My Salad Days ch 3

[sinful-teddy.livejournal.com]

Title: 'My Salad Days (Green In Judgement, Cold In Blood)' Chapter 3 of probably lots.
Author: sinful_teddy 
Rating: G
Pairing: Verrrry slight one-sided Colin/Greg. Verrrrry even slighterer one-sided Brad/Greg that's only there if you squint real hard or if you're looking for it. (Thanks for always looking, Nade. n___n) Greg/OC.
Summary: It's senior student Colin's first day at a new high school in America. He never made any good friends at his last school - will this one be different? Of course it will, stupid. Colin meets some new people he feels like he could fit in with. He is intrigued by Ryan, the shy and awkward junior. WHERE WILL IT LEAD. /lame summary orz
In this chapter, Colin learns a little more about Greg. He also gets an offer he can't refuse.
Warnings: High school AU. Some self-inserts of me and my sister that are purely for our amusement. Colin with hair (o: wtf). girl!Chip.
Notes: I FAIL with proof-reading, so if you spot any mistakes or inconsistencies, would you would point them out to me! c:

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CHAPTER THREE: Fairy Boy

The next day, Colin took part in Drama rehearsals. Although he, as a newcomer, didn’t have a part in the play, he was filling in for Ryan for the duration of the week. As it turned out, Ryan had one of the lead roles; Lysander. Colin had to act out some romantic scenes with a girl named Kathy Greenwood, who played Lysander’s lover Hermia.

They were in the midst of the first scene. Lysander had just been forbidden to marry Hermia, and now the two distressed lovers were alone together. Colin walked over to Kathy in character and read from the script he had been given. “How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale? How chance the roses there do fade so fast?”

“Belike for want of rain,” read Kathy from her script, “which I could tell – oh, wait, no – could well betw… Oh – beteem them from the tempest of my eyes...”

“Ay me!” cried Colin, hugging Kathy close. “For naught – I mean aught – that I could ever read, could ever hear by tale or history, the course of true love never did run smooth…” There was a pause as he uttered the famous words. They resonated deep within Colin’s mind and he couldn’t hide a smile at their apparent truthfulness. He wondered whether William Shakespeare himself had ever experienced what he called true love.

The scene continued between the two of them until Helena walked on stage. Helena, much to Colin’s amusement, was to be played by Chip. This was particularly amusing because Helena was, in fact, an emotional and dramatic young woman who was besotted with Demetrius, another male lead.

“God speed fair Helena!” said Kathy, as Chip trudged unhappily on stage, taking on Helena’s character with scary conviction. “Whither away?” Kathy walked to Chip’s side.

“Call you me fair?” said Chip bitchily. Colin held back a laugh. There were snickers from the rest of the class at Chip’s performance. “That fair again unsay. Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!” As he continued, Colin could not help breaking character to laugh at Chip’s over-the-top acting. Miss Collins, too, was giggling, and kept reminding everyone that they should try and be this over-dramatic and amusing in their performances. (The play was, after all, a comedy.)

Soon came the second scene, in which Drew played Quince, a carpenter and director, and Brad played Bottom, a ridiculously egotistical weaver-turned-actor. Brad’s performance showed definite comedic promise; he had obviously taken to Miss Collins’ advice about over-acting in a big way.

Once that scene was over, Miss Collins had them start again from the beginning. Colin was a little disappointed – he had been looking forward to seeing Greg and Sinead’s performances as the fairies Puck and Titania in the third scene.

In this run-through, Miss Collins constantly stopped the actors to correct their pronunciation, tell them what the lines meant, or direct their specific actions. By the end of the lesson they had come close to perfecting the first two scenes, and Colin was thoroughly sick of reciting the same lines over and over. He thought it a shame that Ryan wasn’t here; he would have a lot of blocking to catch up on when he got back to school.

Colin received a lot of praise for his acting, after the class was finished.  Greg joined him on his walk to his next class, still chuckling absent-mindedly about Chip as Helena.

“What subject do you have?” asked Colin, to fill the gap in the conversation.

“English,” Greg sighed. “Oh, wait,” he exclaimed, with a sudden change in attitude, “you’re in my class!”

“Really?” asked Colin, his features brightening.

