Cast Me! Chapter 4
Res was walking towards the school when he noticed Bernard a few feet ahead of him. "Bernard!" he yelled after the bear. Bernard turned to see who it was but just turned back around and quickened his stride.
Res stood where he was and lowered his ears, heart-broken. Not soon after, Res felt a hug from behind. He gasped and turned his head to see who it was. It was Cecil, the red panda. "I saw what happened," Cecil said, "Is he a close friend?"
"Somewhat," Res answered, "I guess he thought I was a girl, and he wanted to hang out on Saturday. But he found out I was a guy."
Cecil laughed and said, "Sorry. Just funny that he thought you were a girl." Cecil nuzzled Res's cheek and the fox blushed deeply. "Well, try not to let it get to you. He'll come around and talk to you again. Maybe you two will even have that date on Saturday." Cecil smiled and Res smiled back.
"What class are you heading to?" Res asked. Cecil let go and they continued walking to the school together.
"I have P.E. first hour," Cecil explained.
"That has to be awful," Res said.
"It's not that bad. I'm taking Team Games next semester."
"Are you athletic?"
"Not really. I'm just doing it to get my gym credits out of the way. I'm more into computers and programming. I'm on the robotics team here."
"That's cool." "What are you into?" Cecil asked, turning his head to Res.
"Well, I play the cello, and I'm really into languages. I'm also the lead in the upcoming fall play, Arcadia..."
"Arcadia?" Cecil interrupted, "You're acting in Arcadia? That's my favorite play ever! Tom Stoppard is an absolute genius with his comparison of the Classical and Romantic. I could go on for hours just talking about him."
"Sounds like you have a little crush," Res giggled.
"H...Hey! I do not!" Cecil pouted and turned his head away.
Res smiled and moved in a little closer to Cecil, adding a little bounce in his step as they approached the door to the school. Cecil graciously opened the door for Res who blushed deeply and giggled as he walked in.
As they walked down the hallway, Res saw Damion turn the corner, coming their way. "Hide," Res quickly warned Cecil. But it was too late; Damion already saw them.
Damion made a bee line for the two and shoved Res to the grind who immediately started crying, finally fed up with the bullying he had to endure everyday.
"What the hell is your problem? What have you become?" Cecil barked at Damion, "You used to be so nice. What happened to you?"
"Don't try to push your goody-two-shoes shit on me," Damion answered.
Cecil raised his fists, ready to fight. Res noticed and said, "No, Cecil! If you attack him, you'll just get in trouble with the school!"
"I'd rather get in trouble than beat up," Cecil said before swiftly landing a palm strike straight into Damion's nose. A loud crunch from the obvious breaking of Damion's nose was sent throughout the hallway, turning heads that weren't already watching the fight. Blood spattered across the ground and the glass that allowed vision into the courtyard.
Res gasped and screamed loudly as Damion's unconscious body landed on him. Cecil threw off the wolf's body and pulled Res up who buried his head into Cecil's satin-covered chest.
"Are you okay, sweetie?" Cecil asked the fox.
"I think so," Res answered, "But you're going to get in trouble!"
Cecil smiled down at him, "It was worth it to keep you safe."
Res blushed deeply and Cecil led the fox all the way to his orchestra class, leaving Damion's unconscious body behind before heading to the gym.
Bernard was looking from down the hallway at the proceedings, glaring at Cecil who held Res.
Throughout Orchestra, Res was shaking from the fight and couldn't play most of the music correctly.
Mr. Enal called Res out on his playing, who obviously heard his shaky tone and flawed vibrato. "I'm sorry, Mr. Enal," Res said, "There's just this some guy who keeps attacking me and my friends everyday."
"I didn't ask about your problems. I just wanted everyone to know it was you messing up," the horse said uncaringly.
Some of the people in the room giggled and others looked at Res sympathetically, but Res just hung his head and began to cry without making any sounds as Mr. Enal just continued with the class.
When Res arrived at Biology, Bernard was there, but he kept his head down the whole time. Res just sat in silence while tears streamed down his cheek from one of his best friends ignoring him.
When it was time for English, Res eagerly sat next to Cecil. The red panda occasionally stroked the fox's back with his tail when the teacher wasn't looking. Cecil noticed the dried tears on Res's cheeks. The two of them were the only ones sitting in the back row of the classroom, so Cecil leaned over and licked Res's cheeks clean. Res blushed once again and grabbed onto Cecil's paw, holding it tight for comfort. "Thank you," Res whispered.
The class was lectured on the first chapter of Great Expectations. They hadn't read it yet, but the teacher assumed that with a little explanation on the first chapter, they would be able to see these points while reading the book and hopefully be able to find these literary devices themselves. So their assignment was to read the first chapter of the novel.
Cecil and Res met up in the hallway. "If Bernard doesn't keep your date on Saturday, would you like to go out with me?" Cecil asked Res.
"I'd really like that," Res blushed and hugged the panda tight.
"I'll see you later, sweetie," Cecil said as he kissed Res's forehead and walked away.
The day went on until gym came by. Res really wished Cecil was there as he put on his small gym shorts. His ass was still hanging out of it, and when he turned to the coach's office, he spotted Coach Androcles sneaking a peek out of his window straight at Res. The coach hid his face behind his newspaper immediately after catching eye contact with Res.
