Jimmy stood, fidgeting with his fingers and bouncing from foot to foot, just outside the curtain of the stage. Nervous thoughts ran through his brain like ants scurrying in and out of their hill. Grian was on just before him, performing his own audition. Jimmy had been trying to focus on everything Grian was saying to distract himself from his anxiety. It wasn't until then that Jimmy realized that Grian wasn't all just brains and a wild imagination; the kid had talent. And a lot of it.

It wasn't long before Grian was finished and Ms. Gold, one of the two drama teachers, dismissed him and called for whoever was next. Unfortunately, that person was Jimmy.

"You're going to do great," Grian whispered as he passed.

Nodding frantically, Jimmy took a deep breath and forced himself to walk out onto the stage. There were several people sitting in the seats, most of which had auditions that were much later.

Ms. Gold (who had a pretty fitting name, Jimmy found out, as she had blonde hair that practically glowed in the light) smiled at him and said, "Go ahead and start whenever you're ready."

Jimmy nodded again and took one last deep breath before beginning.

"But, soft," he recited, "what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." His eyes scanned the crowd and found Scott's. The nervous butterflies in Jimmy's stomach seemed to settle and increase at the same time. "Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief, that thou her maid art far more fair than she." He smiled a bit as his and Scott's eyes continued to keep contact, though Scott didn't share the same look. The blue-haired football star looked confused, and almost scared. "Be not her maid, since she is envious; Her vestal livery is but sick and green and none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.

"It is my lady, O, it is my love! O, that she knew she were! She speaks yet she says nothing. What of that? Her eye discourses. I will answer it. I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks." Scott's boyfriend nudged Scott, and the latter turned to look at him. "Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, having some business, do entreat her eyes to twinkle in their spheres till they return." Scott turned back to Jimmy again, his strange expression not changing. "What if her eyes were there, they in her head? The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, as daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night."

Jimmy's smile grew as Scott leaned his head on his hand while Jimmy said, "See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek."

There was a beat of silence until Ms. Gold started clapping and the rest of the room joined her. Well, everyone except for Scott's boyfriend, who stopped Scott from clapping.

"I think we just found our Romeo," Ms. Gold said, turning to Mr. Harding, the other drama teacher, who sat next to her.

Mr. Harding nodded in agreement. "I believe so."

A wide grin spread across Jimmy's face and he turned his head toward where Grian, and now Joel and Fwhip, stood, clapping and laughing. Jimmy rushed over to them, slamming into the three in a bear hug.

"You did great, Tim," Grian congratulated, giving Jimmy a fist bump once they broke apart from the hug. "Frankly, I didn't know you had it in you."

Fwhip laughed. "Now comes the hard part," he said. "Being able to pull off doing the rest of the play."

Jimmy let out a huff. "Yeah, I, uh... I don't know how I'm going to do that," he admitted.

"I think that's what we're here for," Joel said, chuckling to himself.

After a bit more chatter, the four boys went into the audience to watch the rest of the auditions. They sat in the row behind Scott and his boyfriend, who went up not long after Jimmy. Lizzie had been just after her brother, and was clearly happy with her audition as she was smiling as she walked off stage.

Scott's boyfriend ended up trying for Paris instead of Romeo, and Scott was ecstatic about his performance, though his boyfriend seemed upset and almost forcefully calmed Scott from his excitement. The sight made Jimmy near furious.

Both Joel's and Fwhip's auditions were great in Jimmy's opinion, though they didn't get as much of a rise out of the audience as a few of the others did.

Scott's audition was last, but it was the most outstanding thing Jimmy had ever seen. He'd performed a line from the second scene of Act II, just like Jimmy did. As Jimmy watched Scott perform, he realized exactly why Scott always got a leading role.

It was about an hour before auditions were over, and Joel had walked Grian home while Fwhip and Gem caught a ride with Lizzie and Jimmy. Gem had tried out for Friar Laurence, and Fwhip tried for Mercutio.

