RRnMMSAUGH means Read Review n Make Me Smile And You Get Hugs. just FYI.
Nudge's POV
Yay! We get to go to the movie rental store! And Max says we can each pick out a movie! I wonder the others will get? I don't know but I hope they won't get horror movies. I don't like horror movies because they make me scared and have nightmares and make me stay up because I don't want to go to sleep but I fall asleep anyway because I get tired and still have nightmares.
Anyway.
I walked up and down the aisles of movies, browsing the different sections. In the comedy section I picked up a bright yellow DVD case that said Little Miss Sunshine and turned it over. It sounded cool because it had beauty pageants in it and I love beauty pageants because I've always wanted to be in one. But the movie was rated R, so I knew Max wouldn't let me get it. I put it back on the shelf and kept walking. I got to the drama section and on the shelf they had a movie that I had always wanted to see. I picked up The Phantom of the Opera and read the back. My friend Kinsey had told me that she had seen the movie and loved it and that I should watch it sometime. Well, now was sometime. I smiled and walked over to where Max was standing looking at the shelves on the wall of new movie releases.
"Max?" I asked. She turned around.
"Can I get this?" I held up the movie. She took it from me and read the back.
"A musical?" she said, sounding surprised.
"Yeah," I said. "Kinsey said it was really good and Gerard Butler is in it!" I grinned.
"Who's Gerard Butler?" she asked. I mock gasped.
"Only the hottest Scottish man on the face of this planet!" I exclaimed dramatically. She rolled her eyes.
"Fine," she said, handing it back to me.
"Yay!" I cheered, then went to see what Angel had picked out.
Iggy and the Gasman couldn't decide, so they joined forces and picked out The Love Guru together. Fang brought over The Mothman Prophecies, which I was not happy about. I wouldn't be in the room when they were watching that. Angel picked out The Simpsons Movie because there was nothing here she was really interested in and just wanted to use her movie-picking-out privileges. Max didn't pick out anything.
"So, what're we watching first?" I asked as we flew home.
"I don't know," said Max. "Let's take a vote. Love Guru?" Iggy and Gazzy raised their hands.
"Okay," Max continued. "Mothman?" She and Fang raised their hands.
"Okay. Phantom?" I raised my hand up high and Angel raised hers, too.
"It's a tie. So, I'll pick a number between 1 and 50, and whoever gets the closest gets to choose. Angel, no cheating," she added, looking at the six-year-old. Angel smiled angelically.
"Ig?" she called to him.
"Thirty-seven," he called back. She looked at Gazzy.
"Twelve," he said. She turned to look at Fang.
"Two," he said. She nodded, then turned to me.
"Forty-nine," I said over the wind. She nodded.
"Angel?" she asked.
"Twenty-three," was Angel's answer.
"The number was fifty," declared Max. "So, Nudge gets to choose. Nudge?" she asked.
"Phantom!" I said gleefully. I did a little happy dance even though I was flying. Weird.
"'Kay. So, Phantom it is," Max finished just as we landed back at Anne's house. Anne wasn't home because she had to go to a big meeting with the big-shot heads of government to discuss our situation, yada, yada, yada. Whatever.
"We'll watch it after dinner, okay?" Max said as we walked into the house.
"'Kay," I agreed, then added, "I'm starving!"
Iggy prepared us a fabulous meal which we devoured in minutes even though it was twice as much as any normal human would eat. I skipped to the family room and shoved the DVD into the DVD player. The Flock came in and sat down as the DVD menu popped up.
"Yay! Movie time!" I squealed, then pressed the play button.
Max POV
Why, oh why did Nudge have to pick a musical? Especially one about a stalker psychopath that seriously needs to get a life? Oh well, too late now.
I sat down on the couch in between Fang and Iggy. All the younger one's, including Total, sat on the floor in front of our feet. The beginning of the movie started with it in black and white, which confused me. The old guy in the wheelchair wasn't the best thing to look at either. I had to admit though, the part with the chandelier when the overture began was pretty cool.
