Chapter Text
"There's a party tonight."
Lila froze mid-sorting at the pronouncement. Not this again . She huffed in disapproval at the dress she had laid out in order to cover for her lapse. Reaching into her mental grab bag she pulled out a response. "This old thing, why do we even keep it around? Shall I end its miserable existence?" She plucked the dress up by one shoulder, presenting it disdainfully to Zoé.
Zoé looked up from her own pile. She gave the offending article a long look before deciding. "We could always use it to polish the stage."
Lila broke character into an unscripted giggle, turning her face to cover again. She deposited the dress on the floor. "Closer thee to thy final resting place."
Another minute of silence fell upon the two girls as they worked alone backstage. Zoé broke it. "You didn't answer." When Lila still remained silent Zoé added. "Mrs. Ferrar, Pride and Prejudice right?"
Lila froze again. She couldn’t help it, and nothing would come to her. An old pain clawed its way out and dripped vulpine venom into her voice. “Whatever gave you that silly idea?” she regretted it instantly, but words had no substance. You could never claw them back out of the air.
Zoé didn’t rise to the bait. She scooted a stack of hats to the side of the table she stood at to make room for a new pile. “The way you held your wrist. The affect you put into your voice, and that chin lift not at the end, but halfway through. It reminded me of the actress in the black and white one you recommended to me.”
Right down to the smallest detail. Lila’s hands clenched and unclenched in the fabric of the clothing before her. She kept her head down, eyes away. She couldn’t let Zoé see her reaction. It was unscripted. Lila had only herself to blame, passing off that list of movies to Zoé to help her improve her acting. You weren’t supposed to use it against me . That vulpine hiss scratched the inside of Lila’s head. “Lucky Guess.” Lila found a voice to supplant her own, sweeter than honey. “You really should know better, you know. It’s not wise to turn a woman's tricks back on herself.”
“The lines are Maggie Smith from…. Ooo.. I can’t remember now. But that delivery. That feels more like Clara Nightingale from Parentnet 2.”
“Ooooo, just stop it already.” Lila bunched her fists up under her chin, giving Zoé a proper pout. There was no way the blond could guess that one. It was a Lila Original. Lila as she would have been for her boyfriend Adrien in another life.
It worked. Zoé grinned and took it as real. The fear at being caught out didn’t show. Her club vice president fluttered a scarf in Lila’s direction. “Then answer my question.”
Lila rewound their conversation. “You didn’t ask one.” she answered with a teasing superiority, giving one of her forelocks a flick to emphasize her point.
Zoé rolled her eyes and frisbee’d a hat Lila’s way. “Fine Miss Smarty Pants.” She puffed up dramatically and took a deep breath, over emphasizing every syllable. “Would you like to go to the party tonight?” She let out the rest of the breath then continued normally. “It’s at the hotel. Pool, buffet, the whole nine yards. You know my sister.” A genuine grin flashed in response to Lila’s reflexive grimace.
Lila snagged the hat-missile while Zoé spoke and dropped it on top of the discarded dress with a long suffering sigh. “She will be there, of course.”
Zoé knew Lila well enough by now that she knew it wasn’t Chloé Lila was talking about. “Yes, most likely. They both will.” A weariness crept into Zoé’s tone and Lila hated that it sounded so familiar.
“Then I will not be going.” Lila folded up an old metallic green shirt she remembered from a certain movie two years back. She stuffed it between some other things so Zoé wouldn’t see. Lila would throw that particular item out herself, or maybe cut it into small pieces and burn them; a small revenge on the designer.
“Why not!?” Zoé’s sharp response snapped Lila’s eyes up. The blond had hands on hips, and an uncommon frown graced her squirrel-cheeked face.
“You know perfectly well why.” Lila dropped her gaze, taking a keen interest in searching the next article for holes or loose threads.
She was so absorbed that she didn’t realize Zoé had moved until a hand pushed the shirt down to the table. Lila looked up from her work and met sky blue eyes. “Because a girl is dating a boy. Is that really enough to keep you out of the spotlight?”
Lila hissed internally. Zoé really did know what to bribe her with. It was her own fault for hanging around the blond so much for drama club. “It’s not just any girl and boy you know. It’s Marinette, and Adrien .” Lila could feel her anger rising and with it the mask slipping.
