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organic-guacamole · 3 years

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showtime

episode 211 let's go

ok first of all, this is the second to last episode guys... I don't even wanna think about how much pain I'll be in after next week's episode

mr mazzara doing the recap-

this is so weird to me and I don't know why

WHY DIDN'T YALL JUST ASK BENJAMIN FOR HELP, THATS LITERALLY HIS THING

is Nini giving out the cards a callback to season 1 when Natalie Bagley said that Nini gave her a card or something on opening night of another musical?

STEPHY AS THE ENCHANTRESS OMG YES

Ricky in the crown gives me Harry styles in that photoshoot vibes

he's so pretty.

ok but why did we never see Ricky and Ashlyn interact before? it's been like 5 seconds and I already love how they bounce off each other and it's just so natural

OH THEY REALLY DON'T HAVE ANY UNDERSTUDIES-

well that explains a lot...

so Ricky fell on top of Ashlyn and all that broke for both of them was their wrist-

insert Jake Peralta *coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool no doubt no doubt no doubt*

of course howie was amazing as the beast, were we expecting anything less??

Ricky is so beautiful and I will not shut up about it....

let me enjoy this before the makeup crew slaps mud on his face.

Nini and Ricky talking to eachother? in a civil manner? wasn't she avoiding him just in the last episode? hm ok

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH THEY CANT EXPRESS THEIR FEELINGS JUST LIKE ME HAHAHAHAHA THIS IS HILARIOUS, WHATS NEXT? THEY CUT EVERYONE OFF CUZ THEY CANT HANDLE EMOTIONS? ...ha

yes Kaden and Rico, my favourite east high boys 🥰

I mean....where's EJ?

THERE HE IS

EJ AND GINA IN THE BACKGROUND... doing something idek

KOURTNEY'S MOM IS BACK YAY

Howie is a shining star, ofc ofc

the smallest fOrk

can't wait to see the fork burst into song about how she deserves more than to be used to eat salad😌

the duster and the bluster.... ok😃

hi Gina!

hi- oh wow I didn't know Robbie Rotten was in this show!!!!!

the portwell look.

that my friends, is a married couple's look✋

GOSH EJ WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU

aww Gina's so excited for this

D word?

Die?

Delicious?

Dom Toretto?

"good, clean fun all alone with someone I dig...a lot"

sir that does not sound very clean to me

SEBLOS

Seb looks so cute standing there next to pope Carlos

DID THEYEY REALLY LIGHT ANTOINE ON FIRE-

I NEED TO SEE THAT

Seb's reading Carlos better than big red read the script in episode 102, this is great development after the "fight"

Kourtney really just made the best outfit for herself and let the rest of them suffer

the way Gina immediately goes to hold on to EJ after the announcement

"tonight we're going to put the U in UTAH"

...

"hey where are you from?"

"TAH"

SEB'S SINGULAR CLAP KILLED ME-

he's officially salt lake city's resident thanos

just wity clapping because for some reason I have a feeling he doesn't know how to snap his fingers...don't ask why

Ms Jenn do you mind encouraging your leads before the show? idk just an idea

pepto bismol product placement smhsmh

those flowers are bigger that big red himself-

*bops along to the opening theme*

that whistle at the end slaps everytime

WHY IS THE AUDIENCE SO MASSIVE

I guess they're all here to see Ms Jenn go on as a fork after Nini decides to *go her own way*

wow i am so funny

so they couldn't do many group scenes cuz of covid, but this 300 person crowd is cool? nice

OO THE VIOLIN GIRL FROM EPISODE 6 IS IN THE ORCHESTRA

HOWIEEEEEE

"Mr Caswell", he said, in the loudest voice possible while backstage at a show that's about to start.

Mazzara what are you trying to pull-

I usually like Benjamin but I don't like his tone

"iS yOuR wHoLe FaMiLy HeRe?" LIKE YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW THATS A SOFT SPOT FOR EJ

"we've had some good conversations these past few weeks"

right so what's going to happen after you graduate?

what does he think of you not going to Duke?

what did he say about you giving the sweatshirt that's been in the family for 3 generations to a girl you're not even dating?

good old Mr. M

therapist Mr. Mazzara, they all need it.

start with Ricky though.

"Michael Bowen"

dude why did you shave, now you look less like "hot lumberjack" and more "creep at the gas station"

OH-

does she not like Mike anymore?

why does it sound like jennzzara started dating and now they just sit back and talk smack about everyone in their freetime

break the fourth wall-

uhhhh im scared

why am I scared

he's scary

hehe flowers for Ricky, obviously for Ricky, ObViOuSLY

oh boy poor Michael

this man is in love, rip

why does Ms Jenn always look at people with her eyes open so wide

LILYYYY

I'm only excited because I really like the idea of lily and Ricky being friends, nothing more.

ha this guy's got jokes

a MOAT AROUND THE SCHOOL

wheeze

also he's very pretty.

"the wolves and very talented humans"

how dare he forget to mention the very talented wolves and normal humans, smh erasure

"being nice, what a concept" ted talk by Lily who still doesn't have a last name

did she just say lol out loud

same with the hug emoji last episode-

go touch some grass babes

the way he didn't say no, but said he didn't know how the east high kids would react-

not saying he does want to date her but that's an interesting thing to think about, also another thing to write an essay analysis on just to leave it in my drafts for a few months

awww lily genuinely trying to help him

sorry guys, I've been taken by the Lily charm (didn't know it existed until now but oh well)

REMEMBER WHEN I SAID I'LL NEVER SHIP PORTWELL?

just look at me now

the Lily wink I can't she's so cute-

HELP ME I'M BEING HELD HOSTAGE BY LIL-

David Attenborough?

oh nvm it's Benjamin narrating the show in a really weird British accent for some reason.

STEPHY GOT MORE LINES YAY GOOD FOR HER

also is this to show that Nini doesn't care about being the star of the show anymore? the way she's supporting everyone else even though she's a fork?

I would pay for a special of the full musical ngl

OOO THE TRANSFORMATION WAS SMOOTH

shockingly

yo where did the makeup come from

man I wish I was a theatre kid

THIS IS STEPHY'S EPISODE NOW IDC✋

my girl is starring

"needs an X-factor"

Simon Cowbell creeps in

"it's a yes from me"

and them boom, he takes Nini and mistreats her horribly and then she comes back to theatre after deciding music isn't for her👍

"I thought she just hog-tied him?"

don't ask sebby, it's better if you don't know.

imagine they spotlight the wrong person and this dude is just some random person that likes writing down stuff during shows.

Ms Jenn just let them do what they rehearsed (at some point we never saw) or else this is gonna end horribly wrong

"help"

same Carlos, same

I love how seb is just his translator rn

I thought he said "great displeasure" instead of "greatest pleasure"....help?

big red coming out from throwing up to see his girlfriend star is the cutest thing in this show.

Ash and Gina dancing is so fun

I'm imagining them practicing at night at their home, watching the movie for the 100th time and making sure their one dance together is perfect

KOURTNEY YES

HOWIE IS IN LOVE AHHHH

I LOVE HOWIE SO MUCH

SEBBY

THIS SCENE HAS SO MUCH GOING ON I CAN'T KEEP UP

THIS IS SO GOOD

HOW???

no because I'm actually crying

I'm dead serious.

we need this musical released as a special

big red is so proud and I love to see it

Natalie: "if you do not by at least 20 dollars in concessions, you do not support art"

rando in the audience: "but I pay for ad free Spotify"

Mr Mazzara clapping in the distance

Gigi, the guy you like is talking to you, complimenting you and hyping you up

YOU LUCKY LITTLE FEATHER DUSTER

aw EJ teasing her about the chocolates in a way that doesn't make her feel bad? take notes Richard

JORDAN FISHER

there is no rest of the show idc Jordan is it for me

THE WIG CAP ON RICKY OMG

they look like they're high and having "deep" conversations on the floor

THE MEAN GIRL WITH THE EYES-

@sunshine-julie-molina YOU HEAR THAT

Natalie really just be coming for them all

Howie what is happening rn

I'm scared

"did you enjoy it"

"very much"

dude wants a kiss so bad

ASHLYN OMG

NO DON'T DO IT BECAUSE OF LILY, PUT YOUR OWN TWIST ON IT

I want a Jordan autograph please

just keep swim- oh pushing...

Gina is literally a giant next to him and I live for it

am I about to cry for the 3rd time in this episode?

yes.

Ricky's leg kicks under the table makes me so happy aw

the portwell glances will kill me.

ah yes, mashed potato snow

Mr. M.... I'm not a theatre kid but even I know you can't have your phone on backstage.

Howie please just do it

CHIP'S BIG LINE I CANT

I LITERALLY HAD TO PAUSE IT AMD SCREAM INTO MY MASK FOR A SOLID 2 MINUTES (I'm not at home rn) HES SO CUTE

oh ok bye Jordan

oo tea

NOT HIM BEING STARSTRUCK BECAUSE HE'S MEETING HIS FUTURE BROTHER IN LAW-

"we're all just glad Gigi has a big brother figure in her life"

excuse me for a few thousand hours while I laugh hysterically

THE CAMERA ZOOM ON EJS FACE AND EVERYTHING-

STOP EJ LOOKS LIKE HE'S GONNA CRY BUT I CAN'T TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY WITH THE STAGE MAKE-UP

someone else said this already but I think it's hilarious that they had to bring in 2 guest characters to create some portwell angst

omg this really is Cici's episode, found family is their thing

elevator music lol

I'm gonna bet that big red took the harness for his surprise for Ashlyn without realising what it was

did Ms. Jenn just....tell her most mentally unstable student....to commit suicide....on a disney show...was that....I'm very....well....what the actual-

oh and there she goes running off instead of trying to make it right

oh wow Nini's the hero, she's gonna save the show 🤩

😐

the judge is doing a sudoku

honestly if I went to the hsm show as well, I'd come prepared for this one too

Lily why are you looking like that-

I WAS JUST STARTING TO LIKE YOU DON'T MESS THIS UP

wow ok, there goes that.

omg

what if Howie was acting weird because he knew what Lily did and wanted to tell Kourtbut Lily threatened him so he was scared to-

anyways see y'all clowns next week when we all simultaneously lose all motivation for the week without Fridays to look forward to.

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts s2 #hsmtmts season 2 #hsmtmts spoilers #ej caswell #gina porter #ricky bowen #nini salazar roberts #seb mathew smith #carlos rodriguez #big red #ashlyn caswell #kourtney greene #howie my pizza king #lily hsmtmts

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sincerelyreidburke · 4 years

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Alright so, Could you please entertain me with how Nando would react to seeing Quinn in stage makeup?

Yes.

freshman year | march

If there’s one thing Nando has learned after several months of dating a theatre boy, it’s this: the drama club does not fuck around.

Like, as in, Quinn was already in rehearsal when he woke up this morning and now Nando’s game for the day— AKA his sole Saturday obligation— is finished and they’re still there . It was a matty game, but still . Quinn has literally been in the auditorium for, like, eight hours.

Nando knows why, though. Six days from now is opening night for the show. And today, as Quinn explained to him several times, is ‘load-in followed by a double run’, which is apparently drama club code for We Are Going To Be Here Literally All Day.

He understands, though. He knows. They’re busy. They have a whole musical to put on next weekend, and the weekend after that too. And Quinn himself is super busy, because, well, he’s the big cheese! He’s the lead. He’s putting the Evan Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen.

Nando is a ridiculously proud boyfriend.

Also, he cannot wait to finally see this show next weekend.

All that stands between him and that is what today signals the start of: tech week. Quinn has had some things to say about it. He’ll probably have more things to say about it. Nando wonders if he’s going to be nervous this week.

He’ll help him if he is; he’ll be here for him.. He’s going to blow this show out of the water. Nando knows it.

They win the game 6-1. He leaves the rink to an outdoor temperature which, miraculously, is something besides absolutely freezing. The sun hasn’t set or anything yet, but it’s getting later in the day, and it’s overcast and sort of gross out. “Hey,” Ben says, bumping against him as they walk. “Where are you headed right now?”

Nando glances at his phone. It’s 4:45. Theoretically , Quinn is supposed to be done at 5:00. But Nando also knows by now that the Kiersey drama club is notorious for breaking their rehearsal end-time promises.

“That’s… a good question,” he replies, looking up at Ben. “Where are you going?”

Ben shrugs. “I might hit the Beech, if Rem’s up for it.”

Nando nods. “Sweet.”

Ben tucks a loose strand of sweaty hair up into his bun, watching expectantly like he’s waiting for Nando’s answer. But he seems to read his mind, because a second later, he asks, “Is Q still in rehearsal?”

“I think so.” Nando grins a little. “They have him under lock and key.”

Ben smiles fully, and jostles his shoulder. “Duuude,” he says. “You must feel deprived.”

Nando knows he’s being chirped, but Ben never misses an opportunity to chirp him, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. “I do miss him,” he says. “But I’m so excited to see this show.”

“Oh, he’ll kick ass.” Ben pauses. “I can’t imagine that guy doing anything at less than a hundred and twenty percent.”

“You’re right.” Nando’s insides are mush. He wants to see Quinn. They should watch a movie tonight. Or something. As long as he can hold him. “Are you gonna come see it?”

“Yeah,” Ben replies. “We can do student BOGO night.” He winks. “I’ll be your date to make him jealous.”

Nando laughs at the gray sky. “Yeah, okay.”

From behind them come rapid footfalls, and then Remy appears at Ben’s other side, half out of breath with hair still sort of wet from the showers. “You guys suck,” he announces. “You left me in the dust.”

“Dude, I thought you were with Marc,” Ben says.

“I was .” Remy pauses and looks over his shoulder. Nando glances behind them, too— Jordy and Sam are a few yards back. “But I meant to catch up with you. Where are you going?”

Nando is hungry, and he has an idea. “I think,” he says, “I’m gonna go get food and then intercept Quinn on his way out of rehearsal.”

Ben flicks his wrist and makes a whip-cracking noise. Nando shoves him, and they laugh together.

“Okay, well, you have fun with that, lover boy,” Remy replies. He looks to Ben. “Beech?”

Ben nods affirmatively. “Beech.”

They part ways at the corner; the rest of the guys head for Beech Street and the hockey house, and Nando makes a beeline for the Bluegrass Café. He likes this, the balance in his social life— his friends chirp him to no end, but there’s always plenty of friend time and boyfriend time. He loves the team, and he loves Quinn too.

Of course, he hasn’t, uh. Said that yet. He wants to let Quinn say it first, so he doesn’t rush or pressure him.

He walks across campus to Bluegrass, where he picks up a to-go order— Swiss and rye grilled cheese, with a serving of fries, a cookie, and a hot tea with plenty of honey. He’s sort of hungry, too, but Quinn never finishes his fries. And plus, there are snacks back in Quinn’s room.

From the café to Beckett, the performing arts building, it’s a five-minute walk. The Nando of fall semester would be bitching about the wind chill, but today it’s really not so bad. The scarf Quinn knit him for Christmas has proved to come in very handy.

He carries the paper bag of food in one hand and the tea in the other. When he gets to the auditorium lobby, there isn’t a theatre kid in sight— which means they’re all still inside— but the good news is that he can’t hear any music in there, which means they’re doing notes.

And yeah. He knows theatre terms now. Like ‘doing notes’.

He really, really loves his life.

He sits on his standard bench, where more than once this musical season he’s sat to wait for Quinn after a rehearsal. When it gets to be 5:03 and there’s no sign of anyone leaving, he digs out his phone, puts the tea down on the arm of the bench, and looks through his Instagram to pass the time. Parker, their captain, posted a picture five minutes ago, of himself with David and Ville, taken after the game today. They’re all in their jerseys, just off the ice. It’s really wholesome. His caption is road to playoffs!!!!!

Nando is going to miss the seniors so much.

There isn’t much else in his feed, which is kind of boring, but he’s too preoccupied trying to wait for a sign of life from the backstage door that it doesn’t really make a difference. Finally, at 5:14— which really is not that late— a small group comes out of the stage door, chattering away. Among them is Quinn’s friend, Maggie, who Nando is at least ninety percent sure is playing his friend in the show. She spots him and waves. “Hey, Sebastián!”

“Hi!” He smiles. If there are people coming, Quinn can’t be far behind. “How did it go?”

Maggie grins back. She was one of the first drama club kids to be nice to him despite his jock-ery, and for that he’ll always be grateful. “It was fun!” she says. “Quinn’s coming. He was just talking to the director.”

“Sweet.” Nando has sort of been waiting all day for this. He feels the takeout bag, and, thank God, it’s still warm. He waves as Maggie leaves. “Have a good night!”

“See ya later!”

More cast and crew people start to filter out the stage door after Maggie and her group. They all go in different directions, some talking, some singing, some arguing. Some acknowledge him, and others don’t. He knows it’s sort of a scandal that their prodigal freshman is dating a gross hockey player.

He’s getting just slightly restless when, finally, a strawberry-haired cutie emerges from the door he’s been watching. Quinn is in a white cotton scarf and looking at his phone, and Nando grins a little, leans back on the bench, and plays casual while he waits for him to look up.

A few steps out of the door, he does, and Nando watches a smile cross his face as they meet eyes across the lobby. “Oh,” Quinn laughs. “I just texted you.”

Nando grins. “Hey, baby,” he hums, and then stands to go greet him. His phone buzzes in his pocket, which must be the text.

He meets him halfway across the lobby and wraps him in a squishy hug. Quinn is so small in his arms that he can rest his chin right on top of his head, and he gives him a good squeeze.

“Oh—” Quinn’s voice is muffled in his team jacket. “Be careful.”

“Careful of what?” Nando asks, pulling back to meet his eyes— but right as Quinn responds, he sees it.

“I’m wearing makeup,” Quinn says, and— and yeah . He is.

It’s subtle, Nando knows this much. And he’ll be the first to admit he knows absolutely nothing about makeup, let alone stage makeup, but— but. Quinn is definitely wearing it. There’s some kind of powder, and he’s pretty sure there’s also blush, and eyeliner, and— mascara? Or do his eyelashes just look like that? Nando has no idea, but—

— but he looks— beautiful.

He gapes down at him for what must be a slightly abnormal amount of time without saying anything, because Quinn arches an eyebrow, a question in his eyes. God , he has pretty eyes. They’re blue-green, entire oceans, and Nando could lose himself in them, and how did he ever get so lucky ?

“ Wow ,” he says finally, and adds, “You look—”

“I know, I know,” Quinn replies, waving a hand in the air. “It’s… a feat, but it’s just part of the process. It was a full dress today, so—”

“Wait, no,” Nando amends, shaking his head. “I meant— that wasn’t a bad ‘wow’. I— you look—” Nando is too gay to function, apparently. “ Pretty , baby. You look pretty.”

A smile quirks on Quinn’s lips, and Nando really wants to kiss him all of a sudden. “Oh?” he replies. “I didn’t realize you’d enjoy this look.”

“Yeah, neither did I,” Nando laughs, cupping his face in his hands. “C’mere.” He kisses him gently, and Quinn laughs a little against his mouth.

“Hi,” Quinn mumbles.

“Hi.” He runs a thumb over his cheekbone. He’s definitely wearing blush, actually. “I missed you today. How’d it go?”

Quinn lets off a long breath, closing his eyes; he’s still smiling a little. “It went very well,” he starts, “but it was a long day.”

Nando pulls back a little, takes him by the hand, and starts to lead him to the bench. “I brought you dinner,” he says, gesturing to the bag and the tea. “And something for your throat.”

