(no subject)
So people -- mostly at school -- keep badgering me to read some of my NaNovel. The teacher sponsoring me posted my winner's certificate in the hall, you see. *facepalms, laughing*
Now, probably none of those people are going to see this (if they do, I'll be worried), but since a couple people on my f-list were also interested, I thought I'd post part of it.
Chapter 10
You two are book-men : can you tell me by your wit
What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five
weeks old as yet?
--Love’s Labours Lost, Act 4, Scene 2
There was no good way to get from the booth to backstage without going through the house, so Sharon and Luke gave the audience a good five minutes to clear out. Once everyone but the persistent program readers was out of the audience, she slipped out of the booth and into the house.
Not quite everyone was gone, though. As she entered the house and started striding for the stage to go back to the green room, she heard her name. Turning, she saw Amber, sitting in her wheelchair like it was a throne and beckoning for her to come talk to her.
Sharon had no wish to talk to her. Sharon, in fact, suddenly had no wish to even be in the same room as her. But that, she supposed, was no excuse for being utterly rude. Besides, she had already acknowledged that she had heard Amber by turning around, so that excuse was out the window.
Instead, she came to a split second decision and gave a small wave, what she hoped was a convincingly apologetic smile, and tapped her watch. No time to chat, I’m a stage manager with lots to do. Before Amber could do more than register that, Sharon turned and kept striding for the stage.
She couldn’t quite figure it out. How could she defend Amber so vehemently to everyone, live by the code of if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all, even make her cast live by the same code, at least around her, and then snub the poor woman like that? It was snubbing, after all. There was no way to sugar coat it.
“And I’m supposed to be the nice one,” she muttered. The thought occurred to her that maybe, because she was worrying about this at all, that said something about her niceness level. But somehow, she wasn’t sure that could overcome the guilt at the essential not very nice act.
Of course, the rush of relief at not having to talk to Amber was overcoming the guilt pretty nicely by itself.
She sighed, and ducked backstage, went through the labyrinth of halls, and entered the green room. She was greeted by a veritable wall of sound - the entire cast and all of the techies were crammed in there, talking loudly and excitedly.
“Sharon!” someone called, and a number of heads turned and echoed the greeting.
She couldn’t help it: she grinned hugely. The excitement and energy of the room was completely infectious. “Guys! You guys are rocking!”
“Damn straight we’re rocking!” returned Carrigan, striding over and grabbing her hands, swinging her around - no easy task in the crowded green room. Sharon shrieked a little, and then laughed. “We’re rocking because we have a rocking stage manager who directed us for our last week!” He leaned in and kissed her, firmly, on the cheek. “Cheers!”
Sharon was laughing hard by now. “Um, wow.”
“You have lipstick on your cheek,” said Anna Jen, as Carrigan whirled away again.
Sharon put a hand up to her cheek. “I’m not surprised. Did someone slip crack into Carrigan’s makeup or what?”
“Worse,” Anna Jen told her solemnly. “Someone left two bottle of Rock Star at his makeup table.”
“Oh, good god.”
“And he took advantage of them.”
“Oh, good god.” Sharon looked after Carrigan, grinning. “Don’t let him take advantage of you, Anna Jen. If he’ll smooch me, who knows what he’ll do when you’re actually kissing him.”
Anna Jen rolled her eyes, snickering. “Psh. I’ll live. I’m in a good enough mood, I wouldn’t mind being taken advantage of a little.” She leaned in, conspiratorially. “Not by a shirtless Carrigan, anyway.”
“Boy, I hear you.” Sharon folded her arms comfortably and looked around. “It really is going well.”
“It’s going awesome,” Anna Jen corrected, grinning. “Or, I guess, awesomely. Really, really well.” She waved a hand. “Grammar. Stupid grammar. Who needs it?”
Sharon laughed, and reached out to pull the girl into a hug, careful not to disarrange her hair or makeup. “Keep it up.”
“Can do!” Anna Jen hugged her back and skipped off to talk to someone else.
“Hey, fearless leader,” Sharon heard someone call, and she turned to see Jess coming towards her, one hand behind his back.
“You called?” She gave his arm a curious glance. “Do I want to know what you’re hiding?”
