welcome to the renaissance [ackley]

With Tomie and Benny and JR and basically all of her friends from school gone back to the UK, Shelby Trickett found herself suddenly very lonely. How had she missed the memo that everyone was only staying for July? She felt like a fool asking Dad if she could stay the whole month and a bit now.

There were some people who were new to camp during the back three weeks, of course, but it seemed like half of the world’s wizarding youth had only committed to July. The counselors seemed similarly confused, some restarting their lessons entirely for the new folk and some trying instead to catch the new kids up. Shelby’s main outdoor activities, boating and hiking, had all reset the curriculum and that was boring- she had already learned all that. So, on Carla’s excellent advice, Shelby had signed up for Performing Arts.

Shelby regretted signing up for performing arts.

She had not been given a big role in the cast in the little show, an abridged wizard version of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Nights Dream. In fact, she hadn’t been given much of a role at all. She was initially cast as Peasebottom, but Shelby was too tall to match with the other girls, so now she was playing Francis Flute, which was a boys role and also heavily cut from the source material. Shelby was kind of sad, but there were only so many girls roles. And she was too tall to be a fairy, or a princess, so that was that.

All the other Mechanicals had broken into pairs to practice lines, and Shelby was with Ackley Byrne. He was muggleborn, Shelby had learned already, but wasn’t that the same last name as that famous wizard actor? She needed to stop assuming everyone with the same last name was related, maybe.

Shelby sat down on the grass next to the younger kid, tucking her legs under her, script on her lap. “Um, where do you want to start from?” She should be taking charge, she was older, but Shelby wasn’t comfortable doing that.

@Ackley Byrne

Ackley was excited!

Not only was magic real and he got to be a part of a whole new world, but he was in a foreign country for the first time! The opportunity to travel abroad had always been one of those things his parents would answer with a hurried ‘maybe next year’ whenever he asked about it. Ackley knew he was lucky to be here. His mother had been very uncomfortable with the idea of sending her son abroad for two weeks, especially since he’d soon be departing for Hogwarts until Christmas. However, he’d won her over with the argument that it was a perfect chance to make new friends and discover more about the magical world. He could be so smart sometimes! He thought with a smug smile anytime the memory of that day entered his mind. 

The eleven year old had signed up for what he considered to be a balanced mixture of activities namely outdoor sports, the sciences, and creative arts. That is how Ackley found himself partnered with a slightly older girl he thought was nice, but a little too quiet for his taste. He liked loudness and drama after all! Ackley was clad in a pale yellow shirt and a pair of baggy blue jeans; both of which were smudged with mud from the outdoor games he’d played earlier that day.

The halfblood let out a gasp of surprise when Shelby asked for his opinion. He had expected the older girl to take charge leaving him with the task of following her orders to the letter. “Uhm, let me think…” he requested as his gaze flickered to the script on his lap. The eleven year old decided on what he deemed the most logical course of action. “How about we practice our scenes in the order they appear in the play!” He declared confidently. While Ackley hadn’t expected to be given an opportunity to lead the session he wasn’t afraid to do so now it had been presented to him.

“So our first lines would be the part where Quince gives Flute the role of Thisby” he clarified in an excited tone of voice. Ackley had been assigned the role of Peter Quince who was the author of a play within the play. A concept the eleven year old found frankly mind bogging. He hadn’t read the original play, but Quince seemed quite funny in this version at least.

However, instead of starting off the scene, Ackley tilted his head and queried in a most serious tone “don’t you find it strange to be a girl playing the role of a boy?” There was no malice to the question. Ackley was simply too blunt for his own good. He’d find it strange playing a girl and therefore he expected everyone else to feel the same about playing a role of the opposite gender.

Shelby nodded. Going through it chronologically seemed logical, and maybe there would be something's the narrative as it unfolded that would help Shelby get into the whole acting thing. The boy was a bit like her other friends - confident, outdoorsy (judging by the grass stains), and happy to take the reigns from her. Which was good. Shelby had taken charge once and what had that gotten her? A broken window and a guilty conscious.

