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A Slice Of Lex Ch. 6

By Jenny Harlow

Lexi woke up about two hours after Victoria had left. She rolled over, smelling the pillow her girlfriend had recently been asleep on, her scent was faint but it was still there. She smiled happily, getting up and walking to her closet. She pulled out a black outfit, just a simple t-shirt and sweats. It didn't take long for her to shower and dress, she sat down on her bed pulling the black steel-toed boots out from underneath, the ones she always wore to lighting work. As she was finishing with the laces, Christine knocked on the door. "Come on in, just getting my shoes on and I'll be ready to go!"

The mouse emerged from the bathroom, she was also dressed comfortably, having a difficult work day ahead of them. She waved a small wave, stretching her back out, her shoulders releasing a small pop as she flexed them, causing her to wince slightly. Lexi looked up concerned for a second, "I'm alright." Christine signed, a small smile on her face.

Lexi picked up her purse and her tool bag, and the two started to walk out to the car. Lex sat in the car, her and Christine soaked through even in the short sprint out. She combed her hair out for a second letting it dry a little, "So food on the way?" Lex said smiling at the mouse.

Christine nodded, and the two of them headed out. They stopped for lunch at a drive through, Lexi getting a mimus sandwich and Christine getting a small salad. They parked up in the lot and quietly devoured their lunch, with one of their favorite radio talk shows playing. After finishing their food, Lex threw the bag into the backseat for the time being. They arrived at campus still with time to spare, as they walked together into the theatre. The building was a large stone building that had once been a church, in what used to be the main chapel, there was now a large clear space set up, entirely painted black from top to bottom. Partly to create a fitting theatrical environment, and partly to hide the burn stains from the fire, the yellow and white stained glass windows were still present in the building, and the thick black curtains had been pulled aside to let some natural light into the room, four large square trusses hung from the ceiling. At present the room was half occupied with several student-built bleachers laid out in a semicircle with several chairs strapped carefully to them. The other half of the room held the set, it was another set of bleachers on a pivot, with a wall behind them painted to look like cinder blocks, the floor was painted with wood graining and patterns reminiscent of a gym floor, the wall had a large double metal door on it. The wolf and the mouse sat down, amongst several other students who were chatting quietly. Mark walked in, the otter smiling as the students halted their chatter. "Good afternoon all," Mark looked at the clipboard he was carrying. "So far, we've finished the set and the rehearsals are coming along great," He let the students go for a second to high-five each other and celebrate. "While this is great, we still have a lot to go before tech starts in two days, so let's get down to it. Alexi, Christine, Jack, and Corina, you will be here working with the lighting and sound equipment. Darren, Jessica, Chase, and John, you're in the costume shop with Amy. The rest of you will report to the shop with Angela. Let's get movin' crew." The otter thumped his tail on the floor as the groups of students rose and filed to their appropriate places. Christine, Lexi, Jack and Corina stood waiting for the rest to depart. The wolf, the mouse, the squirrel and the badger hopped into action once the room had cleared. "Right, Christine and Corina, grab a couple ladders from the shop, Lex go to the fly system and bring truss one and two in, we're going to spend some time hanging lights on those today, and we'll focus them after lunch. Jack, I'm going to bring the scissor lift in, make sure there's nothing in the way of it when I do." Mark said, walking out the door towards the shop, with the mouse and the badger close behind. The squirrel shrugged and sat back in a chair.

Lex walked above the booth on the third floor of the building. "Truss two flying in," Lexi said, placing her thumb over the button. "Jack, you might want to move, this truss is coming down fairly close to you."

The squirrel moved, the line set flew down slowly, the motors on the ceiling on the building making a quiet hum. She eye balled it to about face height above the semicircle. She moved her thumb down. "Hey, before I bring truss one in, you might want to get those chairs at the front out of the way, Mark's coming back soon, and he won't be happy if he can't get in."

Jack looked at the door, and then up at the railing. "Nah, I don't think it will be that big of a problem, if it is, I can always move them when he gets back."