“Yes,” he said solemnly. “Yes you do. Because it’s an opening night present.”
“Awww, Jess.” She smiled. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Oh, but I did,” he replied, and brought his hand out clutching a twenty ounce Starbucks cup marked VAN LAT.
Sharon squealed. “Jess! You didn’t have to do that!” She took the cup, inhaling the fragrance. “Oh, man, this much coffee is going to keep me up all night.”
“You have too much tolerance for that,” Jess said, grinning. “Besides, it’s only half caffeinated. Otherwise we’d have a female version of Carrigan over there bouncing around in the booth.”
Sharon took a sip, eyes widening. “And it’s fresh, too. How’d you manage that?”
“I called in a favor,” he said smoothly.
Sharon snickered. “You seriously speak like you’re out of a bad novel, but you arranged fresh coffee for me, so I don’t care.” With her free hand, she pulled him closer and down and kissed his cheek. “Thanks. You’re doing great.”
He hugged her with one arm. When she pulled back, she stared. “Jess, are you blushing?”
“I am definitely not blushing,” he said instantly, as the blush deepened.
“You are such a goof.” She laughed, and took another sip of her drink.
“I try.”
She checked her watch, and sighed. “Five minutes ‘til we should be reopening the house. Let’s see if I can quiet everyone down long enough to pep talk at them.”
“Want me to yell?” Jess asked.
“Think I can handle it, but thanks.” She took a deep breath, paused, and let it out. “You may want to stand back.”
He obeyed, covering his ears with a smirk. She took another deep breath, tilted her head back, and yelled, “Hey!”
The cast quieted down and turned towards her, expectant. She grinned and toasted them with her coffee.
“You guys are doing great,” she called. “Keep up the good work, keep up the energy in the second half. Any problems I need to know about?”
There was a moment of shuffling quiet, as everyone looked around at everyone else. “No problems? No questions? Awesome. Techies, the call is five minutes, so time for you guys to get in place.”
As the knot of people dispersed again, Ethan came up and slung an arm over
Sharon’s shoulders. “How’re you doing?”
“No, no,” she corrected, slipping her arm around his waist. “It’s, ‘how you doin’?’”
He poked her in the side with his free hand. She squeaked and swatted at him with the hand around his waist. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She took a sip of her latte. “Why wouldn’t I be? The show’s going great. I hardly have to worry about you guys at all.”
“I thought I saw Amber out in the house,” he said quietly. “I was just wondering if you were okay.”
Sharon went still for a second, then shook her head. “I’m not not okay, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I guess that works,” he replied after a moment of thought. “I mean, it’s not grammatically correct, but at least it gets your point across.”
She rolled her eyes, amused. “As Anna Jen put it so succinctly earlier, ‘Grammar. Stupid grammar. Bah.’”
“She’s got a way with words,” Ethan agreed, snickering, then sobered. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Like I say,” Sharon said after a moment, “I’m not not okay.” More quietly, she added, “I’m not exactly looking forward to seeing her after the show, but it ought to be relatively painless. I didn’t change much of the show.”
He gave her a close look, and then shook his head. “Snag me after the show, okay?”
“I was planning on getting dinner out . . .”
“Got a date?”
“No, I’d been planning on dinner with me and a good book. Celebratory.”
“Would you mind some company? Anna Jen and Aaron and I were talking about going out to get drinks or something afterwards. You’d be a lot more than welcome to join us.”
Sharon brightened. “Seriously?”
He blinked at her. “Oh, come on, don’t sound so surprised. Of course, seriously.”
“I’d really like that!” She grinned. “Although I might insist on a stop by my apartment to check on the kitten.”
“Hey, we’re flexible.” He reached down, grabbed one foot, and stretched his leg out to demonstrate.
“Yes, yes you are.” She snickered. “And I was supposed to be up in the booth about two minutes ago, but I’ll find you after the show.” Raising her voice, she told the room, “Three minutes to places, people!”
“Thank you three!”
She headed out to the house, slipping out from behind the wings and snaking her way between the people starting to meander back to their seats, giving them polite smiles. Amber waved to her again, and she waved back politely and made a I’m so busy, can’t talk! face. A couple minutes later, she sat down in the booth, took a deep breath, and slipped on the headset.
