Instead of heading to the holding area, it was a shorter route for me to head first to the gymnasium changing rooms, and pick up my two other costumes. I therefore went in a different direction to the boys that were now likely already in the holding room, and I returned down the route I had just walked.

On my own, the noise generated by my heels striking the antique parquet floor sounded even louder than it had when I been here with Sarah, just a few moments earlier. I couldn’t, however, quite understand what she had meant when she said some parts of the school were scary. The sun was still shining strongly through the glazed corridors, and as a space, it felt no different to how it might, if you were to find yourself wandering the corridors whilst classes were ongoing. I would agree that some of the oldest parts of the school may feel a bit spooky, but that’s just the result of an over active imagination, and too many horror films.

I entered the changing area, and suddenly started to appreciate what Sarah had said. I did not feel as comfortable. The room now felt claustrophobic, with no windows, only air vents. No other way to get out, other than through the gymnasium, which had already been locked earlier in the day. Not locking it when classes weren’t been held inevitably led to older boys having games of basketball, when they should be self-guided study periods. It didn’t bother me too greatly. I would be in and out in a matter of seconds, which was indeed the case, as I walked back out after picking up the two separate carrier bags, containing the two different costumes.

One bag contained the ‘casual’ outfit. This was a vest top and a pair of jeans, there was also a fitted over-shirt that my sister had added in, although not in the brief I had received. The second outfit was the ‘secretary’ one. That was simply a white blouse and a black skirt. My sister had told me that the skirt wasn’t perfectly meeting the brief, but that she didn’t have a pencil skirt that would be a good fit for me. My sister and I were, unsurprisingly, different shapes. Whilst some clothes could allow for the differences in shape, I was told that a pencil skirt is all about the perfect fit. It was the black strappy sandals that would be paired with all three of the costumes.

I decided to leave my school uniform hanging up, across from Adam’s in the changing room, and my school bag under the bench. We would both return there to change, once the rehearsal was completed. Leaving him to change there on his own felt a bit mean, especially when I considered the recent uneasy feelings I had when in the room with no company.

Almost as soon as leaving the changing room area, I thought I heard a dull echo alongside my footsteps. Someone was walking towards me, from the other end of the long corridor. As the approaching figure became clearer, I realised it was the school caretaker. Somewhat stereotypically, he was an older man, slightly hunched back, greasy hair, brown workshop coat and a dislike for children so strong that many wondered why on earth he had taken a job in a school.

“Good evening, Miss. Are you lost? He asked, surprisingly cheerily. In several years at this school, I couldn’t recall if I had ever seen him smile before. Perhaps he’s at his happiest, when there are no kids messing up the buildings he looks after.

“Hi. No, I am just getting something from the changing rooms.” I answered, thinking that would be the end of it, with us having almost fully closed the gap between us.

The caretaker stopped in front of me, causing me to also come to a halt, and with a frown he asked, “Can I ask what business you have in the changing rooms? The school isn’t open to those that aren’t staff or students.”

“I’m with the play, I’m with Ms Greenwood.” I said, worried that I was going to get into trouble for something, although I couldn’t work out for what. I should have just said that I was a student. I was perhaps thinking that dropping a teachers name would give more authority to me being there so late.

The warmness in his face disappeard, and in a much colder tone he replied, “Oh. I see. You’re with her, are you? Typical.” He started walking off towards the gymnasium, opening up my route ahead. “What a waste,” I thought I heard him say, under his breath.

As I entered the holding room, I was met with a series of wolf-whistles, laughing and cheering. I worried that Sarah’s instructions had indeed been agreed to with no actual intention of honouring them, and I was in for the amount of teasing I would have expected. Which, I supposed was fine. I had prepared for that.

“Right,” I thought to myself, and decided to give them all a cute little curtsey, from where I stood one step inside the room. It was part of a semi-conscious plan to try and give me more control of the situation, and emasculate the effectiveness of their teasing. It was like something my Dad had once said about dealing with bullies; if they saw you’d stand up to them, and fight back, they’d go elsewhere. This strategy worked when I had first gone to secondary school, albeit after a few beatings.

Most of the boys waiting in the room were friends of mine, so the teasing was all good natured. Nothing nasty, whatsoever. Of the three that I wouldn’t call friends, I wasn’t unfriendly with any of them; we just moved in different circles. Or, at least we did. One of those different circles was once the drama club, that I am now part of. Perhaps this is the opportunity to make some new friends.

Instead of going towards one of the two groups that my friends had split into, I approached one of the three boys who sat in the room on their own. I got short shrift from the first one, who clearly wanted to be left on his own. I left him to his mumbling.

