HSMTMTS: Lily: The Actress: The Story
After not being chosen for the cast of East High’s production of Beauty and the Beast, Lily Chapman transferred to North High, which was competing against East High in the Menkie awards. During this rivalry, Lily had gotten to know Ricky Bowen, who played the role of The Beast. Right after their show had ended, Lily had told Ricky she had feelings for him, and how he was attracted to him.
The pair had been seeing each other for a few weeks now behind the backs of their respective schools, who were still reeling from the conflicts they had gotten into (dance-offs, possible sabotage of a harness during the show).
Lily hadn’t been the nicest to Ricky’s fellow East Highers. She had laughed when Ricky’s best friend Big Red fell on his face while trying to tapdance during auditions (the biggest reason Miss Jenn hadn’t cast her) and there was the suspicion that she stole the flying harness. But Lily had been improving as a person (and there was no proof she had stolen anything). She had opened up to Ricky about her cracking family, a bonding point as Ricky also had a broken home.
But that was all from Ricky’s point of view. Did Lily truly like-like Ricky? She didn’t know herself. She definitely had some feeling of care for him, that was for sure. But was this all part of an endgame to exact revenge on East High? Perhaps it was both? She was a teenage girl! Feelings and thoughts were confusing!
In any case, another point of bonding was musical theater. They had been running two-person scenes for fun (and to hone their acting skills), which had been Lily’s idea. And she had a scene in mind for when they met inside her bedroom one night. She was wearing a red drawstring hoodie, black leggings, and white socks. Meanwhile, Ricky was wearing a blue shirt under a denim jacket, blue jeans, and black socks
She handed Ricky a script she had printed out. “Have you ever heard of Urinetown?” she asked.
Ricky had to chuckle. “Heh…urine.”
Lily rolled her eyes. Silly teenage boys and their affinity for bathroom humor. “It’s a musical about corruption, corporate mismanagement, and capitalism. See, a terrible drought creates a water shortage that affects toilets. A megacorporation takes over toilet activities and forces people to pay to pee, or else suffer severe consequences.”
She could see Ricky trying to hold in his giggles. “Take this seriously!” she said, gently hitting his arm. “Anyway, the scene I wanted to practice happens during Act Two. Bobby, a dashing young everyman leads a rebellion to let people pee for free. The rebellion takes Hope Cladwell, the ravishing daughter of the megacorp’s CEO who’s torn between love and her loyalty to those she knows, hostage. She tied to a chair and gagged when Bobby talks with her after the other rebels leave them together.”
Ricky glanced through the script. “OK, let’s do this.”
“Great. But first…”
Lily went to her closet and pulled out several scarves. She handed them to Ricky, then pulled up the chair from her desk and sat down, the script in her hands. “Here, go ahead.”
“OK. It’s your line first.”
“Huh? No, I meant tie me up.”
Lily looked right at Ricky as she said this. She savored the look of shock on his face. “Are you serious?” he asked.
“Of course I am. Hope is tied up in the scene, and I should be to act her out. Besides, you’re acting like this is the first time we’ve used props during our scenes.”
“But this is different-”
Lily put her hand on Ricky’s shoulder. “Ricky, just do it. I’m telling you to do this. Besides, I trust you.”
Hesitantly, Ricky nodded. He picked up a pink scarf as Lily placed her wrists in front of her. “In the musical, they tie the hands in the front so Hope can clap along to ‘Run Freedom Run’ with the rest of the cast,” Lily explained. “I watched videos of it to prepare for today. It’s cute if you ignore the fact that with her hands in the front, she could probably get free in five seconds.”
Ricky finished tying Lily’s wrists together. She tugged against them to find the binds were pretty tight. “Not bad, Bowen. Are you sure you haven’t done this before to a cute girl like me?”
Ricky started to stammer out an answer, evidently flustered. Lily laughed and cut her off. “Relax, I was just kidding. Here, get my legs now.”
