Cosplay Decisions

It was Saturday and I was cleaning up the house. Not that there was much for me to do, but I didn't want Bryce, Billy, Brynn, and Bonnie to leave their stuff lying around the house at all.

I had made sure my own room was clean, which wasn't a problem right now, as I never did much to make it a mess in the first place. I refused to clean up anyone else's rooms in return, nor did they clean mine.

So when the tiny little house I lived in was completely clean, save for four messy rooms, I headed out to the Japanese center. No one else knew about my new activity; they all thought I just sat in my room reading classics all day.

Anyway, I walked to the center and Cherry says, "There you are, Nicholas. Here's where we meet every weekend." I walked into the room and saw it: This modest room is bright. The walls are haphazardly painted with lavender. The floor is plain unfinished wood. There were also tons of manga and anime knickknacks all over the place and posters hung all over the walls. And everyone from the club was there as well as Mr. Vang.

He said, "This is where we meet and discuss things about the club when we can't meet at the school. There are times where we are all too busy to meet up or I must sit with students who have to serve lunchtime detention or if I wanted to meet with a certain student or teacher. You must understand that this isn't a regular club, like all the other clubs who meet at the school."

I nodded, and then repeated my question about cosplaying. Chance said, "Well, it's like role-playing in certain ways. And since you are here, we're going to be discussing some new details about the cosplaying contests that are coming up ahead."

I frowned. "Since when do they have contests?"

"They do those a lot," said Lisa. "Every few weeks, a contest opens up. Many groups and schools are involved in the contests. The winners get marvelous prizes and everyone who participates gets something, I can't remember what it was. Since this is our first year, we're going to start our first cosplay with a little mix of the Teen Rebels, Movie Characters, and Down in North Central."

"But aren't these shows kind of old?" asked Micheal. "And who are the Movie Characters?"

"The Movie Characters were a group of people who dress up as Disney Characters and mock them in sketch comedy acts, pretty much like Monty Python," said Abby. "Last year, they shut out all adults who wanted to watch G-rated movies. Now I heard they took their act all the way to Texas."

"And do they attend any cosplay contests as well?" I asked.

"I saw several of them in several conventions, but that was years ago," said Mr. Vang. "But not to worry; I expect that we'll be seeing them at this year's convention, if not during this month's contest."

Cherry turned to me and said, "Don't rack your brains senseless about cosplaying, you'll figure it out real soon. In the meantime, we'll be planning our new cosplay story and getting our costumes put together. You are more than welcome to read some of the books we have on cosplays and stuff."

I nodded, knowing that I would have to get the answers not from the books and magazines or the Internet, but from the very stage itself. The costumes looked quite elaborate, and I saw that cosplay characters weren't restricted to characters in anime or manga at all. In fact, I saw more American cartoon characters, or rather, the people in those costumes portraying those characters to exact accuracy.

But how was I going to be able to help pull this cosplay off without botching up the whole thing? My answer was that I would have to start watching more TV and stuff. But I didn't want to be a mindless TV watcher as some kids at my school were. But I needed to be informed about who those characters were.

Within an hour, I was called and Cherry said to me, "Our first cosplay is, as we have told you, a mixture of Teen Rebels and Down in North Central envisioned as a costume drama tale. And the Movie Characters will be coming in to stop someone from committing a rather stupid crime."

"Like who?" I asked.

"It'll be decided in a few weeks. Grady here has agreed to write out the play; he had written several plays during his time in middle school and they were quite successful."

I thought to myself Grady can write plays and they succeed? It wasn't too bad for someone in the 10th grade. But why did the other people reject him? I would have to find that out later.

Anyway, Hector continued, "And since we're doing the cosplay contest in a few weeks, we'll have to recruit several more people and decide who gets to play the characters. Lisa's mother and aunt have already said they were designing the costumes and my grandmother is buying the wigs that will be needed. But all the rest of us must do is to be prepared."

"And to perform said cosplay for the school," said Mr. Vang. "The principal has already expressed her interest in seeing how the cosplay club is coming along and she would like to see the cosplay for herself. So we will be performing for the school before the contest."

Performing in a cosplay before a school that knows nothing about cosplays? Nice. But then again, it couldn't hurt me to try something new, even if it seemed silly and frivolous at first. Then again, that was how most ideas began?

Now it was time for me to do something I never dreamed of doing at all.