AN: I'm sorry I haven't updated recently. FanFiction had some issues when I was trying to update.
Here's the next chapter. Hopefully I'll be able to write more soon. I have had this sitting around forever, I wouldn't say that it ends how I want, so I kind of let it hang as it is. I'll start on the next chapter sometime on Wednesday probably. Enjoy! I love feedback if you have any to give, even if it's not more than a few words.
And If you have ideas on Leon, and if you think Sophie should be in the story I'd love to hear them! I'm at a bit of an impasse.
Chapter IV
Romeo Montague
..~*~..
Having fallen asleep sometime before 9:30 pm the night before, Sora was up before her alarm clock the following morning at about 6 am.
'I guess I should get up. I can't sleep in really, and I'll only get another thirty minutes if I go back to sleep,' Sora thought as she lay awake in bed.
"Sora, it's not very nice to leave me tied up all night," Fool said, floating into Sora's line of vision.
"Yes, and? What's your point?" she glared at him before she stalked off to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. "You better be gone by the time I get back out there!" She shouted a Fool.
"Why does she always do that?" Fool whined to no one in particular, but obeyed Sora since he had no wish to be her next victim, again.
"Huh, he actually listened today. I guess his fortune would have sucked if he stayed, so he went," Sora wondered aloud as she exited the bathroom a few minutes later.
..~*~..
"Umm, Boss? Why are we at the airport?" Sora asked Kalos, eyes questioning.
She had been walking down the beach only twenty minutes ago, and now she was at the airport.
Flashback
Sora had been walking down the beach towards the stage at 6:30 am to practice. After waking up a little while earlier and making herself breakfast in her kitchenette, she didn't have anything better to do. The sun wasn't fully up yet, but there was a pleasantly warm breeze blowing, ruffling her hair. Approaching the stage she saw Kalos standing by his car in front of the closed gates leading to the stage.
"Hey Boss!" She called as she waved, catching his attention.
"Sora, you're early," he held a hand up in acknowledgement.
"I didn't have anything to do, so I came down here. I was thinking of practicing," she explained holding her practice bag, a white backpack with silver and pink trim, up as evidence.
"But you're not busy, right?" Kalos asked, or rather stated.
"Ummm, no? I guess not," Sora replied, rather confused by the question.
"Good, you can come to the airport with me," Kalos said, letting out a breath, almost in relief.
"I-I guess? Couldn't Sarah go with you?" she asked a bit befuddled.
"Sarah's preparing stuff here, I was going to call May to come, but you showed up before I called her, and it doesn't really matter. Let's go," he stated, leaving little room to argue.
End Flashback
"We're here to get May's partner," it was the most he had said to her since she had gotten in the car.
"Oh, so that's why you wanted May to come. But I'm not his partner so why me?" She asked incredulously.
"Why not? Then I don't have to deal with an angry artist," Kalos replied simply. He didn't think May would have been that mad, but if she was asleep he was sure he would be headless if he woke her up. As it was Sora was more agreeable too.
Sora just sighed. "Whatever then. So when does this guy get here? I don't really mind waiting, but I have to get back by 11 to meet Marion," she asked as she followed Kalos who was weaving his way to the exit for those going through customs. Sora could recognize it since she had come through the same gate when she first arrived in California.
"Anytime now," Kalos sat on one of the hard airport chairs, Sora plopped down in the other seat on his left and pulled a copy of the script for Romeo and Juliet from her bag.
A few minutes later a flood of people streamed through the exit of the customs checkpoint making Sora look up from her 'reading'. Beside her Kalos had stood up and was looking around at the mass of people. Shoving her script back into her bag she stood up and slung a strap over her shoulder.
"Kalos Eido?" asked a voice to Sora's right. She looked up to see a man standing next to Kalos. From what she could see he had orange hair, a white shirt, and black slacks.
"Ah, Dio. It's nice to see you. I hope you had a pleasant flight?" Kalos asked, offering Dio his hand.
"Kalos, it's nice to see you. Yes it was fine," he replied.
'He got Dio to come? Really?!' Sora thought to herself in disbelief.
"You remember Sora Naegino? She came to perform with you guys just about a year ago," Kalos said, confirming that the man was indeed the Dio from Theatrical Camp.
"Dio! It's great to see you again. I never thought I'd see the day that you come to perform on Kaleido Stage," Sora teased him. At Theatrical Camp nothing was rehearsed, which was the way Dio and the others liked it, so seeing him here now seemed unusual.
"Well it's not like you came to visit us," he replied teasingly.
"Well I've been kind of busy," Sora replied sheepishly trailing off at the end.
