Lessons in Lesbianism - 13 (Patreon)

These Forgeries Of Jealousy

The Plays and Performances midterm performances were Olivia’s last, which made her somewhat glad to be going fairly early in the whole process. Still, being the second group to go was a little bit early in it all for her liking.

Still, she was pretty sure that she and Candace did a good job keeping the audience engaged about characters they knew nothing about. Which was a serious challenge. Especially while her head was still spinning over how her view of the world had changed so thoroughly recently. Still, finishing the midterm was a relief off of her shoulders.

Watching the other performances afterwards then kept her busy for the rest of the period. Or, somewhat busy. Because, unfortunately, no longer having the performance hovering over her head, her mind was able to start drifting to the situation with Eliza.

It was obvious that Eliza would have heard about her little realisation the day before. They both lived in the same pod, after all. And Olivia had ended up being rather public with her inadvertent coming out. They hadn’t discussed it during dance class, though. Even though it had been a normal class again, where there was time to chat during practice time.

Olivia had to wonder if the rumour had spread out of her pod. Had Jessica heard yet?

Though, maybe Jessica had figured it out before Olivia had. That would explain the way she’d treated her the whole time.

Whatever the case, though, two performances did keep her focus.

Kala’s, where she got to see a proper performance from her roommate. Kala brought a playfulness to the way she put on a mask of faux-masculinity for her stage-boy persona. Her well honed skills at playing the part, through forced real life experience, were on display and she was happy to show that she could play with the ideas more deeply than most other performances.

Then, of course, there was Eliza’s performance. Even if Olivia hadn’t had all her complicated feelings, Eliza simply had such a strong presence when performing. Everyone’s eyes were locked on her. She looked gorgeously handsome and her booming voice pulled in any attention that wavered. Not to mention the fact that she could act. Her role was not her generally amicable self, yet she inhabited the role of a tired and bitter businessman with impressive skill.

-

After the class, Eliza didn’t ask to walk back to the pod with them. Olivia had no idea what to make of that. Presumably it related to her no longer being a ‘harmless straight friend’.

It was probably for the best. It helped to avoid awkwardness and to keep Olivia from pining for the impossible hopes she’d had.

-

By the next dance class, Jessica had definitely heard the news about Olivia’s sexuality. Actresses (and actors) were incapable of staying quiet on gossip and rumours. Which meant the redheaded woman was eyeing Olivia with extreme suspicion.

To the point she seemed to practically snarl for any points where Olivia found herself practicing dance moves with Eliza. Nervousness about Jessica’s possible reaction did help to keep Olivia from… enjoying the return to physical contact in dance practice. Though no longer being as confused and frazzled meant that Olivia’s brain was no longer defenceless against any desires of her body. So she handled the physical proximity better.

She was also glad that Ms. Applewood ran a tight ship and did not really give them much time to stop and talk about things. That helped cover some awkwardness.

For the morning.

Plays and Performances would be another matter.

They had all seen their marks online, some students grumbling and complaining before the class. It proved to have been a somewhat harsh marking. That did helped Olivia feel better about having gotten good marks. A bit of a confidence boost in a sea of emotional turmoil.

Jessica again followed Eliza into the class, giving Olivia some exceptional stink eye before the teacher chased her off.

“Having evaluated your performances,” the teacher said, once the period started, “I can now assign you your parts for the end of term play. This gives you roughly two months to prepare, but don’t think you can leave it all to the last minute. You’re not simply learning how to perform a play. You’re learning the craft as a whole. I will be holding you all to the highest standard you’ve yet experienced.”

She then picked up a large stack of scripts and began walking across the room, handing them out. Olivia was able to see that each had a character name written on them (under a student number).

The one to land on Kala’s desk had ‘Robin/Puck’ written onto it, the teacher giving her a small smile. “You’ve got a good playful demeanor. I’m sure you’ll do excellently.”

