Re: Incident at the Fall Musical (F/M)

[kylem]

It was after intermission, I’d just shut the concession stand down and taken the money I’d collected and combined it with the cash we’d collected from admission. I hadn’t counted it all but I was thinking it was in the $400 range. Not bad for a small school that didn’t have any electronic ticketing for its shows!

I could hear the show going on in the auditorium. The audience was laughing hard at something. It sounded like everything was going really well. We have a pretty good acting troupe here at Summerville High.

My work was basically done. I just had to bring the metal tin into the band room and put it in Mrs. Montgomery’s office and lock the door and I could go home. Or grab an empty seat at the back of the house and watch the rest of the show, which I was thinking of doing. I really thought Cassie Li who played Zaneeta was cute and wasn’t mad at all about seeing her in that tight dress.

I was thinking just that as I was walking into the band room when suddenly the lights went out! I dropped the tin. It landed with a huge noise. Someone had thrown a bag or hood or something over my head and shouted in this low, gruff voice, “We’re robbers! Give us the money and you won’t be hurt!”

“Okay, okay,” I said feeling my heart and breath suddenly jump into panic mode.

“We’re going to tie you up!” the gruff voice said.

“Just don’t hurt me,” I said.

“Don't fight us and we won't,” the voice said. I thought I heard a giggle. They jerked my hands behind my back and I could hear the squeak of tape and then felt it looping quickly around my wrists.

“Get his feet,” a voice said. But this wasn’t a gruff robber’s voice. It was a girl’s voice.

“Wait! Who is that?” I said, my voice muffled by the bag. But before I could move, tape was being wrapped around my ankles. I tried to move my feet but they were tied and I fell. A chair caught my fall. One of those metal/plastic band chairs. More tape started flying around my chest, securing me to the back of the chair, with all the squeaking that entailed.

Then the hood came off and I blinked. Robbers?! It was Makayla Miller and Taylor Wisniewski. Two girls I’d known since elementary school. Taylor was short and blond, Makayla, tall and dark-haired. They were both in flannel PJ pants. Makayla had a hoodie and Taylor had a blue college t-shirt.

“What the hell?” I said.

They laughed. And laughed. Both of them laughing so hard they couldn’t even talk.

“Okay, okay,” I said. “Good joke. You got me.”

“You were so scared!” Taylor said.

“’Just don’t hurt me’,” Makayla said, mocking my voice.

I squirmed. The chair shifted but I was held fast.

“Let me go!” I said.

“Oh no,” Taylor said. “I think you’re confused. We are robbing you. Right, Makayla?” She picked up the metal tin from the floor.

“Yep,” Makayla said.

“You’re never going to admit that you got tied up by girls,” Taylor went on. “Or you’d be the laughing stock of the school.”

"So, when Mrs. Montgomery finds you," Makayla says, pulling another piece of tape and breaking it off with her teeth, "you're going to tell her that it was a big scary man with a gun."

"Are you kidding mmmppphhhhhh!" My sentence was smushed into the tape Makayla had just slapped over my mouth. She smoothed it into place.

"Come on, Taylor," she said. "Let's go blow this money on something fun."

"Yeah," Taylor said, opening the tin and stuffing the wad of bills into her pajama pants pocket.

"Mmmmphhh!" I moaned at them and squirmed. They laughed as they walked to the door.

"What stores are open late on Friday nights?" one of them said, switching off the light.

"MMMMMPHHHH!!" I yelled emphatically. But they were gone.

It was forty-five minutes before the light switched on again. Mrs. Montgomery's jaw dropped, her tote fell from her hand and flopped on the floor. “Matt!” she cried. She raced towards me, her silver hair flopping everywhere. “Are you all right?”

She ripped the tape off of my mouth. I cried out…it hurt! She put both hands on my cheeks. “Matt, what happened?! Let me get you loose!”

She started messing with the tape wrapped around my chest. “What happened?” she said again, but her head was down so I was looking at the back of her head.

“Robbed!” I said. “They took the money from the tin.”

“But you’re not hurt, Matt?”

“No,” I said. She had gotten a piece of the tape and began unwinding it. It pulled at my shirt as she tugged at it.

“That's what matters,” she said. "Did you get a good look at the robbers?"

I didn’t answer. She had the tape off of my torso and was kneeling in front of me, working on my ankles.

“Matt,” she said again. “Did you get a good look at the robbers?”

I took a deep breath.