Hi It’s me (with a Drabble request)
back on my joe x orel crap
a first/stolen kiss, perhaps?
Oo sounds cute!! This was really fun to write :3
Things to note:
-Incredibly light swearing for once(if it counts, just hell, once)
-Joe is trans and faces a little transphobia from Dale, since he calls him her
-Note: This was written before I knew Joe and Orel were related
Joe and Orel walked down the hallway one day while heading out to recess, their favorite part of the day. Orel saw something that caught his eye. It looked like a poster sign-up sheet for something new happening at the school that was pinned to the community corkboard. He stopped in his tracks and Joe sighed because he just had to stop. Well, he could walk on, but Orel would just call him back anyways so what was the point?
Orel quickly read the poster inside his own mind colosseum, like reading off a teleprompter.
“Greetings students of Diamora Elementary! It is I, the great Dale Armature(you may remember me from the last play I did-ok maybe don’t remember), anyways I am proposing that we do a Romeo and Juliet play. However, I need a face like yours in it so sign up if you are interested.”
Next to it, there was a photo of himself shrugging while looking awkwardly into the camera with the same art style as the Uncle Sam poster.
Orel happily signed his name onto the loose-leaf paper. He didn’t know who he would be, considering he was Judas of all people last time, he just hoped he wouldn’t be Tybalt.
“The hell’s that?” Joe asked after Orel wrote down his name.
“It’s for Romeo and Juliet! You should sign up!”
He recoiled a bit. He never did like being out on stage the first time it came around. “Why should I? You already know who they’ll cast me as anyways…”
“Oh…?” Orel took a moment to remember. “Oh…well there’s no guarantee, Joe! I think you could be a fine Romeo!”
“...” He took a moment to think. Ordinarily, he would just punch Orel in the arm and play tetherball with him at recess. However, he had heard from his sister that his mom really tried to go to the last one, despite him having a rather small role, but couldn’t due to work. This is the least he could do for her. He rolled his eyes and scribbled his name down.
“Can we go to recess now?”
“Yea! It’s just…golly! I can’t wait to rehearse with you.”
“Don’t get your hopes up…that’s if we get accepted.”
They headed out to recess as the play was at the forefront of Orel’s mind and at the back of Joe’s. Over the course of a week or so, enough people had signed up, surprisingly, and the show was going to happen. Everyone-well, everyone who was interested-gathered around the corkboard to see what the official cast list said around recess time. Orel and Joe were some of the last ones there, but they couldn’t believe what they saw.
Mercutio - Doughy Latchkey
Rosaline- Christina Posabule
Orel smiled to himself before reading onward, though he didn’t recognize some of the characters.
Juliet - Joe Secondopionsion
As people read to the bottom of the list, there was some murmured giggling, since although they found it funny, they didn’t want to die, they did find it a bit humorous that the biggest bully at school was going to play a princess.
“Shut the hell up you goofy toons!” Joe shouted haphazardly while sticking his tongue out like his signature punctuation mark. Everyone who was gathered around quickly scattered out like a group of rats as they discussed what roles they had amongst each other. Sure, they were used to his usual outbursts, but it never came out all at once like that before.
Joe’s tune turned sour pretty quickly once everyone left. “...” He looked at Orel. He didn’t know why but he just found a bit of comfort in him, or his eyes, hard to say really. “...do ya think I can get away with just wearing this?”
Orel shrugged. He was supportive of him, of course, but he wasn’t sure at all. After all, Juliet is a princess and princesses do wear dresses after all. “Maybe we can talk to the director guy after school.”
“Thanks…” He gave the faintest hint of a smile.
They went on about their day, learning academics and religion alike. Eventually, after school came and they both walked into the auditorium where Dale was practicing some dramatic music on the piano. As they approached he jumped like a wet cat, not expecting people.
“Yes, Orel?” He turned to look at him swiftly. “What’s up? Excited to get your script already?”
“Well…I am but we came to speak to you about…costume design…”
Joe stared daggers at him, it happened all the time and still annoyed him to no end. Not that he could do much about it though without being burnt at the stake.
“Uh…hers…I guess. About Juliet’s costume, what does she wear?”
“Well…couldn’t Juliet wear…just a t-shirt and pants or something…” Orel said as he trailed off.
Dale looked at him blankly, like he was crazy.
“I-I mean uh-” He stammered, trying to come up with an excuse.
It was now Joe’s turn to look at Dale blankly. “Does it really matter what I wear as long as I act the best? Plus I’m allergic to most fabrics anyways other than the ones in t-shirts and jeans.” Joe lied confidently.
Dale shrugged. “Whatever…do whatever you want, kid. Just means more money for the other costumes…and food if this thing falls under.” He said the last part under his breath, before clearing his throat. “Anyways, here are your scripts, you two.”
They said their thanks and spent the next 3 weeks or so going over all the lines with others, by themselves, and with each other. Joe didn’t mind as much being a part of the play since there was violence at least, but still, despite that, it didn’t help what role he was given. They were always antsy about doing the last scene before Juliet stabs herself, they talked about it a lot, sure, but they never really came to any conclusion.
The night of the first showing of the play quickly came. Nurse Bendy drove Joe and Bloberta, reluctantly, drove Orel, since Clay was…busy. They dropped them off and they went behind the stage and started rehearsing as the opening scene began.
Throughout the play, there were a couple of slip-ups here and there, but for elementary school kids, it wasn’t too bad of a job. However, during the play, something about the lighting or maybe the fact they had an audience, Joe and Orel’s romantic actions towards one another became more and more genuinely romantic as they grew together. Then came the scene they dreaded.
After Joe ‘poisoned’ himself and fell ‘dead’ in his tomb, Orel stabbed himself with the knife he had slain Kid One with. Orel went over to Joe’s tomb and had to make sure he was truly dead. He hesitated though since the original scene had Romeo check Juliet by kissing her lips to see if she was still alive. He leaned down into the tomb a bit as he looked at Joe.
They shared a look of bewilderment as if neither of them knew it was going to happen. After a few seconds, someone in the audience cleared their throat. Crap. They were taking too long, it would be suspicious if he stayed down there too long for a lot of reasons.
Orel tried to mouth out words quickly ‘Do you want to or-’
Before either of them could whisper out a word to each other, Joe rolled his eyes and pulled on the ruff of his Romeo outfit, and kissed him, albeit briefly. Once Orel did come back up from his momentary confused daze, it was obvious by the shade of his face that he did actually kiss him. He tried to go through the rest of the scene since it was relatively short before he would stab himself.
Joe did the same shortly after and the play was over, with Orel still being beet red. After the show was over, everyone went into the back for a few minutes to celebrate and get something to eat for their troubles.
Orel looked at Joe. “H-Hey Joe…why’d you do that, back there?”
“O-Oh…” He took a bit of time to process. “I-I like you too Joe.”
“Yea I can tell from your face. ‘Til next time.” Despite his cool demeanor, Joe was absolutely melting on the inside from his first kiss, especially being with the boy he loved the most, not that he would ever willingly admit that, of course. He walked out to his mom in the audience.
Orel watched him for a few moments, sighing happily. “...he likes me back…”