“Mhm, though maybe we’ll have to change up where the changeling Oberon is after is from?” she replied with a grin.

The teacher smirked slightly before handing Olivia her script.

“Titania?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“You’re tall and have something of a uniquely ethereal beauty to you. It seems fitting for a fairy queen,” the teacher replied.

“Ah,” Olivia mumbled quietly.

She was sure ‘ethereal beauty’ was a polite way to say she didn’t pass as well as she tried to pretend she did. Still, she tried to smile and ignore how it made her feel.

Olivia then watched the teacher hand out a few more scripts. Once they were all handed out, the teacher told them that they should go find the other roles they were going to most interact with.

“I suppose we must find our lord Oberon,” Kala said, getting to her feet.

“Most definitely, dear Puck,” Olivia replied, deciding to try to move on from her awkward feelings by hiding them behind the mask of Titania.

A bit of wandering through the room led to her bumping into Candace again, and discovering she was playing one of Titania’s fairies, along with a few other similarly petite stagemaidens. The crowd of them following her around did little to help her forget her height.

The Bottom for the performance turned out to be a stage-boy named Sam. She was one of the shorter stageboys in the class, and left Olivia feeling even more awkwardly gangly. The rest of the performers for the play within the play had been cast as stage-maidens, helping to make the gender balance of the parts better fit the students available.

However, having heard most of the class stating their parts, Olivia and Kala both exchanged nervous looks. There was one person they’d been purposefully avoiding who was getting more and more likely to have to be the Oberon, by process of elimination.

“Proud Titania?” Eliza asked, strolling over to the pair of them, her script open in one hand.

“What, Jealous Oberon?” Olivia replied.

“Alas, the queen hath come within my lord Oberon’s sight,” Kala added, improvising a little with her lines.

Eliza offered a smile, which Olivia replied to with an icy stare.

“Good! Good!” the teacher said, strolling over. “Exactly the energy you two should have.”

“Such a shame she can’t have her preferred bouncing Amazon in this performance,” Olivia muttered.

Despite her feelings, though, Olivia was a true thespian. The show had to go on. So she ignored the emotional struggle and worked through the rehearsal efforts. She managed to get the fire in her gut for the beginning of the play with little effort.

Moving on to the romantic scenes with Bottom/Sam, though. That was interesting. Giving such romantic dialogue to another woman just after accepting her sexuality hit home harder than she’d expected. Sam was rather handsome… though maybe a bit short for Olivia’s liking.

She was still processing those feelings when it came time to reach the ending. Where she was meant to forgive Oberon. In the end, Olivia did it through her teeth, not feeling prepared to forgive Eliza.

Annoyingly, Eliza seemed to not quite have grasped the tension and played the whole thing flawlessly. Which left only Olivia getting dirty looks from the teacher for poor acting.

-

After the class, again Eliza did not follow Kala and Olivia to their pod. Her lack of communication and generally unclear behaviour did leave Olivia wondering just where she stood with her.

Not wanting to dwell on that, she asked Kala to head straight for dinner, which the other woman was happy to do. Especially as there were good pizza options that night, and Kala had wanted to get some before it ran out.

They spent a while chatting about nothing in particular, mostly glad to be free of the stress of midterms.

Eventually they both returned to their room, Olivia pulling out her laptop to want to play a game for a bit. Only to find a message from her mother on facespace.

[Portia misses you. You should come back for a few days on reading week.]

Olivia stared at the message. Biting her lip, she wondered what to say. She didn’t really want to go back home to deal with her parents. Not that soon. It had only been a couple weeks since she’d been, and would only be a couple more weeks until reading week.

But she did want to spend more time with Portia. The little toddler was cute and she truly didn’t want to risk her forgetting about her big sister. It was an important time, developmentally.

“What’s wrong?” Kala asked, leaning over from her desk. “Don’t tell me douche boy is trying to weasel back.”

“No. No. It’s my mum. She wants me to go back on reading week.”

