Behind the Silk Curtain

My day begins with a lecture at eight in the morning. I usually would complain a lot more about the fact that I have to be at university at eight in the morning but since I'm in my last semester and there is also the fact that I am only taking one subject this semester so it frees up my week a hell of a lot so really…no real complaints coming from my corner.

I'm sitting at the back of the university theatre, hood over my head and chewing on the end of my pencil. It has become a bad habit over the years that I have been studying here. Even with the new pencil, I was already marking my territory upon it. There was no way anyone would want to borrow it now…which was handy because it was the nay pencil that I would carry around with me.

My eight am lecture was in a 19th century building with a modern interior dressed to impress. There was tiered seating, in which I occupied a seat in the back row, with a second level above. Sound and lighting desks sat unused nearby with speakers hanging off the walls. There was also a full rigging system with ropes that would hoist sets on and off the stage without much effort from the backstage crew.

From my position, I watched the rest of my classmates that would be with me for the next semester entering the theatre dressed in their theatre blacks and comfortable shoes. Some of the girls with more money wore expensive jackets, protecting them from the London winter outside. It was getting close to Christmas so protection from the unpredictable weather was needed.

I, however, could not afford the luxury that these girls with money could. I had an oversized university hoodie that read RADA across the front. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art if you were so ever interested and I have attended this place for the last three or so years. Whatever. I had been her a damn long time and I was hoping to get out of it soon so I could pursue my career in acting.

When I had told my father, an exceptional criminal lawyer, of what profession I would be undertaking when I was taking my A-Level's, he had looked down on me like I was a piece of scum. When I turned 18, a day after my final exam, he refused to talk to me. The last thing he did say to me though was a small sum of money that I would be receiving to help me find a small, dodgy apartment on the outskirts of London.

That was it. We haven't spoken since. And because of that, I was forced to work two jobs to try and pay for most of my tuition. I had auditioned for RADA and managed to gain a half scholarship for my efforts in which I was eternally grateful for as I wouldn't have known how I would have paid my way through university.

So as a result, the clothes I wore were something that I could afford and something that I would be comfortable wearing at the same time as we flowed through various scenes. But compared to the family lives of these girls that I watched take their seats down the front of the theatre, we were practically the same -- but that didn't mean that we would become friends. It was the never-ending cycle of dislike between our two class systems.

There weren't many people in this class, which I was glad about. Small amount of people, small amount of bullshit to deal with. Unfortunately, though, I saw that most of the class was filled up with the girls that I previously described. I was disappointed yet surprised in finding them in this class and that they had survived this far. It must have been the people like me that they had destroyed along the way so they could further themselves.

I sighed, biting on the edge of my pencil when I jumped at hearing a voice from the end of the aisle that I sat in: "You know that could poison you."

I looked down the aisle to find a tall curly haired man dressed in his theatre blacks like the rest of us with a dark, well worn jacket that protected him from the outside cold. There were dots of snow caught in his hair, highlighting his brown-blonde curls.

From this distance, I couldn't see what colour his eyes were. They were a mix between blue and green. His features were angular and was clean shaven, showing the cheekiness that he seemed to naturally portray. I could easily see him as a playful villain set out to rid the world of what he deems to be evil.

"They haven't put that kind of led into pencils since the sixties," I retorted, taking my eyes from him and refocussing upon the stage in front of me. Unconsciously, I started to chew on the end of my pencil again.

Hearing him groan, annoyed at my unconscious reaction, he moved his way down to where I sat. As he did to, he pulled out a pen from his pocket and his long, thin pianists fingers held out the pen to me. His curved eyebrows raised as he waited for me to take the pen he offered me. I didn't even look over to him as I continued to stare in front of me.

Rolling his eyes, he took the pencil from between my fingers and replaced it with the pen that he held. I glared up at him, annoyed at the replacement, before I glanced down at the pen, saying, "I think I would rather die of 'led' poisoning then ink." I extended the pen up to him. "Can I have my pencil back? I don't think you'll like it."

"Who said that I would be using it," he replied, snapping the pencil in half and turning to aim at the bin by the entrance to the theatre. He aimed for it, bobbing his hand back and forth before it escaped his fingers. Smiling, he turned back to me. "Nailed it."

"Whatever," I said, turning back to the stage where I saw a teacher stepping out onto the stage and setting his things on the ground in front of him.

There was a stack of papers that he placed down with a sigh as he straightened out his stiffened back and removed her jacket. There was a giggle from all the female students in the expensive jackets in the front row as they glance back to me. They soon turn back to the teacher that they find in front of them and ogle him amongst themselves.

"Ignore them," he said to me, his kind soft spoken voice said to me. "They're just jealous I decided to talk to you instead of them."

"What are you going to do now? Sit with me?" I said a little more harshly then I should have.

"Thanks for the invitation," he said as he sat himself in the seat beside me.

He hoisted his long, gangly legs upon the seat in front of him and let out a sigh of content between those thin yet beautiful lips. Beautiful? Really? I put that thought out of my mind as I focussed on the teacher in front of me as he settled himself upon the stage in front of us.

"That's Craw," the man next to me said, glancing over to me briefly as he leaned in closer to me while keeping his eyes firmly upon the teacher. "Short for Crawshaw. His been in theatre for years -- acting and directing. RADA's been after him for years now and it was only now that he finally accepted the Academy's offer. He better be good, from what I've heard of him."

"How did you know all this?" I asked.

"My sisters said I could have been a journalist if I wanted," he said, fiddling with the edge of the books that he carried. "But then again, it's not like his career was private knowledge or the constant harassment the Academy's been giving him."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you knew a lot about me, then," I commented.

"Don't push it," he said. "You're going to make me interested."

