A couple of days passed, and Gage was in his rendition class, he was working on a design on the school computer, it was too quiet at times so students tended to get chatty at this period and the professor didn't mind as long as they did the work.

"Have you guys heard of the architecture firm, Magnum Holdings?" asked one guy sitting beside him, but the other kids shook their heads in response.

"No, why?" Gage answered.

"Nothing, it's new anyway, I heard about him from my dad. They opened their company in Dubai but somehow decided to open a branch here in Quinn City. They are having this brand alliance thing with my family's furniture company."

"Sounds amazing," expressed one girl sitting across them.

"Thanks, and I met the CEO, Arch. Leon Magnum, because my dad invited him for dinner in our house and told him I'm an architect major so he told me the time that when he was starting to become an architect, he helped build this high-end university hospital in Abu Dhabi for a Sheikh and a train station and a palace lined with gold for this prince."

"That's some huge starter projects he got there." Gage was impressed.

"He said that he'll give me an internship position, and if you guys want..."

"Tempting but no thanks. I want my talent to speak for itself."

"Alright," answered the guy, and they all got back to work.

The class was over, and Gage met up with Felix by the campus garden. They sat on the bench having a sandwich and juice before heading to their next class. He became curious when his classmate mentioned the new architecture firm, Magnum Holdings, so he looked it up using his laptop, and there was a website, so he clicked on the link. "What's that?" Felix asked as he peaked over since he sat next to Gage.

"Just this new architecture firm in town from Dubai," he said to him, then scrolled down and saw more images of beautiful-looking buildings. "Wow! These are awesome."

"Yeah, these buildings are like a sculpture. Maybe I can use that swirly one as my home for my alien movie."

"Sure, knock yourself out."

Suddenly, Gage saw Courtney walking in the distance with her other friends. She would glance his way but snubbed him afterward. "You two still not talking?" Felix asked while looking at his phone.

"Nope," Gage replied. "But I followed your advice."

"Really? Cool."

"Yeah, I'm gonna audition for Romeo."

Felix choked on his sandwich. "Did you say... Romeo? Why Romeo?"

"Yup, you told me to."

"I didn't think you'd do it, I also said up to you, I mean... I thought you'd audition for the other roles than the... lead."

"Oh, Gosh," Gage felt foolish, that he signed up for the lead.

"That's okay, that's okay. You're just doing it to prove that you cared," Felix reminded.

"Right, right."

"Maybe you can change it?"

"Yeah, maybe. I hope," he sighed, but he was starting to feel calm.

"Great," Felix then looked at his phone checking Instagram, actually he was looking at Rita's account and admiring all of her photos, there were some selfies and the others were her with Oddey in it.

"What are you doing?" Gage caught a glimpse of what Felix was doing. "And who's she?"

"That's Rita, she's a friend of a friend, she's so hot, don't you think?" he showed him a selfie of her.

"Yeah, hot," Gage responded, but he didn't care.

"I'm thinking about asking her out on a date, but I can't decide where."

"Well, when you do, don't ask her to watch your claymation movie."

"Very funny," Felix grumbled, giving him a light punch on Gage's shoulder.

"I'm just looking out for you."

Later, the theatre club was having a meeting, Gage was sitting farther away from Courtney. "We need to come up with our set design, and sadly, our set designers are still confined in the hospital," Madame Vestia told them. "Luckily, about half of my students in Art Studies have signed up to volunteer to help out and play extras but it's still not enough manpower so hopefully there will be more people to sign up for this."

"Since we're talking about set designs, what about, Gage?" asked one member, pointing to him. "He's the only one here who is majoring in architecture. Why not make him do it?"

"Sorry, that's not right up my alley," Gage said dryly.

"Plus, he's auditioning for the role of Romeo," Madame Vestia revealed which shocked Courtney and also so everyone else, Gage wished that she didn't have to announce it because most of the members turned their heads at him. "Mr. Munro, I expect you to dazzle me. Okay, let's get back to business, shall we?"

Everyone turned to face Madame Vestia as she continued to discuss other matters, Courtney snickered quietly and shook her head at the fact that Gage would be trying out for the lead.

-----------

The following day, it was a Friday, Madame Vestia was walking the corridors of the art studio until she got to Oddey's, she and Rita were continuing to draw, cut, and paint the farm animals so she decided to come inside to check it out.

"Madame Vestia, hello," Oddey said to her. She was taken aback to see her inside her art room.

"Hello, girls," Madame Vestia said back. "Funny, I don't remember discussing rural arts."

"Oh! This, I'm just helping out my friend here for her niece's party."

"Oh, I see, that's very adorable," Madame Vestia commented, observing the big red styrofoam barn, and she did find them very cute. "You two made these?"

"Just her," Rita pointed to Oddey, her art professor. "She's the one that came up with the design, and I just help out."

"Very creative, and I like that it's very resourceful. I mean event organizers are so expensive."

"True," Oddey agreed.

"No arguments there," Rita followed.

"I saw your name in the form, I'm glad that you want to play the extras," Madame Vestia mentioned.