Nodding again, Shelby flicked through the wire-bound script to find the scene in question. It was the first scene with the Mechanicals - Act one, scene two. It seemed really complicated to her, to try and pretend to be someone who was pretending to be someone else. She noticed, blessedly, that she had relatively few lines.

Ackley's question took her by surprise. "Um," she said, stalling while she pondered it. It wasn't weird, exactly, but it was kind of weird, but in a fun way? She had definitely been happier to be given a guy's part than a girl's part. The girls in this play seemed to do nothing but be sad and get kissed. "I don't think it's that strange," she said eventually. "I read somewhere that originally, all the parts were played by guys, anyway, so how weird is it to turn that around?"

She was happier chatting rather than trying to act, so Shelby shot back her own question. "Do you know much about Shakespeare? I heard it's big in the muggle world."

Ackley nodded as he pondered on her words. Hadn’t he read somewhere the role of Peter Pan was usually played by a girl when it was shown in the west end? Not that he’d ever been to a west end show. They were ridiculously expensive, as his mother would say. He supposed his aversion to the idea of playing a girl came from the fact they were often portrayed as helpless and/or madly in love, and who would want to play a role like that?

The Briton had just opened his mouth to answer when Shelby shot back with a question of her own. “Yeah, everyone’s heard of Shakespeare” he agreed confidently. Even if he and most of his peers had never read a book by him they’d at least heard of the man. “I watched Romeo and Juliet at a friend’s house last year.  It was so boring” the word so drawn out for extra emphasis. His bright grin turned into a grimace as he recalled the occasion. “All they did was moan while saying silly stuff like ‘Romeo, Romeo, wherefore thou Romeo?” The last said in a higher pitched tone. The eleven year was clearly mocking the over dramatic nature of the plays dialogue. “Give me Spider-Man any day” he proclaimed! Ackley’s expression instantly brightened at the thought of his beloved super hero.

It was then Ackley noticed their teacher was approaching them. He assumed she had been drawn by the sound of discussion, which was not related to the topic of her lesson. Ackley winked playfully at Shelby before he began reading from the script. “No, no, no, Flute you must play Thisby and Bottom can play Pyramus” the words were proclaimed loudly and delivered in an over the top manner. Ackley wasn’t taking the rehearsal seriously and it showed. He smiled brightly at Shelby, his eyes shining with a mischievous glint as he waited on her response. Anything to appease their teacher enough that she'd move on and allow the real discussion to continue.

Yeah, everyone's heard of Shakespeare. The air with which Ackley said it made Shelby feel a little - not envious, just not very smart. If everyone in the muggle world had heard of this guy, and they all knew who Merlin was, sort of - then wasn't it Shelby who was the fool for not knowing anything? Like what the heck was the Romeo and Juliet business? She giggles a little at Ackley's rendition of the scene, feeling altogether like she was missing something. "Is that one supposed to be funny? Like this one is?" Stupid question already, Shelby! She wasn't going to embarrass herself further by asking who Spiderman was.

No, yes she was. "Who's Spider-Man?"

It was then Ackley noticed their teacher was approaching them. He assumed she had been drawn by the sound of discussion, which was not related to the topic of her lesson. Ackley winked playfully at Shelby before he began reading from the script. “No, no, no, Flute you must play Thisby and Bottom can play Pyramus” the words were proclaimed loudly and delivered in an over the top manner. Ackley wasn’t taking the rehearsal seriously and it showed. He smiled brightly at Shelby, his eyes shining with a mischievous glint as he waited on her response. Anything to appease their teacher enough that she'd move on and allow the real discussion to continue.

The teacher was glaring at her from over Ackley's head - she ducked down, mumbling something from the script. Wait, these weren't her lines, anyway- "That would hang us, every mother's son," she stumbled through, not daring to look up lest the teacher was still there.