Amy: Good luck w/ the tree, should look awesome

It was his first time doing any sort of theatre art, and Brandon Arlyle sure had his work cut out for him. Perryman High was putting on the biggest musical the school AND town had ever seen and naturally, he was chosen by the drama club to design and paint the key set pieces. Canvases, sketches...even pottery, Brandon had a true talent for the arts and the whole school knew. But painting 15 foot palm trees and streetlight cutouts out of fiberboard was a different story entirely.
He was on his way to grab some finishing paints he had kept in the theatre costume closet, and chewed his nails thinking about how he could get two more pieces done in under two days. Sleep? An artist never sleeps!
Parking immediately outside of one of the school loading docks, Brandon ran up the back steps behind the theatre, then BACK to his car to turn off his lights and back up the steps to the back entrance. He seriously needed to relax.
The overhead and sidewall lights were low and dim, creating a haunted atmosphere in Perryman High’s little theatre. However, the show was to go on at the community center for performing arts as the expected turnout was supposed to number in the hundreds. Many talented kids were taking part and acting in Break A Leg, Lucky! a musical about the business of beauty pageants and live shows in 1960’s Las Vegas. Most of the cast and crew were rehearsing downtown for the final days before the performance...everyone except for Brandon.
A quick walk behind stage-left led to the little theatre offices, storage rooms and costume supply. Walking into costume supply always made Brandon sneeze and sniffle as the jungle of old curtains, clothes, robes, and costume accessories released waves of dusty fibers all throughout the space. Garments of every hue and fiber jutted from hangers and boxes and trunks, all in disarray from designers coming and going to augment available clothing as the dingy lights whined overheard.
Looking up and with mouth agape, Brandon felt the first sneeze coming on as he clenched his eyes-
“AAAAAGGGGHHHHCHHYYYYYEEEOOOOOO!!!!”
“HULOMPH!?!?”...from some corner of the room was what he got in response.
“Hello???” Brandon whipped his head about and narrowed his gaze.
“Bleehinth thuh murrurmph!!!” came the voice.
“What? Who’s in here?”
“BLEEEEHHIIINDTH. THUH. MIRRUUHMPH.,” the voice said a little louder this time with a touch of annoyance.
What accent is that? Brandon thought, as he walked to a grand yet weathered old mirror propped in front of a sewing bench.
As he heaved it aside on its wheels and revealed what was behind, he got out his phone with trembling hands and finally texted Amy back.
Brandon: Found her.
The girl bounced her heeled toes up-and-down frantically and stretched her neck out to Brandon.
He put his still-quaking hand on the gag in her mouth and pulled it down, his fingertips damp from the cloth.
“Uhmmm... Tah Dah!”
Sharon Tilly sat bound and nearly naked in a bright red string bikini that was entirely too small for a girl her stature. She was a fairly popular senior at Perryman High and one of the leads for the musical; the villainous beauty pageant queen Patty Pratcher. In reality, Sharon’s true personality was playfully eccentric and bubbly, and she could transform her manner for just about any character. In any case she was a looker, taller than most as well, and her thick dirty blonde hair and heavy eyeshadow made her a different creature altogether. Cute as ever, just, sultry and cunning now, like a woman who knew how to handle herself in show business.
She sat in obvious discomfort, bound with wide cords of heavy duty stage rope, in frantic but effective knotwork which kept her ankles, knees and thighs locked and arms and wrists completely immobile.
She brushed Brandon with her raised golden and sparkling high heeled shoes and gave a cute shrug.
“Well...Janice finally snapped.”
“What the hell?” Brandon tried his best to only look at her face.
Sharon poured the explanation forth in a word waterfall and bobbed her head as she spoke in a sing-song cadence: “Well, I got home today, and wanted to go over the 2nd number for the 44th time, before rehearsal tonight, and got into character, so I put on the bikini in my room, and when I put it on, it was OBVIOUSLY the wrong size, and figured I mixed it up, AGAIN, and so I rushed here STILL in costume, and I thought no one was here too, and then out of nowhere, I got tackled to the ground, and it was Janice on top of me, and SHE THREATENED ME BRANDON! SHE THREATENED TO SMEAR MY MAKEUP IF I STRUGGLED!!! I SPENT, like, FOREVER ON POWDERING AND...”
Brandon shot a hand forward, covering her mouth and Sharon’s eyes bugged in a squeal of surprise. He put the palm to his face while at the same time, strangely wishing he could keep it there... “Sharon. Just tell me why she did this to you.”
Sharon raised a single eyebrow and tilted her head. “Uhhh, she’s my understudy, DUH. Probably some, like, batshit insane plan to get my role if I didn’t show up to the main rehearsal tonight. Like Ms. Maynerd would have that happen! Jan has ZERO business singing, even if she does do a solid dance routine...”
“Let me get you undone so you can make it to rehearsal, I’ve...got a lot of...work to do too...” Brandon gulped as he ogled Sharon’s cleavage and the soft exposed skin of her hips. He ran into Sharon a lot lately these last few months of his senior year, what with the work to be done for the musical, and had always found her peppy personality and expressive features a complete turn-on. But seeing her in this wild state set his heart pounding.
As he stooped to untie the damsel’s ankles, Sharon screeched “Behind you!” The last thing Brandon remembered was a gloved hand over his face and a sickly sweet scent overwhelming him as he tried bucking his body in defiance, his vision going fuzzy and grey until he was out like a spotlight.
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