AN: Well, I think I can safely say that this story is my new obsession. I've been working on it almost non-stop for several days now. I'm having soooo much fun! So, I'd like to thank Prongsthemarauder15 and Pigwidgeon for reviewing! And Pigwidgeon; your logic with the ages is pretty much the same as mine. My betas agree. The closer we can get them to our ages, the happier we are. XD This chapter will feature the appearance of the infamous Ben, as well as rehearsal! The Starkids might make a surprise appearance at the end, with Brolden and Walker getting some others in on their evil plan… You'll have to read to find out!
Disclaimer: Yeah, just look at chapter 1. I'm way too lazy to write out the entire thing for every chapter.
Chapter 3: Rehearsal and Recruitment
The next month and a half flew by for the Marauders. Some relatively important things happened, such as prom, senior night out, and graduation, but those are completely irrelevant to the story. Besides, the three girls were much more excited about their upcoming performance than any school dance. They rehearsed three afternoons a week until after graduation. Then the schedule changed; 10 to 3 on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and from 8 to 1 on Saturday. The Saturday rehearsals were the most fun, they agreed, simply because they were half asleep for the first half of rehearsal.
Many ideas were suggested and shot down during this time. They were going to wear signs to indicate which characters they were singing for, just as they'd joked about the first day they'd gotten permission to sing. That idea was crushed by Olivia, who pointed out that it would be nearly impossible because they'd have to change signs after every song, but each of them only came offstage between one and three times during the whole thing. Kat had suggested some sort of digital display screen that could be altered from backstage while they remained out there singing, but they quickly realized that would cost way too much money. They tried designing a backdrop of sorts, but soon came to the conclusion that it would be impossible because trying to combine the backdrops for AVPM, AVPS, Starship, and Holy Musical Batman just created a really weird looking collage. It was Mackenzie who came up with the idea of putting a backdrop of planets and flickering lights to be stars. Admittedly, it was a lot like the SPACE Tour setup, but they came up with the idea on their own – they hadn't gone to the SPACE Tour. However, it was the only thing they could think of, so that's what they went with.
Today was the beginning of their hell week – in other words, it was Saturday and their show was in six days. Panic was beginning to set in, mostly because they'd never performed in front of any sort of crowd before. Kat was dealing the best, as she didn't care what people thought of her or how people saw her. She was also the best at getting into a rhythm of sorts while singing and forgetting about the people she was singing too. It helped that she'd done several drama productions, including one musical.
Olivia was the worst by far. They still had six days to prepare and she practically threw up every time someone mentioned the show anywhere other than rehearsal. She appeared fine in public, but once she was behind closed doors anyone who didn't know what was going on would have thought that she was mentally unstable. She hadn't hyperventilated yet, but had come close on several occasions. She was pretty much working herself into the ground perfecting each song, both the music and the dances. She kept making tiny tweaks to the timing of each song, so small that neither Kat nor Mackenzie could notice them. But they realized that she needed something to keep her busy, so they left her alone. She had all the songs arranged except two; Ranger Danger and her solo, Status Quo. She was far more concerned with Ranger Danger, seeing as she could pretty much fake her way through the solo if she really needed to. It would be significantly more difficult for herself and Mackenzie to fake a duet, especially the part at the end where they sang their individual verses at the same time. It was confusing enough when they were singing the actual lyrics in Granger Danger, but it was now fifty times as confusing because they had to change the lyrics. She was almost always the first one at the Saturday rehearsals, and usually the last one to leave.
So, true to form, Olivia got to the school gym, which was where they rehearsed on Saturdays, at 7:45 in the morning. She was partially asleep and almost dropped her keyboard about five times walking into the gym and actually did drop her guitar case. Then half her sheet music nearly blew across the parking lot, but she managed to save it, which she thanked dead wizard God for. When she finally made it into the gym, she almost collapsed in relief and exhaustion. She'd been up late the night before trying to figure out lyrics for Ranger Danger. She slumped down on the floor, resting her head on the concrete wall behind her. It wasn't comfortable at all, but she really didn't care. Even when she heard the door open again her eyes remained shut. Until she smelled food. Then her eyes popped open and she saw a grinning Ben jumping away as she impulsively snatched at the air where she was sure he'd been dangling food a moment before.
