'Enjolras!'

'Marius!'

But it was too late. Marius was already by Enjolras's side, and hadn't heard Eponine calling after him. She slowed down to a walking pace, several metres behind the two friends muttering earnestly to each other. She watched them stride past the other students, including a dark haired boy standing at his open locker. As they got closer, he sort of hesitated and looked as if he wanted to say something, or get their attention, but they were too wrapped up in their conversation to notice him. He stared after them just as Eponine had been.

Ponine, who was now moving at the slowest of strolls, tried to place this boy in her mind. He was there in her memory somewhere. Marius and Enjolras had disappeared, and she remembered that his name was Grantaire. She was about a yard behind him when he turned around, and she dropped her eyes to the floor as she walked past, pretending that's where they'd been looking all along.

Enjolras, just turned 18, was directing the school musical this year. Not wanting to pick something from the usual list of school musicals, he had chosen to put on a stage production of The Nightmare Before Christmas (despite his friend Jehan pleading for West Side Story). While Enjolras had been officially appointed as the one in charge of the show, admired by the Drama department for his focus and humility, he then cast his best friend as the lead. So it had become more of a collaboration between Enjolras and Marius.

Eponine knew she had to be involved with this play. It would mean spending even more time with Marius, who she'd had a crush on and maybe even loved for years. He was in his last year of school now, Year 13, soon to leave her to spend her own last year without him. She didn't want to miss a single moment. As soon as she became aware of the project, she asked how she could help. Marius suggested she came along to the auditions. Enjolras wanted to get the creative team involved as early in the process as possible. The atypical choice of musical had caused quite a lot of interest from the students and they could get started right away.

Friday afternoon, Enjolras and Marius were sat at a desk on the stage where the auditionees performed their songs. Eponine sat in the front row of the audience seats. She had a copy of the script open on her lap, mostly in case anyone should look over and question why she was there.

'Cosette Valjean,' Enjolras read out from the sign-up sheet. A girl with blonde hair and a little pink nose stepped onto the stage. She was in Year 12, like Eponine, and had been new this year. Cosette was shy, and Eponine hardly knew her. Maybe they would become friends working on this play together, if she got a part.

When Cosette opened her mouth to sing, it was beautiful. A lovely, higher pitched rendition of the first verse and chorus of As Long As You're Mine from Wicked was her audition piece, and Eponine looked to her judges to see how it was being received. Enjolras was the same as he had been for all performances, taking careful notes and not looking up from his notebook much at all. Marius, however, was mesmerised. His pen was frozen in his hand and his eyes only saw the girl that stood and sang to him. Ponine felt a pain in her chest. She looked around to see if anyone else was as in raptures as Marius. Jehan, a couple rows back, was gazing into space with a contented smile, clearly enjoying the song too much to notice the singer. She twisted further in her seat. Grantaire was sitting at the very back, at the aisle end of his row. He was leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed and strands of his black curls falling across his forehead. He didn't look as if he was exactly pleased to be there, but his fixed gaze on the stage suggested he still wanted to be.

Eponine joined in the ripple of applause when Cosette finished and tried to ignore the big smile on Marius's face. Once all the auditions were over, she went up to join the boys on the stage.

'Have a look over your notes tonight and tomorrow we can talk about who to call back' Enjolras said to Marius as Ponine perched on the corner of their table.

'Tomorrow's Saturday,' Marius said.

'Yes? You're not busy are you?'

Eponine couldn't help smiling.

'No,' Marius assured him, 'in the café then?'

'See you there at 11,'

Enjolras picked up his notebook and bag, gave Eponine a half nod as a greeting, and headed up to the exit.

'Who did you think was good?' Marius turned to his friend. She said she thought lots of people were good.

'That girl, Cosette, is she in your year? I thought she was… very good'

As Marius spoke, Eponine's attention was caught by Grantaire suddenly straightening up from his seat at the back. He stepped in time with Enjolras, who appeared to be already re-reading his notes from the auditions. By now, Eponine had worked out why she felt she knew that boy. He was one of Enjolras's group, most of whom she didn't really know (except Marius of course). But on more than one occasion, when she had been hanging around Marius, Grantaire had been hanging around Enjolras.

