I was late to drama class again. I slowly walked up to the teacher, Mr. Myer, the only good teacher in the school, and handed him the principal's note.

He looked it over once, then up at me, then down at the note again. "Really, Ray?" He sighed and put the note in a drawer in his desk.

"You get to memorize all of the lines of this play," he said handing me a small book in papers, "but you just lost your opportunity to act in the play." I nodded solemnly, I had known it was coming and was surprised he let me stay in the class. He turned and called out, "Rob, you get to play purple, memorize those lines!"

I could not have despised Rob more at that moment.

I headed off to a little corner of the room to start memorizing. The worst part was listening to Rob messing up the lines over and over again. As I turned to look at him I could see his smile as he spoke right to my corner of the room.

Luckily for me, his new practice buddy was Wave. One of my only friends, once he caught on to what was happening he gave me a sorry smile and somehow managed to move Rob to the other side of the room.

After a minute or two Star managed to drift her way over.

"Could you help me memorize these lines?" She asked, trying to catch my eye. I knew she wanted to talk about what had happened, but I was in no mood to talk about it and we weren't allowed to talk about it during class. Or let's be honest, I didn't want to look into her brilliant white eyes and see the sadness I knew would be there.

"Sure," I said without looking up, "which part?"

"That one tragic part where the purple loses all hope, but then finds it again." She said simply, "I think it starts on page 36"

She knew me too well. Within moments we were acting out one of the greatest scenes of all time, and the world slowly seemed to change. As I spoke I could feel my chest beginning to ache again, but it must just be my heart yearning for the role, the play, the drama!

I became immersed, memorized, enthralled! Somehow the small part between Star and I suddenly had another actor joining, throwing the solid strength of brown into the mix. I responded that "simply nothing could change the inevitable doom!"

Yet yellow’s hopeful ray responded brightening the lost purple nobleman, perhaps everything would be fine after all. The practice became a full-scale performance, seeming to enliven my very soul. Star, the main character (a white of course) could not go on without her grand friend, yet here was the revival of a lifetime!

As Star finished the closing lines of the scene I heard a soft clapping coming from behind us. I realized that in our excitement we had pulled together almost every actor, as they called their lines in, and moved around the stage.

I turned to find Mr. Myers' purple eyes staring deep into mine, they seemed to pose a question, but I couldn't tell what it was. "Quite the script there" was all he said, "On that lovely note, class dismissed!" He turned and stepped into his office.

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I looked around. Everyone was standing on stage. That is, everyone but Rob. He was standing off to the side, his eyes drilling me like lasers. He turned and followed Mr. Myer into his office looking furious.

"Uh-oh," I breathed, wondering what was coming next. I didn't have much time to dwell upon it, because, at that moment, Wave seemed to appear crashing me with question after question.

"How did you act that so well without notes? So what actually happened earlier? Are you really not getting to act in the show after what you just did? Are you still planning on coming to my place tonight, you promised!"

After a second he ran out of breath and had to breathe again.

I answered as quickly as I could in his brief silence, "I love this play, I don't want to talk about it. No, I don't get to perform in the play, and no I don't think I should come over."

I had barely finished speaking before he was talking again, "come on please, please please come over! You promised, and look, even if no one likes you it doesn't matter, you can see some parts of my house. Besides you promised."

He started taking his breath again so I shot my compromise, "If Rob doesn't show up I guess I can come"

Wave looked a little uncomfortable, "Rob wouldn't miss a thing like this, he helped build the place… but we can just head over there right now to prepare, you, Star, and I and we can figure something out over there!"

He knew that if he got me to his place I wouldn't leave, I hated traveling the overworld, and refused to do it alone.

Star could see my train of thought and she tapped Wave on the shoulder, "would you grab my bag for me? '' she asked with a smile. He looked slowly back and forth between me and her. I could see him thinking "what is the best way to get Ray to my place?" I saw something click and he nodded.

"Ya, I'll go get your stuff," he said happily.

I sighed "WhyWhat do you have to try to change my mind?" I asked nervously. I was waiting for Rob to throw open the door any moment now and was feeling like maybe I shouldn't be here when he did.

I could see Star looking into my eyes, but I wouldn't meet her eyes. I knew the moment I did I would lose the battle and start crying. White eyes were the closest thing to what my father had the last time I had seen him. I hated that.

In the corner of my eye, I saw her blow a little strand of blond hair from her face. She was so pretty. I really should stop annoying her.

"You know you want to go," she said softly.

I shook my head, "no," I said softly, “I want to lie down and let all my troubles just overwhelm me until I become like my dad. Broken. Disgraced. Pitiful. Lost. Untrustable."

"No you don't," she softly cooed, "and you know your father wasn't any of those, who told you that?"

"Do you want me to name just the last day?" I said quietly, "I think there are at least three who have said it straight to my face."

She was silent for a moment, looking me over than softly spoke.

"Oh… that is why…"

"Yes, that is why! You know no one gives two craps because of what my dad did." I snapped back.

"No, not that," she said, a little taken aback, "I was going to point out the bruises on your chest. Where did you get those?"

I froze and looked down, the collar of my shirt was loose enough that Star could barely see the first of the bruises.

"It doesn't matter," I said firmly, not wanting to fight that battle.

She looked deep into my eyes, and I could feel her searching for something. I knew if I met her eyes she would know.

"Here, how does this sound," she finally said, "you come to Wave's place with the two of us, and when Rob shows up, he can hold the pocket together and we can come back here."

I bounced the idea around in my head a little bit and couldn't see any way out of it, "Fine I'll come" I finally said.

Wave seemed to step in just in time to hear that. "Awesome! I am so pumped for this!!!"