Author's Warning: Like everything else, this takes place in my series, set up by the events in my first story "More Than My Friend" where the big event is that Frankie adopts Mac. If you haven't read that story yet, I strongly suggest you do so now, or else you might get terribly confused.
Every single time the little girl peeked out from behind the stage curtains, without fail she spotted her mother and father, sitting smack in the middle of the elementary school auditorium. Despite the innumerous times that she repeated this process, not only did her anxiety fail to diminish by any degree, but if anything, she only grew exponentially nervous with every glance she snuck.
After once again managing to see only her parents in the audience, the crestfallen child sauntered back to where the rest of her dance class fussed over their appearance or chattered excitedly with one another. Normally right before a dance recital, Goo would hardly be the downtrodden soul that she was at that very moment. In fact, after making sure only once that her parents were indeed there, any trace of anxiety would be completely dispelled, leaving her to became by far the chattiest and most excited of all over the show that they were about to put on.
Such was why the few minutes right before this particular recital was such an immense change of routine for her, for this time, it wasn't her parents that she was desperately searching for in the audience.
With her hopes dashed for the umpteenth time, Goo struggled to divert her attention by fixing her outfit or toying with her hair. However, she lasted only about a minute before she found herself scurrying back and braving another look. Again, absolutely no luck whatsoever.
Yet once more, she sauntered back stage with a discouraged whimper. "Where is he? Mac told me that he'd come…and he wasn't like, 'I think I'll come when I feel like it,' or, 'I'll say I'll come so you'll stop bugging me about', he told me that he'd show up, Saturday afternoon, and it didn't sound like he really didn't wanna come…it sounded like it, at least…but Mac's not the kinda guy who'll lie right to your face, like a…uh…"
It was only when she realized a few other girls were shooting her odd looks did she realize that her nerves were so wound up that she had actually begun murmuring to herself. As her face went slightly flush, the embarrassed child slunk out of sight with a barely-audible murmur. "S-sorry…"
As she sauntered off, Goo could feel her stomach clench a little tighter the more she mulled over her friend's unexplained absence without arriving at any answers. Mac promised that he'd come, and as far as she knew him, he stuck to his word. Then again though...she had to be perfectly honest with herself, she had been a bit of a pest when she asked him to show up, asking him over and over before he could even get so much as a word out. He wouldn't say yes just to get her out of his hair…would he?
"Nuh-uh." She whispered under her breath and shook her head as she tried to reassure herself. No, that wouldn't be like him at all. But then again…she knew perfectly well how overbearing she could become at times, maybe this time she was too much for her friend to take, seeing as how all week she had checked at least once a day to make sure that he was still coming. Maybe…just this time…
Suddenly, Goo grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked hard in an attempt to snap herself out of it. What on earth was the matter with her? She had probably done at least a dozen recitals before. What honestly made this one any different from the others? None, save the fact that only one person wasn't sitting out in the auditorium with all the others. That was it, nothing more. There was no real reason for at all to break down into such a nervous wreck.
Such was what she tried to tell herself, but no matter how much the child struggled to force herself to believe that all was well, her efforts were utterly fruitless. Goo simply couldn't shake off how undeniably disappointed she felt from the plain fact that her friend hadn't kept his word, disappointment which in turn led to gut-wrenching anxiety as she struggled to figure out why exactly Mac had failed to show up.
Why she had been so excited for him to come and see her, the child didn't really know. All she knew that was that she'd been fervently hoping all week for naught, for now all she had was a painful knot in her stomach the size of a cannonball. As she continued to grow increasingly nervous by the instant, Goo struggled to get a hold on herself. There was no way she was going to let herself go to piece like this, she couldn't fall apart simply because-
The clamor of light applause suddenly snapped Goo back to reality. As several girls trotted out onto the stage to take their places for the first act of the recital, the instructor clapped her hands and whooped, "C'mon, everyone, show time!"
Once she quickly realized she was short a pupil, she searched about for a moment until she quickly spotted Goo dumbly standing off to the side. "Well? Goo, what are you waiting for? C'mon, show time! You know the drill!"
Despite her teacher's warm encouraging tone, the anxious little one dawdled for a moment or two until after one futile scan of the audience, she reluctantly began to plod out onstage, all the while struggling fervently to undo the painfully tight knot in her gut.
