Here's chapter four. I'm sorry it took so long, but school started last week and I've been busy with homework and such. I have study hall though, so I've been writing in there. This chapter is basically a setup for Collins' party (you'll understand when you read it) and I figured I'd make the next chapter the night of and the party. Sorry it's so long.
Disclamer: I don't own RENT, or anything else you recognize. Duh. I don't own the teachers either, really. They're all teachers I've had in middle school. (who's names I stupidly did not change) Enjoy.
Chapter 4- Invitations, Passing Notes and Fashion Tips
Joanne
"Collins, I already told you, I can't come over at four because I have to finish my homework and chores! And then have dinner!" Joanne was on the phone with Collins for the third time in the same day. He was planning a "party" on Friday, as a way to celebrate the end of their first month of middle school. She and Collins had gotten pretty close over the last few weeks, since they spent so much time together in school. She'd gotten pretty close with all of Collins' friends too: Maureen, Mimi, and Angel. She had yet to meet Roger and Mark, but she'd heard quite a bit about them.
"Can you come over at six then?" Collins asked.
"Fine. I don't know why you had to call me three times to ask the same question," Joanne said angrily.
"Well, I had planned for the party to be at three, but my mom said 'no' at the last minute. So I changed it and had to call you back. Then my phone cut out. So I had to call you back again."
"Oh. I have to go. See you tomorrow." Joanne hung up the phone and returned to her math homework. A few seconds later, the phone rang again. She checked the caller ID. It said "Collins, Thomas." She sighed and picked it up. "What, Collins?"
"What page is the math homework?"
"Fifty-three. Now stop calling me so I can do my own homework."
Collins laughed. "See you tomorrow." Just as Joanne picked up her pencil, the phone rang again. She groaned loudly in frustration. The caller ID said, "Johnson, Brian." What could Maureen possible want? She thought.
"Hello?"
"Hey! You going to Collins' party thingy on Friday?"
"Yes," Joanne said.
"What are you wearing?" Maureen asked excitedly.
"I have no idea!" Joanne exclaimed. "It's Monday. The party is on Friday. I have all week."
"Should I wear a skirt or pants?" Maureen asked.
"It depends on the weather," Joanne said, walking into her kitchen for a cookie.
"Who cares about the weather? I just want to look cute!" Joanne rolled her eyes.
"Pants. They show off curves and don't make your thighs look fat," Joanne answered.
"Are you saying my thighs are fat?" Maureen exclaimed.
"No. I'm just saying that some skirts make people's thighs look fat. You're better off with pants that aren't too tight."
"Since when are you the fashion expert?" Maureen asked.
"I'm not," Joanne said, sighing. "I just happen to notice these things."
"Whatever," Maureen said. Yelling could be heard from Maureen's end of the line. "ALL RIGHT! ALL RIGHT I'M GETTING OFF! KEEP YOUR HAIR ON WOMAN!" Maureen screamed, causing Joanne to move the receiver a foot from her ear.
"I have to go," Maureen said.
"I noticed. See you tomorrow." Joanne went back to her work.
Mimi
Mimi was frantically running around her house, trying to find her left shoe. Her sister Consuela had stolen it the day before, and Mimi didn't know where she'd hidden it. I'm going to be so late! Mimi thought. After a few more minutes of searching, Mimi still couldn't find her shoe. So she grabbed another pair that didn't match her outfit as well, called goodbye to her mother, and ran out the front door.
The bus was rounding the corner just as she walked out the door. Luckily, her bus stop was in front of Angel's driveway, so it was close. She got on the bus, took the last empty seat, and moved over for Angel to sit down.
"Rough morning?" Angel asked as Mimi took out a brush and started to brush her hair, still panting from running around her house.
"How'd you know?" Mimi asked.
"I think seeing you scramble out of your house like that is a good enough clue," Angel said smiling.
"Did I look that stupid?"
"No. No one would've seen you anyway."
"True. Do my shoes look okay?" Mimi asked, picking up her leg a bit.
"Fine, why?"
"I lost one of the shoes I was planning on wearing, so I had to wear these. They don't match as well," Mimi said sighing. The bus pulled up at the school a few minutes later, so Mimi and Angel got out and walked inside. "I actually know where I'm going now!" Mimi exclaimed excitedly.
"Only took us a month," Angel said, laughing.
Homeroom passed without much interesting happening, and soon Mimi was on her way to first period.
Maureen
Maureen was bored in homeroom. She never cared about announcements until that morning when she heard, "An informational meeting for this year's school musical, 'Grease' will be held this Thursday after school in the auditorium. All are welcome." Maureen was so excited she screamed. Not loudly, but loud enough for the people around her to stare at her in confusion. She smiled at them and wrote the information on her hand.
