Penny stood in front of a small mirror, taking a peek of herself to see how she looked even though she wasn’t the star of the play today like many other days she had been working in the theater. She took a step away and suddenly she was pushed from where she was standing by the girl named Kylene so that the girl could look at herself in the mirror. She wore better clothes, no the issue should have been she was wearing proper clothes while Penny wore a bark of a tree around herself because she was the tree today.
That was right, all she had to do was stand in a corner and do nothing with no dialogues or no movement.
But that was alright, thought Penny to herself. It wasn’t like she wanted to be an actress since she was small. She was here because she needed the money and this place gave her the little money which was a lot in her eyes.
With the fellow villagers who treated her and her mother like an outcast, finding a job had been difficult, which was why she had to travel this far away from home.
“How is the bark doing, tree girl?” Kylene asked her with a smirk on her face.
Penny knew that the girl enjoyed looking at her, wearing strange costumes to be a tree or rock or any other animal so that she wouldn’t outshine Kylene herself.
“Strong and itchy at times, do you want to try it out?” Penny asked her innocently, making the girl roll her eyes.
“You wish. Unlike you I am experienced and I’m a better actress,” said Kyelen before turning around and walking away from the mirror.
Penny didn’t go to say anything because a word could cause a spark of fire all across the forest. She only stared at Kylene and when the girl was bossing around another person, she twisted her ankle as she placed her foot on the step to fall down.
“AH! My ankle!” she cried.
“What happened?!” came the owner hearing the main actress’ cry and he bent down to check it, “What did you do?”
Kylene gave him a small glare and then said, “I was only stepping on the stairs to go on the stage but I don’t know what happened,” she started to cry, “I won’t be able to get on top of it.”
The owner of the theater gave it some thought as a lot of boys and girls who often worked in the theater surrounded them, “Lucy, take Kylene’s part today.”
“WHAT?!” Kylene screeched in disbelief, “You want to replace me by giving my part to her?” she cried, her eyes wide as she questioned the owner. As she had been the main actress for months now, Kylene didn’t want anyone to replace or take lead. She was the star of all the plays.
The man who owned this place had to close his eyes and he stepped away before he would turn deaf with the girl screaming and crying, “We have customers who have already bought the ticket. Sending them would not look nice and the collection today is heavy,” it was? Asked Penny to herself.
“That means I have to be up there!” Kylene cried out at him.
“You have twisted your ankle, Kylene. I can’t have you hopping around,” on the man’s words, Kylene stood up and when she tried to walk, she leaned towards the wall grumbling and mumbling something under her breath.
The owner gave one look at her and then looked at Lucy, “Go get yourself changed. We will need someone to fill Lucy’s spot,” sadly the actress’ hadn’t bothered to remember the side character’s dialogues which were Penny stepped in to say,
“I can take Tabitha’s role.”
The other girls hearing this snickered as if this bark looking girl knew nothing and was now blabbering but the owner was in a tight spot and he asked, “Are you sure about her dialogues? If you don’t do it right, I will cut it from your wage,” Penny nodded her head, “Get yourself changed,” and Penny hurried from there.
When the play did start, first the main character went up, the leads where they started their part. Penny looked down at herself with what she wore. For the very first time, she wore better clothing even though it was rented she didn’t mind.
Somewhere she was giddy that she was finally getting a part to play. Out of curiosity, she took a peek at the crowd and the owner was right. For some reason, the room was full today and there were many people who were seated. Not the local men but there were other men who wore good clothes which they didn’t find often here.
When Penny’s part finally came, she wiped her palms on the dress and stepped on to the stage to play the side character’s part which she very much enjoyed. Compared to the ditzy female lead, she liked this.
“I thought I would find you here,” said the actor who was playing along with her.
“Of course, you did. You must have heard that I am coming here from Mr. Barns,” Penny said cheerfully when she turned to look at the audience, she saw a haze of people but there was someone very peculiar who was seated in there. The man had black hair and a subtle smile on his face as he looked right into her eyes.
Penny then turned around and went on to speak about her dialogues to finally step down from the stage as the show had turned out to be successful.
“Penelope acted really well, didn’t she?” spoke one girl behind the stage and another said, “Yes. Who knew she could be this good?” Kylene who heard this glared at Penny.
Penny on the other hand didn’t respond to it. Changing her clothes she went on her way to her home by taking the local carriage.