Quinn makes a gentle noise of either exhaustion or gratitude, and he squeezes his hand. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

Nando kisses his cheek. “I wanted to,” he replies, then hands him the tea. “I can carry the food. Where are we going? You need to make any stops?”

“No,” Quinn says, leaning against him as he lifts the cup to his lips. “Next stop, my room.”

“ Nice .” This is exactly what he was hoping he’d say. Nando watches him take the drink, then exhale deeply, like it’s essential oils or something. He tries not to let his eagerness show on his face.

“This is perfect,” Quinn says, of the tea. “I’m serious, Sebastián; thank you.”

“Of course, baby.” Nando is still sort of lost in the sight of his made-up face. It’s not so different from regular Quinn— maybe it’s just the whole theatre thing, the knowledge that this is how he’ll look next weekend, the pride in what his boyfriend is doing. But also, his eyeliner. Who knew he could rock eyeliner?

“You’re staring,” Quinn laughs.

“You’re cute!” Nando whines, and wraps an arm around him to kiss him again. Quinn squeezes at his forearm, and Nando keeps it sweet but also not obnoxious for a public place. They have this down to a science.

“C’mon,” Quinn says, once he releases him, and holds out his free hand. Nando takes it and follows him; he leads him towards the door that will lead them toward the dorm. “Before whatever’s in that bag gets cold.”

Nando falls into step next to him. “Seriously, how did it go?” he asks. “Tell me about your day.”

Quinn squeezes at his hand again, and when he looks up to meet his eyes, there’s something of a twinkle in his gaze. Nando just about swoons on his feet. “Come back to my room,” he replies, “and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Nando is more than happy to comply.

He’s kind of pretty sure that he’d follow this boy anywhere.

#crickets #nandoooooooo #quindo #rhode island headass #briefly #mini quinny #kiersey college #mel writes

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ayashiki-i-i · 5 years

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Last Friday, I had the absolute joy and privilege to see Be More Chill in London!

(Yes, last Friday, this has been sitting in my drafts for over a week because I couldn’t figure out how to appropriately convey my delight with this show, and also yes, joy and privilege, call me dramatic but I swear to god nothing on this Earth makes me appreciate my life quite as live theatre.)

I have loved this show for a very long time. Not quite since its first Two Rivers Theatre run, but very early on from when it caught the internet’s attention. I was at the start of what was to become a viral sensation, and I was with the show, rooting for it, hoping for it, ever since. I feel like I walked the journey from crossing million hits on Spotify to the Broadway alongside the cast and creators. I felt immensely happy and proud for these people I never met when they announced their off-Broadway return, and I honest to god cried the day they opened on Broadway. Needless to say, I was overjoyed, literally jumping with happiness, when they announced they will stage a production on West End. Or technically off-West End? I’m still very confused how The Other Palace is not West End and Victoria Palace literally around the corner is West End... Anyway. I have not walked into that theatre on Valentine’s Day with low expectations.

And my Mount Everest high expectations were far, far exceeded and shot somewhere into the stratosphere.

I really can’t with words describe how much I loved this show. Joes Iconis and Tracz managed to hit some very special spot with this musical. It’s truly hard to describe, but this show just makes you happy. It makes you involved and interested. And I gotta tell you, I think we hit the press night, because there was a bunch of people (very respectfully) scribbling on their pads and iPads during the show, so this wasn’t an audience primed and geared for this type of musical. And that’s not even counting all the parents chaperoning their teenagers. And I can guarantee you everyone had a great time. During the intermission I went to get a drink and witnessed several conversations between aforementioned parents that all pretty much amounted to “wow, this is actually good!” It’s honestly such a treat to be in an audience that’s genuinely enjoying themselves.

This show is funny, and heartfelt, and charming. So charming. It has somehow a vibe of a really well done high school production, which could maybe sound like a criticism but i swear it isn’t!

I haven’t seen much of the previous productions, except few clips from the Two Rivers bootleg slime tutorial, but I really tried not to watch too much, hoping against hope there will be a revival one day (I try not to watch shows I have a chance of seeing one day. I’m fortunate to have the chance of having the full experience live so I try not to ruin it for myself lol). I gobbled up all the official promo clips and videos from the NYC revival, being super unlucky and managing to plan my New York trip in that small window when BMC just closed Off-Broadway and before it got on Broadway. I haven’t even listened to the Broadway recording, because by the time it came out I knew they’ll be staging a production over here. So i went in quite blind. With all that previous ado, this is how it was:

The book is so good. So so good. Many times when I fall in love with an album, the actual musical doesn’t hold up because the book doesn’t compare (hi, Dear Evan Hansen). But BMC is as engaging and fun between the songs as during them. Tbh I don’t love the changes to the songs they made, but I don’t really hate them either... Now having listened to the Broadway recording they reverted somewhat back to the original album on West End and I’m happy they did, but still. Especially Pitiful Children did not deserve the cuts. But I mean its still mostly the same album and it’s brilliant and fun, and ok, Looser, Geek or Whatever is a bop.

(Although I always kinda liked that Jeremy didn’t have a typical big “hero song” because he keeps mentioning how he isn’t a hero and it was kinda ironic that his own show refused him the hero treatment, but the song is solid.)

This cast is EVERYTHING. I’m sorry all previous casts, I love you and I respect you but i really think the British cast is (so far) the peak? Obviously as I said I don’t have the full picture to compare, but honestly these guys are all so good and I can’t imagine anyone else in these roles, they set the bar so high. Yes, even Michael. Omg I’m so sorry George Salazar! This role is his in a very special way, and I feel blasphemous saying this! But that’s what makes Blake Patrick Anderson so special, because I didn’t think I will ever be able to accept another Micheal than George Salazar. But from the first moment Anderson appears on stage, you don’t think of George Salazar. This right here is a Micheal and that’s it. I think he’s slightly less... Manic, than Salazar, and more caring, but also more stubborn, and nerdy. My friend said after the first act the character’s problem is that he’s a bit too likeable and it’s almost unbelievable he would be a social outcast and she was right. The dude is so damn likeable! So charming, so positive. And then Micheal in the Bathroom hits and omg does it hit. Also Blake Patrick Anderson has a really long name is very pretty. A+ snack. I’m in love. Scott Folan is, uh, I don’t really love him vocally... Ok I liked him until Loser Geek of Whatever. I don’t know, maybe it wasn’t his day. Or maybe that song is just written for Will Roland and no one will ever measure up? Tbh I haven’t seen Roland sing it live so who knows, maybe it is one of those songs that’s hard to perform without yelling a bit. Praying circle for the West End cast album? However Scott Folan’s acting is a masterclass. He’s so awkward in the first act, so sad, but also sweet. Actually I said i didn’t love his singing but when his voice cracks all over in his first few songs it’s superb and also his “Christiiine~” is really beautiful and lovely, so, dunno *shrugs*. And then in the second half he totally sells his confidence and assholer-y and like... They seem like two different jeremys, the squipped and un-squipped one. But ultimately he just gives such good-kid vibes. He seems like the perfect midpoint between Will Connolly’s shy Bambi and Roland’s geeky recluse. This Christine is absolutely feral. Like, you have no idea. Some people commented on the video of I Love Play Rehersal from the rehearsals that this Christine is not chaotic enough, so I’m seriously worried how chaotic Stephenie Hsu was? :D In any case Miracle Chance I thought was perfect, the ideal mixture of quirky but relatable, sweet but strong. Also she is hilarious. I’m pretty sure she got the most laugh out of the audience, not just because the actress’s absolutely perfect comedic timing but also that role is so well written. Like you really can’t get the full idea of this character until you watch the show, you know? It’s very layered, but each layer is easy to get so she makes a really fun character to watch. The Squip is hot. Like so hot. And his costumes are wonderful. And I know I’m not the only one who didn’t love Jason Tam’s accent as Squip and like... I think I know what he was going for but it just doesn’t work for me. This Squip is a lot more like Eric William Morris, just more hot. Oh yeah I mean the dude is fantastic actor too, and his voice is something impressive, but mostly I was just thinking “hot” whenever he was on stage :D James Hameed’s Rich is vocally stunning. By far the best Squip Song I have ever heard. Also he has Pickle Rick tattoo?? It’s fucking brilliant I HATE IT! :D Millie O’Connel is perfect of course. She has such a presence on stage. It was hilarious when she came out after the show, with her hair down and make-up off and said hi and people mostly kinda ignored her cause... She’s really a hurricane on stage and when she dials it down just a notch I really think people don’t connect her to her stage persona :D

(Also like, massive kudos to The Other Palace’s stage door, cause they allow you to just hang around the bar where the cast has to go through to leave the place, so no dirty alleyways stage dooring in rain and cold and possible pickpockets around.)

I really loved the staging, and it’s very small, very minimal, which isn’t something I normally like, so well done! They definitely dialled back from the Broadway (the bean bags are back!) and honestly the minimal props and simple set really suit this show. It adds to that almost-like-a-really-good-school-play charm. But also they have this massive LED screen as the background so they can change and move and animate their backdrop and it’s honestly so impressive. The artwork is so perfectly in line with the show’s aesthetic. And it’s building up and up towards the show’s climax which I thought was pretty subtle and pretty neat creative decision.

Ugh this is so long I didn’t think it would be so long :D But I have one criticism I cannot not mention. And I kinda always had this, but seeing it live it jumps out on me more - I don’t feel Jeremy and Christine :| I mean don’t get me wrong. The actors have amazing chemistry, their added song is the one that I actually really like and it makes sense, there’s so much more meaningful interaction they have in the show than the songs wold suggest. But. It still doesn’t quite sit well. Besides the fact that I don’t think the show’s narrative is about Jeremy getting the girl - that’s not really his character arc. But also, although they’re not incompatible, he gets the girl he doesn’t even really know, and she definitely doesn’t know him. I think I would prefer if they just stayed friends at the end, but if there had to be romantic conclusion... Well, I mean who doesn’t ship boyf friends, but seriously if Michael was a girl I’m pretty sure he’d be the romantic endgame for Jeremy. You know the type, the old friend who was by the protagonists side and believed in him all along? Yeah. But besides that, i was surprised to find I kinda liked Jeremy with Brooke too? I mean they have the same problem as Jeremy and Christine, with not knowing each other and all that, but at least it’s mutual, and they seemed to have a spark. But maybe it’s just because I unexpectedly really, really loved Brooke (she doesn’t have much space on the album and no one ever really talks about her, why does no one really talk about her???). She defies a lot of her archetype, she seems like such a sweet person. I guess I would just like to see more of her, and more depth to her, which a romance with the protagonist would’ve given her.

But tbh the show devotes a lot more time than I thought it would for Christine and Jeremey’s relationship to develop and it isn’t unrealistic, so it ended up being a pretty minor issue, which i though would be a bigger one.

Tl;dr (oh my god why is this so long????) this show is everything I wanted and more. The West End cast is amazing, charming and delightful and each of them is perfectly cast to really embody their character, while giving some fresh outlook on characters I thought I knew very well and filling very big shoes of the original cast I thought couldn’t be replaced. Also I didn’t talk to any of them but they spend a long time hanging out with the fans after the show and seemed genuinely super nice and pleased with the love the show is getting. The book is more than an equal partner to the music I already was in love with (also Joe Iconis was at the show I saw! I didn’t talk to him because I’m me and I will forever regret it!). The Other Palace’s staging and direction is wonderful, and the choreography is impressive and very on brand with the rest of the show, very modern, very electro and robot. I enjoyed every second and the standing ovation at the end was well deserved.

Just to re-affirm how much I loved this show - just few days after seeing it I booked a ticket to go see it again almost immediately lol. So if anyone is seeing it this Wednesday 26th Feb and you can telepathically pick me in the audience come say hello!

(Or like, drop me a message like a normal person if you’re also going alone and want to meet with someone to seem less like a weirdo! :D)

#ramblings #i have a life #be more chill #bmc #be more chill west end #i love musicals!#musical theatre #review #i guess?#it’s pretty much just me yelling what a good time i had

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youngwings-writes · 4 years

Text

Infinitely Ordinary

Lee Felix x OC

Summary: "𝕀 𝕣𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕓𝕖𝕣 𝕨𝕙𝕖𝕟 𝕀 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕕 𝕙𝕠𝕨 𝕥𝕠 𝕤𝕝𝕠𝕨 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟"

Busy. Busy worrying, working, just trying to survive. That was the daily life of Jordan Johnson. The world never seemed to slow down; not for her...not for anyone. Finally deciding to take matters into her own hands and get some much needed R&R, she jets off on a trip to South Korea. While there, she unexpectedly meets her soulmate. Will they be able to find happiness together, or will his status get in the way?

Genre: Fluff

Length: 2k

Chapter 4: Sunshine

"So... I guess we're soulmates?"

I froze.

Obviously, I had come to that conclusion on my own already, but to hear Felix saying it was a whole other thing. Like, this is the boy I've been admiring from afar for years. I knew so much about him, but he probably didn't know I existed until 60 seconds ago.

I didn't trust my voice at this point, so I simply smiled and gave a shy nod in response.

"I know this is really sudden, but I'm not sure the middle of a dog cafe is where we should be discussing such a serious matter... is there any possibility we could go to wherever it is you're staying and continue getting to know one another?"

"O-of course! That's no problem at all. Just let me pull up directions again so I don't get us lost," I began fumbling with my phone, trying not to look as nervous as I felt.

Soon enough I had the directions to my apartment pulled up on my phone. Felix and I grabbed our drinks and made our way out into the streets of Seoul.

"It doesn't seem like you're from around here, where are you from?"

"Phoenix, Arizona, born and raised," I said with a hint of triumph. Arizona isn't exactly the classiest state, but to survive the summers was definitely a feat.

"Oh! I actually went to Phoenix not that long ago with my mem- my friends! I didn't get to see much of it before we left though."

I could tell he was going to say his members, but he stopped himself. I know he went to Phoenix. Hell, I saw him while he was in Phoenix. My friends and I pooled together enough money to get all four of us P5 tickets to their concert. Still not sure how our broke college student selves pulled that one off.

Should I tell him?

Well, he'll find out eventually, so why not bite the bullet and tell him now?

I took a deep breath.

"Can I tell you something, Felix?"

His head turned to face me, one eyebrow cocked in curiosity.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"I want to be completely transparent with you, especially since we're apparently soulmates... I know who you are."

I could see him grow stiffer. I continued.

"My friends and I were at the Stray Kids concert in Phoenix. I've been a Stay since before debut. The last 10 minutes has my head absolutely reeling. I never thought that I would meet you or any of your members, let alone have you turn out to be my soulmate. If this makes you uncomfortable, I'm so sorry. It's probably strange hearing all of this; learning that your apparent soulmate knows so much about you while you know so little about them. Not to mention it's probably overwhelming. I mean, we're both still growing up, plus you have the stress of being an idol on top of it," I let my mouth run.

Everything came out like I had just opened the floodgates. I was beyond nervous to hear what he had to say, but also relieved to have said what I did. The last thing I want is to have kept the fact that I knew Felix before he knew me a secret. He deserves to know the truth and not feel like I just used the fact that he's my soulmate for my own personal gain. Keeping him in the dark and using him like that would just be fucked up.

"Okay, wow. First of all, I just wanna say thank you for telling me everything. I also want you to know that the fact that you know who I am doesn't make me uncomfortable. Actually, I'm both flattered and relieved. I won't have to explain being an idol and what that entails for us, so that makes things a lot less stressful. This is completely new territory for both of us, we just need to trust one another and make adjustments as we go," he said as he flashed me a reassuring smile.

"Besides, the fact that you know more about me than I know about you only means I have to spend more time with you and work to know you faster. Plus you get to know a side of me not everyone knows."

"And I'm hoping that side isn't some secret dark side you've been hiding to save face," I gave his shoulder a nudge.

The remainder of the walk to my apartment was relatively quiet. There was a bit of small talk here and there, but nothing extreme. For the most part, we just strolled along in a comfortable silence. It was... suprisingly nice.

One of my personal fears has always been making a fool of myself in front of others or making things awkward; especially with people I looked up to. To be experiencing such a comfortable peace with Felix seemed unreal. Bonus points for only mildly making a fool of myself in the very beginning.

Self improvement baby :)

Even with my poor navigation skills and even worse sense of direction, we made it to my apartment building without any problems.Entering the glass double doors, Felix and I made our way to the elevator. The elevator doors opened with a soft ding and we stepped in. Pressing the button for the third floor, we began our ascent.

When we arrived in front of my door, I almost made the move to input my phone password on the keypad. Force of habit. Realizing what I was about to do, I pulled out my phone and notes app, punching in the number I knew I would've forgotten otherwise. Just as before, a soft beep and click were heard as the door unlocked and we may our way inside.

Shedding our shoes (or feet prisons as my sister would call them), we made our way towards the couch in the small living area the rental possessed. Since we both still had food and drinks from the cafe, I rushed to the kitchen to get plates and utensils for the two of us.

Upon returning to the couch I saw that Felix had already began unpacking our leftovers. I set the plates down and started helping him plate the treats.

"So, you said that you've been a Stay since pre-debut, right?"

"Yeah. I think it was around December of 2017 that I found Stray Kids."

"Wow. Was it random that you stumbled across us, or did you find us through another group?"

"A little bit of both. I first started listening to K-Pop back in 2012, but didn't really get into it until around 2014. From there, I got into F(x), Shinee, and BTS, but I was still more of a casual listener than anything. In 2016 I got into GOT7, Day6, and Twice, so I obviously knew about your label. Funny enough though, I found Stray Kids because one of the people I rode the bus with was talking about how they were upset with how the survival show was going. I think it was right between when you were eliminated and the finale..."

I felt kind of bad bringing up the part about his elimination. I had absolutely no clue if it was still a touchy subject or not. Seeing how far he's come and where he is now, I really hope it isn't and that he doesn't beat himself up over it. JYP's reasoning for it all was complete bullshit anyway.

"Well, that'll make for quite the introduction, huh?"

"For sure. I may not have been there from the very beginning like some others had, but there was definitely some intense feelings of pride seeing you all standing on that stage being told you would debut together."

"I don't think I'll ever forget that moment. Getting there was beyond difficult, but having experienced all I have now, I can 100% say it was worth every second." Felix's eyes shimmered as he spoke. Anyone could tell that he was thinking not only of his members, his brothers, but his fans as well.

Being such a music fanatic, I've seen some bands that you can tell don't care about their fans. While this was way more common in the Western music scene, it did happen in the Kpop world as well. Despite that, I could confidently say that Stray Kids genuinely care for Stay; I could say that before I discovered Felix was my soulmate.

"So do you have any other hobbies or interests besides Stray Kids?"

"Nooo, not at all," I quipped back, my voice oozing sarcasm. A small chuckle was elicited from the freckled boy's throat.

"In all seriousness, music is one of my biggest hobbies. I did musical theatre from age 5 until age 11, I was in choir throughout all of my middle school years, and played trombone in middle school and high school. I don't play a lot now, but I still find the time every now and then. When I wasn't taking part in local musical endeavors, I was at some concert with my friends or my sister. Other than that, I enjoy reading, writing, photography, baking, and cosmetology."

"Quite the artist, aren't you?"

"In every sense except painting or drawing, yes. Ask me to do either of those and I will go running for the hills. Why I can do makeup, but I can't paint or draw I will never know."

"I guess the only explanation is that life is just weird like that sometimes," he laughed again. I always loved his laugh before, but hearing it face-to-face was literal heaven. This boy is straight up an angel, and no one can convince me otherwise.