We continued to watch the movie with interest, and the music was good, and so was the singing. Carlotta immediately reminded me of Nudge, for some reason. Not in the snotty diva way, just the way she talks. Carlotta sang well, but Christine was even better in my opinion. Raoul was hot in a unique way and an awesome singer. But when the Phantom came in, I was blown away. He was downright sexy! Raoul and the Phantom reminded me of someone, but I couldn't put my finger on it. The two guys who owned the opera house reminded me of Gazzy and Iggy, and Meg Giry reminded me of Angel.
I'm not one for romances, but the scene on the rooftop was one of my favorites. I'm not sure why, but I loved the song though. I suddenly realized who Raoul and the Phantom reminded me of. Fang. I guess they reminded me of Fang's split personalities. Haha.
Raoul symbolized the lighter side, the protective side of Fang. The side that came out when one of the younger kids was hurt and Fang tried to comfort them, while the Phantom was his darker side, mysterious and handsome with a talent for music.
Yes, Fang, Emotionless-Man himself, had a talent for music. He plays the guitar and sings when he thinks no one is listening. I just happen to be no one.
Anyway, when Christine would hit those high notes, I seriously thought my eardrums had ruptured because Nudge had the speakers on at almost full blast. Ow. Masquerade was another one of my favorite scenes. At the end of the movie when Christine, Raoul and the Phantom are in the cave and the Phantom is forcing Christine to make her choice, I saw Nudge wipe her face with a tissue and I realized she was crying. She held out a tissue to Total, too, who blew his nose loudly into it. I smirked.
What really moved me was at the very, very end when it's black and white again in the cemetery and old Raoul puts the ugly monkey music box on Christine's headstone, and there's the rose with black ribbon on it already. My eyes filled with tears, but only one escaped and slid down my cheek. (a/n This happened to me the first time I watched PTO. Yes, I know I'm a sap. Shut up, jk) I wiped it away quickly, but Fang turned his head and raised one of his eyebrows at me. I stuck my tongue out at him.
"Oh my gosh! That was, like, the best movie ever!" Nudge exclaimed.
"Didn't you say that about Finding Nemo, though, too?" Iggy asked her. She frowned.
"Yes, but this one was an awesome movie, too, wasn't it Max?" she asked me.
"Yeah, it was. I'm glad you picked it out." I smiled at her. She beamed.
"Can we watch another movie?" asked Gazzy.
"No, sweetie. It's getting late, and we should get to sleep," I said, then I ruffled his hair.
He pouted. "Fine."
I stood up from the couch and ushered everyone upstairs except Fang, who wanted to check his blog. I forced the Gasman into the tub, then I tucked the younger ones in for the night. I went back downstairs to wait for Anne to get home. About a half hour later she walked through the front door.
"Max?" she called. I got up from the couch and walked to the kitchen where Anne was getting herself a glass of water. She took a swig.
"Yeah?" I said.
"I'm sorry," she began. "I talked to all the government heads of departments, and there's a slight problem." She bit her lip.
"What kind of problem?" I asked warily. She took a deep breath.
"They don't believe you," she said simply. I blinked in bewilderment.
"What?!" I nearly shouted.
"They don't believe you," she repeated. "They don't think what you claim is true. They have no evidence in their files of any institutions like the School conducting genetic experiments. They're not even sure you actually exist because you're not registered as a citizen." She looked at me with pity in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Max." She looked down at her glass.
By now I was livid. Not believe us?! Who did those government bastards think they were?! A teenager with freaking wings wasn't enough evidence? Six kids with wings? My nostrils flared and my mouth pinched together in a tight line. I made a growling sound in my throat and shot out the back door. I needed to think. The moon was almost halfway up the sky and shone on the surface of the pond. I sat in one of the lawn chairs on the shore and put my head in my hands. It was at times like these that I wished I didn't exist, or that I was someone else. I'm only 14, dammit, and I shouldn't have to deal with this crap. Right now, the world seemed black to me. I sighed.
"Hey," I heard a voice call. I looked up and saw Fang striding toward me in the moonlight. The light bounced off the water onto his face, illuminating his facial features.
"Hey," I replied, the stared out over the pond.
"What's wrong?" he asked as he squatted down next to my chair on the ground. I turned to look at him and he studied my face carefully. I sighed again.
"A lot of stuff," I muttered.
"Like?" he urged.
"Did Anne tell you about her meeting with the government people?" I asked him.
