So this was written for the N2N FanFiction Challenge and it's the longest I've ever written; 7 pages and nearly 3,000 words without the author's note for a oneshot! Brace yourself, this is gonna be a long one! Sorry if the transitions are a bit weird! And I am NOT trying to insult the other musicals (that's right musicalS) mentioned here. In fact I love all of the ones here! I recommend all of it!
Oh and anything in italics is Gabe's lyrics and anything bold in the story is Natalie's. As for the dialogue between lyrics, it's supposed to be written as if they're having the conversation with the music in the background except for in the beginning where Natalie's in her room.
Disclaimer: ...I'm having a hard time coming up with a witty disclaimer and it's only my 5th story! But as long as you get that I don't own anything here, I think we're good! :)
Natalie was preparing her books in her room. Henry was coming over to study for their chemistry test tomorrow (a test that Henry needed to do well in considering he was failing). Her parents were out at Costco, so it was just her and Gabe. All of a sudden she heard some insane and loud guitar chords coming from Gabe's room.
"What the..." Natalie trailed off. The chords sounded familiar, and Natalie hoped that it wasn't what she thought it was. She sighed. "Please don't let it be Gabe singing-"
"Don't wanna be an American Idiot!"
"Figures," Natalie said to herself as she heard Gabe singing along to the music in his "rock voice". A few days ago, a couple of Gabe's friends came back from New York and saw American Idiot. They got Gabe into the musical and Green Day. Ever since then, Gabe has been blasting his music through his stereo, annoying Natalie to no end.
"Don't want a nation under the new media!"
Natalie didn't know how to deal with this when she needed to be studying. She hated it when Gabe played his music obnoxiously loud; he acted as if there was no one else in the house. At the moment, she felt the floor moving, and knew Gabe was jumping around.
"Hey can you hear the sound of hysteria!"
She decided to storm next door to Gabe's room, even though she knew he wouldn't hear her since his music was so loud. She stopped outside Gabe's room and knocked at the door. When she knew Gabe was head banging inside his room she knocked even louder.
"The subliminal mind fuck America!"
"GABE!" Natalie shouted, pounding her fists on the door.
Apparently, her shouting and banging on the door seemed to have worked. Gabe opened the door, hair messy from what she knew was head banging with the music and was wearing, God help her, eyeliner à La Billie Joe Armstrong and John Gallagher Jr. She was glad she finally heard him, but he still didn't turn the music down.
"What do you want Nat?" Gabe complained.
"Welcome to a new kind of tension,"
"Can you..." Natalie trailed off. "Are you wearing my eyeliner?"
"All across the alien nation,"
Gabe shrugged. "So what if I am?"
Natalie shuddered, not wanting to use eyeliner ever again.
"Everything isn't meant to be okay!"
"Can you please turn down your music?" said Natalie.
"What? I can't hear you!" said Gabe, teasing his sister. She knew full well that he could hear her since they were talking just before.
"Television dreams of tomorrow,"
"Turn it down!" yelled Natalie.
"We're not the ones who meant to follow,"
"What?" Gabe yelled, turning the music up even louder.
"For that's enough to argue!"
"TURN IT DOWN!" Natalie shouted, causing Gabe to flinch. She stormed past Gabe and turned off his stereo.
"Hey! If you wanted me to turn it down, you could've just asked!" Gabe said.
"I did!" yelled Natalie. "I tell you to turn it down every day!"
"Aw, come on, Nat! You gotta admit it's got catchy music!" Gabe said, defending himself. "Oh by the way, here's your eyeliner," he said, tossing it to her. She threw it back at him, hitting him in the chest.
"Keep it. You seem to use it more than I do," Natalie said, refusing to share what little makeup she used with her brother. "Henry's coming over and we have to study for a huge chem test tomorrow. Can you NOT blast your music while we're studying?"
"And live without my American Idiot? No way," Gabe said.
"Can't you listen to it with your headphones?" Natalie asked, needing there to be quiet in the house. Gabe simply went and turned on the music again. He smirked at Natalie, shook his head and slammed the door in her face.
"GABE!" she yelled through the door and pounding her fists on the wood of the door. "TURN IT DOWN!"
"Well maybe I'm the faggot America!"
"Damn it Gabe!" Natalie said, going back to her room. Her eyes caught something else, though; her speakers. She got an evil look in her eye, and decided it was time for payback. She grabbed her iPod off her desk and connected it to the speakers, trying to find the album. She smiled when she did and turned her stereo on as loud as she dared and started singing along.
"Mama who bore me, mama who gave me, mama the angels who made me so sad!"
Gabe HATED when she sang Spring Awakening songs, but one of the ones he hated the most was Mama Who Bore Me (Reprise). He hated the "wailing" as he called it in the beginning of the song when someone hits a high E. To quote him he said, "It sounds like someone's strangling a cat to hit that high note," and it earned him a hit in the back of the head from Natalie. He also hated that it "said the same lyrics over and over" and "made no sense."
Natalie cleared her voice, ready to hit that high note, making sure to sing it as loud as she could so that Gabe could hear.
