Brady made it back to Hannah's dressing room to find that the two other girls whom shared the space had arrived. Brady shook Mia and James's hands and introduced herself. James explained how Mia and herself knew almost everything about Brady (in the creepiest of ways, Mia added) because of how much Hannah gushed over her. The four of them continued to sit around and talk as if they had known each other since birth. It was only when there was a knock on the door that they all took a break. The door opened and a tall woman with her wig already on poked her head through. "What's going on in here?" asked the floating head in a fake stern voice.
"Rénee, come meet my friend Brady!" Hannah said excitedly. Brady rose from her spot on the floor and shook hands with the super-happy stranger (Brady felt like she'd be shaking a lot of hands tonight). It seemed to Brady that everyone who worked for this show had an uncontainable happiness about them, and it made her want to be surrounded by them for the rest of her life.
"I feel like I know you're life story from how much Hannah has told me!" While speaking, Rénee managed to flawlessly turn the hand-shake into a hug, making Brady chuckle. "Join the club," Mia quipped, moving over to give Rénee a place to sit on the couch. Rénee released Brady and plopped down between Mia and Hannah.
"So," began Brady, letting her curiosity get the best of her, "which role do you play?" Brady knew Hannah, Mia, and James were Ensemble members, but she had no clue what Rénee's role was. After all, she'd only ever heard the musical. She knew the voices, but was having trouble matching them to the person they belonged to. Besides Lin, who Brady had known played the lead.
"I play the sassiest role of all, to match my personality. Angelica Schuyler." As Rénee said this, she threw her hand in the air and did a sassy snap. They all giggled at this. Brady was about to express her complete adoration for the character when she caught herself. The last thing she wanted to do was look like a crazy fan in front of a famous person. She'd rather look like a crazy fan in private.
"Oh nice, I love the song 'Satisfied'. I'm pretty sure I can sing it the whole way through." Nice job Brady, she thought to herself. Now you only look like a semi-psychotic fan.
"I'll have to hold you to that! Next time we hang I'm going to need to hear it for myself. But in the meantime, I have to finish getting ready, as you three should be doing." Rénee squinted her eyes at the three other cast members before departing.
…
Thirty minutes later, Hannah, James, and Mia were in their costumes with their hair done, and the makeup artist was finishing up on James. Brady was sitting on the couch with Hannah, attempting to take a good picture of her wearing her costume, but to no avail, since Hannah wouldn't stop making ugly faces. "If you don't smile for me like a normal person I won't hesitate to post one of these ugly photos of you." Hannah let out a screech and dived for Brady's phone. They both were laughing uncontrollably, wrestling for the phone, when there was yet another knock on the door.
"Come in," said Hannah, and the door opened to reveal a tall, built man dressed in colonial-period style. He also had a headband wrapped around his forehead, which Brady thought he pulled off pretty well.
"Just wanted to let you guys know that we're circling up in five minutes." He then noticed Brady. "Hey there, I'm Oak. You must be Brady. Lin told me. You three!" Oak directed his attention back to the other girls in the room, "Y'all should bring Brady to the circle."
"Don't worry, we have it under control," James said, but by then Oak had already left, leaving the door ajar. Brady looked into the hall where Oak had just been and saw groups of cast members passing by, all decked out in their Revolutionary outfits. But not even a spectacle like that could take Brady's mind off the fact that Lin had told Oak about her. What did he say about me?
…
Not much later, the four of them made their way to 'the circle room' as Mia called it. It wasn't really a circular room, just the room that the whole cast circled up in as a pre-show ritual.
When they entered the spacious area, Brady felt one-hundred percent self conscious. Almost everyone in the room had a costume on, minus herself. Never before had Brady wanted to wear a colonial dress, but right now it was her only wish.
Hannah, Mia, and James started to make their way towards the middle of the circle, talking to other cast members along the way. Brady, however, felt overwhelmed. She didn't know the majority of these people, there were a lot of them, and she didn't think she was very good at socializing anyhow. So Brady let her anxieties take control and clung to the outside of the circle, close enough so that she looked apart of it but also far enough that she wasn't swallowed whole by it. The room filled with voices, all talking over one another, while Brady twiddled her thumbs, content with observing.
"You aren't going to start singing are you?" said a voice near Brady's ear. Brady nearly jumped out of her skin even though the last thing a normal person would be scared of in a room full of noise is another noise. She turned away from the circle to be met with none other than Lin's face less than a foot away from her own. His mischievous grin made it almost impossible for Brady not to grin as well.
"I was actually about to go ahead and finish my song from earlier, until you interrupted just now." Brady couldn't believe she could joke about the embarrassing incident so soon after it happened, but it felt natural with Lin. That's probably how famous people make everyone feel, Brady thought.