'She could be a contender for the female lead, even. I've never really noticed her before today.'

'Cosette? Oh, well, she was new this year so…'

Ponine stood up and walked to the edge of the stage, knowing Marius would follow because they'd be getting the bus together as usual. He gathered his things.

'What do you know about her?'

'Um, she lives with her dad I think. I heard a rumour she's kind of rich. Apparently she can sing.'

'I'm going to put her forward for call-backs,'

Eponine prayed this sudden interest in Cosette alone was temporary.

Enjolras rounded up more of his friends to work behind the scenes. He wanted to have every available position appropriately filled. Despite being there from the beginning, Eponine was momentarily forgotten about and then given the role of Assistant Stage Manager. This same role was given to Grantaire, who was not considered responsible enough to do more than run errands.

It was a few weeks into rehearsals and things were getting busy. Enjolras was managing to keep cool but he wasn't always kind. While his friends were able to laugh at him when he became stern and teacherly, some of the younger members of the chorus found him slightly terrifying. Thankfully, they all adored Jehan, who was in charge of music. And Courfeyrac, who was in the cast, would sometimes give them a friendly wink when they got told off for turning up late or forgetting their script.

Combeferre was recruited as a kind of Artistic Director. This had originally been Marius's job, but, to Enjolras's slight annoyance, he was getting more and more involved in his character than the play as a whole. Jehan was determined to get his and Cosette's (she was given the female lead) parts exactly right, particularly their relationship in the play, and neither had any problem with putting in the time to work on this. This was what Eponine found the toughest part to deal with. Cosette and Marius quickly became close and started spending time together outside of rehearsals as well. Ponine couldn't stop herself feeling jealous. She would look over the timetable each week and inform Enjolras she wasn't available on days when those two would be doing a scene together. He was too focused on the task to notice this strange pattern in her working time, as was Marius.

However, when she was at rehearsals, Eponine was very hard working and willing to prove she cared about the production. One Saturday morning, she was rummaging through boxes and bags in the room where all the old costumes were kept, when she came across a large collection of black cloaks. They'd had problems with costumes for the chorus, and dressing them up in black cloaks wouldn't be a bad start. The box was too big to carry on her own, so she gathered a few into her arms and went back into the theatre, coming through from backstage. She saw Marius standing alone with a script in the wings.

'Marius!' she hissed excitedly.

'Hey, Ep. What are you up to?'

'I just found a load of these in the wardrobe. Thought they might be useful. What do you think?' By this point she was getting a little desperate to get his attention when she could.

'Nice one. If you show them to Combeferre I'm sure - oh, Cosette!' He called to the girl who had just come to the end of rehearsing a scene. Eponine looked over, and then Marius was walking on stage with just a quick glance back but nothing more. She looked down at the black cloth in her arms. Suddenly her discovery seemed less shiny.

'So are you going to do anything today, or what?'

Enjolras was shouting at Grantaire. Again. As Eponine went to dump the cloaks by the piano (not the best place, but slightly better than where she would have liked, which would be anywhere that either Marius or Cosette might trip over them), she saw Grantaire sitting with one earphone in and Enjolras standing over him. He slowly stood and looked him in the eye.

'What would you like me to do?'

'Combeferre's in the art studio planning out scenery. Go and see if he needs help.'

'I'm on it.'

Enjolras walked back to the stage, and Grantaire watched him. Eponine noticed that, even though Enjolras had been brisk with him and Grantaire was clearly reluctant to do any work, he didn't look angry or annoyed. Only calm, and maybe a little disappointed. It reminded her of that day in the corridor, when they both were ignored by the one they'd hoped to speak with.

Eponine liked to watch Enjolras directing scenes when she got the chance. His want for the play to go smoothly was due to his passion, and this shined through his ideas and how he spoke them to the cast. He wasn't as soft and approachable as someone like Jehan, but the charisma he glowed with as he strode around the stage, with a script in one hand and a prop or the arm of a 12-year-old chorus member in the other, meant everyone was eager to make his vision come to life as successfully as they could.

Later that day, Combeferre walked into the theatre with a large cardboard tree, not yet painted, and a sketchbook. The other end of the tree was being carried by Grantaire. They came all the way down the aisle and onto the stage, where Enjolras was talking to Bossuet and Feuilly about lighting and microphones.

