Literally nobody else at my school was in the situation I was in. Ever since I was six years old when Jack was born, I was forced to share a room with him. At first, when he was still a baby, I hated it. He cried all the time, which would wake me up every night. The only upside to it was that he didn't take up much room. But when he was four or five, and I was eleven, I learned what actual hell was. Jack had gotten to the point where he could walk and talk. And talk her did. He asked so many questions, I was ready to kill him. And to make it worst, around that same time, Mom and Dad had determined that I wouldn't get the majority of the room anymore. Before then, he'd gotten about a quarter of it; all he really had was a crib and a few other things. But he was growing up like all kids and would need more space. Since then, it's been half and half. Though, I did convince Mom to let me have the closet we used to share too. I did that when I was twelve so I could keep some of my stuff behind locked doors, away from Jack.

The first day of school was always the worse. The only upside that year was the fact that it would be my last year of high school. I had to wake up a little before seven. School started at eight on the dot for Jack and at eight-twelve for me. And of course, I was stuck walking Jack to school. It actually wasn't that bad, my high school was five blocks away from Beecher. But I had a feeling that Jack wouldn't be too keen on me walking with him on his first day of middle school. There was a reason why I didn't tell him that I'd be taking him yet.

I glanced across the room to Jack's bed. He was sleeping so peacefully. It was kind of cute; he slept with his mouth open. Well, it was time for me to ruin it for him.

I took my pillow and tiptoed over to his side of the room. Not using all my strength, I brought the pillow down onto his chest. He bolted upwards and looked really surprised. Then he saw me.

"Wake up and smell the sunshine!" I hugged the pillow tightly to my chest so he couldn't try to steal it from me.

"Jada!"

"What? I had to wake you somehow." He must have been thinking quickly because he turned around and grabbed his pillow. He started hitting me with it in retaliation.

I tossed my pillow to the side and then sort of jumped on him. We wrestled for a few seconds before I had him pinned underneath me. Jack kept on squealing under me and shortly, I heard footsteps. Our bedroom door opened and there was Mom.

"I see you two are up. Excited?" We looked at her but then went back to what we were doing before. Mom laughed and shook her head, "Alright, Jada, get off your brother before you squash him." I sighed before complying. "Get a move on. Remember Jack; school starts at eight for you now. Not eight thirty." For the lower grades, school started later to keep the halls less crowded.

"Believe me, I remember," He mumbled.

I then went to my dresser to find clothes for the day. I wasn't too concerned about what I chose: pretty much anything I owned would go together. I turned around and had to hold in a laugh.

"Wow, Jack, those are some hot pajamas."

"Shut up, I couldn't find my other pajamas, okay." Both of us knew exactly how much he hated the Star Wars pajamas that Aunt Christine got for his birthday. The worst part about them was that they were covered in Porgs. I was still almost sure that they were found in the girl's section. But Jack was pretty fetusy and easily fit into them.

"Still funny."

I went into my closet to change. There was no light in the closet so once I closed the door; it was a gamble to see if I would put on my clothes backwards or something. No matter how much I got used to changing in the dark, at least once a week, my shirt would be on backwards. When I opened the door I immediately noticed that my show shirt from when I had done Pippin was on backwards. I knew because when I looked down, I saw a cast list and not a logo. The front was printed with the 2013 Broadway Revival logo and the back had the entire cast list. The print was pretty small for the cast list, there were a lot of kids doing it that year. With it being my first year of high school and there being so many kids, I of course was in the ensemble. Though, I was the stand-by for Fastrada. But then the next year they changed it, so the musical would be a by-audition class you could take. Instead of an after school program that any old schmo could join. I didn't like to brag, but I had been able to get into the class every time.

I considered returning to the closet to switch my shirt around but realized I really didn't care. I had deck changed once at the front of the school in middle school and Jack was my brother. It didn't matter to much. I was halfway done when Jack turned around.

"What the heck? I thought you went into our closet to do that."

I finished flipping my shirt around and putting my arms through the armholes. I walked over to him and flicked his arm, "Relax. And correction, it's my closet. Not your closet, okay?"

"Whatever."