Lex sighed as quietly as she could, putting her face down across her arm that was set on the railing. She lowered her thumb down to the other button, "Truss one coming in." She said, as it moved down from the ceiling. She lowered the truss down even with the first, she then started the slow climb back down to the stage, she took several tools from her bag and hung them on a tool belt around her waist. The doors opened and Mark attempted to bring the scissor lift in, stopping just short of being in the door. He stared down over the railing, with a small frown on his face.

"Why are these chairs still here? I thought I told you to move them, or anything else that was in the way of the door." He looked back, Christine and Corina were soaking wet, the mouse sneezed. "You girls go around to the front door, it will be a while."

The mouse and the badger began the slow jog around the building. Lex immediately rushed over grabbing two of the chairs and working to sever the zip-ties on them. The chairs had to be tied together during rehearsal as the actors had used them during their rehearsals. Jack was slow yet he too started into action. "I didn't think they were in the way." He said shrugging.

Mark sighed heavily, still being rained on. He sat down, his slacks that he'd been wearing actually beginning to drip onto the floor inside. The four chairs closest to the door finally broke free, Mark began to move in as the girls walked in from the main lobby. Christine sat down on one of the chairs, breathing hard. Lexi came over and rubbed her back gently, "You okay girl?"

Christine nodded, "Catching my breath," Christine signed. Corina was also breathing heavily, but physical activity wasn't as hard on her as it was the mouse, whose difficulty came from the same accident that robbed her of her voice. She stood up, breathing in quietly as she rose from her seat, giving a small thumbs up to the wolf.

Lexi patted her on the back carefully, before leaving her. Mark smiled as the mouse stood up, "Glad you're alright, sit a little longer and dry off, both of you. Alexi,grab those thirty sixes and start hanging them, Jack help her out, Lexi drafted and has the chart so she can tell you where they go. When you two are dried off, grab the speakers, and start setting them up, I'll hop off here and start tossing cables down from the booth."

Lexi grabbed the binder out from her backpack and started flipping through it, her plan was closer to the back. She walked over, showing the squirrel the open binder."Alright, so here's the plan. These lights here are going there, there and there." She said, pointing at the truss in several places, "Then we move over to the second truss and basically do the same thing. Then we grab some of the smart lights and hang them, but I'll show you where when we get to that part."

"Okay." The squirrel said, looking at the page like it were written in some alien code. Lexi kind of understood, if he had never seen a lighting plot before, it might be extremely confusing.

She walked away, grabbing two lights, one in each hand. She turned around to see Jack standing behind her, only holding a single light. "Did you just grab the one?" She asked, cocking her head to the side.

"We only needed three for this side."

"Yeah but I was hoping to have to make fewer trips." Lex mumbled under her breath as she walked up to the truss, work light shining directly onto her chest. She lifted the light up, placing it carefully on the bar, she tightened the bolt with her fingers until it couldn't turn anymore, she then took the small wrench and turned the bolt a quarter turn. She turned around to show Jack, "Did you see what I did there? Just do that, and put the lights where they're supposed to go on the truss." Jack nodded vacantly, Lex handed him the crescent wrench from her belt. The first nine lights went on relatively smoothly. Lex took the cables mark tossed to her from the booth, and started wiring the lights in. "Jack, go over to the board." The squirrel walked up to the board, banging his head on the truss as he did so. The wolf winced as the truss swung gently back and forth. Jack sat down at the board rubbing his head. "Okay. now press eleven through twenty nine, at, at." She said, stepping back from the rig. The lights came on, leaving a bright white square on the black wooden surface. The wolf smiled happily, patting the side of the long ellipsoidal in front of her. Lex moved away, sitting up by the light console, running Jack through binding the lights to a fader. Meanwhile Christine and Corina had begun setting up the large speakers, hanging them from the corners of the truss. The hang went smoothly, for the most part. "Okay, it's one o'clock, free period has just started, which means it's lunch time everyone."