"Ah man, I should've just hung back in the shadows like last time," Lin said with a laugh in his voice. As another cast member walked by to join the circle, Lin tapped him on the shoulder and said something in his ear. The cast member nodded in acknowledgement and continued towards the circle.
"Ahh yes. Top secret theater business," Brady remarked with a smirk. "If there's one thing I know about the performing arts, it's that everything happens behind closed curtains." That's it Brady, she thought. Befriend him with your sarcasm. That'll charm him for sure.
"That's why our show is such a hit. We perform the show in costumes and everything, but never open the curtains. All the audience hears are muffled voices. They love it." Lin matched Brady's sarcasm without missing a beat, something she really appreciated. The two of them laughed at their created scenario. "I was just telling Chris to go ahead and lead the circle for today," Lin explained.
"Oh, gotcha. Who normally does it?"
"Me," said Lin, looking away from Brady towards the circle.
"Why not today?" Brady asked. Please don't say because I looked awkward standing here alone.
"Because you're our guest, and you need someone around to keep you from bursting into song." Lin took his eyes off the circle to meet Brady's, to which she glanced at the floor and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.
"That's true, I am feeling a song coming on… Loathing, unadulterated loathing," Brady hummed quietly so that he could hear, her smile growing along with his. Before she could make it to the second verse of her Wicked reprise, Lin's hand rose and gently covered her mouth. Their eyes met, and Lin let a laugh out that he had been trying to keep in. Brady too let out a muffled laugh from beneath his palm. When he dropped his hand from her mouth she could still feel it there, still feel the warmth, despite the fact that it had only been there for probably a millisecond. Brady was about to say something when the man named Chris stood on a chair and cleared his throat. The noise in the room dropped to a low murmur.
"Before we begin, I have a couple of announcements to make. First off, don't forget that we're all meeting at The Garden rooftop bar tonight, the one near Central Park. Yes, this is directed at you, Leslie." Everyone chuckled. Lin leaned over and whispered to Brady, "Leslie is the forgetful one." It took all of Brady's willpower to listen to his words because her mind was preoccupied, honed in on the fact that when Lin leaned over their arms gently touched. Stop it Brady, she chastised herself. Stop it now.
"Secondly," Chris continued in his deep yet clear voice, "we have a special guest tonight. Hannah's friend Brady has joined us. Give us a wave Brady!" Brady did not appreciate being called out like this, but knew they were just being nice. Plus, waving was better than speaking. So Brady began to raise her hand to wave when arms wrapped around her knees and she was hoisted in the air on someone's shoulder. She went to see who was holding her, thinking Hannah had performed a sneak attack, but was surprised to find Lin there. "I didn't think she was going to raise her hand, so I decided to raise her instead." Everyone laughed at this, and with all eyes on her Brady did a small wave. She met Hannah's eyes in the crowd. Hannah raised her eyebrow in a way that said 'What's going on between you two' and Brady did a small shrug in response to say 'I have no idea what you're talking about'. Being friends for this long had the benefit of being able to hold an entire conversation without speaking.
Lin lowered Brady back onto the ground, releasing his grip from her legs, and Chris began speaking to the group again about that night's upcoming show.
"Apologies if I startled you," Lin said to Brady, one hand in his pocket and the other smoothing his hair back. When he leaned over to talk, their arms barely touched again. "The play on words there was too perfect to pass up."
"You didn't. I was raised by ninjas in a mountain-temple, so nothing startles me. You might even say I had an uplifting experience just then." Brady cocked her head and raised an eyebrow as if to say 'You're not the only one who can play on words.' Of course, Brady was well aware that she was talking to the master of words.
Lin chuckled at this. "Oh really?" he jokingly scoffed, crossing his arms which in-turn caused his biceps to appear even larger. Brady refused to look at them.
"I was actually really tempted to start singing Defying Gravity up there," Brady added, "but then I was afraid you would drop me if I started singing again." Lin smiled, and moved his eyes off of hers to look at Chris, who was still speaking. "I would never drop you," he said in a more serious tone, still not willing to look her in the eye. She thought she saw a faint blush rise in his cheeks, but decided she was either seeing things or it was a side-effect from how hot the room was. Either way Brady didn't know what to take away from his comment. He's just being a gentleman, Brady told herself. It was a polite response. But she couldn't keep her heart from doing backflips.
…
After the circle was dismissed, Brady left Lin to go find Hannah. When she did, Hannah lowered her voice, "Remind me to talk to you about your heightening experience after the show." Hannah nudged Brady and wiggled her eyebrows at her, which Brady dutifully ignored.
"There's nothing to discuss," Brady said with a straight face. "Where are we off to now?" Brady asked, hoping to change the subject.