“Yeah! Oh, that’s cool. See I forgot before because when we had English yesterday, I didn’t know who you were,” Greg explained thoughtfully. They arrived at the English block and Greg pulled open the door to their classroom, motioning for Colin to enter first.

“Thanks,” said Colin, walking inside. The classroom was already populated with students and Colin stood still for a moment, unsure of where to sit.

“Come on,” said Greg from behind him, clapping him on the shoulder. “You sit with me.” He led Colin to a spot in the far corner of the room, where they would be quite inconspicuous.

“Sure? I don’t want to steal a seat from…whoever it is you’d normally sit with,” Colin said humbly.

Greg gave a short but almost genuine laugh. “I normally sit by myself. You now make the one friend I have in the class. Don’t you feel special?”

“Really?” said Colin again, as they both sat down. “Well, thanks.” He was smiling now; glad to have been called a friend by Greg. Greg seemed to sense that was what he was happy about, because as he unpacked his English file he commented, “You know, everyone really likes you already. You should stick around with us.” By ‘everyone’ he clearly meant ‘my other friends’.

Colin was a little bewildered by this. “Well sure I’m going to stick around! Where do you think I’m gonna go?”

Greg shrugged, cocking his head. “I just think it’d be a shame if you started to hang out with someone else. We’re more or less the only actual friends we’ve got in this school.” Again, he seemed to refer to the whole gang.

Colin shrugged too, clicking his pen in his hand thoughtfully. “That’s not such a bad thing really. If you just have a small group of close friends, you’ll all be really… well...”

“Close?” Greg offered. Colin nodded with a slightly amused smile and Greg laughed again, an endearingly high-pitched sound that could almost be said to be a cackle. It made Colin exhale a breath of quiet laughter just to hear him. Greg could be very cute, Colin decided, allowing himself the thought even though he was aware that Greg had a girlfriend.

That thought actually made him wonder. Greg had all the [stereo]typical mannerisms of a very gay man. Could he really not be gay? Had he grown up in San Francisco or something? It was impolite to ask, and he might offend Greg if he did, so Colin kept his vaguely amusing ponderings to himself.

If Greg had been about to continue their conversation, he was cut off when a slightly frazzled Mr. Twist, their English teacher, walked into the classroom and dumped his messenger bag on his desk.

“You’re late, Twist,” a boy called out from a seat across the room from Colin and Greg.

“You’re not used to that by now?” said Mr. Twist with a little smile. “Take your hat off in class, Jason.”

Colin thought that Mr. Twist, with his scruffy blond hair and loose-fitting sweaters, seemed a very nice man. He had a slightly dishevelled and tired appearance, especially for someone who worked at a rich private school. He had been late to yesterday’s class, too. Colin gathered that this was a regular occurrence but it didn’t make Mr. Twist seem irresponsible, just like the kind of person who would sleep in or lose track of time.

As the teacher began to look through the papers on his desk, distractedly calling the roll at the same time, Colin heard the gentle scratching of pen and paper and looked down at Greg’s file to see what Greg was writing.

Not writing, Colin saw, but drawing. Numerous sketches of spotted cats with large, cute eyes covered one page of his file. On the other pages, the same type of cat was drawn over and over in the margins of his work.

“I’m guessing you’re a cat person?” Colin said, looking at one of the cats, which was arching its back and yawning with its eyes screwed shut. The pictures were cartoony, but very good, really.

“Huh?” Greg looked up from his work. “Oh, right.” He smiled. “Yeah, I like cats… Ocelots, specifically.”

“Ocelots?” Colin repeated.

“Yeah, they’re pretty much my favourite animal,” Greg said, in an impersonation of Napoleon Dynamite. He sounded remarkably like him when he said it. With a grin, Greg added, “They’re a type of big cat. But for a big cat they’re actually pretty small.”

“They just look kind of like house cats,” Colin murmured.

“Yeah, some people keep them as pets,” Greg said dreamily. Colin guessed that an ocelot would be Greg’s ideal pet.

“Gregory,” Mr. Twist called out.

“Present,” said Greg, contrasting with the other students’ monotone proclamations of ‘here’ and ‘yep’. He then turned to Colin. “Are you a cat person,” he inquired, “or a dog person?”

Colin somehow felt, in a silly way, that this was some sort of a test of whether he was good friend material. He considered for a moment, and then decided. “A dog person. But I like both.”