Zoé rolled her eyes. “So it’s a pretty boy. Hey, if he’s one thick enough to pass you by you should leave him in the dust and find someone else. Are you just fishing for some part in a sequel or Are you looking to open your own trilogy?”
Lila’s hackles were up. She ignored the lure and snatched the shirt back from Zoé’s grasp. “You’re Marinette’s friend.” she spat, as if that explained everything.
Zoé didn’t shrink like she might have before. What had happened over the summer? Instead she placed both hands on the table between them and leaned in close to Lila’s face. “I’m your friend too you know, unless that’s changed?”
Damn. Lila broke eye contact. “It hasn’t.” The confession hurt. It was easy to tell people they were your friends. It was harder when you meant it. Lila stepped away from the table, gesturing broadly with the shirt still in hand. “Why are you on about all this?”
Zoé came around the table, but didn’t pursue further. She leaned back against it. “Because it’s your Senior year. I want it to be better than last year.”
“What am I a project for you now?” Lila’s voice was spitefully dismissive. Zoé’s words had sparked warmth, and that in turn led to fear. Lila needed to be in control again.
Zoé’s smile was resilient and disarming. “You’re my friend. Remember?”
Lila saw a way out. She flailed again with the shirt. “Fine, yes I’m a friend. It’ll be a great year, now let’s get this done before I graduate.” She stepped back up to the table and rifled through the clothing with unnecessary vigor.
Zoé didn’t take the direction. She leaned in, face close to Lila’s cheek while Lila tried to ignore her. “Sooo… you gonna go?”
Anger had failed, Lila fell back on contrition. She was scared to try a new performance on Zoé now so it was all improv. Lila tinted her voice with a soft whine. “I can’t Zoé. I just can’t. Will you please let it go?”
It worked! Lila let the relief show on her face as Zoé backed away. Sometimes it paid to be genuine just to keep people guessing. “Okay Lila, but I think you’re being an idiot.” Zoé turned and strutted back to her table with exaggerated long-legged steps.
“Hey.” Lila protested, but the fire was out of it. She was safe again. “You know I can still kick you out of the club, VP or no.” a little banter would smooth things over.
“Oh right. No way you’ll do that.” Zoé countered.
“Oh? And why shouldn’t I if you’re going to call me an idiot?” Lila’s anger was all for show now, and obviously so, all her normal ticks just dialed up to eleven for comedic effect.
“Because where are you going to find anyone else good enough to take my place?” Zoé grinned triumphantly.
“Oh pffft.” Lila tossed her head. “You’re not that good.”
“Oh?” Zoé snatched up a flat italian renaissance hat from her table and sat it on her head, tucking her hair up into it with a practiced ease, leaving only boyishly short hairs out. “Who else could play Romeo to your stunning Juliet last year hmm? A single one of the boys?”
Lila couldn’t help but giggle at the memory. “A reverse Shakespeare was too good to pass up!” she defended, remembering the three weekend performances fondly.
Zoé stepped into the space between the tables, lifting her chin just so, turning her hips and squaring her shoulders.
Romeo spoke from behind earnest blue eyes. “I know not how to tell thee who I am. My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself Because it is an enemy to thee. Had I it written, I would tear the word.”
Lila rolled her eyes, but there Romeo stood, waiting statuesque for the response. Against her better judgment Lila grabbed a veil from the table and pulled it over her hair in a makeshift wimple. She stepped around the table and into the middle space.
Juliet shuffled closer to her mysterious visitor, apprehension shortening her steps. “My ears have yet not drunk a hundred words Of thy tongue’s uttering, yet I know the sound. Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?”
Romeo turned his head aside in shame, but snapped his gaze back with a deep longing alight in his eyes. “Neither, fair maid, if either thee dislike.”
Without her balcony Juliette instead turned aside herself, her back to Romeo she stepped away and gestured to the empty seating. “How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore? The orchard walls are high and hard to climb, And the place death, considering who thou art, If any of my kinsmen find thee here”
Romeo stumbled in his earnest excitement, dashing around in front of Juliet and taking a knee. He took her hand in one of his and his other hand he clutched to his breast. “With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls, For stony limits cannot hold love out, And what love can do, that dares love attempt. Therefore thy kinsmen are no stop to me.”
