Learning to Act chapt 1

I'm an English Major what am I getting myself into? I asked myself
as I was lying on my back imagining that I was swimming. Is this what I
look forward to everyday in acting class, swimming upstream like I'm a
very large salmon; extra emphasis on the large on my part since I was
slightly overweight. Finally Mrs. S tells us we can stop swimming and
stand in a circle. I groan inwardly and roll my eyes. What are we going
to do now? Sing Frere Jacques?

We go around the circle saying what our names are, and then the next
step is to point to a person and that person was supposed to say your
name then the two of you swap places. After the first few times I was
getting a little bored so I started to check out some of the guys in
class.

There were the two Matt's, one had reddish blond hair and a real
jokester, and the second was tall, dark, and somewhat intimidating.
Next was Sean, he was tall, kind of cute, he reminded me of the type of
guy you would immediately write off as a tough guy, but then when you
get to know him he's a total teddy bear. Next was Ed, short, kind of
chubby, very friendly and funny. Then there was Jeff, he was totally
cute, and the kind of guy you just want to have talk to you for five
minutes, have him touch your hand and vow to never wash that hand
again.

Finally there was Aaron, you could possibly sum up his look in one word
when you first see him: nerd. I would learn to believe that the
opposite was true. He was about the same height as I was he had dark
brown hair. Dark brown eyes, which have a light green ring around the
pupil, but he has to take off his glasses for you to notice that.

However after talking to him for a while you come to realize he's
hilarious, and is so sweet and fun to talk to you just want to hang out
with him for hours on end.
I guess I must have been staring out into space because Aaron waved his
hand in front of me saying. " Earth to Allison, Houston speaking, we
want the spaceship back."

"Sorry, I was day-dreaming, all of this imagining different things had
my brain working overtime," I said smiling slyly.

"Well, welcome back. Next time you decide to daydream take me with
you," he said nudging me with his elbow, and wiggling his eyebrows
suggestively.

"Sure thing, I let you know ahead of time," I said laughing.

Mrs. S then went over what she would like for our first scene, which
would be due in one month. We have to pick out a scene partner with in
the next week. I sighed and thought to myself, oh what I wouldn't give
to be Jeff's scene partner. Class finally ended, but somehow I found
myself not wanting it to. I gathered up my things and headed toward the
door and down the stairs. Aaron caught up with me, and held open the
door for me and we headed outside together. We walked toward the St.
Mary's parking lot, if you can call something that holds 10 cars a
parking lot. Aaron stopped at an Orange Ford Focus and unlocked the
door, took off his book bag and took out what looked like a camera
carrying case. He handed the case to me and he took out a notebook and
a pen from his book bag, and placed the book bag in his car and locked
the door.

"Are you busy right now? When is your next class?" He asked me as we
started to trudge up the hill from hell.

"No, I'm not busy, my next class isn't until 4. Why do you ask, and
what exactly am I holding?" I said examining the slightly heavy bag I
was carrying up the hill.

"Would you like to play assistant for me for awhile? I need to take
some pictures of Elizabeth Seton for my photography class. So if you
haven't guessed by now, you are carrying my camera," he said stopping
in front of the statue of Elizabeth Seton.

"Sure thing. So what do you want me to do? Stand here and look pretty?
Man that's a tough job," I said looking up at Aaron and batting my
eyelashes, to prove my point.

"Not quite, you can just jot down the
shutter speed, the subject, etc on this sheet," he said handing me the
notebook and pencil, showing me where to put the information he
needed.

"Ay, ay captain," I said saluting him.

Pretty soon he was taking pictures of every angle imaginable of Liz.
Somehow I found myself jealous that this statue was getting so much
attention. I mean imagine just standing there watching this guy look at
something so intently, studying it as if memorizing it, and trying to
decide what angle to do next. I'm like why can't someone pay that much
attention to me. Sure I have a boyfriend, but don't let me kid myself,
he's not one for just looking if you know what I mean.

About fifteen minutes later he took enough pictures and I gave him his
notebook and pencil back and we went on our separate ways.

Wednesday comes before I even know it, and I'm trudging my way down the
hill down to St. Mary's it's 8:50 and I'm going to be late for class,
not a good thing the second day of class. I get there, just in time,
phew. We do strange and unusual exercises that stretch our muscles, and
are supposed to relax them. Then we get to some of the actual acting
activities. We have to go about on the stage and just randomly walk,
when our eyes meet with someone else's your supposed to stop and
maintain easy eye contact, studying their face. At one point, Jeff's
and my eyes meet, his eyes are kind of brown with flecks of green,
"smiling-Irish eyes" as my grandmother would say. I felt myself get a
little weak in the knees just looking at him. I was like; oh geez could
life get any better?