"Good morning sunshine," he said cheekily. She made a noise somewhere between a growl, a snarl, and a groan.
"You sound like a dying animal," he informed her bluntly, brown eyes sparkling as he stood before her. "Come on, get up off the floor."
"I gotta get up, gotta get back, get back up," she grumbled under her breath. He looked puzzled, but she didn't particularly care. She grabbed the hand he offered her and pulled herself up. She immediately felt tiny; not that she was short at 5 foot 6, but he was huge at 6 foot 1. She took a step away from him, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear. She'd neglected to pull her curly hair back that morning, and it was starting to get on her nerves. He reached out and tugged a lock of her hair, a grin forming on his face.
"You don't usually have your hair down," he commented. She knocked his hand away.
"That's right, and it's because I don't want you playing with it!" He laughed at that, and Olivia realized just how close they were standing when she felt his breath skim her forehead. She took a couple of steps back on an impulse. He looked at her, seemingly confused. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the door opening with a bang behind him.
"DO YOU REMEMBER THAT TIME!" Kat's shout-singing echoed through the gym and Olivia rolled her eyes.
"I know you're madly in love with Joe Walker, Kat, but that doesn't give you the right to shout his songs at the top of your lungs at 8 in the morning. On Saturday. When some people still aren't quite awake."
"Of course it does," she scoffed. "WHEN YOU WOULDN'T – hey is that coffee?" Olivia pressed her face into her hands.
"Kat, you have the attention span of a SQUIRREL!"
"Well, I didn't want anyone dangerous, soooo, I went with the squirrel!" Mackenzie's obnoxiously cheerful voice echoed through the gym as she slipped in through the door that hadn't quite closed after Kat. Olivia groaned as both Ben and Kat laughed.
"Why is everyone awake except me?" she asked in a pitiful voice. Kenzie slung a long arm around her shoulders, once again making Olivia feel tiny. Mackenzie was taller than her too, standing at 5 foot 10. Kat was tall as well, at 5 foot 10 as well, making Olivia the shortest person there.
"Well you see my dear Moony," Mackenzie began. "It's this thing with tall people. We're all very awake in the morning, unlike you short people, who don't wake up properly until about 10 AM." Olivia shoved her friend away as Ben and Kat cracked up.
"I am surrounded by laughing idiots," she muttered, which made them all laugh harder. She went over to where she'd unceremoniously dumped her sheet music in a small mountain of paper. She knelt down beside the papers and reached over to start organizing.
"No, wait, don't start yet!" Ben's voice cut through the laughter that had been echoing behind her. She turned to face him, standing in the same motion.
"What?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Well, the first thing is that I did bring you coffee, if you want it." Kenzie and Kat immediately dove for the coffee, while Olivia stayed where she was. She wasn't falling for it, not to mention that she didn't like coffee.
"And I brought Munchkins," he said in a pleading voice. She sighed and went over and ate a Munchkin. One Munchkin, no more. Ben rolled his eyes, but didn't question it.
"The second thing… well, I was wondering if I could film your rehearsal today." All three girls looked at him in surprise. "Well, your announcement video was so popular, I figured that you might as well give all the people who are excited about this performance an update as to how it's going."
"Our other video is popular?" Kat asked blankly. Ben nodded.
"Yeah, it's got several thousand views," he told them. The girls looked at each other, shocked. "And there's a ton of comments on there saying how people are really excited for the show and thanking you for doing it."
"Wow," Olivia said in amazement. "I didn't realize people were that excited. If I'd known that, I would've posted a thank-you video a long time ago."
"Well, I think a backstage video would be a fantastic thank-you present of sorts!" Mackenzie exclaimed. "I'm okay with you filming Ben."
"I'm cool with it too," Kat said from where she was dumping sugar in her coffee. Olivia rolled her eyes as Ben looked at her hopefully.
"There was no need to bring food for me to agree to this plan," she told him. A wide grin split his face.
"Fantastic! I just have to get my camera from my car," Ben said brightly. He practically skipped out the door. Olivia watched with a raised eyebrow, before turning back to her friends, shaking her heard slightly as she did so. When she looked up at her friends, both of them were wearing identical expressions of amusement mixed with something that looked like smugness.
"What?" she asked, puzzled.
"If that wasn't you flirting with him, then I have no idea what you were doing," Kat said bluntly. Olivia rolled her eyes.