We spent the next hour or two in my temporary home, conversation continuing to flow. I always knew and acknowledged the fact that idols and other celebrities are normal people just like you and me, but I couldn't help but freak out a little when I met anyone. Of course the same applied to Felix, but I think I got over the shock value faster than I normally would. I didn't really dwell on the fact that he was a world famous idol for long; I honestly almost forgot about it.

Normally, it takes me a while to warm up to people and feel comfortable with them, but Felix seemed to be an exception. The more we spoke and got to know one another, the longer I felt I had known him. Talking with him almost felt like talking with my best friend since preschool.

Just as conversation was beginning to die down a bit, Felix's phone buzzed from the table. He quickly picked it up and checked the notification. I watched him read the words sprawled across his screen, his smile slightly falling.

"Have to go back to the JYP building?" I inquired.

"Yeah. We have a performance in a few days, so we've been drilling pretty hard lately. I'm honestly kinda surprised that I didn't get called back sooner. It's been a few hours since I left," he explained while rubbing the nape of his neck.

"Well, I've already kept you here longer than I probably should have. I don't want to get you in trouble with your members or any staff."

"I suppose you have a point... but how about you come with me?"

"...come with you?"

"Yeah, come with me to JYP, meet my members, watch us practice. Everyone there has to meet you eventually since we're soulmates and all, so why not take care of it sooner rather than later?"

"I don't really have any other specific plans for today, so it could work. But are you sure bringing me won't get you in trouble?"

"As long as it doesn't interfere with our work, you should be good to go. I'm sure you'll be fine. It's not like you're gonna run around wreaking havoc or anything."

"Okay, let's head out then."

We quickly cleaned the living area, grabbed what we needed, and made our way back to the entrance of my building. Hailing the closest cab, Felix and I got in. He gave the cab driver the address to the JYP building and we were on our way.

I guess I'm meeting the rest of Stray Kids now.

#felix #lee felix #lee yongbok #felix lee #felix stray kids #stray kids felix #stray kids #skz #stray kids imagines #stray kids drabbles #kpop #kpop imagines #kpop drabbles #youngwings-writes

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killerqueenys · 5 years

Text

successful||roger taylor x reader

Warning(s): none

Word count: 4,278

A/N: This is a request from @deacyloverogerinalove! I really enjoyed writing this even though it took me a little while. I’m really grateful for all the love that my first fic got and there will definitely be more parts. Also, if you have any requests, feel free to dm me any time! Ok, enjoy!

Summary/request: Reader and Roger were best friends as children, so close, they were born in the same day in the same hospital on the same ward and their mothers soon became friends as did they. But when it hit high school and Reader left to pursue acting, they had a huge argument and hated each other. An amazing friendship turned into pure hatred for one another. Her reason for leaving was that everyone in their home town was unsuccessful, a nobody. But when she returns years later, she’s just that. A nobody and with Roger being a world famous drummer. She tries to reconnect with him after changing her name and she’s basically gold digging.

“It’s ridiculous!”

You had been fighting with your best friend for the past hour. You didn’t know how or when the conversation had escalated, but now you were both yelling venomous words at one another that could never be taken back.

“Ridiculous? Roger, it’s my dream! This is what I want more than anything and you’re saying that it’s ridiculous?” you paused. “Or is it because you think it’s ridiculous for me?

Roger looked down, guilt evident in his sad expression. The truth was that he didn’t want you to leave. But he couldn’t tell you that. It’d make him seem weak. Pathetic. Selfish. You had been there for him all his life from the moment you were both born at the same hospital in the rooms just across from each other. You had spent every birthday together and ate lunch with one another at school when there was no one else. You had comforted and encouraged him when he cried the first day of kindergarten (although he would never admit that he did). You were there for him when his first girlfriend had broken up with him and when he wasn’t happy with the music he was writing. You were always supportive.

It wasn’t one sided either. He was your shoulder to cry on when Tommy pushed you on the playground or when Katelyn called you names during math class. He had always stood up for you and he was there when you felt like the whole world was against you. He always believed in you and pushed you to be your best. But it was different now. You weren’t those two little kids skipping their way to the local grocery store a block away every day for popsicles. You had hopes and dreams and plans for the future.

Roger had been your rock. Your anchor. Your constant. And you had hoped that he would be your future too which is why it pained you so much to hear that he didn’t believe in you. Maybe you really weren’t cut out for acting. Roger had always had your best interests in mind after all.

“Look, I’m not saying that you can’t do it but...Y/N it’s just so unrealistic. Look at where we live! Not a single person here has amounted to anything more than an extra in some stupid sitcom.” he argued.

“Whatever. I can’t let you get in my head because I honestly think I can do this,” your voice wavered trying to hold back tears. “You know, I always thought that out of everyone you’d believe in me but I guess not. I guess I really am alone.”

You left without another word, slamming the door behind you as you ran down two blocks to your house.

-----

It had been five years since you’d moved to New York to go to a prestigious school for theatre and the performing arts. You changed your name (not officially or legally though), bought new clothes, cut your hair and even dyed it in a desperate attempt to leave your little town and boring past behind. You had been having fun learning the ins and outs of film. In truth, you were still trying to get ahold of your life outside of the town you had grown up in. After all, it was a huge change going from a relatively unknown place to the Big Apple.

At first, you thought about that little town often. Every day in fact. You called your mother once a week to check up on things back at home. You considered asking her about Roger but always shied away from the topic. Knowing that you two had left off on a bad note, your mother never brought him up either. You hadn’t spoke to him since that argument on your last day in town in his backyard.

Thoughts of Roger and what he could be up to filled your mind every time you came back to your cramped dorm room after hours of lecturing on the History of Cinema and Using the Right Lens to Capture the Best Atmosphere and Tone. You loved film with all your heart but it became tiring.

Perhaps you had the talent and passion, but you certainly didn’t have the energy or determination. You had been in a few indie films, but after all this time you still hadn’t gotten your “big break”.

You were going to school and working two different part-time jobs to support yourself. You were stretching yourself thin and it would only be so long until you’d snap. Every rejection you got put a hole in your self-esteem and you began to wonder if this was really for you. Of course, acting was your passion but you would be lying if you said that the idea of just giving up and going back home to rest didn’t give you relief.

“Ten more auditions.” you promised yourself. If none of those go right, you’ll just go back home and figure it out from there. You were done with this life. It was tiring and only made you feel insecure about yourself. No amount of love or passion could persuade you to pursue this.

Then again, Roger could have. He would have told you that you couldn’t give up and that it shouldn’t even be an option. But Roger wasn’t in your corner anymore. Roger was off doing god knows what. You were alone.

-----

Two years later, you were packing your things for a flight back home. Back to that small town where everyone was no one. The ten auditions you had promised yourself turned into 30. You got a few callbacks, minor roles for filmmakers that were trying to make it just like you were. But all of those big roles that you had wanted so badly were always “the wrong fit” or it was always a “we decided to go in a different direction” call.

That was exactly what you had decided to do. Go in a different direction. Backwards.

-----

Walking around the streets where you had grown up was an emotional rollercoaster. At each and every turn there was something that triggered a memory inside of you. Most of those memories were made with Roger, you realized. You couldn’t help but wonder where he was and what he was doing these days. It had been almost seven years since you had spoken to him and as you looked at the grocery store that had become your hangout spot as children, you felt a little hole in your heart. You really missed him.

Walking into the store for your signature orange creamsicle (just for old time’s sake), you felt nostalgic as you imagined the seven year old version of yourself and Roger racing each other to the store as the poor owner yelled at you for the millionth time to stop running around and causing a mess.

“Hey Dan, how’s it been?” you chuckled, taking small steps towards the store owner, leaning against the counter.

“Y/N?” he asked excitedly as you nodded. “Wow, almost didn’t recognize you! Man, I swear you were just a little kid when you left!” “Well actually I go by Y/F/N now. Guess I just wanted to leave this place behind but, well… now I’m back. Maybe for good. I don’t know, still figuring it out.” you thought out loud.

He started talking again but you weren’t paying attention. Your eyes focused onto the small television screen in the corner of the room just behind the counter. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing.

“Is that fucking Roger??” you asked, cutting him off mid-sentence.

“Yeah, he’s been with this band called Queen or something for a while now. You didn’t know? What happened I thought you were best friends?”

“Yeah well things didn’t work out. Sorry Dan but I gotta go.” you said already sprinting out the front door.

-----

“Queen???” you shouted out to your mother after practically slamming the door open. “He’s with Queen now?? Why the hell did no one bother to tell me??”

“Baby, you did ask us not to talk about him…” your mother replied calmly, hoping to tone down your anger and shock.

“I know, I know,” you sighed rubbing your forehead. “It’s just… I didn’t think that THAT’S what he’d be doing.” You had listened to Queen many times before but you hadn’t been catching up about them in the news. Their music was all you knew about them.

“Look baby, they’re having a little show in town in two weeks. I know that you and Rog didn’t leave off in the best place but… don’t you think that it’s time to at least talk to him?”

“I’ll think about it.” you said as calmly as you could.

The truth was that you were most definitely going to that show. Your years at acting school hadn’t been kind on your wallet and being a world famous drummer must come with its perks. What could you lose from a little reconnection with Roger?

-----

You had spent two weeks catching up with old friends around town and before you knew it, Queen was in town.

After years away in New York, you had stopped caring about Roger and thought about him less and less. However, something about being in this town made you miss him and the adventures you had together. You had to admit that you were a little nervous to see him again.

Looking into the mirror, you looked totally different from the girl who left town seven years ago. You almost couldn’t see how that girl and the girl looking back at you now were the same person.

But that was what you wanted. If you were going to use Roger for his money, you didn’t want to do it as the girl he knew all those years ago. It would break your own heart for him to realize what kind of person you had become.

Five minutes. Oh my god five minutes?? You had to get going otherwise you’d miss the first few songs.

-----

The venue was small and crowded. You recognized some people from around town but from the amount of people there were, it seemed that some had traveled quite the distance to see Queen.

The lights went dark as the crowd’s cheers grew. The spotlight shone across the empty stage as the band’s guitarist and bassist stepped out. The crowd grew so loud that it was almost deafening. Then, there he was.

Roger Taylor.

Your Roger Taylor. Roger Taylor who cried on the first day of kindergarten (though he would never admit that). Roger Taylor who was too afraid to play on the swings until you convinced him that it would feel like flying. Roger Taylor who came to you for help on his english homework every day because he had fallen asleep in class again.

But was he still that same Roger Taylor? You knew that fame changed people and knowing Roger, he could definitely have grown an ego bigger than the one he already had.

Your mind was swimming with thoughts and memories of your past and you couldn’t help but stare at him. You couldn’t take your eyes off of Roger even as Queen’s front-man stepped out in the most eye-catching costume.

“Hey, we all want a piece of him. You’ll have to get in line.” the girl next to you nudged you after catching you staring at Roger.

-----

The show went well and their music was amazing. There wasn’t a single stiff body within the crowd.

Now you were backstage with a bunch of other girls. You were shocked as to how many young women there were wearing the most revealing clothing that they had in their closets. Of course you knew that he would have groupies but you didn’t know to what extent.

It was weird to think about. All these girls chasing after Roger when you had always known him as that loser that had fallen off of the slide in the 11th grade (parents around the playground would ask you “aren’t you a little old to be playing on the playground?” but you didn’t care. You were just having fun with your best friend).

But isn’t that what you were doing? Trying to get close with this rockstar just so that you could maybe afford a place to live?

Your thoughts were interrupted by the screams of the young girls around you as Roger stepped out of his dressing room. Standing off to the side a little, Roger could see you clearly despite the large number of women crowding around his door.

“Y/N?” he asked himself in disbelief. “Hey, can we get that girl through here?” he turned to his bodyguard pointing towards you. Much to the dismay of the girls backstage, you were brought to the front of the crowd and into the drummer’s dressing room.

As the door shut behind you, your heart sped up. What were you thinking? He’d recognize who you were, wouldn’t he? He would definitely catch you in this lie oh my god you need to get out of h-

“Y/N? Hello?” his voice snapped you back to reality. What were you going to do?

“No actually, I’m Y/F/N. Sorry if you were expecting someone else.” you answered hesitantly. He had definitely caught you. There was no way that you were getting away with this.

“Oh sorry… you just… looked like someone I used to know” he said with disappointment clearly in his voice. He looked down with the saddest expression you had ever seen and you almost considered telling the truth. But you couldn’t because well… money.

There were a few moments of silence before you finally spoke. “Well…what now?

“Well honestly,” he sighed. “I’m not really up for sex right now. Wow, don’t think I’ve ever said that…”

“What? Not pretty enough?” you joked.

“No no it’s not that at all it’s just that...I was really hoping to see that girl today.” he spoke sadly.

The room went silent again. You were sure that you would have been caught by now and honestly, you didn’t really have a plan.

“Tell me about her.” you finally spoke.

“God she was...perfect. My very best friend since we were born.” he spoke fondly. “She was so kind and she was always there for me until she left. And then I was alone.”

You felt like you were being invasive because it was you that he was speaking of and he didn’t even know it. Somewhere in the back of your mind though, you were comforted by the fact that he felt exactly the same way as you did being apart from each other. Alone. Lost. Incomplete.

-----

You had been talking to Roger for hours about anything and everything all while holding up this fake persona.

“Oh my god it’s 4am,” you suddenly realized, looking at the clock above roger’s mirror. “I have to get going. Got a busy day tomorrow.”

“Wait,” Roger said holding onto your arm. “Okay this is really rare for me to do and I can’t believe I’m even asking this right now but… can I see you again?”

“Sure,” you spoke as you tried to hold back a smile. “Seven o’clock at the Angel Bar next week. Don’t be late.”

“What? No number?” he asked as you slid out the door.

“No number.” you smiled and made your way back home.

-----

Soon enough, it was next week. You sat on a bar stool as you watched Roger walk through the door. Usually he was confident, but if you weren’t mistaken, you could see that he was a little nervous.

“So you finally decided to make it huh?” you laughed.

“Hey! I’m only… ten minutes late!” he smiled looking down at his watch.

-----

It had been several hours and several rounds of drinks later until the topic of money came up. Honestly, you were enjoying the time to catch up with your friend even if he didn’t know that it was you. You were starting to regret this entire scheme and considered just telling him the truth. But you couldn’t do that. You were too far in and you REALLY needed that money. The little place that you had been living in expected rent soon and your pockets were completely empty.

“Yeah, money’s been a little tight lately,” you looked down feeling guilty because you shouldn’t be doing this. Sure you left off on a bad note but he was still your friend.

“How short are you?” he asked right away.

“What?” you asked confused as to why he was so eager to know.

“How much money do you need?” he asked again.

“No you can’t do that.” you had to at least ACT like you weren’t just using him for his money. If you went straight to telling him how much you wanted, he would be suspicious.

“Y/F/N, it’s fine. Just tell me how much you owe and I won’t judge you.” he asked again.

“$400…” you sighed.

“Darling that’s nothing, I’ll cover it.” he answered quickly.

“Really? That’s too much for me to ask of you.” you lied.

“How about this?” he bargained. “I’ll pay your rent if you go on another date with me.”

“Deal.” you smiled.

-----

With the money problem being out of the way, you had actually been able to enjoy your dates with Roger.

You had gone on two more dates after the one at the bar and now, you were on your fourth. You had avoided anything physical. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn’t help but fall in love. You loved him.

You were in love with Roger Taylor.

You walked through the park, holding Roger’s hand as you realized this. But you couldn’t say anything. You were Y/F/N not Y/N. You weren’t the girl he knew growing up who would clean up his scraped knee and read to him on the tire swing in your backyard because you had learned how to read far before he did. Now you were the girl that he had met backstage in a crowd of tens of other girls and the girl that was using him for his wealth.

You were so lost in thought that you hadn’t noticed that you and Roger had stopped walking and were now standing at the edge of the lake. You felt his eyes on you as you stared out into the shallow lake.

Was that what you were being? Shallow? No, you didn’t love Roger for his money, you loved him for him. Right?

You turned and looked into his blue eyes and he looked back. Were they always that blue? Your mind filled with panic when you realized that you had been standing closer to him than you thought. The tension was palpable as your foreheads rested against each other.

“Y/F/N,” Roger whispered so quietly that you could barely hear it. “I love you.”

Your heart started to pound in your ears. Did he really just say that? THE Roger Taylor said that? You were overwhelmed with happiness until you realized.

He said Y/F/N, I love you. Not Y/N, I love you.

You couldn’t keep this up anymore. You couldn’t keep lying to him and let him keep falling in love when this wasn’t really you.

“Roger, wait.” you stopped him just as your lips were about to meet. “I’m not-”

“I know.” he interrupted. “I meant what I said, Y/N. I love you no matter what name you have or what colour your hair is. I love you.

Then it finally happened. Your lips met in a passionate and long awaited kiss. You feared that it would be awkward but it just felt right. It was as if your lips and mouths were made to fit with each other perfectly. The world around you seemed to dull out and the lake went quiet. In this moment, it was just you and Roger. Your best friend since birth. Through childhood. Perhaps the love of your life.

“I love you, Roger.” you said, only breaking apart for some air.

“I’m sorry for how we left things off.” he sighed, your noses still touching and your foreheads pressed together. “I love you and I should never have doubted you.”

“I’m sorry for how I started this.” you laughed. “I shouldn’t have tried using you for your money.”

You both laughed and it felt like when you were children. You two had always had a bad habit of downplaying situations that were quite serious.

“Why did you do that anyways?” he questioned innocently.

“Acting didn’t go so well and now…I’m completely broke,” you admitted. “Why didn’t you tell me that you knew it was me?”

“Dunno actually...guess I just trusted that you knew what you were doing.” he chuckled.

“Well, you were wrong. I had no idea what I was doing.” you laughed.

Soon the two of you burst out into a fit of laughter until your stomachs hurt. Collapsing on the grass together as you caught your breath, you looked into Roger’s eyes again. They reminded you of your childhood and your past but also of your present and where you were right now in this exact moment.

“Roger...you were right. About acting. It was really just a ridiculous dream and I have no idea what I’m gonna do now.” you said feeling comfortable with Roger again. Like you could talk about anything and he would be there. Just like how it was as kids.

“No, you can’t say that,” he answered suddenly sitting up. “Y/N, I always believed in you I just didn’t want you to leave me. You can’t give up Y/N.”

“Rog, I already tried for seven years. I just don’t think I’m cut out for it.” you said casually.

“No Y/N it’s your dream. C’mon, money isn’t an issue anymore. You have to keep trying.”

Deep down in your heart, you knew that he was right. You didn’t have a single clue as to what you would do if acting didn’t work out for you. It truly was your passion and you loved it with all your soul. But then you thought back to all those rejections. All the times when your agent had called you saying that it didn’t work out. It had broken your spirit and made you doubt yourself.

“Roger I can’t! I already tried for seven years and-” you argued before Roger cut you off.

“And you’ll try for seven more years if that’s what it’ll take.” he looked into your eyes with hope. Those blue eyes, full of hope. “Let’s go to LA.”

“What?” you said breaking out of your trance. There was no way that he just said that.

“Yeah, pack tonight and we’ll leave for LA tomorrow. I want you to get started as soon as possible because I know that you can do this.” he smiled.

You were in shock but still found yourself nodding before you even knew what was going on.

The next day, you were on a flight to LA with Roger.

-----

Three Years Later…

You made it. Driving back home from your agent’s office, you were beaming. This would be your third big Hollywood role. You were making quite the name for yourself.