'Wow, that looks good!'

The boys stood the tree upright and Combeferre showed Enjolras the sketchbook. Eponine, who'd been in the wings listening to the conversation about lights, crept forward.

'I thought we might as well have a go at making one,' Combeferre was saying, and he pointed to the drawing on the page, 'and this is what we thought we could do for the designs,'

Grantaire was stood proudly next to his cardboard creation, looking expectantly at his director.

'I like it,' Enjolras nodded at Combeferre, 'Could you make another one and paint them both for next weekend? I'd like to do something maybe vaguely resembling a dress rehearsal on Saturday, if that's possible.'

Combeferre agreed and Enjolras turned back to his previous conversation. Grantaire's shoulders drooped a bit as he took the sketchbook and went to put it back in his school bag. Eponine felt a peculiar pain of empathy.

A common phenomenon of taking part in extra-curricular activities in school is that one starts to see all these new acquaintances everywhere around the building. This happened to Eponine, and it was fun to greet cast members in the corridor as she walked from class to class. This included members of the backstage team as well, such as Grantaire. He was intriguing. He was also in Year 12, and she'd had him down as someone who was lazy and badly behaved. Wasn't he the one who got suspended for bringing alcohol into school a couple of years ago? But there had been moments over the last few weeks that made her curiosity grow. He seemed to have a very odd relationship with this play, and it's director.

Eponine was wandering to her locker during a free period one day when she spotted Grantaire leaning against the wall outside a classroom. He looked up as she approached, and she gave him a shy smile, which he returned. She found herself stopping beside him.

'What are you doing?' she could see other people from their year through the glass window in the door.

'I got kicked out the lesson,' Grantaire said with a grin.

'Really?' People didn't often get sent out of lessons by their age. She asked him what happened.

'I was texting under the table. I was bored. I was teasing Marius about Cosette. '

Eponine groaned and flumped against the wall next to him. She didn't see Grantaire's look of sympathy.

'You coming to the rehearsal today?' he asked. She shook her head.

'Oh, are they doing a Marius and Cosette scene?'

Ponine shifted awkwardly.

'Um. I don't know.'

'Yes you do,'

She turned her head. He was looking straight at her.

'You're never there when they're doing those scenes.'

She only frowned, not sure how to react to him noticing that.

'Do you think Marius realises?'

'Doubt it. Too busy looking at his Cosette.'

'What about Enjolras? I'd be so embarrassed if he thought I was skipping them for a reason like that.'

Grantaire looked away.

'He's too busy worrying about his show.'

'Mm,' She studied his change expression.

'Do you like helping with this show?'

'Sometimes,'

'You get shouted at by Enjolras a lot.'

He shrugged.

'I don't mind,'

In her head, Eponine replayed everything she could remember of Grantaire during rehearsals so far. The few times he had done any work, which had usually gone unacknowledged, and the many times he'd sat around doing nothing, until Enjolras told him to get off his backside.

'Are those the times that you like?' she asked gently. He didn't answer.

'So I'm not the only one doing this thing for the chance to spend more time with someone.'

Grantaire exhaled.

'I like watching him,' he said at last, 'Like you like watching Marius,'

This was true. Despite avoiding some scenes, Eponine loved to watch Marius acting and singing on that stage. It almost made up for not getting to talk to him much when he wasn't performing. The way he moved was so elegant, by nature. And while his voice was quite high for a boy his age, it also had these rich, deeper tones to it that made Eponine's knees buckle. She suddenly blushed at the thought of someone seeing her gazing at him from the wings.

'You should come to the rehearsal today,' Grantaire said, 'I like it when you're there.'

She felt flattered. The bell for the end of the period rang.

'Means there's less work for me,' he continued. Eponine laughed and pushed herself off the wall.

'I'll see you, Grantaire,' she said with a smile. The look between them just before she walked away said they were friends, because they understood each other.