"Goodbye," Gem called as she exited Lizzie's SUV, while Fwhip merely waved goodbye before marching his way up to the duplex.

"See you tomorrow," Lizzie said to Gem in return. "Good luck with your part."

"You, too!"

Lizzie waited until the two were inside before driving off.

"You did really good," Lizzie said as they stopped at a red light. She looked into the rear view mirror (Jimmy sat in the back with Fwhip so Gem could sit with Lizzie in the front) and made eye contact with Jim for a moment. "I was genuinely impressed."

A sheepish smile spread across Jimmy's lips. "Thank you," he said shyly. "Yours was great, too."

Lizzie laughed. "Compared to yours, it was garbage," she said, and Jimmy couldn't tell if she was joking or not. She sighed. "Now we've just got to wait until the parts are posted Friday."

Jimmy nodded. "I really hope you get the part."

Lizzie smiled. "Thanks."

* * *

The entire drama club surrounded the bulletin board in the theater when Jimmy walked in. He could barely see Ms. Gold's yellow hair through the crowd.

A bunch of shouted 'yes's led Jimmy to assume that everyone's roles had been posted. Though he already knew he'd gotten the part of Romeo, he still wanted to see the board, so he squeezed through the mob of excited teenagers. His eyes scanned over the list, lighting up when the names "Elizabeth Shadowlady-Solidarity" and "Lady Montague" were written next to each other.

"Move, move, move," someone shouted behind the crowd. That voice sounded so familiar... "Get out of my way, I need to see if-" Suddenly, Jimmy was shoved aside, and a squeal (which, quite frankly, sounded like an eleven-year-old boy) followed by stomping and clapping came from beside Jimmy. "I got the part!"

Jimmy snorted. "You sure seem happy, Grian," the blonde said.

Grian turned to Jimmy, a wide grin on his face. "Are you kidding? I'm ecstatic!"

Freezing for a moment, Jimmy nodded, pretending like he understood what ecstatic meant.

"Oh my god-" Grian gasped. "When did Mumbo audition?"

Jimmy opened his mouth to speak but stopped when he heard someone say, "I can't see over everyone heads!"

That's Joel, Jimmy thought immediately. That's definitely Joel.

To prove his assumption correct, Joel let out yelp much similar to Grian's squeal (though it was slightly higher in pitch and a lot more exaggerated), and Lizzie was shouting at everyone to move. Before Jimmy had the chance to laugh at Joel's ungodly screech, Lizzie had appeared next to him with Joel on her shoulders. The brunette's fingers were tangled tightly in Lizzie's hair, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Liz-"

"You got the part," Lizzie interrupted Joel.

For a moment, Joel stopped wobbling about to lean forward and squint at the list. "I did?" He gasped and straightened his back again. "I did!" He quirked a brow and leaned in a second time. "Wait. Lizzie, you got Lady Montague... and the apothecary?"

"What?" This time it was Lizzie who leaned in. "I did." She let out a triumphant hmph. "That makes me better than all of you."

Grian hummed next to Lizzie, which made her jump, and Joel nearly fell backwards off her shoulders. "Mumbo got three parts," Grian mumbled.

"Three?!" The others had shouted this in near perfect unison.

"Huh. Ren got three, too."

"What?!"

Grian turned to Lizzie, Jimmy, and Joel. "Well, it's perfectly reasonable," the youngest of them said. "They got pretty small parts."

Joel threw his head back as he groaned. "Why can't I have more than one part, too," he whined. "I'm cool and special."

Grian snorted. "Sure."

"Hey!"

Lizzie sighed, letting go of Joel's legs for a moment so he slipped backward and ended up hanging off of her shoulders. "Cut it out, you two."

"Lizzie," Joel yelled shrilly, "put me down!"

"If you say so," replied the pinkette, and she let go of his ankles.

By reflex, Joel placed his hands down to brace himself, and he ended up flipping over onto his bottom, which Grian was not afraid to laugh his ass off about. Unfortunately for him, Joel had grabbed Grian's ankle in response and pulled him down to the ground with him.