"If you've got everything we should be heading back to the stage," Kalos said turning to head back out to the car.
Sora and Dio followed, chatting about what had happened since Dio had come to Cape Mary to perform with them at Marine Park. Reaching the car Kalos and Dio went around to the trunk to put his luggage (a large suitcase and backpack) in it, while Sora slid into the middle back seat and buckled up, setting her bag on the seat next to her.
"Sora, would you call May and Mia, and tell them to meet us at my office in fifteen minutes?" Kalos asked, as he started the car. Dio had slid into the passenger seat next to him.
"Yes. I will," Sora replied, pulling her phone from the front pocket of her bag.
It only took a moment before the device was calling May, who picked up on the fourth ring.
"Sora? This better be good, I'm busy right now,"May grouched on the other end of the line.
"Good morning to you too. The Boss wants you at his office in fifteen, see you there," Sora replied, ending the call once the message had been relayed, not in the mood to deal with May's ranting.
Sighing, she quickly dialed Mia's number, hoping she was in a better mood than May was. After only one ring she picked up.
"Morning Sora," Mia greeted her, much the opposite of how May had.
"Morning Mia. Boss wants you and May at his office in fifteen minutes. May's in one of her moods, so you might want to remind her to come," Sora trailed off, not really needing to say more for Mia to understand what had happened.
"She's grouchy and bitchy, so you hung up, huh? It's okay, I'll get her,"Mia laughed at their friend's childishness.
"Kay, see you then," Sora said as she hung up.
"They'll be there," she said turning to Kalos, who had a small smile on his face, having a pretty good idea of what May had said. It was pretty normal, and was the reason he hadn't wanted to wake her this morning. Several of the staff had gotten the same treatment, a mad May was something to avoid at all costs.
..~*~..
Nearing the stage Kalos drove through the gates which he had opened before leaving for the airport. He parked in his usual spot around the side of the stage near one of the staff entrances.
"I'll drive you over to the dorm building, feel free to leave what you don't need in the car," Kalos said to Dio as he opened the trunk to grab his briefcase.
He nodded and grabbed his backpack when Kalos stepped away from the trunk. "I just need this for now," he said as he pulled one of the straps of the bag over his shoulder.
Sora, who had hopped out before the two of them was headed towards the entrance, backpack in hand. She wanted to get this meeting over with quickly so she could warm up a bit before practice with Marion. Hopefully she'd be able to practice her (new-ish) role as Rosaline before rehearsal started in the afternoon too.
She waited for a few minutes for them to join her before entering the building.
"Welcome to the Kaleido Stage," she said to Dio as she pulled the door open, letting both Kalos and Dio enter before her.
The walk to Kalos' office was a short one from the side they had entered on. It only took them a minute to reach the large double doors.
Mia and May were already sitting on the two chairs when they entered.
"May, this is your partner for Romeo and Juliet, and I suppose he's your partner for one scene too Sora," Kalos said as he walked around to sit behind his desk.
"Dio, from the Theatrical Camp," he said, moving to stand by the desk.
"Dio, this is May Wong, she will be playing Juliet. And this is Mia Guillem, she directs the shows with Cathy Taymor, who you will meet this afternoon. And you've met Sora before, multiple times if I'm not mistaken," Kalos gestured to each person.
Pointing to Sora he continued. "She will be Rosaline in this production, as well as a performer in the party scene with one of our youngest performers. Today will be the first day May takes over Layla's role as Juliet, and Sora takes on May's role as Rosaline, you can chose to practice or just observe today. I'll take you back to the dorms now," Kalos said as he rose and walked towards the door.
Dio followed, waving to the three of them before walking out the door.
..~*~..
May, Mia, and Sora followed soon after, each heading in a different direction. Sora hurried to the dressing room to change into her practice clothes and then headed back to the stage. No one would be practicing there for several hours yet.
She had about an hour to practice Rosaline's part. It wasn't very long; she only came on to perform three times. Mia had worked in a dance with Romeo at the beginning where she rejects him, as well as two other shorter scenes with a few other cast members. They totaled about seven minutes tops, and weren't complicated either.
She had gotten through all of the parts several times before the doors slammed open startling her and making her miss the trapeze swing, leading to her trying to twist just enough to land on one of the trampolines. Thankfully she was able to land on the center of the trampoline rather than the edge or the floor. Sighing in relief she jumped to the ground and turned towards the doors.
"Boss, Dio? What are you doing here?" Sora asked, it wasn't like Kalos never watched rehearsal, he watched it most of the time, but he didn't usually just walk in without knocking.
