Philip Lancelot was as much of a prince as his name sounded. His blond hair, emerald eyes, and chiseled body made him look like he had just stepped out of a fairytale. Not to mention that he was, by far, one of the most popular students in Oakhaven High. There wasn’t anyone who could truly hate him since he was confident, friendly, and really got to know people. If he found out someone had a problem with him he would immediately find them and ask if there was anything he could do better.

The real popularity of his came from his acting though. Even though he was only a sophomore he was constantly a lead role in the school plays. It was true that there weren’t a lot of students in the drama club, but acting was second nature to Philip. There were a lot of teenage girls that used to fawn over him, especially when the role was a prince role and he wore his prince costumes almost constantly to “get in character.” (In truth he just really liked the outfits and wanted an excuse to wear them.)

Those hearts were broken though during his freshman year. Philip Lancelot came out as openly homosexual.

Some people frustrated him during that time, claiming they should have seen it coming. He was a drama geek after all. Philip ended up repeating himself so much that he decided to make it his slogan in life that “Just because I am a drama geek doesn’t make me gay, and just because I’m gay it doesn’t make me a drama geek. I am who I am because that is just who I am.” Meaning he was confident in who he was no matter what stereotypes people labelled him with, but it was annoying when people assumed things based on stereotypes.

Philip hadn’t found anyone in the school that matched his ideal, but Oakhaven was a small school. He had hopes for when he went off to college, and until then he had drama club taking up most of his time. Philip was mainly content with where he was in life.

Mr. L had mentioned that he invited the transfer student to the drama club, but he forgot to let them know where the club met each day. Philip figured they probably weren’t interested, but he still decided he should check the auditorium, knowing that it would most likely be the first place a person would look. If no one was there he could just head to the meeting since it was in the music room in the hallway that ran behind there.

As he walked from his last class he waved good-bye to everyone and chatted occasionally with the more talkative classmates as they walked in the same direction as him. Everyone then started breaking off in groups depending on their route out of the building, until it was just him left.

When he got to the auditorium he noticed the door open a crack. Going in he saw someone wearing a way too large black and purple hoodie. They were standing awfully close to the edge of the stage and just looking up. Philip saw what was about to happen before their foot even slipped and he ran forward as fast as he could. Philip somehow ended up catching them in both arms like a bride.

When Philip looked down his first thought was that he had caught himself his princess.

The transfer student had clutched their eyes closed in anticipation of the force of the fall. He had pale skin that blushed quickly when he opened his pale violet eyes to see that he had been caught and was safe. Philip’s heart started to beat faster at the sight of the guy in his arms shyly looking away, his pitch black bangs fluttering back in place to hide his face.

Philip immediately knew in his heart that this was going to be his one to live happily ever after with.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vivian opened his eyes to see that he was being carried like a princess by a real life prince with emerald eyes. Then he realized that it was just a costume and this guy was probably a drama club member. The costume was really realistic for a small high school drama club though. The outfit was a European styled prince, with tassels and everything. Realizing they were staring at each other, Vivian quickly looked away.

“Um… Can you put me down yet?” Vivian couldn’t look his savior in the eyes. How could he fall off a stage like that?

“Oh, of course!” The prince carefully lowered Vivian’s feet to the ground and helped him stand up. “Are you ok? I didn’t catch you weird or anything right?”

Define weird. “No, I’m fine, thank you.” Vivian pulled his hood back up to where he felt comfortable again.

“That’s good, I was really scared when you suddenly started to fall. I’m Philip Lancelot by the way.” Philip held out his hand to Vivian, slightly bowing as he did so.

There is no way that is his real name… Realizing he paused too long he quickly gave his own name. “Vivian Thorpe.” Vivian put out his own hand to shake Philip’s, but Philip instead took it and turned Vivian’s palm downward. He then promptly lifted Vivian's hand to his lips.

“A lovely name.” Philip kissed Vivian’s hand like a stereotypical prince kissing a princess’ hand. He did it perfectly though.

“You do realize I’m male right?” Vivian wasn’t sure what to do. “I might have a girly frame and name, but I’m a guy.” Vivian started rambling. His inner voices started kicking in and shaming him for everything girly about himself.

