STORY "A Pretty Face" - Chapter One

 Zoe is Angry

Zoe is seventeen, years old. She works in a bookstore in the little town of Newport. Zoe likes books and she likes her work. But after work she likes to act in plays with the Newport Players.

The Newport Players do six plays every year, and Zoe is in most of them. Some plays are famous. This week, the play is Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare.

“A lot of people are coming to see it.” Zoe thinks.

“I ,ust act well.”

Mike is eigtheen years old. He is a student at Newport College and he likes writing. One day he wants to write plays for the theatre and for television.

“One day I want to be famous,” he thinks.

Newport has a newspaper. The Newport Weekly is its name, and Mike’s Aunt Peggy is the editor. One morning, she phones Mike.

“Do you want to write a review of Romeo and Juliet for a newspaper, Mike?” she asks him. “The Newport Players are doing the play tonight at the Little Theatre.”

“Yes, please Aunt Peggy!” Mike says. “Thanks for asking me.”

That evening, he goes to Newport’s Little Theatre to see the play.

Mike goes into the theatre and sits at the front. He gets out his notebook and pen, ready to write notes for his review. There are a lot of people in the audience.

Five minutes later, the play begins. Zoe acts the part of Juliet’s mother. She knows all her words and speaks them well. Mike is watching her.

“She’s very pretty and she’s doing her best.” he thinks, “but it’s not easy to act the part of an older woman. She’s only sixteen or seventeen years old, and we all know it.”

He begins to write in his notebook.

Two hours later, the play ends and the audience leaves the theatre. Mike goes home and writes his review for the newspaper. He doesn’t feel very happy.

“It was a good play, but what can I say about the girl acting the part of Juliet’s mother?” he thinks, “I want to be kind but I must be honest, too.”

At the bookstore on Friday, Zoe reads Mike’s review of the play in the Newport Weekly News.

And Zoe Baker acts the part of Juliet’s mother. She has a pretty face and she speaks her words well. But she is a young girl in an older woman’s costume, and we all know it. She can never make me believe differently.

Zoe is angry. She looks at the name under the review: Mike Morrison.

“Who is this Mike Morrison?” she thinks, “what does he know about acting?”

_to be continued