Part 3

                                    

                                          
THREE:
                          
"Okay, we're doing the Cook and Buttons scenes now," Hiccup announced as he looked across the unenthusiastic group. "You two are the main comic relief with the Panto Dame, Cook, being the principal comedy character. You are also the ones who drive the main audience participation." Astrid looked up.
                          
"And just how do the audience participate?" she asked. Hiccup glanced at his notes.
                          
"Part of the tradition of pantomime is that the audience are encouraged to join in," he explained. "They are asked to boo and hiss the villain-in this case the Stepmother, Anastasia; to respond to any statement of 'oh no you can't' by yelling 'oh yes you can!' and of course, shouting 'he's behind you!' when a character or prop is used to sneak up/trouble the comic characters."
                          
"Seriously?" Thuggory asked lazily. "How childish!" Astrid cast him a sideways glance. She had been planning to say that as well but the truth was that Hiccup had worked very hard with her to get her part up to scratch and though he wasn't participating, he was a great actor and had brought her performance on no end. And when she thought about it, why not do something different? Working in a group to produce something from nothing was a good skill to develop and some of her fellow students still didn't grasp the other benefits this project would produce. In fact, she guessed that was why the Principal, Miss Queen had authorised it.
                          
"It's tradition," she said firmly. "Maybe we should make cards to flip up or hang down to prompt the audience to join in, since they won't be familiar with the etiquette?" Hiccup smiled and for a brief instance, she felt her heart flutter at the gratitude in his eyes. "I'll sort that out, shall I?"
                          
"Thank you so much!" he said genuinely. "Okay-positions. Act One, Scene Two: The kitchen. Buttons is sitting at the table."
                          
"Hello everybody!" Gustav said, looking at the 'audience'. "I'm Buttons the page, handyman, cook's assistant, gardener, footman, general dogsbody and assistant rat catcher. Really, I should get seven wages. Instead, I get about half of one." He sighed. "This used to be a happy home...but when the Master died, everything went wrong. And wrongest of all is that his daughter became a servant instead of inheriting the house as her own." He sighed again. "And she is so lovely, so kind, so beautiful...I think she's wonderful but she doesn't see me like that. Maybe one day..." And then he looked up. "I wonder where Cinderella is?"
                          
Astrid entered, smiling, miming carrying firewood.
                          
"Her I am," she said cheerfully, resting down her firewood and walking over to smile at Buttons, making sure her back was never to the audience. "Stepmother insisted that we have all the coal scuttles and kindling baskets filled before we spring clean the house..."
                          
"But it's December," Gustav protested.
                          
"As far as cleaning is concerned, it's always Spring," she sighed.
                          
Hiccup watched, enthralled as Astrid's performance lit up the stage, completely convincing as the generous, kind-hearted Cinderella who helped Buttons with his tasks while acting as skivvy and drudge. Then Cook arrived.
                          
"Licks a lily, I'm all of a tizzy! Those sisters are the most ill-mannered, rude, mean people in the whole Kingdom of Berk!" Snotlout announced in an astonishing high-pitched voice, He had padded his top out and he was bustling like a flustered middle-aged woman. Somehow, he had managed to use the top of a mop as his make-do wig which gave the most peculiar effect. Hiccup rolled his eyes. As they had worked together-in secret in Hiccup's basement studio-Snotlout had managed to learn his lines by acting them out and overall, Hiccup pleased with the results...except his cousin's total inability to get the first line.
                          
"I think that's Lawks a Lordy," Gustav piped up.
                          
"That's what I said. Loves a lardy."
                          
"Lawks a Lordy," Astrid corrected him.