"I hate this!" I announced, straightening too quickly.
Cinnamon flinched as half of the water in my hair got on her shirt.
"Honey…" she muttered, fingering the fabric. "You couldn't have let me finish before doing that?"
The only reason she wasn't yelling was because of why that had happened in the first place. She'd been washing the soda out of my hair.
"No," I said firmly, crossing my arms over my chest and resisting the urge to shake my head. I was also ignoring the fact that my hair was still dripping wet against my back.
Cinnamon sighed. "I know you hate it. We all hate it. But we're scholarship students, and we're younger. Do you think everyone's gonna love us?"
I rolled my eyes. "No, but I do think they should give us some space. Or at least not throw soda at us."
"Speaking of," she started, holding up a handful of paper towels, "can I finish drying you off?"
I sighed and let her.
A couple of minutes (What? I have long hair.) later, she was tossing the paper towels away and I was looking in the mirror, trying to comb my sweep back in.
"We need to do something about this," I pushed, not turning around to look at her. It didn't really make a difference, though, since I could see her reflection.
She looked up from where she was, walked over, and put a hand on my shoulder. I handed her back her comb.
She put it in her pocket. "Well, what can we do? Go all Glee on them and sing it out? I know you'd do that, but it wouldn't make a difference."
I brightened considerably and turned to her. "So? We can still do something. And… maybe we don't even have to sing it in front of them. We can at least impact the masses."
She looked… wary. "How…?" she asked, almost suspiciously.
I grinned. "Oh ho, you'll see."
I took her hand and dragged her out.
The next day, we had our little performance ready. I'd gotten the arrangement (and most of the moves, honestly) from a reality/contest show, though, so it wasn't that big a deal.
I grinned, looking through the crack in the curtains. We'd only invited some friends, but it was still ten people, and it was gonna be… fun.
Very fun.
"Everybody ready?" I asked the ten people behind me.
They nodded, rocked back and forth on their heels, or yelled "YES!", all being respective of their character. So it was pretty obvious who did what, even without looking.
Cinnamon groaned. "Why do I have to wear this?"
"Because!" I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest. "It's pretty and it's almost identical to the one she wore in the video."
She sighed.
"So, curtain," I said, somewhere between grinning my ears off and twiddling my thumbs nervously. I carefully moved to my knees and then my side, legs sprawled out a bit, head resting in the crook of my arm.
Cinnamon rolled her eyes, slid over to the rope, pulled the curtain open, and quickly slipped back into her place.
Abi, who agreed to do this, even though she didn't know much about the actual performance, clicked the spotlight on and to the center of the stage (perfectly illuminating me and half-illuminating everyone behind me), hit play on the track we needed, and slid into her seat.
"Aah!" I screamed, rising slowly, as the percussion started.
Crossbones slid in next to me and put a hand on my shoulder.
"We're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it"
Kissa knelt down on my other side and started singing.
"We're not gonna take it anymore" She grabbed my hand and pulled me up as everyone behind us struck a pose.
"Unh"
The two of them slipped back into the line, leaving me in the forefront as I started.
"We've got the right to choose and
There ain't no way we're losing"
Jewels spun into the spot in front of me, her necklace spinning more than her dress, as I slipped into my spot against the back.
"This is our life
This is our song
Oh"
Tails haphazardly jumped into her spot as the older girl twirled away. She had her hair down, for once, and wrapped the end of her pink boa around her wrist as she squatted, while still somehow managing to look cool. Maybe I'd shown her that video too many times.
"We'll fight the powers that be just" She stood up and brushed her hair out of her face.
"Don't pick our destiny 'cause"
She slid back into her place as Jasliene took her spot, grinning.
"You don't know us
You don't belong"
She jumped back into her spot just as everyone started to sing the chorus.
"We're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it
We're not gonna take it anymore"
The Duke jumped into the front spot.
"Oh, you're so condescending
Your gall is never ending"
He winked as Panda ran into the spot, completely blocking him out as he slid back into place.
