’s not even ours,” Two chimes in.
“Maybe not yet,” Three says
One looks at her sharply. “He’s not ours. He doesn’t look at us that way.”
“Maybe not yet,” Three says again.
The others glare at her. Three looks at Four. “Oh come on. You know you’re head over heels in love with him. Don’t tell me it hasn’t occurred to you to try and get him.”
Four blinked. “It’s just a crush. It has to be just a crush.”
“And besides,” Two tells Three. “He’s Kate’s. Boyfriends of friends are off-limits. Get that through your head.” She shot a look at Four. “Both of you.”
“It’s just a crush…” Four mumbles, shrinking back into her corner. “It’ll go away…”
The door opens again, and I force myself not to look up, telling myself that it’s not going to be him.
Out of the corner of my eye, Kate jumps up. “Leo!” she shouts, drawing the attention of everyone not currently onstage. I turn to look at the door, giving him a smile and getting one in return before Kate tackles him in a hug, occupying his focus.
Four sinks further in her corner, trying not to look at them, and also trying not to look like it really bothers her. It doesn’t fool anyone.
“Come on,” Two says sweetly. “They look cute together. Just look at how happy they are.”
One comes over to stand beside Two and looks out my eyes. “Sure,” she says sarcastically. “They look adorable.”
Kate holds onto his arm, talking and laughing with him as they make their way further into the room and take their seats. I sigh, smiling a little and return to my script. I am the Lady Merle, cousin to Prince John. And this is the Maid Marian, ward to King Richard.
“What?” Three says. “We’re not going to go say hi to him?”
Four perks up a little at the suggestion.
Two drops an arm around Three’s shoulders. “Darling… He just got here. We’re giving them a minute together. And besides… we’re busy…” She gestures down to the open script in my lap.
“Yeah…” One agrees. “Busy reading the same line a million times in a row.”
I focus on the script again, ignoring the laughter coming from the other side of the room. You’ll hang for this. I am the Lady Merle…
“We read that already,” One says.
…ward to King Richard. What you have done is treason!
“We’re really not going to say hi?” Four asks.
One and Two sigh.
“I mean, we are friends,” Four continues, giving the excuse to herself as much as to the others.
One looks at Two. “They’re not going to let us work, unless we go over there, are they?”
“Oh, come on,” Three replies. “Let’s just give them a minute more before we barge in on them.”
“There are other people over there,” Three points out. “It won’t look like we’re doing anything besides being friendly.
Two snaps around to face her. “And that’s because that’s all we’ll be doing, right?” She looks at her expectantly. Three seems to absorb herself in innocently examining a spot on the wall.
“Right?” One repeats, a little more forcefully.
“Of course!” Three assures them. “Of course! Boyfriends of friends… off-limits… we got it… Right, Four?”
Four sinks back against the wall. “Right,” she says quietly.
One and Two exchange glances.
“Hey, Jen,” Leo says.
I look up in surprise.
“How’d he get over here so quickly?” One asks. “Wasn’t he just over there?” She pointed all the way across the room.
“Where’s Kate?” Two asks.
“Not here,” Three says, grinning mischievously.
“NO!” One and Two say together.
“Sit,” Two instructs.
“And don’t say a word,” One adds firmly.
Three stalks to the back of my mind and sinks into her chair. “Fine.”
Four walks forwards slowly, settling gently into the seat under my eyes. “It’s just a crush,” she says quietly, noticing that One and Two were looking at her. “It’s just a crush.”
“You okay?” Leo asks, sitting down beside me. “You look a little lost.”
“Oh…” I say quickly. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
“How’s it going?” he asks, nodding towards the script in my lap.
“Oh. It’s going okay. I think I’ve got most of it.”
“Want me to help you run lines?”
“Sure.” I hand him the script.
“Will says, ‘Drop your sword or perish!’.”
“You’ll hang for this,” I say swiftly. “I am the Lady Merle, cousin to Prince John. This is Maid Marian, ward to King Richard. What you have done is treason…”
We work through my scenes and then he hands my script back to me. “Looks like you’ve got it,” he says, smiling.
I smile back. “Thanks.”
Four leans forward, resting her chin in her hands and smiling sweetly.
“So what have you been up to?” he asks quietly, so as not to disturb the people rehearsing on stage. “I feel like I haven’t talked to you in a while.”
“Six days,” Four murmurs.
One and Two look at her a little more intently.
“Not much,” I answer. “It’s been pretty quiet in the boonies,” I tell him using our name for the little street where I live. “We only had one cow invasion this week.”
He laughs. “Only one?”
I smile, remember the last time we had talked about the cows invading, and the plans we had made to counteract them. We had laughed so much.
“Make him laugh again,” Four whispers.
“Yeah,” I say. “Only one. But they were rather smart cows this time. They actually figured out how to turn the doorknobs instead of just knocking down the doors.”
He laughs. “I see… So does that mean we have to install cow-proof locks at your house?”
My smile widens. “Maybe… Do you think that they sell them at Home Depot?”
“We could ask…”
We both bite our lips to keep from laughing at the idea of going into Home Depot, flagging down a salesmen and asking for cow-proof locks.
“Leonardo!” The director calls. “You missed your cue.”
Leo stands up. “Sorry.” I watch as he hurries away, giving me one last smile as he goes.
One puts a hand on Four’s shoulder. “It’s not just a crush… is it?” She asks gently.
Four looks up at her slowly. “It has to be. It just has to be.”
One shakes her head. “You know what those feel like. Goodness knows that you’ve had enough of them. And when you had one, you were always back there plotting with Three.”
“And we always got the guy’s attention too,” Three points out.
“Shush!” Two orders.
“It’s not just a crush is it?” One asks again.
Four shakes her head gently, looking down.
“But we can’t tell him…” Two says.
“Okay,” Three says.
“And we can’t try to get him…” Two goes on…
“Why not?” Three demands. “We’re always getting guys we don’t want. Why shouldn’t we go after the guy that we do want?”
Two marched over and turned Three’s head to face Kate. “That’s why not.”
Three rolled her eyes. “She doesn’t really love him.”
“No…” Four agreed. “She just wants a boyfriend… but he does care about her. And if we hurt her, we’ll hurt him. We can’t do that.”
I watch Leo as he runs through his scene on stage, smoothly going through the motions of the fight scene that they were working on blocking. Over my shoulder, Kate was watching too, smiling slightly, but I knew she was wishing that he was with her, instead of working on the scene. But I only had to look at his face to see that he was happy up there.
“We could always—“ Three began.
“NO!” The other three shouted.
“No tricks, Three,” Four ordered quietly. “This is worth too much…” She looked back at Leo. “It’s worth way too much to play games.”
I enjoyed reading it as much as I did the other one. I hope there will be more to read after this one. Good job and keep up the good work.
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