Work Text:
Penny really wasn’t interested in doing the school musical, but she couldn’t say no to Maru.
Maru had rationalized their need to at least audition by telling Penny that it was about time that the two of them joined some clubs and made their time in school memorable.
“We’re juniors, Maru,” Penny had tried to argue. “We have plenty of time to do something memorable.”
“Penny, this is an original screenplay,” Maru said, waving the script in Penny’s face. “If this isn’t memorable, I don’t know what is. We might not have this opportunity next year!”
Penny didn’t feel like arguing with that further.
The musical had been written by a senior named Elliott, with the songs and backing music being written by Penny’s friend Sam. Despite the fact that it was going to be presented in front of a series of small towns surrounding the high school, Elliott had made the two main characters females who fell in love with each other. He called it Idiots in Love, and despite how much Penny didn’t want to like it, she couldn’t help it. It was cute.
Maru insisted that the two of them try out for the main characters, Lu and Clara. In practice, Penny stammered her way through Clara’s lines and could hardly get the words out.
“They’re going to laugh at me,” she said glumly, hanging her head.
“No they’re not!” Maru smiled encouragingly. “I think you need to practice a little bit more on your own, that’s all.”
So Penny did, still unable to say no to her best friend.
On the day of auditions, Elliott and Sam drilled them all hard. Penny was made to do her audition for Clara with several other girls vying for the part of Lu. It had been going well, until her audition with Maru.
“We’d like to skip to the kiss at the end,” Elliott said. “You two have a lot of chemistry, but we’d like to see if it’s real.”
If it had been for anything else, Penny would have felt offended, maybe a little creeped out. But she knew Elliott was dedicated to his craft – this play was his baby, and she knew he wanted everything to be perfect.
She looked over at her best friend standing beside her. Maru was smiling at her shyly. Penny blinked.
Faced with the reality that she was now just seconds away from kissing her best friend, something came loose inside of her.
As Maru got closer and closer, Penny could feel the blush on her cheeks growing hotter and hotter. She could practically count every single freckle that dusted across the cheeks in front of her.
When their lips touched, Penny couldn’t hide it from herself anymore.
She was totally in love with Maru. She didn’t know for how long, but she knew that the feeling had always been there, in the back of her head, just waiting to come up.
Her heart started doing flips and didn’t stop for a long time.
The two directors announced that their decision would be posted the following day. Penny had a hard time sleeping that night, and she couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason, but she had her suspicions.
Her stomach was in knots as she watched Sam pin the cast list up first thing the next morning. People were crowded around it in front of her and Maru, but they could wait. Maru was just as nervous as Penny was.
Haley, the biggest drama queen anyone knew, gasped and turned around to look both Penny and Maru in the eyes with a death glare.
“You two?” she asked, her voice disdainful. Maru frowned.
“Us two what?”
“I can’t believe you two got the lead roles.” Haley scoffed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Whatever. At least this means I don’t have to kiss either one of your weirdoes.”
She stalked away and Penny and Maru exchanged equally confused glances. They checked for their names on the cast list and, just as Haley had said, Maru had been cast as Lu and Penny as Clara.
“I knew we could do it, Penny!” Maru said gleefully, hugging her friend tightly. “We’re great together.”
We’re great together.
Penny repeated Maru’s words in her head all through months of rehearsal. Sam and Elliott had both commented on how much Penny had progressed since auditions. She chalked it up to their great support, but she knew what it really was.
Lu and Clara were the exact image of Maru and Penny. Clara spent the entire play pining over her best friend, and over the course of several musical numbers, Lu began to realize she had always felt the same way.
Penny could only hope that life, in this case, would imitate art.
Opening night came faster than anyone had expected, and Penny was starting to feel nervous.
“What if we get booed?” she hissed at Maru, five minutes before the opening scene. “What if it’s too much for the conservative Midwest?”
Maru put her hands on Penny’s arms for comfort.
“We’re going to be fine,” she soothed. “We’ve practiced. And who cares what they think?”
Who cares what they think?
Penny and Maru put on the best show of their lives. When it came time for the final scene, Penny’s whole body tingled in anticipation of their kiss.
“…And you were right there, in front of me, this whole time!” Maru finished her line dramatically, before sweeping Penny into her arms and planting a firm kiss to her mouth.
They both knew the kiss lingered a few moments too long, but they broke apart to a standing ovation from the crowd. They bowed and exited.
When they were alone backstage, removed from the hubbub around them, Maru touched Penny’s hand gently.
“I don’t know if you felt it too, but…” she chewed her lip and brought her eyes up to burn into Penny’s. “Can you kiss me again?”
Penny never could say no to her best friend.