Hey! Welcome to my new one-shot! This idea just rushed into my brain at literally 1:45 in the morning, and I just had to write it! It is now 2:15.
Okay, so it's been a year since Home took place and April Rhodes is now a successful Broadway star performing as Glinda in Wicked. Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: If I owned it there would be a heap more Kristin and Idina, period. And a few guest stars I have in mind. Bottom line: IT AIN'T MINE!
I sit in my pink dressing room, ready for the stage, clad in a bright blue gown, a curly blond wig, lots of stage makeup, and a very heavy tiara.
It's been a year since that day I became a millionaire. My all white production of The Wiz was a flop, but it was put down as a unique idea rather than a pathetic failure. And I was given note for my efforts to make the show work.
Who knew I'd be on Broadway this quick. Just a year ago I was homeless. Heck, I was homeless, washed up, and a dreamer from a cowtown, singing for my former schools glee club! What could scream "loser!" more than that? Yet here I am, sober, on Broadway, and cast as Glinda the Good in Wicked.
The only problem up here is that I could never tell. People always come up, trying to befriend me, but I don't know why. Is I because I'm interesting, or that I happen to have a few million dollars in my pocket?
It's lonely at the top, no matter how much I wanted it earlier. Back when I was in glee, I knew where I stood. Some people befriended me because I was popular, but I could always pick them out from my real friends.
I can't do that anymore. This is the big league actors, which means it's ten times harder to tell which are genuine and which aren't. Which want a connection to the upper-theater ranks, and who simply wanted to know me for me.
The music swells, and I know it's my cue to get into my place. I let out a sigh, add one last touch to my face and step into my mechanical bubble as someone fastens me securely inside.
As my bubble rises into the rafters of the stage, I have to pull the skirt of my dress in so it won't catch in the top. Because that's how big the bottom half has gotten since the original cast.
The Wicked veterans, the ones who started back when the original Broadway cast performed, say that with each new actress comes a bigger bottom. So with each new Glinda, the skirt expands and eventually arrives at the giant width it is now.
I see a few stifled laughs from the ensemble, and I want to laugh also. It seems ridiculous that I have to hold the dress in just to fit into the top of the stage.
As the curtains part, and the ensemble sings, my bubble slowly drifts down into the view of the audience, pelting my face with bubbles in the process. As I sing my operatic solo, something catches my eye. A mop of thick, curly, brown, hair…
~•~•~•~•~•~
Exactly two and a half hours later, the show has ended. The lights are off, and my costume is no longer weighing me down. I head out the back stage door, a few fellow cast members at my side. Hopefully the fans at the stage door will have cleared out enough that I can make it home tonight without much trouble. I push out the door when I hear a familiar voice.
"April!" he calls.
I look to see the same familiar mop of hair, a friendly face to match.
"Will?" I ask, dumbfounded that he came all the way from Lima to New York City to see me. "What are ya doin' here?"
"I wanted to see you," he replies, smiling happily. "I heard you were starring on Broadway so I wanted to see for myself."
I smile back, giving him a warm hug, happy that I have a true friend wanting to know me for myself, and nothing more.
Maybe it isn't as lonely in the spotlight as I thought.
This took half an hour to write and if you read between the lines at the end ya might glimpse some Will/April. Hope ya enjoyed!
Please review!