Disclaimer: RENT is not mine. Maureen and I fought over the rights to Wicked, but we both lost. That belongs to Gregory Maguire. If anyone disagrees with the casting, take it up with Mo. But she won't change it. :) Neither will I. Hope you like this chapter, lots of people gave enthusiastic reviews! -LostOzian


Maureen scanned her friends over steeped fingers, Mimi and Angel in Roger and Collins' laps respectively. Joanne and Mark were sitting in single seats, with Maureen on the 'coffee table'. Everybody clutched their scripts, waiting for Maureen to tell them which part to read. With seven people, auditions were kind of pointless, especially with four female parts in the whole show and four (ish) females exactly.

"Okay," Maureen said at last. "I've thought this over for a long time, so work with me. I'm pretty sure these are the best matches." Maureen pointed to Roger with one hand.

"Roger, read Fiyero," Maureen crossed over her first hand to point to Mimi. "Mimi, read Nessarose…" Roger and Mimi immediately dived into the script to try and find out who these people were. "Then Mark, do Boq, Pookie, (Happy now, Pixie?) do Glinda…" Maureen paused, looking at Collins and Angel.

"Actually, you two have three parts," she said. The gays raised their left eyebrows. "Morrible, Wizard, and Dillamond. That works because they're never all three on stage at the same time." Collins shrugged.

"If it works, then…" he said ambiguously.

"And everybody plays in the chorus depending on who's onstage or about to enter." Maureen said.

"Wait, Maureen," Joanne said, having politely waited for her turn to speak. "Glinda's blonde." Maureen rolled her eyes.

"Work with me, Pookie!" she said. "You're the only one who can do the high soprano!"

"Wait," Roger said, looking down at the script. "Who's 'Elphaba'?" Maureen crossed her legs in a business-like manner.

"Well, I'm the only one without a part…" she said as if it wasn't her idea.

"You're going to direct and play the lead?" Mimi said. Maureen did puppy-dog eyes.

"Oh, come on! This isn't about me this time!" Joanne rolled her eyes. "It's not!" Maureen insisted. "Pookie's the only one who can do Glinda, Mimi's the only one young-looking enough to do Nessa, Angel and Collins together are the only ones who could pull off three parts…" Maureen held her hands out in a shrugging way. "What am I supposed to do? And I can belt," she added, just to prove her point.

"I can belt," Mimi said.

"But you need to do Nessa," Maureen implored. "Please, Mimi?" The dancer looked down at the script, wondering if it was really in her best interest to play a cripple. Maureen held her arms open for a hug.

"C'mon, Mimi! Be my sister!" Maureen said. "I'll let you do choreography!" Mimi was about to give in and hug when she noticed a glare that would have made Death cower in the corner from Joanne. Mimi decided against sisterly hugging, and merely smiled at the drama queen, snuggling deeper into Roger.

"I'll do Nessa. Let's just read through," she said.

"Let's," Mark said, as the group flipped to page one.


Things were going relatively well. They only stopped to distribute the small solos in the opening number and a few bit parts (Melena: Mimi. Frex: Roger. Midwife: Angel. Mysterious lover: Collins.) The dialogue in Dear Old Shiz was a bit choppy, but it worked as people passed around highlighters to mark these extra lines being given. Apparently Elphaba and Glinda had too many entrances and couldn't fill in the 'normal' people, despite many attempts to force Maureen into the chorus line.

They were in the middle of the Dancing Through Life scene, and it was Boq's line.

"Miss Galinda? I…" Mark stopped suddenly, starting to snigger.

"What?" Maureen said. "Go on!" Mark caught Joanne's eye, finishing his line.

"I hope you'll save at least one dance for me," he said seriously. Joanne seemed to start laughing, too, as much as Joanne usually laughed.

"Wha-a-a-a-a-at?!" Maureen whined, bouncing up and down like a small child. Mark recovered first.

"Nothing," he said. "Ah…inside joke," Maureen brightened, thinking that if her ex-boyfriend had an inside joke with her new girlfriend it meant that everything was perfect and happy and nobody had any resentment.

"Um, I don't mean to interrupt the inside joking," Roger said. "But later in the show, Maureen and I… shake things up."

Silence. The bohemians looked from Roger, to Maureen, then back to Roger, before flipping pages rapidly to find the dreaded scene.

"You're exaggerating, Roger," Maureen said dismissively, having already read the scene. "Nothing actually happens; you could just choose to interpret it that way, which we-"

"We are cutting this scene," Joanne declared. Mimi nodded ferociously.

"Aw, come on!" Maureen said. "Elphaba and Fiyero's relationship is crucial to the plot!"

"Is that why you chose this show?" Mimi said, resembling a mad cat. "So you could sing some sappy duet with Rog?"

"No!" Maureen said. "It's not like that! NESSA," Maureen pointed to Mimi, stressing the character's name. "Is in love with BOQ," Maureen pointed to Mark. "Who is in love with GALINDA," Joanne and Mark looked away. "who is in love with FIYERO," Roger coughed, noticing that the look Mimi was giving him was the same one he did whenever he met her at the CatScratch. "Who loves ELPHABA!" Maureen finished. "If we're going to go about this like mature actors, we'll just have to forget who we are and concentrate on who we're playing!"

"Y'know," Collins muttered to Angel. "I'm beginning to feel glad we didn't get cast as main canon."

"Me, too," Angel said, giggling. "Though I do think Morrible and the Wizard make a nice little side-couple, don't you?" Collins laughed.

"You know I do," he said.

Maureen pouted angrily, having not heard Collins and Angel, and instead glaring at the unhappy leads. Those who had complained shifted uncomfortably.

"Now could we get on reading?" she said. "Next line!" Joanne looked down at her script, not used to Maureen taking charge.

"Oh, that's so kind, Bick," she recited.

"Boq," Mark said on cue.

"Thank you!" Maureen threw her arms up in the air, and the show continued.