After school the next day, I waited in the auditorium. It felt like I had been waiting forever. I looked down at my watch for the fifth time. Ugh, only fifteen minutes had passed.

"Patients is one of the most attractive qualities." A voice came from behind me. I turned to come face-to-face with Eve.

"What makes you say so?" I cocked a brow at him as he started walking down the isle.

"Well, would you like a girl who is willing to wait patiently because she loves you? Or an impatient girl who wants all of you as soon as she can have it?"

"Weeeeeell, as long as this conversation stays between us, the second doesn't seem like a bad option." I shrugged and gave an awkward smile.

"Hah," Eve chuckled then stopped in his tracks, turning to face me. "The second most attractive quality, it's respect. For yourself and for the one you love." He rolled his eyes at me and continued walking.

"So... what are we doing here?" I deadpanned.  Hey, there are other places I'd rather be.

"We have two weeks. We need to start planning and building the set."

"So, you haven't built it already?"

He huffed. "Stereotyping. No, I couldn't start working on it till we got the founding money."

"Oh." I scratched the back of my neck. He was so hard to figure out.

"We only need one platform. I was thinking, if we played it right we could use one structure to make both Rapunzel's castle and the bean stalk. Yeah, that's right! We actually get to include those scenes. In most productions of Into the Woods, they don't include them. It's going to be awesome!"

"So, you're a theater enthusiast all the sudden?"

"I have always been, why else would I be attending a theater academy?" He gave me an odd look. I shrugged. He usually did crew. I always assumed the didn't care much and didn't even want to be here.

"We already have stairs from another show we did. I want to get them up for tomorrow's rehearsal."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

"Wow. I wish I could make fun of how pathetic you are, but that would be rude of me." He mocked.

"You're not passive aggressive at all!" I added sarcastically, rolling my eyes.

"Oh! And you're not sarcastic either!" He huffed as he lead me to the shop. "See this staircase?"

"Yes."

"Goal is to get it up center stage before tomorrow. If that means we have to stay up all night, so be it!"

"Are you a vampire?"

"Why would I be a vampire?"

"I don't know. You never sleep, vampires never  sleep..."

"Ooh! Bad come-back. Ya see, vampires do sleep, during the day. I don't. I must be immortal!" He shrugged as got out the screw gun and started un-bolting the staircase so we can carry it onto stage and reassemble it. I watched him, not really knowing what to do.

"Oi! Stop staring and get the other side! Safety first." He pointed to a pair of goggles. I loved the fact that he wasn't wearing any... pfft! Smart stuff.

I put them on and got to work. In about twenty minutes we had it reassembled onstage.

"Woo!" I yelped with excitement but Eve stopped me.

"Don't you want to go ahead and set up the princes castle? We need it painted and attached to the top of the platform."

"I wanna go to bed...'

"Come on, ye lazy bum! We can have it done before eleven!" He yanked me back on stage. I sighed as he dragged me back to the shop. We started painting. It was easy like, paint by color. It's funny how patient Eve is. He must really life by his "Top Quality" rules.

"We've done all we can for the paint. We should let it set an half hour before moving it."

"Should we go get dinner? I mean, it's a little late to be eating with everyone else but we may be able to grab something and eat alone."

"Ah. You get used to eating alone when you work on crew. I will be thankful to be eating with you. Not entirely by myself for once." At that he got up and started to walk out of the auditorium, heading to the cafeteria. I huffed and ran to catch up.

Mrs. Jones, the lunch lady, was kind enough to give us a late dinner of hot dish lasagna with crisp homemade doughnuts, Ha! You're all jealous of my school now, aren't ya? We took our food to the auditorium and ate there even though we aren't allowed to 'cause we're bad boys! Yeah, real tough stuff!

"How long have you been coming here?" I questioned between bites.

"Since fifth grade."

"W-w-Wait! You're in eleventh grade now! You've been here for six years?" I gapped. He just gave a simple nod. "I haven't seen any pictures of you on the walls?"

"Do you look?" He lifted an eyebrow.

"Not for you specifically... no. But haven't you ever gotten a part?" Surely if he had been here that long he'd've been in a play at one point. He just finished the last bite of his dinner and brushed his hands off as he stood up and sat his plate aside.

"Come on. I'm not going to be able to lift the set all on my own."

Ok. Now I was curious. Who, in all reality, was Lawson Everat. What was he hiding.

And what did he want from me?