When the class went out to the gym to wait for Coach Androcles to let them outside for running, the lion came out, taking another look at Res and said, "I want you to all line up against the wall, face it, and do jumping jacks until I tell you to stop."
Res groaned, not realizing the lion's ulterior motive for this and lined up against the wall next to two other furs. The coach blew his whistle and they started doing the exercise. It wasn't until Res felt his own ass bounce from landing on the ground that he understood why the coach was making them do this.
Res pretended to look down the line at the other guys when he took a peripheral glance at the coach, who was, as expected, looking straight at Res's ass.
The fox assumed Coach Androcles lost track of time because they had been doing jumping jacks for at least ten minutes and Res's ankles were getting sore. Finally, the fur to Res's right stopped and spoke up, "Coach. This is ridiculous. When are we going outside to run?" The rest of the class groaned at the thought of running after the torture to their ankles.
The coach averted his gaze, first looking up at the ceiling and then pretending he was looking down at his watch which wasn't on his wrist. He blew his whistle again without replying to the fur and said, "Everyone outside! Four laps!" The class groaned as they walked outside, and Res could feel the lion's presence close behind him.
When that class was finally over, Res walked through the hallways to Drama. Right away, O put up the groups for the new project on the overhead. And unfortunately, Res was put in the same group as Nathaniel. Res went up to the raccoon and asked to change groups, but he said, "I thought it would be interesting to put the two fall cast members in the same group. Sorry, Res."
Res sighed. Today was just not his day. He walked over to the rest of his group of eight people. Nathaniel immediately took charge, saying they were doing a scene from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, by Tom Stoppard. "I thought it would do you good to learn how Tom Stoppard expects his players to be," Nathaniel said condescendingly to Res.
The fox lowered his ears as Nathaniel immediately cast himself as Guildenstern and a different fur as Rosencrantz. Nathaniel told their group they would be doing the last part of the play and that Res would be Horatio, the character with the least lines. He cast another fur as the Ambassador, another as the Player, and the rest of the group as other players.
Res just smiled and nodded, not letting the blue jay get to him. He promised to himself that he would make his only speech the best speech Nathaniel had ever heard in his life. "Now work on memorizing your lines immediately. I want you all to have them down by Monday," Nathaniel ordered. The rest of the group just glared at him with a "who put him in charge" look.
Nathaniel continued to talk about all of his ideas for the scene, but no one was really listening. When the bell rang, the entire group except for Nathaniel got up, leaving the blue jay slightly stunned for a moment.
Before leaving for the auditorium lobby, Res pulled out his script to look at the three scenes the cast would be blocking today. They would be working on scenes four, five and six, and Res noticed that he was in none of them. Scenes four and five were performed by the cast in the present time setting, and though scene six was in the past, it only consisted of two conversations between Chad's character and Nathaniel's character and then between Chad's character and Sylvia Underwood's character, Lady Croom.
Nevertheless, Res decided to drop in on the rehearsal and watch. He thought it would be good for his own acting skills to watch others perform.
Res arrived at the auditorium lobby where the rest of the cast and Packy were waiting. Chad was sitting on the ground and Packy immediately started on scene four which was a conversation between Yulia and Oxford's respective characters about Res's character, Thomasina.
They spoke of her genius, about how she was able to perform mathematic ideas, namely iteration, that were only recently discovered in the present time period.
Scene five was the beginning of act two and had Bernard, the journalist, reciting his article about Ezra Chater's death to the other characters of the present.
Scene six began. This was Chad's scene. Res loved watching the dalmation move around the faux stage. The fox noticed the larger male's fluid movements and accurate flourishes. He took on the character of Septimus perfectly, and Res noticed Packy smiling to himself as he watched Chad recite his lines.
This scene began with Chad and Nathaniel speaking of Ezra Chater leaving the estate, proving he was not killed by Septimus. When Sylvia's character enters, Chad and Sylvia create a perfect tension when Nathaniel is still around, and when the blue jay leaves, their relationship turns into flirtatious love. Septimus reveals that he had only slept with Ezra's wife to keep attention away from the real affair: the one between Septimus and Lady Croom.
'Such a complicated story,' Res thought to himself.
When the scene was over, and Packy had given everyone their blocking instructions, the snake said, "Thank you everyone. Today's rehearsal is over. We'll finish the blocking for the play tomorrow, and next week, we'll really start to work on the acting. Remember everyone, you have two weeks to learn your lines."
Everyone said their goodbyes to each other and to Packy and gathered their belongings to leave. Chad approached Res once again and asked, "How was I?"
"You were absolutely brilliant," Res replied honestly, "You really brought out your character. I didn't see you at all. I only saw Septimus."
Chad blushed at the praise and replied, "You're too kind." Chad reached for Res's paw once again.
"Chad...," Res started.
"Please...," Chad begged. He leaned down and snuck a quick kiss on Res's lips. Res gasped and looked shocked at the dalmation.
"I...I have a boyfriend!" Res said, horrified.
"What?" Chad asked, devastated.
Res took his paw back and said, "I have to go." He ran towards his mom's car, ready to go home, leaving Chad to stare at the running fox in despair.