"MAMA who bore me, mama who gave me, NO WAY to handle things, who made me so sad,"
She heard the music stop from Gabe's room, but she didn't dare turn off hers.
"MAMA the weeping, mama the angels, NO SLEEP in heaven or Bethlehem!"
"Nat!" she heard Gabe call, but pretended not to hear.
"Some PRAY that one day Christ will come a-calling. They LIGHT a candle, and hope that it glows!"
"Natalie..." she heard Gabe say in his "warning voice," trying to act like a parent.
"And SOME just lie there crying for him to come and find them, but WHEN he comes they don't know-"
"Aw come on, Nat!" Gabe complained. "I get it!"
"How to go-Oh!" Natalie belted, hitting the note perfectly.
"NAT!" Gabe shouted.
"MAMA who bore me mama who gave me NO WAY to handle things who made me so bad," Natalie continued singing, complete with the angry stomps just to annoy Gabe more.
"NAT open the door!" Gabe yelled, plugging his ears. Natalie moved to open the door, still singing as if it was nothing.
"MAMA the weeping, mama the angels. No sleep in heaven-"
"NAT!" Gabe said as soon as she opened the door.
"Or BETHLEHEM!" she belted right in his face. Gabe covered her mouth with his hand.
"Will you SHUT UP about that stupid Mama song? And stop singing it! You're not freaking Leah Mitchell or Allie Soch for-"
"Lea MICHELE and Alexandra SOCHA!" Natalie interrupted, acting "fangirlishly" which Gabe hated.
"Whatever!" Gabe said as the next song on Natalie's iPod started playing.
"Litora multum ille-"
"Aw COME ON, that Latin song now?" Gabe said as he turned off Natalie's speakers.
"Hey!" she said, imitating Gabe. "If you wanted me to turn it down, you could've just asked!"
Gabe looked at his sister as if she were his enemy. "Alright, sis. If you want a battle, then you'll get one," he said as he went back to his room. Natalie didn't know what he was up to, so she just went back and turned on My Junk, turning the volume much lower just so she could hear it. She heard Gabe moving around in his room and didn't know what he was up to. She simply shrugged and was about to call Henry to see if they could study in the library instead when she heard music blasting from Gabe's room again.
"What'd you forget? Got a light?"
Natalie groaned. "It's never going to end!" Natalie actually liked RENT and thought it was a great show. The one song she couldn't handle though (other than Contact; that song was disturbing!) was Light My Candle. To her, it sounded stupid; she thought they were trying too hard to act cute but came off as just plain weird and was cringing during the song. Gabe knew she hated it, but this took it to a whole new level.
He was singing BOTH parts.
"I know you-you're... you're shivering,"
Instead of knocking on the door, she banged on the wall.
"GABE!"
"It's nothing they turned off my heat. And I'm just a little weak on my feet."
"You're not fucking Mimi Marquez!" Natalie shouted, frustrated with him. She went to blast the song Gabe hated most from Spring Awakening. She smiled when she heard the all too familiar notes play and was ready to sing along once the lyrics started.
"There's a moment you know...you're fucked."
Natalie smiled evilly and thought about how much this song would annoy her brother. Totally Fucked was her favourite song and called it the "teen anthem." She even got Henry to sing it with her. Gabe, however, hated it and thought it was stupid. "It's just a bunch of teens swearing and saying how life sucks...hey Nat, that's you! No wonder you like it!" which earned him another punch from Natalie.
"Not an inch more room to self-destruct."
"Damn it Nat!" Gabe yelled through the wall, pounding his fists on it.
"It's on!" Natalie yelled back as she turned the music louder. Even though Totally Fucked was playing, she could still hear Gabe turn off Light My Candle, which she was grateful for. She thought he would just give up, but that wasn't the case. She started hearing the same introduction that their parents played when they went to go see a certain show.
"Oh no," Natalie said to herself. Gabe KNEW this musical was her breaking point, to where she almost couldn't bear to stand it at all.
"Sherry, sherry baby, Sherry, sherry baby!"
Natalie HATED the very high voices in Jersey Boys. Only their parents had seen it, but had loved it so much they bought Frankie Valli's cd, which she didn't mind since they played it when they weren't around her. Playing Jersey Boys to a deafening point, however, was a different thing. His voice was just so high and it bothered her. She didn't even have a falsetto like he did! And it was worse when Gabe was attempting to sing along with it. Why Gabe had all these Broadway cast recordings she did not know (she also knew for a fact that he had the soundtracks to Wicked and Hairspray, too).
"She-e-e-erry baby, she-e-rry can you come out tonight!"
"Gabe, it's hurting my ears!" Natalie complained through the wall.
"So did you and that Mama song!" Gabe yelled back, continuing to sing along. "She-e-"
"SHUT UP!" Natalie yelled, going to turn up Totally Fucked even more.