The three girls and the squirrel set their tools down,Lex grabbed her purse from behind the lightboard. The group walked calmly out into the rain, joining with the other two groups leaving the theatre building. They hustled over to Jim's, which was thankfully not far away. The professors walked off in their own separate group, heading towards the diner. Lunch was a rather pleasant affair. Christine was pleasantly surprised to find out James had the day off from his work-study job. Lexi sat down with several slices of pizza, James and Christine had both got themselves large bowls of salad with fruit, the older wolf sat next to his sister, stealing a slice of her pizza. He winked at her as she protested, she reached over and helped herself to his fries. The two elbowed each other playfully. After the hour passed, the group returned back to the theatre. The rain had let up slightly, going from a full downpour to a steady drizzle, for which the students, and especially the slightly up-dressed professors were thankful. The crews split off into their separate areas, Darren receiving a hug from his sister before returning to the basement of the theatre building. Mark stepped up to where the trusses were still hanging, just above the stage. "Alright, so here's the plan for now, we've tested most of the lights, but we've still got the strobes to test, and we've got to focus at least the elipsoidals today. After that, the crew from the shop should be bringing over a couple pieces, which we'll all install together, as there's a lot of individual LEDs that have to go on the set. We're basically making a low budget star drop here, for those of you who weren't aware." He said, indicating the back wall. We're putting a bunch of tiny holes through the set, fitting LEDs in,and they will be controlled by the lightboard."

"I've never set that up before though." Lex said, staring down at her feet.

"No problem, I'll show you how to set the controller up once the strips get here." Mark said, smiling broadly. "Anyways, hope lunch didn't kill our momentum guys, let's keep going, we've still got four more hours ahead of us." The trusses were flown out, back up to their trim height. Mark measured the height of each truss by taping a reeling tape measure to it, and letting it fly out naturally. "Okay, focus is yours Alexi. You know what you're doing, Christine, you haven't had a chance to run a check on sound equipment yet, so why don't you get that done, maybe set up some working music?" The otter winked at the mouse, who set about typing on the small laptop in front of her, the music came on softly, and was slowly brought up and down, she then switched channel and repeated the process. Lexi however, was placing painter's tape down on the floor in a square pattern, marking off a grid labeled one through nine. All of the lights she had hung and labeled corresponded to a piece of the grid. She then positioned one of the ladders to be even with the truss. She leaned to look at the channel number,

"Okay, since I'm on this side, start with number fifteen, just go ahead and bring it to full." The squirrel at the board pressed several keys, and pressed enter. Lex watched in horror as the strobe light came on. "CHRISTINE!" She said, looking down next to her, the mouse put her head quickly down onto the table. "TURN IT OFF!" The squirrel panicked, and turned several other lights on before Lex climbed down and shut it off herself. She walked over, and checked on the mouse, who smiled at her and shrugged. As she climbed back up the ladder, she looked down at the board.

"What happened?" Jack asked, looking up at her.

"What did you enter?"

"Fifty, like you told me to."

"Fifteen, one and five, not five zero."

"Oh, sorry..."

There was a momentary pause before the light clicked on. Lexi sighed as she grabbed the light's yoke and started adjusting it, her goal was to get the light to make a box on the five in the center of the stage. The lights had been almost finished, and the hours had passed quickly, it was now almost six in the evening when the shop crew came in. Everyone looked exhausted, and even Mark was beginning to yawn. "Alright, we're all tired, but we've got one last push to go before we're done, all we've got to do is get those holes drilled in the marked places. If we all push together it will be done in less than two hours."

The crew went to work as they always do, as a hive-like unit, working to do what needed to be done so that everyone could go home. Lex was drilling the hole for the light to come through, she had rested the bit against the wood, and was preparing to drive the drill forward. She stabilized the drill and started it forward. As she was pulling the bit back out, it lurched suddenly towards the end. One of her hand that had been holding the front of the drill steady slipped off, and the bit and her hand met. She looked for a second at the bleeding cut, not even fully feeling the pain yet. She calmly walked down into the basement of the building where the costume crew was still putting things together. "Amy, can I borrow you for a second..." She said, trying to force a smile as the pain was beginning to set in.