“I realized, yes. I wouldn’t mistake a person’s gender so easily.” Philip still held Vivian’s hand and was looking upward straight at Vivian.

“Well… As long as you understand that… How long are you going to hold my hand?”

“Oh, I apologize.” Philip let go of Vivian’s hand, but the feeling still remained.

Vivian quickly shoved his hands in his hoodie’s pockets. “So… Where is the drama club located?”

“Ah, it is actually in the music room in the hallway that leads behind here. I was on my way when I remembered Mr. L mentioned that he forgot to tell you where the meetings were located. I’m surprised you were actually interested.”

“In my old town my… father was a part of a community drama team. I would sometimes help out with the behind the scenes stuff…” Vivian muttered, unsure on how much to share.

Philip’s eyes lit up immediately. “Our club is actually in need of stagehands! We are actually one of the smallest clubs. Even though a lot of people love to watch our shows, not a lot of people want to be a part of it.” Philip quickly picked up his white rucksack style backpack that he had dropped when running to catch Vivian. “Come on, we are going to be late if we don’t hurry.”

Vivian followed Philip as he rushed up the stage and then behind the large curtains, not seeing a chance to back out of joining anymore.

Philip was quick to maneuver the various props and items that were laying everywhere, even with how dark it was. In the far back there was a small door that Vivian didn’t notice the first time he glanced behind the curtains. Vivian had figured the door existed, since the actors needed a place to go to change wardrobe and switch out props, but he wasn’t sure where the door actually was.

Walking through the door revealed a hallway that Vivian only heard of moments ago. One side had a set of stairs, a set of doors to outside, and a small door that most likely led to the hallway to the left of the auditorium. During the school tour Vivian had thought the mini hallway to the left of the auditorium only contained bathrooms, but in reality it lead to this secret hallway. On the other side of the secret hallway, Vivian saw three doors. One was marked “Music”, and the other two were marked “Storage”.

“The school wanted to avoid any noise pollution so they hid us and the music students away in a forgotten sector.” Philip laughed. “Anyways we hold all of our meetings here and we get the second storage room for all of our props.” Philip opened the door marked “Music” to reveal five students sitting in a semicircle, all of them deep in thought as Mr. Lawson stood by a whiteboard.

“Ah, Mr. Lancelot, you brought Mr. Thorpe!” Mr. Lawson immediately ushered the two towards the empty seats next to the rest. “I was wondering where you were. I see you convinced Mr. Thorpe here to join us.”

“It wasn’t hard since he was already checking out the stage when I met him. So why is everyone looking like it’s the end of the world?” Philip looked over the other actors as he and Vivian took their seats next to each other. Vivian sunk into his hoodie and just watched to see what would play out.

“We came across a small problem so I need all hands on deck, but we are already missing three students today due to colds.” Mr. Lawson appeared slightly frazzled to Vivian as he fiddled with a marker. Vivian even noticed that Mr. Lawson’s tie was missing and his shirt had a button that was undone.

“That still doesn’t explain the blank whiteboard.”

“Well, it turns out that we can’t do the ‘Frog Prince’ play like we planned.”

Philip stood up fast. “What?! But I already got out the prince outfit and have been practicing my lines!”

“You’re not the only one Princey…” The only girl in the room muttered irritably.

“I know that Loralai. That’s why I want to know what I missed in the two minutes since the meeting began that I wasn’t here.”

“Calm down Mr. Lancelot. Please sit back down as well. This was my fault for not double checking the other school plays. Whiteridge is already planning to do ‘The Frog Prince’. On top of that they have a larger budget and backstage hands.”

“We now have someone for backstage too!” Philip pointed at Vivian who blushed and looked down from the sudden attention. He had always been the type that blushed easily.

“Is that true Vivian? You are going to be our backstage help?” Vivian nodded, not having a choice with the sudden expecting looks on him. “That is going to be much appreciated. Unfortunately it’s already too late for ‘The Frog Prince’. I already told them that it was fine and we would change our production. We have to quickly decide on a new play today. That is why everyone was just starting to brainstorming when you two arrived.” Mr. Lawson pointed at the blank whiteboard. Then he turned to Vivian again. “For the newcomers’ information, we always decide our plays together the same way during a club meeting. I write down all of your ideas on the whiteboard, that way even if we can’t use the idea it might spark another idea. Once no one has anymore ideas we will go through the list and then I’ll also write down the complaints you might have. Then if you don’t all agree we can find out what we might be able to compromise with.”