After flying to LA, you had started going out for auditions straight away. You constantly got rejected just like you had before. The difference this time was that Roger was here with you. Despite all the times you had gotten turned down, Roger was in your corner. He had encouraged you every day to keep going and told you that you “had the talent” so often that you knew he was going to say it before he even opened his mouth.

You were proud of yourself. You hadn’t gotten here because of Roger’s fame or money. No one knew of your connection until last year when the two of you had announced that you were together. All of your roles were earned by your own talent and determination (with words of encouragement from Roger of course).

Money wasn’t a problem anymore. You didn’t need to rely on Roger after those first two big roles had brought in enough money to support the both of you for ages.

You were forever grateful that Roger had convinced you to pursue your passions and believe in yourself.

Walking into the small and modest flat that you and Roger had bought together, you smiled upon seeing him struggling to make dinner.

“This is ridiculous!” he cried out in frustration. “Why would you add that much water?”

“Baby just follow the recipe,” you laughed. “You really can’t do a whole lot wrong with pasta.”

“Look who’s talking!” he replied. “Wasn’t it you that nearly burned down my house in the fifth grade trying to make soup?”

“That was totally you!” you retorted as he wrapped his arms around your waist.

“Well then, I think that maybe you should help me before I burn this pasta.” he said leaning in for a kiss.

“I didn’t ask for you to cook Rog,” you chuckled. “But I’ll help you because clearly, you need it.”

Turning to tend to the fire that was much too large for just some pasta, you smiled. You were happy and so was Roger. You were finally successful and you were loved and in love.

This was exactly where you wanted to be. It was where you were meant to be.

——————————————————————————————

A/N: Just like before, any constructive criticism or notes are appreciated! I don’t have a permanent taglist yet but I’m working on it! Thank u guys so much for reading! <3

#roger taylor imagine #roger taylor x reader #roger taylor x y/n #roger taylor fanfiction #roger taylor smut #roger taylor #ben hardy imagine #ben hardy x reader #ben hardy x y/n #ben hardy fanfiction #ben hardy smut #ben hardy #ben hardy!roger x reader #queen imagine #borhap imagine #queen #borhap #bohemian rhapsody #successful

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wiggly-blue-shite · 5 years

Text

Chapter 21 The Bell Doesn’t Dismiss You (Tedgens)

Apparently an anonymous gossip account posted it. No one knows who runs the account, all the posts are submitted anonymously. So I have no clue who filmed it or posted it or anything.

It's just such a fucking invasion of privacy. They don't have the right. God people are the fucking worst.

I walk over to the auditorium. Ted is sitting against the wall. He's staring down at his phone. He's definitely seen the video. I feel bad.

"Hey ted." I kind of stand above him.

He looks furious.

"You've seen it right?" It must really be bothering him. He doesn't get up. He's just slumped against the wall.

"Yes." I sit down next to him. I don't think he's going to get up.

People walk by and stare at us. I want to flip them all off. Nothing is fucking private anymore.

"Have you read the comments?" Ted is practically shaking with rage. Oh ted.

"No." I can't imagine what people would write in there. I don't want to read them. I don't want to hear what people have to say about me. People are the fucking worst.

"Do you want to read them?" Ted holds out his fun for me to grab. It's a bad idea to have me read them. I don't want to know. I really care about Ted and I don't care what others think.

"How could people say shit like that. They barely know us." I can't really tell but I think I see a tear trail down Ted's face. It might just be his eye but I don't think so.

I hug him. I just hold him. I want him to feel better. A phrase the my wonderfully pessimistic mom says comes to mind.

"It's a C minus world." I stroke his back in an attempt to comfort him. Maybe it's not the most comforting this to say.

"No kidding." Ted chuckles a little. I pull away from the hug. He looks like he's doing better. "I don't really want to be in public."

I understand that mentality. People fucking suck. I can feel they're eyes on me.

"Well if you'd like, we could go back to my place, order food, and not have to deal with others." Something similar to last night. I don't know.

"I was going to like take you out." I'm sure whatever he had planned was great. Ted looks a little disappointed. "But fuck people."

I don't just want to sit here on display for all these fucking high school ass holes.

"Come on let's go." I grab his hand. His interlaces his fingers with mine.

I help him up. We head off this god forsaken campus, away from the fucking asshole teenagers.

When we walk into my house. Ted flops down on the couch.

"Graceful." I cant help but to laugh. He got comfortable here really quick.

"I know right." Ted winks. My heart flutters. He's adorable. He's just kind of laying there uncomfortably. I sit down next to him. He puts his head on my shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"You didn't do anything wrong." I can't imagine why he would think it is his fault.

"I could have not kissed you in front of everyone." He grabs my hand. He starts to caresses the side of my hand with his thumb. How is it possible for your knees to go weak when your sitting down?

He kissed me in front of everyone. He isn't ashamed of me. He's just upset about how people reacted.

"I'm glad you did." I squeeze his hand. He looks up at me and smiles. "I don't care what anyone thinks."

"Me neither." He pushes himself upward and kissed me. Who cares what anyone thinks. Ted's here and he isn't ashamed of me. Nothing else needs to matter. "I'm sorry I couldn't take you on that date."

"Well why can't this be a date?" An extremely informal date but who gives a shit. "I mean what even constitutes a date? We're spending time together, that should make it a date."

"I guess this is a date then." Ted smile kills me. I can't help but to kiss him. He's fucking adorable. Keep it in your pants, Hidgens. Jesus.

I pull away.

"So do you have homework?" How romantic.

"Not any homework I'm going to do. I have the weekend. I'm an expert procrastinator." Ted chuckles cutely.

"Fair enough." I'm probably not going to do my homework till Monday morning.

Knock Knock Knock

Fuck, I don't want to talk to people. I pull myself off the couch and walk over to the front door. Ted watches me from the couch. I swear to god if it's...

I open the door. How did I know it would be them?

"HA! Ted is there, you owe me ten bucks!" Emma pushes Paul, who stumbles into bill who almost knocks over Charlotte.

"Hi guys." So much for that date. "Come in." Its not like they're going to go away.

"Hey guys!" Ted calls out from the couch as they enter. "Why are you here?"

Aww look at him be extremely blunt to his close friends.

"We wanted to check on you guys." Emma shrugs awkwardly.

"Because of the whole video thing." Paul looks extremely uncomfortable (what's new?). The whole school will have seen that video by Monday. God people suck.

"We're always here for you." I've never had a mom friend before, so it's nice t have bill. "And Ted If you need anywhere to stay, my couch is always open."

"Yeah, mine too." Paul chips in.

I'm glad that ted has friends like these. I'm glad they're becoming my friends too. I have friends, and Ted.

"Well now that your here what do you want to do?" I don't think they're going to leave anytime soon. I plop down on the couch next to ted. He smoothly puts his arm around me. It's weird how that felt so natural. Not a bad weird. A truly wonderful weird.

"Uh." The four just kind of stand there.

"You know you guys can sit down right?" Ted chuckles. I lean into him a little. He's warm. Not that I'm cold, it's just he's so warm.

The other four sit down in various other chairs.

"Well you two have gone domestic very quickly." Emma raises an eyebrow suspiciously. Like there's anything to be suspicious about. The others laugh.

"What's that supposed to mean, Perkins?" Ted matches her suspicious eyebrow raising. Charlotte giggles. Look I'm sure she's great but... I don't know. She's all mixed up in the Sam thing, and that whole drama annoys me. Then there's the way she acts around Ted. Not that I have any claim over him but still... I'm just being petty.

"I'm just saying y'all are already acting like a cute old married couple." Emma shrugs. That must have been really funny to paul because wow he is laughing.

"Bold if you to say that with Paul present." Almost on cue, Paul goes completely red. I expected Emma to be more flustered with that one but Paul getting flustered works too.

"Fuck off" Never mind! Emma is blushing. Wow they are just hopeless. Like they're together but they're not. It's so stupid.

"Let's watch a movie!" Way to defuse a situation Bill.

"Yup, that, lets do that" He's so awkward. Is like Emma into awkward? I'm not judging I'm just saying.

"What's on Netflix?" Ted seems unphased. He must be used to this kind of stuff. He's used to having friends.

Bills eyes light up.

"MAMMA MIA." Bill is really excited. I knew he kind of liked theatre but he looks so excited. Emma only begrudgingly watches musicals with me!

"Fuck yeah Mamma Mia!" I think that's the loudest I've ever heard Charlotte speak. Everything I once said about her in void. She enjoys Mamma Mia, she's earned my respect.

"Mamma Mia it is!" I grab the remote and pull up Netflix.

"Do I have any say in this?" Paul asks. I don't know how he doesn't enjoy Mamma Mia.

"Nope!" Ted chuckles. He's adorable and amazing. I love him.

WAIT

#tedgens #the bell doesnt dismiss you #fanfic

28 notes · View notes

signals-over-the-air · 5 years

Note

17, 28, 46?

17: Favorite scene(s)?

honestly it depends on a lot of things! one of my all-time favorite scenes in a play is from The Normal Heart, towards the end of Act II, where Felix is kind of giving up, but Ned is doing his damnedest to take care of him, and then Ned flips out and throws the groceries everywhere because he cares so fucking much and is broken apart by how little Felix seems to care, then they end the scene comforting each other while sitting in the middle of this mess, grabbing each other like they’re their only lifeline. OH or also from TNH, when (also act II) Ned and Bruce start the scene screaming at each other and arguing but then Bruce starts to break and open up, then Ned rushes over to comfort his friend because no matter what Bruce is important to him

god sorry I just keep remembering more and more!! the scene from The Laramie Project where Mr. Shepard is talking about how he thinks his son wouldn’t have wanted his murderer to die, but he does more than anything, and how every birthday, Christmas, every fourth of July he wants this kid (Aaron Mckinney) to know that this is something Matthew doesn't get to do, that he and Russell Henderson took this from his boy-- legit every night when I worked on this show, I would watch this scene, and without fail I would cry because it was so powerful. PB, the actor who played Mr. Shepard, delivers the part starting with (and I quote, because I can picture it so clearly) “I would love nothing more than to see you DIE, Mr. Mckinney!” with such intensity and rage and just wow goddamn sorry im so emo just thinking about it

cuz I gave 3 scenes from plays Im not gonna give any from musicals sorryyy

28: What kind of theatre excites you?

All of it! however I find that I enjoy working on musicals more, specifically in proscenium settings??? honestly, until my only options were a 3/4 thrust or a tiny blackbox I didn’t realize how lucky I was to have a big proscenium theatre at my high school

46: Weirdest experience in the theatre?

Jesus Christ where do I stART

I’m just gonna list what I call a few specific moments in my head and if I get requests to elaborate I will

danger stools

storage room therapy

post mortem

crowns???

upholstery class

barbie princess debate

‘hey ody, wake up’

paddle vs. hand

BDSM test

mom/head hancho/boss/general???

the time I stabbed someone and didn't get in trouble

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baritonetcc · 6 years

Text

Talent

I can’t believe where I am, I look like a protagonist of a cliche anime scene. Allergy-inducing blossoms and buds rain down around me, in a slow breeze, so more like a caramel rain. My only ride is running late, so I’m forced to remain on school grounds past my scheduled time of death. The school courtyard is empty, since school has been out for long enough for the buses to leave, and athletes were changing for sports practice. I’m sitting under a tree, finishing up a book that I stole from my English teacher’s shelf (thanks, Mr. Bradner). Oh hey, speaking of Mr. Bradner, I should go hang out in his room. The breeze is blowing majestic fronds into my not-so-majestic hair and mouth, so an empty classroom would be a nice chance of pace. I’m sure Savannah has stopped annoying him by now and pissed off to whatever hellhole she crawled out of.

I’m walking up to the building where Mr. Bradner’s room is, and Andrew Pratt bursts out of the doors, clearly late for track practice.

“Where have you been, Tommie? I’ve been looking for you forever! I’ve been wanting to ask you something.”

Oh boy, here we go with his questions. If he asks me for answers for the math review again I swear-

“So some of the band members have been wanting to perform in an ensemble for the talent show, a big band. We wanted to play ‘Feel The Love Go’ by Franz Ferdinand, and we need someone to play the alto solo...?”

He knows that I’m going to say yes, doesn’t he. He couldn’t have asked any other alto sax player? He couldn’t have had another instrument play it? I think it would be really cool on piano.

Thinking that I wasn’t getting the hint he continued, “So would you be interested in it? We really wanted to give it to you...”

I finally open my mouth, knowing that Andrew’s coach is going to murder him. “Sure. Text me when you can, now go to practice.”

Andrew is so good at life. He gets along with his family, he has an amazing dog, he’s a great trombone player, and he’s a track star. I wish he was better at managing his time.

I sink into a desk in Mr. Bradner’s room, where he’s correcting papers. He likes to work until he’s done with whatever task he assigns himself before going home, so I don’t say much. I go through the tasks I have written in my planner, and it’s quite bare, more than usual. I occasionally look up to see Mr. Bradner scowling at someone’s chicken scratch, or whoever’s in the hallway. Hey. Mr. Heser’s walking by. Eventually, my phone buzzes with a text.

Andrew P(rat)t: Kyre has all the music for the group, u should go take a look ok?

What a slacker, I hope he trips because he was texting me instead of tying his shoes. I gather my things and head down to the band hall, where Mrs. Kyre resides. I get to thinking about the important questions. Who else is in the group? Why can’t I just NOT be in the talent show? I was hoping I could spend the rest of the year taking it easy, without having to worry about the talent show in June. I find myself in the band room, where Mrs. Kyre conveniently remembers to hand me the music upon seeing me. Andrew set me up for this. I whip up my hair and bust out my saxophone. I stay in the actual band room, since it’s not being used and I’d rather not lock myself in a practice room. I glance at the clock while wrestling the ligature onto the mouthpiece. I can’t believe it’s already almost four, I should’ve just walked home. I warm up quickly, look through the music, and begin trying it. Whoever wrote this isn’t half bad at transcribing, and they thankfully took mercy on the alto saxes. It was probably one of Andrew’s nerdy friends. Wait. I’m one of his nerdy friends.

I dig into the piece, and I get into the solo part. I honk my soul out with the epicness that Adolf Sax couldn’t even begin to imagine, when I see someone walk in out of the corner of my eye. I’ve never sightread this well in my entire life before. Hell yeah, check out this badassery, Mrs. Kyre! And then I realize it’s not Mrs. Kyre. It’s Miss Avery. In that moment, I forget what key signature I’m in. I don’t know what measure I’m on. I forget how to finger any of these notes. What’s a note? I hopelessly squeak a half-assed attempt at the rhythm written on the page, then stop because I think my ears have actually fallen off.

Miss Avery smiles at me. Of course she does. She doesn’t know half of the effect she has on me. I try to talk to her, but all the words stick to my throat on the way up. Oh, and my saxophone is still in my mouth.

“Wow, that’s some real nice stuff there. You’re so into your whole band thing. I love it.”

I know she’s lying. That was the worst sound I’ve heard since hearing someone MacGyver a thick layer of aluminum foil in between the rollers of a Polaroid camera, then threw it at a running band saw when the shop teacher walked by. I didn’t even know my instrument could make such racket.

“Thanks, Miss. Are you looking for Mrs. Kyre?”

“Yeah, actually. Oh, there she is.”

Miss Avery and Mrs. Kyre set to getting completely distracted with whatever they talk about, and I get through the rest of the song.

I can’t believe I’m in Andrew’s living room with my saxophone. Honestly, it’s kind of cozy though. All of us practicing together, on these nice pillows and not in the band room. The entire way here, I complained to my friends via text about going to Andrew’s house, but I’m enjoying myself more than I made it seem. It’s a nice tone overall, and it’s a nice change since our drummer isn’t here. It’s a calm and quiet evening, and some jazzy tunes makes it powerful. His mom also makes otherworldly cupcakes. They don’t even have frosting or anything, but they taste like a sweet, buttery blanket of the warmth of innocence. It’s a week before the final show, and we’re really just working on dynamics and expression to really nail the song. Since it’s so close to the show, there’s been a lot of hype. Miss Avery asked me if I was going to see the talent show. I really wanted to surprise her, so I told her I was going, rather than informing her that I was in it, like the good child I usually am.

It’s the night of the show. I’m standing offstage in my snazzy tux (thanks, Andrew’s mom) and holding my saxophone. I usually don’t wear anything like this, which is why I’m borrowing something that Andrew’s mom pulled out of his closet from a couple years ago. He’s tall and skinny, so I didn’t have to steal anything recent from him. Last minute, we figured the stage would be blazing by the time we got on, so we ditched our jackets. The sleeves of my stark white shirt are neatly rolled up, and it’s not a bad look for me. This shirt fits surprisingly well, with the buttons over my chest doing their job, even if Andrew is a stick compared to me. Apparently, one of the trumpet players had a problem with the fact that she wore her nice diamond earrings, and I wore purple gauges. I can’t wait until she finds out that they glow in the dark. They match the album cover of the song we’re playing, so I think I win here.

I peek around the curtain, since nobody really cares at this point. The theatre’s seats are filling in with equal amounts of snickering teenagers and parents with genuine concern for our generation. I silently thank them as my eyes wander. Our theatre has planetarium-style lighting, along with the typical lights lining the wall. It’s calming to see all the bustling shadows of people finding a place to sit. I look up towards the back, and see Miss Avery coming in. She seems like she’s in a rush, and she’s looking around frantically. I dismiss the idea that she’s looking for me...but, is she? She spots a group of other teachers and they wave her over. Probably not, then.

A couple kids eventually take the stage to thank everyone for coming, and begin intoducing the acts. I suck on my reed absentmindedly.

There’s a few dance groups, which were definitely all entertaining. Someone did a backflip off of a chair. There’s a lot of people who sing, including Savannah, who sang some basic, repetitive pop song. The musical acts are impressive, but maybe I’m just biased. Finally, the curtains close, to open for one last time. A bored looking junior steps on with a microphone, telling the theatre, “The last, but not least act we have is a band ensemble. They will be performing ‘Feeling Love Go’ by Fronz Ferdindand.” Whatever, close enough. “The group consists of various members of our school’s band, and features a saxophone solo, played by Tommie Byers.” That’s me.

We hurry to get all of our equipment on stage. The most terrifying part was Talon’s fancy Moog keyboard setup, and making sure we were all in the right place. As we’re setting up, ‘Paper Cages’ plays. I’m wondering who’s responsible for shoving Franz Ferdinand down everybody’s throats. It’s probably the drummer. Our bari saxes conveniently bump their stands together, knocking over their music. I stand in my assigned spot perfectly, and the curtain opens. I haven’t even thought about Miss Avery again until now. Did she enjoy the rest of the show? Has she already gotten up to leave early? Once my sight adjusts to the dark sea of humans, I find her, with her eyes trained on the stage.

The song kicks in, starting with just the rhythm section. The winds then pick up on the melody, and the guitarist strums out funky chords. Talon and his brother work magic on the keyboards. The brass delivers a bright punch, lead by Andrew. I swell with anticipation as I feel my solo come up. For some reason, I look right at Miss Avery, who has no idea what’s going to hit her. I wink. God, that was probably so cringe-worthy. I bust into my solo, starting small at first. Then I’m out there, jumping the octave, and tonguing some banging rhythms. The winds start doing this siren sounding pattern to fill in. Am I dancing? Oh God, I’m dancing. I kick out my legs and do that weird swinging squat swing like every dramatic sax player does. The brass kicks out, except for one trumpet, which follows the siren action. My solo ends after some dizzying sixteenth notes, and I’m still swayed by the music. The rhythm section continues the ride with the winds, until the song ends on a kind of questioning note, almost as if we are prompting the audience to react with whatever they were holding in the whole time.

