Tuesday & Max

11

AND SHE SPOKE WORDS

THAT WOULD MELT IN YOUR HANDS

AND SHE SPOKE WORDS

OF WISDOM

The day of her first drama club meeting, Tuesday heads into college with a renewed sense of confidence. Before she leaves, Julia touches her arm gently in the hallway and says, "Your hair looks nice," with the first genuine, all-is-forgiven sort of smile since their fight.

It lightens her step and she walks through the corridors towards Dance Studio Four with a lesser sense of trepidation than she'd expected.

The college has several dance studios and they're all essentially the same space: a large room with polished wooden floors, a wall of mirrors, and stacks of plastic chairs opposite. When Tuesday arrives, the space is already full of people, most of them laughing and chatting, some of them in front of the mirrors, like they're planning out a scene. Blocking, that's called, isn't it?

Nerves eat at her throat as she remembers she knows nothing about theatre, not really. Does she even need to be here? What will people think?

"New person! New person!"

A tall black boy with a booming voice and a bright smile alerts most of the room to her presence within seconds, leaving her a little taken aback. Before she can react, he pushes aside a chair and comes to join her.

"Harry," he introduces. "Pleasure indeed to meet you! Who are you? How did you find us?" His tone, his movements, remind her already of the stage. He must have a main part, she decides immediately. His presence is commanding.

"Um-" she says, voice cracking. "I'm Tuesday. I'm – Candice asked if I could help make some costumes. So. Here I am." She waves needlessly, then imagines chopping her own arm off for it.

Harry puts both hands together and looks up to the heavens as if thanking them. "Welcome. Thank God, frankly, that you're here," he says, which makes Tuesday laugh.

He introduces her to a lot of people but she misses most of it, the process a whirlwind.

"This is Alexis, she plays the beautiful Liesl—"

"Nico and Pat, the masters of sound production – oh and Jon, of course, haha, of course, I'd never forget about you—"

"Rufus, who's Friedrich – alright, keep your hands to yourself, you maniac—"

"Candice, you know her, you said? Our all-powerful director—"

"Ruby, Jess, Becks, George—"

The introductions go on and on and mostly to make it stop, Tuesday asks: "Who do you play?"

Harry laughs. "I'm not an actor! Christ, no, I'd vomit all over the stage. I do textiles. You can help me, actually, Maria makes it look a lot easier to make the Von Trapp kids' clothes out of curtains than it really is."

They sit together in a cluster of plastic chairs surrounded by bags of material and partially-finished costumes, and Harry introduces her to the other designers, condemning the one who abandoned them under his breath. Anna and Amelia are short, dark-haired and tanned twin sisters, one with a severe bob and one with waist-length plaited hair; Niamh is tall, blonde and wears glasses. All of them are friendly. All of them have already seen her dress thanks to Candice's picture.

After about ten minutes, Candice calls for a scene rehearsal and a lot of people rush toward the mirrors. Maria, played by short blonde Jess with her appropriate pixie cut, meets Von Trapp's many children. Despite everyone wearing their own casual clothes and reciting their lines in an echoey modern dance studio, Tuesday gets pulled in immediately to the familiar storyline. She envisions herself as the Maria, falling in love with Jon's rough Italian charm as the Captain, then shakes the fantasy away.