Winter Break

The school play groupie had finished their second read-through and were dismissed for their winter break. This was an especially happy time for Shawn. Two weeks of rest for the young teenager was what he truly needed to get away from the hells of schooling. Other than the fact that he had commitments in memorising the play script and the piles of homework, Shawn was basically free.

The first thing that he did when he got home was to on his family's computer and head for his go-to anime website. The boy was a hard-core anime fan that loved his One Piece anime very much. It was One Piece that had gotten him hooked into the world of anime at a young age of 11. Now, whenever he had free time, the boy would binge different genres of animation that effectively kills all of his time. Most of the time, he would miss the messages sent to him by his group of friends and would reply way later than needed.

Shawn had already planned out his next two weeks and what anime he should watch first. Excited, Shawn got his computer set-up on the bed so that he could watch comfortably in his personal space. Sadly, just as he was about to start his watching spree, his mother, Jane had come into the room and broke some unfortunate news to him.

"We're going on a surprise trip!" Jane exclaimed to Shawn, trying to instil joy into her son's head.

"No!"

"Yes!"

Just like that, the family had decided that they would be leaving tomorrow to travel to a different city in China for their winter vacation. It was just like last winter, where they decided to go to Hangzhou for a change of pace. This time, they planned to go further and decided to explore the Hainan Islands. The Hainan Islands was summer all year around, meaning that the family would be escaping the cold and back to their usual equatorial climate that they were used to in Singapore.

On the trip, Shawn essentially lugged himself along and suffered on the most part. The worse part about travelling with his family was that they would always go on tours. Tours meant that there was a lot of travelling. Shawn, sadly, was born with very bad motion sickness, making it so that he would feel dizzy and nauseous with the slight jerks of the tour bus. Throughout the week, the teenager probably vomited at least a dozen times. Not only that, seafood wasn't his strong suit and being near the ocean, most of the tour food was seafood. All in all, Shawn never really got to enjoy his holiday.

Finally, when he got back home, Shawn's mother, Jane, started to force the boy to do his homework. Everyday, he had to at least finish one assignment and with proof of completion. It was sad that this would reduce his watch time by an hour or two every day, but he really had no choice. In addition, he also needed to memorise the entire play script that was, to no surprise, very long.

By the end of his two-week break, Shawn felt like he never really rested and was thrown back into reality. His school life would probably be like this until he can achieve status quo, which was to finish up with his school play.

Proper rehearsals began as soon as school started. Shawn arrived under the reminder of his form teacher, Mr Bialik. Once again, to his surprise, Shawn did his homework and had memorised his part of the script. He began teaching the positioning and emotions for the first scene and they worked on it for three hours that day. Mr Bialik realised that Shawn was a beginner in the craft of acting and quickly knew that he needed to be patient with the boy. After all, if honed correctly, Shawn could be become of the sharpest swords in their school's drama curriculum.

"Remember, when you say out your lines, you need to do so naturally, like you are the embodiment of the character. Don't think that you are just an actor." This quote was applicable for everyone, but he was mainly directing it at Shawn.

The chubby looking Shawn had dimmed eyes. He was tired from a long day of school and now, he had to focus up for the play. Such a feeling was rare ever since he came to Shanghai. Back when he was in Singapore and he had to study for his Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), the boy had to put in tens of hours of practice to hone his subjects. Now, rather than for examinations, he had to zone in on his emotions and imagination skills.

Just like Mr Bialik had said, "You are the embodiment of the character."

Shawn opened his eyes widely, a huge difference from his usual self. Stepping up to the freshman student he was about to bully, he spoke with guts and grit, "He said to give him your money!"

"Move!" With every word he spoke in the first scene, Shawn made sure to not have a lapse in emotion. He stayed in character and followed along with the male antagonist. The scene ended smoothly and Mr Bialik clapped after seeing the great performance by the cast today.

When Shawn was about to leave for home, Mr Bialik came over and praised, "Shawn, today's performance by you has exceeded my expectations. You really do have flair in the arts. Keep it up, alright?"

"Uh thank you." Shawn bowed slightly as he left the room awkwardly. That was the first compliment he had received in the school. And honestly, it felt quite good. After all, who doesn't like getting praised by others? Even the lazy and listless Shawn loved to hear a few good words about himself.