"Oh, Sora, sorry I didn't think anyone was in here. I was just giving Dio a tour of this building. I'm sorry if we interrupted," he apologized, not really wanting to get on Sora's bad side, which would inevitably lead to being on Sarah's bad side.
"I won't tell Sarah," Sora replied smiling as she rolled her eyes. A few months back he had startled Sora into falling from the trampoline, ending in a minor concussion because she hit her head on the hard edge. Sarah, having found out about the incident, had been mad at Kalos for a week.
"Are you busy right now?" he asked.
"No, I have some time before Marion is supposed to meet me. Why?" she asked as she walked over to where they were standing off to the side of the stage.
"I have to go. Can you show Dio around the stage and dressing rooms, we already went to the costume 'closet' and practice rooms," Kalos more ordered than asked.
"Yeah, I can. See you later Boss," Sora gestured for him to follow her onto the stage.
"This is the stage, obviously. That's the house, it has way more seats than I care to count. I honestly don't really want to know how many it can hold either. There are stairs that can be added to the edge of the stage when we have scenes that we interact with the audience in. We don't have live music, but our speakers are everywhere," Sora gestured towards each thing.
"The emergency power switch is on the wall back there, it's pulled if a performer has an accident, or something goes wrong with the electronics during a show. Not like the music is messed up, more like if something is dangerous. It just cuts off all the power to the stage.
"The control booth is up there on stage right. Mia always watches from there if she's not in the show. The trapeze are pulled up when not in use, and lowered when needed. There are ladders leading up to the upper levels. We mainly use the stage level and second level, although there are something like five levels total, the top usually is just where the trapeze are left, so the audience can't see them, but they lower down really easily. The other sets go into the wings, or under the stage.
"Really the whole stage is practically alive. Trampolines can be lowered under the stage; people can use all sorts of tricks and trap doors. It's rather crazy. There's actually another control room down there controlling everything under/in the stage." Sora finished describing the general stage setup.
"Come on, I'll show you the dressing rooms," She turned towards the door and walked out, followed closely by Dio. They walked down the hall in silence, save for the tapping of his black shoes.
"This one is mine, which is the only reason I can let you in. Marion's costumes are generally stored with mine in here, instead of in the costume closet, since both of our costumes are usually made specifically for us, or we own them, or both. For me it's mainly that my costumes are made to transform at a specific point, and if someone else tries to wear it, it usually doesn't end very well," Sora explained as she pulled her key from the small zippered pocket of her shorts and unlocked the door.
Her dressing room was fairly small compared to the main cast dressing rooms, but since she didn't share it with anyone it was more space than she would get if she shared a bigger room with one of the other girls. It was also the only room that costumes were kept in year round aside from the costume closet. She didn't have very many costumes actually; there was the one from the Legendary Great Maneuver, the one from Marion's Debut, and a few other costumes she had from performing on the Kids Stage. They also stored Marion's costumes here, and some of Cynthia's costumes that Sora wore on occasion.
"Most dressing rooms have two people per room or more, and are bigger than mine. Marion isn't a performer on the main stage, so she hasn't yet been assigned a dressing room. During this show she'll probably share with me, but only because it's closest to the stage. I think you'll be in Yuri's dressing room. He's the only other person aside from me without someone they share with," she tried to explain the system.
"That's really complicated," Dio commented. The Theatrical Camp was so much simpler than this odd system.
"It's not so bad once you get used to it. Anyways, I've been meaning to ask, and I hope you won't take offence to this question, but do you know how to perform more than just your usual whip routines?" Sora asked, curious since she had only ever seen him with a whip on stage.
"What kind of performer would I be if I couldn't?" Dio responded teasingly.
"Eh… sorry," she apologized, flushing in embarrassment.
"It's a valid question," he chuckled. Some of the others at the camp had asked him the same thing when he first joined.
"Marion should be coming any minute now," Sora said as she glanced at the clock.
"Sora!" called a cheerful voice from the doorway, followed by an arf as Jonathan appeared next to Marion's foot.
"Perfect timing. Marion, this is Dio. He will be Romeo in the show. Dio, this is Marion Benigni. She's my trampoline partner and partner at the Kids Stage. Oh, and this little guy is Jonathan. He performs with Anna at the Kids Stage," She said picking Jonathan up to introduce him.
"You have a seal here? I wish we had an animal at Theatrical Camp!" he said as Sora set Jonathan back on the floor.
"Marion, we should change. Your costume is hanging over there, go change in the bathroom. I'll change after you," Sora pointed to the garment bag with the 'sun' costume in it and the bathroom at the back of the room.