After homeroom, when she was walking to Social Studies, she spotted Mimi walking in the opposite direction. "MIMI!" she screamed. Mimi stopped dead and turned.
"Did you listen to the announcements this morning?" Maureen asked when she reached Mimi.
"No. I never do. Why?"
"The musical! It's 'Grease'! There's a meeting Thursday!" Maureen said in one breath.
"So?" Mimi asked.
"I'm so doing it!"
"Cool. I'm gonna be late. See you in Cooking." Mimi left. Maureen watched her go, a little disappointed that she didn't seem as excited as Maureen had expected her to be.
Mark
Mark sat in Social Studies, staring into space and not taking in a word his teacher said. He felt a tap on his back, so he turned around. "Roger told me to give this to you," the girl behind him whispered, holding out a piece of paper. Mark took it and opened it. On the paper there was a poorly drawn picture of Roger (Mark was able to find that out because Roger was labeled) holding a stick and holding it toward a fat woman who had a speech bubble near her mouth with the words, "Blah, blah, blah," written in it. Underneath it said, "Me hitting Laske with a bat. Y is she so boring?" Mark was amused. He picked up his pen and wrote back, "Ha Ha Ha. Lmao. Lucky U don't take art or u'd fail. I'm surprised ur not writing a song," and handed it to the girl behind him to give to Roger.
A few minutes later, the girl handed the note back to him. "Shut up. And I need insparation 2 rite music," it said. Mark wrote back, "U spelled 'inspiration' wrong." The next time Mark got the note back, it said, "Don't rub in tht I cant spell." He was about to write back when...
"Mark, what is that in your hand?" Mrs. Laske asked suddenly. Mark tried hiding it under his binder. "N...Nothing," he stuttered. Mrs. Laske came over to him and took it from him. "Passing notes? That is unacceptable. See me after class. You too, Roger." She put the note on her desk and continued with the lesson as if nothing had happened. Mark sat for the rest of the period, humiliated, and petrified at what was going to happen to him. Plus, he'd gotten Roger in trouble.
After class, he and Roger approached the teacher's desk. "Well, passing notes is not an incredibly serious thing, but it shows lack of respect for me. Mark, this is your first time getting into trouble in my class, so I will only call home and let them know. Roger, you've been in trouble countless times in my class. I think that I will just call home, though. The next time I catch you passing notes you'll get detention. You can go."
An upset Mark and fuming Roger left their class side by side, not speaking. Only when they were a safe distance from the classroom did Roger say, "What a bitch! I can't stand that woman! Now I'm not going to be able to go to Collins' party Friday! This sucks! Why did you have to be so obvious? " Mark had backed a few feet away from Roger. "Is your outburst over?" Mark asked. Roger didn't answer and walked a few feet in front of Mark to his next class. Mark sighed and went to the opposite direction, feeling guilty.
Roger
I should have known not to start passing notes with Mark, Roger thought. He has no idea how to do it right. I'm surprised the teacher didn't catch him earlier. He couldn't believe a silly little thing like that earned him a phone call home. His mother hated to get phone calls about him if he was misbehaving. She preferred the phone calls about how well he was doing. Those didn't come often. He remembered getting a call from his sixth grade teacher once, and his mother assumed that it was something bad before she even picked it up. She'd made him sit in the kitchen with her when she picked up the phone, and his teacher ended up telling his mother that he'd gotten a 100 on his latest test. His mother was so proud of him she took him out for ice cream. That was his last good call from a teacher, and that was in February of the previous school year.
Roger sat in chorus depressed and angry, so it passed by pretty quickly. He walked to Cooking, and sat down in his seat. By now he had cooled off, and he'd gotten over the fact that he'd be getting another phone call home.
Mark walked in, looking sad. Roger knew it probably has something to do with Social Studies and his outburst, so he decided to talk to him about it before class started.
"Mark, look. I didn't mean to go nuts on you like that before. I was just angry," Roger said.
"I know. I just feel guilty. I'd hate for you to miss Collins' party because of me," Mark said, not meeting Roger's eyes.
"Nah, it wouldn't be your fault entirely. I started it."
Mark smiled. "Yeah, you did."
Roger was about to say something else, but Mrs. Bartels walked in at that point. Roger shut his mouth before he got into trouble for the second time that day.
"Today we are finally going to begin cooking. I am going to break you into groups of five. Group one is..." Roger zoned out. He started doodling on his binder until he heard, "Group two, Roger Davis, Mark Cohen..." -Mark and Roger exchanged high-fives- "Angel Dummot Schunard, Mimi Marquez, and Maureen Johnson." Roger's happiness evaporated when he heard Maureen's name. She just had to be in his cooking group. This must be god's way of punishing me for Social Studies, he thought.
