Have Some Composure

Around the big, wooden stage, about twenty or so teenage kids sat, legs crossed. Standing in the middle of the group was a lady -obviously in her mid-thirties- with flowing red hair and hazel-colored eyes. A pen was stuck behind her ear and in her left hand, she held a bright green clipboard. The sheet on top of the clipboards was the names of all her students for her to check roll with; it was the first day of school and she'd have to try and memorize as many kids' names as quickly as possible. The lady first stated that her name was Mrs. Nix before she had instructed all of the Theatre I students to sit on the stage. As they were seated, Mrs. Nix did a head-count, seeing if there was anyone absent or not. It turned out that only one student was missing.

"Okay, I'll begin checking roll now," she said loudly enough for all of the class to hear. "Correct me if I get your name wrong, or if you go by something else." She started going through the names in alphabetical order, taking a second to look at each face and name before going on to the next.

Jason Drew Cross was slightly nervous about being in Theatre I - it was sort of.. a 'wing-it' type of thing. He'd never done anything drama or acting related before, but he'd figured he would just try it out. Plus, all of the other electives seemed excruciatingly boring. So there he was, sitting on the stage, waiting for his name to be called. Hopefully, this class wouldn't be too hard.. but not too easily, either.. "Jason Cross?" JD's head snapped up, his navy eyes nervous. He was kinda scared to correct the teacher, but he'd really rather not be called 'Jason' for the rest of the semester.

"Here.." the sixteen year old murmured, but before Mrs. Nix moved on to the next person, he added, "And I.. uh.. go by JD." With a nod, the teacher used her blue pen to mark something down on the roll-checking sheet before she moved on to the next person. After she had finished roll, she walked back stage, coming back a minute later with two copies of what looked like a very small paper-back book.

"Alright," the teacher declared, her hazel eyes scanning over the twenty-three kids once more, as if searching for one of them in particular. Finally, her eyes rested on the rail-thin boy that was clad in a plain white long-sleeved shirt and regular jeans. His jet-black fringe fell into his face as he tried to hide from her stare. JD had a really bad feeling that she was going to pick- "..JD?" When the boy's head snapped up at his name being called, the teacher grinned, proud that she had already memorized a name. "We'll be reading over a short play, just for warming up. I'll need two people to demonstrate - would you mind being one of them?" Of course, JD couldn't say no - that would likely get him in trouble.

So with a sigh, the sixteen year old boy nodded his head and stood up, walking over to Mrs. Nix and taking one of the scripts in his small hands. The title of the play was one he did not recognize, the same going for the play-writer. "In a nutshell," the teacher stated to the rest of the class, "It's a play in which two people have mutual hate - which turns into something else. Okay, now I need a gir-"

The teacher was cut off when another lanky, teenage boy came bouncing up the side-steps and onto the stage. The guy was obviously an upperclassmen and wore a smirk of defiance on his flawless face. A black V-neck hugged the boy's skinny torso perfectly, as did his dark blue skinny jeans. On his feet were a pair of plain black Converse, the same pair as what JD was wearing. "Hey," the mystery guy said nonchalantly to the teacher, sitting down on the stage as well, as if it were completely normal and fine.

The teacher's eyes narrowed on the new boy before flickering back to her clipboard, taking note of the only name that was marked absent that day. "Sabastian Maxwell Reed?" she asked, making sure that the troublesome boy was actually in her class.

The smirking boy nodded his head, but stated before the teacher could say anything else, "I go by Sab, though." The teacher sighed, marking that down on the roll-checking sheet of paper as well, deciding not to make a scene in front of the rest of her class. She needed to get to the demonstration, anyhow. Mr.s Nix decided she'd deal with this.. Sab character after class.

"Okay, now I need another person to demonstrate with JD for the warm-up.. would-?" Again, the teacher was cut off. But it wasn't because someone had spoken out of turn before she'd finished her sentence, no - Sab had took it upon himself to stand, dust off the back of his jeans, and walk over to the teacher.

"I'll do it," he volunteered, glancing over at JD, who was still standing with his script in his hand, looking like a nervous wreck. The smirk on Sab's face grew bigger before he switched his brown eyes back to Mrs Nix. The seventeen year old boy reached out his hand, obviously waiting to receive the other script.

A puzzled look had come over the teacher's face, and she said, "Sabastian.. er, Sab, you do realize that this is a boy and girl love story, basically? And I already have a boy," she motioned to JD for emphasis. "So now I need a girl for the other part.."

"I'll do it," Sab repeated, insistent that he get to be in the demonstration with JD. He still held out his hand, tapping his foot a little and really testing the teacher's patience. But Mrs. Nix still didn't like causing scenes while the whole class was present, so she just tiredly nodded her head and handed the script over. It couldn't really hurt, anyway - there were no kissing scenes or anything like that in the short play.

The two boys started out reading, JD a little nervous at first and stuttering and scrambling up his words. All the while, Sab read his lines perfectly, rarely messing up. In all honesty, half of the reason that JD was so nervous was because he was making a demonstration for the other twenty-two kids in his Theatre I class. The other fifty percent of why he was nervous, though, was because.. well, to say Sab looked really good would be an understatement. And JD was pretty sure that this Sab character knew it. While they continued on with their lines, Sab's eyes never left JD's navy ones. The smirk remained on the older boy's face, no matter what his line was about. JD's nerves were about to explode.

But then the bell rang, signaling the end of first period. All of the students gathered their things and stood, exiting the auditorium after getting off the stage. Mrs. Nix clapped her hands and said, "Alright, well, we'll continue tomorrow." And before she forgot, she added, "Sabastian, I need to see you." A stern look had come over the woman's features and Sab rolled his eyes.

Without any hesitation, the older boy leaned forward, so that his mouth was next to the younger boy's ear. "Yeah, we'll continue this tomorrow." And with that, Sab took JD's script and walked over to the teacher, leaving behind a very blushing JD.

Quickly, JD got his binders and such for his other classes before exiting the auditorium as well. Secretly, he was really excited and looking forward to what his next Theatre class might hold.