Amy Bird - Yours Is Mine

She was considering leaving while she could, when a man in the chair next to her leaned towards her and whispered “Don’t worry. She’s actually not that bad. I reckon it’s just with each academic year she gets further and further away from the stage so has to create a grand role for herself in the classroom.” He smiled, brown eyes twinkling humorously. Kate laughed, appreciating the man’s attempt to put her at her ease.

“I’m Ben, by the way,” he continued, extending a hand. Kate could smell a musky kind of aftershave as she leant in to take his hand. Realising this meant he could probably also smell her eau de garlic, she made the handshake a fleeting one, though long enough to notice the soft robustness of his hands.

“Hi, Ben. I’m K- Anna.”

“I know,” he countered, winking.

Kate blushed. It was a long time since she had been winked at. Her dad used to wink at her when she was little, but since then she had found that it usually just meant a best-avoided guy was making a lame attempt to reel in a possible conquest. Neil may well have winked at her when they first met; it was the sort of thing he would do. The wink of this Ben individual was more of a friendly wink, though, she decided, showing her that he would be an ally in the class, rather than someone to be cold-shouldered for having lecherous intent. Besides, if he wanted to flirt, there were less attractive people than him, she acknowledged to herself.

Before Kate had time to respond, the tutor had turned back to the class. She stood in the centre of the semi-circle, and allowed her gaze to fall on each of the students in turn.

“Welcome! As you will know, I am Hilary Barnet and I am your tutor for the course. As you should have seen from your course guides, we are going to be focusing on characterisation. With the course only lasting one term we’re slightly limited, I’m afraid. The first few weeks will be about improvisation, working out the moods and expression you can bring in character to particular scenarios.”

That sounded great, thought Kate, smiling. She noticed Ben smiling too and they exchanged a brief glance. Kate returned her attention to Hilary.

“Then we’ll do some brief textual analysis and work towards a semi-staged performance of a couple of scenes so you can apply what you’ve learnt and you can perform to your adoring fans, or rather whatever long-suffering friends and family and possibly a dog you are able to round up.”

“I might bring a cat,” whispered Ben. Kate giggled, eliciting a stern glare from Hilary. Kate looked at the floor while Hilary continued.

“It will be quite a journey that we go on together in the coming weeks – a mental and spiritual one, and in some cases, physical, as you explore all that you can give of yourself to a character.”

There was a giggle at the word “physical” from the two girls who had been whispering earlier, and again they shot glances in Kate’s direction. They seemed to have an inexplicable fascination with her. Maybe it was just ‘new girl’ syndrome. Another glare from Hilary silenced them.

“Right. Let’s get down to it. There are a few familiar faces here, and some people I don’t know so well. I know some of you know each other – or may already have taken the bold step of initiating social intercourse” (giggles again from the two girls) “but as befits a first class today we are going to do introduction exercises.”

Kate relaxed. She needn’t have worried about that Viola speech then, she thought, wiping her hands against her jeans, conscious that her palms had been sweating since she had been in the room. She shot a covert glance at Ben. A friend had told her that everyone, in a relationship or not, did a subconscious ‘Would I or wouldn’t I?’ test when they met a member of the opposite sex to assess if they would sleep with them, if it came to it, so why not get it over with, consciously? Shaggy chestnut hair, slight stubble covering a strong jaw, well-defined eyebrows that showed perhaps the slightest signs of plucking to avoid the dreaded monobrow –

“Right, everyone!” shouted Hilary, clapping her hands. “Let’s get started. You two, work together,” said Hilary, gesturing to Kate and Ben, “and we’ll see what we come up with!”

Damn. She’d missed the instructions. Still, it couldn’t be that difficult.

“Why don’t you go first?” said Kate, turning to Ben. He began to speak, his lips plump and full, Kate saw, but a bit on the dry side. As if on cue, Ben moistened his lips. Kate jerked back slightly, hoping she hadn’t been caught in her assessment. Now she felt like the sleazy one – Ben may have winked at her, but she had almost been mentally undressing him.

“So, you got that?” he queried, looking into her eyes.

Damn. Got what?

“Ben Coltham, live in Camden, and my interesting fact (and blatant plug if it’s your kind of thing) is that I’m a trained water-skiing instructor.”

Ah, the old name, home and interesting fact exercise. Easy. Kate had done this before and had a whole host of interesting facts about herself she could use.

“OK, I’m Anna Roberts and –”

Oh, Christ. She had to give interesting facts about Anna.

Beyond the immensely interesting fact that Anna was currently engaged in an exciting psychological experiment that may or may not be a route to identity theft, she really didn’t know anything interesting about Anna. She could just say she was a psychology student but she didn’t just want to be consigned as dull for the rest of the year.

“And, um, I live in Camden too. Great place, Camden, isn’t it? All those shops, and restaurants, and, um, goths. Really great, those goths.”

Come on, Kate, think of something!

“Two minutes left everyone!” called out Hilary.

Kate began to panic, frantically trying to think of anything off the beaten track she knew about Anna. Internet dating! Yes, that would do – it was a bit different, surely, even these days.

“I’m on an internet dating site and I’ve met someone called Luke!” she blurted out, and immediately wished she could bring the words back in. She would now just be viewed as the desperate girl who shared too much information.

Ben looked surprised. Kate attempted to mock-flirt her way out of her blunder.

“What, are you surprised that an attractive girl like me would have to resort to internet dating?”

He paused. “No,” he said slowly. “It’s more the fact that you’re wearing a wedding ring – I noticed earlier.”

Blast, thought Kate, so she was. She looked down at her ring, as if amazed to see it there. She really ought to have taken it off, but she was so used to wearing it that it didn’t occur to her. She thought quickly, wondering how she could get out of this one. Trust this guy to be the sort to notice wedding rings.

“Divorced!” she yelped.

Ben nodded his head. “That explains it then. Pretty recent I guess if you’re still wearing the ring.”

“Um, yes. Pretty recent. Not strictly speaking divorced yet – just separated,” added Kate, hoping that fictitiously separating from Neil would somehow be less faithless to him than suddenly divorcing him, and slightly more of a white lie than the divorce – after all, he was thousands of miles away so they were separated in that sense. And that way she would only have made Anna married in the space of two minutes, rather than also making her go through a divorce as well.

“It must be tough – well done getting out there again on the internet,” congratulated Ben, looking sympathetic and serious.

“Oh, you know, it’s fine, hadn’t been married all that long, and he cheated on me anyway,” lied Kate, feeling she had to add some verisimilitude, while mentally apologising to Neil, Anna, and Anna’s fictitious husband for making him into such a stereotype.