Chapter 486: Bad Feeling
Hayley’s POV:
“Is Hayley in there?” a voice called from outside the door. I thought it was Christine sending someone to hurry me up. I quickly applied a few strokes of makeup and opened the door.
A girl stood there, unfamiliar to me. I wondered if I’d imagined it. Hesitantly, I asked, “Were you calling for me?”
The girl nodded. “I’m with the dance team. The drama group is looking for you everywhere, so I just called out. I didn’t expect you’d be here. Hurry back to the backstage!”
Hera stirred restlessly inside me, and a sudden bad feeling washed over me. But still, I returned.
I lifted the curtain and entered the makeup room, only to find senior Jay Hoyos throwing a fit.
“I don’t care about anything else, Kirsty! I came to help because of you, but don’t expect me to go on stage and become a joke!” He looked dark and forbidding, making it clear that no one dared approach him. Without the key supporting role, the entire play would fall apart. Even if they managed to go on stage, the audience would just mock them in the end.
I quietly watched from the side. Kirsty was anxiously trying to calm him down. “Jay, don’t worry, there’s always a solution. Let me think…” She lowered her head, deep in thought, before suddenly looking up and calling out to me, “Hayley!”
Kirsty raised her voice and walked over. “It’s great you’re here!” Before I could dodge, she grabbed my arm, and the moment I got closer, Hera became even more agitated. I immediately pulled her fingers off me, one by one. “Just say whatever you want to say. Don’t touch me. We’re not that close.”
Kirsty smiled at me in a way that seemed overly familiar. “Are you still mad about what happened before? Fine, I’ll apologize again. I was wrong. Will you forgive me?”
Jay stood up with a knight’s helmet in hand and casually asked, “What happened before?”
“Nothing,” Kirsty quickly explained. “Just a little misunderstanding. Don’t worry, we can handle it ourselves.”
I had no words for her performance. The fact that she referred to us using “we” made me feel disgusted.
Seeing that Jay had calmed down for the moment, Kirsty turned back to me. “Here’s the thing. The girl playing the witch is uncontactable for some reason.”
“The play is about to start, and you’re the only one who’s familiar with the script. Do you think you could help us out by taking over her role?”
So, this was her plan. I narrowed my eyes and saw right through her.
When I first looked over the script, I noticed that the two most impactful roles were the lead and the witch. There was a crucial scene where the protagonist slashes the witch with a knife, creating a high point in the drama. When I got the role of the protagonist, I thought it was a compromise on Kirsty’s part. But I realized then that Kirsty’s real goal was to make me play the evil, ugly, and hated witch. This character would be despised by the audience and tormented by the protagonist in the play. I thought that quitting the performance would keep me out of this conflict, but I hadn’t realized Kirsty had been scheming all along.
Everyone was waiting for my response, and Jay, especially, was getting impatient. He gave me a disdainful glance and said, “What are you pretending for? There are plenty of roles for witches. And with your ugly face, you won’t even need makeup. Just put on the costume and go on stage.”
“Hayley, I’m ordering you to take the role! Got it?”