I wrote the story I was talking about beforehand! YAYY! Thanks for the push!

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Twenty years later...

(Their relationship song and opening credits song)

https://youtu.be/WKtapZFSs7c

RIIIIIP.

"You!", she shouted, lunging towards the perpetrator, and grabbing him by the shirt collar.

"Thea! Are you crazy?", yelled Carol as she watched her friend choking a guy out for an accidental happening.

A few moments ago, the two, an Australian man and a Filipino woman, had crashed into each other. Unfortunately, the thrift-shop blouse that Thea had bought in spite of her friend's objections, ripped straight down the middle as a loose thread unraveled as she stepped on it all while trying to get away from the other person.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean...", he started, cut off by Thea suddenly ripping part of his own shirt and slapping his chest hard.

"Ow," he muttered as a diamond collar presented itself on his chest, and then seared into the flesh unexpectedly.

"Hmph," Thea said before storming off in a huff.

"I'm so sorry...I saw everything...clearly an accident...why in the world would she do something like that...", she said as she turned to run after Thea.

Jogging after her friend, she yelled into the wind, "I'll get your apology, I promise!"

"Young Master," started Ray only for the victim place the brakes on what his manservant desired.

"Enough, we have an entire day ahead of us. If we should meet again, we will properly compensate..."

"Mr. Bevern, but it was clearly an accident, and that 'lady' overreacted in a disasterly..."

Andre Yakeru Bevern gave him the side eye which made his closest friend, and driver, shut up.

Thankfully, Carol's car was parked close to where the incident occurred, and she placed a towel on her friend as she scoured for an extra shirt that she carried for group fitness lessons. Carol, an avid fitness enthusiast, usually changed in the locker rooms after a good sweat. However, it seemed that luck was on their side that Carol and Thea both wore Medium sizes on their tops.

"You know...you should apologize," she said once she tossed Thea her spare shirt.

"Why?", Thea asked as she quickly put on the top, and placed on her backpack again.

"Because...never mind, I'll track down those two, and then wrangle a sorry out of you when I do."

"You wish...he was in the wrong!", she stated while they walked down the path that led to the Theatre Department Building.

"It was an accident!", she yelled, acquiring strange looks from fellow first-year classmates.

"But I feel like it wasn't...so I'm justified."

"You are insufferable," murmured her friend as they both walked into the auditorium and scoured for seats at the back.

"No, I'm not."

"There's a reason you decided the Theatre major over all others-you said it yourself you're a drama queen."

"Well...you're not wrong...maybe you're right and I should apologize. At least take back the collar."

"Now that's the spirit!

Sitting at the front with other people had never been something that Thea liked, so Carol, as her handmaiden, and best friend, made sure to look for seats out of the way where only a few people gathered. Sitting down, they faced the stage, eagerly awaiting the arrival of their Intro to Theatre prof.

Meanwhile, Andre Yakeru Bevern, the hafu student, came down the aisle with Ray close behind. Choosing seats in the front, he turned and spotted the crazy girl from earlier way in the back. He still had no idea what went on a few minutes ago, but he was pretty sure she started it.

"Welcome munchkins to the wonderful world of theatre!", belted a petite blonde woman with an exaggerated smile, as well as plenty of blush and red lipstick to spare. Briefly pulling a handkerchief over her face, she reappeared with no makeup, and a disgusted grimace.

A shock came up from the audience as they registered several additional changes in her appearance including the speaker being actually a tall brunette, (who had knelt down to appear short), who constantly kept changing her facial expressions. Tilting her head, sideways while poking her cheeks, she continued speaking in a sing-song voice, "First impressions are not everything. Acting is like casting a magic trick with no props on your audience-you must be able to transform into any character at the drop of a hat."