Ricky took a blue scarf and tied them together. “OK, now that you’re all tied up and nowhere to go, we can start-”
“Hold on. You forgot something.”
“What?”
Rolling her eyes, Lily pointed at her script. “Right at the bottom of page 81. ‘Bobby takes off Hope’s gag’.”
“So, you want me…”
“‘To gag you?’,” Lily finished Ricky’s sentence. “Yes, Ricky. This is a scene about a captor talking to their hostage. The captor gagged the hostage so they can’t make noise, but now the captor wants to talk with the hostage. So the captor takes the gag out. But for there to be a gag to remove…”
Ricky realized Lily was prompting him to finish the sentence. “...I have to apply one?”
“Exactly.”
Ricky took a white scarf and held it up to Lily’s mouth. She opened wide and allowed him to tie the scarf between her teeth and tie it over her blonde hair. “Is that good? Is it too tight?”
“Ihz gud, Rukky. Uhr yuh ruddy?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Unnd…uck-shun!”
Lily waited for Ricky to pull her gag down to start the scene. Instead, she caught him staring at her, encaptured by how she looked. “Uh, uth tuh Rukky?”
Ricky snapped out of his trance. “Huh? Oh, right. Sorry.”
Taking a second to get into character, Ricky walked over and pulled Lily’s gag down. “Hello, Bobby,” she said after taking a second to get the taste of the scarf out of her mouth.
“Hello, Hope.”
“So this is the bright, new day you were telling me about…”
“I don’t blame you for being angry with me, Hope. But your father gave us no choice.”
Lily stomped her tied-together feet against the floor to emphasize her character’s frustration and anger. “They may not have taught me much at the Most Expensive University in the World, but they taught me this much: kidnapping people is wrong!”
“Really, they taught you
that there?”
Lily turned her head, her character feeling foolish. “I thought we had something special together, Bobby.”
Ricky put his hand on Lily’s cheek. “We do have something special together, Hope. But until freedom rules the people of this land instead of fear, love has about as much chance as a baby bunny drowning in a vat of boiling water.”
Lily looked down, her character resigned. “Maybe less.”
“I didn’t mean to drag you into this mess, Hope.”
“And I didn’t mean to... oh, I guess I don’t know what I meant to do.”
Ricky stepped back. “Look to your heart, Hope. I think the answer to what you want is waiting for you there, deep down, somewhere among the tissues.”
The script called for Bobby to leave. A bit awkwardly, Ricky walked across the room. Even then, Lily looked to where he had exited as if he were a million miles away. “Wait a minute, when will I see you again?”
Taking a deep breath, Lily began to sing.
“When darkness surrounds you
And you lose your way
You have your own compass
That turns night to day
And it's even with you
Before you depart
Be still, hear it beating
It's leading you
Follow your…”
Lily burst into tears, bowing her head. “Oh, Bobby…”
Ricky waited a few seconds, unsure whether or not Lily was having a genuine emotional breakdown. Right as he was going to check on her, her head snapped back up. “And scene,” she said with a smile. “How was that?”
Ricky was startled for a moment. Despite how much time they’d been spending together, he would occasionally forget how good of an actress Lily was. “It was…”
Lily pounced on his hesitation. “What, you didn’t like my singing?” she teased. “Would you have preferred it if I still had the gag in my mouth?”
“No, it was awesome, amazing!”
Lily smiled before biting her lip. “So…what was that staring at me before the scene started?”
Ricky started to blush heavily, evidently embarrassed. “I was just distracted by-”
“Distracted by the pretty bound and gagged girl? Hmm…I’ll have to remember this the next time I pick out scenes for us to do...
Before Ricky could stammer out a response, his phone vibrated. Big Red was calling him.
“Thank God,” Ricky thought to himself. “Be right back,” he told Lily before leaving the room.
Lily sat in the chair, smirking. Despite being bound hand and foot with her gag still hanging around her neck, she was the one with Rickey Bowen trapped in a web of desire…or deceit. She still had to figure out just which one it was…