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Damian (to everyone's surprise) wanted the male lead, the part of Romeo. But Ms. Kelley, the drama teacher, felt he looked too scary to play that part and would be better suited for the role of an antagonist.
"I look 'too scary' to play Romeo? And why is that? Because of my Arab and Chinese heritage?"
"Race is irrelevant, Damian, you literally snarl at people."
"I...!" holding back a snarl, "tt" Damian reluctantly submits, and glares at the boy chosen to play Romeo. But his jealousy towards the boy forgotten when Mar'i Grayson was announced to play Juliet. He insists she can't act and only got the part because she's beautiful.
"Oh thanks, Damian, but you'd be beautiful too if you didn't snarl at people!"
Annoyed, and a little embarrassed, Damian affronts her. "She can't act! My cow is more of a thespian than her! Hell, I would be a better Juliet!"
"Please no." Sam Chinwester, the boy playing Romeo pleads.
Mar'i glares at Damian, her eyes glowing solid green for a second, "I will see you in Hell and your cow at McDonald's!"
-
The roles are announced: Sam Chinwester will play Romeo and Mar'i Grayson will play Juliet. Harry Topper will play Friar Lawrence (who secretly marries them). Scott Grimpill will play Mercutio (Romeo's friend). Jersey Packson will play Tybalt (Juliet's cousin). Sony Toprano will play. . . .
Mia "Maps" Mizoguchi is assigned costumes, Olive Silverlock is assigned sound effects, Sasha Scarlet is assigned make-up, and Damian Wayne is assigned backdrop art.
Damian is pleased his artistic talent is warranted, but not pleased he didn't get a stage role. He insists he can do both, paint and act. But Ms. Kelley refuses, says he is needed more backstage.
Uncle Jaybird is really into helping Mar'i practice for the play..
The first night it was just Mar'i going over her lines with her parents and little brother Jake, while Damian sat grouchily at the table designing backdrops. Then Jason came in, insulted that Dick didn't tell him about the play, especially since Mar'i got the female lead!
Dick calms him down, "We literally just found out two hours ago, Jason."
The second night, Jason dragged Artemis and Bizarro over to help Mar'i rehearse, and apologized that Roy was too busy to come.
"Um..that's ok, Jason, it's just a school play."
The third night, he does drag Roy, with Lian, and even Sasha to help. Damian no longer sticks around for their rehearsal nights, and hides in his room with his arts and his animals. Sasha appreciates his absence, as well as all the practice with make-up. And getting tips from Super Model Kory Anders is a real treat!
Make-up done, Mar'i is ready to practice!
"Lian, you don't mind being Romeo, right?" (Jason)
"Fine, but I'm not kissing no one."
"It's ok, Little Willow, you don't have to." (Roy)
So Lian as Romeo with Roy as Lord Montague (Romeo's father), and Mar'i as Juliet with Dick as Lord Capulet (Juliet's father) start practicing. Jason reads the lines of all the other characters.
Kory sits bouncing Jake in her lap, next to Sasha sandwiched between Artemis and Bizarro. They have fun watching Dick and Roy act as the warring fathers, act like they hate eachother..only for it to devolve into actual beef between the two of them. They start attacking eachother for real and bringing up personal stuff, and Mar'i is so lost because none of that is in the script ??
Finally Jason steps in and knocks them both out for "ruining Mar'i's concentration"!
Yes, Jason is getting way too into this simple school play. But Dick is happy to see him having so much fun, functioning like a real member of the family again.... so he's not too surprised when Jason shows up the next night with a director's hat and props.
"What?" (Jason)
Trying not to smile, "Nice hat."
"You know, as a zombie, I like to re-hearse."
Trying (failing) not to smile. "I hate you. That was a good one, but I hate you."
And they both start laughing.
By the second week, Jason has organized his own little theatre troupe consisting of Artemis, Bizarro, Sasha, and Tyler.
But he still doesn't have enough actors for all the roles, so sometimes he'll pick up Colin Wilkes on his way over, and often Dick and Kory will help out too..especially since Jake and Tyler usually disappear together to play "Wingfire" and "Blue Hood" (their made-up super-hero identities they plan to one day save the world as. They don't know what they'll be saving the world from, but they know they'll be doing it in style!)
When Jason gets Roy to commit to coming to every practice night, he calls Donna and tells her it's an emergency, she has to come now and bring Robbie! Confusing her of course, (Why would she bring her son to an emergency?) but she comes with Robbie....and Kyle.
Donna is amused by the lengths to which Jason will go so his niece gets a decent amount of rehearsal for a simple school play. But Jason and Kyle are at eachother's throats all night, as Jason is too-obviously trying to push Roy and Donna, his two best friends, back together. Roy keeps threatening to kill Jason but Donna finds it sweet, extremely awkward, but sweet. And Kyle keeps giving Jason the evil eye and flipping him off when the kids aren't looking.