Eponine didn't go to the rehearsal that night, but they were going into full run-throughs and dress rehearsals now, and she was forced to be there more often. Enjolras was staying calm, but only just. One day, not long after that afternoon she spoke with him in the corridor, Eponine saw Grantaire sitting in the middle of the stalls while she was running some electrical cables up to the lighting and sound box. Enjolras was on stage struggling with the end of a scene for which no one could remember their lines, and the last thing he needed was another reason to get angry. Ponine stopped when she was level with Grantaire, who saw her and the anxious look on her face. She looked over at Enjolras, barely holding onto the end of his tether, and thankfully Grantaire picked up on her wavelength. Just before Enjolras turned around, Grantaire took hold of half the cables she was carrying and they walked out together. Enjolras was left seeing that both his Assistant Stage Managers were getting on with their work.

'Sorry to disturb you,' Eponine started once they were out of the theatre, 'I just thought he-'

'No, you're right. Maybe today's not a good day for getting on his nerves.'

They walked silently up the stairs to the box, handed the cables over, and then went back down to the theatre.

'Soon all this will be over, and you'll have plenty of time to talk to Enjolras without having to make him raise his voice,'

'Until he leaves,'

'Well, yes. But that's not happening yet.'

'No.'

There was a pause. Grantaire looked pretty down.

'We'll be fine,' Eponine said kindly. He nodded.

It was the last Saturday rehearsal before the first night. Officially the timings were the usual 10am-4pm, but Enjolras warned they might over-run. Which they did. It was a full costume and tech rehearsal, and he wanted to do the whole thing at least twice, as well as all the corrections and anything that needed an extra practice. Eponine kept herself busy all day, making sure everyone had the right costume and props, that the people moving the scenery knew what they were doing, all of that stuff. By this point, whatever anyone's 'official' job was had mostly been forgotten about so, short of operating the lights and keeping the prompt book, Eponine did anything that simply needed doing.

It was a decent distraction from the whispers amongst the cast that the male and female leads had become a couple in real life. Eponine still talked to Marius, and they still got the bus home together sometimes, but it was becoming less frequent and she rarely was in the mood for talking about Cosette. It's not that she didn't like Cosette, the girl was sweet and hadn't done anything wrong, it just hurt to think about that happening.

Grantaire was surprisingly helpful that day. Maybe he thought it was his last chance to show Enjolras that he wasn't completely useless. Eponine found that spending time with him wasn't too bad. He could be funny sometimes; he had a dark sense of humour that Ponine admired, because he wasn't ashamed of it. And when Grantaire had thought all this hard work would be a bore, he didn't mind it so much when he got to talk to this friendly girl who laughed at his jokes. And sometimes she laughed at the things he said that weren't meant to be jokes, which was okay too. It was better than being moaned at.

The play was really coming together. Whenever they had a spare moment, Eponine and Grantaire would stand somewhere around the edge of the theatre and watch the action on stage. Grantaire had never really seen the point of musical theatre, or why anyone would find it so fascinating. But when he saw how Ponine standing next to him, and Enjolras sitting in the stalls, gazed with such wonder at the performance on the stage, he found it wasn't quite as annoying as he used to think. And it did feel nice to know he'd been a part of it. The looks on Enjolras's and Eponine's face seemed to make this particular day worthwhile.

It was five o'clock. Most of the cast had gone home, as well as some of the backstage team. Jehan was at the piano, playing the last song. Marius and Cosette were on stage, singing it.

Eponine was sitting with Grantaire at the back of the theatre. She was too tired to do anything except sit and watch the one she loved sing a love song to someone else. Yes, they were only acting, and it was only a show, but he looked at Cosette in ways he'd never looked at Eponine. And it wasn't far off the way he looked at her when they weren't acting. Meanwhile, Grantaire was watching Enjolras mouthing along with the words, probably without even realising. By the corner of the stage were the cardboard boxes covered in shiny paper that Grantaire had carefully wrapped and tied with ribbon himself, receiving not much more than a nod and a quick 'thanks' in return.

With an overwhelming flood of tiredness and sadness and affection, Eponine flopped sideways onto Grantaire and rested her head on his shoulder. After a moment, he pressed his cheek to her hair and they stayed there comfortably until the end of the song. It felt nice to have someone so warm be so close.

The show was a huge success. They did four nights: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The first night was frantic, a minefield of nerves and panic, but by Thursday everyone knew what they were doing. All those who came to see it said it was amazing.