Halfway through breakfast, Mom appeared from her bedroom. She was just about ready to leave to do whatever she was doing that day. Dad had already left, he taught an A period at my high school. I didn't take an A period for two reasons. First, I wasn't ready to start school at 7:17 every morning. Second, I didn't need to. That year I was taking, English, History, Math, Science, and the theater class counted as P.E. and Music. I quit taking French as soon as I could.

"Remember Jada, today you're walking with Jack to his school. And Mrs. Albans is giving you a ride home after school."

"What?" Jack looked at both of, betrayed, "I hate Julian! And I can walk myself. It's barely over a mile."

"Hmm, letting my less than average sized fifth grade son walk around in New York alone, I think I'll pass."

"But you let Jada go by herself." He had a very annoying complaining voice.

"That's because she's almost six feet tall, has taken self defense, and always has bear spray and a stun gun with her." Mom explained, "Either you walk to school with Jada or I call Melissa and take her up on her offer to bring you to school too. You're going to get a ride home from her whether you like it or not."

Jack groaned, "Fine, she can walk with me. But I don't have to get a ride from them if I go over to someone else's house?"

"No you don't, but tell Julian so they're not waiting for you." Mom came up behind us and gave us each hugs before heading for the door, "See you later today. Good luck on your first day."

I checked the clock on the wall. 7:35. We needed to go if Jack wanted to be on time. Grabbed both of our dishes and put them in the sink. Jack had gone into some sort of daze. I snapped my fingers in front of his face.

"Hey, we got to go."

We were out of the house by 7:45. I had my backpack ready from the night before but Jack wasn't as prepared. He ran around for a little while, trying to find his pencil case and shoes. Knowing that he'd need some time to get to his homeroom, we ran almost all the way. But we slowed down when we started getting close to the school. There were plenty of parents there to drop off their kids.

Right before Jack dashed, I reminded him, "Remember, you're a getting a ride with Julian. And try to be nice to August. Okay."

"Okay sure, whatever," Jack took off towards the school.

As soon as he was out of sight I broke into a run. My high school was three blocks away and I still needed to get my schedule. All I knew about my schedule was that my fifth and sixth period was theater. I got my schedule at 8:05 and had to run across the school to find my Math class. By the time first period started, I was breathing hard.

First and second period were quite uneventful for me. Math and Science were my absolute least favorite subjects. I wasn't bad at them, I just didn't like the class. Third and fourth were more enjoyable though. English was always fun because reading and writing was something I enjoyed. And all of the History teachers were just really entertaining.

By some miracle of god, in every one of my classes I had at least one of my best friends. Leo was in my math and history class. Jonah was in my science, English, and history class. All three of us had auditioned into the theater class as well. For the end of elementary school and entirety of middle school, the other students thought it was strange that I hung out with the boys and not other girls. And in high school people were surprised to figure out that I wasn't dating either of them. We were just friends, and that was fine.

In history, we were allowed to choose our own seats. Jonah sat next to me and Leo sat behind us. Unlike most high school classes, our teacher, Ms. Abel, had us play two truths in a lie.

"You know, I never knew that you didn't have a cousin named Claire." Leo said to Jonah on our way to lunch.

"Really? I did," I added.

"Yeah, I made up Claire for a project. We were supposed to write about our family in seventh grade , remember that? But I made up a cousin so I could make her the most stereotypical white girl ever. No one ever found out, except for the people I told of course."

"So, Jade, I've been wondering, " Leo changed the subject, "Is your brother still hanging out with that trust fund brat?"

"Julian?"

"Yeah him."

"Not really anymore," I explained, "He hates Julian now. And why do you hate him so much, you've had what? One conversation with him."

"I have my reasons," Not surprisingly, he changed the subject once more. "Anyway, what do you think this year's show will be?"

Every year, the show was announced on the first day and by the end of the first week there were auditions. We got our roles on the next Monday and did our read through. Then we spent the rest of the year in rehearsals. And starting mid-April to the end of school we did eight shows a week just like Broadway performers.

"I don't know, but it'd be cool if we did Heathers," I wasn't a huge fan of the show but I had wanted to do it since I listened to the sound track a year ago. "Leo, you could be Ram or Kurt. And I could totally see you, Jonah, as J.D."

"You've got to be kidding me, " Jonah said, "I have never been cast in a role that has a solo or more than three lines. I'm doomed to be in the ensemble."

"No you're not," I assured, "You have one of the best voices in the school. I have a feeling this is your year."

