She moaned like a zombie throughout the entire day, which felt like a second to her, abruptly teleporting to different places at random intervals. Before she could figure out she was at the canteen eating a sandwich, she found herself back in class being scolded for bringing in said sandwich despite the signs outside the door warning against it. And then she saw Erin sitting in front of her, scrolling through her phone whilst drinking bubble tea.
“So, what now? I’ve posted the film online like you asked. Do we need to promote it? Or something?”
“Huh?”
“Like, advertise that, ‘Hey! We got a new film!’, you know?”
“No, they’d hate that, everyone hates the film club.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, otherwise we’d have more people signing up.”
“I’ve never heard anyone talk about the film club before. At least not in my class.”
“Yeah, that’s the problem.”
“Wait, huh? I’m confused. So is the problem that everyone hates the club, like you guys got a bad reputation, or is the problem that you guys have no reputation whatsoever?”
“I- uh- huh?” She had never thought of it like that. The two were mutually exclusive problems.
“Well, if it’s the issue of no reputation then we just gotta promote ‘Singing Doll’, and I got some ideas.”
“Yeah?” Sonia yawned in lethargy.
“I mean, maybe we can just like- do what the Drama Club does and charge tickets and stuff.”
“But no one would come.”
“Yeah…”
“Or maybe instead of charging them we give them something, like free pizza, for coming?”
They both lock eyes with light bulbs above their heads.
**
Erin did most of the work setting up the event, while she had shifts to work. Honey seemed to be on a streak, acting like a genuine person for the first time in her life. She no longer spoke in her barbie-voice towards the customers, or sneakily sat down whenever the manager retreated into his office. She, more than anyone, welcomed the change.
“Drink.” She offered her a cup of water.
Honey accepted it kindly.
“You’re different.”
She shot her eyes wide, as if to say ‘glad you noticed.’
“I like it.” She meant it genuinely, which caused the girl to choke on water, spitting it back out reflexively in a violent cough. “Woah, you okay?”
“Y-” She continued coughing. “-yeah. I’m fine. It’s just…this is the first time you’ve complimented me.” Her smile was infectious, and her words stuck like glue. Honey seemed almost different now despite looking the same, as if she had taken on a new context entirely. Sonia found her eyes fleeting towards her constantly during work, and everytime the two made physical contact, she felt butterflies in her stomach.
She spent most of the sessions rotating between functioning on auto-pilot and experiencing a low-grade dread. Her face lost considerable colour, provoking Erin’s concern. “Are you okay? Didn’t sleep well last night?”
“Mm.” Sonia would reply, offering a scratch of the truth. Her insomnia worsened over the past week, as she stayed up all night pondering the new responsibilities now placed on her shoulder. Truth to be told, she always envied Sam’s position as the leader and always dreamt of all the improvements and progress she’d make if given the chance. Now, with the chance right before her, she was worried sick her sheer incompetence would drive this club into the dirt. How would she manage the production of an entire film if she couldn’t even give Sam a comment without arguing? How would she even deal with him once his suspension was over? Why did Honey stop showing up to sessions, and avoided the subject everytime she brought it up? What if the premiere was a success, and a bunch of students signed up, or worse, if none did?
She growled at those thoughts, scaring it away with her grit. Like her father advised, she wasn’t going to let those voices stop her.
“Ok, I think this is it.” Erin said, snapping her out of her trance. “I already ordered the pizza, now we just gotta wait to see if anyone would show up. Sonia?”
“Huh… yeah, thanks for your help.”
“What’s going on with you?” She inched closer.
“Nothing, I’m fine.”
“You can talk to me, you know? I feel like we’ve gotten a bit closer over the past few days, you know?” Soniia hadn’t considered her as a friend, or anyone with the exception of Honey, but that might change today.
“It’s just… I’m the leader now. And I’m in charge of everything… and I’m gonna screw it up.”
“No you won’t! You’re a great leader!” Erin sounded like her mother. “And you don’t have to do it alone. Weren’t you co-leader with Sam before?”
“What? No.”
“Wait, really? Oh, my bad.”
“Why would you assume that?”
“You two are always discussing everything, so I thought you two were like number one and number two.”
Sonia raised an eyebrow, finding the observation intriguing. “Oh sh- what date is it?”
“20th, why?”
She sighed, counting the days in her head. “12… 13… 14. Oh no…”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“What?”
“Sam returns today.”
“Oh, has it already been two weeks?”
Her gut dropped, has it already been two weeks? What has she been doing all this time? Letting the voices consume her precious time? No! She protested, waking herself up from her fatigued slumber. With gusto, she prepared to face Sam head-on.
**
To her surprise, people actually showed up to the premiere, and everyone sat comfortably for the film with pizza in hand. She knew they were expecting a trainwreck, but that might factor into their enjoyment, oddly enough. It may be strategic to double-down on that label, rebranding the film’s genre as comedy instead of a serious horror like Sam pompously intended. “Call the film a comedy.” She whispered to Erin, then walked out for a quick trip to the toilet. Sam would be rearing his head anytime soon, unless the grief had consumed all his willpower.
Sure enough, he arrived, with the most confused expression ever. Sonia took a deep breath, and materialised before him.
“What is this?” He asked.
“We’re holding a premiere for ‘Singing Doll’, and there are actually people here.”
“But, but I didn’t-”
“You know your punishment, Sam.”
He grunted, swallowing a hard pill, the first of many to come.