“-man, if you get pirates off of the water, they’re useless. Ninjas are deadly everywhere,” Luke was saying.
Sharon groaned. “Hi. It’s Sharon. Are you guys at it again?”
“Yes,” Hannah said succinctly, as Jess overrode her with, “But pirates have range! They have pistols and cannons!”
“Nuh-uh,” objected Luke. “Shuriken.”
“No, you can’t win this one,” Jess said firmly. “I am set in my ways.”
Sharon rolled her eyes. “So, can I make a call?”
“Don’t know,” retorted Luke, “can you?”
“Brat. Let me talk to house.” She grabbed the radio. “Hey, Janet?”
“Hey, Sharon, what can I do for you?”
“Would you be ready to close the house soon?”
“Sure, we can do that. Give us about five minutes. I’ll go flash the lights.”
“Thanks, Janet.” She put aside the radio and turned on the headset. “Okay, we’re at five minutes or so. I’m going to make the call, so consider yourselves warned.” Rolling over to the PA system, she flicked it on and announced, “This is your stage manager speaking. The call is - places, please. Places for the top of act two. Exits are located stage right, left, and up center. Places, please.” She flicked it off, then reconsidered and turned it on long enough to say, “Have a good show!”
She returned to the board and put on the headset. “Sharon, back on com.”
“Can we go back to debating?” asked Luke.
Sharon sighed. “Yes, yes, go ahead and continue debating.”
“Okay, Jess, Buffy or River?”
“Oooh,” said Hannah, “totally Buffy. She has Slayer strength going for her.”
There was a brief, almost shocked pause. Finally, Jess said, “Hannah, you’re into Buffy?”
“Sure,” Hannah replied cheerfully. “Now, if you gave River some weapons, it might change, because she can go all berserker on Buffy. Buffy can do berserker, but only with certain weapons. I mean, think about the way she handled that sword in the season two finale - clearly not the natural or the trained fighter River is.”
“. . . I think my brain just exploded,” Luke said.
I am largely incommunicado today, due to being at the theater from 12:30 until 10, and then prom until midnight. Have a good Saturday, all.
Now, probably none of those people are going to see this (if they do, I'll be worried), but since a couple people on my f-list were also interested, I thought I'd post part of it.
Chapter 10
You two are book-men : can you tell me by your wit
What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five
weeks old as yet?
--Love’s Labours Lost, Act 4, Scene 2
There was no good way to get from the booth to backstage without going through the house, so Sharon and Luke gave the audience a good five minutes to clear out. Once everyone but the persistent program readers was out of the audience, she slipped out of the booth and into the house.
Not quite everyone was gone, though. As she entered the house and started striding for the stage to go back to the green room, she heard her name. Turning, she saw Amber, sitting in her wheelchair like it was a throne and beckoning for her to come talk to her.
Sharon had no wish to talk to her. Sharon, in fact, suddenly had no wish to even be in the same room as her. But that, she supposed, was no excuse for being utterly rude. Besides, she had already acknowledged that she had heard Amber by turning around, so that excuse was out the window.
Instead, she came to a split second decision and gave a small wave, what she hoped was a convincingly apologetic smile, and tapped her watch. No time to chat, I’m a stage manager with lots to do. Before Amber could do more than register that, Sharon turned and kept striding for the stage.
She couldn’t quite figure it out. How could she defend Amber so vehemently to everyone, live by the code of if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all, even make her cast live by the same code, at least around her, and then snub the poor woman like that? It was snubbing, after all. There was no way to sugar coat it.
“And I’m supposed to be the nice one,” she muttered. The thought occurred to her that maybe, because she was worrying about this at all, that said something about her niceness level. But somehow, she wasn’t sure that could overcome the guilt at the essential not very nice act.
Of course, the rush of relief at not having to talk to Amber was overcoming the guilt pretty nicely by itself.
She sighed, and ducked backstage, went through the labyrinth of halls, and entered the green room. She was greeted by a veritable wall of sound - the entire cast and all of the techies were crammed in there, talking loudly and excitedly.
“Sharon!” someone called, and a number of heads turned and echoed the greeting.
