Young Writers Society

Megan was the child everyone wanted to be, the one everyone wanted as their friend. She was happy, energetic, and charismatic, making her a leader among her fellow classmates and instantly popular. The special thing about Megan was that no one was ever jealous of her for her talents- or at least that’s what she thought.

In her early years of school, she was nothing much to notice. Megan, like all of the other kids her age, was friendly and open, withholding nothing. By about the third grade, it became clear that she was good at nearly everything; sports, art, math, literacy, music- you name it, and there was a good chance that Megan would be able to do it well.

Around that time also was when Megan discovered her love for theater. Her parents (how old they seemed to be compared to the other children’s parents…) had started to take her to all sorts of musicals and plays. At first, she was easily bored and couldn’t sit still. Then Megan came to the conclusion that if she were in the plays, she would be using her talents and having endless fun.

Her school had an unused stage, and it didn’t take long for Megan to suggest having a play there. The school principal, Mr. Mannen, was dubious at first, as he was never fond of new ideas, but Megan’s loyal friends backed her up and he had to give in.

“The teachers and I,” he said in his announcement to the school, “have agreed to let you have a play.” Although Megan and her fellow students rejoiced at his words, his silence seemed to be a sigh, the loss of tradition making it almost painful for him to continue. “This will take serious planning on our part, figuring out what the musical will be and organizing the whole thing. That being said, it will be preformed next year.”

Megan’s spirits weren’t dampened at all, and she practiced singing and acting anytime she wasn’t busy. Of course, busy in her world was daring her friends to do ridiculous things, doing stunts in public, and any other thing that she thought could be fun. She was living for thrill, but she wouldn’t be satisfied until she got in that play.

Along with her talents in other areas, Meg was academically smart as well. This is what made her the wonderful person she was: her inner honesty. She could access her inner Py and extended memory whenever she wanted, allowing her to take a test and not need to know anything, she could merely look back at the first day they went over the material in class. No one would ever know, as it was an unheard of form of cheating, but Megan never used it (except once when she forgot how to spell ‘separate’).

Soon enough, it was fall again and time for school- the play. It was all Megan could think about, and her closest friend Ella, a violinist, was excited as well. The teachers had decided that they would perform Alice in Wonderland. They had very casual auditions so as not to upset the students, and would only accept those from third grade and upwards.

Of course the teachers were immediately impressed with Megan and her talents, she could see it on their faces, but she had to be left with an enigma:

“We’ll let you know what we think in a week.”

How could she wait a whole week? She could barely wait the whole summer. It was an intense week of fidgeting, even though Meg was confident in her abilities. The next Thursday when she was pulled from class, she knew exactly the reason.

“Hi Megan!” the cheerful teacher exclaimed. She looked closely at a folded white sheet she held casually in one hand. “Okay, so, it looks like you’ve been selected to play Alice in our first school play, Alice in Wonderland. Congratulations!”

Megan grinned and practically danced back into class. She later discovered that Ella had gotten the part of the Cheshire cat. This was the work she enjoyed, working out how each line was to be said, where she was to be placed on the stage, where she should walk and how she should move.

After many rehearsals and managing of the students, the time came for an actual performance. Megan was very proud of Ella and her perfection and mastery of her lines, but as the play began, Ella stepped up at the wrong time.

Meg tried her best to discreetly motion to her to move back, but she didn’t budge. She walked all the way downstage until she blocked Megan completely. She then started saying random lines, some of which were her own, but mostly they were other characters’ lines, including those that Megan was about to say next.

Megan was flustered, nothing like this had ever happened to her before. How could Ella forget her lines so completely? Meg asked herself. She was so good before now! It was then that she realized that someone had indeed been jealous of her. She snapped out of her daze and improvised until she could get the play back on track.

She ignored Ella glaring at her back until the play was over. Megan turned to face Ella, but she had disappeared. Megan had suffered her first betrayal, and it hurt.