“Don’t mind him,” said the second boy that I would have approached. “Marcus is a decent guy. Honest! Just don’t distract him before he’s about to go on stage. He’s got a pretty big role this time, too.” I smiled back. “I think he’s a bit nervous, a few screw ups at last week’s rehearsal. Takes it all a bit too seriously, if you were to ask me,” he added in a hushed tone.

“Hi, I’m Sam,” offering my hand to this other boy.

“Sam, I know who you are; despite the new outfit,” he smiled, “Do you not recognise me? I was in your Economics class last year? George?” he said, happily shaking my hand, and not releasing it as quickly as I would have expected.

“Oh yeah, sorry, I didn’t recognise you,” I offered, although I was certain that I had never seen this guy before in my life. To spare his feelings I’d have considered blaming his costume, for my lack of recognition. His costume, however, constituent of a business suit. Hardly a disguise when it’s basically what we wear to school every single day, and that’s the costume for most of the guys.

“Much bigger role than you or I have. Too much for me,” he admitted. “Looks like you could be taking it almost as seriously as Marcus though,” looking me up and down. “What have you got, like five scenes or something? That’s as much as I’d be comfortable with.”

“Erm, no, it’s just the three. It’s a pretty small role. That’s totally fine with me, it’s the first time I’ve done this.”

George nodded. “Maybe a bigger role, next time, perhaps. Do you think it would be a girl’s role again? You look really good; I wish I could look that good.”

“Pardon?” I asked

“In my costume, I wish I had a good costume.” George stumbled out. “I don’t care what it is. You’re really lucky you can look so good. Really good.”

“I am? If I’m so lucky, how come you didn’t volunteer for this role then, if you wanted a costume?”

George smiled, “I’m not as brave as you. I wouldn’t be comfortable others knowing I’d be okay with dressing up like that; it looks fun. Oh. You won’t tell anyone I said that, will you?”

“George,” I reassured, “I can’t possibly imagine how that could possibly come up in conversation!”

We both laughed.

“Oh, it looks like George’s chat-up lines are more successful than I’d have guessed. You know what they say about men that can make women laugh!” shouted the third boy who was sat on his own. With everyone joining in the laughing, I decided I now wasn’t as in the mood to make new friends, as I had thought.

Between a bit of chatting with mates, and playing on my phone, the waiting around was really boring. In fact, most of my time was just waiting around. My introductory role into acting had been described by Sarah as ‘challenging’, but I realised that she was just being polite. It has the three scenes and a total of nine lines. Sarah had pointed out that much of the character development is done through text messages that my character had sent; but I don’t have any actual involvement in those. They’re just projected against a huge screen above the stage. She thought it was innovative.

I actually worried if my little dialogue put more pressure on me to remember my lines, or land them perfectly. If someone has hundreds of lines, they can’t be expected to remember them – I’d be expected to get things spot-on. But then, I am told I worry about most things.

I then remembered that I’d not responded to the message I’d received earlier from James. “Yeah. Will be in The Station as soon as we’re done here. Guess that’s going to be about 7, after the debrief and stuff.” I sent as a reply. He didn’t message me back, but saw that he’d received the message with the two blue ticks.

One of the runners who were responsible for making sure that cast members were in the right place and the right time entered the room. “Right, can we have Lucy, Charles and Gordon backstage now, please?” he asked, using our character names.

My first scene. My stomach turned over thinking about it. There would be a grand total of about five people in the audience this evening, so worried what I’d feel like when there were a few hundred. This scene was a reasonably long one, but I spend nearly all of it at the back of the stage, pretending to be at a ‘sophisticated drinks party’.

The background to the play is about some kind of corporate double-crossing that is never really explained, so all of the characters are related in some way to the business involved. In my opinion, the overall story, which had been written by Sarah, was a bit crap. It’s no ‘The Big Short’ or ‘Margin Call’; movies that I had both found really interested as part of my Economics studies. There won’t be any screenwriting awards coming our way, and some of the established members of the drama club had wanted to perform a recognised play, which Sarah had taken quite personally.

In my role as Lucy, I am a personal assistant to a member of the businesses executive team. I only do some work associated with that role in my second scene. That’s a scene for which I’ll be on stage for less than a minute, which I thought was a waste of time. Another character is my brother, who is a senior guy in another division of the company. My Mum, played by Adam, is a bigger character in the play than me, and is one of only a couple of characters that weren’t employees. Her link, however, is through my brother, not me.