"Well, most of us are in the opening number, so we'll have to get in position. But I have a spot in mind near stage right where you can see most of the stage and not be in anyone's way." Hannah directed Brady towards a spot against the wall, near a wooden chair in the corner. "Ok. You can move anywhere along this wall. Just don't talk to the people with microphones on. And don't sit in that chair," Hannah said as Brady was about to sit in it. "That's a prop. I might not see you until the end of the show, so just stay put. Unless you need water or something, there's a fridge in my dressing room. You remember how to get there, right?"
"Yes," Brady lied.
"Good. Oh and one more thing. Don't sing along. I know it'll be hard for you."
"Don't worry, I've done enough singing for today." Hannah, not knowing what Brady was talking about gave her a quizzical look.
"Well, I should go get in position over on stage left, so see ya later alligator."
"After-while crocodile," Brady replied with a salute.
Brady stood against the wall, happily observing the stage-crew in black running around. She could hear the audience from behind the curtain, but all she could see was the stage. Soon Brady saw Hannah appear on the opposite side of the stage. Hidden by the curtain, both sides of the backstage areas were filling up with cast and crew. Brady watched Rénee climb a staircase near Brady that the audience couldn't see, but was used by the cast to get to the upper deck. As Rénee became cloaked by the shadows up in the loft, Brady turned to see Lin entering from a nearby doorway. He walked over to Brady and leaned his right foot against the wall next to her. Brady tried to act casual, hiding the geeky smile that wanted to escape. "Shouldn't you be getting in position?" Brady asked, thinking that of all people, the star of the show should be ready to walk onstage.
"This is my position. I mean, not right here, but a little further up, behind the curtain there." Lin nodded towards a spot just a few feet in front of her. "I don't go onstage until a couple verses into the number, so I have time." Brady glanced at Lin, who was looking straight ahead. She couldn't help but notice how the off-white of his costume made him glow. She liked how formal he looked.
"You see, these are things I would never find out from just listening to the album."
The next moment, the first seven beats of the opening number began. Brady jumped slightly, but Lin, who was accustomed to it, didn't flinch. Across the stage, Brady saw Leslie step out from behind the curtain. 'How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore…'
"I'm glad you're here to see it for yourself," Lin whispered. He put his hand on her shoulder as he leaned off the wall and stood up. He gave one last smile to Brady before getting in position, and not long after walking on stage.
…
As time passed, Brady sunk to the floor and sat against the wall. She didn't have a clear view of the whole stage, but the perfect voices of the cast and the parts of the stage she could see drew her into the story. Time seemed to stop, especially during Leslie's solo, 'Wait For It'. She had almost forgotten that she was sitting on the dusty floor backstage when intermission was announced. Brady continued to stare at the now personless stage, soaking up what she'd just experienced. She wasn't aware of how long she had been sitting there when Lin appeared by her side again.
Brady took in a shaky breath as Lin laid some sort of blanket on the ground by her side. His eyes seemed to be smiling at her when he sat down on the cloth, resting his arms on his knees. "The world would end as we know it if I got my costume dirty. Actually my world would end because the costume designer would kill me. Oh, and I brought this for you." Lin handed Brady another blanket he had by his side.
"Thank you," she said as she laid it underneath herself. Looking at Lin, she could see that he had changed into a different costume from before, and his hair was no longer in a ponytail. It was let down and slicked back. "Shouldn't you be off doing important things," Brady remarked, acutely aware of how close he was.
"I am," he replied. Before Brady could process this, he continued: "I don't know if anyone's told you yet, but as our guest, you have to come with us to The Garden tonight. The rooftop bar near Central Park. No exceptions."
Brady hadn't been planning on going, mainly because that meant more socializing, and she thought it was a cast-only thing, but if he insisted…
"Ah, yes. I thought I read that in the Richard-Rogers Theater handbook somewhere."
Brady and Lin continued sitting there for a good ten minutes. They talked about the show so far and Lin told her more about the cast members, throwing in some funny stories about them here and there. Brady thought she could listen to him talk until morning, probably even past then. But as the intermission dwindled to a close, he excused himself to finish getting ready. Brady watched him go for the second time that night. She wondered why he kept talking to her.
When Hannah had to leave the show to come watch over her in North Carolina, Brady was certain that Hannah had to tell people why she was leaving. She couldn't just leave without an explanation. So Lin most likely knew Brady was the reason for Hannah's leave of absence, and probably also knew it was due to Brady's father's passing. Is that why he's being so nice? Brady convinced herself that was the reason. Despite the fact that Brady wanted Lin to be friends with her because he liked her as a person, she knew this could never be the case. She was too plain, she thought, too ordinary. And he was famous for goodness' sake.
And with that, as she watched Alexander take the stage next to Jefferson, she forced herself to forget about Lin, in a way, and focus on supporting Hannah.