Mena had barely freed herself from the confines of the magic proof room when immediately, she was accosted by Electra. "There you are," and the thundering woman grabbed Mena with both of her big hands and started lecturing her. "You are not gonna mess this up for my school! I don't know where you were or why you were lollygagging…"

The short members of the Lollypop fashionistas all raised their eyebrows at Electra's slur. "Ahem, persongagging!" Electra said. "Where were you persongagging?"

"I was with Tal," Mena said with a smile. "He was in a dark room and he was tied up and…"

Electra stamped her foot. "On second thought, I don't want to hear it! Look Tal is finished with his first scene. Get out there and don't embarrass everyone!"

Electra took both hands and lifted Mena's skinny frame. With surprising strength, the headmistress of Sunbeam Academy flung Mena's body past Tal right onto her stage.

Mena landed right on the set, stumbling on her heels. "Miserable Magicaps!" she scowled, shaking off her vertigo. "Owwww, that's no way to treat Julianna!"

Suddenly, Mena turned around and witnessed the 1500 beasts sitting in the Treeater. Lions, tigers and bears all glared at her, causing Mena to point and remark. "Oh my!"

A deer person in the crowd glared at her. "Hey, we don't point at you, human." His antlers were adjacent to Mena and Mena went, "About that…"

Stellaris, who had taken the role of Lady Cabernet cleared her throat and beckoned Mena over to her. Standing by her was, May, dressed as the frumpy nursemaid. "Come, Julianna," Stellaris' said. "Thou art wish to talk about a handsome prince?!"

"Would I ever!" Mena exclaimed and waddled over to Stellaris and May. "Especially," she murmured. "If he's better than Tal!"

"Ow!" Mena said as May nudged her in the ribs.

"No adlibbing," May said, glaring at her.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Sorry," Mena whispered and she got elbowed again.

"Daughter…" Stellaris' said, her high voice acting quite overdramatic. "There comes an age in every girl's life where they need to marry. In this case, it's the tender age of 14."

"Isn't that a little young?" Mena asked, her eyes extra wide and innocent.

"Considering we only live til 30," May said puffing out her rosy cheeks. "Your life is half over."

"How old are you, elderly nursemaid?" Mena asked.

"Twenty-nine!" May said, and she was greeted with laughter from the beasts in the audience.

Mena smiled brightly. The laugher was contagious. Once she was actually out on stage, it wasn't so bad. She left the stage smiling, but the smile didn't stay long when she saw Tal standing at the edge of the stage. "Sooo," Mena smiled. "How was I?"

"Mediocre," Tal said, "But at least they didn't throw rotten vegetables at you."

Mena glared at him, but Tal kept talking. "We're on soon," he said, "And even if I'm absolutely jot steaming mad at you, we have to put on our best performance."

"Fake it til you make it, right?" Mena said, grinning innocently.

Tal glared daggers right at Mena. "I can't believe you don't how badly your hurt me!"

"Tally," Mena said, urgently grabbing his hand. "I had to enrage you so bad that you wanted to kill me. I don't get why you can't understand that."

"I do," Tal said, pulling his hand away from Mena. "But some of your words really stung. I only cry every three days, but now I'm going to cry every day. You have wrung pain and misery from me like I have never experienced before."

Tal extended one hand out and held the other one to his chest. "Here I thought I found true love-- a brief moment of tenderness in an endless void of nightmares. But nay, you punctured me with your slings and arrows"--Tal looked at Janus--"Mind if I borrow your skull?"

Normally someone would be leery about lending their head to a dramatic thespian, but Janus giggled with glee. "This is the play I wish we were doing!"

Janus removed her skull from her body, and the tortured prince held it dramatically and bellowed, "Alas poor Mena, I knew ye...when you were kind!"

"I don't need this!" Mena scowled and stomped away with tearblind eyes. "Tal, you're no prince of d'aww-kness, you're a queen of drama!"

"Oh lovebirds!" Electra called. "You're on!"

Mena was heading to her lofty window on the set, but she had no idea how she'd fake her love for her handsome Romulus.

"I'd rather kiss a lion," she spat beneath her breath, but as she navigated the coridors that lead to the stage, she didn't watch where she was going.

"Oops!" she said, and quickly realized it was the possessed lion-cheetah.

"You won't be kissing anyone," he hissed with a gleaming grin.

"What the bloody Dic…" Mena tried to exclaim but he snapped his fingers and her body was pulled forward. He quickly muffled her mouth.

"This ladybird has sung her last tune," the cheetah said, his meaty breath breathing hard on her face. "You're coming to my mistress, Anguish!"