"That was not flirting. I don't flirt. You know that Kat," Olivia said, rolling her eyes.
"Well, that sure looked like flirting to me," Kat said, and Kenzie nodded her agreement.
"You guys are being stupid," Olivia said as she ate another Munchkin. Just then, Ben reappeared, which successfully ended the conversation. They ate some more Munchkins and Kat and Mackenzie drank coffee, so it was 8:30 before they got started.
"So I'm just gonna walk around with the camera," Ben explained. "Just pretend I'm not there." The girls nodded and he started up the camera. They could hear him explaining where he was, but they ignored him, just as he'd told them to. Olivia was desperate to work on Ranger Danger, so Mackenzie and Kitty agreed to work on their duet in the beginning of Hideous Creatures while she did so. Olivia practically flew over to her sheet music, guitar, and piano while the other two went over to the rectangle taped on the floor that represented the area the stage covered. If they stepped off the rectangle, they were essentially falling off the stage, unless they stepped where they'd marked there were stairs. Olivia heard the music start and successfully ignored it as she heard Mackenzie's voice ring out. She knew Ben wasn't filming her now so she spread her music out all around her, cradling the guitar in her lap. She strummed the chords and sang the lines softly to herself. She was good until she came to the first spot where there needed to be changes; where Ron is supposed to sing "Strange how a dress can take a mess and make her nothing less than beautiful to me!" She had no idea what to put there. She had considered 'Strangely dressed, and he's a mess and yet he's nothing less than beautiful to me!' but that didn't quite sound right. She found her thoughts drifting to Ron himself, a.k.a. Joey Richter. For whatever reason, she thought about the videos she'd seen of the SPACE Tour and how he was constantly wearing that vest. A tiny grin pulled at the edges of her mouth as she thought about she and her two crazy friends had flipped out about how cute he was in that vest; and then she knew the perfect lines. She grabbed her pencil and viciously erased the lines that were already written there. She was so absorbed in scrawling down the words that she didn't notice Ben approaching until he spoke.
"Hey there Moony!" Ben's cheerful voice startled her out of her musical trance. She jumped about a foot in the air, almost threw her guitar across the room, and scattered her music everywhere. Oh, and threw the pencil at the camera. Ben leapt out of the way as the pencil flew by, giving her an alarmed and slightly offended look.
"What was that for?" he exclaimed.
"You scared me," Olivia said innocently as she put her guitar down and started gathering her sheet music. "I was in the middle of writing some lyrics."
"Why were you writing lyrics? Didn't the Starkids already write the songs?"
"Well, yes, but for this particular song I needed to change a few things." She alternated collecting sheet music and looking into the camera as she spoke. "The original is called Granger Danger, and it's Ron and Draco singing a duet about Hermione Granger. Obviously, none of the three of us are guys, so I've been changing some lyrics around so it can now be two girls singing about a guy." Ben nodded behind the camera, probably to tell her she did a good job with the explanation. She hoped.
"Do the new lyrics allow the song to have a new name?" She laughed.
"Well, not officially, but the three of us have been calling it Ranger Danger because I changed the chorus to 'I'm falling in love, falling in love, falling in love with a Starship Ranger.' But I don't think that gives it the right to be a new song." Ben nodded thoughtfully.
"Can I hear it?"
"Not with that camera running."
"Why not?" Ben almost whined. She raised an eyebrow at his tone.
"Because the new lyrics are meant to be a surprise. And whining is for children Ben. You should know better," she teased. He stuck his tongue out at her, which made her laugh.
"Now they're gonna be confused because you're laughing for no apparent reason." The smile fell off her face scarily fast and she looked directly into the camera.
"It's his fault. He stuck his tongue out at me. I am not crazy." And then she calmly turned back to her music, leaving a very puzzled Ben.
The rest of the rehearsal passed in much this way. In fact, they all had so much fun that the girls asked Ben to come to all of their remaining rehearsals, if he was willing. They had Monday and Wednesday, which were normal rehearsals in someone's backyard, and Thursday was their dress rehearsal on the actual stage. Then on Friday they had a sound check and all sorts of fun prep stuff that they didn't want to do. But they were excited, and wouldn't have had it any other way.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Five days later it was time for dress rehearsal. They'd spent the last half hour of rehearsal the day before figuring out costumes, which had been much harder then they'd expected. They'd finally gotten it down – well, Kat and Kenzie had done most of the work while giving Olivia constructive criticism on her solo, which she had been frantically practicing at the last two rehearsals. She was nervous about performing it here, but was far more nervous that the sound would be different and throw them all off.