“I like both too,” said Greg, clearly satisfied with that answer, as he went back to his drawings. “But I couldn’t own a dog. They’re too clumsy and dirty.”

“I wouldn’t mind owning just a little dog,” Colin mused. “But I’d prefer something like a parrot. One that talks. That would be cool.” He gave a smile at the thought, contemplating what he would teach his hypothetical parrot to say first.

“Better not let my ocelot near it,” Greg grinned. “That could end in tears.” Colin grinned back.

“Colin?” called Mr. Twist, scanning the room.

“Present,” said Colin in mimicry of Greg. He smiled at his bespectacled friend as Mr. Twist put the roll away and stood up, ready to begin the class.

Now that Colin shared English with Greg, the hour he had to spend in the class was that much more bearable. He was actually quite disappointed when the lesson ended, until he realised that that meant lunchtime had come. He walked with Greg to the cafeteria to get food, though Colin had brought a packed lunch from home. They met Chip on the way, and he walked with them.

As the three boys stood in line, talking and laughing about silly things, Brad and Sinead ran up to them. Sinead greeted Greg with a tight hug as Brad, pointedly ignoring this, spoke to Colin.

“Miss Collins wants to see you now,” he announced.

“About what?” Colin wondered, saying a quick goodbye to the others as he allowed Brad to drag him away.

“I’ve just been talking to her. She wants to ask you something,” Brad said mysteriously. Colin raised his eyebrows as Brad steered him towards their destination.

Miss Collins’ office was impeccably neat and orderly, except for her desk, where a dirty plate from her obviously recently eaten lunch sat atop a pile of unsorted papers she had been using as a placemat. Miss Collins was sitting in a chair opposite the door. She smiled at Colin when she saw him and beckoned him over. Brad hung in the doorway as Colin walked forward.

“Hey,” said Colin curiously, sitting down in the computer chair when she motioned for him to. “What’s up?”

“There’s been a slight hitch in the production. I was wondering if you could help out,” said Miss Collins. Colin waited for her to continue. “Kyle, who was playing Oberon, has dropped out because of sport commitments that were getting in the way. I’ll admit I’m not very pleased with him for not saying anything earlier, but…” she took a breath and looked straight at Colin. “This is where you come in. Would you like to play Oberon in Kyle’s place?”

Colin was silent, his eyes wide. “?!” said his brain. “Y– uh – what?” He wanted to believe what he had just heard, but he wasn’t sure he had heard it.

“Brad and Sinead both agree that you’re the best choice for the part. We all loved how you played Lysander, but we think that Oberon would be an even better fit for you,” explained Miss Collins. “What do you think?”

Colin nodded wordlessly, mouth hanging open. He shut his mouth. He opened it again. He spoke. “Yes… I’d love to do that! But, uh…who will play Lysander when Ryan’s away?” As soon as he had asked that question, he realised it was a stupid and fairly irrelevant thing to worry about. Brad obviously agreed with that sentiment, as he chuckled lightly from his place in the doorway, reminding Colin with a start that he was there too.

“It’s only the first week of rehearsals; that doesn’t really matter,” said Miss Collins, with gentle amusement on her features. “Here, I’ll give you a script. Study it and learn it.”

“Wow, Miss Collins,” said Colin, staring down at his script. “Thanks! Thanks so much.”

“No problem,” said Miss Collins kindly.

“As long as you don’t mess it up,” said Brad, which made Miss Collins laugh. “C’mon, Colin, let’s go.”

Colin stood up, stashing his script hurriedly into his bag. “Seeya, Miss Collins,” he said as they began to leave. “And thanks again.” She gave a little wave, which Brad mirrored before shutting the door behind Colin.

“How’s that for good luck?” said Brad, clapping Colin on the back and making him cough slightly. “Boy, am I hungry. Canteen?”

Colin cleared his throat and nodded wordlessly. “Oh,” he said suddenly, stopping in his tracks.

“What?” asked Brad, coming to a halt a few steps ahead of him.

“I just realised,” said Colin, “I’m playing a fairy.”

Brad was silent for a moment, confused. Then, seeing Colin’s genuinely worried face, he burst into a bark of laughter. “Come on,” he chortled, motioning for Colin to follow him. “Let’s go get lunch, fairy boy.”