Kala grimaced at that.

“Yeah. But she says Portia misses me, and… I do miss her,” Olivia replied.

“Alright. That’s acceptable,” Kala said with a small nod. “She looked pretty adorable in the pictures your showed me. You’re allowed to feel unsure about that.”

“What do you think, though?” Olivia asked.

“Is your mum’s cooking any good?”

“Ehh…”

“Then I wouldn’t,” Kala replied. “You want at least two reasons to go somewhere, if there’s good reasons not to go.”

Olivia nodded, turning back to try to convince herself to tell her mother no. Only to find her fingers betraying her and choosing the conflict-free option of [Just a couple days?].

Kala was staring at her, and clearly read what she’d done on her face.

“I’m bad at saying no to people,” Olivia offered weakly.

Making a face, Kala gave a small shrug. “Yeah. I should have realised that. You did date that jerk-face for years.”

Slumping against her desk, Olivia let out a small whine. “It’s true…”

“You’re still young, it’s alright,” Kala said in an authoritative tone, gently patting her on the head.

“Thaaanks,” Olivia mumbled, not sure if the small age gap between them let Kala speak with that much wisdom of age.

-

The next couple of days moved in similar awkward uncertainty regarding Eliza. A situation made worse by both of them making efforts to avoid the other as best as they could.

In an effort to further decrease the odds of awkward run-ins, Olivia took to taking walks in the cool and grey October weather. There was only so much to explore on the island, but she found it calming to spend time near the water. The beaches were generally empty, so she usually found some solitude fairly easily.

Just her and the gentle lapping of the ocean against the sandy or rocky portions of the shores. Staring out at the nearby islands.

On Friday, after further awkwardness due to her and Eliza’s shared classes, she found herself beating herself up for having messed up so much. Why couldn’t she have realised she was a lesbian while Eliza had still been single?

Though, that would have likely also gone poorly. It wasn’t like she was in Eliza’s league at all.

After all, it was clear Eliza was settling for Jessica, and she was stunning. Tall (for a cis girl), with hips that Olivia could only dream of having, and seriously beautiful.

Questionable personality, sure, but Olivia couldn’t exactly pretend her personality was all that many leagues better than Jessica’s to make up for her inferior looks.

Letting out a sigh over having made herself feel depressed, Olivia decided she should probably start heading back to her room. Maybe some of the other girls in the pod would want to do something, what with it being a Friday night. They did frequently set up yboys or gamestations for a gaming night. That might be a good distraction.

Even if she was terrible at the first person shooters and sports games they liked.

As she started walking down the path back to the pod, she was given the mildly unpleasant surprise of seeing Eliza jogging towards her. Olivia stepped aside, and gave a sort of awkward wave.

“Oh, hey! What a surprise,” Eliza said, slowing to jog in place. “Um… how are you?”

“Uh. Alright? The same as I was a couple of hours ago in class?” Olivia replied, not sure what to make of Eliza’s slightly too large smile.

“Good! Great! Yeah! I…” the taller woman trailed off. “Um… got to keep going. Exercise. Cardio! All that.”

With that, she set off back down the path again. Utterly confused, Olivia stood there and watched her leave, not knowing what to make of that ‘conversation’.

Just as she was starting to continue down the path, a quartet of other women came jogging along, looking rather out of breath.

“How… how long is… she going to… keep jogging for,” the one wheezed. “I can’t keep up.”

“Dunno,” another said. “Also don’t know… why she jogged past… this beach… four times…”

“I give up,” a third said. “We can’t… even see her… from back here.”

Despite the protests, all four of them continued to jog after Eliza. It was amazing the fanclub she’d gained. And maintained, even after starting to date someone. It did make Jessica’s obsessive jealousy make some sense, though.

But… why would she have passed by the beach so many times? Olivia had been the only person there. Had she been waiting for Olivia to leave, so that she could do some yoga or something?

Maybe it was her favourite beach?