The scene had been going on for a while, with three characters engaging with dialogue at the front of the screen, with some of these text messages popping up on screen, as the characters pretended to read them. At the back of the stage, I was laughing, joking, gossiping and generally socialising with other work colleagues.

My three lines of dialogue in this scene are when the character Simon Middleton, the leading role, played by Matt Parker, first says hello and asks how I am, then casually tries to get some confidential information out of me, and finally offers to buy me a drink. My character, Lucy, accepts the drink, and the two characters exit the stage to the bar. All pretty mundane stuff, except for me using my female voice for the first time. I’d not done that in the other rehearsals, at Sarah’s request. She had, however, heard what I had been practicing.

I headed back to the holding area immediately after, the only actor doing so at this point. I went to the adjacent room that Sarah had made available for me. My next scene would be the morning after, at work. The change was quite simple, and there was no rush. All I need to do was step out of the dress, and into the skirt, and then put on a blouse. I didn’t even need to remove my shoes for this change. I had a quick play on my phone, double-checked both my lines for the next scene, and started to remove my dress.

“We’ve had a fuse blow, there will be a short del…” stopped Sarah, after walking into the room.

“Sarah, close the door!” I cried, embarrassed that I’d been burst in on, just as I was putting on the skirt. Sarah finding me in just bra and knickers, and my high-heeled shoes.

“Yes. Yes. Sorry! I should have knocked.” Sarah stepped into the room, closing the door behind her.

“I meant with you on the outside.” I said flatly, holding the skirt up to my body, to cover as much of myself as possible.

Sarah leant back onto the door. “It’s okay, Sam. I’d see more on the beach. I’ll stay here, to stop anyone else coming in.”

“Not the kind of beaches I go,” I thought to myself. I didn’t know what to do. So, I just continued to get dressed into the blouse and skirt.

“Looking good, Sam”, smiled Sarah. “You can tell me later what you’re using for those boobies. I’ll need to go now, and check on the power that the caretaker was looking at.”

I nodded. I was really thinking that I wished she had gone ages ago. I wished she had not burst in at all.

I went into the other holding room, to another mild degree of teasing. I thought that the guys will have likely had their fun by now, and the difference between a dress and a skirt doesn’t really warrant it all kicking off again. It’s not as if they had seen me in my underwear! I decided to lock the door from the inside, for the next change.

We didn’t need to wait long until the runner returned after the lighting was back up and running, and some of us were heading to the backstage area. I was immediately out front on stage, for the start of the next scene, with the opening line.

“Good morning, Mr Middleton. Mr Jones is ready to see you”, as I gesture for Matt Parker to follow me into a meeting he had scheduled with my boss.

Matt Parker gave a slight smile that I don’t recall him doing in any of the previous run-throughs.

“Great to see you again, Lucy. Lovely to bump into you last night,” he said.

“Yes, Mr Middleton. Can I get you anything to drink?” I reply.

“No thanks, Lucy. Speak soon,” he smiles, patting me on the backside as I walk away.

I leave the scene, walking the full width of the stage, remembering the ‘wiggly strut’ that Sarah had asked for, after the previous rehearsal. I have no idea if I gave her what she wanted, as she had previously said she was unable to tell in my school trousers.

Again, I went straight back to the holding area. Remembering to lock the door behind me, this time. I would now have my longest wait between scenes, but decided to change my costume immediately.

This time, I needed to remove my sandals. After that, the skirt came off, replaced by some denim jeans. I thought the outfit looked fine with the blouse. I’ve seen girls tie their blouses, to show their bellies. Perhaps I should have suggested that, to reduce the amount of clothing I had to worry about. Too late for that, so I slipped on the black vest top and returned my shoes. There was an over-shirt that looked like some kind of fake leather that went with this costume, but it was too warm to put this on, so I just carried that with me back into the main room.

“Hey Sam, how’s it going so far?” asked Martin, as I took a seat next to him, crossing my legs and putting my hands in my lap.

“Okay, I think. I’ve remembered all five of my lines so far,” I joked.

“You’re keeping with the girlie voice? You don’t need to, off stage, do you” Martin asked

“I’d not really thought about it. Yeah, I think I will. Keep me in character, I suppose.”

Smiling, Martin went on “And doing a pretty good job of adding a bit of eye candy, by all accounts.”

“Ha! What do you mean? The clothes?”

“Well, I was side-stage when you exited just before the meeting scene. I think you have caused some strained trousers, and a few confused lads. Who knows, maybe some sticky messes” said Martin, laughing.

I frowned “Yeuch! That’s sick, not funny. Don’t be so disgusting! I feel sick enough with worry, already.”

