The Understudy

Half an hour has passed, and the entire cast's seething resentment towards Owen, the now former actor of main character Hamlet, remains unabated.

Owen was expelled after allegedly disfiguring a fellow student in a horrifying act of bullying that shook the entire campus since the news broke out.

To make matters worst, the expulsion occurred as the cast began wrapping up the final chapter of the famous Shakespeare tragedy, which means they have to start all the way over from the beginning, and a new actor needed to be picked, dragging Director Judge into a dilemma of whether to cancel the play entirely, or risk a major pay cut and rehire Hamlet.

"We're not getting shut down, are we?" Horatio's actor Tim asks, distraught and choking up over the shocking incident.

"Please don't cancel, we'll do it over again!" Ophelia's actress Violet begs.

From Judge's understanding, the entire cast still want the show to go on, making the latter the best option, even with just 2 days on the clock.

"Let's return to Act 1, Scene 1, Elsinore," Director Judge hollers at the cast, dialing the school telephone with a Student in mind, one who initially didn't get cast for the play despite knocking the audition out of the ball park due to being a girl, while Hamlet was always depicted as male.

"Hey, Miss Hamilton," Director Judge starts.

"Sorry to bother you, I just wanted to know if you could send Avalyn to the auditorium?"

"Sure thing!"

"Perfect, thank you so much!"

Miss Hamilton hangs up and points her attention towards Avalyn, a girl sitting at a desk in the back of the classroom who has been reading a letter her mother left for her before her untimely death 3 years ago from a work accident.

"Avalyn," Miss Hamilton calls.

"Director Judge asked if you could go to the auditorium."

The request paints a smile on her face for the first time in a long time. She quietly nods and jolts out of her seat before sprinting out the door like a linebacker.

"Careful, ma'am!" Miss Hamilton shouts as the door slams behind Avalyn, and she continues to barrel down the hallway towards the audition.

Due to the school's massive size, it takes the average student six minutes to get all the way across the school by jogging, but Avalyn was filled with so much excitement from being called back into the auditorium- a room across the school from her classroom- that she wastes no more than two minutes despite tripping and colliding with the hallway tiles several times during her run to the auditorium.

eventually, Avalyn is able to shove the main door open, startling the entire cast and even cancelling Tim's crying completely, replacing it with silence, accompanied by a thousand yard stare.

"What are you doing here, emo girl?" Violet asks in an unkindly manner.

"Be respectful, Violet, unless you wanna join Owen out of the play!" Director Judge shouts, fully aware of her terrible attitude but tired of it nonetheless. Violet snickers and moves on to her script.

"Don't mind her behavior, I'm happy you showed up!" Director Judge tells Avalyn.

"I tried to get here as fast as I can. What did you want?"

"With Owen officially out as Hamlet, I would love if you could take on the role." Director Judge continues.

"Your audition is still one of the best I've seen from a female student in all my years as a theater director, so it would be an absolute honor if you could give me the opportunity to work with you!"

As someone who knew about the news surrounding Owen, Avalyn knew fully well that she was called into the auditorium to play Hamlet. Still, the update coats her entire body in goosebumps.

"Thank you," Avalyn says more than a dozen times at rapid succession like a broken record.

"I won't let you down! I've been a big fan of Hamlet ever since I was a child, my mother would read it to me all the time, even my dad would reenact the ending duel with me when I was thirteen," Avalyn rambles on until Director Judge politely interrupts her with a smile.

"I'm happy to have you aboard," Judge says.

"Stand right here." Judge points at the red plus sign shaped tape on the stage. Avalyn waddles onto the red tape.

"Boys and girls!" Director Judge loudly starts.

"Meet Avalyn Evelyn, The new actor of Hamlet!"

Violet was deeply disappointed because she and Avalyn have never gotten along, but everyone else's faces lit up like a christmas tree as if Avalyn's very existence gave everyone a second chance at life.

Tim charges Avalyn with the utmost delight.

"Dude, you have any idea how happy we all are right now because of you?" Tim poses, looking at everyone but quickly noticing Violet's look of dread and anger.

"Well, mostly eveyone."

Avalyn shakes her head, bummed out that Violet still has a grudge against her. The biggest issue, however, is finding out why. Then she finally utters.

"How on earth did she get the role of Hamlet?" Violet kicks off her rant.

"For one, she isn't even a guy, so as a girl myself, this feels like pandering, and two, We literally hate each other!"

"I don't hate anyone," Avalyn interrupts.

"Why do you hate me, besides the fact that my character's a guy?!"

Director Judge had enough of the arguing, as did everyone else who grew annoyed with Violet, so he snaps the fingers of his left hand and aggressively point at the hallway beyond the main door, signaling both Avalyn and Violet to head out.

Violet storms out in a huff, and both Avalyn and Judge follow behind.

"What is it this time?!" Violet shouts, echoing the vacant hallways.

"We need to squash this feud once and for all because I only have 2 days left, and an entire month's worth of hard work is down the drain because one kid couldn't be bothered to be a good person," Judge stops to take a breath while pacing back and forth in the hall.

"Why do you dislike her, Violet?" Judge asks.

"She abandoned me at the movie theater three years ago when I needed her the most!" Violet begins to let it all out.

"I was cheated on, and when you promised you would pick me up, you instead left me there! All by myself!"

"I didn't mean to leave you there at all, Violet!"

"So why did you abandon me? What could you have possibly gotten into that you had to do that to me?? I had to hitchhike home because of you! I was across the city from my home!"

Avalyn begins breaking down into tears before snapping.

"Police told me my mom was killed at work that night! No offense to you, but I couldn't do anything about it! I'm sorry! I tried to tell you, but you blocked me soon after I was supposed to get you!"

The hallway grows silence yet again, the disbelief on Judge's face was clear as day, and so was Violet's. For a long moment, they stood still, locked onto each other's eyes.

"I.. I never knew." Violet utters.

"I know, because you blocked me. I would never try to hurt you, but that's all you did to me!"

Avalyn looks at Judge.

"Can I go back inside?"

"Sure, we can go back inside," Judge says just before being cut off by Violet, who quickly jumps at Avalyn for a hug.

"I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do to fix this?"

Avalyn pulls away from and looks at Violet.

"Give me time. Let's finish the play. Just give me time."

The girls calmly walk back inside and retrievs their scripts. The cast notice Avalyn's red eyes but decide in unison that it's best to move forward. Everyone opens to the scene Hamlet first appears in, and make an honest attempt at working together.