Everybody loses it, maybe because it’s just the last show and they want to go home. All the show’s participants rejoin on the stage for pictures and such. Some kids were getting flowers from friends and family. I run down into the rapidly emptying theatre, still huffing, still red from the lights, and still holding my saxophone. My neck strap digs into my skin, as I chase after Miss Avery. We make eye contact, and she grins at me.

“So, what did you think?” “What did I think? Well, I didn’t! That was awesome, kid! When you stepped up with that solo, my mind was blown. You did great up there, and I’m sure every person in this room enjoyed it!”

“Oh, thanks! I...I worked really hard on it, and it was really fun, actually.” “You don’t have to say that, I think we alllll knew how much fun you were having up there,” at this point, Talon’s younger brother came to retrieve my awkwardly dangling saxophone, “and I had no idea! How come you never told me that you guys were getting together to do this?”

I chuckled, “Well, I didn’t know I was supposed to.”

“That was amazing, and I’ve never seen you like that before. Come here!”

Before I know it, her arms are around me. I can’t imagine that it’s pleasant to hug a musician so passionately right after their performance, but my endorphins don’t care. Miss Avery gets a parent to take a picture of us together, and my new lock screen is Miss Avery with her arm around me in front of the stage. I’m still wearing my neck strap.

#miss avery #tc imagine #kind of #this got really long #tcc love #tcc blog #tcc community #tc love #tc community #teacher crush #teacher x student #tc blog #female tc #female teacher crush

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charlienick · 6 years

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some stupid reddie radio show hc

• richie is like grimmy on bbc radio on the breakfast show and he's been there so long and is so well loved that the producers kinda just let him do whatever he wants within reason. he's very loudly and publically bisexual and flirts with Every Single Person they bring in. he hates being up at ass-o’clock in the morning every day but it’s a sweet gig and he’s well loved and he loves his crew so he’s fine

• there's this up and coming actor eddie kaspbrak on the scene that richie is scheduled to interview. he’s struggling to come up with questions for him because he hasn’t seen any of the shit he’s in and is usually too tired to watch films at night anymore (a horrible part of the job because richie loves movies)

• eddie’s out of the closet publically, which he chose to do since this is a movie about the aids crisis, but the topic of boyfriends is blacklisted, which richie is fine with. he’s not a gossip. at least, not on live air

• so eddie’s gonna be in a movie with a bunch of well known people and the interview with richie goes. fucking. HORRIBLY.

• despite being his last guest of the day, it’s still 10:30 am because it’s, well, a breakfast show, and they’re both exhausted. eddie is incredibly obviously uncomfortable/nervous, which in turn is making richie uncomfortable/nervous.

• and when both of these guys get nervous, they really get nervous, so richie is, like, visibly sweating, and they visually record all the interviews too so his camera man (stan) is like "FUCKING COOL IT MAN YOUR SWEAT IS MAKING THE LIGHTS SHINE ON YOUR OILY FACE SO BRIGHTLY WE HAD TO TURN OFF YOUR OVERHEAD LAMP" "oh ha ha ha ha is that what happened?"

• richie asks things like “is this your first radio interview?” (god what is this richie’s first rodeo? what a boring question) and “did you get along with your castmates?” and “does ryan gosling really put his money where his mouth is?” but when he gets to "so what was it like being in a movie with all these famous—" eddie cuts the fuck in.

• beverly, eddie’s handler, giving him the singal to cut it the fuck out. don’t fly off the handle. please. eddie kaspbrak does not fly off the handle. he just. tells it like it is. and if that’s rude, well that’s the other person’s problem

• "okay i'm gonna stop you right there. if you're trying to insinuate that i'm not talented enough to carry this movie like all the other interviewers, i—" "no!” richie shouts, eyes widening and cheeks flaring. he glances around nervously and the crew is giving him looks like this is fucking tanking do something now. “that's not it. not at all. aw hell, alright, let's just—" and then richie RIPS UP HIS QUESTION SHEET like the dramatic motherfucker he is

• "uh. did you just rip up your questions?" eddie asks because this is not his first rodeo, actually, fuck you very much records tozier if that is your real name and he knows that no one can see despite the two cameras being pointed at them. the video feed isn’t live, just something to use for press later.

• "i did. screw those stupid questions i asked you. i’m gonna ask you the things i want to know. what makes you excited about this project? what was your method of getting into character considering how intense the story was?" richie asks, propping his elbow up on the desk and cupping his chin in his hand.

• "oh.” eddie blinks in shock, like, oh this guy does have a soul? and he’s actually interested and isn’t just a weird, awkard guy? whoops. okay. eddie can admit when he’s wrong, at least to himself, so he changes gears. “well my uncle who i was close to as a kid was a victim of aids, and so the opportunity to play a character so similar to his story was a privilege as much as it was cathartic..."

• and then it kind of goes off without a hitch from there. they’re really flowing and eddie is getting asked genuinely interesting questions by richie now, things no other interviewer has asked. he’s totally respectful of the topic while still being his dumb, flirtatious self. eddie is charmed. smitten, really. it’s really obnoxious.

• by the end they're both giggling sweetly and richie is doing some light flirting, not the intensely over the top kind he's been known to with his guests.

• towards the end richie goes "well that was our guest, the delicious, delectable eddie kaspbrak. make sure you go see his movie ‘collison’ in theatres this friday, because i promise you're gonna want this pretty face to bring you to tears on the big screen instead of just hear him do it on radio."

• eddie is blushing like mad and leans into the mic and meekly goes "and because i'm talented." "oh of course. AND because he's talented. what song would you like to play us out with, eds?" "what? my name is eddie. did you forget already? not very professional of you.” zoom in on richie’s grin. “i didn’t forget.” “jesus. can i pick anything?" "within reason, you minx! this IS a top 40 station after all." "well it WAS top 40," eddie giggles. he calls over bill who controls the switchboard and whispers something to him and bill chuckles and nods.

• "what are you two up t—" "well folks, that's our show!" eddie announces brightly. richie scoffs, scandalized, but eddie continues. "i hope you enjoy the dulcet sounds of ‘rocks off’ by the rolling stones." "ohhhh you absolute—" "annnnnd we're clear," bill says from across the room, cutting the mics.

• eddie is a stones guy. fuck, richie seriously hit the jackpot here.

• richie takes off his headphones but eddie doesn't, still dancing to the song coming through. richie smiles over at him and waves mike (the lighting guy) over and asks him to have bill put the music through the overhead speakers. bill does and richie comes up beside eddie, bowing dramatically with his hand out. "may i have this dance?" he asks in some ridiculous british accent, and eddie giggles, rolling his eyes and shrugging. "why not?"

• richie spins him around the room, a bit more practiced than eddie would've assumed with a man who has the gangly limbs of a newborn deer. he calls out to bill to play through his emergency playlist and bill shakes his head with a fond smile and gives him a thumbs up.

• "hey..." richie starts nervously, fiddling with the hem of eddie’s shirt, and, like when was the last time he was this nervous? jesus this kid has gotten under his skin, which is exactly why he says, "whaddya say i take you out to dinner?"

• "are you... are you even allowed to court your guests?" "court?” richie grins with an incredulous raise of his eyebrows. “i like that word. well i'm allowed to court whoever i damn well please. it's a free country," richie shoots back with a sassy cock to his hips and a huge grin.

• "i'm... i'm gonna be really busy with press in the next few weeks," eddie responds breathlessly. "oh. sure. no problem," richie bobs his head very dramatically and for an unnecessarily long time, untangling their limbs. "but!" eddie says, reaching for him again. richie lets himself be tugged into eddie’s space easily. "i'll gladly take you out when the junket is over." "you take me out? i thought i was the one who asked you!" "i thought it was a free country," eddie grins. richie sighs softly, pretending to sound put-out but he can't even manage it with the force of his smile. "alright, mr. kaspbrak."

• "you live in la, right?" eddie asks. "i live wherever you want me to," richie says, trying to pull some sort of seductive Voice, eyebrows jumping. eddie gives him a funny look. "uh. yeah, i do. sorry, i just—you make me a little nervous." "wow. the famous records tozier all tongue tied just from a lowly up-and-comer. why would your viewers think?" eddie asks softly, smiling up at him. "i think they're probably jealous they don't get to court you." "i regret using that word," eddie groans. richie laughs, "you should. it's my new favorite."

• "eddie," bev cuts in quietly with a grin, "you've got another interview at—" "shit!" eddie immediately detaches himself from richie, picking up his things, and richie feels like he just got dunked into cold water. "i'll call you!" eddie yells out to richie before pushing his way through the cameras and lights with bev in tow. she grins and wiggles her fingers at richie. "oh shit," richie sighs, smiling dreamily.

• "oh shit is right," stan says from behind the camera, which still has the green light on, the bastard, "you didn't ever give him your number in the first place." "motherfucker!" "and i caught all of that on camera," stan smirks. "oh i WILL kill you," richie says, turning to the camera and futzing with it. "gimmie that tape!" "nah, you've gotten enough spank bank material for the day," stan says, flipping off the camera. "plus, ben got a whole host of good shit on camera two."

• richie gasps. "BEN-YA-MEEN, YOU WOULDNT" ben just shrugs, flipping his camera off too. "i work for no man, only the love that drives us." "fuck off."

• it’s a week later, the movie has premiered and eddie is the talk of the town. the second the video of the already-infamous interview goes live on twitter (cut with generous amounts of flirting thanks to mike, the absolute ASSHOLE), both their mentions blow the fuck up.

• eddie’s twitter is LITERALLY STILL PRIVATE despite the fact that bev keeps insisting he undo because he can’t get verified that way. eddie could care less about being verified; he just wants his privacy. he thought being private would make it so that no one could @ reply him but he soon finds out that he was very, very wrong when a bunch of ppl on twitter start asking him how his date with richie went. he turns off his notifications after this shit storm

• eddie had followed richie back the day of the interview, and he didn’t know the option to keep replies from ppl you follow had stayed on, so he gets a notif right before one of his last interviews on the junket

• @richierecords: @eddie_kaspbrak you in town? i know a great sushi place

• eddie grins, trying to futz with his phone and figure out how to reply

• @eddie_kaspbrak: @richierecords I’m around, but I thought I was taking YOU out to eat? and how do you know I even like sushi?

• he’s deeply glad he’s private so no one but his friends can see this response because when richie sends back “@richierecords: @eddie_kaspbrak everyone with taste likes sushi, and that gucci suit at the premiere showcased yours very nicely. and i think i’m gonna be the one doing the eating out if all goes according to plan 🍑👅💦” while eddie’s in his last interview. there are like 7,000 likes by the time he checks it

• his eyes widen and his cheeks flush and he immediately presses his phone into his chest so bev who’s beside him in the limo going back to the hotel doesn’t see. he may not understand what the peach emoji was for, but the tongue and the spit was certainly image enough

• bev snorts as she types out a text. “no need to be shy, kaspbrak. your suitor certainly isn’t.” eddie sputters indignantly but bev just laughs without looking up from her phone, “i already contacted his manager. luang’s on center street at 8 pm. it’s like a half-price place and the paps are told to stay the fuck away or they’re getting sued, but seriously? half price? that’s tactless. your boy has no manners. i’m not dealing with you getting food poisoning so be fucking careful.”

• “he’s not my boy! he’s not my anything!” eddie shrieks. bev winces, “stop being shrill at me, i did not do this. you and your libido did.” “i’m barely even attracted to him,” eddie huffs, tapping out a reply to richie of “You stupid motherfucker.”

• “oh, sure, alright,” bev snorts. “we do share a wall in these hotels you know, and they’re unfortunately not very thick. i’m sure it’s very lonely out there for your right hand and your imagination.” “i will fuck you up, marsh, don’t test me,” but then he grins slyly. “and i need both hands for what i get up to, actually.” “oh!” beverly laughs, delighted, finally putting her phone down. “i’d give you a high five, but i don’t need your cum on me. that ain’t in my job description, puddin’.” “FUCK OFF I HAVEN’T MASTURBATED SINCE LAST NIGHT AND I HAVE WASHED MY HANDS SIX TIMES SINCE THEN.”

• their driver chokes on his spit from the front seat and eddie groans into his hands as beverly puts the divider up and laughs

#reddie #it 2017 #fic #should i be working on real shit? maybe #enjoy my procrastination tactic #masterpost #19 #greatest hits

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mentalcurls · 6 years

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11. Una scelta stupida

Episode 11! The end of S1! I almost can’t believe I made it, I’m emotional. So this is I think the longest of all my analysis/ramblings posts of season 1 (almost 6 pages on GDoc) so good luck to any all brave souls who read this! Hopefully you’ll find interesting my opinions on trophy husbands, pregnancy scares, new and old headcanons on Elia and Edoardo and boys seldom facing the same consequences girls do for their actions. And of course at the end you can find the results for the Bechdel test!

look how cute the girls look in Eva’s pjs!

ok, so Eva’s parents are not home and she has the house to herself… except she hesitated quite a bit the night before to tell the girls she was available to take Silvia (and the rest of them) in; that’s not Eva-like tbh, the only reason I can see to do that is if her parents had somehow found out about Edoardo and Silvia’s rendezvous and had forbidden Eva to have anyone over

Eva’s mom has such a cool job, from the way Eva tells it she’s a textile buyer or seller (aka the dream for me): she’s one of the people who decide a couple of years before we see the runways what will trend in fashion as far as materials and print go

Giorgio Brighi is a trophy husband and he knows it and enjoys the perks

Sana being the icon she is and not drinking coffee, but tea

Federica. Fede. Girl. You had a perfectly good cutting board to put the oranges you already squeezed on. Why didn’t you??

btw, ok, I get it, orange juice is breakfast-y, but it’s JUNE which is not exactly prime orange season. Why force it? Put Fede to prepare toast with jam, she can make a mess of crumbs

if I’d just woken up all disoriented like Silvia, Eleonora crossing her arms at me would have scared me like shit

still, bless Eleonora Sava and her no-nonsense approach to the following conversation: Silvia can’t not eat, nothing special happened the night before, there’s a question they need to ask, how sure is she, ok so they’ll go to the free clinic this week, all without paraphrasing or being vague or judging Silvia; that is definitely the best way she could have handled it

and it is of course so important that the two people who talk to Silvia the most are Eleonora and Sana, the one who she had the most problems with, the ones she’s the most convinced will hate her

look at her! Silvia apologizing for being unwell and throwing up because she made a fuss! She was not low maintenance, she was actually so high maintenance she couldn’t anything by herself, she inconvenienced all the girls and forced them to take care of her and she made a scene! She doesn’t really know, but of course she imagines she made a scene at the party, arriving drunk at the party and making a spectacle of herself, fainting, making people worry about her. It is the very worst thing for her because she simultaneously acted not at all like a proper, refined girl and was super high maintenance: the stuff of nightmares for her

and if this scene isn’t a mirror of the very first scene of the series, where Gio and Marti mocked Eva for her mark in the history test and Gio “tried” to cheer her up saying that she was good at other things (I’d link to my post about ep.1 for my thoughts on that, but Tumblr would disappear my post from tags so 🤷‍♀️): except here the girls tell Silvia she’s good at something that genuinely is hard work and she actually is good at and worked to be good at and makes her proud of herself, even though the atmosphere is still silly and light and there are still jokes to make her laugh

I so empathize with the girls all looking at one another when it’s time to ask Silvia is she’s pregnant cause none of them wants to say it

Silvia can’t find her voice to answer them verbally 💔

Sana putting her mug down and exhaling, Fede inhaling sharply, opening her mouth like she wants to say something but can’t find the words

Eva is the one to think to ask, albeit indirectly, if Silvia took a test and she’s the one who reads the test and recognizes what it means: so she is pretty familiar with pregnancy scares and all that goes with them apparently, but wait a minute, why, exactly? Eva??

and really, I’d like to take a minute and appreciate Eleonora Sava here, because for all that she insisted on Silvia having safe sex, on taking her to the free clinic the first time around, for all she was pretty pissed when Silvia told them she and Edo didn’t use a condom, now that she could say “I told you so” in a multitude of ways from the most direct to the most subtle, she says nothing and offers Silvia an actionable plan for the near future to make her feel supported and comfortable 👏👏👏

honestly, Eleonora being able to just say entire sentences backwards is cool yet slightly creepy

yeeees the theatre kids are back! I missed them 💖 (they’re so passionate and they don’t care what people think of them and they reach out to people! Fucking role models)

theatre girl keeps sneaking looks at Ele, is there some unrequited crushing going on here???

Ele’s thumbs up cracks me up

bless him, theatre guy really wants people to believe there are almost no spots left, he’s so cute

I just realized who theatre guy goes to harass after Eva and Eleonora: he yells “Santini!” and while that is a pretty common surname, I know deep in my heart of hearts that he’s talking to Elia, so Elia used to be in the theatre group too when his, Eva’s, Gio’s and Marti’s class was in Succursale NEW HEADCANON ACCEPTED you can now pry it from my cold dead hands

so Edo has been texting Ele for a couple of weeks and she hasn’t answered any of his texts and, still, he waited at least ten days before trying to talk to her again: my headcanon that he thinks he’s some sort of mysterious romance novel guy a là Edward Cullen gets stronger and stronger (honestly, check out Brooding YA Hero on Twitter, half of the tweets are Edo, the other half are Nico when he’s trying to impress Marti. Honestly: these guys)

and again with that stupid “Eduardo” when they could have gone with gems such as Eriberto

his “Buongiorno, eh” that implies that she should have been the one to greet him first and she ignored him instead, even though he was standing behind her, find his perfect match in Ele’s “Wow” which shows exactly how impressed she is that he finally had the balls to at least actually talk to her face to face again

OMG the way he says her full name like he expects to get a prize or something for discovering it, like he expects her to be impressed and for that to woo her into his arms, instead of sounding borderline stalkerish

in fact, Eva is supremely unimpressed throughout the conversation

backwards compliments will get you nowhere Edo: if you tell her she’s smart, you don’t say she doesn’t show it the next minute (but again, this is a typical Brooding YA Hero move)

that “Everytime you say no to me, I only want you more” is straight out of some clichè romance novel like GOD, can you be more obvious Edo?

Ele’s unimpressed raised eyebrow gives me life

and when nothing else works, like any good asshole, Edoardo goes goes for simple shock value, goes for the thing that will make Ele look stupid and uptight and a jerk if she gets mad about it, goes for words she can’t have a rebuttal for, goes for fake vulnerability and kindness (as proven by the way he smiles smug like he knows exactly what he is doing), goes for physical attractiveness which can imply objectification and sexualization (especially when you think about the fact Edo complimented her intelligence but immediately backtracked a couple of line earlier)

Eva saved you there, Edoardo. Ele might have been taken aback for a second, but when she saw you smirking, she started gearing up for one hell of a roast and I honestly struggled to think how you would have survived another one

the girls just march into the doctor’s office unannounced???