"Zach, come on," a male voice said from behind the crowd, drawing Jimmy's attention away immediately. It was Scott. "Ms. Gold posted the parts, come on!"

Jimmy's heart melted at the excitement in Scott's voice. He sounded so happy.

Eventually, Scott and Zach, which turned out to be the name of Scott's boyfriend, erupted from the now somewhat dispersed mob of students. Jimmy made eye contact with Scott for a moment, and Jimmy would never forget the blithesome smile in Scott's eyes.

"Oh!" Scott backed up when he almost stepped on Grian's hand. "Sor-"

"Don't apologize," Zach, who looked oddly familiar, spat as he went ahead and stepped on Grian's hand anyway.

Grian gasped, almost yelping, and jumped back and into Joel, who fell back against Lizzie, knocking down Jimmy as she shrieked and grabbed onto him by instinct.

Scott stood and stared for a moment at the four on the ground before going to look at the list. His eyes lit up like stars in a pitch black sky as he read aloud, "Juliet Capulet." He turned excitedly to Zach, who was glaring at the sheet of paper. "Babe, I got Juliet-"

"Cool," Zach interrupted unenthusiastically. "Let's go."

Scott's happy expression slipped away the second Zach had opened his mouth. "But-"

"Let's go," Zach repeated.

Scott watched as Zach disappeared into the crowd of people, then turned and looked back at the four on the ground, who were now making sure they were all alright.

"What are you waiting for?" Joel asked as he held Grian's hand in his own, venom decorating every word like lace on a dress.

"I-" Scott stared for a second more before turning around quickly and running after Zach.

Joel scoffed and when back to inspecting Grian's hand. "Jackass."

"Watch it," Grian said, referring to Joel's foul language. He sighed. "My hand is fine. It just scared me."

Joel had said something else, but Jimmy didn't hear it. His eyes were fixed in the direction Scott left and burning, though not from the soreness of falling.

"Babe, I got Juliet."

Babe. Scott called him babe.

"Jimmy, you okay?" Lizzie's soft voice cut through his thoughts.

Jimmy blinked, a single tear dripping down his cheek as he did so. "I-" He shook his head as he wiped his eye with the back of his hand. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

Jimmy nodded quietly, and Lizzie reached over to squeeze his hand. "Wanna talk later?" she asked, and he shook his head. "Okay."

"Ow!"

Jimmy looked over to see Fwhip hovering over Grian, who looked absolutely furious.

"What the heck?" Grian crossed his arms like a child pouting.

Fwhip put his hands up. "Sorry, man, I didn't see you there."

"Fwhip, you got... Tybalt," Gem said from the bulletin board.

Immediately, Fwhip's attention switched. "I got who?"

"Tybalt."

Fwhip gasped. "What?" he whined. "That guy dies! I wanted to play Mercutio."

Grian laughed. "Tybalt kills Mercutio," he said. "You'd die anyway, dimwit."

"Oh."

Gem gasped and grabbed Fwhip's arm, hitting his shoulder out of excitement. "I got the part! I got the part!" She jumped up and down a few times, shaking Fwhip as she did so. "Fwhip, I got the part!"

Fwhip smiled fondly, not paying any mind to the soreness in his arm. "That's great," he said. "I'm proud of you."

The redheaded girl pulled her twin into a tight hug.

Grian let out a mock gag. "You guys get too emotional," he commented, earning a nudge from Joel. "What?"

Joel shook his head. "You're just too nerdy and techinical," the brunette said. "You think in numbers."

Grian crossed his arms. "Well, my numbers are very reliable," he retorted. "They don't lie, they're not mean, and they can't call me short." He grinned triumphantly at Joel, who snickered.

"That's too bad," Joel said, "because you're easily the shortest here."

"You're shorter than everyone else, too!"

"Yeah, but you're shorter than I am."

"I hate you."

Lizzie and Jimmy shared glances before laughing.

Drama club might not be so bad after all.