The Fairest Stars

Chapter Twenty Seven: 'Fair and honest.'

Over the next few weeks, time passed quickly. Isis and Kael were far too busy to even think about a third date; rehearsals were now every night as the performance of the play was only a week away.

It was nerve wracking just thinking about it. Isis had started to have nightmares about getting up on stage to find she was only wearing her underwear, or going to say her lines, and forgetting everything. So, as she went to school on the morning of the dress rehearsal, the butterflies thumping in her stomach (they felt more like elephants than butterflies, to be honest) were a painful irritation.

Kael seemed so laid back and calm that she wondered if she'd gotten the wrong day, but when she asked him about it, he merely smiled.

'No, no, it's today,' he replied. 'We get to miss lessons, don't we?'

Isis nodded. 'But...' she looked at him, head tilted to one side in that familiar expression of curiosity he'd come to love. 'Surely you're scared? Why are you so calm and collected about it?'

'It's all a farce,' he assured her. 'Break it, and I'm a shivering wreck beneath, absolutely terrified of farting onstage or something.'

Freya giggled in the back at hearing the word fart. Kael turned in his seat and winked at her, making her giggle more. Isis rather suspected that her younger sister was a little bit in love with her new friend. Her cheeks were prone to flush every time Kael spoke to her, and she went very, very quiet whenever he was around. It was rather adorable.

'Phew,' Isis replied, rather relieved that she wasn't the only one fretting about anything possible to fret about. She was still feeling nauseous, even when Kael gave her a stomach flipping kiss. In fact, his kiss probably only worsened the feeling; and that was never good.

His lips brushed across her forehead. 'You'll be absolutely fine, baby, alright?' he promised her. 'It's only a dress rehearsal, if something goes wrong, we'll know how to stop it from happening the next time, yeah?' He brushed hair softly back from her face. 'It's what the dress rehearsal's for, isn't it?'

Isis nodded, giving him a wan smile. 'I just can't help but get nervous,' she whispered. 'But thank you.'

One thing which very few people had actually thought about was their costumes. The several large boxes of outfits stored in the school drama department closet were rather old, and hadn't been looked in for a year, and Isis couldn't remember if there was anything suitable.

Sorting through the box, she pulled out a yellowing dress, clearly meant for Juliet's balcony scene, and some rather pathetic velvet tunics and things for the boys.

Handing out costumes to everyone, she realised, with a start, that the only good costume was Lydia's: and she'd brought her own from home.

'Ah,' said Kael, surveying the result. Everyone was looking at their outfits distastefully, the moth eaten remains of Romeo's costume crumbling as they spoke; Isis's dresses looking about four sizes too big for her.

'It's not great, is it?' said Xavier, newly out of plaster. 'We're gonna look like such idiots.'

Mrs Robson frowned. 'No, no, children! These are perfectly...' she paused, and that said it all. 'Acceptable.'

'They'll do, won't they?' Isis said, always one to look on the bright side, and the others nodded, some more reluctantly than others.

Kael wasn't so sure. The outfits were so dreadful, he thought that they might fall off half way through the performance, and that would be far, far worse than just farting on stage.

The dress rehearsal started off well. Isis, despite the terrible outfit, looked radiant, performing her lines to perfection, without need of a prompt, and Kael managed to swap between his two roles with ease.