Rooney clapped her hands in delight. ‘Yes.’
‘Definitely,’ said Pip.
‘Just a little one.’
‘I dunno. I think it could be a proper kiss there.’
Rooney waggled her eyebrows. ‘Ooh. Felipa’s into this.’
‘I would prefer it,’ said Pip, ‘if you did not call me that.’
Pip really, really didn’t like being called Felipa. She’d gone by Pip ever since I’d known her. She always said she preferred a more masculine-sounding name, and – with the exception of it being used by her family members – Felipa just didn’t feel like her.
Sensing the change of tone in Pip’s choice, Rooney’s smirk dropped.
‘OK,’ said Rooney, more genuinely than I’d heard her talk to Pip so far. ‘Sure. Sorry.’
Pip ruffled her hair and cleared her throat. ‘Thank you.’
They stared at each other.
And then Rooney said, ‘How about I call you Pipsqueak instead?’
Pip instantly looked like she was about to erupt, but Jason spoke before they could start having a full-blown argument. ‘So, the kiss.’
‘You don’t have to do it now,’ said Pip quickly.
‘No,’ Rooney agreed. ‘In future rehearsals, but not now.’
‘OK,’ I said, and stepped back a little, relieved.
Obviously I didn’t want to kiss Jason in front of people. And I didn’t want my first kiss to be in a play.
That was probably why I felt awkward. That was probably why I wasn’t doing my best acting right now.
That was probably why being Juliet, one of the most romantic roles in literary history, made me feel sort of nauseated.
‘That wasn’t … like … awkward or anything, was it?’ Jason whispered to me as we were packing up twenty minutes later.
‘What? No. No, it was – it was fine. Great. It was great. You were great. We’ll be great.’ Too much, Georgia.
He sighed in relief. ‘OK. Good.’
I took a moment to think about it, then before I could talk myself out of it, I said, ‘I don’t want our first kiss to be in a play.’
Jason froze in the middle of stacking chairs. Just for a second. His cheeks flushed. ‘Um, no. No, definitely not.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Yeah.’
When we turned round, I saw Pip looking at us from across the room, her eyes narrowed suspiciously. But before she could say anything, Rooney spoke.
‘Did anyone ask around to try and find our fifth member?’
‘I don’t have any other friends,’ I said immediately, as if everyone wasn’t already fully aware of this.
Jason stepped out of the room so he could finally stand up to his full height. ‘I can try and ask some of my Castle friends, but … I’m not sure they’re really the acting sort.’
‘I’ve already asked my Castle friends,’ said Pip. ‘They said no.’ She turned to Rooney. ‘Don’t you have, like, fifty best friends? Can’t you find someone?’
Rooney’s expression suddenly dropped and for a brief moment she seemed genuinely angry. But then it was gone. She rolled her eyes and said, ‘I don’t have fifty friends.’ But didn’t say more than that.
I had to agree with Pip. It was a little weird that Rooney, who was out partying at least twice a week and was down in the college bar most other days, didn’t have a single other person she could get to join.
‘What about your college husband?’ I suggested. They must have been friends, at least.
Rooney shook her head. ‘I don’t think he’s really into theatre.’
Maybe she wasn’t really as close to those people as I’d thought.
As we all stood in the autumn cold on the cobbled street outside and said our goodbyes, I wondered why Rooney cared so much about this in the first place. So much that she would go to all this effort – starting a new society, being the director, putting on her own play.
We’d known each other for a few weeks now. I knew that she was a sex-positive party girl and a Shakespeare enthusiast who could put on a smile to make you like her.
But as for why she did any of the things she did?
I had no idea.
GEORGIA WARR, FELIPA QUINTANA
Felipa Quintana
ROONEY
Georgia Warr
my name is georgia, actually Felipa Quintana
I just want to know how a person so hot can be so fucking annoying Georgia Warr
oh good
are we finally going to talk about the elephant in the room Felipa Quintana