She couldn’t help it: she grinned hugely. The excitement and energy of the room was completely infectious. “Guys! You guys are rocking!”
“Damn straight we’re rocking!” returned Carrigan, striding over and grabbing her hands, swinging her around - no easy task in the crowded green room. Sharon shrieked a little, and then laughed. “We’re rocking because we have a rocking stage manager who directed us for our last week!” He leaned in and kissed her, firmly, on the cheek. “Cheers!”
Sharon was laughing hard by now. “Um, wow.”
“You have lipstick on your cheek,” said Anna Jen, as Carrigan whirled away again.
Sharon put a hand up to her cheek. “I’m not surprised. Did someone slip crack into Carrigan’s makeup or what?”
“Worse,” Anna Jen told her solemnly. “Someone left two bottle of Rock Star at his makeup table.”
“Oh, good god.”
“And he took advantage of them.”
“Oh, good god.” Sharon looked after Carrigan, grinning. “Don’t let him take advantage of you, Anna Jen. If he’ll smooch me, who knows what he’ll do when you’re actually kissing him.”
Anna Jen rolled her eyes, snickering. “Psh. I’ll live. I’m in a good enough mood, I wouldn’t mind being taken advantage of a little.” She leaned in, conspiratorially. “Not by a shirtless Carrigan, anyway.”
“Boy, I hear you.” Sharon folded her arms comfortably and looked around. “It really is going well.”
“It’s going awesome,” Anna Jen corrected, grinning. “Or, I guess, awesomely. Really, really well.” She waved a hand. “Grammar. Stupid grammar. Who needs it?”
Sharon laughed, and reached out to pull the girl into a hug, careful not to disarrange her hair or makeup. “Keep it up.”
“Can do!” Anna Jen hugged her back and skipped off to talk to someone else.
“Hey, fearless leader,” Sharon heard someone call, and she turned to see Jess coming towards her, one hand behind his back.
“You called?” She gave his arm a curious glance. “Do I want to know what you’re hiding?”
“Yes,” he said solemnly. “Yes you do. Because it’s an opening night present.”
“Awww, Jess.” She smiled. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“Oh, but I did,” he replied, and brought his hand out clutching a twenty ounce Starbucks cup marked VAN LAT.
Sharon squealed. “Jess! You didn’t have to do that!” She took the cup, inhaling the fragrance. “Oh, man, this much coffee is going to keep me up all night.”
“You have too much tolerance for that,” Jess said, grinning. “Besides, it’s only half caffeinated. Otherwise we’d have a female version of Carrigan over there bouncing around in the booth.”
Sharon took a sip, eyes widening. “And it’s fresh, too. How’d you manage that?”
“I called in a favor,” he said smoothly.
Sharon snickered. “You seriously speak like you’re out of a bad novel, but you arranged fresh coffee for me, so I don’t care.” With her free hand, she pulled him closer and down and kissed his cheek. “Thanks. You’re doing great.”
He hugged her with one arm. When she pulled back, she stared. “Jess, are you blushing?”
“I am definitely not blushing,” he said instantly, as the blush deepened.
“You are such a goof.” She laughed, and took another sip of her drink.
“I try.”
She checked her watch, and sighed. “Five minutes ‘til we should be reopening the house. Let’s see if I can quiet everyone down long enough to pep talk at them.”
“Want me to yell?” Jess asked.
“Think I can handle it, but thanks.” She took a deep breath, paused, and let it out. “You may want to stand back.”
He obeyed, covering his ears with a smirk. She took another deep breath, tilted her head back, and yelled, “Hey!”
The cast quieted down and turned towards her, expectant. She grinned and toasted them with her coffee.
“You guys are doing great,” she called. “Keep up the good work, keep up the energy in the second half. Any problems I need to know about?”
There was a moment of shuffling quiet, as everyone looked around at everyone else. “No problems? No questions? Awesome. Techies, the call is five minutes, so time for you guys to get in place.”
As the knot of people dispersed again, Ethan came up and slung an arm over
Sharon’s shoulders. “How’re you doing?”
“No, no,” she corrected, slipping her arm around his waist. “It’s, ‘how you doin’?’”