"I hate to break up this love situation," I could tell Leo felt like he was third wheeling, "But I heard that there are only twenty kids in the class this year. They only let the amount of characters they'll have in the show they'll doing in. It can't be a big show like Heathers. That also means that Legally Blonde and Les Mis is out."

"Well, we'll find out soon enough."

As soon as lunch ended, the three of us started for the auditorium. We were the first to show up. I recognized most of the kids coming in from previous shows but there were one or two new faces. The last person to come in was our director. Everyone took a seat in one of the chairs that had been put in a circle on the stage.

"Welcome everyone to my theater class. I'm Henry. I have a last name but I hate it. And I know what you're all wondering." He paused for dramatic effect. "You're wondering what show we'll be doing. But, because I am a horrible person I'm not going to tell you what it is until after we get to know each other. So, starting with Mauve, we're going to introduce ourselves. Please state your name, grade, the last show you were in and what you were , your favorite role, favorite show, least favorite show, and dream role or roles. I know you all have more than one. Mauve."

Jonah leaned over and whispered, "There are only fourteen kids here."

"Well okay, I'm Mauve. I'm in tenth grade. The last show I was in was Bring It On and I was Eva. My favorite role was when I was Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka when I was seven. Favorite show is The Fantasticks. Least favorite is Hamilton. And my dream role is Christine in Phantom."

"So, why don't you like Hamilton?" Someone asked.

"It's not that I don't like it or don't think it's good or think it's over popular. It just doesn't appeal to me. I don't like rap even when you put it in theater. And it's not as an original idea as people say it is. There are plenty of other musicals about the revolution and plenty more that have rap."

"Interesting."

"Hi, I'm Leo. I'm in twelfth grade. My last show was Finding Neverland and I was an understudy for Barrie. I went on once. And my favorite role ever was Leroy Herdman in the Best Christmas Pageant Ever because I got to pretend to punch a kid. My favorite show is tick, tick, BOOM!. Least favorite is Bridges of Madison County. And I don't really have a dream role."

"Uh, I'm Jonah. I'm in twelfth grade. Last show was also Finding Neverland but I was Elliot. Favorite role was whatever I was in Bugsy Malone. I love Pippin but I despise Spongebob. Dream role is probably something from Hairspray."

"Okay, so I'm Jada. Like those two, I'm in twelfth grade and my last show was Finding Neverland. But I was Mary Barrie. Favorite role was Marcy in the 25th Annual Spelling Bee. I don't have a favorite. But I don't like Elf. And dream role is Gretchen from Jasper in Deadland."

It took the rest of the fifth period for us to introduce ourselves. The bell rang for sixth period but we didn't go anywhere. As the last person was introducing themselves, Henry was passing around small packets. The front page was blank and I knew we weren't allowed to turn the first page until he told us so.

"Now that we all know each other a little better, I think it's time to unveil what show we'll be putting on. Anyone have any guesses what it'll be?" A few hands were put up, "Christmas?"

"Tuck?"

"Everlasting? I did think of that one but I thought the one I chose would give more people bigger roles."

All of the other guesses were wrong.

"Everyone, on the count of three, turn the page. One, two, three." I turned the page and saw the show. "Carrie."

"Isn't that a horror movie?" A kid named Niall asked.

"Yes, but it's also a wonderful musical, in my opinion."

We spent the rest of sixth period learning the story and the characters. By the end of class I had an idea of who I wanted to play in the show.

I got home from school and grabbed the family computer before Jack could. I did more research on Carrie and fell in love with it.

"Jada! Where's the computer? I can't find it!" Jack was home.

"I have it!" I answered.

Our bedroom door swung open and in walked Jack.

"Could I use the computer?"

"Not right now, I have work to do."

"No you don't, it's the first day of school!"

"I'm in high school so yeah, I do!" It had quickly turned into a screaming match between us. "Get lost!"

"You get lost!"

"Quit being such a brat!"

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Great," I brought the computer with me and went into my closet. I locked the door behind me. "Bye!"

"I hate you!" I head him clam the door and stomp away.

"Love you too!"

Sorry I kind of went on a musical rant. But I really do love Carrie. Hope you're liking this so far. The next chapter will probably be from Jack's point of view. If not next chapter, the chapter after that.