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“All right everyone, meet back at the entrance in ninety minutes. I have a big announcement!” Ginger, your director/drama teacher yells as all the teenagers quickly disappear into the crowded fair. You move a bit slower, moving past a corn pit to consult the list of activities nailed to a post. Petting zoo, tractor rides, a giant slide… the smell of caramel apples and popcorn wafts past your nose, making you hungry. You pause, debating whether you should get something to eat now or later. Probably later, you think, a bit sadly. You only have ten dollars spending money and can't afford to waste it now.
Might as well do the corn maze. You had always been good at mazes, and these were never that difficult, right?
Apparently you overestimated your mazing skills, because it's been forty five minutes and you’re hopelessly lost. It doesn't help that the maze is right in the middle of the park, so you can’t use any of the noise except to tell when you’re close to an edge, not the exit. You sit down on a log, thinking out loud. “Okay. When you're lost in a maze you’re supposed to just go left. That way you’ll eventually get through the whole thing. Okay, I can do this.”
“I don't suppose I could join you?”
You jump at the new voice, placing a hand over your heart in relief as you realize it's just Peter, one of the few boys in the drama group. “You scared me.”
“Sorry,” he says a bit sheepishly, running a hand through his hair. “You just seem to know what you're doing, and I…don't.” He chuckles.
“Oh no, I'm totally lost.” You wave a hand dismissively. “But yeah, you can come be lost with me if you really want to.”
“So, what part do you think you got for Les Mis?” Peter asks casually. You can’t help but roll your eyes.
“Nothing nearly as good as yours, I’m sure. And not just because you’re a guy,” you rush to add. “You’re one of the best actors in the group.”
“So are you!”
You snort. “Tell that to my twelve roles, all of which had under ten lines.” You pause, rethinking. “Okay, except one time in a mini play. With only two other actors.”
“Alright, but you did really well in that one,” he says, still stubbornly trying to compliment you. “And besides, we’re seniors this year, and seniors almost always get good parts in at least one play.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” You continue talking as you walk through the maze. It takes a while, almost twenty minutes, but you finally find the way out.
“We made it!” Peter cheers. He grabs your hand unexpectedly and spins you around. You squeak a bit in surprise. Peter chuckles before leaning down slightly. It almost looks like… Is Peter about to…
You back away from him, laughing it off as you carefully extract yourself from his arms. You fiddle with your hands, avoiding his gaze.
“Uh, thanks,” you say, trying to restore the easy ‘just-friends’ vibe you had been maintaining up to this point. It wasn't that you didn't want to kiss Peter; on the contrary, you had had a crush on him since sometime last February during Into the Woods, but it had always seemed impossible. He was cute, talented, with no shortage of admirers, despite what he might think. Heck, even your best friend had a crush on him for a while back in 10th grade after the Academic Decathlon went to DC for a championship. You, on the other hand, were a fairly shy, quiet girl, who was used to sitting in the background and getting bit parts in everything you auditioned for. (There was probably a correlation there, but whatever.) Sure, he was nice to you, but he was nice to everyone. So to know that there was even a slight possibility that he might want to kiss you, a girl who had never even held hands with a guy, let alone kiss one? Well, you didn’t know how to react. So you did what you always do in uncomfortable situations; you ran away. You mumble some excuse about needing to use the restroom and quickly walk away, not daring to look back.
°•°•°•°
Finally it’s time for Ginger's big announcement.
“So,” she starts, looking excited. “As you all remember, I held auditions for Les Mis back in September. I know, I know, I said I’d have your parts within the week, but life got…busy.”
“Come on, Ginger, you know we all hold you to a higher standard than ourselves! How could you let your life get busy?” Harley shouts from the back of the group, shaking his head in mock disappointment. Ginger rolls her eyes.
“Anyway, I finally have the cast list ready. Playing Valjean will be TJ, Javert will be David…” Please don't be an extra please don't be an extra… you repeat the words in your mind.
“Marius will be played by Peter, Y/N will play Cosette, Harley…” her voice fades and you feel your eyes go wide. Through the haze you vaguely notice Peter congratulating you, but can’t bring yourself to respond. Cosette? You had wanted a bigger part, sure, but Cosette? You weren't even that good of a soprano, you knew at least four girls that sounded better than you. Oh well. You guess you knew what you'd be doing for the next ten weeks.
°•°•°•°
“All right, and at this point Marius and Cosette are going to kiss.” You look up sharply at Ginger's words.
“I'm sorry?”
“Oh not today, we'll add in the kissing after everyone's off book.”
“But it'll be a stage kiss, right?”
Ginger looks up from her notes. “Well technically any kiss on stage is stage kiss, but if you're asking about it being a fake kiss, no, you two will actually be kissing.” She pauses momentarily. “Is that a problem?”
“No no, of course not,” you quickly deny. It's fine, you tell yourself. You have at least two weeks before you have to worry about that.
Except you don't have two weeks. You have about twenty minutes, because once rehearsal is over Peter blocks you from exiting the makeup room after everyone else has left.
“Are you worried about the kissing thing?” You have to crane your neck slightly to meet his eyes because of the height difference (Ugh, shortness). He looks sincere. “Because I can talk to Ginger.” See? Nice to everyone.
“No, I'm fine,” you say, hoping he'll move. He doesn't.
“Seriously. I know you probably don't feel comfortable kissing me since the day at the fair, and it's okay.” You cringe.
“You remember that, huh.”
He shrugs. “Yeah, but it's fine. I’m not offended.”
“That’s not really the problem, really, the problem is-” you slam your mouth shut before you do any more damage. Peter raises his eyebrow.
“The problem is…”
You sigh, your cheeks flaming. There’s no getting out of this one, is there? “The problem is I might want to kiss you a bit too much, but I’ve never kissed anyone and I’m not the most confident person and I'm afraid I'll be bad at it, or it'll be nice and then I'll have my heart shattered when you inevitably find someone better than me, and I never had anyone that I've had a crush on actually like me back before, and I don't know what I'm doing, and-”
“Hey, hey,” he says, chuckling softly. “You worry too much.”
“I know,” you say, staring at the ground. “I can’t help it.”
“Here,” he says, gently brushing some hair away from your face. “Do you mind if I try something?”
You’re not sure what he’s talking about, so you shake your head. “Sure.”
“Okay. If you feel uncomfortable at all, you can pull away and we'll forget this ever happened.” He slowly moves closer and your idiotic brain finally figures out what he meant by try something. But instead of listening to the panic monster currently on rampage in your head like normal, you take a deep breath and close your eyes. A second later his lips brush yours, gently. And suddenly, the panic monster isn't raging anymore. Your brain has given up trying to fight this, leaving you alone in the here and now. He kisses you again, a little longer this time, his lips soft and warm.
He pulls away far sooner than you want him to, his voice a bit teasing as he says, “You can open your eyes now.” You do so, smiling a bit sheepishly.
“So?” He asks. “Do you want me to go talk to Ginger, or do you think you'll be alright?”
You laugh quietly, daring to look up and meet his eyes again. "I think I'll be just fine."