He poked her in the side with his free hand. She squeaked and swatted at him with the hand around his waist. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She took a sip of her latte. “Why wouldn’t I be? The show’s going great. I hardly have to worry about you guys at all.”
“I thought I saw Amber out in the house,” he said quietly. “I was just wondering if you were okay.”
Sharon went still for a second, then shook her head. “I’m not not okay, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I guess that works,” he replied after a moment of thought. “I mean, it’s not grammatically correct, but at least it gets your point across.”
She rolled her eyes, amused. “As Anna Jen put it so succinctly earlier, ‘Grammar. Stupid grammar. Bah.’”
“She’s got a way with words,” Ethan agreed, snickering, then sobered. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Like I say,” Sharon said after a moment, “I’m not not okay.” More quietly, she added, “I’m not exactly looking forward to seeing her after the show, but it ought to be relatively painless. I didn’t change much of the show.”
He gave her a close look, and then shook his head. “Snag me after the show, okay?”
“I was planning on getting dinner out . . .”
“Got a date?”
“No, I’d been planning on dinner with me and a good book. Celebratory.”
“Would you mind some company? Anna Jen and Aaron and I were talking about going out to get drinks or something afterwards. You’d be a lot more than welcome to join us.”
Sharon brightened. “Seriously?”
He blinked at her. “Oh, come on, don’t sound so surprised. Of course, seriously.”
“I’d really like that!” She grinned. “Although I might insist on a stop by my apartment to check on the kitten.”
“Hey, we’re flexible.” He reached down, grabbed one foot, and stretched his leg out to demonstrate.
“Yes, yes you are.” She snickered. “And I was supposed to be up in the booth about two minutes ago, but I’ll find you after the show.” Raising her voice, she told the room, “Three minutes to places, people!”
“Thank you three!”
She headed out to the house, slipping out from behind the wings and snaking her way between the people starting to meander back to their seats, giving them polite smiles. Amber waved to her again, and she waved back politely and made a I’m so busy, can’t talk! face. A couple minutes later, she sat down in the booth, took a deep breath, and slipped on the headset.
“-man, if you get pirates off of the water, they’re useless. Ninjas are deadly everywhere,” Luke was saying.
Sharon groaned. “Hi. It’s Sharon. Are you guys at it again?”
“Yes,” Hannah said succinctly, as Jess overrode her with, “But pirates have range! They have pistols and cannons!”
“Nuh-uh,” objected Luke. “Shuriken.”
“No, you can’t win this one,” Jess said firmly. “I am set in my ways.”
Sharon rolled her eyes. “So, can I make a call?”
“Don’t know,” retorted Luke, “can you?”
“Brat. Let me talk to house.” She grabbed the radio. “Hey, Janet?”
“Hey, Sharon, what can I do for you?”
“Would you be ready to close the house soon?”
“Sure, we can do that. Give us about five minutes. I’ll go flash the lights.”
“Thanks, Janet.” She put aside the radio and turned on the headset. “Okay, we’re at five minutes or so. I’m going to make the call, so consider yourselves warned.” Rolling over to the PA system, she flicked it on and announced, “This is your stage manager speaking. The call is - places, please. Places for the top of act two. Exits are located stage right, left, and up center. Places, please.” She flicked it off, then reconsidered and turned it on long enough to say, “Have a good show!”
She returned to the board and put on the headset. “Sharon, back on com.”
“Can we go back to debating?” asked Luke.
Sharon sighed. “Yes, yes, go ahead and continue debating.”
“Okay, Jess, Buffy or River?”
“Oooh,” said Hannah, “totally Buffy. She has Slayer strength going for her.”
There was a brief, almost shocked pause. Finally, Jess said, “Hannah, you’re into Buffy?”
“Sure,” Hannah replied cheerfully. “Now, if you gave River some weapons, it might change, because she can go all berserker on Buffy. Buffy can do berserker, but only with certain weapons. I mean, think about the way she handled that sword in the season two finale - clearly not the natural or the trained fighter River is.”
“. . . I think my brain just exploded,” Luke said.
I am largely incommunicado today, due to being at the theater from 12:30 until 10, and then prom until midnight. Have a good Saturday, all.