Theo and Jessica sat down at their usual table for lunch the next day. Jessica begins scrolling through her Tweeter feed even before retrieving her salad from her lunch, and Theo eyes her nervously.

“So, I think I forgot to mention that Julian from rehearsals is going to sit with us today,” Theo says, trying to sound nonchalant.

She locks her phone screen and turns to fully face him before speaking. “Why is this the first I’m hearing of that?” she asks coolly, though there’s an extra iciness to her tone.

“Well, Mrs. Reba decided yesterday that I need more help with my lines, so he’s gonna help me… I guess I just forgot to mention it,” he says.

Jessica doesn’t respond. Rather, she stares at him with a disapproving expression before turning back to her phone. She leans her head in her hand with her elbow on the table, pointing her body in the opposite direction and therefore signifying the end of the conversation. Luckily, Julian approaches the table a moment later.

“Hey, I found you pretty easily!” he says with a chipper tone. He sets down a tray with a chicken sandwich, pasty-looking mashed potatoes, and a purple juice box. He has taken it upon himself to ease their awkward atmosphere during their first lunch rehearsal with good energy from the get-go to avoid awkward moments later.

“Awesome. This is my girlfriend Jessica. Jess, this is Julian,” Theo stands to greet Julian as if he’s a businessman meeting someone for a professional lunch. Jess glances in Julian’s direction and shoots him a rueful smile.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Julian!” she says, holding out her hand for him to shake.

“You too! Theo talks about you all the time,” Julian fibs, hoping to redirect her searing glare to anywhere else but him as fast as possible.

“So, ah, where should we start?” Theo cuts in.

“Right, I was thinking we could just run through it once from the beginning and see what scenes need the most work. Then we can go from there?” Julian suggests.

“Whatever you say, assistant director,” Theo says with a playful smile. “Can I keep my script out in case I get really stuck?”

Julian nods at him, and soon they are off to the races. Theo is thankful for Julian’s patience, since they don’t get very far in before he’s slowing down the lines again.

“I don’t get why this is so hard, man,” Theo laments, “I mean, I read the same words for hours after school every day. But then when there’s another person, my brain shuts off.”

“It’s hard to rehearse lines by yourself,” Julian says, “especially since there’s no one there to give you feedback. And you can also be like ‘oh, I knew that line,’ even if you just read it off the page without even trying to remember it. You know what I mean?”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Theo says with a laugh. “It’s like when you hum quietly to the parts of the song you don’t know and then shout the parts you do know. The lines I do know I remember really well, and the rest I kinda just mumble or hum over and hope for the best. It balances out, I think.”

“I’m glad I’m not the only person who sings like that,” Julian chuckles. “My mom though, she just shouts out the words even if they aren’t even close to the real lyrics.”

“Yeah, you can do that with only some songs, I think. Like ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire?’ You can shout absolute horse shit and nobody’s even gonna notice!”

“Have you watched Parks and Rec? Because there’s an episode where Leslie Knope does that and it drives Ron crazy,” Julian asks.

“I love that show! It’s one that I keep on in the background while I scroll through my phone. Amy Poehler is the best,” Theo says excitedly.

The boys continue to chat about anything and everything other than lines and memorization until Jessica stands up abruptly.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” Jessica says in a monotone voice. She slings her backpack over one shoulder and saunters away before Theo can acknowledge her or wish her well. They stare after her for a few moments, somewhat stunned by her sudden departure.

“Sorry,” Julian apologizes quickly.

“What are you apologizing for?”

“Didn’t you get the vibe that I made her uncomfortable?”

“I don’t think so,” Theo says thoughtfully, “I think she’s just grumpy with everything related to the play. She says it takes up too much of my time.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Speaking of, we should uh… we should actually do some rehearsing, right?” Julian says, trying to get them back on track.

“Sure.”

Julian slides his index finger down the page of the script, looking for where they left off. Theo twists his fingers in his lap, deciding what to say.

“Hey uh… by the way, I’m sorry I was acting weird last week,” Theo starts, trying to keep his tone even.

“Oh. Yeah. Hey, don’t worry about it. I was acting weird too,” Julian says, thrown off by the sudden apology.

“I guess I was just overwhelmed? From like, rehearsals and the girls all poking fun at me? I don’t know,” Theo stutters. “But, I hope we can be like, normal again. Because I really like talking to you and I uh… I think we could be pretty good friends.”

Julian feels his facing heating up as the corners of his mouth twitch into a smile in response to Theo’s awkwardness. “I… I like talking to you too.”

Theo smiles sheepishly. “Cool. Cool cool. So, let’s uh… let’s practice?”

Julian nods and clears his throat.

“Yes, you’ve made that abundantly clear,” Julian begins reading what would be Elena’s lines.

“You were getting coffee with him, Marissa. You touched his hand. He leaned in to kiss you,” Theo says, feeling proud that he remembered the line while also trying to keep his voice low in the noisy cafeteria. He wasn’t sure who might hear him reciting lines from a Realist Drama to the flamboyant boy sitting next to him.

“And did I kiss him? If you were watching so closely, did you see what I did?” Julian looks at Theo for a fleeting second before continuing. “I left the café, Rowan. I got my coat and I left. I can’t believe you think so little of me to think I would cheat on you.”

“Ah, shit…” Theo flounders for a moment, tapping his fingers to his temple trying to remember. “The line goes like, how am I supposed to know that you aren’t going to?”

“Actually, the line was ‘how am I supposed to know that you won’t,’” Julian says.

“Wasn’t I close enough?”

“You can’t be ‘close’ to your line, you have to have it memorized word for word.”

“But why?” Theo asks, exasperated. Julian can’t help but chuckle at his struggle.

“Because your line cues Elena into her line. Sometimes a line can cue a set piece to move on, or another character to enter. So if you say the line wrong, your castmate might not know when their cue is,” Julian explains.

“But it’s just me and Elena in this scene. Nobody’s entering, nothing’s getting carried on, so why can’t I just ad lib a bit?”

“You want to practice learning the full line all the time, not just some of the time. You want the ensemble and crew to be able to rely on you.”

Theo huffs and leans his head into his crossed arms on the table. He looks up at Julian with squinted eyes.

“You’re like a drill sergeant,” he grumbles. Julian laughs and pokes his arm.

“Now you get why they call me the ‘ass-istant director,’ right?”

Theo rolls his eyes. “How am I supposed to know that you won’t?” he recites his line, putting extra emphasis on the corrected word with playful grumpiness.

They continue reading through the first scene, taking several breaks to chat, until the bell rings. They say their goodbyes and part ways. Julian promises to send Theo a link to that video he was talking about. Theo tries to stop himself from noticing the way the corners of Julian’s eyes crinkle when he laughs.

Once seated in his math class, Julian realizes he forgot to leave early to meet Elena for their daily walk and texts her a quick apology. Theo turns in some homework in his class when he realizes Jessica never came back from the bathroom. Both boys are acutely aware that this was the most fun they’ve had during lunch in a very long time.