X. I forgot you guys like crossdressing

It was funny to me that the gut reaction of the club's former ace was to check and see if Okademon's voice was truly her and not some test track. When she couldn't find any evidence, she looked again. She'd find it if she truly believed in herself. Even if it didn't exist. 

Still, Yamada (I think that was her name, or Honda or Sato or some shit) was the former ace for a reason; she told Okamoto that her voice was beautiful before vanishing into the void.

I'd sit with Nomura on the front lines to spectate as Okamoto 'tested the audio'. Nobody else did. Nobody helped her set up the microphone. I would have, but she was the enemy. Besides, she sang so well it pissed me off. I supposed most of the club shared this sentiment. 

How petty.

"Nobody clapped," I noted when, in effect, her little demonstration ended with silence; even the teacher seemed busy helping somebody else with her audition piece. 

Nomura asked, "Do you want to clap?"

"Uh, no."

She gestured at me, as if saying, see? but I kept trying to refuse (to see). "Ehh, you'll be fine. The evil queen doesn't sing much, anyway. I think. If you do better than her on the acting part of the audition, then you'll be fineee."

"I'm bad at acting, though."

"...I was trying to be positive."

"When you said she was 'the ace', I didn't expect... does she sing opera or something?"

Nomura shrugged. 

Nobody helped Okamoto set down the microphone. I would have, but she was still the enemy. She'd joined halfway through a production a couple of months ago and thrown a huge tantrum when she couldn't get the main role anymore. I don't remember what I told her, then, exactly, just that it made a couple of people laugh, and because of that tiny thing, she'd been getting on my case ever since. 

But still. 

The worst part of all was how unfazed she seemed about getting ignored. From the corners of my eyes, I watched her to go the teacher, who gave her a thumbs-up, but then I had to stop because this first year that kept trying to hit on any girl that breathed sat beside me. "'sup," he greeted. "Is either of you gonna try to be the prince?"

Nomura withered into her seat. 

"Right, right, I forgot you guys like crossdressing. So then I'd be the only one auditioning for that role, right?"

Fuck, I kept forgetting his name. "Right," I said. "Have fun, I guess."

"Thanks. Promise you won't try to be the prince?"

"Promise."

"Thanks. Nomura-san? How about you?"

"Fuck off," she told him. I supposed it'd be rude to ask for his name because I did so often, so I'd just refer to him as P-kun from now on. Content with this, P-kun left, which prompted Nomura to say, "I feel like auditioning now out of spite."

"Have fun, I guess," I replied.

"Thanks. You're always so helpful."

"I try." Okamoto had gone back to her corner on top of a stack of boxes, hiding behind her phone, drowning the world out with earbuds. Some other girl went to do a mock audition of her own. Her friends clapped, Nomura included. 

"Hey, Saku."

"...yeah." I clapped, too. 

"Yumi-chan's gonna try out for the princess. What do you think?"

Worse than Okamoto. "Very nice and stuff."

"Right?"

"That was sar—"

"It feels like everyone's trying to audition as her, and like, I get it, but at the same time, I get it, you know? It just sucks that Sato's probably gonna be the prince. I almost thought of trying out as her for a moment, but... yeah." 

But yeah. "Well, no one's saying you can't."

"Not out loud."

"If it's because of what... Sato...? Said earlier, I don't think he was trying to be, uh."

"I know, I know."

Later, out of curiosity, I went to check the sign-up lists. One candidate for the prince. Fourteen for the princess. Two for the evil queen, with a third one that'd clearly been erased. Even when I squinted, I couldn't discern any outlines.

...well, too bad...?

The more I thought about this, the worse it seemed. Weird. Shameful? But I'd been the antagonist literally every time since I joined this stupid thing, so it'd be even more weird and shameful not to be. I should've just chosen the chess club or something. Chess bored me, though. Maybe art? I drew even worse than I acted. What if I erased my n—

No.

"Have you noticed?" Asked Okamoto. She must've materialized next to me while I had a moment of weakness. One of her earbuds remained attached to her skull. "Somebody else thinks they have a chance against me. That's cute."

"You're so humble." Well, there went my moment of weakness. "Did you see who did it?"

"Huh? No? I'm too busy for that."

"I believe you. Playing gay dating sims in your phone sounds exhausting."

It was only then that she noticed she'd forgotten to lock the screen. A gaunt, snake-eyed man with long flowy white hair tumbled on top of a bed covered with roses within the world of her (latest model) device. The caption read: I... hnn... can't... 

Okamoto shoved the phone into her pocket, which caused the earbuds to pop off; she must've mistakenly tapped something as she did so, because the captions turned audible: "...I'm so... close... Himeko-sama..."

And now other club members stopped ignoring her. Now they turned to look. Okamoto scrambled to turn it off, but all she did was raise the volume.

"...ah! Your touch, it burns!"

Slowly, I backed away.

"AHHHH!"

Okamoto dropped her phone. What could've been a giggling session turned into a collective grimace that intensifed when she broke out running, only to crash against the teacher. I may or may not have been part of those laughing, but this stopped when Mrs... Sensei... P-chan (?) said, "Watanabe-kun. I think I've told you multiple times to stop harassing Okamoto."

I blinked. "Pardon me?"

"I'll condone you two and your squabbles, but this is going too far."

"...huh?"

"Regardless, it is also true that the theater is no place to play... indecorous games, so I'll have no choice but to punish you both."

"Wait," I began, "With all due respect, I—"

"You'll both be on cleaning duty for the rest of the week."

Other club members cheered, for two of us would do the job usually reserved for five or more. They'd live on, enjoying their freedom. Meanwhile, I wanted to break something. "But—"

"Perhaps you'll keep your squabbles as such next time instead of humiliating a fellow club member in front of her friends, hmm?"

"I didn't..." but then I figured she must've gone through my history at some point, which meant she knew about the middle school incident, which meant she probably thought I was the kind of person that'd do something like that for fun. I said nothing after that. 

Minutes later, Nomura texted the following: Yumi and I tried to tell her that you didn't unplug Okademon's earbuds, but she said she saw you?

bitch didn't take her meds is what happened, I replied. One could surmise this had angered me. 

Nomura: And okademon didn't say she was wrong, either. :( I'm sorry that happened. 

Me: I'm sorrier :'(

Nomura: At least you have even more motivation to defeat her next week! 

Me: Yay!

Nomura: Hey, don't be like that. I'm trying to be positive.

Me: ++++++++

Hoshino didn't say anything. Thankfully. 

Now, more than a moment of weakness, it felt like it'd been a glimpse of clarity. If not the chess or the art club, then I could join the... soccer fan club? Volunteering club with a heavy emphasis on cleaning the soccer field? The chronic illness hate club? If it weren't for that, then I wouldn't be surrounded by this pack of troglodytes and that asshole teacher supposed to supervise this dump while Okamoto brought me down with her silence out of sheer, distilled pettiness. And to think I'd almost felt bad for her...

Still, anger made people irrational and volatile, so it wouldn't do me any good to stay this way. Time to look at the positives.

---------

I hated this place.