“So? You got everything covered? You’re the leader now? All of this was your hard work?”
Sonia debated if she should go on the offensive. “Yeah. But this was Erin’s idea, so it was our hard work combined.”
“Ok.” She couldn’t tell if he accepted it begrudgingly or sincerely. “So what’s my role in the club now, since I’m not the leader anymore. Please, assign me.” Begrudgingly, it seems.
“I don’t know, okay? Camera? Since that’s what you did last time.”
This seemed to soften his posture. “Ok.”
The odour of the past stank up the present, creating a suffocating atmosphere. The two went dead silent, glancing at everything except each other.
“You’re right.” He finally said after an insufferable minute.
“Hm?”
“I am like a loser.”
“What? Dude.”
“Everyone starts the race ahead of me man, I’m destined to lose.”
“I was just saying that to be mean. And I’m sorry for saying it.”
“Well, it was true.”
“Even if it was… are you just gonna let that stop you?”
“Huh?”
“Are you just gonna stop because you have a disadvantage? Aren’t you stronger than that?”
“I’m tired of giving 110% all the time. I think I’m just done… with the club and-”
Erin came sprinting in excitement. “Sonia, Sonia, Sonia- oh hi Sam, Sonia look!” In her hands were multiple forms for recruitment, all filled up with fresh names. Both their jaws hit the floor. “It’s like four…five…six! And there’s still more! They’re forming a queue!”
“They liked the film?” Sam asked.
Erin nodded, “They couldn’t stop laughing.”
“But it’s not a- nevermind. This- this is amazing! Oh my god!”
The trio celebrated loudly for a moment, and Erin ran back to attend to the audience. Sonia quickly tagged along too, “Well, you coming?” She asked Sam.
“What do you think?” He caught up with her and they spent the rest of the day passing out forms and collecting filled up ones. By the end, they had about fifteen in their hands, which by Sam’s unneeded calculations, added up to a functional film crew. The club now had the manpower required to make films with actual production quality, and all of that rested on Sonia. The voices came whispering back, ceasing her joy for a moment, but she pushed them aside, looking to their future prospects.
“So, since we have an entire crew, we can actually stand a chance for film festivals! I found this one-” Sam got cut off abruptly.
“-actually I don’t want to do another film festival.” Sonia said.
“Yeah well, I wanna, and I’m…” He froze. “And I’m… suggesting we should since we have a crew now…” And trailed off.
“We’re not doing competitions. We can’t produce anything good under a time limit.” Sam grumbled, which signalled a red flag to her. “We can just grow a following in school and maybe online if enough people like our stuff. Going viral is still a success Sam.”
“But we don’t earn anything from it.”
“Yeah, because money’s not the point. This is a school club. We’re here to make films and have fun, not make money.” Everyone froze. “If we actually go viral we could maybe find a way to monetize, I don’t know, but for now, there’s no way we can earn from this.”
Sam looked unconvinced.
“Now we can just work on coming up with something new to film. So…” She checked the time. “Um… bye? Dismissed? I have to get home.” Everyone went their separate way home. On the bus ride, she had a smirk she couldn’t wipe off.
**
According to her, Honey had miraculously cured her insomnia, and was getting a healthy 8-hours of sleep every night, thus the absence of their midnight talks. Sonia found the news bittersweet, and had reasons to suspect her claim. But considering everything else she's seen, her suspicions quickly melted away.
For the first time, she found herself sitting before a word document, having to type up a script as opposed to some IT-related jargon or computer code. Being completely alien to the process, she went to her mother for help, who coincidentally was also writing.
“What’s up little genius?”
She scoffed. “I need to… write a script… and I need help.”
“Come in!”
Her mother explained at length her writing process, which made little sense to her, and droned on and on about her latest draft, lighting up at discussing the change of names or places or events. Sonia quickly zoned out, taking a strange detour to Honey’s words towards her. What caused her to offer a sincere compliment for the first time, devoid of any sarcasm?
“Sonia, are you listening? What are you thinking about?”
“Huh, nothing.” Her cheeks said otherwise.
“Is it about Honey?”
She had no reason to lie, “She said something to me at work.”
“What is it?”
“She’s been doing very well so I told her I liked that and she said that was the first time I complimented her.”
“Ah, I see…”
“And it’s weird that like… that’s actually true. I’ve never complimented her straight.”
“Why? Did you think you had complimented her before?”
She nodded, “I feel like I compliment her a lot… there’s a lot to compliment on.” She blushed again, then covered her face with a pillow, “God, what am I saying? Ugh, why am I acting so weird right now? We were just having lunch and then all of a sudden I got nervous or something…” She laid down, turning away to face the wall.
“I think you know exactly what’s going on, little genius. And I support it 100%.”
“Mom!”
“I mean… it was bound to happen eventually.”
“Just help me with the script!”
“Well, ok, do you have any ideas, at all? Try drawing experiences from your life.”
“Ok…”
“Or try drawing inspiration from Charlie Chaplin!”
“Ok, thanks Mom.”
At the stroke of midnight, whilst the creative juices ran high, she figured it out. Eagerly, she told Erin and Sam the next day, one session before all the new students would start pouring in. “So, I have an idea for what we’re gonna film. It’s gonna be a comedy, there’s gonna be slapstick, and it’s gonna be about the story of four survivors on an island who have to try and work together to build a raft in order to escape, or something… that’s the basic idea. What do you think?” The two of them seemed impressed with her breakthrough, and greenlit it with a thumbs up.