"Sure Alexi, what is... Oh my goodness..." The professor got the first aid kit down from its shelf, and took out a roll of gauze and some rubber gloves. She poured some betadine onto the wound and began slowly wrapping it in the sterile bandage. "Do you want to see about going to get it stitched?"

"I don't think it's that bad, it just hurts. I'm not even sure it's really that deep." The wolf said shrugging as the ocelot patched her hand.

When Lexi came back up, she showed Mark what happened, and told him that Amy expressly told her to sit out on the remaining drilling. She sat down next to her advisor and one of her favourite professors, watching as he hooked the LEDs into a DMX controller. The crew finished after nearly an hour and a half, the costume crew emerged from their lair. The students sat down, all of them looking incredibly exhausted. The professors were starting to fall asleep as well. Amy especially, as she had been up early for rehearsals. Mark stood at the front of the room, crossing items off his checklist. "Alright, so the banners put together and ready to install tomorrow?"

"Yes," Angela said, rubbing her eyes slightly. "We got those taken care of, they just have to be put up tomorrow."

Mark nodded, marking it down. "Lights and sound were checked. Actors try out their costumes as needed?"

"No, but we've made several potential choices, we've scheduled the fittings for tomorrow when there's more time and less need of their carpentry." Amy said.

Mark again nodded, circling a couple things on his clipboard. "So tomorrow, we have less to do, and due to a number of scheduling concerns, you are not called until five thirty. Most of what we have left is basic and we should knock it out before our nine o'clock end time tomorrow. Any questions?" The students mostly sat staring blankly in his direction. His grin widened as he nodded. "Didn't think there was going to be much talking. You guys go home and get a good rest, we'll see you tomorrow. A side note, my afternoon Stage Lighting class is cancelled as I have been called to help with a presentation in the library. Amy's classes after noon are cancelled as well." Mark tapped his clipboard with his pen trying to see if he was forgetting anything. "Well, as I said, go get some rest you guys." He waved as the students began to depart. There was much less talking this time, as people were tired and starving.

Lexi walked out with Darren and Christine, her arm around the mouse's shoulder. "Goodnight my sibling." The younger wolf waved as her brother got into his black car. He threw a small salute off his forehead. As the two girls sat in the car, Christine put her hand on her stomach, turning to look at the wolf. "You want to stop on the way home?"

Christine nodded softly, "I would like a vegetable burger from somewhere." She texted. Lex looked down at her phone and nodded. Christine loved salads, but tonight required something warmer. As they pulled through the drive-thru Lexi only ordered food for Christine. At the window the mouse tapped her on the shoulder. "Aren't you hungry too?"

"Yeah, I am, but I've got to pick up Victoria before too much longer. It's still about forty minutes to Sam Hill, and I need to drop you off home and grab a couple things myself, I don't really have time to eat yet." The wolf said shrugging.

Christine nodded as she took her food. She gave Lexi almost half her fries, just as a thank you for the ride. The wolf did get herself a large Doctor Pepper though, she sipped it joyously as she went down the road. When they reached their apartments, Christine signed "Goodnight," to the wolf before shutting her door. Lexi had seen a brief glimpse of James's head poking out of a blanket on the couch.

The wolf shook her head, smiling. "That boys going to have to change his mailing address if he doesn't go back to his dorm soon." She giggled to herself as she stepped into her dark apartment. The only light was the ever-present red and white lights on her microphone's interphase. She swapped out her shoes, opting for a much more comfortable pair of sandals, and she took off her bra, dropping it on her computer chair. She flipped a couple lights on, made a quick trip to the bathroom, then turned around again headed for her car. As she drove off in the direction of Victoria's school, she smiled, after such a busy day all she was looking forward to was a nice sleep with her foxy.