"Okay, just a sec then," Marion replied slipping into the bathroom with her costume.
"You can watch if you want," Sora said turning back to Dio.
"That sounds good. And as it is I don't really know where anything is, so I can't really leave anyways," he said nodding.
"I'm done Sora. I'll meet you at the stage!" Marion said as she picked up Jonathan and left.
"I'll just be a few minutes," she said, slipping into the bathroom with her 'moon' costume Sora hastily changed. Stepping out of the bathroom she grabbed her mask and Marion's from the counter under the mirror that served as a make-up table of sorts.
"Come on, back to the stage," she motioned to Dio as she grabbed her keys and walked out. He followed and waited while she locked the door and put the keychain into a tote bag with her satin performance slippers and cell phone.
When she was practicing she preferred to use canvas ballet shoes. They were less expensive, and lasted longer than the satin and leather ones she performed in. The ones for this routine would need to be dyed midnight blue for Sora and another pair would need to be dyed orange for Marion. These would be the first satin performance shoes for Marion. At the Kids Stage they used canvas shoes because of the water.
"You can sit in the audience, or stand backstage," Sora said as she went to talk to Marion.
"Here's your mask, I'm ready when you are," Sora told her as she handed her the gold and orange mask, and tied her own on as well. They were only tied on by a ribbon, but they were designed in such a way that they would stay on.
"Mm Hmm," Marion replied as she tied her own mask on. "Okay, I'm ready," she said as she took her starting place.
"Let's just run through it, and we can adjust if necessary," Sora suggested.
They only practiced three times before calling it good for the day. They did still have to perform it for Cathy later.
Neither had heard, nor noticed that Dio had moved from his spot backstage to one of the seats in the front row. Well, not until Sora was trying to find him.
"Dio?" she called into the wings where he had been standing before.
"I am out here," he replied lazily, startling Sora.
"Argh! Are you a ghost or something?" she yelled as she turned around to face him.
"No, I'm far too solid to be a ghost," he joked, pretending to try and stick his arm through the seat next to him.
"Ha ha," Sora deadpanned. "I'm going to just go and change. You can hang out here, I'll be right back," She said grabbing her bag and heading towards the exit that Marion and Jonathan had just left through.
"It's just me," Sora called out as she entered the dressing room.
"Here are your keys. I'm going to go feed Jonathan and get lunch. See you in a little bit, Sora!" Marion said happily as she handed Sora her keys on her way out.
"See you later Marion. Remember 2:00 pm, and don't be late!" she called after her.
Once Marion and Jonathan had left Sora quickly changed. She was just getting ready to leave her room, she even had her bag over her shoulder and the lights off, but was interrupted by her cell phone vibrating in her jacket pocket. Resigned to the fact that lunch would have to wait another few minutes she turned the lights back on and sat on her chair.
"Hello?" she asked, hoping that it wasn't May calling to yell at her.
"Sora, this is Kalos. Are you still at the stage with Dio?"
"Yes? I just finished practice with Marion. Dio should be back on the stage, I just had to change," Sora replied, confused about why it mattered.
"Good. You can take him somewhere for lunch then. I can't make it; I have a meeting with Mr Kenneth in ten minutes," Kalos stated in a tone leaving no room to argue.
"Sounds good. Say hi to Mr Kenneth for me," she liked Mr Kenneth; he was one of the only investors that came to watch rehearsals on a regular basis.
"I will," Kalos replied before hanging up and locking up her dressing room.
Entering the stage Sora made sure to close the door quietly. The darn thing was too loud for its own good most of the time.
Looking around for Dio she found him jumping on the trampolines a bit.
"Dio!" she called up to him, once he was more or less in the center, with less of a chance of falling.
"Hey Sora," he said before jumping down onto the stage in front of her.
"According to Kalos, I'm taking you to lunch now," she smiled.
"Sounds good. Are your friends coming? Like Anna and Mia?" Dio asked remembering her two close friends from when he had come to perform at the Marine Park with them.
"I was going to ask if you minded. If it's okay I'll give them a call,"
"Sounds fine. So, what's good around here?" he asked as they headed out the stage door towards the main lobby.
"I wouldn't really know. I don't get out much; usually I just go to the cafeteria for dinner and cook my own lunch and breakfasts," Sora explained. Even though she had lived here for a while, she didn't really like to go out to eat, and rarely did. "Mia might know of a good place. I'll call her and get her to bring Anna with her," she said as she dialed Mia's number.
"Hey Sora," Mia answered on the second ring, having seen the caller ID.
"Mia! Would you know any good cafés or other lunch places by the stage?"
