The time was going fast. Sometimes, it felt a bit too fast. With that, the theatre club's play was here. Henry was acting like the most important person while the rest of us were trying not to make his ego go higher than it already was—Leah's words when she told me not to encourage him even more.
There were some parents in the school hallway that our small group passed. I could only guess they were parents of theatre club kids. Although some probably weren't, since it was an open event.
"I should've stayed home," Amani muttered as we passed some more people on our way to the place where we normally had P.E.
I chuckled, shoving my hands into my jacket pockets. She acted like an introverted person, so I wasn't astonished at her words. And I couldn't even disagree. This number of people wasn't comfortable for me either. Bumping into each other just for us to get from point A to point B—highly annoying.
"You're here!" I heard a familiar voice call, to which I turned my head in its direction to see Leah, who was dragging Jade by her arm.
"Obviously," Amani exclaimed, also shoving her hands into her jacket pockets.
"Well, we can't see Henry now, so instead, we got some nice seats," Leah gave us a friendly smile, to which she nodded behind her towards the double-wing door.
And so, we went in there together. Liam, whom we found sitting all alone while playing something on his phone, was the one holding the seats for us, not surprisingly. We sat down next to him alongside the not-so-small number of people.
"What y'all doin' on holidays?" Leah suddenly asked, turning her head towards the rest of us.
Her question surprised me a little. The others only shrugged their shoulders. I expected them to say something about family trips, which were the norm in my childhood friend group. Be it autumn or spring, both were spent more with our families. Don't get me wrong, Christmas too, obviously, but that one was when we all stayed in town.
"Elaid is gonna be back home, but that's all," I heard Amani say at which Leah nodded and turned her attention to me and Jade. I only shrugged, not saying anything until I knew what she was planning.
"We're gonna visit grandparents on the weekend," Jade stated.
"Nice, so we can go to the cinema some day, right?" Leah asked, sounding rather excited. Although I couldn't understand why she would want to go to the cinema, especially on holidays when we could go on any other day.
No one seemed to mind her idea, and I felt a bit weird about them taking me among them so fast. I hadn't even been in this school for two whole months yet. Well, the upcoming week was a holiday once again, so that couldn't really be counted.
The play soon began. I didn't know it as I didn't even pay attention to that one rehearsal I had visited, but it didn't seem bad. Not that I was planning on seeing it ever again. Maybe a different one if it were a comedy.
Henry indeed seemed to be very good at what he was doing. And so were the other kids I didn't care enough to know. Maybe it was because they were in the theatre club for a reason, after all, or I didn't see a difference between the ones who could act and those who couldn't—that was highly possible.
My eyes went from the blond boy to the dirty blonde girl who stood not far away from him. She always seemed to be acting. In school, at least. But that was what many of us did, after all. Putting on a mask in front of many people. Whether it was for survival or something else.
It didn't take long until every one of those kids on the stage was in front, bowing while people in the room were applauding their performance. The end of the play was here. Well, more like over, as the so-called actors went down the stage to change their clothes and probably even clean the stage whilst everyone else was taking their leave.
Our group of five also stood up, with a difference of a few minutes—none of us wanted to be swept away by the flow of people. And so, after a short while, we took our leave.
"Hurryin' home?" Leah asked, as the one who always had the idea of going somewhere. I shrugged as an answer, exiting the room.
"Wanna go somewhere?" Jade asked, raising her eyebrows at her friend.
I stopped in my tracks, waiting for others to share their thoughts as I leaned onto the cold hallway wall. Liam, who was at the back of our small group, shrugged as he looked around the not-so-empty space. I could guess that he was waiting for his friend to finally join us.
"We could get dinner together," the black-haired girl pointed out, to which Jade nodded in agreement.
"Sounds good," Amani agreed as she shoved her hands in her jacket's pockets.
Leah clapped happily, "Nice. So where's that moron?"
I chuckled at her expression before I looked around, waiting for a certain blond boy to appear. Instead, my eyes fell on a blonde woman who could be in her forties. She seemed rather familiar—Oh…
The next person who came into my vision, was a smiling Ava, who was now dressed in different clothes. She said something to the woman, who also gave her a smile and turned to three other kids I didn't realise were there until then. I could be very positive this was her family. They didn't really seem as rich as everyone said, but neither did they seem like a family of a bankrupt businessman. They obviously owned their clothes from before that happened. At least it seemed. I didn't know how much they paid for them.
"There he is!"
"Mr Actor," Leah exclaimed right after Jade's announcement.
I turned to look at Henry, who was coming to us with three other people—obviously, his family, as they looked very similar to each other. Henry's family greeted his long-time friends before a young boy, who looked like his copy, furrowed his brows at me:
"Who's that?"
"Don't be rude," the blonde-haired woman, probably his mother, admonished him.
Henry's eyes fell on me, to which he smiled at his family, "This is Sidney. She moved here in the summer. I thought I mentioned it."
Ah. This was pretty awkward.
"Oh, it's nice to meet you, dear," Henry's mother said while giving me a friendly smile. I smiled a little back at her, too.
Meeting new people was weird. Especially meeting my friend's parents for the first time—not that I could remember how it was when we were children. But it must have been definitely easier.
"Yeah, uhm, we're gonna hang out for a while, so I won't be home for dinner," stated Henry, bringing the attention back to himself.
Thankfully, the awkward moment was short, and Henry's family soon left with a short goodbye. And so, the six of us were left in the school hallway that was not so slowly getting emptier.
"So," Leah started, eyeing all of us, "shall we go?"
The six of us then made our way out of the school grounds while deciding where to go for dinner. I personally didn't crave anything in particular. Be it noodles or pizza, I would be down for that. Although the others… they were like a bunch of noisy kids on a playground arguing about what to play.
I smiled at the image of them in front of me, shaking my head. In the end, I was glad I made some friends in my new home. Now, I had two circles of friends. Who wouldn't want that?
"I'll die from hunger before y'all choose," Henry groaned as if he weren't a part of the heated discussion.
"Why do you always have to act like a bloody drama queen?" Leah mumbled, making everyone laugh. Even though he wasn't always acting that way… well, at least as much as I knew after these two months.
Jade, who was walking next to me, chuckled, "Sometimes I doubt that you and Liam are siblings when you and Henry act like ones."
"I want noodles," I announced bluntly. I wasn't really a part of the conversation a while ago, so my statement made not only Jade look at me in surprise.
"That's a good idea," Amani nodded in agreement.
"And I said I want a kebab, what's the difference?" Henry groaned once again, to which Liam chuckled.
"Well, you can have it at the noodle place."
The blond boy only shot him a not-so-happy stare. I could understand—he wanted something, but no one was agreeing until I gave a similar idea. Or maybe it was Leah who was against every single one of his ideas. They really acted more like siblings than she and her twin did.
"There's this Chinese restaurant a couple of minutes away," Amani stated, nodding towards the street in front of us.
"I hate you all," Henry mumbled, leading the way like he wanted to run away from us. But all he got was another laugh from everyone. And Leah was the loudest one.