“Good MORNING, everyone!” comes the massive booming sound from the already opened roof. We’re not going out by cup this morning. It must be a special occasion. My special occasion, as it happens.
And it’s only Tuesday…
We all hide behind the wall to change into our fresh clothes, then step around the corner and look up to see the beaming face of Julia, already dressed for school in a jean jacket and purple skirt hanging over her shoulder by lacy straps. Her hair looks very straight this morning, as if she got up early to do it herself. It’s starting already.
Instantly, of course, her eyes go to me and she smiles even bigger but then her gaze quickly shifts over everyone else, and the grin continues. Maybe today won’t suck so much if this is able to continue a while longer.
As usual, we are lifted out one by one, today by hand, and placed on the table outside the closet. As Julia reaches for me, her tongue pokes outside her mouth, not in a licking kind of way, but almost in a greedy, thoughtful way. She wiggles her fingers playfully in midair, taunting me in a joking way as they approach. She takes longer than normal to grab me, as if trying to make me think she cares enough to take the time to safely pick me up. Her ring finger snakes around my feet first, curling in and tightening like a boa constrictor. Next comes her middle finger, getting the rest of my legs, and finally her pointer finger wrapping around my abdomen before laying her thumb across it all, covering my chest and neck. She grips me a little higher than normal, only letting my head poke out from her fist, my body immobilized inside her fist. She takes me into the air and close to her face.
“Ready for tonight?” she says, grinning ear-to-ear.
“You bet!” I say with all the excitement I can muster without sounding like a tool and letting on that something’s up.
“Me too, Jack. I hope you won’t be too nervous, because trust me, I’ll be nervous tonight. We should just try to have fun, okay, Jack? I wouldn’t want anything to spoil it, so just… be the nice little guy I know you are and you’ll do great, okay?” she says sweetly, as if giving me a pep talk. It’s a little surreal to have your date giving you advice on how to date correctly.
“Absolutely, Julia,” I answer, smiling.
“Great. Enjoy your breakfast, you need to get strong,” she says, giving me a little squeeze before placing me on the table.
It’s a little clump of scrambled egg. Julia must really be in a good mood. I sit down and get to eating with the others, who have already started. We eat in silence as Julia packs up some things in her room from her desk. Breakfast finishes, Julia brings to the table our little music sheets to study, then places us each back in the house, not talking to us individually again but giving me my standard little squeeze hug. It honestly hurts my sides, which still ache a little from the bruising she gave me yesterday, but I figure that’s not the sort of thing I want to complain about.
“All right, class, study hard today! I’ll be back after school is over. Love you all!” she says, sounding more cheerful than we’ve ever heard her. Normally she’s happy, but today she’s just beaming. She places a little stack of cold cuts in the house: turkey, ham and cheese, probably no more than a couple bites worth for her, but it’s plenty for us, and honestly looks pretty good compared to the normal school day lunches we get from her. The light stays on but the roof closes followed by the earthquake shift of the house being pushed back into the closet, and the slammed doors after that.
We spend the day a little like we did yesterday, except with drastically higher spirits. The girls continue to coach me on how to act perfectly at the date, and we all spend part of the time improving ourselves at the music. Humorously, we know we’re not really auditioning: Julia clearly has parts all thought out for us. I’m going to be the lead, Gina’s going to be my love interest, Anna and Brian will be one set of parents, Kelly will be a mother and… we’re not sure about the last spot. One thought is that Brian will fill both roles.
Or, as it has occurred to us, Julia just might pick up a new resident to fill the role. This musical is important to her, and seeing as all it really took for her to grab each of us up was apparently boredom and a desire to have a little farm of powerless human dolls, it’s very likely she’ll pick up a new cast member, possibly today. All we can do is pray for every male human being Julia comes into contact with in the next few days, because she just might be silently judging candidates to add to her toy box. Nothing we can do about it, of course. And if she does bring a new one, our only hope will be to try and assimilate him quickly so he doesn’t turn into another Jim.
We’re all getting better. Gina’s actually pretty good at singing when she’s not being forced to imitate a bird on Julia’s threatening and expectant pointer finger. With any luck, we’ll be able to satisfy the hasty demands set out by Julia on this damn thing.
The afternoon comes quickly, and before we know it we’re being dragged out into Julia’s room and the cup is being dropped in. Today, Julia doesn’t say anything to us, but gets straight to work, having us hop in the school bus from the eating table for the trip to the classroom. Probably wants to save time for auditions and for preparing for our big night of passion and romance.
Oh, she wishes…
I take a plastic seat next to Gina, who looks considerably happier from yesterday, her face much more full of color. I put an arm around her and she returns the favor, just as we look up to see a massive pointer finger snaking inside the window and settling on the ceiling as Julia lifts us up. It’s a bumpy ride, and I can see the finger flexing, becoming pale as it has to adjust the pressure on that spot of the bus, but we’re dropped off at the classroom seconds later.
Class is uneventful today. Everyone is on their best behavior in hopes of keeping Julia happy until the date so I can work my Thespian magic, so no punishments of any kind are doled out. The work is completed quickly and correctly.
“I must say, class, I’m impressed with your performance today,” says Julia, leaning back in her chair as we clean up the classroom at the conclusion. “Keep this up and there may be a treat in it for you next time,” she says, winking. Don’t really know or care what Julia could possibly believe constitutes a “treat” for us.
“But NOW,” she says, the grin returning as she claps her hands lightly to get our attention. “It’s time for the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Auditions for Heartfelt are ready to start as soon as you get the classroom picked up. Give me a minute,” she says, stepping away from the desk and over to a bookshelf, where she removes a notepad and pen. She returns, crossing a leg and resting her chin on her fist. “Okay, here’s how this will work: you’ll take turns coming up. You’ll sing the audition song a cappella, and then when we’re done I’ll have you all read some dialogue off the computer screen,” she says, clicking a link at the bottom of the screen that makes several lines of character dialogue pop up. “Don’t be nervous; just do your best. Everyone will get a part, of course, since we have a small class.”
What a disgustingly sad pun. I’m glad she has the decency to not laugh when she says “small class.”