Dick revels in the chaos at Roy's expense.
Jason may not have succeeded in bringing Donna and Roy back together, but he did get Donna to spread the word of "Jason's Theatre" to the other original Titans.. (Dick: "Why didn't I think of that?") then from Wally to the Justice League, and now every night at six, Dick and Kory's apartment is overflowing with kids rehearsing Shakespeare with Mar'i.
So Mar'i has got Lian Harper, Sasha Scarlet and Tyler Blue, Colin Wilkes, Robbie Long, Barry and Irey and Jai West, Cerdian and Tula, Lizzie and Hunter Prince, Sin Lance and Olivia Queen, Martin Jordan, Chris and Jon Kent, Bizarro (he counts as a kid?), and her little brother Jake - enough kids for all the roles! So Jason doesn't have to fill in as the missing actors, he can focus on directing.
"We are gathered here today, every night at six actually, to help Mar'i practice Romeo and Juliet." Jason addresses the children. "Mar'i is Juliet, of course. This is her play. This is her moment." He pauses for dramatic effect. "Now who wants to be her Romeo?"
Irey raises her hand, "Is Romeo a girl?"
"Not in this version." (Irey puts her hand down.) "Has anyone read the play?" Jason asks. He knows Sasha and Lian and Tyler are aware of the plot, but with so many newbies, he had to ask.
"I did." Lian says, "It sucks."
"Lian, sweetie, if your father wasn't my best friend I would kick you off the premises."
"This is my apartment." Dick reminds him.
"I'll kick you out, too!"
Tyler raises his hand, "Is Romeo a super hero?"
Jason looks at him, surprised. "No, buddy, he's not a super hero." (Tyler puts his hand down.) "I thought you knew that. Haven't you been paying attention?"
"I just come to play with Jake." Tyler admits. Jason feels so betrayed. But thankfully his feelings of betrayal are soon discarded as Jon raises his hand.
"I guess I'll be Romeo, Mr. Damian's-Brother, Sir."
"Thank you, Mr. Damian's-Friend, Sir."
Dick starts laughing. "Why did I find that funny?"
Jason pulls out a clipboard from nowhere. "Ok! So Romeo: Jon. Check. Juliet: Mar'i. Double check. Now we need...."
While Jason is getting the other kids settled, assigned and committed to their roles, Robbie decides to instill a little chaos by teasing Jon for volunteering as Romeo. "You just wanna kiss Mar'i, don't you~?"
Jon blushes, "Oh, is that in the script?"
"Wow you're a terrible actor." (Robbie)
"No, he's great! I'm glad he's Romeo!" (Mar'i) They look at her and now she starts blushing. "Because.. Because... I want to learn Kryptonian! I can learn a language through lip contact, you know!"
Jon frowns, "Oh. I don't know Krypton-ese."
"I know Kryptonese." Chris nonchalantly adds....but then gets flustered when he realizes everyone is looking at him and assuming he said that so he could kiss Mar'i. "I didn't mean I want to...um..no, that's ok. Forget I said anything.. Mr. Damian's-Brother! Can I play a character who dies early on?" he asks, walking towards the zombie director and away from his own brother who is giving him the stank eye.
Everyone knows their roles, everyone does their part.. Jason has put more time and effort into helping Mar'i practice for the play, than the actual school is putting into the actual production. And boy does she need it! Because unfortunately, Damian was right. Mar'i CAN'T act....but at least she's beautiful.
'Twas the night before the actual school play, their last night to practice. Rehearsal is winding down and most of the kids have gone home, the rest are cleaning up. Dick and Kory come in to check on Mar'i, they have baby Terry with them. Dick holds up the baby dramatically as he enters the room, "To be! or not to be? That is the question!"
"Wrong play, dumb-a....pple." Jason caught himself before cursing in front of the children. He's been cursing alot less lately. Being surrounded by kids has been a great motivation to be a good influence.
-
The rest of the kids go home, save for Sasha and Tyler as Jason is their ride. Sasha helps Mar'i remove her make-up and Tyler Blue Hood plays saves the world with Jake Wingfire until they both pass out on the couch. The only adults around are Dick, Kory, Bizarro (he counts as an adult?), Jason and Artemis.
Kory picks up Jake and Jason picks up Tyler, and they both sit on the couch. They talk about how Mar'i's acting has improved in these past few weeks (admittedly not much, but she has improved!) and Jason is obviously excited to finally see the fruits of his labor. Dick is standing nearby, still holding Terry, taking in the scene. His wife and his brother, both holding their own sleeping boys (Tyler counted as Jason's, right? eh, close enough) talking about Mar'i and all the kids who have pitched in to help. Jason's smile is genuine. Dick doesn't get to see that often, not outside of their practice nights. And it saddens him to realize that once the play is over, Jason won't have a reason to storm his apartment with an army of theatre kids anymore. He can't help himself but say something.