"I couldn't help it, even if I tried," I said. "Ever since you changed that new chewed up pencil of mine for your pen, you've been interested in me."

A sly smile spreads across his lips as his light laugh filled our section of the theatre. His tongue pocked out slightly as he laughed and I couldn't help but smile when he did so. Why? Because the happiness that he was feeling in that moment emanated from him.

"Oh look!" he said, turning to me as his face hovered uncomfortably close to mine. "I managed to get a smile out of you." It soon disappeared along with the happiness that he had just been feeding me. His face dropped with mine. "I can tell that you're not someone who experiences happiness very often. That's probably the happiest you've felt in a long time."

Annoyed, I moved my body as far away from him as I could in the constraints of my seat, and said, "Don't act like you know me."

"Oh, but in those few seconds, I did," he said, a gleam in his eye telling me that he was intrigued more then ever. "And I'm interested to know more."

"If the two of you lovebirds in the back row could please move forward, I would like to begin the class," Craw said from the stage.

The entire class's attentions were now upon us, waiting for an action. The "Royalty"," as I now liked to call them because of their obvious wealth in their appearance, looked at us expediently, waiting for a reaction that they could gossip about.

Seeing that I was obviously not going to do anything, the man beside me said, "Oh, we're not dating if that's what you wanted to know, sir."

"Just move down to one of the first few rows, if you would," Craw called, using his hands to beckon us down.

I had no intention of moving and I let Craw know so by saying, "I like my row, thanks. Keeps me away from the bad vibes."

I glance down the Royalty girls and cocked an eyebrow. Flushing read, the man beside me stood and eyed me to my feet. It was a long tim before I stood up and when I did, I stormed by him, unimpressed, and strode angrily down to the last row that I could sit in without Craw telling me to move again.

With a humph, I sat down and the man who sat with me in the back row joined me. As he was about to sit down beside me, I glared him to the end of the aisle, clear that I wanted to be alone for this one brief moment of the class.

Content with the movements, Craw then began the class by introducing himself. I immediately wanted to fall asleep because of how drawn out and boring he made it all seem. To be honest, I had no idea….whatever his name was said how good Craw is. I just couldn't see it.

And with that, I unconsciously found myself chewing on the end of the pen that he had given me and started to taste something unpleasant. I pulled the pen out of my mouth to see that I had chewed all the way through to the long thin plastic pipe lay that contained the ink the pen wrote with.

Making a spitting noise, I dropped the pen to the ground. I soon enough found all eyes back on me again as Craw looked at me, totally unimpressed by my actions. Raising an eyebrow, I fell back into my seat and willed myself to meld into it's form. From the end of the aisle, I heard the man from the back row trying to contain his laughter.

Craw scolded him for it, saying that interruptions was a sign of ill respect and it was not a good way to start off a student-teacher relationship. Before he could continue, a distant bell could be heard, signalling the end of the class. I looked up to the beautifully decorated ceiling of the theatre and thanked God for the opportunity to let me leave my only class for this semester.

"Before you all leave, I have some homework for you all," Craw said to us as I stood up from my seat and was ready to bound back home to one of my many jobs to keep me in this city. "As you all know, we have a large production we will be performing at the end of this semester in this tremendous theatre we are so fortunate to occupy for the remainder of the semester. Auditions begin in two weeks and here are the audition scripts you may take." He motioned to the large pile of scripts in front of him. "Male and female audition partners would be preferred but you may audition with friends that are of the same sex."

I glanced over to the man that I occupied the row with and shrugged. I moved my way down the aisle and joined him and the rest of the class at the stage. He managed to get a script for me, which I was grateful for.

When I looked down at the title of the play that each of us would be auditioning for, I saw that it was a 1920's adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. I made an audible groan that copped another criticising look from Crawshaw as I moved myself away from the stage. The man from my row joined me, flicking through the first few pages.

"So, you want to audition together?" he asked me lightly as I searched through the pages that were giving to us to audition with.

"Not after the stunt you just pulled back there," I commented, giving him a harsh sidelong look.

"Come on, I was just trying to have some fun!" he exclaimed as our classmates started to form partnerships for the auditions before leaving the theatre.

The Royalty girls huddled in a tight nit group together, muttering words to one another that I couldn't understand from the distance I was at. What I could understand, though, was their glances over to us every few seconds by different members of the group -- which the five of them made up.

Soon enough, one of the members left the group and made her way towards us. She had shoulder length brown wavy hair with a dizzily smile and a face that obviously had some work done upon it. I knew she was set out for trouble the moment she glanced over to me.

I cleared my throat to let the man I was with know that there was someone approach and it wasn't going to talk to me, yet alone acknowledge me. I didn't even bother to give her a smile as I slunk away and red through the balcony scene where Romeo climbs up to Juliet and kiss. If anything, I didn't think I could see myself kiss him although I didn't think I would mind it.

From over the edge of my audition script, I watched the brown haired girl from Royalty bob up and down happily, trying to appeal to the also bright and bubbly man she was trying to convince to audition with her. He glanced over to me, unsure of the decision he should make. He took a few seconds to studying my attempts to hide behind these script before he turned back to her and shook his head.

I watched her deflate like a balloon as she tried not to look too disappointed at the answer he had given to her. Quickly, she returned to her friends where they comforted her out of the theatre. Lowering my script, I walked over to the man with a smirk.

"Good decision making right there," I said, seeing him play with the script that he had picked up for himself.

"Yeah, I don't think I would have auditioned well in the balcony scene with her," he said.

"You picked up that scene too?" I said, not really finding it as much of a coincidence as I lead on to be.

A smile creeped back onto those lips again as he said, "Yeah, I picked it so I would have a chance to audition with you…but from what it looks like, I picked up the wrong scene."

"No, I don't think you did," I said. "When did you want to meet up to rehearse?"