The cast list for the musical Hogwarts is putting on this year is finally out and Lily made Cady Heron!
She almost screams when she gets the news from Remus, who's been audio director since his freshman year. Practically shaking in excitement, Lily checks the posted list herself, actually screaming this time when she sees her name posted by Cady Heron. She glances through the rest of the cast and crew, seeing Marlene for Regina, Pandora for Karen, and Dorcas for Gretchen. Marlene is also listed as the head of the costume department, and a grim grin falls over Lily's face. A few underclassmen that she didn't recognize for Janis and Damian. Her eyes fall to Aaron. Played by James Potter, because of course.
See, their school keeps doing this thing where everyone is pushing James with Lily. And she doesn't appreciate it. Both of them have talked about it already, and neither of them like the other. James told her not to be offended, but he was more into guys. Lily laughed and told him that she certainly wasn't because she was a lesbian and that was the end of that for them. Unfortunately, the rest of the school is set on the two falling in love.
Which isn't going to happen for previously related reasons. Lord, this is going to be a long show season.
The actual person she had her eye on was a member of the tech crew, Mary. She's stunning and one of Remus's friends so she can't be a horrible person either. All three of them were juniors. Remus and Lily met freshman year and Lily doesn't think she's clicked with anyone faster. It helps that they've shared 90% of their classes since freshman year, but they were certainly fast friends.
Remus and Mary met through theatre, when Mary was learning how to control the lighting and Remus was learning all the audio settings at the same time. They spent a lot of time in the booth opposite the stage together, so Lily assumes they were quick friends too.
Lily has always loved to act, and especially sing. So, musicals were her forte. She's always been told that she was a born performer and that definitely helped her stage confidence.
Her and Remus were walking away from the cast list together, Lily blushing to high heavens after the accidental scene she just made. Remus was already making fun of her for it, the right prick, and she had begun to tune him about. Then he poked her.
"I mean, don't look back now, but Mary is looking your way."
Lily has quite frankly never whipped her head around faster. Her eyes immediately meet gorgeous deep brown eyes and she melts. Mary seems to walk faster back toward the booth.
Remus groaned, "I said don't look back now!"
A shrug, "And have I ever been good at listening to you? We both knew what I was going to do when you said that."
He rolls his eyes at her and she laughs. They finally sit in their claimed auditorium seats, when the theatre director starts talking.
Ms. McGonagall starts with a heavy sigh and, "Alright children, settle in. You're getting scripts today. Lines are due in three weeks, the fourth week will be entirely without scripts, fifth we will only be running songs, sixth will be songs and lines together, then the dreaded tech week and the show. Got it?"
Resounding nods across the auditorium, "Good. Now get out of my sight. I expect actors in the first half and crew here tomorrow for blocking."
And with that, they're gone. Remus, as always, is Lily's ride home.
The first time Lily and Mary talk is two weeks in to the show, and it's because of Remus. Mary comes up to her as she's running her lines for the scene where she and James meet again, so Lily immediately puts down her script to give Mary her full attention.
Mary looks slightly uncomfortable with it, but takes it in stride, "Um, Remus said that you're going to be a special case on mics because we don't have very many and he knows you're loud so he's coming up with a solution but for running songs to just go without. Also he wants to know if you understand the AP Physics homework?" Her voice lilts up in confusion at the end of her sentence.
Lily laughs, finding her raised voice adorable, "Alright, thank you for letting me know. Tell Remus to come talk to me about AP Physics and not send a messenger."
Mary laughs right back at her words, "He doesn't understand apparently, I only know because I asked him for help and he said he didn't do it."
"I got it done, I'll explain it to both of you after rehearsal today. It's complicated at first, but once you remember all the rules the equations just fall into place."
"Oh, you don't have to do that."
Lily gives her a soft smile, "I've got to explain it to Remus anyways, might as well help you as well."
Mary nods at her, small smile playing at her lips and a tint of red on her dark cheeks. Then she's called away by the director and Lily is back to reading and memorizing lines by herself.
After rehearsal, Lily tells both Remus and Mary how to do their Physics homework. She notices immediately that Remus knows exactly how to do the homework, instead of yelling at him, she focuses on helping Mary.
Then she yells at him the entire way home for meddling.
Lily begins to bring Mary a coffee every day after the fourth week. The two girls get closer, spending time working on homework together when neither of them is needed for a scene. Which is rare but happens sometimes.
One time during this, Lily manages to get Mary's usual coffee order out of her and gets her one every day they have theatre after that.
Every time she hands Mary the drink, Mary flushes and exclaims that she doesn't have to do that for her before thanking Lily profusely. Lily finds it both endlessly amusing and endearing. She's decided that draining her pocket change this way is completely worth it for the look of joy on Mary's face when she accepts her coffee.
The week after that, they're suddenly running every scene, every day. Mary often finds Lily to get her into the mic they've found for her. It's the weakest mic they've got, but some mic is better than no mic.
Lily's favorite song to sing it stupid in love for sure, a close second being revenge party. She finds herself relating to the lyrics of stupid in love more often than not. She unconsciously looks up at the booth where she knows Mary is when she's singing it.
Mary doesn't seem to notice, thank the lord, but Remus and James certainly do. Neither of them have any qualms teasing her to death and she's getting made fun of for her crush more often than not.
Worth it.
Then, the shitshow that is tech week. Lily starts bringing food for the entire cast and crew, because no one is eating or sleeping enough.
Whoever let Marlene get her hands on a bedazzler has a special section of hell waiting for them, Lily immediately decides after seeing the costumes. They're awful, beautifully, artfully terrible. Truly monstrous in a way that Lily's never seen before.
Marlene and the crew adore them. Dorcas would approve of anything Marlene loves, and James loves his. The rest of the cast... Not so much. Lily's own outfit for when she begins pretending to become plastic is probably the worst thing she's ever laid eyes upon.
There're pink sparkles covering every inch that was previously pink, but the rest is left empty. Which Lily would think was merciful if it didn't make the pink gems look even gaudier than they would if they weren't alone.
An upside, though, is that Mary laughs when she sees Lily in it for the very first time.
That almost makes the utter horror that is having the wretched piece of cloth on her body worth it. But not quite, Lily certainly chews out Marlene more times than anyone's been able to keep track of for the monstrosity that is her outfit.
The hour before the musical is when everything comes to a head. Lily is pacing around, hair and makeup fully done, and in character with her mic already taped on, but not actually on yet. She's freaking out slightly when Mary finds her.
What Mary says rocks her world, "So. Um, Lily. I, well I really really like you. Like romantically. I was wondering if we could keep doing what we're doing outside of show season, and maybe with a little extra."
Lily almost screams, but catches herself, immediately nodding, "Yeah, yeah, absolutely! I really like you too, Mary!"
Mary smiles and gives her a kiss for good luck before all the actors have to be in their places. Lily feels her heart stop.
Worth it.
She goes out and gives the performance of a lifetime, right to her love.