Chapter 12: Abate Thy Valour In The Acting It
Kevin and I stood in the wings, watching the house fill up. People had started coming in, and I could sense Kevin’s nerves. He grabbed my hand, and held it tightly. I squeezed it lightly, and he squeezed back, killing my hand, but I didn’t say anything.
“there’s my mom.” Kevin whispered, pointing. “And my dad, and my brothers.” I looked out where he was pointing. In about the fourth row, in the centre, the Jonas family sat. His dad sat at one end, then it went Joe, Frankie, Nick, and his mom, who was looking behind her. I followed her gaze, to see my parents, and my younger sisters sitting there. My mom had a look of disgust on her face.
“Oh my God Kevin.” I said, turning to him. “That poster!”
“What about it?”
“I didn’t tell my parents who Romeo was!” I said. I looked back over to my parents, who were both talking animatedly with there hands.
“Oh shit. I didn’t tell them who Juliet was either.” He leaned past the curtain, to look. Both of our parents wore looks of pure anger.
“We’re gonna be in shit.” I said. Kevin started laughing. “why are you laughing? This isn’t funny!”
“I’m not sure why I’m laughing.” He said. “I find this hilarious for some reason.” He just stood in the wings, laughing. Soon I joined him.
“Guys, you need to get out of the wings.” The stage manager came and told us. We nodded, and walked backstage, where the rest of the cast was hanging out.
--
Half an hour had passed, and soon, the house lights went down, Ms Pea took centre stage, and introduced the play. She spoke of how this play had changed the cast members, how a few of us had started out with great dislike for each other, much like some of the characters in the show, but over time we had grown to be friends. Kevin and I were standing backstage. He gripped my hand as Ms Pea talked.
“Chelsea…” Kevin started, but I interrupted him with my hand.
“Kevin Jonas. Listen to me. You are going to do amazing. I believe in you. You will go out there, and be the best Romeo you can be. Everyone in that audience will be shocked.” I looked him deep in the eyes. “We’re gonna prove to our parents that the Irvine’s and Jonas’ families don’t have to fight, ok?” He nodded, and he leaned in and gave me a small kiss on the cheek.
“Break a leg Kevin.” I said. He smiled at me.
“You too, Chelsea.” He grinned.
--
The first time Kevin was standing in the wings to go on stage, I stood beside him. His breathing was fast, and I could feel him tense up as his cue got closer and closer. Just before he was supposed to go on, he turned to me.
“I’m so scared.” He whispered. I leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips.
“You can do it Kevin. I believe in you.” I said, pushing him on the stage. I watched from the wings, as he stepped into the light, took a deep breath, and spoke his first line flawlessly. I nodded, smiling big, as the action continued. It took a few lines for him to relax, but he did. He was great.
The first few scenes went off fine, until Kevin and I were first on stage together, for the ball scene. I walked out in my ball outfit, which was a long blue dress, with red edging, and dark blue frills, with a blue and red mask. Kevin’s was a white dress shirt, slightly open to reveal his chest, and these black pants that came to his knees. He wore these boots with them, with a small dagger stuck in there. He had a white and black mask on.
As we said our lines back and forth, I could hear murmurs in the crowd, probably coming from our families. I knew when I was confronted by my parents about Kevin, it probably wouldn’t be the best conversation in the world.
But I didn’t care. I was on stage, doing what I loved, with the boy I loved.
Wait.
Did I just say the boy I loved?
Loved?!
Oh dear.
I brushed that thought away from my mind, and focused on the play. Soon the first kiss between Romeo and Juliet came, and Kevin and I did it much like our dress rehearsal. We still had this connection between us when we kissed. It felt like it was where I belonged, kissing him. Apparently, as Ms Pea had told us, the audience not only saw the kiss, they felt the kiss, with our body language, and the way we acted toward each other.
The show went on, like it had during rehearsals, with Kevin and I doing our parts full-heartedly. I think inside both of us had already decided it didn’t matter what our parents thought of the other family. This was between him and I.
As the wedding night scene came, and the excepted gasps and murmurs about my scars came, the play was going off with out a hitch. Kevin had no nerves left, and had just let go. He was playing Romeo to the best of his ability, and it was amazing.
“For never was a story of more woe,
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.” The Prince said, as the final line of the play. Kevin and I lay on stage, holding hands, dead, as the curtain fell and the lights went dim. We heard clapping and cheering, and we both stood up and grinned.
“YOU DID IT KEVIN!” I said, running to give him a hug. He picked me up and spun me around.
“We did it Chelsea!” He said, laughing. We exited the stage, as we were supposed to, so the cast could start the bows. The curtains went up, and the lights went back on, as people stood in the audience and clapped.
It started with the minor characters, who all came on stage together, and did there bows among the cheers. Then came the Major characters, who each took bows in groups of two. It was only Kevin and I back stage still, and as the major characters took a step back, to the curtain, we came on together, holding hands. We walked to the front of the stage.