"No."
"Well…" I paused, unsure how to say it without getting angrier than I already was. He waited. Ah, screw it.
"They don't believe us," I blurted out. I watched as his eyes grew wide and angry.
"What?" he whispered in disbelief.
"I know," I said, then turned back to look at the pond.
"Those bastards," he muttered angrily.
"Tell me about it." I put my head in one hand this time and closed my eyes.
"What are we going to do?" he asked, almost to himself.
"I don't know, but I wish I didn't have to deal with it," I found myself saying. Why was I expressing my emotions to Fang? I had never been that open to anyone before. I opened my eyes and saw out of the corner of my eye Fang was staring at me. I decided that as long as I was being emotionally open he might as well get the gist of what I was feeling.
"Sometimes I wish I didn't exist," I whispered. "Or that I was someone else, so all this crap wouldn't be my problem. And I wish that you and the others didn't have to live with being mutants, that Angel and Gazzy and Nudge could grow up with futures, not having to always watch their backs for Erasers." My eyes filled with tears and spilled over, but I didn't wipe them away this time. Fang was staring at me with a mixture of awe and sympathy.
"But Max," he said, taking my hand. "If you didn't exist, then none of the younger kids would have a great role model to look up to. They would be stuck with Miley Cyrus." That made me smile a little bit. He smiled, too. "And they would probably still be at the School, never having had a taste of freedom, of what it feels like to fly without being chased or shot at. If you didn't exist Max, their worlds, and my world, would be a whole lot darker."
His heartfelt words made it hard to speak. Had he ever said anything like that to me? To anyone? At least I knew he wasn't completely free of emotion.
"But my world always seems dark, even with you guys in it every second," I said sadly. He squeezed my hand, then leaned in and kissed my cheek. That was completely unexpected, and it left a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach. And then he did something that surprised me even more. He stood up and pulled me up, too. He took both of my hands, looked into my eyes, and started singing.
No more talk of darkness
Forget these wide-eyed fears
I'm here, nothing can harm you
My words will warm and calm you
Let me be your freedom
Let daylight dry your tears
He wiped the tears from my face softly.
I'm here, with you beside you
To guard you and to guide you
I found myself singing, too, and every word I sang was true to how I felt about him
Say you love me every waking moment
Turn my head with talk of summertime
Say you need my with you now and always
Promise me that all you say it true
That's all I ask of you
He smiled brightly as he sang the next part.
Let me be your shelter
Let me be your light
You're safe, no one will find you
Your fears are far behind you
I didn't believe those last few words. I turned and watched the moonlight dance on the pond as I sang.
All I want is freedom
A world with no more night
I turned back to face him.
And you, always beside me
To hold me and to hide me
He took one of my hands and put his other hand on my cheek.
Then say you'll share with me
One love, one lifetime
Let me lead you from your solitude
Say you need me with you here beside you
Anywhere you go let me go, too
"Max," he replaced Christine's name with mine.
That's all I ask of you
While he sang this, every word rang with a sense of rightness. He loved me, as more than a sister. I realized I felt the same way, and I sang with more strength as my heart inflated.
Say you'll share with me
One love, one lifetime
Say the word and I will follow you
He joined me then, our voices combining perfectly.
Share each day with me
Each night, each morning
"Say you love me," I sang softly.
"You know I do," he sang quietly. I stared into his eyes as he stared into mine, and I smiled. Our voices flowed together again.
Love me T
hat's all I ask of you
He brought his face down to mine and our lips met. Fireworks went off in my head. He picked me up and swung me around, just like from the movie. It was the cheesiest romantic moment of my life, but I loved it. He smiled through the kiss, then set me down and we broke apart. His face was alight with happiness and the moonlight reflecting off the pond made his eyes sparkle. Somehow, my voice didn't give out as we sang the final words.
Anywhere you go
Let me go, too
Love me
That's all I ask of you
The melody of our voices faded away over the pond. We drew toward each other again, and shared a short, but very sweet kiss. He put our foreheads together and closed his eyes, his arms around my waist and a small smile on his lips. I put my arms around his neck and closed my eyes, too, wishing the moment would never end.
In my personal world where everything was dark, I could see sunlight on the horizon.