Suddenly, an entourage of performers stormed into the stage, taking over as they acted out a scene from "A Midsummer's Night Dream" to the delight of the theatre enthusiasts in the audience. After a quick bow, the brunette speaker spoke up again. "My name is Professor Bisset, and I specialize in the performing art of...theatre." She enunciated that last word by dropping her jaw; the ones at the back could only see this well as she placed her left index finger through the middle of her mouth to show how low she dropped her jaw.

"I'm sure some of you are aware of the outstanding award-winning theatre program we have here at this university, and if you are not...well, you probably are taking a gen-ed. You know who you are, Phillys." At this, the audience burst into wary chuckles or full-on laughter depending on if they were theatre majors or not.

Clicking her heels across the stage, she said, "Through my years of working in the entertainment industry, I have seen actors without education make it big as well as those with a degree. Because of that, I came to a startling realization..." Pausing, she muted her microphone and did a backflip with pants on.

Straigthening herself out, she chimed, "Now that's better. Where were we? Ah yes. Let me inform you those great actors you saw here just a few moments ago...are second years."

"What?", people exclaimed, not believing their eyes as most were sure they had to at least be upper-classmen.

"Yes, they are. They sat in those same seats just a year ago, and giggled in astonishment just like you." Pointing to the second years, she said, "Would you like to introduce them to our time-honored tradition or should I?"

One of the female leads took the microphone and began to speak as other cast members distributed papers around the auditorium room. "Hello, my name is Ashley. And I started last year without any interest in Theatre."

Dr. Bisset chimed in, "Tell them what you were."

"An understudy," she confessed. Theatre students gasped at the notion of an understudy actually filling a role while the rest of the students had their eyes glazed over. Some even questioned why it was such a big deal, which made die-hard actors scoff.

"The girl who was supposed to be lead, well she was an athlete, and all of a sudden she had a competition moved up so she couldn't attend opening night. As a result, me...who was in it for the Gen Ed got cast several weeks before we were set to act."

"Thank God she had her lines rehearsed, and those two fit together like two pieces of a puzzle," added the theatre professor to the male lead's chagrin.

"Let's just say you learn quickly...she knows what she's talking about." Taking the mike, the male lead stated, "If it hadn't been for her, I wouldn't have chosen theatre as a minor."

"I'm not in the theatre program, but I joined the theatre group on campus," related the female lead. "Thanks, Dr. Bisset," she said, wrapping an arm around the illustrious lady.

"Aw, you two are making me soft...don't think I'll score you higher due to this, Mike."

"Never!", he joked with his hands up in the air.

"Tell the kids what the papers that were flying around the auditorium mean," said Dr. Bisset.

Mike snickered. "The audition lists for the next play...that you will all perform/help make happen this fall."

A collective outcry occurred as both the wannabe actors and general students panicked over having to act so soon. The end of the semester was in four months, fourteen weeks. Not a lot of time to rehearse and practice for a full-scale play.

Dr. Bisset raised her microphone, saying, "And the good news is-we have a tradition here at our uni."

"Yep," muttered the female lead, Monica.

"Those of you that signed up to audition as main characters and leads-well you'll audition as supporting characters instead. Inverse for those who placed their names as supporting characters."

Crickets could be heard in that auditorium for a few seconds until hordes of people descended on the seniors and fought for the audition application papers.

"Too late," Dr. Bisset assured. Looking at her clipboard, she mentioned that supporting characters would help the stage crew when not acting while main characters focused more on their lines. Then, she recited two main lead couples would pair together as well as other main characters audition by themselves. The supporting characters would follow in the lead of the main characters.

"Now, as we believe in theatre international, the play we are doing is Chinese in origin. Frozen Dreams. The pairings that will audition together for main couple are as follows-Robert Hansen & Julia Smith, Henry Sheehan & Lily Cortez, followed by the secondary couple..."

Andre only tuned back in when he heard the fateful news.

"Andre Bevern & Thea Aquino."

Carol turned to her friend, and said, "Well you have time to apologize, right?"

"I'm dead meat."

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Vocab note: Hafu-used to refer to people who are half-Japanese in Japan