Martin continued his smile, “I’m just saying.”

Deciding to tease Martin, putting a hand on his knee, “Unless there’s something you want to tell me? I’m not confusing you, am I?” tilting my head, and batting my false eyelashes at him.

We both burst out laughing. Thankfully.

After what felt like ages, the runner returned for what would be my final scene, and me done for the day. Again, I was out on stage for the start of this scene, which was set in another bar, but this time, not on a work event. The script background didn’t detail it, but my character was just out for drinks in the city with some friends. The start of the scene, for anyone who hasn’t been following the text messages and ever so subtle clues, will be completely confusing. There is a lot that has not happened directly through the actors on stage.

“Fancy seeing you here,” said Simon Middleton

“Hey Simon! How are you doing?” I replied, with a smile.

“What’s this? No ‘Mr Middleton’? He queried, “Standards are slipping around here,” he smiled

“Ha. Well, that’s just a sign of the times, I guess. I have missed you.”

“Me too. Come here”, as Simon kisses me

It’s not Matt Parker, it’s Simon Middleton, I say in my head. I am acting. I just get it out of the way. There’s a strange look on Simon’s face, as the kiss breaks. Or was that Matt’s face.

“I’m out with girlfriends until about 11. Will I see you later?” I ask Simon, as some of his friends head over to the area of the bar we are stood in.

“At your place?” Simon asks.

“Yes. See you later.” I walk off stage.

“Who’s that? I recognise her,” says one of Simon’s friends.

“Sam. Sam Walker. Richard’s little sister. Hey? If I’m screwing over the brother, I may as well be fucking the sister!” Simon replies, as he and all his friends burst out in laughter.

After exiting the stage, I went and sat where the audience would be. No point in going back to the holding area, I wasn’t going to get any further calls.

As the scene is resetting, Sarah called over to me, “We’re going to redo the office scene, start to end.”

“Okay,” I say, with a smile. “Did I mess something up?”

“Oh no, the screw-up came later, after you’d left stage. We’re doing it from the top though” Sarah fed back, to my relief

“You will need to put your skirt back on though. It’s up to you if you wear the blouse; the vest looks really nice. That little pat of your bum, and Simon Middleton watching you wiggle off, is a key part of the back-story development. Good idea sticking with the voice, by the way, all helps with staying in character.”

“Okay” I said, not realising that I’d kept the girlie voice, getting up to head back to the holding area, to put the skirt on. Leaving the over-shirt that I’d not used, on the back of the chair I had briefly sat down on.

I took off my jeans, slipped out of my jeans, stepped into the skirt, and put my shoes back on. Within five minutes, I was heading back to the assembly hall. As I entered, the play was in full flight, so I carefully headed towards an empty seat, hoping to cause minimal distraction to the cast. Sarah caught my eye with a hand wave, and beckoned me to sit next her.

Leaning towards me sat next to her, she placed her hand on my thigh to steady herself. “You’ve done brilliantly, Sam. I’m so proud of you, and so beautiful,” she whispered into my ear.

“Thanks,” I replied with a soft smile. Quickly returning my attention to the stage.

There wasn’t much more of the play to run through, which all went without a hitch. People were in the right places at the right times, as far as I knew everyone remembered their lines. The only scene that Sarah wanted us to go through again was the one that had the office meeting between my boss and Simon Middleton. Although I was told it wasn’t anything I had done that necessitated running it through again, I still felt guilty that I was part of the only scene that needed to be redone.

I got my part out of the way, and the rest of the scene went perfectly. I was grateful it wasn’t the kiss scene that I would have to do again, especially as much of the cast are now in the audience.

“Much better!” cried Sarah. “Okay, everyone, gather around! Come on!”

Everyone stopped what they were doing, and congregated in front of the stage.

“Well done, boys. I think you should give yourselves a round of applause,” she said, and started clapping, which everyone else then joined in with.

“The errors we had were small, but I thought it important to iron those out. And, when we went over those again, they were perfect. I am so confident that we’re going to do brilliantly at next week’s final rehearsal, ahead of our first live performance,” she went on, many of the boys nodding. “I’ll speak to the maintenance team to understand what went on with the lighting fuse, and how we can avoid that happening again. I will say, however, you all dealt with that brilliantly though, both those on stage and in the crew,” I felt like Sarah was looking at me.
“I understand many of you are going to the pub later? It’s great you’re feeling like such a team, and I definitely see that with how you’re all working together. As soon as we’re tidied away, feel free to head off. Thanks boys,” Sarah added, initiating another round of applause.