Sana’s eyebrow raise at the doctor’s “Salam aleikum” is 💯💯💯

for realsies though, how sarcastic is that “Benissimo” from the doctor?? Like, she spent what I expect was an excruciating amount of time teaching Silvia how to put on a condom (based on how scared Silvia was of the fake dick she would have had to practice on) and now it seems she didn’t even use it? She’s over it

oh, but Ele and Sana have both been thinking bout this, they’ve planned how things will go for Silvia: in Ele’s mind how she’ll have to have an abortion, she doesn’t even need her parents permission since she’s 16 but at the same time she’s just 16 and the father is not in the picture as well as an asshole, she has the maturità next year and she can’t really handle a pregnancy and a newborn baby at the same time as school and her exams and the psychological aspects, and she has the beginning of an ED on top of all of that; Sana on the other hand is planning for Silvia keeping the baby, influenced by her being religious, but she’s a practical girl nonetheless and thinking of adoption I expect, then of how Silvia will have to face the music at home and at school and the girls will have to support her, but also of how a pregnancy might be in some ways good for her because it will make her have a completely different relationship with her body and food and boys and even with her family

and Silvia doesn’t speak. Silvia doesn’t have an opinion in this. She tried to “kill Edoardo’s baby” the previous week, but here she doesn’t speak, even when it is her body and potentially her baby on the line

the only thing she’s insistent about is that she took a test, even when the doctor is prescribing some actual medical tests (not saying pharmacy bought pregnancy tests aren’t accurate, but they can sometimes be wrong)

she’s just so resigned

Silvia and the other girls don’t seem to know what an ovulation test is?? But they were so well informed about contraceptives in ep.5! Fall of a myth

Silvia’s poor cousin who wants to have a baby but can’t check if she’s fertile so she can have sex at the right moment 😕

the relief on the other girls faces when the doctor says Silvia’s not pregnant

and the doctor is good, she saw right through Silvia and understood immediately what was the actual problem, but I’m kind of mad she didn’t say anything more than “You can’t live on love and air” to Silvia about eating better, she’s a doctor ffs

woman-on-a-mission-Eva is back and walking towards Marti, I’d be scared if I were you bby, she even wore the heavy boots to kick your ass better

aaand he tries to act like nothing’s wrong; Marti, did you really think you’d get away with it??

Eva is so impressed Marti called her to talk and all he talks about is Gio and not telling Gio about how he knew of Eva cheating and the mess he made

and I can’t even imagine how betrayed Eva feels right now: not only she finds out about more lies Gio told, but it is also confirmed that someone she relied on, someone she thought was on her side, at least back then, was not, ever

and I said it before, but Gio and Marti would happily take a bullet for one another, Eva was a bit naive there thinking Martino would side with her; sure, it turns out he didn’t exactly side with Gio for the last part of this story, acting in a self-serving way, but he sure as hell never really spared much thought to Eva

just so you know, I’m torn: half of me is like “he did all of that and now he has the nerve to CRY?” and wants to grab him and shake him out of stupid; the other half is going “my baby! my poor baby! OMG, this is breaking my heart make it stop” (S2 I blame you)

“un po’ un’infamata”/”a bit of a shitty thing” UN PO’? UN PO’???? (imagine me pulling a full Captain Raymond Holt reacting to Agent Rosa Diaz telling him he and his husband need to “bone”)

everytime Eva turns to Marti, then turns away, she gets more disbelieving and a piece of her heart breaks a bit more

and all the pieces fall into place, finally, so Eva finally feels like she has the full picture of when and how her life fell apart: she takes a step back while listening to Marti, look at it attentively, and she can’t help but pinpoint one specific moment as the one where it all went to hell

yes, great choice telling a kid with a mentally ill mother he’s a “psycho”

“It’ll sound absurd, but I never wanted to hurt you” YES IT DOES SOUND ABSURD AND I DON’T NEED PERMISSION FROM YOU TO THINK THAT MARTINO ALSO GO TO HELL

also, look who’s been taking lesson from bodice-ripper-clichès-spouter extraordinaire Edoardo Incanti *drumroll* Martino, and the pupil is already better than the master cause he’s far more convincing

and I can’t really begin to pretend to understand what goes through Eva’s head here, why she decides to joke and forgive Marti this quickly: is it because she’s seen the big picture and come to her decision and has decided thing would have come to this one way or another anyways? Is it because she’s gotten attached to the idea of Marti being into her and she’s planning to give him a chance, like she obviously does at the end of the year party? Is it honestly because she feels like it’s karma/the universe paying her back for how she hurt Laura? Is it because her and Marti were really close even before she dated Gio? (which makes only half sense to me since they’ve only known one another four year tops, and yeah, okay, it’s four years, but it’s also just four years)

that shot where Eva leans her head on Marti’s shoulder though. Poetic cinema.

and WHAT ARE THE ODDS? Gio is there

and like, why’s Gio so worried about justifying who he’s with, when he and Eva are on a pause??

also he’s in red again here with his brother. But he’s in dark green at Eva’s the next day, which is in his normal palette of cold colors

“There was a very real possibility you would’ve rejected me or that a mess would have happened.” and that’s it. The possibility of a mess never actually happened in Gio’s view of things, because he never really face much consequences of his cheating on his girlfriend: Laura dumped him, sure, but she made her peace with him, he still goes to her house even; his friends are still his friends and support his new relationship (Marti wanting to break them up is not because of the cheating, is because of his own reasons so it doesn’t count rn), no one really holds a grudge against him, he doesn’t have a bad reputation, he doesn’t feel insecure at all, actually going from girl to girl like that probably boosted his self esteemed and raised the opinion his friends have of him

and while with Canegallo Eva didn’t actually kiss him first, so at least she had that; with Gio she did, she kissed him first, so she probably feels like she deserved all the shit that happened to her

and really, these kids waiting for signs from the universe through playlists on shuffle, who do they think they are, Romeo and Juliet? (They probably do.) (They should have seen the break up coming then, though, cause Romeo and Juliet don’t really have a “ and they lived happily ever after”)

and finally Eva lies it all out on the table for him, all the thing he never fully understood she had to go through because of him, of them

and maybe this hurt him, but as Eva says, she’s been hurting for a whole year and he never got that, he never hurt, he never tried to really understand and support her, he was just same old Gio and a good boyfriend by his own standards, but I doubt he ever stopped to ask Eva what she really needed (and like, it’s fine. He is 16 years old, he’ a kid, he’s allowed to make mistakes, but he needs to be put face to face with them to see them and grow, and I love him so much anyways, he’s my favorite always)

on a less profound note, those shoes. They really look like a perfect Tumblr aesthetic pic when they hug and their feet are close, the Eva gets on her tiptoes

and I’d kind of forgotten how they show of the sex scene? again, like I said in ep.2, 7.6 Due ore and the red room scene in 8.5 Tu non sei di Milano are perfect and I love them and I wouldn’t change a thing, but it objectively true Evanni sex scenes are more “graphic” than Nicotino sex scenes

confirmed that staring contests are Evanni’s version of post sex-cuddles

Maria Sorgato is back! Look at her being a queen and rocking that black Gucci-esque top and playing MC

oh, God, Canegallo sounds like one of the guys who run the rides at local fairs and hypes up 13-year-olds to take those 5-for-the-price-of-4 deals on ride tickets

now, I’m Italian, I went to 4 end of the year parties during my 5 years of high school and we never, not once, did something so cheesy as this, nor did a 1995 song ever play at such a party, nor any Renato Zero song, and definitely not “I migliori anni della nostra vita” (which I’ve read someone call “somewhat of a hymn for Italian teenagers” and I was like W H A T? Where? When?) so I can say for sure this is terrible representation of Italian culture, but a cute-ish scene on its own

Alice waving to Eva, awww 💕

Gio waving to Eva, double awww 💕 + bonus Elia and Peccio hugging like there’s no tomorrow next to Gio 💕

Eva lately doesn’t have much time or patience for niceties with Marti, she goes straight to the point

woah, such enthusiasm from Marti at the news Eva is finally single!

awww but it’s because he’s a good friend, he’s worried about how she feels, if she’s hurting! (Ok this is me being bitter, he actually is a cutie about this)

what is Marti looking at when Ele is checking her phone? What draws him to the bar as fast as possible? Gio??

YASSS for surprise hugs and amends! Good for you Laura, you’re looking like a nicer person already without all those grudges

oh, Silvia’s dress is so cute, except why does it fit so poorly? The neckline is all skewed and the armhole gapes! It’s her Revenge dress™! She’s been planning her look for 3 weeks! It should be tailored for the gods!

on the other hand, look at Silvia walking out of the woods, both the real-but-fake ones that are part of the decor and the metaphorical ones of the last few months

and in fact, look, they make light of the incident at Alice’s friends party!

except then the monsters of months past (Edo) come visit and start looming over Silvia

Edoardo jumping over that fence thing to go talk to Silvia is 100% Olio Cuore romance novel clichè

Silvia actually takes a few step backwards as he get closer to talk to her, she’s honest to God scared of what he wants to tell her, she fully expects him to be there to make fun and humiliate her again

and then he kisses her on the cheek! Why? Dude, I went off William og in my previous discussions of your behaviour towards Silvia and that means you don’t want Silvia around you because she’s too clingy and you don’t want her to believe you have feelings for her: why kiss her on the cheek then? You apologized, you were nice, you could have just said “See you around at school next year” and be done with it, leave her without any delusions; instead you went for the one act that might give her hope she has some of your affection. Why? Is is your inner Harlequin hero taking control of your body? Is it just that you secretly enjoy having a harem of girls pining for you? (oh, soz, you do enjoy that, I’d forgotten)

look how excited Silvia is! She was expecting the worst and she got almost the best instead! Of course she’s enamoured with Edo all over again, he’s not even a monster anymore!

at least he says bye to Eva too

this party has been pretty amazing for Eva up till now, whereas it must have been so fucking stressful for poor Ele?! She has to manage Edoardo, both making sure he fulfills his promise and keeping him at bay re: their date, she has to find fricking Silvia and on top of that she finds gay porn on Marti’s phone

btw, how did that happen? Ok it’s in his favorites, but you don’t exactly see browser favorites from the phone app 🤔 girl you wanna tell me something? Were you planning some nasty surprise for him cause Eva told you he was the one who triggered the fight, the school-wide rumors, the whole mess with Gio? (Look at Ele hitting back for her girl, cause sure she’s into Eva but she also just wants her to be happy and Marti made her definitely not happy 😡 also Evanora always on my mind)

and then 30 seconds straight (lol) of Eva being baffled and confused and just generally shook

Bechdel test: this episode passes the test! The conversations that make it pass are the two conversations at Eva’s house in the morning, despite a brief mention of her dad and the almost-ever present ghost of Edoardo over Silvia, and the conversation at the free clinic with the doctor.

Thank you so much for sticking with me through this!

This post is part of my complete series of meta about Skam Italia season 1. If you’d like to read more of my thoughts about the other episodes, you can find the mastepost linked in the top bar on my blog under SKAMIT: EVA. Cheers!

#skam italia #eva brighi #skamit s1 #skamit meta #giovanni garau #martino rametta #silvia mirabella #eleonora sava #sana allagui #elia santini #federica cacciotti #edoardo incanti #federico canegallo #alice (skam italia)#skamit #a. writes #1x11 una scelta stupida

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volumes2lo-gan · 7 years

Note

Romantic prinxiety Where Roman and Virgil don't get along but the theater needs another singer for there musical legally blonde ( if you haven't seen it before you can change it I just love that musical ) Virgil does it because he needs his grades up in theatre class. Virgil winds up playing Emmett and Roman plays Elle ( he's the only one who can hit the right notes and they don't care he's a boy ) they have to rehearse the kiss and turns out that they like it more than they thought they would

I love this prompt and it took a while to get enough time to sit down and write this, but I like how it turned out. My school put on Legally Blonde last year, so I was familiar with it, but still needed a little refresher. I also changed up the prompt a tad, but hope you enjoy!

Stick to the Script

Fandom: Sanders SidesPairing: Prinxiety, platonic Moxiety and LoginceWarnings: physical injury (nothing graphic)

Summary: Someone must’ve said Macbeth because they’re going to need a new Emmett. Virgil is volunteered for the role and neither he nor Roman are too happy about it.

Tagged: @existental-crises @jordisama @here-to-vent @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch @novagalaxy4real @thomas-must-get-to-sleep @emo-space-trash @evanisonfire @lollingtothemax @all-the-fand0mz

The stage was crazy this time of year, it wasn’t quite tech week yet, but the theater was bustling with students learning their lines and dance numbers. Virgil watched from behind a curtain on side stage as Roman and Logan performed their lines.

“Oh, and getting one of Stromwell’s daily quotes right is almost as important as acing the mid-term,” Logan recited.

“But you didn’t hear it from me.” Virgil finished under his breath.

“I still don’t get why you didn’t try out.” Virgil jumped and turned to face Patton, his heart racing. Damn, they really ought to get that kid a cowbell.

“Trust me, you don’t want to see me on stage,” Virgil said, crossing his arms. “I’m better back here as SM where there’s order and no surprises.”

As if on cue, there was a loud crash from the stage followed by a long, agonizing moan.

“Logan!” Roman yelled, jumping off his bench and running forward to kneel next to Logan. It looked as though he’d tripped over a loose cable when he’d gone to move to the front of the stage. There was another low moan as Virgil met Roman and the other students starting to swarm around the injured student. Logan’s arm was bent underneath him at a peculiar angle.

“You see?” he said, pain barely masked in his voice, “This is why I need to wear my glasses in this role.”

Thomas, their theater teacher and director, finally got to Logan’s side and tried helping him up, motioning for the other students to give them some space. “Ookay, take it easy there, Logan, I think your arm is broken.”

“You think?” He retorted. He was still trying to cradle his arm as Thomas steadied him and called 911.

“An ambulance is on its way,” he said, tucking his phone away. “Roman, can you please bring him to the front of the school? His parents can meet him there.” Roman nodded and helped his friend leave the auditorium.

Once the doors had closed, Thomas turned to the rest of the students who were still standing in awkward silence. “So I know that it’s really close to tech week, but Logan won’t be able to perform with his arm broken like that. We’re going to need a new Emmett since Logan’s understudy has the flu." Patton’s hand shot up.

“Virgil can do it!” Virgil’s heart froze.

No.

“Virgil?”

This can’t be happening.

“Yeah!” Patton beamed, “He knows all the lines and everything. He’s a really good singer too!”

Patton shut up.

“Well, Virgil, if that’s something you’d be up for, you would really be doing us a huge favor.” Thomas said, eyes quietly pleading with that look that had gotten him a decent budget for this year’s play.

“I…” I can’t believe I’m doing this… “I can… I can do it, yeah.” Virgil finally managed, feeling like his chest was about to concave.

“Great!” Thomas said, relieved to be saved from at least one disaster. The doors swung open and Roman came sauntering back in. Uhg, Virgil thought, immediately regretting his decision.

“What’s great?” Roman asked, hopping back on stage nonchalantly as though his best friend’s arm hadn’t just been broken.

“Virgil has volunteered to be our new Emmett!” Thomas said, gesturing to the new actor in question. Roman’s eyes widened and he shot Virgil a bewildered look.

“Wh– Virgil? He’s SM, he can’t be Emmett,” he reasoned hastily. Patton stepped forward a little.

“Well I can take over as set manager, I was already doing a lot of work with Virgil anyways, it shouldn’t be that different. Anyways,” he added, “Virgil will be a great Emmett!”

Virgil scuffed his shoe on the stage whilst actively avoiding eye-contact with every living being in the room. Of course Roman would have a problem with it. Mr. I’m A Perfect Prince couldn’t handle sharing stage with a techie, but whatever. If anything, Virgil would do an amazing job just to spite him. Heck, maybe he’d even upstage him in the process. Virgil crossed his arms and steeled himself to look Roman in the eye.

“I’m going to try my best, so let’s put our best foot forward, shall we?”

Roman’s eye twitched. This was going to be a long musical.

It was finally tech week and everyone was scrambling to pull their pieces together. The pit was rehearsing with them every night till eleven, the cast kept going after that until midnight, and the crew stayed till upwards of two in the morning ensuring that everything was perfect. They’d gone through the show multiple times already and were about ready for a full run-through. There was just one problem- the leads hadn’t practiced their kiss.

Virgil was playing Emmett flawlessly and Roman was pleasantly surprised, though he would never admit it. However, every time they got to the kiss scene, Virgil would make up some excuse to skip to a later line. It was crunch time and he was really starting to test Roman’s patience.

“It’s not the end of the world, Romeo. It’s just one stage kiss, that’s it.” Roman was glaring at Virgil who was, once again, avoiding eye-contact.

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” Virgil said, rolling his eyes. “If it’s just a kiss, then why do we have to rehearse it? We’ll just throw it in at the end.”

“It is at the end!” Roman exclaimed. “That’s the whole point!”

“Well, then we’ll get to it at the end,” Virgil replied flatly. He knew he was pushing Roman’s buttons, but this was just the icing on the spite cake. He genuinely enjoyed the play and all, but if he saw a chance to annoy that wannabe Broadway star, then he’d be remised not to take it.

Thomas came down the center aisle with his arms raised. “Okay, you two. We’re going to need some order on stage. We’re getting into crunch time, people, and we can’t risk this scene going wrong by being unprepared. Virgil? I need you to hold out for at least one scene please. And Roman, that goes for you too. We don’t need anyone stepping on toes here, but we do need to actually practice this scene before Friday.” He was now standing in the front row, arms crossed expectantly. Virgil huffed.

“Okay, fine. But just once tonight, got it?”

“Pretty sure I’m the director here, but sure. If that’s what it’ll take to get a run of this scene, then go for it.” Thomas said, heading back to the sound booth.

Virgil exhaled and looked over at Roman. The kid was straightening out his outfit and checking the floor for his marks. It’s just one kiss, Virgil thought, how bad can it be?

Thomas called out for them to start and the scene began. Virgil kept up the banter of the scene they’d gone through so many times before. His heart pounded in his chest, dread growing exponentially as the lines continued.

“Then, forget it. Besides, I have an early class tomorrow.” Roman said, jokingly.

“So Friday at eight?” Virgil asked, barely able to hear himself over his own heartbeat.

“Perfect.” Roman began his exit for side stage before his cue to turn and dart back towards Virgil. Roman was about an inch from his face when Virgil finally steeled himself and kissed him.

Roman froze and Virgil wasn’t sure why, but he felt the sense of dread carving deeper into his stomach. And then he was being kissed back, warm and soft, a hand pulling his waist closer. This definitely wasn’t in their script, but surprisingly, Virgil wasn’t complaining.

After a few more seconds, they both pulled away and– Shit. Virgil couldn’t remember his next line and looking at Roman’s flushed face and dazed expression wasn’t helping. He stood there, trying to will himself to remember what he was supposed to do next, but nothing was coming to him.

He let out a groan and quickly darted backstage, embarrassment washing over him as he remembered there were no more lines, Patton was supposed to fade them to black. His shadow slowly melted away as the stage darkened behind him. He hadn’t realized that Roman had followed him until he felt a firm hand on his shoulder. His heart leapt to his throat as he jumped in surprise.

“Virgil… that was… wow.” He finished eloquently. Virgil could even see Roman’s blush in the dim light of the side stage.

He cleared his throat. “I- Well, Thomas said we needed to run through the scene, I just ran the script.” He said, looking away at the prop table beside them. Roman made a choked sound and Virgil looked up to see his expression of something between shock and amusement.

“W-wait. You didn’t… you didn’t know it was supposed to be a stage kiss?” Virgil froze, mind backtracking to figure out what he meant by that.

“A… stage kiss?” He asked hesitantly. Roman laughed and Virgil cringed away.

