A couple of days passed, and one of Gage's best friends was still giving him the cold shoulder. He went up to Courtney as she was heading into their class to try to fix things with her. "Hey!" he greeted her, but she ignored her, so he held her arm to stop her. "Court, are you still mad at me?"

"What do you think?" She responded.

"Listen. I'm sorry, Felix and I... we were just being idiots that's all."

"Yeah, two idiots that stabbed me behind my back."

"Court, it's not like that."

"I thought you said you don't want to deal with me."

"I didn't say that, I said I didn't want to deal with rehearsing with you," he blurted but he was being loud and realized that came out wrong that some people heard him and they began snickering at the side from their fight. "Nothing to see here, guys. Move along."

"Oh, wow, that makes me feel so much better," Courtney scoffed.

"Courtney... no... that's not... You know me, you know that I'm not that interested in being in the club."

"I know you don't want to be in the theatre club, you hate it, I know you made it so clear all the time but I thought since you're my best friend, I thought you'd at least do this for me after all the crap you put me through all these years since we started being friends."

"What are you talking about?" Gage lifted his brow at her.

"Oh! come on, you asked me to help you sneak out of class and I did, you asked me to do your English essays, I said yes all the time, and don't forget the time you begged me to take woodshop class with you because even though I hated it but I did it for you," Courtney reminded him all the things she did for Gage and he was starting to feel bad.

"Court..."

"AAALL THAT, I never said anything because I'm your best friend so the only time I asked a favor from you, you made it sound like I'm dragging you to hell, you're such a hypocrite." She then turned her back on him and went inside the classroom, leaving Gage feeling even more lousy than the previous day.

---------

Oddey was in Madam Vestia's art studies, and she watched one of her classmates present their art on romanticism. One by one, she saw their take on the movement, one was only a pencil sketch but it was still great, the other did with colored pencils, chalk, and like hers, some of them painted. "Next up, let's have... Ms. Empirio," the professor said. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," she answered and took her sketch pad, then went in front of the class. She showed them her final work, and they seemed impressed.

"Alright, tell us about your artwork there. What are we seeing here?"

"As you all can see, I drew a man and a woman, the story here is that they haven't met yet hence the way they are not facing each other even though they are just a step away from each other."

"I see, and what's that red... thing around them?"

"It's called the red string of fate."

"Oh! What is that?"

"In Japanese belief, there's this invisible red string that connects a person to their destined soulmate."

"Very interesting, now tell me your process."

"I used watercolor to paint with soft subtle color for the two soon-to-be lovers and the red string of fate, I used acrylic to give that wavy motion."

"Beautiful. Excellent work, I see the romanticism in your painting, and I love the story behind it. You nailed it," Madame Vestia commented, Oddey had to hand it over to her. "You may take your seat."

"Thank you, Madame Vestia," Oddey said then went back to her desk feeling so satisfied by the words that she was given by her professor from her artwork even when she sat back down, she got some praise from her classmates.

At the end of the class, the students were cleaning up their belongings before leaving then all of a sudden, "Attention, Students, as you all know, I am the supervisor for the theatre club, we'll be doing Romeo and Juliet," Madame Vestia announced. "Since we are low on casts due to the dengue outbreak, we will be needing help and I will put up a sign-up form online for those who want to volunteer to play extras such as the townfolks, knights, horses or volunteer making the sets, I hope I'll be seeing some names of yours in the forms."

Oddey heard other students whispering at the back, "Romeo and Juliet for a college play? Are they for real?" said one.

"But that's so high school," replied the other one.

"More like middle school," then they started giggling, Oddey just rolled her eyes and shook her head. She left the classroom right after.

---------

Meanwhile, Gage was still bothered by what went on earlier with Courtney that he decided to cool off outside the campus since he has no more classes to attend but then he accidentally whacked into Madame Vestia that it mader dropped the papers of her students' artwork on the floor. "Oh! my Gosh, Madame Vestia, I'm so sorry," he frantically apologized to her.

"That's alright, Mr. Munro, accidents happened," she sighed, then bent down to pick up all the papers, and Gage helped her. It was the least he could do to make it up to her. "Is something the matter because you seem upset?"

"It's nothing, I just had a... bad day."

"I see. Well, whatever it is, hang in there and drink hot chocolate. It helps."

"Thanks, Madame Vestia," Gage smiled. He happened to get his hands on one particular paper that made him entranced to it somehow when he saw it. It was Oddey's. "Wow! Did you make this?"

"Oh no, it's one of my fine arts students, beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's cool," he took one last look before returning it to her. "And sorry again, I should've watched where I'm going."

"Don't worry about it."

"Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow, Madame Vestia."

The boy was about to go, but then Madame Vestia stopped him, "Gage, wait up. One last thing."

"Yes, what is it?"

"Maybe the only thing that you can make up for your friend, Courtney, is to play the lead."

"I'm sorry?" Gage was taken aback that his theatre club's supervisor knew what his problem was.

"I saw you two earlier, and I heard what you said back there," she winked at him and walked away, Gage just stood there like a stunned statue.

----

Students were putting up posters about the upcoming play, and the two girls saw it. "Romeo and Juliet?" Rita scoffed. "Isn't that a middle school play?"

"It's still a classic," Oddey replied. "And who knows, maybe the college version might be better."

"Maybe. So, how did your romanticism painting go?"

"Oh! amazing, I nailed it."

"That's great, Bestie."

"Thanks, now let's get our drinks in Usagi Cafe and go finish those backdrops."

Later, once they got their beverages, they continued working on the farm-themed backdrop. The girls were on the floor dividing their tasks, Oddey had sketched and cut three barnyard animals from the styrofoam and Rita painted them, it was a quiet yet fun thing to do then all of a sudden, Felix knocked on the door so Oddey signaled him to come inside, "hey, I'm just returning the green paint, sorry I didn't get to do it yesterday," he said. "Hi, Rita."

"Hi," Rita greeted back and gave him a sweet smile.

"No worries, I didn't get to use it anyway," Oddey replied to him. "Just put it over there."

"Okay, thanks again," Felix told her as he placed it on the little shelf on her easel, and then he noticed the red styrofoam barn by the wall. "What are you guys doing anyway?"

"This is for my niece's birthday party," Rita answered. "Oddey is helping me make the backdrop."

"Cool, well anyway, I'll go back to my film now. Thanks again, Oddey, Bye Rita."

"Bye."

Once he walked out and out of earshot, Oddey turned to Rita with a teasing look on her face, "I think he likes you," she grinned.

"Shut up," Rita splattered some paint on her best friend's face.

"Hey... It's true," Oddey laughed and wiped her cheek and nose with a tissue.

"I admit, he is kinda cute. Now get back to work, I'm not paying you to tease me."

"You're not paying me at all."

------------

Gage entered his friend's art room, feeling very frustrated, "what's up with you?" Felix asked while making his movie.

"Courtney is still mad at me, remember?" Gage exasperated, took a chair, and just flopped onto it.

"She's still mad at you?"

"Yeah... why'd you ask?"

"Because she's kinda not mad at me."

"What?" Gage was surprised to hear that. "I don't get it. Why did she forgive you and not me?"

"Beats me, I didn't expect it either," Felix shrugged his shoulder.

"Never mind, I think I know why," he recalled.

"What?

"Courtney does so much for me, but the one time she needs something from me, I act like an asshole. I have to make it up to her."

"Okay, how?"

"Help her more in the play?" Gage shrugged. "I don't know."

"Maybe even more than that..." Felix suggested as he was going back and forth with his clay sets and to the camera.

"You mean... be in the play?"

"Yeah."

"That's a little too much to ask for."

"Yeah... but looking back, she did a lot for you. If I don't know any better, maybe she likes you."

"Courtney?" Gage scoffed at the idea. "No way, we're just best friends."

"Okay, I'm just joking, forget I said anything. But knowing Courtney, if you want her to forgive you, at least make an effort to do what she wants from you."

"I'll think about it," Gage replied, he was hesitant to be on stage, it was not something he wanted to do in the first place but he was there because he did for his best friend yet it was still not enough.

"Look, why don't you just audition a part, just one or two?"

"Any better idea?"

"It doesn't have to be Romeo. Well, that's up to you. Any part will do."

"Why should I do that?"

"Well... you nailed it or not, just show her that you are willing to... make an effort," Felix explained, but Gage was still reluctant with his advice.

Later that night, Gage was in his dorm room. He was finishing up some assignments on his laptop, yet the thought about being in the play and Courtney lingered in his head. Once he was done typing, he saved his work in his flash drive then all of a sudden there was a notification popping top on the screen, it was from the school's website on the Theatre Club private page, and the forms were posted with a given cut-off date and time.

Gage clicked on it, he saw the categories of characters and he had eyes on Romeo, "mmm.... nah, I can't... I can't do this," he shook his head, then looked away at it again with his fingers tapping the table in an agitated way. He turned to the screen again just a minute later, and there were updates of names of those who were auditioning for whatever character they wanted to play, that was when he saw Courtney's name. "Oh... the heck, I'm I'm doing this for her," Gage clicked one of the character's names and began answering the form as fast as he could, like taking off a bandaid.