Her fears weren't far off. As soon as they got there, things were different. People were scurrying here there and everywhere, trying to get things ready for all the performances scheduled for the weekend. Then they found out they had to wear things that hooked around their ear for the microphones, seeing as they'd asked for ones that they didn't have to hold. It was easier to choreograph that way, as they didn't have to worry about having something in one hand while they were trying to sing and dance at the same time. Then there was quite literally forty-five minutes of sound check. First they stood to close to the speakers with the mics on and almost blasted their ears off. Then the mics didn't work. Then the speakers didn't work. Then the speakers only projected obscenely loud; then they only projected extremely softly.
Finally, after a long and painful hour and fifteen minutes, the girls were allowed to sing. But not with microphones on, seeing as they didn't want to give anyone in the park a sneak peak at their performance. It went smoothly; right up until Kat held the 'welcome' too long in Goin' Back to Hogwarts. After that, things went well until Status Quo, when Olivia almost jumped off the stage by accident. Then, in Hideous Creatures, Kat accidentally slapped Mackenzie. Then, while performing the Stutter dance (which they had learned by watching video from the SPACE Tour over and over and over again) they all collided and fell in a big, giggling heap. Smooth sailing for the next five songs, until Gettin' Along; in the middle of that dance, as Mackenzie lead Olivia across the stage they tripped over a wire that someone hadn't moved. In Super Friends, both Kat and Kenzie broke down in hysterics as Olivia did the little dance move at 'I wanna be a modern dancer,' even though Olivia herself kept a perfectly straight face. Then, while doing the dancing at the part where Batman is singing 'Finally, I've found a friend, I've finally found a friend,' Mackenzie punched Kat in the back of the head by accident. And, at the end of Super Friends, Olivia fell off the stage. They thought she dislocated her shoulder, but it was fine. At least, that's what the paramedic said.
But the last song, Days of Summer, went perfectly!
At the end of Days of Summer, they got quite a bit of applause – they were pretty sure most of it was because they'd had a noticeably flawless song. As they left the stage, Mackenzie turned to her friends.
"I think that went well," she said cheerfully. The other two agreed, although Olivia was clearly trying to keep her mind off her impending performance. Noticing this, Kat quickly distracted her by getting her involved in a discussion about Avatar: Legend of Kora, which was one of their favorite shows. Ben, who had been filming the rehearsal, came up and asked them some questions, as an interview of sorts. They only took about three questions seriously, which seemed to frustrate him a little, but the three girls were having a fantastic time.
But all good things must end, and the girls had to part at the official end of rehearsal, so they could go home and sleep. As they said their goodbyes by their cars, Olivia could see the panic in the other girls' eyes that she was sure was rooted in her own.
"Well, good rehearsal," Olivia offered. There were nods all around. Then Mackenzie suddenly threw her arms around them.
"Guys, whatever happens on that stage tomorrow," she said quietly, so only they could hear it. "We're best friends, no matter what. Okay? I will love you guys as the sisters I never had, even if we go out there and fuck up the entire show. But we won't because we are the totally awesome and supermegafoxyawesomehot Marauders!" She almost shouted the last seven words, which earned them some odd looks from people nearby. The other two laughed and voiced agreement. Olivia pulled back and put her hand in the middle. Two hands were almost immediately placed on top of hers.
"Marauders forever guys. Best friends. Always." Olivia's voice was relatively soft, but the other two heard her perfectly, and they all managed to grip each other's hands. They stayed like that for a minute, quietly taking comfort in the presence of their best friends and would-be sisters. Olivia felt more at home in that moment than she had many times at her own house. She knew that no matter what happened tomorrow, her friends would be there for her, just as she'd be there for them.
Always.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Meanwhile, thousands of miles away and later that very same night, Brian Holden and Joe Walker were trying to recruit some of their friends for their not-so-evil plan that was to take place the following day. It was after their Silver Spring show, and everyone was running around packing stuff up so they could get to Boston early the next day and hopefully have some free time. Brian and Joe were helping too, of course, but they had already picked out whom they wanted to bring with them.