Juliet once more hid her face but did not pull away from Romeo’s touch. With just a tilt of her head she turned the side of her face back to him. Her knees bent slightly, as if on the edge of a swoon. “If they do see thee, they will murder thee.”
Romeo rose up, her hand still in his. His eyes searched fair Juliet’s, an effort to convey his sincerity through those windows into his soul. “Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye Than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet, And I am proof against their enmity.”
Juliet caught his other hand, holding both in her own. Her voice dropped into a desperate plea. Her own eyes shone with the light of understanding, and fear. “I would not for the world they saw thee here.”
A subtle change, the difference in posture and he was gone. Zoé squeezed Juliet’s hands. “I have night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes, And, but thou love me, let them find me here. My life were better ended by their hate Than death proroguèd, wanting of thy love.”
A sudden twist in her chest. Lila snatched back her hands suddenly and turned away. What was that? Shakespeare was always a moving role, but what- Her mouth was dry. “I uh- It’s been a while. The next line is fighting me.” she mumbled, putting a few steps of distance between them.
Zoé peeked around from behind her. “So, am I kicked out?”
Things were back to normal. That goofy squirrel-cheeked smile and those sparkling happy eyes. Lila smirked and was able to walk steadily back to her table as her insides settled. “No, I suppose you can stay.” she drawled.
“I was thinking…” Zoé’s tone was one Lila had heard before.
“Hold on, let me hide under the table.” Lila rounded back to Zoé with an impish grin.
Zoé stuck her tongue out, then slid a finger along the brim of her floppy hat. With her hair all stuffed up into it the faux-pixie really did give her the look of a renaissance youth. “Well, if I can’t get you to open up. Maybe I can shove you into a box.”
“Zoé, I haven’t seen you all summer. My ability to decipher gibberish is rusty. Please try to make a little sense?” Lila clasped her hands together in sincerity.
“Well, if Lila can’t go to the party, then Zoé won’t go either.” her friend explained matter-of-factly. Lila hated how that little warmth lit itself inside her again at the pronouncement, but Zoé wasn’t done. She turned and scooped up a double armful of clothes then hurled it at Lila. “However I’m sure two very interesting characters could show up and make quite a scene.”
Lila blinked, and not just from the clothing shower. Into that confusion Zoé grinned again. Lila stooped and pulled out a garish floral top. With the things here she could be anyone. She had already been anyone, but only when on stage. She could wear an entire person for an evening, not just a few lines.
She looked back up and Zoé caught the look in her eyes. The blond raced over and scooped the clothing she’d thrown back up, depositing it on Lila’s table. “I’ll play the male lead.”
Lila’s mind raced ahead, so many options. She stepped up to the pile and stuck her hands in, sifting, seeking. “Of course you will.” Lila tossed her hair and smiled. “We both know I’m the one with all the feminine grace.”
Zoé dropped an interestingly colored top in front of Lila then picked up a pair of pants to size on herself, discarding them as too big. “Just once I’d like to see you try reading the male part.” She paused for effect. “Only in a comedy though.”
Lila huffed again, but a new sequined nightmare of a top caught her eye. She held it up and murmured. “We’ll be the most obnoxious couple at the party.”
“Second.”
Lila frowned, glancing up at Zoé,”What?”
“Second most obnoxious.” She grinned and hip bumped Lila. “I’m pretty sure you have to buy me dinner first if we want to do anything to compete with Luka and my sister.”
That sudden twist, not quite as intense, but all the more alarming for happening a second time. Lila squeezed the fabric in her hand. What is going on? A glance at those sky blue eyes gave her no answers. Lila made a gagging noise, finding refuge in humor. “Those two, if only they could learn how to act… act like normal people.”
Zoé laughed, another nudge, this one with an elbow this time. “We have so much room to talk.”
Lila snorted and held a dress up to herself, looking for an opinion. Zoé was quick with an ever optimistic response. Lila let things settle back to normal again, but a new idea formed in the back of her mind: maybe this year wouldn’t be so bad after all.