After Mrs. Bartels put the rest of the class into their groups, she sent them to their assigned kitchens to get to work. Roger pulled himself up on the counter and sat down. He looked at the rest of the group. "Well, what are we doing?" he asked them.
"We're not sitting on the counters, Mr. Davis, that's for sure," Mrs. Bartels said as she passed. Roger rolled his eyes and got off of the counter.
"It says to gather the ingredients first," Mimi said, looking up from her recipe sheet. Roger had never really gotten a good look at Mimi before. She was pretty. Really pretty. Her brown eyes where so big an innocent-looking, yet they seemed to hide so much. Roger found himself staring at her.
"Roger? Hello? Roger!" Mark's voice brought Roger back to earth after what felt like hours. He blinked a few times. "What?" he asked, as if nothing had happened.
"You were staring. We wanted to know if you wanted to crack the eggs."
"Whatever." Roger went over to the egg carton and took out a few eggs. Everyone else started to do their jobs as well. Roger heard Maureen's annoying voice.
"So, Angel, are you going to Collins' party on Friday?"
"Yeah!" Angel answered.
"Me too!"
"WHAT?" Roger exclaimed. Collins had said that he'd invited other people, though he'd neglected to mention one of those "other people" had been Maureen!
"What?" Maureen asked Roger, puzzled.
Roger tried to regain his composure. "You know Collins?" he asked.
"Yeah. We met in sixth grade. We're pretty close."
Not as close as Mark and I are with him, Roger thought. "Well, I'm going too."
Mimi
Roger looks so much cuter up close! Mimi thought. She was really excited about Collins' party now. She'd been excited before, but knowing that Roger was going made her even more excited.
After class, she cornered Maureen.
"What am I going to wear?" she asked.
"Something cute. I know! Me and Joanne will come over and help you pick something out!" She exclaimed excitedly. "And then we can go to her house and help her too! She really needs it!"
Joanne
"Maureen, I don't see why I had to come, I don't know a thing about fashion!" Joanne whined as they sat in Maureen's mother's car on the way to Mimi's house that afternoon.
"Stop whining. We'll have fun. And we're picking out an outfit for you too."
Maureen's mother dropped them off at Mimi's house, and promised to pick them up and bring them to Joanne's at seven. Mimi's mother was going to give them some pizza for dinner so Joanne's mother didn't have to feed them at seven o' clock at night.
"Hey guys," Mimi said when they walked in. "My sisters are all here, unfortunately, so if they bother us I'll just call my mom and she'll get rid of them."
"Okay," Maureen and Joanne said at the same time. Mimi directed Maureen over to her closet. Joanne flopped onto Mimi's bed.
After five minutes of silence except for the sound of clothes being shifted in Mimi's closet, Joanne spoke.
"Maureen?"
"What?"
"Why are we getting dressed up for this party if it's not formal?"
"We're not getting dressed up. We're just looking nice," Maureen said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oh. Whatever."
"Maureen? Can I look yet?" This came from Mimi, who was sitting on the floor with her eyes covered. Maureen wanted the outfit she picked out to be a surprise.
"Almost."
Another five minutes passed in silence.
"Why are we all so quiet?" Joanne asked. She crossed the room to Mimi's CD player. She took out a CD from the pile next to it and put it on.
Summer lovin', had me a blast
Summer lovin', happened so fast
Met a girl crazy for me
Met a boy cute as can be...
"I love this song!" Maureen exclaimed, jumping up and down.
"Maureen, stop being so excited and finish picking out my outfit!" Mimi said, annoyed.
"All done!" Mimi opened her eyes and turned to see what outfit Maureen had picked for her. A pink skirt with rhinestones along the side, a white shirt that showed off a little skin, a pink tank-top, (to go under the shirt) and white wedge flip-flops sat on Mimi's bed, next to Joanne. "Oh my gosh! I was thinking of wearing this too!" Maureen was beaming, and Joanne was just sitting there. Mimi put on the outfit to model it, and Joanne thought she looked pretty good. Maureen seemed to think that Mimi looked, "AMAZING! YOU LOOK ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!" Maureen was jumping up and down and hugging Mimi as she screamed.
"Maureen, would you relax?" Joanne said, pulling Maureen off of Mimi.
Maureen stuck her tongue out at Joanne and started to put Mimi's hair in a mini ponytail. Then she ran over to Mimi's jewelry box and started to pick out various necklaces and bracelets. Joanne sighed. This was going to be a very long night.
Mark
Mark was at his computer. Well, his family's computer. This was one of those rare times his sister Cindy wasn't on it. His teacher hadn't called yet, so he figured he'd take advantage of the computer while he still could.
The phone rang. Mark knew who it was. His parents were both downstairs where there was no telephone, so he knew they probably didn't hear it. Mark didn't pick it up. He signed onto AIM instead. Roger IMed him.
