Quickly, follow me to the back stage!” Elise had a bad feeling about it, but she still went back anyway. She opened the curtain and entered the dressing room, only to find out that Jose was losing his temper. “I don’t care, Janice. I came to be a support because of you, but now you want me to go on stage and be a joke? Don’t even think about it!” He had a gloomy face, looking as if he could devour someone, so no one dared to go forward to persuade him. Without the most important supporting roles, the whole drama seemed to have a beginning and no proper end, and even if they bit the bullet and acted it out, the audience might end up not understanding what the whole drama was about.
The most likely outcome would be it being edited into funny videos by the whole school, which meant they would be left with a bad name forever. Jose did not only represent himself; other actors were actually secretly thinking of backing out as well, but because of Janice’s aggressiveness, they dared not say it explicitly. “Jose, don’t worry. There is always a solution to everything. Let me think about it…” Janice comforted the man in front of her, but she would glance at the entrance from time to time, and finally, she saw Elise, who had somehow managed to become uglier. “Elise!” Janice raised her voice and walked over to Elise while shouting. “So great that you are here!”
Elise didn’t manage to escape and was abruptly hugged by Janice. Her face was plastered with awkwardness and reluctance. One by one, she pried Janice’s fingers away with disgust. “If you have something to say, say it. Don’t do this—we are not that close.” Janice, on the other hand, pretended to be generous and tried to flatter Elise. “You’re still angry with me about what happened before? Fine, then I’ll apologize again. I was wrong. Please forgive me, okay?” Jose stood up with his knight’s helmet and asked casually, “What happened before?” Janice hurriedly explained, “It was nothing. It was just a little misunderstanding, Jose. Don’t worry about it—we can solve it among ourselves.”
Elise had nothing to say—she thought that Janice’s choice of using the word ‘we’ to describe her and Janice was quite disgusting. Seeing that Jose was convinced, Janice pursued her victory and began attacking Elise. “So, Elise, this is what happened: I don’t know why, but we can’t get in touch with the classmate who is playing the role of a witch. The drama is about to start, and only you are an outsider who’s familiar with the script… Do you think you can carry the role and help us out with our issue?” So, that’s her plan. When reading the script, Elise had noticed that the two characters, the heroine and the witch, were the most interesting.
There was a rival scene between the two—the heroine slashed the witch with a knife, which led to a good ending in the play. When Elise got the role of the heroine, she was thinking that it was just a concession Janice had to make. In fact, Janice’s real purpose was to make her play the witch. The role would be hated by the audience and tortured by the heroine in the play. Originally, she thought that quitting the drama would avoid this conflict, but she didn’t expect that Janice still managed to rope her in. Everyone was waiting for Elise’s reaction, and Jose was particularly impatient.
“Stop pretending to be shy, man. There are a lot of scenes involving the witch! Not to mention your face… You don’t even need to put on makeup; you can go on stage directly after changing clothes! So, uh… E-Elise, right? I am ordering you to take the role as a senior. You got it?” No one expected Jose to be so disrespectful to girls, and there were even some whispers passing around the crowd. Even so, no one dared to stand up to defend Elise at this critical moment, so they could only look at her with sympathy, hoping for a miracle to happen, while also expecting Elise to be this miracle that they were all waiting for.
Once there was a conflict of interest, then the sacrifices of others would tacitly become insignificant. Elise looked at the room of her so-called ‘school mates’ and knew that she had become all of their targets. Whether she agreed to it or not, the success or failure of the drama rested on her shoulders. She suddenly raised the corner of her mouth playfully and smiled happily. “Okay, I’ll take the role, but I have to tell you first: I prefer to get creative. If I were to improvise some scenes, can you guys handle it?” Jose picked up his helmet and turned around.
“You don’t have to worry about this. Everyone is a professional here. As long as the scene of the prince rescuing the princess is successfully performed, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.” Janice patted Elise on the shoulder, pretending to be kind. “Yes. Jose is from the performance faculty, so let’s just trust him!” Elise lowered her eyes without saying a word, her sharp eyes fixed on the slender fingers on her shoulders. She was considering whether to carry a knife with her or wear a coat with spiked shoulders next time. Janice’s eyes followed Elise’s gaze and traveled to her fingers. Feeling inexplicably flustered, she slowly retracted her hand. She secretly gulped but still kept an arrogant appearance on the outside.
Happy with the expectation of making Elise make a fool of herself in public, Janice clapped her palms and went back to her seat to touch up her makeup. A kind-hearted classmate brought Elise a costume and said, “Elise, this is the witch’s costume. You can put it on now—it will be our turn in a few minutes.” “Thank you.” Elise nodded, then went to change her outfit. 10 minutes later, at the front stage. The lights on the stage went out and turned on again. The props team had already arranged the background of the play, and the stage was like a fairy tale palace.
“Let the show begin!” The music played, and the curtain slowly parted to show the princess, played by Janice, lying still on the crystal bed while Elise, whose role was a witch, held a magic wand in her hand and chanted spells around the princess… The scene progressed step by step. The knight came on stage, rescued the princess, and the two worked together to wound the witch. Finally, in the last scene, the knight gave the sword to the princess, letting her destroy the evil in the world with her own hands. If everything went accordingly, through a specific angle, the audience would witness this sword being pierced through the heart of the witch, and she would finally fall to the ground.
However, when the sword in Janice’s hand was lifted up and swung out, Elise was keenly aware that the sword was clearly aimed at her left eye. With a sneer on Janice’s mouth, she lunged toward Elise’s eye without hesitation. She wanted to see how Elise could keep her arrogance once she had lost her eye! In a matter of seconds, Elise got up from the ground all of a sudden, and like a heroic general, she knocked away the sword in Janice’s hand with one palm. “What are you doing?!” Both Jose and Janice were taken aback. The curtain call was coming soon, and this was definitely not the time for an improv scene!
Elise took off her cloak, threw away the witch hat, and faced the audience majestically. “Oh, heroic prince, you have passed the test. You can now marry my beloved daughter. The two countries shall establish diplomatic relations and never cross each other!” Jose was stunned for a moment, then he immediately understood. He kneeled down on one knee, clasped his hands, and said, “I see. I appreciate your wisdom, my queen, and I vow to live up to your expectations!” Janice was stunned. What is going on? A witch turned into a queen? Judging from the situation, I feel like I should be on my knees too! Before she could react, she was dragged to her knees by Jose with a thud.
Her knees were deeply hurt by the wooden floor, but Janice could only endure the pain. Elise put her hands behind her back, then walked proudly in front of Janice as she lowered her eyes and asked, “My daughter, are you not satisfied with your mother’s arrangement?” Audiences would always bring the characters of a drama into real life. If she publicly admitted that she was Elise’s daughter today, she would definitely have to bear the name of ‘Elise’s daughter’ throughout the next four years of her college life. Janice really wanted to reply otherwise, but under the gaze of the public, she could only pretend to be virtuous and pure.
She nodded shyly. “I am satisfied, of course. You are the greatest mother!” The evils one brought on themself were the hardest to bear. It was obvious that Janice was ill-intended; otherwise, Elise would not try to disgrace her in public. Her vileness led to her own demise. Elise nodded with satisfaction, looked at the audience, and said the closing line generously, “Through hardships can we see what is true!”