"Oh! that, yeah, I figured you need all the help that you can get," Oddey said.

"What? how come I didn't know this?" Rita questioned.

"I want to be a surprise, I'm kidding, I just signed up last night."

"Maybe you want to join us?" Madame Vestia suggested to Rita.

"Maybe I will," Rita nodded.

"Anyway, I'll let you go back to work, I'll see you on Monday, Odette," the professor said once he walked out of the room.

"Yes, Madame Vestia," Oddey answered, then looked at her best friend. "So, are you thinking about joining the play?"

"Hmmm... maybe, maybe not," Rita replied. "What about you? why do you want to be in the play?"

"I don't know, I got a lot of free time anyway, and they are low in people, and I'm just playing townfolks anyway, and... Madame Vestia was giving me these begging eyes that you can't say no to when she asked us to volunteer."

"Well then, I'll look forward to watching the play or be in it..."

The two girls were giggling, but it was disrupted because another one was knocking on the door, "come in," Oddey said.

It was Felix entering with a nervousness on her face that the two best friends were finding it odd. "Hi! Oddey, Hi... Rita."

"Hi... Felix," Rita greeted. She could see that he felt tense.

"Wow! Those farm animals are looking great."

"Thanks, Do you need anything, Felix?"

"Uhm... no, not at all," Felix stuttered. "I do, but I... want to talk to Rita."

"Me?" Rita pointed to herself with her brow lifted.

"Yeah, I want to ask you..." he was beating around the bush, and the girls didn't mind. They were waiting patiently for him to finish. "If you want to go out... with me... tomorrow night... to a movie?"

Oddey was wide-eyed and tried to contain her grin since she sort of knew that Felix had a thing for her best friend and no. "Oh! just you and me?" Rita quipped, and she was flustered.

"No, Oddey can come," Felix quickly blurted out of panic, thinking that she might reject him and that Oddey and Rita were getting confused.

"Me? with you two...?" Oddey asked, feeling more puzzled that she was going to the third wheel on their movie date.

"No, of course not," and it hit him. "Because it's a... double date."

"Oh... That sounds fun."

"Yeah... double date, you can go with my friend, what do you say? do you want to go?"

Oddey looked at Rita and then back at Felix. "Sure... I like that."

"Great, great," Felix sighed in relief and slowly headed to the door. "I'll tell my friend and let's meet in the garden at seven."

"We'll be there," Rita said.

"Thanks, guys, I mean girls."

Once he was gone, the girls looked at each other. "I told you that he likes you," Oddey chuckled. "

"Yeah, the funny thing is, I was about to say yes if he had given me two seconds to speak."

"Then you should've answered one second earlier."

"It's fine, at least he suggested that because I'd be nervous if he and I were alone together tomorrow."

"At least we both have dates tomorrow on a Saturday, Yay! Only I don't know who he is, I never met one of his friends before."

"Oh yeah, what was his name?"

"He didn't say. It's fine, we'll find out tomorrow. "

"Oh! Gosh, what should I wear?"

"Let's find something later after we finish."

"Yes, let's do it fast."

-------

"What the hell, Gage?" Courtney confronted him as he was about to get inside his dorm room.

"What do you mean?" Gage asked.

"Why are you trying out for Romeo? Seriously? Romeo?"

"Listen. I didn't want you to find out that way, okay?"

"Just answer me."

"I just wanted to show that I care, that I support you."

"How? By embarrassing yourself on stage?"

"Well... I'm gonna rehearse, and can't you see I'm doing this for you? I thought you wanted me to be in the play with you."

"Not like this, you're doing this out of guilt because I heard you mocking my dreams."

"Fine, then tell me what you want me to do."

"Quit."

"Quit? like not audition?"

"Yes, and quit the club too since you're not interested and all, and I know you're not gonna take this seriously, so just let someone deserve to have the role."

Gage was getting agitated, and he knew Courtney was right. He was just doing that to make it up to her. However, he did not want to say. "Fine, I'll admit that what you said is true, I am doing this out of guilt, but I'm not gonna quit, I'll prove to you that I'm serious."

Courtney didn't want to say anything after that, yet there was smoke coming out from her ears and just gave him a death stare.

Felix then appeared to be all happy since his date accepted his invite and the only thing he had to do was to let Gage know that he was going on a double date with his date's best friend he saw the two right out of the dorm room where he and Gage shared. "Hey! you two are here," he beamed, not knowing that they were just arguing. "So that means are we talking to each other now? because I have some news to tell both of you..."

"Read the room, Felix," Courtney then stormed off, Gage and Felix watched her leave.

"Okay, I'm gonna take that as a no, so what happened? Why is she so mad? Did you tell her that you are auditioning?" Felix then turned to Gage.

"That's the problem but I don't want to talk about it," Gage exasperated as he opened the and went inside but when Felix was about to enter he shut the door closed to his face.

"Okay, this might not be a good time to tell him," Felix cringed, seeing that Gage might not be in the mood to go on a double date after the tension with Courtney.