Vivian only nodded outwardly, but inside he thought that it was a good idea. He understood that this way gave everyone a voice and kept everyone on the same page. Maybe it was a good idea to get dragged along into the drama club. And maybe Mr. Lawson wasn’t lying that morning when he claimed most people here were actually friendly.

The first to speak up was a quiet boy wearing a grey hoodie and a long striped scarf that almost reached his toes. “What about ‘Robin Hood’?” He whispered so quietly Vivian could barely hear him.

“A good choice Mr. Brooks.” Mr. Lawson wrote down the suggestion. After the first idea more ideas slowly started spilling out.

The next one to speak up was the girl Philip had called Loralai, she suggested a gender reversed “Snow White”.

“The Emperor’s New Suit!” The boy furthest from Vivian called out randomly, then burst out laughing. He wore a rock band t-shirt and had puns hastily scribbled on his worn out jeans.

Mr. Lawson was outraged. “I know why you suggested that, and I’m telling you now that we will not have any streaking in our plays Mr. Walters. And don’t even try to suggest a skin suit to replace the bare skin. It would still show way too much.” After Mr. Lawson continued to scold him for such an inappropriate suggestion, “Mr. Walters” grudgingly suggested “Hansel and Gretel”.

After that a guy with way too much hair gel suggested “The Great Gatsby”. The one in the middle wearing a marching band polo shirt suggested “The Nutcracker”. Philip suggested “Rapunzel”. Vivian meanwhile just sat quiet as everyone listed a few more ideas. “Hamlet”, “Princess and the Pea”, “Thumbelina”, “Rumplestiltskin”, and “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” were all called out before Mr. Lawson had decided to accept one last suggestion, which was “Cinderella”.

Mr. Lawson finished writing “Cinderella” on the board as he started talking. “A list of twelve play ideas should be enough to find one that everyone agrees on. Now then let’s start from the beginning of the list with ‘Robin Hood’.”

Suddenly a chorus of debating broke out as everyone started to critique the list. By the time Mr. Lawson had finished writing all the complaints on the board every play had been shot down for one reason or another.

The criteria they ended up with was that it had to have less than ten characters, be within their prop budget, it couldn’t have major special effects or be a musical since they would take a lot of time that they didn’t have to perfect, it had to be unique enough that no other school would be potentially doing it already, and finally, the weirdest criteria brought up, was that Philip was very set on having a prince role for whatever reason. Even more bizarre was that everyone accepted that as a reason not to do a play.

Finally Vivian spoke up with his suggestion, wondering how it would be taken. “What about doing a play based on the Brothers Grimm tale ‘King Thrushbeard’? It’s a romance tale about a selfish princess and her redemption. It’s not popular enough for any other school to think about performing it. Plus it doesn’t require many actors, the props and costumes are easy for me to put together, and there is even a prince role for Philip.” No one said anything and Vivian’s inner demons had just started to take the bait when Philip spoke up.

“That’s brilliant Viv!” Suddenly the nickname Theodore used to calm Vivian popped out of Philip’s lips. Vivian knew that it was the easiest way to shorten his name, but only Theodore ever did, and only when he noticed Vivian getting upset. The nickname itself sushed the voices, and Vivian wiggled slightly in his seat, unsure the feeling of having someone else unknowingly calm him instantly the same way his stepfather did.

“Does anyone have any immediate rejections?” Mr. Lawson paused and gave everyone a chance to reject Vivian’s suggestion, but no one could think of any reason to. Probably since only half of them probably even knew the story, and Vivian had made a compelling argument. “Then all that’s left is to find a script for the play, or someone to write us one.”

“I might be able to help with that as well…” Vivian looked nervous, and his hands were clenching and unclenching inside his pockets. He never did this kind of thing, and now here he was, on the first day of his new school life, speaking up and volunteering ideas and his services. He just wanted to have an uneventful school life, but now he was joining the first club that tried to recruit him. On top of that, it was a drama club of all things.