"C'mon, c'mon!" her instructor repeated as she pushed the unusually reluctant child gently. "What on earth has gotten into-"
A sudden din abrupt reverberated loudly throughout the small auditorium, putting an unexpected pause to the start of the performance. Almost all at once, everyone in the audience turned towards the entrance, where apparently in their frantic haste to get inside, a small, brown-haired child and a lanky young woman had tripped over one another and now lay tangled in an undignified heap.
"Oh, nice job!" Mac, unaware of the disturbance they had caused, grunted angrily at the redheaded woman.
"Me?" Frances "Frankie" Foster snapped as she clambered back to her feet. "You're the one speeding along at a hundred miles per hour! What were you trying to do anyway, get around me, or go…under my…um…"
It wasn't long at all until both realized almost all eyes were upon them, and in a split-instant, both of their faces started glowing brightly with a vibrant blood red.
"Uh…s-sorry…sorry about that…" Mac muttered before taking a seat, while Frankie just smiled weakly, let out a hoarse chuckle in her severe embarrassment, and hastily sat down alongside her charge without another word.
Once the short-lived spectacle had come to a swift end, the dance instructor promptly withdrew her face back behind the curtain and took control. "All right girls, c'mon! Back into your places! Let's go! Let's go! And that means you too Goo. I don't care how many butterflies you have in your stomach, you are…uh…Goo?"
She was far too late. The child had long since taken her place, and was now beaming so brightly with glee that she threatened to blind everyone around her.
"…Good job, sweetie!" her mother congratulated heartily, as did every other parent did to their own offspring, thus making backstage a packed frenzy of commotion and activity. As she was squeezed in a tight hug, Goo was nothing but smiles as she jabbered excitedly.
"It was nothing at all, really, nope! Just lots and lots and lots of practice, y'know, because like Miss Tremolton tells us over and over and over, practice makes perfect, so we've been doing nothing but practicing and practicing until we got it super right and perfect, because then there's no point at all going to dance class when in the end all you're gonna do is run around stage without any idea what you're doing like some crazy-whacko, y'know? It doesn't make sense, it just doesn't-"
The child suddenly came to a dead halt right smack in mid-babble once she noticed Mac standing some distance not too far away alongside with Frankie, waiting patiently to speak with her. The second she spotted her friend, the little girl squealed excitedly to her parent, "Mama! Mama, look! Look! Look! Look, Mac's here! Mac's here!"
"Oh, so he did come?" her mother exclaimed with a chuckle as she undid her hold. "That was nice of him. Well, if you want to go talk to him now, then-"
The woman didn't even have time to finish her sentence before her daughter had swiftly wormed away and was scurrying through the crowd. After completing the treacherous journey through the crowd, the instant she made it to her friend, the little girl said breathlessly, "You…y-you came…"
Mac chuckled softly with a weak grin and a nod. "Well…yeah, I said that I'd-"
Just an instant later, she abruptly interrupted him as she unleashed a massive torrent of furious chatter. "Just what the heck took you so long, huh? I mean, you had me worried to death, y'know, like I was so super-nervous I felt like I was actually gonna croak right here backstage, and then what the heck would everyone do then? Drag me onstage, string me up like one of those creepy puppets and then hope no one would notice the one dancer who totally freaked out to death? Huh? Well? Fat chance that'd work! Seriously! I mean, c'mon, what held you up? did you get caught in traffic? Didya really, really, really, really, really, really have to use the bathroom right before you came over? Did someone steal the bus and you had to run all the way here? You seriously took like, forever and ever and ever and ever to get here, so what the heck in the world took you from arriving until the…very last…second…right…before…"
Goo was simply too surprised to anything else but trail off almost the moment her friend cautiously removed his slightly trembling hands from he had kept them tucked behind his back to reveal a small bundle of bright crimson flowers tied together with gold ribbon.
"I…I'm sorry…" Mac stammered nervously. "It's just...see, it was Frankie's idea that we get these for…but it took longer than we thought to buy them, so…uh…"
After gawking wordlessly at him for a moment or so, the little girl suddenly broke out into a humongous smile that practically spread across the full width of her face before she threw her arms around him in a warm, thankful squeeze. Whilst she hugged him tightly, in a flash Mac's facial tone became deep scarlet as he nevertheless smiled weakly.
The entire time, both children seemed to completely forget the lanky redhead standing only a few paces away. Feeling like she was intruding, Frankie respectfully took a few a steps back to afford them a bit more privacy. As she slunk out of sight, she couldn't help smile and exclaim amusedly under her breath, purposely keeping her tone low so Goo couldn't hear her.
"My idea?"
The End