"Well there's that really good café about ten minutes away. I think it was called Café Flora or something," she replied, remembering the time that she, Anna and Sora had gone there for lunch.
"Okay, great. Will you and Anna meet Dio and I there? Kalos had a meeting, so I'm supposed to take him for lunch, and he wanted to catch up with you guys again," Sora explained.
"Yeah! I'll meet you there in ten. Anna and I were just thinking about getting lunch. We're just down the beach right now," she said before hanging up.
"Okay, Mia and Anna are going to meet us at the café. It's a place called Café Flora, I've been there before they have really great food," Sora said to Dio as they walked out the front door of the building.
..~*~..
"Sora!" Anna called as she and Dio entered the restaurant, waving them over to the table she and Mia were seated at.
"Hey Anna," Sora said as she and Dio approached the table. "You remember Dio? He came to perform with us at the Marine Park," she introduced her companion as she sat down across from Mia, and Dio sat in the last available seat across from Anna.
"Yeah, of course I do. The whip dude who kept ruining my roses," she mock pouted eliciting a round of laughter from the three others.
"Yep, that's me. The rose killer," Dio snickered.
"So Dio, how much experience do you have on the trapeze?" Mia asked, curious since she had never seen him perform anything other than his specialty, whip routines.
"Well, I'm not nearly as good as Sora or Pamela, but I've performed on them on and off for the past several years," Dio had been expecting the question, and was surprised it had taken so long for someone to ask him, again. Although Sora's inquiry about him doing something other than whip routines wasn't exactly the same.
"Who's Pamela?" Anna asked. She had heard Sora mention her once before, but never found out who 'Pamela' was.
"Oh, Pamela is the trapeze artist at Theatrical Camp. I told you about her after I visited them last year," Sora replied for Dio. She was pretty sure she had actually told Anna and Mia about her, but then again Anna didn't listen half the time.
"So are you joining up permanently? Are you the new performer that's joining today?" Mia asked curious to know if this was the 'new guy' everyone was talking about.
"No, I have to go back once the shows are finished. Kalos said he was going to shorten the run, so I'll leave in just under a month," he said, giving them information about the show they hadn't heard until now.
"Oh, that's too bad, I didn't know he was going to cancel shows," Anna piped up.
"Hello, my name's Emily. May I take your order?" a waitress asked pen and pad of paper in hand to take their orders.
Sora and Dio opened their menus and quickly chose their meals while Anna and Mia ordered theirs. Once the waitress left they resumed their chatter.
"Hey Dio, did Kalos show you to the building of practice rooms where old sets are stored? I think it was an old warehouse. It's on the way to the dorms," Sora asked. Kalos hadn't been showing Dio around that long before interrupting her, so she wondered if they had made it that far.
"There's more practice rooms?" he asked in disbelief.
"Of course there are! While the main building with the stage is big it's not nearly big enough for all the practice rooms we need," Anna butted in.
"Yeah, we actually have another stage too, well pool really, but it can be converted to a stage. It's where the Kids Stage is when we don't have a bigger performance that needs the pool," Mia added.
"What exactly is the Kids Stage?" Dio asked, he had heard it mentioned a few times today, but it hadn't been explained.
"Well a few months ago we didn't have a show for the kids to enjoy, so we asked Kalos if we could make a Kids Stage. We have shows at least twice a week. There are no trapeze acts though, it's hard to bring trapeze onto the stage. It was around then that Marion decided she wanted to perform the trampoline, and her dad gave her Cynthia's, her mom's, stage notebook. The notebook has a lot of ideas for routines, one of which was Marion's Debut Stage, designed by Cynthia. So we used that the first time we did the Kids Stage. It was her debut and the main focus of the show," Sora explained.
"So basically it's a way for new performers to get to perform on a stage, even if it's not a major show," Mia added.
"That sounds like a lot of work," Dio paled just thinking about how much was always going on around here.
"It is a lot, but it's also fun. You know you should really go see all of the buildings after this," Sora suggested.
"Then I'd have a chance at being able to find stuff, that's a good idea," he readily agreed, not really wanting to be late for something because he couldn't find the room or building.
"I'd take you, but I'm busy later. And Mia is too… I'm sure Anna could show you around!"
"What? But I –" Anna began.
"Don't have rehearsal until 3" Mia finished for her.
"Oh, yeah, no rehearsal," Anna agreed.
"Good you can take Dio on a tour of the other buildings and when you're done come back to the main one for rehearsal at 3:00 pm," Sora concluded before digging into the food the waitress had brought in the middle of their conversation.
..~*~..
