Today is the first day back from winter vacation. And as usual, at the typical time after school, the Driftwood High Theater Club is having its Monday meeting in a circular formation in the middle of the stage. Strangely, the teacher and Nadia, the aggravating teacher's pet, have been talking in the back room for five whole minutes already, and the start of the meeting is long overdue.
“Should I go interrupt them?” asks Megan. She's talkative and social, but not annoying. Usually.
"Don't bother them, they're probably having an important discussion," says Violet. She's the newest member of the club who joined a few weeks before the winter break. She seems pretty friendly and put-together. She basically seems like one of those people who has everything figured out. A younger member, but seems like an older one.
"But they've been talking for almost ten minutes," counters Hayden, with a significant time exaggeration. The closest thing this club has to a class clown, but often not that funny. He acts immature a lot of the time, so the group often has to babysit, stop, scold, and put up with him. Honestly, it is really inappropriate for his age, but no one can really do anything about it. "We should- wahahahaha!" He suddenly breaks down into laughter. "We should all gather up and sneak up behind the door, and then when they come out we all scream "What took you guys so long?!'" He whisper-screams to the rest of the circle. This is a perfect example of one of his unfunny prank ideas.
"No. Don't do that," says Evan, Nadia's boyfriend who acts a little bit like an unpaid teacher assistant. "You're just going to make them mad and get in trouble." You wonder if he's always been a stickler for the rules or he just wants Mr. Barker to favor him. The teacher does seem to appreciate his assistance, so you suppose he would have succeeded in gaining favor. So now they're a couple of two teacher's pets. Maybe they're secretly only dating to add to that image.
"It's been almost twenty minutes!" says Hayden. You're pretty sure he increased the time to twenty minutes as a joke—that's the type of joke he would make. "What are we going to do, sit here until they get done talking?!"
"Yes," says Evan. "Well, we don't have to just sit here, let's talk about something. For example, like- Hey! Stop! We're not interrupting them!" he suddenly yells, crossing in front of Hayden to interrupt his indiscreet stroll to the back room.
"Oh come on..." mutters Hayden, trying to slip past Evan.
"They're probably going to be done soon, they're probably almost done," says Evan. "Just let them talk."
"Yeah, let's just be considerate of them," agrees Violet.
"But we've already been letting them talk, it's been long enough," says Hayden.
"I mean, if they have to talk, they could also do it after the club meeting..." Wendy mutters with subdued dissatisfaction. Wendy is an organized overachiever. She has many different after-school activities, so she always leaves almost as soon as the theater club meeting ends.
Everyone else begins to pitch in and state their opinion on the matter. Except for you, and Laura, the shyest club member with stage fright and also talking-fright. You're not really shy though. You just decided not to speak.
"It's fine, guys. We can just sit here and talk, it's not a big deal," says Megan.
"But it's taking them too long, we should at least go ask them what they're doing," says Sam. The only senior in the club, who is pretty stoic and hardly smiles except when acting. Honestly, he is no fun, but at least he is not a miser.
"Yeah, they at least have to tell us what they're even doing," says Thomas. The tech-y guy in the club. He is part of the club's lights/sound team, but he also does a bunch of other computer-related things outside of the club, like programming.
"Well, um, hey! Julie! You're not allowed to eat food in the theater," says Hayden, randomly accusing you. Everyone turns to you and you stare back at them. You are clearly not holding or eating anything. Hayden takes advantage of the distraction to push past Evan. "Hey!" Evan says, chasing after him.
"Guys!" yells Violet, going after them along with Megan. The circle formation is fractured. Everyone else turns their heads to the direction of the backroom, where some commotion is clearly about to start.