"Man you're fucked if you just freeze up can't do that thing that keeping still"
"Why don't you come out to my twist party, where the bright moon shines"
"But you're fucked if you speak your mind, and you know, uh huh, you will"
"We'll dance the night away, I'm gonna make you mi-i-i-ne"
Henry was standing outside the Goodman house for a good five minutes. The people passing by looked at him like he was crazy, then looked at the house and wondered what was going on. He arrived at the Goodman household hearing Spring Awakening and RENT being blasted at the same time, Jersey Boys soon replacing RENT. He knew it wasn't a good sign. Natalie hated the songs from Jersey Boys that made the guy's voice go so high and Gabe hated anything Spring Awakening. He had no clue what to do. He went outside Natalie's window and threw rocks, but she didn't hear it.
"Come on, Nat. Answer your phone!" Henry muttered to himself as he tried calling Natalie for the seventh time. He tried calling her, texting her, knocking loudly on the door, ringing the doorbell, throwing rocks at her window. Nothing seemed to work; it was like an epic battle of show tunes! He wandered back to the front of the house when he heard, thank goodness, the two songs, coming to an end.
"Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah"
"Sherry baby (ah-ah-ah!)"
"TOTALLY FUCKED!"
"NATALIE!" Henry bellowed as soon as the songs were over, earning him glares from adults and children running away.
Natalie stopped her music as soon as Totally Fucked was over, believing she had succeeded in annoying her brother. She didn't realize someone was waiting outside the door for five minutes; that is until that certain someone yelled her name.
"Oh crap. Henry," she said as she ran down the stairs to open the door.
"Nat, your boy...friend is here," Gabe said. He still wasn't used to using his sister's name and the word 'boyfriend' in the same sentence.
Natalie opened the door to find an annoyed Henry on her porch, tapping his foot looking very impatient. She grabbed his hand as they went up to Natalie's room.
"Sorry about that."
"It's...you and your brother..." Henry trailed off, trying to find the right words. "Do I want to know what you and Gabe were up to?" Natalie simply shook her head.
"You wouldn't understand..." Natalie trailed off. "Do you mind if we just study in the library?"
"Fine with me," Henry said as he helped Natalie put her books in her bag. "Probably a better place to study than here."
"You got that right," Natalie muttered as Gabe appeared in their way.
"Gabe, get out of the way," Natalie said as Gabe crossed his arms.
"You're not leaving until we settle this."
"Settle..." Henry trailed off as he took a closer look at Gabe. "Are you wearing guyliner?"
Gabe leaned against the doorframe and shrugged. "So what if I am?"
Natalie and Henry shuddered, ready to leave, until Gabe stepped in their way. "Hold on, me and Nat have to settle something."
"Settle what?" Natalie asked, desperate just to get out of the house.
"Henry?" Gabe asked, not addressing Henry awkwardly for the first time. "Which is the better musical; Spring Awakening or RENT?"
"Hey!" Natalie shouted. "I never said I hated RENT, just that one stupid song!"
"Fine," Gabe said, sticking his tongue out at his sister. "What's better, Spring Awakening or Jersey Boys?" Gabe knew that Henry's mom had dragged him and his sister to see Jersey Boys. But what neither Gabe nor Natalie knew was that Henry actually enjoyed it (he would never tell Natalie, she would give him hell for that)! So Henry was stuck in an awkward position; be honest since he's never seen Spring Awakening, only heard the music, or make Natalie happy so they could leave.
The answer was clear.
"Well Spring Awakening..." Henry started, until he noticed Gabe glaring at him, giving him a 'be-honest-or-I-will-beat-you-to-a-pulp' look. Henry's always been scared of Gabe.
"Yes?" Natalie persisted, needing to get an answer out of him. Henry was stuck in a classic case of sibling rivalry between his girlfriend and her older brother that he was scared of.
"Yes, continue," Gabe said, looking even more intimidating. Henry never would've thought that Natalie and Gabriel Goodman of all people were having a fight about which musical is the best! He still had to give an answer, though. He swallowed and tried to answer the question.
"Um...well..." Henry started.
"Yes?" Natalie and Gabe said together.
"Uh...I prefer In the Heights!"
"What!" the siblings yelled together.
"Come on! Benny's Dispatch is so good and catchy!" Henry defended while slowly walking down the stairs. "And 96,000, man that song should've won a Tony for how amazing it is!" he giggled nervously as he descended down the stairs. "Lin Manuel-Miranda is a genius!"
"Henry..." both Natalie and Gabe said, Natalie about to remind him they needed to study, Gabe in a tone that said, 'that's-not-what-what-I-asked-you-little-punk!'
"I just remembered...I have to call my sister!" Henry said as he dashed out the door. Natalie and Gabe sighed together.
"You're actually..." Gabe said, struggling to say a certain word. "...dating that?" Natalie just punched him in the shoulder.
"Do you have the soundtrack for In the Heights?" she asked. Gabe looked at his little sister and nodded.
"Original Broadway Cast Recording," Gabe corrected. "And yeah, it's somewhere in my room."
"We really need to listen to that," Natalie said, pausing. "Truce?" she said, offering him her hand. Gabe took it and shook it.
"You got it, Sunshine."
I want you to take a moment and imagine Aaron Tveit or Kyle Dean Massey as Gabe the Broadway Freak wearing heavy eyeliner and headbanging to American Idiot. Got that mental picture in your head? Did you burst out laughing? If you did then review!
Or if you didn't a review would still be nice :D