Brian was the first to act, upon noticing Meredith struggling with some of the equipment. He bounded over and took some of the stuff out of her arms, which earned him a grateful smile. They brought the stuff out to one of the buses and left it there to be loaded by people who had a better idea of what they were doing.
"Thanks Brian," Meredith said cheerfully, though she sounded a bit tired. "I was pretty much drowning under all that stuff!" Brian laughed with her as they walked back towards the theater.
"No problem! Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to help Walker and I with something. Interested?"
"Brian, I am not helping you and Joe prank someone. It's not happening." Brian laughed again.
"Your lack of faith wounds me Mer! But seriously, it's not a prank." And proceeded to explain the plan to her.
While Brian was occupied with Meredith, Joe was getting two more helpers - Dylan and Joey. The other two guys were chatting with some fans when Joe found them. He was dragged into the midst of the fans and found himself signing multiple autographs and answering several questions. The questions ranged from 'What's your favorite color?' to 'Will you marry me?' In response to impromptu proposals, he politely explained that he would say yes, but it would probably cause fighting, which would make him unhappy. The fans seemed satisfied with his answer, and the three singers managed to extract themselves from the crowd by claiming they needed to go help pack stuff up, which was true.
"Well that was fun," Joey said brightly.
"And exhausting," muttered the ever-practical and realistic Dylan. Joey nudged him with his shoulder.
"C'mon Dyl, you know you had fun out there!" Walker and Joey both laughed at the look on Dylan's face – somewhere between disbelief and annoyance, mixed with a little bit of amusement.
"Sure I did," Dylan said, shaking his head. The other two laughed again as the picked up some stuff and carried it out to one of the buses.
"So what's up Walker?" Joey asked casually.
"Well, I think I was proposed to about twelve times and signed about four hundred autographs," Joe said dryly. Dylan and Joey laughed and voiced agreement, only with more ridiculous numbers that everyone knew were exaggerations.
"Actually, I wanted to ask you guys something," Joe said.
"Sure man, what's up?" Dylan said as they went back into the building for some more stuff. Joe began explaining his plan to them.
"That's a surprisingly well thought-out plan, considering it was you and Brolden who came up with it," Joey teased. Joe swung a lazy and playful punch at his friend's arm, which Joey dodged with ease.
"Don't judge us," Joe said. "We spent all of an hour thinking of that."
"Wow, that's record time for you two," Dylan said in mock amazement. Joe glared.
"Don't make me bash your heads together. So, what do you say? You in?" The other two exchanged glances.
"I'm in," Joey said, excitement rippling in his voice.
"Me too," Dylan said. They high-fived each other, then continued to load the bus.
Brian was also having good luck. After getting Meredith to agree to come – which hadn't been hard at all; the girl loved hanging out with fans – he went to find the final member of the group he and Joe and created. He found her outside one of the buses, where she was signing something for a fan.
"Lauren," he called out to her. She looked up and waved before handing the fan back whatever she'd signed and jogging over.
"Hey Brian," she said cheerfully. "What goes on?"
"I wanted to ask you something," he explained. She nodded for him to continue. "Joe and I have a plan to surprise some fans in Massachusetts, and-"
"I'm in," Lauren interrupted. Brian blinked at her in surprise.
"I haven't even told you the plan yet."
"Yeah, but if you and Walker made it up, there's sure to be an element of ridiculousness and fun that I'm certain to enjoy. So I'm in." Brian grinned.
"Fantastic. Joe or I will find or text you tomorrow with the exact time and where we need to meet." Lauren nodded and the two went their separate ways. Brian smiled to himself as he went over to help load the last of the stuff into the bus.
Oh yes, this was shaping up to be the best plan he and Joe had ever created.
AN: Yay, it's almost performance time! I am finishing this at midnight… awesome. So, just so everyone's aware… next chapter will contain the performance, probably some screaming, as well as some sadness. :( But most of the chapter will be happy! Yay! There will also be some stuff that I'm completely making up, which should be fun. Oh, and I will be telling you the edited ages of all the Starkids, because I'm changing most of them. Okay. I think that's all. Stay tuned for another exciting installment of this story! Oh wait also, which song/dance sequences do you want written-because I can't write all 16… leave a review with which ones you want to see/read the most. Okay, that really is it! See you next chapter!