NOVEL NEXT Chapter 78: The Stage Play
{Author's Note: Be it known unto you, my dear readers, that after I have done my research for this particular chapter, I've learned that amusement parks hadn't yet been established until the 19th century, contrary to my 18th-century story timeline. But for the sake of imagination, let us hone our thoughts to accept that they are already existing in this story. xD)
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The trip to the museum was anything but interesting-- well not for me, at least. But there are some people I know, namely Cailin and the class president, who acted as if they are having the time of their life simply by sitting inside a museum and listening to a guide who seemed to have been in his thirties or forties already.
After all, I hate the History subject in the first place. Not a fan of artifacts or memorizing significant names and timelines at all!
"And this…"
The entire class stopped walking before a large and tall gold statue of a boy in his lavish royal garb, centered on the Museum's second floor. I tried hard to imagine the details of this remarkable work made by an evidently skilled sculptor.
Why, this is...
"... this is the newest attraction here. Donated by the prince himself after the famous sculptor Leonel Newton had given it to him as a personal gift." The tour guide tried to explain in the simplest words that he could utter to a bunch of first-year academic students.
I blinked quite a few times after hearing those words and peered up once more at this magnificent statue. It is certainly captivating to the eye. An art that would capture even the most casual of people's attention, such as myself.
My gaze landed on its almond-shaped eyes on his face, sculpted with perfect precision. It really looked like it stared directly in my direction. That's how I could truly allot credit to Leonel for this marvelous work on this thing in front of me.
Seriously, what the hell am I even trying to say?
"Now, moving on to the next one…"
My attention was then snapped back to the present time as I heard the business-like tone of our tour guide for today while he scurries away from this place. And so are my classmates.
I was also going to walk with them as well, but then something caught my attention. Something that I am debating within myself if the mere event was only caused by my imagination or not.
When I was about to glance away from the statue, I noticed its eyes slightly tilted toward my direction, but when I decided to stay for a few seconds, hoping it would happen again so I could reassure myself, it did not.
"Krisella! What are you still doing there?" the class president practically shouted from the other side, causing the menacing stares from my other classmates to fall into my place. "Get here this instance. You sure like to fall from behind, don't you?"
His voice was all I need to interrupt my ridiculous train of thoughts at the moment and hurriedly ran my way towards my classmates as quickly as I could.
After the rather dull, dreary, and to be honest, slightly creepy museum trip, Mr. Pumpkin decided that it was time for us to take our lunch at the nearby diner co-owned by his brother. (He said this as we walked out of the museum.)
While everyone was busy choosing their peers at an empty table, I immediately spotted my friends Maggie and Ariella as they walked towards Cailin and I-- because Cailin never left my side when my other friends weren't around at the time.
"I heard you are late earlier than our original call time?" Ariella greeted me with this kind of question that I suppressed my urge to roll my eye.
"Yes, it's been quite tough to convince my grandmother to let me join in this trip than I had truly imagined." I casually said, well… as casually as I could.
"Oh, you poor thing." Maggie crooned. "Living under a strict household must be so hard on your part."
I barked a light chuckle, making it to sound humorous as I could.
"At first, yeah. But then I just learned to get the hang of it, you know."
After that, I swiftly seized this opportunity to redirect my friends' attention out of my personal life by introducing them to Cailin, a slightly non-existent part of our class that not at all my classmates are so familiar with, even with these two.
I felt relieved when they gladly agreed to the invitation of letting Cailin join us for lunch and succeeded in misleading the topic earlier. Overall, the lunch had been such a wonderful moment for the four of us that included exchanging remarks, jokes, and laughter.
There was enough room for us to enjoy our childhood once again when Mr. Pumpkin allowed us to roam around the themed park of Bartholomew Fair for a short while before the play at the auditorium officially starts.
My friends and I decided to reminisce our childhood years by trying to ride on the merry-go-round like some bunch of silly girls such as ourselves without even having to care what our other classmates might be going to say.
Others opted for a thrilling ride which I came to know later as the rollercoaster that was solely run by some machinery with an aid of magic.
My small group decided to join the fun, and we ran to the ticketing booth of the said ride, only to find ourselves screaming our guts out for the next couple of minutes, (and with some puking in Maggie's part as we exited the ride).
After that heart-stopping ride at the rollercoaster and Maggie feeling a lot better now, it was then when we made to ourselves not to do it again and moved on with our next endeavors.
To make Maggie feel a lot better, we decided to take her into a sweet treats corner where all sorts of sweets are being made and sold in different booths aligned in one line. Maggie's eyes then lit up as she saw the cotton candy booth, so we approached the cotton candy maker and bought four sticks of this deliciously twirled, fluffy, mouth-watering candy each.
"This is fun..." Cailin burst out unexpectedly, which caused the three of us to turn towards her. "... I have never experienced hanging out like this with other people my age and not feeling hurt or judged."
I smiled at her, the warmest that I could give to a person.
"Consider yourself as part of this group starting today," I declared, eyeing my two other friends for support and confirmation. "Isn't that right girls?"
"Right, indeed." Maggie also smiled at Cailin. "I will love to have you as one of my friends."
"Thank you…" the latter said thankfully. "... thank you so much."
Our quite heartwarming conversation sadly had to end there in haste after our class adviser called each one of us to proceed to the auditorium. Without any complaints, we did as what we are told to do and followed our teacher all the way to our last destination for the day.
In the next couple of hours, we find ourselves seated comfortably on a long velvet, woolen chair as we served as today's spectators for a special performance that the members of the known theater group here in Citadel-- The Eureka Theatre company-- along with other guests as well.
"The play that they are currently performing is famously known as Hermani, a poetic tragedy of five acts written by Victor Hugo, the very first known romantic drama in our 18th century." I heard Mr. Pumpkin briefly explained to us about the play.
Most of us actually hadn't paid any attention to his words until he said, "I want you to pay attention to every detail of the play, for I will require you to write a short reaction paper about that that you will need to pass not later than tomorrow."
All groaned and made some exasperated sighs after that. Typical, lazy students… aren't we?
When the play had finally come to its end after an achingly stretched of another one to two hours of our lives, the director of the theatre group-- a red-haired woman in her thirties, I suppose-- surprisingly came to our direction after the curtains had been closed.
"Ms. Leighman, what a pleasure to see you again up this close." Mr. Pumpkin greeted the stage director with a mix of delighted yet formal tone as well.
"The pleasure is mine," The woman called Ms. Leighman nodded curtly to our adviser before roaming her eyes towards our direction.
"I came here to look for that brilliant actress that I happen to watch at their live roleplaying performance last Foundation week celebration," she announced that caused a slight gasp in my classmates' part.
Then a brave soul raised her hand. "You mean me, Ms. Leighman?"
A brave soul who happens to bear the name of Jill Harrington.
"No," the woman blatantly said that almost made my friends laugh at my sides.
I watched her scan the crowd for the one person she seemed to be talking about, but when her eyes met mine, a smile emerged from her lips, and her right hand raised and pointed toward me.
"You, young miss..." she declared, pointing firmly in my direction. "... is who I've been looking for all this time," she continued.