If you haven't figured out yet, I'm a little guy crazy. Even when I'm
happy with my boyfriend Tommy, I still look at guys. I enjoy their
company, I get along better with guys than girls, and I'm going to
"woman's focus college" go figure.
After class, I walked up the hill with Aaron. We clicked. I found out
that he also was a Disney Alum. He worked as a Disney College Program
three years ago; I was just there last winter. We talked about Disney
and what we loved and missed about it. We started to joke around about
different things. It was as if we had this stand up routine. He would
say something very witty then of course I would have to say something
to top that, and the circle continues. Soon we were talking about the
scene, for acting class.

"So doth thou have a scene partner?" I asked in an atrocious English
accent.

"No, would thou like to be thine?" He replied in an equally awful
accent. "We could do the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet."

"Like where for art thou Romeo," I said like a valley girl.

"Right here dudette. Romeo and Juliet in the valley, a Seton Hill
production," he said dropping to one knee.

"As fun that would be, we have to actually do something from the 20th
century. Kind of limiting huh." I said helping him stand up. "Shall we
exchange info, so we can get started on this thing?"

"Sure, have my card," he said searching in his book bag.

"You have a card!"

"Yes, of course, don't you?" He said handing the card to me.

"No, who would want a card from me? I'm not usually one to give my
number and address to random people," I replied searching for a pen and
paper to jot down my information.

"Oh I highly doubt that, I bet guys trip over themselves for your
number," he said his voice only half mocking.

"Sure. In my little dream world. But since this is reality, I'd have to
say that would be no, unless you know something I don't.... well do
you?" I commented sarcastically.

He just chuckles to himself and shakes his head. "Well, I guess I will
call you sometime. I'll look for some plays this weekend."

"Sure thing. See you later, Romeo." I said walking toward the
door.

I got to my room and I found myself still smiling I looked at my
reflection in the mirror, my brown hair was falling out of it's clip
and tickling my neck, my brown eyes only slightly hiding behind my
tortoise shell glasses were sparkling gold in the light, my smile was a
full grin. I stuck my tongue at my reflection as if it were somehow
mocking me.

"So, I have fun joking around with another guy, it doesn't mean
anything. It's called being friendly. I know I'm a flirt; it's in my
nature. It doesn't necessarily mean I like every guy I meet," I said as
an apology to the mirror.

As if on cue, my cell phone rang. I ran to grab the thing before the
little musical jingle it does drove me crazy.

"Hello?" I asked finally pushing the button on it to answer it.

"Hey sweetheart," Tom said sweetly, a little too sweetly.

"What is it you need now?" I replied a little too harshly.

"Ouch, that was a little uncalled for, but not entirely wrong. I need
to borrow a few dollars."

"Naturally," I said, the smile disappearing from my face and my voice
dripping with sarcasm. "Why do you need it? And how am I supposed to
magically make this money appear in your hands? You can't come here,
you're banned from campus, because of you know what. Plus, I'm not
going to ask Ashley to go gallivanting whenever you need me."

"Please, I need money for my inhaler, it's going to run out soon, like
in the next couple of days," he said sounding like a whiny puppy.

"I'll see what I can do. But see I'm not guaranteeing anything. So how
is everything where you are? Did you finally talk to your mother?" I
sighed, and grudgingly gave in to him. I couldn't stay mad at him, even
though it was getting harder and harder to forgive him. I do love him,
but it's becoming more difficult to stay in love with him in this
situation.

"It really sucks. I haven't seen you in almost a month. I miss you so
much. I really hate my parents; I hate your mom," he said not even
attempting to hide his emotions.

"I know, but I can't just keep on doing this. I have shit going on in
my life, and no one is here to help me. I feel like you're proving my
mom right by wanting stuff from me all of the time. It's like you don't
call me just to chat, or e-mail just to talk. You always want something
from me. I'm sorry, it's probably the stress talking, but this is the
last time I do this. I have to break up with you. This is just too
hard. I have to go," I said and I didn't wait for him to reply I just
hung up the phone.

I sat at my desk staring at my computer. Why is my life so messed up?
Why can't I just have a boyfriend that wants me, and only me? Why am I
always getting relationships where I have to constantly defend the
person I'm with? Tom it was, no he's not that bad, and it's because of
the situation with his parents. No it's this, not that. No that's not
true at all. With Matt it was: why would someone lie about a death in
his or her family; that's just sick. No, it's the truth. The tears they
finally came, I swiped them away with a tissue and started to talk to
Ashley on the net.

Alley8199: Hey girl what's up?
Beansprout18: Not much, monkey. How's Tom.
Alley8199: I told him I couldn't do it anymore. I told him I wasn't
sure what was up or down, and that he needs to do this on his own. I
felt like he was using me.
Beansprout18: Aww, I'm sorry. Do you want me to check on him
Friday?
Alley8199: No, unless you really want to. Well, I'm going to get going.
I want to go lay down for a while.
Beansprout18: Ok see you in class. Take care of yourself.
Alley8199: I'm feeling icky, my life isn't all it's cracked up to be.
I'm attempting to sleep then it's off to Brit Writers.