text: [Themes: modern]
  
  After everyone has decided on roles, the cold reading begins.
  
  "What's up, guys? I'm Roxy," says Megan to the audience, miming smoking a cigarette, as Roxy is supposed to do. "And here's my school."
  
  "Roxy! You're late!" yells Evan, acting as a teacher.
  
  "Sorry, Mr. H-something." says Megan, giggling to her friends.
  
  "It's Mr. Hunprolaenmofdrotekmermo, how can you not know that? It's already the second week of school!" Evan says, trying painfully hard to make the lame joke funny.
  
  "Sorry, Mr. Hunpro...lan...mofdro..." Megan says slowly.
  
  "Oh, save it. No one ever remembers my name..." says Evan, sniffling.
  
  "Real classy, coming in late with a coffee..." says Wendy, acting as Roxy's friend Lavender.
  
  "Oh shush, Lav."
  
  "Today we'll be learning about threats to the environment," says Evan.
  
  "Oh my god, boring..." says Megan.
  
  In the play, Roxy continues to act bored while Mr. Hun-whatever continues to tell her the topic is serious, until the bell rings. Roxy goes out on a date with her boyfriend Skylar, and they go to the park, where they admire the beautiful nature and rolling leaves. Your character litters, and Roxy asks you to stop, which you begrudgingly do. Roxy meets some other characters, like an old man in the park with a terminal illness, which teaches her the value of life. And a young woman who has had to keep birds in an artificially built forest in her house because free birds in the city are dying due to pollution on the branches. Skylar plucks some flowers for Roxy, which she gladly accepts. At first, she is not sure if it is an environmentally healthy choice or not, but in the end she decides that it should be okay.
  
  Until one day, she goes to the park and sees three trees chopped down, and starts freaking out.
  
  "Renovation, ma'am," says Thomas, playing one of the men chopping down the trees.
  
  "No! The trees!" yells Megan nonsensically. "You can't do that! I have so many memories in this park!"
  
  "It's slated for renovation.
  
  "Renovation? For what?!"
  
  "To build an outdoors ampitheater."
  
  "What? Can't you just build around the trees?"
  
  "It's just a few trees, not a whole forest."
  
  "No! It's not just a few trees!"
  
  Roxy starts to tell her life story to the man to try to gain sympathy, to which he says it's already been decided that the trees will be cut. She tells all her friends and anyone at school who will listen about it. They try protesting, arguing, and pleading with the city leaders, but in the end they can't stop the trees from being cut.
  
  "They're gone..." says Megan, staring at the construction site. "Why? Why did they have to destroy nature just for a building? We just had to have some benches!" She looks at the rolling leaves on the ground, fallen from the trees that were cut down.
  
  "Life goes on, Roxy," says Wendy.
  
  "Maybe. But I'll never forget this..." says Megan, as the play ends. Everyone looks up with a blank face.
  
  No wonder no one got to read this before. It isn't good at all, and it's pretty boring too-
  
  "Wow, that was really good!" says Violet loudly. "It was just so emotional, I almost teared up." No, what? She must be being sarcastic or something, there's no way-
  
  "Oh my gosh, don't cry!" Nadia says to Laura, who is silently crying to herself. "No no no, don't cry, it's okay..."
  
  "I liked how you talked about a problem in our society," says Thomas. That's the kind of praise someone comes up with when they don't have anything to praise.
  
  "Yeah, it was really deep," says Megan. Maybe she just didn't understand it.
  
  "Seriously, good job, really good job," says Evan. Well, they're dating, what can he say.
  
  "Aww, thank you," says Nadia, going in for a kiss on the cheek...seriously?
  
  "Hey hey hey, no PDA," says Evan, scooting away.
  
  "I'll allow it. Just this once," says Mr. Barker. Just like he allows this play? You don't want to watch, let alone rehearse this. You want out of this, definitely. No way are you devoting houts of your life to fulfilling HER vision!
  
  Mr. Barker explains the audition process. As soon as he's finished, Wendy stands up and draws everyone's attention.
  
  "Sorry, I just remembered I have to go somewhere. Drawing class," she says, heading for the door. The time is 3:54.
  
  "You do drawing?" asks Megan. Wendy has never mentioned it or left at this time before.
  
  "Oh, I didn't know you had drawing so close to the end of our meeting time," says Mr. Barker. "When do you ha-" The door closes. It slams.
  
  Weird. You could follow her, maybe.
  
  "Mr. Barker, is this about the end of the meeting?" Sam asks, standing up with the script tucked under his arm.
  
  "Well, yes, just about. We can go talk now if you'd like..."
  
  Ohh. But you could also go eavesdrop on Sam and Mr. Barker. You swear if they're going to discuss another student-made production you'll open up the door and give them a piece of your mind themselves. Well, not necessarily. But you want to know what they're talking about. Who knows, maybe there could be some funny business like bribery going on in there. You don't know. No one knows what happens behind closed doors, you could go find out.
  
  But Wendy slammed the door, was she angry? Maybe you could go figure out what was up with her. It could be interesting, Maybe you can even get on her good side, and get something from her. Like dirt on Nadia! She has to have some weaknesses, right? Or maybe she's going somewhere unusual and you can get some information you can use for some purpose. The possibilities are endless, but you have to follow after her as soon as possible!
  
  > leave to tail Wendy
  "Oops! Sorry! I forgot my umbrella," says Wendy, opening the door as soon as you walk up to it. She accidentally slams you in the face so hard that you fall back on your tush.
  
  "OOOUUCHHH!" you scream in pain, holding your face.
  
  "Oh my gosh, are you okay?!" she screams, running up to you.
  
  "Everyone clear out, I'm calling the medical emergency services!" yells Mr. Barker, seeing your bleeding face.
  
  You are taken to the hospital and need to get face surgery. Because of your injuries, you need to stay in the hospital for a while, to be exact, about four weeks. By the time you get out, the play is already done and everyone welcomes you back with your bandage-covered face.
  
  You have gained a new appreciation for life and you live out the rest of your days with a good appreciation for life.