"I mean this sincerely, Little Wing, you should quit the whole 'crime lord' thing and open up an orphanage or something." (Jason looks at Dick like he's crazy.) Dick laughs, "What? You love kids more than I love cereal!"
"Red Him Not Eat Children!" Bizarro yells in Jason's defense.
Dick quickly appeases the clone, then back to Jason "You're as bad as Bruce. If you had your own mansion and cave, I've no doubt you'd fill yours with kids too."
Jason glares at Dick for a very long time, before finally saying something. "Your daughter's performance is tomorrow night. After which, I shall murder you."
Dick rolls his eyes, "Yeah.. Maybe if you weren't cuddling a sleeping child, that threat might have been intimidating."
It's the big night, Mar'i's play. Technically it's also Sasha and Damian's play, as they will be working back stage. But Sasha was not one for the spotlight and Damian was still angry he was denied an acting role. All this time during rehearsals, both the school's and Jason's, Damian stayed focused on painting backdrops. (And his backdrops were amazing, true works of art.) He gave no attention to the actors or the script, he sat alone with earbuds in, listening to music and making art. so he was a little surprised come the night of the play....
Sasha was backstage with Maps and Olive. They were going over final details and finishing the final touches on a few background actors. Mar'i was checking her hair in the mirror while Sam Chinwester paced back and forth nervously behind her. Damian stood in the corner, menacingly.
Parents and students were filing in to the auditorium, finding their seats. Heads turned when super model Kory Anders walked in. But thankfully, with her husband and son beside her, no one tried to hit on her tonight. Heads turned again when Bruce Wayne walked in, with Selina on one arm and Terry in the other. And in Selina's other arm was Helena, and Holly was beside her and Cassandra was on Bruce's other side, and beside Cassandra was Jean-Paul, and beside him was Timothy and beside him was Stephanie and beside her was Duke and..and how many kids does this guy have??
Victor Stone and Sarah Simms showed up with a few kids from Sarah's class, Garfield Logan and Rachel Roth came along to help chaperone as they often do. Garth and Dolphin came with Cerdian and his little sister Tula. Diana and Steve came in with Lizzie and Hunter. Oliver and Dinah brought Sin and Olivia and even their older ones, Connor and Mia. And Clark and Lois brought their own Conner and Mia, along with their Chris and Jon. And Hal Jordan came with Martin.
Yes, it was a full house for Bruce Wayne's honorary grand daughter, despite her lousy acting skills..
They were all eager to finally see Mar'i up on stage!
-
Jason had gotten there early, having given Damian, Mar'i, and Sasha a ride so they could prepare. He had also picked up Colin on the way, and of course Tyler. The three theatre kids went backstage, then he took Tyler out to the school's playground, and Colin went with them as that seemed more fun than sitting in an empty auditorium. And Roy came early too because Jason had texted him the wrong time, on purpose. So Tyler and Colin and Lian had the whole playground to themselves - in the dark, so they thought that was actually kind of cool.
Jason told Roy he got for him and Donna "the best seats in the house" and offered to keep Lian and Robbie for the night. Roy gave him a look. "What best seats? It's a school auditorium, you idiot!" But when Donna showed up with Robbie, Kyle was with....so Artemis and Bizarro took those "best seats".
-
The play was just about to start when Wally and his family (Linda, Barry, Irey and Jai) finally arrived - almost late!
The lights dimmed, the play started.
-
Damian was still lurking in the corner, watching backstage with Sasha, Olive, and Maps. Jon was seated with his family, giving Sam Chinwester the stank eye as he makes the moves on "Juliet". But it's Damian who screams right as Mar'i and Sam lean in for a kiss. "You mean Romeo has to KISS Juliet?! Oh Thank God I Look Too Scary To Play Romeo!"
Then a moment of awkward silence, followed by awkward murmurs and some laughter and Baby Terry, recognizing distress in his big brother's voice, but not seeing his big brother, starts crying. But Robbie is grinning and Lian is laughing her butt off in the front row..and now Jon's stank eye is directed at Damian (yes, even behind the curtain, his x-ray vision is glaring at Damian) and Jason is torn between laughing at Damian's folly and punching him for ruining Mar'i's concentration. Jake and Tyler exchange a glance, wondering if this was a job for Wingfire and Blue Hood.
At least now there was something to distract the audience from Mar'i's poor acting skills. No one will remember her mediocre performance, but they will certainly remember the boy who screamed from behind the curtain.
Truly, this was a love that was never meant to be....
The end of Damian. Mar'i killed him that night.♥