ElectricGuitar: Hey!
MDCohen94: hey. Laske call yet?
ElectricGuitar: yea...
MDCohen94: ur not in trouble?
ElectricGuitar: well...
MDCohen94: wut did u do?
ElectricGuitar: how do u no I did somethin?
MDCohen94: I just no. spill it.
ElectricGuitar: my parents r out, so when she called I didn't pick up. She left a message and I deleted it.
MDCohen94: Roger!
ElectricGuitar: heh heh heh.
MDCohen94: ur nuts.
ElectricGuitar: y thank u.
Mark's mother came running up the stairs at this point. "Why didn't you answer the phone?" she asked him.
"I didn't notice it was ringing," Mark said lamely. The phone rang again. Mark winced as his mother picked it up.
MDCohen94: crap! My mom picked up the phone!
ElectricGuitar: ha ha.
MDCohen94: some help u r.
ElectricGuitar: ...
"Mark, could you come in here for a minute please?" Mark walked into the kitchen. "Your teacher called." Mark didn't say anything. "She told me you were passing notes. Is that true?"
I could lie, Mark thought desperately. I could lie and tell her that Mrs. Laske is an evil hag and a liar. But Mom would never believe that.
"Yes."
"Mark, you know that's rude and disrespectful toward your teacher?"
"Yes."
"Don't do it again." Mrs. Cohen left the room.
That's it? Mark thought. Cool. He went back to the computer.
MDCohen94: im not in trouble!
ElectricGuitar: seriously?
MDCohen94: yup.
ElectricGuitar: sweet!
Joanne
It was seven-thirty. Maureen and Joanne were at Joanne's house, picking out an outfit for her.
"Joanne, what's up with this sweater?" Maureen asked, holding up a pink and green striped sweater.
"My aunt bought me that one too." Maureen had spent the last fifteen minutes making fun of clothes in Joanne's closet, most of them given to her by her aunt, who had no idea what she liked.
"In the words of Galinda, 'pink goes great with green!'" Maureen said. Joanne laughed. She went over to her CD player and put on her Wicked CD.
Elphie, now that we're friends, I've decided to make you my new project.
Oh you really don't have to do that.
I know, that's what makes me so nice!
Maureen squealed. She pushed Joanne into a chair and began to sing along with the CD, pretending that she was Galinda and Joanne was Elphaba. How flattering, Joanne thought. Maureen really did have a good voice.
After the song ended, Maureen held up an outfit for Joanne. In her hands was a pair of black pants and a shirt that was a bunch of different shades of purple beautifully blended together with wide sleeves around the wrist. She loved it.
"I forgot that I had that shirt. What about shoes?" Joanne asked. Maureen went down on her hands and knees and searched the bottom of Joanne's closet. A few minutes later she emerged with a pair of black boots.
"Did you mess up my closet?" Joanne asked, pushing Maureen aside. She went down on all fours and straightened the shoes that Maureen had knocked down.
"Sheesh. Neat much?" Maureen asked. Joanne said nothing. Maureen didn't understand.
Maureen
Maureen was sitting in Cooking, being quiet for once. She was waiting for Mimi to show up, because she had an important question to ask her. Mrs. Bartels came in, signaling the beginning of class. Maureen was confused. Mimi was never late. Mrs. Bartels handed them a worksheet to do. Maureen couldn't concentrate. She looked over at Angel, who was looking at her. "Where's Mimi?" she mouthed to him. He shrugged. Some help he was, Maureen thought. A few minutes later Mimi walked in with a late pass. She sat down in her seat, next to Maureen.
"Where were you?" Maureen asked her.
"I overslept and my mom had to drive my two sisters to school before me," Mimi answered.
"I have to ask you an important question," Maureen said.
"Okay, shoot," Mimi said.
Maureen was about to talk, but was cut off by Mrs. Bartels telling her to be quiet. She rolled her eyes. "Later," she mouthed to Mimi.
After class, she met Mimi in the hall.
"What was your question?" Mimi asked her.
"Would you come to the meeting and auditions for the play with me?"
"But I don't like acting or singing," Mimi said.
"You don't have to try out. Just come with me! Please?" Maureen begged.
"Why?" Mimi asked.
"It's just...just that I've never gone to an audition alone before. I was always with Nicole." She looked down at her shoes.
Mimi smiled. "Then of course I'll come with you. I'm here for you."
Maureen smiled too. "Thanks."
Please Review! No Flamers!
If anyone knows how kids/teens perform Grease in a play (if you've seen it or have been in it) please let me know what's different from the movie and stuff. I've never seen one or performed in one, so I don't want to sound stupid. You get what I mean. I'll take any suggestions for plot ideas as well. Just PM me or put it in your review. Thanks!