“Virgil,” he said, smiling as he put his hands on his shoulders for reassurance, “I’m not laughing at you, I’m just… I just can’t believe that no one’s explained it to you before. A stage kiss… a stage kiss is like this.” Roman leaned in and Virgil’s heart nearly stopped. However, as he got closer, Roman’s hands reached up and cupped his face, thumbs ever-so-slightly covering his lips. When Virgil felt the pressure of the kiss, it was from Roman’s thumbs pressing against his lips. As Roman pulled away, Virgil flushed scarlet in embarrassment.

“Oh my god,” he said, mortified. “Wow I can’t believe I’m such an idiot. Okay, well I’m going to see myself out and throw myself off a cliff now, BRB.” He started for the door and made it one step before Roman grabbed his hand.

“No, it’s fine!” He exclaimed, walking around to face Virgil. “I… I kind of liked it…” He rubbed the back of his neck as a flush crept down it. Virgil couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“You did?” He asked, not really sure whether to believe him or not.

“Yeah,” he smiled, “yeah I did. Do you think… I mean… would it be okay if I…” he was getting closer and Virgil’s heart started hammering in his chest. He took a deep breath to calm himself.

“It’d be great, actually,” Virgil said before reaching up and pulling Roman into another kiss. He held him close as their kiss deepened, heat coursing through their veins. After a long moment, Virgil finally pulled away, leaving Roman a disheveled mess in front of him.

“Holy hell,” Roman said after finally composing himself. “Well that was… I… would you wanna get dinner after this?” Virgil chuckled.

“Dude, it’s like eleven o’clock, dinner time’s over.”

“Well then how about breakfast if this thing goes really late?” he asked hopefully.

Virgil rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless. “Yeah, breakfast sounds good.”

“Great! We should probably get back to stage, it looks like they’re setting up the next scene.” Roman walked back on stage and Virgil paused for a moment. He could’ve sworn he saw–

“See!! I told you you’d make a great Emmett!” Patton exclaimed, jumping out from the curtain’s shadow. Virgil choked in surprise and Patton ran forward to help him. “Oh, sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!”

Virgil waved him off. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Not long,” he said with a smile, “Thomas wanted someone to check in and see what was wrong. I just saw the tail end of… that, but don’t worry, I won’t tell.” Virgil wanted to sink down into the shadows he was so embarrassed. It was bad enough that he was starting to have a crush on his annoying co-star, but his best friend had to witness it? High school was officially the worst.

“Please don’t,” he said, backing towards the stage.

Patton made the zipping his lips motion and tossed out the key with a smile. God, what did Virgil do to deserve such a great friend? He turned to the stage and walked back into the flood of lights to see Roman looking at him from center stage. He was trying to hide a smile and Virgil felt butterflies flutter to life in his stomach. If tech week didn’t kill him, this crush surely would.

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oddree13 · 7 years

Text

Those Magic Changes

(Read on AO3)

He blames Ford for this.

Well not just Ford. Ford, combined with his inability to say no to people especially when it comes to fixing things.

It started at the end of sophomore year when Ford was shadowing Lardo to learn the ins and outs of managing the Samwell Men’s Hockey team. She was with the team in the cafeteria one morning when her phone goes off. No one paid it any attention until she was slamming her head on the table.

“Please don’t tell me we broke her already…” Nursey murmured to Chowder as they watched the petite woman look like she was about to break the table with her forehead.

Bitty slid closer to her and patted her back tentatively before she sat up and found everyone staring at her.

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just that we’re two weeks from opening and it feels like everything is going wrong. We had one main drop due to what he says in laryngitis, but is probably an STI, the first proof of the playbill had the name of the play misspelled, and now I just saw in our chat that a piece of the set broke...again!”

“What broke?” Dex asked out of sheer habit.

“One of the dual sceneries. It has a bunch of rotating pieces so depending on the scene we can just turn something and it’ll be something different.”

“Oh. Well that’s easy enough to fix. I’m sure you have someone who can take care of that no problem,” he shrugs and goes back to eating, not expecting Ford to bound over the table and grab him by his collar.

“Seriously? Our prop manager is the one who got the main sick so no one is talking to him right now. Could you fix it? Please, I’ll owe you,” she smiled, and Dex knew he was stuck.

This is how Dex became the emergency fix-it guy for the Samwell theatre department, because somehow having to be handy on a budget caused him to exceed the skills of the theatre kids. That spring, between practices and class, he was constantly called to the auditorium to handle anything from a loose washer to erecting scaffolding. He should have found it annoying, but honestly it was nice to be fixing something that wasn’t the same house problem for the millionth time. Plus, he enjoyed the confidence boost he got from being ogled at by a bunch of actors and actresses, since hockey equaled hockey butt.

***

It wasn’t until the following year that Dex dug his own grave. He wanted to hate Ford, but, like Bitty, Dex couldn’t be angry at someone who barely hit his shoulder.

Pre-season training wasn’t the only reason Dex had come to Samwell almost two weeks early. Midway through the summer he had gotten a text from one of the stagehands with a picture of a junker they’d found in Boston and had asked Dex if there was a way to make it work for this semester’s play.

The production for the upcoming season was Grease, with, according to the director, a lot of the problematic bits written away. Of course, in doing Grease one needs a car. He knew he was being too friendly when he agreed, but Dex couldn’t help it. He liked Ford, and a lot of the stagehands who he’d gotten to know. Plus, if he beat Nursey to Samwell he could do more with the room they had to share. His decision didn’t have anything to do with the fact that maybe his mother had played the movie Grease more times than he could count during his childhood and he had a soft spot for it.

Having actually beat Nursey to the Haus by two days, Dex was able to get their room set up and get the car up on cinderblocks in the Haus’ backyard.

Nursey knew none of this. He knew Dex had been helping Ford out last spring, but he had no clue that the help was extending to this year. Thus, he was more than a little surprised when he saw that his roommate and defense partner was shirtlessly removing the engine from a beater in their backyard on the day he came back to school. Clearly the lobster catching had kept Dex’s strength up over the summer.

He was still staring when Bitty came out to the porch with a batch of sweet tea and handed Nursey a glass. “You look thirsty,” he teased as he walked to Dex to hand him his own glass.

Sipping what could only be called diabetes in a cup, he had to agree as he looked at the ginger Adonis before him. Dex eventually saw him standing there and sent a wave his way.

Nursey flushed a bit as he waved back

***

It was while he was installing the car on its makeshift dolly on stage that Dex got to watch one of the initial rehearsals. During a break, Sam, the guy cast as Doody, was playing around with the guitar he had to use during one of the scenes. As he messed around, he overheard the director lamenting that Sam had to at least figure out how to look genuine as he pretended to play as it was obvious that he didn’t know how. Dex’s need to please perked up, and he offered to help Sam learn. After all he could play the guitar and the song was simple enough.

That night Dex got the sheet music from his bag and began to play, humming along to the tune as he went. The part Sam had wasn’t a big one, even if he was one of the main T-birds, but this song was a showstopper if done right. He was just about to start singing it out loud when Nursey opened the door to their room and Dex slammed his hands on the strings to make the music stop.

Hearing the odd twang, Nursey’s eyes were directed to the noise and just took in the scene.

“I didn’t know you played,” he blinked, as he put his bag down on his chair.

“Oh, I had to pick an instrument in junior high,” he explained, a bit embarrassed at being caught.

“Were you playing something?”

“Nah, just tuning it for a friend,” he lied, and fiddled with the tuning pegs.

“What do you know how to play?” Nursey asked, as he walked closer to his roommate.

“Just the dad rock you hate,” he chirped, glad that that, luckily, Nurse let his line of inquiry die.

***

When Dex found time to meet with Sam, he began to show him the basic holds and even showed him how the song looked being played. Singing along to it, Dex imagined standing on the stage, singing about asking someone to come back to him. He imagined the target of his affection to be someone that looked a lot like Nursey. It was always easier for Dex to picture who he should be singing to when he was learning a new song. Dex didn’t look up until he was done, and found both Sam, and the director, Sasha, staring at him from where she was working on the book.

“That was really good, Dex. I didn’t know you could sing!”

“I can’t really, Sasha, trust me,” he blushed, both from the praise and the image he had conjured in his mind.

“Well I just heard you do something. Maybe you ought to consider being Sam’s understudy,” she offered, exchanging excited glances with the actor next to her.

“I can’t. I’ve got school, plus, hockey, and I’m already helping you guys with the set when I can,” he explained, knowing that this wasn’t his thing. He was just doing this for fun and to help out his friends.

“Well you wouldn’t have to attend all the rehearsals. I asked Ford for your schedule so no one asked you to come in when you couldn’t. You don’t have any games on the three nights we’re performing. You just proved that you have a good voice, and if you can move on the ice I’m sure you can move on stage. It’s a small part, and Sam doesn’t have a backup. Just think about it,” she reiterated, and went back to making notes on the script.

***

At the Haus that night, Dex approached Bitty in the kitchen and asked him what he thought.

“Oh, that sounds like such fun! I mean if you can still make practices and classes, I don’t see why not. I mean school comes first, but college is for trying new things after all!” he rambled, as he fed Dex some pie.

“I don’t know. I mean I feel bad since I didn’t audition and, well, I’m not sure it’s something I’d be good at.”

“Honey, I don’t think she would have asked you if she didn’t think you could do it, now would she?” Bitty pointed out.

“I guess. I mean it’s just the understudy, so why not. Just, um, don’t tell the guys. I don’t know what would be worse, being chirped, or having them all show up to watch me,” he laughed.

“Watch you what?” Nursey asked, as he walked into the kitchen following the smell of pie.

“Watch me kick your ass at pong next kegster,” he supplied quickly, frantically changing the subject.

“Well I’ll take that challenge Poindexter,” he chuckled, extending his hand at the bet.

Bitty just shook his head at the two of them. But he planned to keep his promise to Dex about not telling the team so he didn’t say anything.

Well, until Halloween that is.

***

The Haus Halloween Epikegster was a notorious affair on campus for a number of reasons. For Dex, the notoriety came from the mandatory costume policy. Before college, he could get away with being a hockey player or a fisherman, but from his first year on SMH, Ransom and Holster informed him that he had to try harder and he had to attend. This had always left Dex frustrated, but this year that was about to change.

This year he actually had a plan, and it involved begging Beckett, their costume designer, for their help by bribing them with one of Bitty’s pies and a dance at the Epikegster. In the end, Dex was had a T-Birds outfit for the night on the condition that no one vomited on it and that Texas, who was in charge of makeup, could do a test run on him.

The rest of the team was at the Haus already getting the place ready. Nursey, who had taken over tub juice duties once Shitty had graduated, was on the back porch mixing it when Bitty walked out to check on him.

“Going well?” he asked brightly in his Wonder Woman costume, already a bit tipsy from the jello shots Shitty had brought over from Harvard.

“Yeah all good, but have you seen Dex? He left a few hours ago and I thought he’d be back by now.” Nursey asked, concerned for his roommate. It wasn’t because he missed him, not at all.

“Oh he’s just getting his costume finished!”

“Wow I’m stunned.” Nursey said, relaxing back into the porch railing. “I figured he’d make a lame one like last year. He went as a zombie, and that was only because Lardo wanted a volunteer for special effects makeup.”

“No, this year our Dex is coming as T-Bird from Grease. Taking out his costume for a test run,” Bitty giggled, leaning next to Nursey on the railing.

“His costume?” he asked, frowning, unsure of what Bitty meant.

“Yes! He’s the understudy in the upcoming play,” his captain explained. His giggling slowly stopped as he realized what he had said. He smacked himself on his forehead and reached out to grab Nursey’s hand. “But you didn’t hear that from me! No, you heard that from Ford or a little birdy, but not me. Now excuse me, I have to go call my Clark Kent before we get the party really going.”

Bitty left the porch, humming to himself, unaware that he had left the underclassman there stunned. Nursey began to wonder how the hell he'd missed the fact that Dex was rehearsing for a play. He wondered if the guitar had anything to do with it, but his thoughts we interrupted by the first arrivals. Nursey decided there were more pressing matters and went back inside to show off his Black Panther costume.

And if it was to find the T-bird Bitty had talked about, no one could prove it.

***

It was about an hour into the party when Nursey finally saw Dex and his jaw dropped. His fellow D-man was leaning against the wall talking to someone, but what really stunned Derek was his outfit. Dex was wearing tight, darkwash blue jeans, cuffed at the ankle to show off his boots, and a rather tightly fitted white cotton t-shirt under a black leather jacket. His hair was curled and gelled and he had on light make-up that made his eyes pop.

The superhero must have been staring a bit too long because soon Dex was pushing off the wall to be led to the dance floor by a guy Nursey didn't recognize. He was confused. Dex normally didn't dance, but there he was swaying his hips like a pro, and with a guy no less. He took in the sight for only a moment more before heading to the kitchen for more alcohol.

Sudden movement out of the corner of his eye made Dex look and catch Nursey’s back as he walked into the kitchen. Sighing, he went back to dancing and when the song ended Beckett led them back to the wall.

“You aren'tallowed to use I can’t dance as an excuse anymore, Ginger. I've seen you dance at rehearsal and now here,” Beckett teased, succeeding in making Dex blush.

“Alright, alright. It's just like I told you, the team thinks of me a certain way and it's easier to keep that up, you know?”

“I guess, but you can’t be afraid if they know you're queer,” they pointed out. Dex’s eyes grew wide in fear, causing the costume designer to simply shake their head.

“Yes, I know, and no I won’t say a word. Be around theatre kids long enough and you start to tell whose eyes wander to more than just one gender.” Beckett teased, patting their friend on the arm. “Plus when you danced with me right now your hands were a bit too low on my hips.”

“Sorry, I didn’t…” Dex began to stammer, but was cut off.

“Don’t worry. It was fun, but you aren’t my type.” Beckett smiled, patronizingly. They were enjoying helping the puppy in front of them. “That isn’t the point though. You, Ginger, need to relax and stop compartmentalizing yourself. Now I’m going to go find whomever was dressed as the 10th Doctor earlier and introduce myself.”

They gave Dex a kiss on the cheek and left the hockey player alone with his thoughts. Dex didn’t like him and his thoughts being alone together, so he went in search of tub juice. He walked to the deck only to find Nursey flirting with a guy on the back porch. He quickly turned back into the house, opting for a beer instead of seeing his d-man succeed at pulling for the night.

And if he didn’t want to see his D-man succeed at getting a hookup for the night, well no one could prove it.

***

The morning after the kegster, Dex woke up with a splitting headache. He started to groan, but stopped himself when he remembered seeing Nursey with that guy earlier in the night. He looked down to the bottom bunk to make sure he hadn’t slept through his roommate having drunk sex in his own inebriated state.

Seeing only one body in the bed below him, Dex let himself relax. He slowly made his way down the ladder to find some painkillers and water. He downed a glass in the kitchen, and thought that it was the polite thing to do to bring Nursey a remedy of his own. Walking back to the room, Dex opened the door and placed a glass and pills within reach of the other man, just as he began to stir.

“Morning. I didn’t see much of you last night, but if you drank like I did, you’ll need this,” he laughed, passing him the glass.

Taking it gratefully, Nursey chugged it along with the pills and sat against the wall, his eyes closed to keep out the light

“Yeah, I only caught a glimpse of you last night and you were dancing.”

“Oh yeah.” Dex said, moving to sit at the foot of the bed. “I promised Beckett I’d dance with them at least once. They leant me the costume.”

“Beckett? Is he friends with Foxtrot?”

“They. And yes, they’re friends with Ford.”

“That’s cool. Your costume looked good,” he mumbled, his head beating a tattoo on his temples.

“Yeah, yours did too.” Dex said a bit awkwardly as he tried to compliment Nursey without letting it slip that he thought his roommate was smoking hot. “I mean I only saw a part of it while you were chatting up some soccer bro in the backyard.”

“Ugh don’t remind me…”

“Alright. I’ll leave it at that.”

Blinking his eyes open finally, he stared at Dex. “Really? No comment that I was chatting up a dude.”

“Unless that dude was a lax bro I don’t care, Nurse.”

“Huh…”

“Yes, congrats on realizing I don’t actually care who you put your dick in.” Dex said rather forcefully. He actually did care quite a lot about who Nursey put his dick in, but not in the way Nurse thought.

“Didn’t put my dick in him. Just flirted. My dick only goes in particular places,” he winked, which earned him an eye roll from the red-head.

“Stop there.” Dex said, holding his hands up as he stood. “I’m going downstairs to help with breakfast. Make sure you come downstairs with clothing.” He added once he got to the door.

It was only then that Nursey realized he was nude under the sheets.

“You know you like it!” Nursey yelled at his disappearing roommate as he smirked to himself

***

The week leading up to the show Dex was barely sleeping. Between practice, a roadie, classes, homework, and rehearsal he was exhausted.

He came home late one night and just crashed on the toxic couch. He wasn't sure the exhaustion was worth everything since he was just the replacement.

As Dex laid there contemplating his life, his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and just stared at it. It was Sam. If he asked him again for another guitar lesson he was going to throw his phone.

“Yeah?” he answered, his face muffled by the pillow.

“Will? Did I wake you up?” a very frantic Sam asked from the other end of the line.

“No, but I can’t get anywhere right now,” he grumbled, hedging his bets.

“No, I don’t need you right now, but I need you Sunday night. I need to drive out to Boston for a callback,” he squealed through the phone.

“What?” he asked, in disbelief.

“I need you to cover the Sunday night show. Sasha already approved it and you’ve been great in rehearsals. I’ve got to go now, but we’ll talk tomorrow!”

The line was dead.

Staring at his phone Dex began to panic. No, this was a mistake. He was the understudy. They never went on. Pacing first the living room and then the hallway, he eventually caught the attention of Bitty who came over with a worried look.

“Dex, is something the matter?” he started, the panic clear on his face that he hoped it wasn’t something too serious.

“...I’m the understudy, there is no way I can go on Sunday…” the D-man garbled, clearly mid thought.

“Oh honey, that’s great! You’ve been working so hard!” Bitty beamed, patting his back.

“No, no, this is not great. People are going to see me dance, and sing, and I need to find Ford before she tells the team,” Dex’s mind was in a million places as he process what was happening. He was about to run out the door when Bitty dragged him into the kitchen and sat him down, placing a pie and cocoa from out of nowhere in front of him.

“You can text Ford,” Bitty said as he cut a slice of pie for himself. “There is nothing wrong with the team knowing that their friend is going to be acting in a play that he’s been working hard for.”

“First, there are a lot of things wrong with it.” Dex said nervously, stabbing his fork into his pie for emphasis. “Second, the lead playing Danny, Tristan, he hates you all. Seriously wanted to murder Sasha after the incident during South Pacific last year. Third, I can’t sing knowing you all are in the audience.”

“And why not?” Bitty asked, clearly offended.

“It has nothing to do with you. It’s just, I’m singing a love song of sorts and well, it’s really easy to act like I’m wooing someone on stage when I imagine it happening…” Dex sighed, placing his head on the counter.

“Well, aside from the fact that Jack owes me fifty dollars,” Bitty smiled, putting his hand on his friend’s arm to stop him from murdering the pie slice. “I think you’ll be fine. I can make sure the team, especially a particular boy, sit far back enough that you can’t see him.”

Blushing brightly, Dex looked at Bitty, resigned. “Am I that obvious?”

“No, but I happen to know what pining after a teammate looks like,” Bitty giggled.

“I’m not pining,” he mumbled under his breath, pushing the pie around on the plate some more.

“You’re pining. Now eat.”

***

It was Sunday.

Dex had spent the whole weekend working on the set making sure things worked, going through dress rehearsal, and watching the way Sam did his performance.