I looked out over the crowd for the first time. It was indeed full, every seat packed. Well, actually, they were all empty, as everyone in the house was standing, applauding for us. We did our bows, and the cheering got louder. I heard a rousing chant of “Kevin! Kevin! Kevin!”, which had to be from his brothers. I laughed, and bowed again. Kevin followed me lead, before we all headed off the stage.
We had a few minutes to get out of our costumes, which we did, before leaving the stage. Kevin and I walked out together. AS we left the backstage, everyone we passed congratulated us on the play. Mr. Fletcher came up to the two of us first.
“I would just like to say that I am very impressed by the both of you.” He said, shaking both our hands. We smiled, and then went on to find our parents.
“Chelsea!” I heard a little voice yell.
“Kevin!” another little one said, as we both were bowled over by our youngest siblings. Tammy ran to me, hugging me tightly around the legs, while Frankie jumped into kevin’s arms.
“Hey Tammy!” I said, giving her a hug. “did you like it?”
“YEAH! YOU WERE AMAZING!” she said. I laughed, as she g ripped on my leg tighter. Frankie was doing something very similar to Kevin and we both just laughed. Both our families came up to us.
It was kind of awkward at first, my dad just looking at his dad, his mom staring at mine, none of our siblings saying anything. Kevin took a step forward, and held his hand out to my father.
“Congratulations, Mr. Irvine.” He said. “Your daughter did an amazing job.” My dad stared at Kevin’s hand, before grasping it with his own. After shaking hands with Kevin, he turned to Mr. Jonas.
“And to you, Paul.” My father said, this time holding his hand out to Mr. Jonas. “Kevin did a respectable job playing Romeo.” It again was silent as my dad’s hand was just held out. There was a moment, before the two fathers grabbed hands. I smiled at Kevin. This was much better then the two families bashing each other!
“Chelsea, I am so proud of you!” My mom said. I smiled, and hugged her.
“Thanks mom.” I said. As we hugged, she whispered in my ear.
“At least he’s not a porn addicted psycho.” I blushed, forgetting about that conversation we had had. She just laughed at me, with a “We’ll talk later.”
Kevin and I stood there, trying to talk to our parents, but could only get in a few words before someone jumped in between us, saying how amazing the play had been. We would thank them, and then turn back to our families. Soon, Ms Pea came to stand between Kevin and I.
“MY STARS!” she said, smiling at us. Kevin and I both laughed.
“You two were magnificent today! That’s how that play was supposed to be preformed! In pure honestly, love and emotion!” She said. She congratulated our parents, before leaving us again.
“We should be going.” Mrs. Jonas said, carrying a yawning Frankie. My sister Sam was carrying an already sleeping Tammy. None of us had noticed how late it was getting. I said good bye to the Jonas family, as we headed in different directions towards our cars. When we got there, Sam berated me with questions.
“Did you want to kiss Jonas? What was it like doing it? Did you throw up? When did Jonas become such a good actor? Why was he Romeo? Why didn’t you tell me he was Romeo? Was he an understudy? Was he always Romeo?” She launched into. I laughed.
“Samara, give me a second to breath.” I said. She stopped, and I nodded.
“Ok. From the first one. No, I did not want to kiss Jonas. It was like kissing anyone. No I didn’t throw up, because that would be rude. I don’t know when he became a good actor, but apparently he can do Shakespeare really well. Yes, he was always Romeo. I didn’t tell you guys he was Romeo, because I didn’t think it mattered, and Mom asked me not to tell.” I answered. She nodded, and tried to ask me another string of questions, but my dad cut her off.
“Sam, as curious as you are, please, let Chelsea rest. She has to do that two more times tomorrow. “He looked at me in the review mirror. “We’re coming to one of those shows too.” He said. I smiled.
“How many are you coming to?” I asked.
“One every day.” My mom said. I grinned.
“Although, I really don’t like seeing my baby kiss a Jonas, I think the two of you did an amazing job on the play.” My dad said.
“Thank you Dad.”
“That was honestly the best play I’ve seen you do.” My mom said. “You really understood Juliet.” I blushed.
“Thank you Mom.” I said. I yawned once. I was starting to think Tammy’s idea of sleeping was a good one.
--
The next morning, Kevin didn’t wait at the junior highschool for me to pick him up. He was coming out of his house at the same time I was, and I asked if he wanted a ride. He hopped in the front seat. My sisters asked him loads of questions on the ride back, all about the play last night. When they left, I appoligized, but he just laughed.
“It’s fine Chelsea. I faced similar questions last night at my place.” He said. We compared stories from the night before. My mom had come into my room, and asked me if Kevin was the Romeo I was falling for. I had told her yes, and she had said that if I was falling for Kevin, there was nothing I could do, except let it happen. She also told me that while it would take some cooling off from my father, he probably wouldn’t be the most pissed off person in the world if something did happen between us.
Kevin told me how his brothers had asked him question after question about me, and our relationship basically all night. And that his father had come in and told him that “it was looking like the oldest Irvine girl isn’t that bad of a person”. I laughed at that, as we pulled up to the school.