"We don't want nothin'
Not a thing from you
Yow!"
She jumped back in as Mouse stepped up.
"Your life is trite and jaded
Boring and confiscated"
Granyt pushed him out of the way, taking the lead.
"If that's your best
Your best won't do"
She did a high kick before going back into her spot.
"Oh-oh-oh" everybody sang together.
"Oh-oh-oh"
Tails slid out a couple of feet.
"We're right!"
"Yeah!" everyone yelled out.
She didn't go back into her place, but Panda stepped out.
"We're free!"
"Yeah!"
Crossbones jumped out next to them.
"We'll fight!"
"Yeah!"
I glanced over at Cinnamon as everyone else stepped out to be even with them. She was having fun.
Perfect.
"You'll see!" everyone sang together.
I slipped behind my sister and pushed her into the forefront, letting the spotlight bring out the sequins on her silver dress.
"Ahhhh!" she sang, grinning. She high-kicked.
"We're not gonna take it!"
"No, we ain't gonna take it" we all sang together, throwing the choreography to the wind and just going with it.
"We're not gonna take it anymore"
As the guitar solo started, Jasliene went over to the edge of the stage and, true to the video, beckoned for Jet to come up.
And I didn't even tell her to do that part.
"Yeah-yeah-eh-eh" Kissa sang, stepping out farther as the other girl pulled him up on stage.
She pulled him to her and kissed him.
"Whoa-oh-oh" Kissa continued her riff.
Jasliene pulled away a bit and pushed him off of the stage. I could see Bee trying not to laugh.
"Whoa-oh" Kissa finished, slipping back into the reforming line.
Everyone's voices blended together again for the last choruses.
"We're not gonna take it
No, we ain't gonna take it"
I stepped out in front as everyone kept singing.
"We're not gonna take it anymore"
I went up an octave on the last note.
"We're not gonna take it
No!
No, we ain't gonna take it" I added a little riff there.
"We're not gonna take it anymore"
"Yeah-eh-yeah-eh-eh" I sang.
Everyone came together for the last three notes.
"Anymore!"
I spun back into place as the song wound down. As it struck the last note, everyone hit the ground.
There was some cheering, some laughing, and a couple wolf whistles.
We all slowly got to our feet–well, some faster than others.
I looked over at Cinnamon. She was getting up slower than everyone else, blushing and staring at the ground.
I flitted over to her. "You did great," I said, grinning.
She glared. "I can't believe you made me do that."
I sighed. I'd seen that coming. "Seriously, you were good," I said before letting it go and running over to Bee.
She was leaning against the back corner, alone and all the way across the room.
As I was going over, I looked around. Mouse and Tails were talking. He was blushing like crazy and she was smiling kind of shyly. Melody was hovering in the background, close enough to lip read but far enough that they wouldn't notice her.
Jet and Jasliene were talking. He looked annoyed, but relatively happy, and she was grinning. The Duke was eavesdropping in my place.
He'd better tell me everything later… I thought to myself, looking at the other group that had formed.
Longshot–who I assumed had tried talking to Bee and failed–and Pipsqueak were smiling and listening to Granyt and Jewels.
Abi, Whistle, and Lace had cornered a slowly brightening Cinnamon.
Kissa and Layla were chatting quietly in the corner, Layla smiling and laughing a little and Kissa smiling softly and doing most of the talking.
And Panda, Crossbones, and Miyuki were talking. Panda was grinning, Crossbones was laughing, and Miyuki was looking at them like they were crazy–but laughing.
"Bee-ee!" I yelled as I got closer.
She looked up at me and smiled. "Hey, Honey."
I grinned. "So, what'd you think?"
She gave me a look, still smiling. "I know what you want me to say."
I shook my head. "Well, first, what'd you really think?"
She chuckled. "It was awesome."
"Okay, now say it," I said, grinning.
She rolled her eyes, smiling. "I think that we're not gonna take it."