He hadn’t been told if the team was coming or not, having left the decision to Bitty.

Before going onstage, Dex got one last pep talk from Sasha before seeing Ford backstage. Walking towards him, she gave him a hug and adjusted his jacket a bit.

“You’re going to do great,” she reassured him, patting him on the back. “Besides, Sam can’t play the guitar at all. I saw you in rehearsal actually playing it and it sounded great. Break a leg.”

***

Bitty and Ford had coordinated all week over the ideal spot for the team to sit. Far enough away that Dex couldn’t spot them from the stage, but close enough that they could still easily see their friend. Jack, Shitty, Lardo, Ransom, and Holster had even come down for the event, much to everyone’s regrets. Holster was quick to gripe about the no showtunes rule from last year, and wondered why he hadn’t thought about auditioning before.

Once the lights dimmed and the show started, the team was impressed. It was clear that despite being the understudy, Dex had made every effort to actually learn to act. Ford had warned everyone to not yell and scream during the show this time - fearing a repeat of the last musical they had attended - but wondered if her warning would hold for Dex’s solo.

On stage Dex was pretending to fumble through simple guitar chords, producing an awful twanging sound. The team looked a little worried, wondering if Dex was going to pull through after all, but as soon as the lights dimmed on the stage and the music picked up, his off key singing turned into something else.

***

Dex hated the scene change. He knew that the entire crowd would watch him and think that he couldn’t sing. But then he stood up, and the stage went dark leaving just a spotlight on him. A mic was placed in front of him as he awkwardly waved to the girl who placed it for him, as then another came and put a scarf around his neck.

It was supposed to be a dream sequence - Doody imagining what it would be like to be a good singer as the girls from the chorus fawned around him. It wasn’t a hard song, but it always made him feel something. He could picture nights like this at kegsters when the perfect song was playing and Nursey would be chatting to him in his ear above the music. He would be so close, but Dex never made a move.

“Those magic changes

my heart arranges

a melody that’s never the same

a melody that’s calling your name

and begs you, please

come back to me

please return to me

don’t go away again

oh, make them play again

the music i wanna hear

as once again you

whisper in my ear

oh my darlin’ uh-huh”

During the second part of the song, Dex handed his guitar to one of his “fans,” and began to move about more, gesturing along with the song and swaying his hips. It was hard to do, knowing hundreds of people were watching him, but he just had to imagine serenading Derek, and Derek alone, and he calmed down a bit. It was fun having the girls look at him adoringly, but he gripped the microphone and crooned into the crowd, pointing out to the audience.

“C C C how much I want

A A A a millions ways

F F F effortlessly love you

G G G I’m in a hurry”

The last note of the song was the hardest for Dex, considering how this was so not what he was trained in, but as soon as the song finished he caught his breath and was surprised by the sound of the applause.

***

Ford was right, there was no way she was controlling the team once Dex finished. She was now next to a row of hockey players all standing and cheering, whooping far too loudly for a theatre. Looking down the row, she saw that Nursey wasn’t standing. Instead he looked dumbstruck and was gaping at the stage.

***

Nursey knew he should be cheering and clapping, but all he could think about was the way Dex looked so earnest caressing the mic and singing. He has clearly putting a lot of emotion into the performance, but it almost felt like he was singing to someone. Maybe Dex was just that secretly good of an actor, or maybe he was just reading too much into it. Either way, Derek knew he needed to figure out how to get a private solo in their bedroom as soon as possible.

***

After the show ended Dex was backstage packing up, hoping to escape the chaos that was the post-show. He was in the middle of leaving when he was informed that he had no choice, but to go to the cast party at the theatre house. He was in a good enough mood that he said yes without too much hesitation, but he still insisted that he needed to drop his stuff off at the Haus beforehand.

Walking out of the auditorium side door, Dex was hoping for a quick escape. This was thwarted when he was met with the sight of all of his friends, including three former captains, Shitty, and Lardo. Dumbstruck, Dex just stood there staring until Holster broke the group formation and hugged him, praising his performance and how had he known they could have totally done karaoke nights at the Haus.

“I was just the understudy guys,” Dex insisted. “None of you had to come to this.” Holster pulled back, and was met with various statements of protest that none of them would have missed this.

“Bitty told us last week and we cleared our schedules,” Lardo explained looking pleased. “As if we’d miss our friend performing. You were stunning,” Shitty agreed, and began to discuss how proud he was that Dex was breaking the chains of masculinity that had bound him.

“Thank you everyone, really. It does mean a lot that you came,” Dex blushed and made to run a hand through his hair, forgetting that it was gelled. “I actually have to run to the Haus to put stuff down before the cast party...if any of you want to come?” He offered, not expecting anything. Instead, Chowder, Tango, Whiskey, and Nursey decided to join him, while the graduates, plus Bitty, lamented having to adhere to normal schedules.

After a round or two of goodbyes, Dex walked with the frogs and tadpoles back to the Haus so he could change. Once in his room, he began to strip out of his costume, needing to return it tomorrow, when Nursey walked in.

“Not keeping it on for the party?” he asked, sounding disappointed.

“No,” Dex frowned, confused by his roommate’s tone. “I mean I want to be comfortable and the costume is a bit tight.”

“Well yeah that’s what makes it look good,” Nursey pointed out shrugging.

“You think I look good?” Dex asked, surprised. He tried not to let himself get hopeful, no matter what his heart was saying.

“Yeah, I mean so do a lot of people.” Nursey said, eyes all smolder. “I heard many girls cooing over you when you performed.”

Blushing, Dex tried to hide his face. “They just like a performance, not me,” he tried to explain away.

“But what about people who knew you before the performance? Does that mean they like you?” Nursey replied, taking a step closer to Dex.

“I guess...but no one thinks of me like that. I mean even if they did, and it was one of these girls, I’m not interested in them...like that” he rambled, trying to come up with another excuse, but turned around to find himself face to face with Derek.

“I wasn’t talking about the girls.” the brunet said, taking another step closer to his roommate. “I was talking about who you thought of as you sang the song.”

“Oh he doesn’t like me like that,” Dex breathed, watching a slow smirk spread across Nursey’s face.

“How do you know that?” Nursey asked, taking the final step forward into the ginger’s space. “You never asked him. But if you did, I think you’d be pleased.”

Dex leaned forward, deciding to play Nursey’s game. “I mean I could, or I could ask him if he wanted to kiss me with or without the jacket on.”

In reply Nursey handed Dex the jacket back and pinned him to the wall as soon as it was on.

***

Thirty minutes later the two of them were walking down the stairs, changed, but mussed, to head to the after party.

#nurseydex #nursey/dex #derek nurse #william poindexter #omgcheckplease #check please fic #myfics #myposts #those magic changes

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niknakart · 7 years

Text

Cryptid Hunting, a PresNik fanfic

Evening was starting to fall, the sky over Camp Campbell darkening gradually. The kids should have been back in their tents over an hour ago, but on the makeshift stage of theatre camp, Preston was still scribbling away at a bit of paper, muttering furiously. He was working on a new play script, and didn't want to stop until it was finished. Nikki was getting ready for some night exploring, when she saw subtle movement at the stage. Thinking it to be a stray animal, she grinned and ran over, leaping out at him. "IIIII've gotcha!" Of course, Preston being Preston, his reaction HAD to be completely melodramatic. "AAAAAAAGH!" He shrieked, leaping backwards, utterly horrified. After a heart-stopping moment, he realised who his mystery attacker was. "Nikki! You evil little rat!" He clutched at his heart pitifully. "You nearly KILLED me! How dare you? What are you doing out? It's nearly dark!" "The dark's when the fun things come out." She noticed the papers. "Ooooo, whatcha writing?" "No!" Preston snatched his papers out of her reach. "No touching! It's none of your business." He turned his nose up snobbishly, but it was painfully obvious he actually really wanted to talk about it. Typical Preston. She smiled a bit wider, "Are you working on another play thing, like the one I was supposed to be in?" "Mmmmmaybe..." he drawled mysteriously, giving her a smirk. After a moment, he grinned excitedly, flourishing with one hand. "Picture this! It's Hamlet, except Hamlet's father was actually an alien who had an affair with the queen! Doesn't it sound wonderful?" "WOAH, NO WAY... who's hamlet?" "Who... who's HAMLET?!" Preston's voice rose to a shout. "HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW WHO HAMLET IS?! THE BEAUTIFUL SPAWN OF THE BARD! THE ULTIMATE TRAGIC HERO OF SHAKESPEARE!" He coughed lightly, blushing a little as he realised how loud he'd been. "...my apologies." She giggled, "He sounds important. So his dad's an alien now? Does he know?" She seemed genuinely interested. "No, that's the best part! He only finds out when his father dies, and his ghost comes to visit him!" Preston chuckled proudly. "It's genius, if I do say so myself. I was wondering, Nikki, if you'd like to play Hamlet. Considering you didn't get to play Juliet last time. I'm sure you were very upset." "Wait? I get to play the hero?! Do I fight things?!" She was bouncing on her toes "Yes! In fact, you get to kill everyone in the play!" Preston grinned, handing her the script. "Have a read through. I knew you'd love it! And you'll absolutely nail the part, too! AH, you're perfect for it!" He pranced around the stage in his enthusiasm, flourishing dramatically. She read through it, smiling more as she went on. "Wow, I do kill everyone. Can I do cool stunts?" "Of course! We can use state of the art special effects, just like they use on Broadway!" He was only imagining now - that could never really happen - but the theatre kid was so excited he almost believed it. "You know, Nikki, maybe one day I will be on Broadway." "Broadway? I think my dad called my mom that once." She set the script down and walked over to him. "That's the music/play thingy right? You could definitely do that." "Ah, I hope so. My father doesn't seem to agree, but I'm going to keep trying my hardest to get there." He paused, seeming curious. "Do your parents fight a lot, then?" He sounded stiff, as though he wasn't used to asking about other people. That was true enough; Preston only really spoke about himself. She shrugged, and began playing with one of the prop swords. "Yeah, but all parents do that. That's what Neil says." "Hm." Preston sat down on the edge of the stage, patting the boards beside him for Nikki to sit down too. "In all of Shakespeare's plays, there is some form of family dysfunction. I suppose it's been happening for hundreds of years. But that doesn't mean it's good, or normal." He shook his head, laughing with that manic suddenness that only Preston could pull off. "Look at me, getting all serious over something that isn't theatre!" She sat next to him and laughed a bit too. "I guess you just know about all kinds'a drama." She still played with the plastic sword, nervously picking at some of the lose plastic on one of the seams. "You're not wrong though, I guess." He tone was a bit quieter than it usually was. "Ah, Nikki. The woes of tragedy are all too familiar to me, being in the theatre." He gave her what looked like an attempt at a kind smile; still a little bit manic, a little bit snobbish, but kind nonetheless. "What seems to be troubling you? Talk away!" "Me? What, no, I'm fine!" Her smile immediately perked up and she looked like her normal self again, though it looked somewhat forced. "I wanna hear more about the play and your broads and stuff!" Preston chuckled, leaping to his feet. "Of course!" He seized a prop sword, and pointed it elegantly at Nikki. "Care to rehearse a fight scene?" He'd noticed how forced her smile looked, of course he had. But she really seemed to enjoy this kind of thing. Maybe he could cheer her up this way? She immediately bounced up, grinning ear to ear. "YEAH!" She ran at him like a raging bull, gripping the sword in both hands, ready to strike. Preston instinctively shrieked, waving his sword frantically, before regaining his former composure and blocking Nikki's strike with delicate skill. Thank goodness he'd taken those fencing classes to help with stage fights. "Amateur!" He teased, leaping out of the way with a smirk. She stopped for a moment, clearly impressed. "I kinda thought you were gonna faint on the spot, not bad." She watched him closely before making another attempt, this time a more subtle strike. Preston managed to block the strike, but only just, his blade slipping off the surface of Nikki's with a nasty 'shwing' noise. She was matching him in style now, and it was getting more difficult. "Good, good..." "Let's see how long you can keep this up" She struck several times in succession, each blow aimed for a different location. That did it. Flailing his ridiculous noodle arms in an attempt to block the strikes, and leaping backwards simultaneously, Preston lost his balance and fell off the edge of the stage with a cry. It wasn't far to fall, and there was grass below, so he wasn't hurt. But, being Preston, the shock had made him faint momentarily, just as Nikki had predicted. Nikki giggled, but ran over to make sure he was alright. She leaped off the stage and landed in the grass next to him. "You're not actually dead, right?" Preston whined and rolled onto his front. "Just let me bask in my humiliation," he huffed, his voice muffled by the grass. "I was supposed to kill you though, that's how you wrote it." She scooted over and started pulling the grass and piling it on his back. "Stop it this instant," Preston grumbled, lifting his head a little to glare at her, but not making any effort to move. The sky was fully dark by now, and all the lights in the cabins and tents were switched off. She didn't stop, but kept piling ripped up grass in the same spot on his back. "I'm burying you. I'm pretty sure that's what you do when your friends die." "Hm.. yes.. that is.. that would be... correct..." Preston murmured, his eyes fluttering closed. He yawned quietly. Evidently the repetitive movement of placing the grass, combined with how dark it was, was relaxing him. She stopped and tilted her head slightly. "Are you actually going to sleep out here?" "Hm...? What?" He mumbled sleepily. The boy's eyes suddenly snapped open and he sat up quickly. "Oh! Oh my, I didn't realise." He yawned quietly again. "Aren't you tired?" "No way! I can go for hours, I'm getting ready to go in the woods and look for cryptids!" "Cryptids...?" Preston's eyes widened dramatically and he grabbed Nikki's shoulders. "Oh, Nikki! That's ever so dangerous! There could be things in there that could EAT you, and you were planning to go alone? No, I won't allow it. I'm taking you back to your tent." "Nah, if they try it, I'll wrestle them like alligators and then they'll raise me as one of their own! I'll be a little Big foot... a Big Toe?" Despite himself, Preston let out a snort of laughter. "Well, if you are going to insist upon this frankly ridiculous activity, I should probably come with you." His voice wavered slightly. "Sure, they could probably adopt you too!" She brushed the grass off him and stood up with a small bounce. Preston shuddered inwardly. "Sasquatch? Adopting me? It hardly bears thinking of." He stood up too, trying to stop his legs from quivering already. He wasn't going to faint again. It wasn't THAT scary out here, right? "Then maybe you'll get lucky and find the chupacabra or Goat Man!" She grabbed his arm and made a beeline into the forest, It was close to pitch black at this point. "Oh, this is a bad idea. This is a terrible idea. This is a terrible, terrible idea!" Preston muttered regretfully as they made their way into the forest. "It's most certainly not because I'm frightened, not at all, but I really believe the both of us should turn back..." An owl swooped down near his head, and he practically screamed, jumping violently. "Is that Owlman?! I think it is!" She let go of his arm and climbed on a large rock sticking out of the ground, she stood up and put her arms spread wide out, "I'm hear Owlman, come and get me!" She was standing on her tip toes on the edge of the rock. "Don't fall!" Preston screeched, waving his arms. "If you die I'll be blamed! I'd have to live as an outcast, running from the law. My family would disown me!" He stood tensely at the base of the rock, conflicted. Should he climb it to make sure Nikki was safe? Should he stay on the ground, where it was safe? She didn't seem to hear him, her focus was on the wildlife around her, "I'm right here! I'm ready for you to take me home!" She inched forward, her toes were now off the edge. Real fear caught at Preston's heart, and he instinctively started to climb the rock. "Nikki! Be careful, for goodness' sake! Step back!" She turned to look at him. "Huh, why?" As she said that, her foot slipped. The adventurous look on her face was quickly replaced with panic, and she managed to grab onto the rock with her hands to keep from falling. "NIKKI!" Scrabbling clumsily up onto the top of the rock, Preston reached out a hand desperately, holding it down for her. "Take my hand! I-I won't let you fall! You'll be ok!" He wiped at his eyes furiously with his other hand. He was NOT going to cry. She carefully reached with one hand, while the other stayed clutching the rock. The outstretched hand was just centimeters away from hers, but she couldn't close the gap between them. "I can't!" Her grip with her other hand was weakening. "Keep holding on for just one moment!" Preston gasped desperately, leaning right over the edge of the rock to grab her hand in both of his. With a bit of manoeuvring he managed it, and, breathing hard, hauled her up over the edge. She was out of breath, and still a little shaken. "I almost fell... I could've died... that... that was... AWESOME! Let's do it again!" She was genuinely excited, but seemed to be joking about that last part. "What? WHAT?" Preston grabbed her shoulders and shook her furiously. "Yes, you could have died! You could have died and I might not have been able to help you, and... I.." he dissolved into frightened tears. "I-I want to go back to the camp. Now." "Don't cry! We'll go back to camp, okay? Just don't cry." She pulled him into a tight hug. Preston whimpered, burying his face in her shoulder. After a moment or two he sniffled, trying to stop crying, and nodded. "It's too dark and dangerous out here." "Sure, let’s go back. I had enough fun anyway, I'll get adopted by Mothman tomorrow." She rubbed his back comfortingly. "Now I understand why Neil has such bad anxiety," Preston mumbled under his breath, rubbing at his eyes again as he climbed carefully down the rock. He waited at the base of it for Nikki to follow. Nikki slid down it with ease, still smiling ear to ear. "Yeah, I keep things fun." Preston folded his arms irritably, seeming almost back to his normal self already. "Your definition of 'fun' is rather worrying, Nikki." "Kids? Kids!" The shout echoed through the trees, high and panicked. Preston tilted his head. "Is that David?" "I think so, he probably thinks we died or something." She grabbed his arm again, "C'mon, last one there is platypus crap!" "Hey!" Preston took off running behind her, David's shouts getting louder as they approached the camp. Now they could hear Gwen calling too, both of them sounding painfully like terrified parents. "Uh oh, we're in trouble!" She didn't slow down though With a burst of speed and holding tighter to Nikki's hand, Preston made an attempt to run them both past David without being spotted. Unfortunately, it didn't really work out that way. "Nikki! Preston!" Both kids were suddenly smothered in a tight hug. "Oh, thank goodness, we were so worried! Gwen, I found them!" "Let... go..!" Preston gasped, squirming indignantly. "We're fine, we were just looking for Mothman and Bigfoot, oh and we found Owlman!" David pulled away, looking stern. "What the gosh darn heck would you do that for? The woods are dangerous at night, kids. Dang, I'll have to do a workshop on safety tomorrow..." Preston opened his mouth, then shut it again. He wasn't going to worry David even more by telling him about Nikki's near-fall. Instead, he huffed, glaring. "Yes, yes, now if you don't mind I'd really like to be getting my beauty sleep. I've already missed enough." Nikki seemed intent on acting as if the near fall never happened. "Yeah, I might get some shut eye too, got big plans tomorrow." She let out an exaggerated yawn. "Alright, kids, off you go. Sleep tight, and get ready for another day of activities tomorrow!" He flashed them a blinding smile and hurried off (with a very relieved Gwen) towards the counsellors' cabin. Preston glanced at Nikki, giving her a quick smile. "Goodnight, Nikki. Oh, and don't you dare tell anyone I cried. Or I might just give the part of Hamlet to somebody else, hm?" He smiled sweetly and walked in the direction of his tent She pantomimed a zipper on her mouth and gave him a thumbs up, before walking away to her own tent.

#my writing #camp camp fanfic #camp camp #camp camp nikki #camp camp preston #camp camp presnik #presnik #cc nikki #cc preston

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