Friday night. The last show was finished. The audience was gone and Enjolras had said his congratulatory speech to everyone. Eponine stayed behind as part of the tidying up team and, as she headed to the dressing rooms to look for any costumes left lying around, she saw that Marius and Cosette were whispering together in the seemingly empty corridor. She rolled her eyes at them standing around instead of helping, and then the worst happened. Marius bent down his head and they kissed.

Eponine felt as if she would have a heart attack. Her eyes welled up with tears as she spun around and ran the other way. All of a sudden, it was just too much. She was already feeling flat because of the show being finished, and tired out. She had been doing so well at shrugging off the rumours about those two, even telling herself that it wouldn't be the end of the world if they were together. After all, she had already gone this long without being the one he loved. But now the emotion and the exhaustion came rushing all at once, and it was unbearable. She ended up running onto the stage, that way being the quickest way out, where Grantaire was sweeping the floor on his own.

'Eponine, what's wrong?'

She stopped just before toppling into him. She shook her head, unable to speak, with one hand over eyes as if she was trying to unseen the thoughts that were making her so sad. Grantaire didn't have a clue what to do with a crying girl, but he hated seeing his friend like this. He dropped the broom and wrapped his arms around her. She pulled her own arms out from his embrace and put them round his neck. There was no one visible from where they were, so she let herself howl while Grantaire held her.

When Eponine's crying had reduced to just a few little sniffles, he loosened his grip. She stepped back and wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

'I'm fine,' she said when she saw his face, though this was clearly a lie.

'You can tell me about it if you want,' He still felt lost as to what to do; he just didn't want to make her feel worse, whatever the problem was. Someone else came out from backstage.

'Ep, are you okay?'

Eponine only hung her head without turning around. Grantaire could see Marius's arm around Cosette's waist.

'She's fine,' he snapped a little too angrily, and took hold Ponine's hand to lead her away. They disappeared into the wings and took the long way out of the theatre. He stood in front of her once they were safely away.

'So it's Marius?' Grantaire asked. Eponine did a last hiccupy sob.

'I'm just tired and the play's all over-'

'But it's mostly Marius,' he interrupted her. She took a deep breath and nodded sadly.

'I only said I'd help out with this thing because of him and then…'

'I know,'

They were quiet for a moment. Eponine realised they were still holding hands, but she didn't want to let go.

'Hey, you two,'

Enjolras was walking towards them, and they waited to be told there was still more tidying to do.

'We're all going to Combeferre's once we've finished up here so…' Enjolras saw the girl's swollen red eyes, and how the boy clasped her fingers in his. 'Meet us at the entrance, when you're ready,'

They were silent until he had gone.

'You probably just want to go home,' said Grantaire, but Ponine shook her head.

'No, I worked really hard for this play. I want to celebrate it with everyone else'

When they started walking, Grantaire finally saw he was still holding her hand and suddenly let go, hoping that he hadn't been making her uncomfortable. When they found the others, no one really paid any attention to them except Marius, who stepped forward.

'Epo-'

Enjolras, who was facing away from the two who had just entered, grabbed his arm and very subtly shook his head. Eponine pretended she hadn't seen this happen, but Grantaire felt an ache at the sight of it.

'Okay, that's everyone,' said Combeferre, looking around, 'Let's go!'

They headed out into the night. Combeferre lead the way, with Enjolras walking along next to him and occasionally shouting at Marius and Cosette for going so slowly at the back. Eponine joined Jehan, Bossuet, Feuilly, Joly and Grantaire in the middle of the group, allowing herself to laugh at Courfeyrac's jokes despite feeling so muddled on the inside.

They were soon settled down in Combeferre's sitting room with drinks and food. Enjolras almost immediately started to worry about if he ever did get the choreography of the first scene right, until Combeferre threw a cushion at his head.

'Enough! Everyone did brilliantly, especially you, so we should just be proud of what we achieved,'

Everyone agreed.

'And be glad that it's over,' added Courfeyrac, with which everyone agreed as well.

