The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [32]
When Regan moved to Georgia, she couldn’t be involved with James Johnson’s drama program because she wasn’t part of the performing arts department. So she had auditioned for a role in a community theater play.
“Regan’s here!” yelled Naomi, the thirtysomething female lead, as Regan and Crystal slipped into the theater. Naomi smiled at Regan’s rehearsal clothes: a T-shirt, cutoff sweats, and a bandana tying back her newly dyed pink hair. When Regan had shown up at school with pink hair, her peers scoffed. (The administration didn’t penalize her, she assumed, because many of Johnson’s mostly black students—and even some teachers—added color when they got their hair done.) The theater cast, by contrast, was unfazed.
Only a few people were at rehearsal today. “This is my Crystal,” Regan announced. Lately she had taken to introducing Crystal that way to people who didn’t necessarily know she was gay.
“Ohh myy Gaahhd,” squealed the middle-aged woman who was playing Regan’s mother in the show. She seemed to be taking to the role in real life as well. She cupped Crystal’s face in her hands. “I have been waiting to meet this gorgeous woman. She . . . is . . . beautiful.”
“Thank you,” Crystal said, smiling.
“Thank you,” Regan repeated.
As the woman returned to her seat, she continued to beam at Regan and Crystal. Regan breathed a small sigh of relief. In a world in which so many places were unsafe for Regan and her relationship, the theater was a sanctuary.
The director handed Regan a script. “Will you stay on-book for me?” she asked. Regan was so busy reading her lines and those of the absent cast members that she didn’t have time to think for the rest of rehearsal.
Afterward, the group met for dinner at a diner down the street. “You did a good job today!” Naomi said, elbowing Regan when she sat down.
“Yeah, no kidding,” said the male lead. “Thank God you were there to read for everyone. I didn’t know you could play everyone in the show.”
“You’re really good, you know,” said Naomi. “I hope you continue to act.”
Regan glanced up from the menu. “Oh, hey, I appreciate it, but I need a little break. This show took up my entire life.”
“Isn’t that always the way?”
Regan pressed Crystal to choose a dish she really wanted, knowing that she would choose something cheap, as usual. Regan always paid. Crystal was embarrassed that she didn’t have the money, but Regan didn’t mind treating her girlfriend. Neither of them had much pocket change. When they went out on weekends, they usually looked for free activities: Johnson plays, public festivals, fairs, and concerts.
As her castmates smiled at their coupleness, Regan thought, What a comfortable place to be. She never felt this way at school.
Mandy seemed to be making an extra effort to glare at Regan lately. Her blatant hostility mystified Regan. They had conversed only twice. The first time Regan saw Mandy after Wyatt had dumped her, Regan had wanted her to know that she didn’t hold anything against her. So on the first day of school that year, when Mandy came through the main doors, Regan nervously approached her. “Mandy!” Regan exclaimed, and hugged her. They made brief small talk about their summers and parted.
A few minutes later, as Regan walked upstairs, she overhead Mandy and Wyatt making fun of her in the hallway. “And she hugged me and everything, like how fake is that?” Mandy said, laughing.