All night, not a single word was spoken aloud about Marius and Cosette, but everyone knew. There was a very obvious difference in how they interacted with each other, and they both looked sublimely happy. They were snuggled together in one armchair, and Eponine found if she sat sideways at the end of one of the two sofas, they were just out of her peripheral view and she could ignore them. They weren't joining in the group conversation much anyway. It meant she was squeezed beside and facing Courfeyrac, who was being extra friendly tonight, perhaps out of sympathy for what Eponine was having to cope with.

Though Marius was considered the star of the show, Courfeyrac had also been thoroughly praised throughout the week for his performance. Eventually the others managed to convince him to get up and perform one of his songs, which he did even more exaggeratedly than he had on stage, and everyone was falling about with laughter. In fact, Eponine literally fell sideways from where she was sat and landed with her head on Grantaire's lap. She wriggled into a comfortable position and stayed there, feeling his hand slide onto her waist. Once again, everyone saw, and no one spoke.

In the early hours of the morning, people started being too sleepy to hold a conversation and headed home. Eponine didn't really want to leave. As tired as she was, she dreaded the thoughts that would come to her when she was finally alone in her bed. She needed to be around people, to keep this night a celebration as long as possible.

She wandered into the kitchen to get a drink of water, when someone cleared their throat behind her.

'Hey, Ep,' She turned around.

'Hey, Marius,'

'I haven't really had a chance to talk to you tonight,'

'No,'

'Or this week, really. It's been pretty crazy,'

She nodded.

'It's been fun though, right?' He looked really keen for her to say 'yes'.

'Yeah, it's been great. I think we should all be very pleased with ourselves. You gave a really amazing performance.'

Marius smiled and thanked her, and Eponine wanted to cry.

'Well, Cosette and I are going now. I'm just walking her home. I'll see you on Monday,'

'Yes. See you.'

Marius suddenly hugged her tightly, and spoke into her hair.

'I love you so much, Eponine. I'm sorry if I haven't said that enough,'

'I love you, too,' she managed to squeak back in reply. She let out a tear, taking in a slow breath to keep herself together.

Then Marius went out into the hall, where Cosette was hugging and thanking Enjolras and Combeferre.

'Bye, Eponine!' she called when she spotted the girl standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Ponine gave a small but friendly wave back. The couple left.

'I think I'm going to go home, too,' Enjolras said after Combeferre closed the front door.

'Okay. Oh!' Combeferre remembered something, 'I was going to lend you that book. I think it's in my room somewhere, hold on'

Eponine, half asleep and still leaning against the doorframe, watched as Combeferre went upstairs, and Grantaire came out into the hall.

'I'm off now,' Enjolras said to the boy who slowly approached him. Grantaire nodded.

'I'll see you then,'

'Yeah. Listen,' Enjolras stepped closer to him, 'I wanted to thank you for all your help. I'm really glad you stuck around. I did see all the stuff you did.' He looked at the ground, as if he was embarrassed, 'I guess I just-'

'You're welcome. It was a pleasure to be working with you.'

Eponine, who had come to know what Grantaire sounded like when he was being sarcastic, could see how much he truly meant those words.

Enjolras went to shake Grantaire's hand, and then patted his shoulder fondly as well. They stood there without moving for a few moments, smiling at each other, and Enjolras holding onto Grantaire.

Grantaire was alone in the sitting room when Eponine went back in. He had tucked himself into the corner of the sofa with a blanket and was staring at the floor. Ponine was still thinking she'd like to go back in time and feel Marius's arms around her again, so she found herself climbing underneath the blanket and snuggling right up next to the person who was already there.

But this boy wasn't Marius, he was Grantaire. Someone entirely different, and he turned out to be just as nice to cuddle. He looked at those big brown eyes of her, she saw how his hair flopped into his own, and then she pressed her lips to his. It was only a peck, soft and sweet, but both their faces seemed in a state of shock when they were apart again. Eponine leaned away a little.

'I – I'm sorry,' she stuttered, blinking and not knowing where to look.

'No,' Grantaire said, sounding equally stunned, 'It was… nice,'

She shifted her sitting position so she was parallel to him, instead of half on top of him. Then she placed her head on his shoulder, and he his head on hers, and they sat together in peace, as they had that evening in the theatre. Except right now they were both a bit less sad.