Summer: hi! Okay, I know I said I'd be updating every weekend but last weekend I was busy so...
Erik: Summer apologizes for abandoning her readers and reviewers. Special thanks to Disney Queen, Broadway Geek and Shadow Archer for reviewing.
Summer: I don't own Phantom of the Opera or anything else I don't own.
Oh, quick clue-in: The title is Awkward Stage because it's the story of one of the only kids who's awkward stage occurred because of a fictional dead guy talking to her in her head!
All of the characters have unique personalities. Sandy is supposed to be a little too nice and sweet for her own good. Joe is supposed to be Mr. HotAndFunny. Sam is supposed to be the lovable type of nerd that you want to adopt and keep with you forever. Lola is supposed to be a little preppy, but nice all the same. Beverly is supposed to be nice and funny, if a little on the slow side. You know about Erik, Christine and Raoul.
Erik: If you don't, I suggest you go read fan fiction for something you do know about.
Summer: If you haven't already figured this out, these quotie things mean thought: ''. These quotie things mean speech: "".
And now, Summer Productions proudly presents... Chapter nine!
Two weeks. We'd been in school for two weeks and I was sick of it already. Erik really didn't like it either, sometimes I got the feeling he was allergic to sunlight... that wouldn't have been good.
Our day-to-day schedule went something like this:
6:30- wake up. Try to avoid thinking about last night's nightmares.
6:35- have a long and frustrating argument about cloths.
7:00- eat breakfast. Sort of. Eat a granola bar (those things were addictive).
7:20- try to get our hair to not look like a dead animal.
7:35- walk to the bus stop. Try not to be upset about the fact that we're really late and almost missed the bus.
7:45- get to school. Try (usually unsuccessfully) to hatch a plan that will make Sandy/Christine and Joe/Raoul hate each other. Argue about random things for the rest of the school day...
...and so on.
Anyway, two weeks really wasn't a much of a long time when you think about it. But it was long enough for people to pick up on the fact that something weird was going on with us. I usually act weird, but in a different way. Now there were more rumors than ever (one or two that I was pregnant like May had predicted).
It just so happened that this particular afternoon, the school day had just ended and we were walking down the hall, from our math class to our locker. We were arguing about wether the French teacher was plotting my murder or not.
'But didn't you see the way she looked at me when we walked in late? She looked like she wanted to kill me,' I thought stubbornly.
'I've given you worse looks than that' was Erik's somber response.
'Right. And you've never plotted anyone's murder' I was getting pretty good at sarcasm too.
Before he could respond, some guy stopped us and asked, "you're Beverly Redmond, right?"
"Yeah." I was glad he had halted our conversation. I was running out of arguments. This guy looked about forty. I knew he looked familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
'We've seen this guy right?' I thought, hoping this would be one of the questions he actually answered.
'Yes. He is-'
'I remember now! He's that school counselor dude.' That made him mad. He it really got on his nerves when people interrupted him, it was a sort of pet peeve of his. I didn't remember the name of the guy that was talking to us, but I remembered it had an M in it.
"Good. As I'm sure you know, I'm the school counselor," Mr. M said, confirming my thought, "can I talk to you for a second?"
I really didn't want to but I said "Yeah. Sure" anyway.
'Great, now we need therapy' I thought bitterly. Erik didn't respond, he was wondering what Mr. M wanted with us.
Mr. M's office was right by us so we went inside. He sat down on one side of a desk covered in pictures of who I was guessing were his family and motioned for us to sit down across from him. The chair was huge and made me feel small and unimportant.
"So, I heard that lately you've been acting a little... odd" he began conversationally.
'Okay, I know where this is going,' I thought to Erik, 'he makes it look like he wants to have a conversation and then he starts asking us uncomfortable questions and trying to make us tell him what's wrong with us. I've seen it on TV. Should I play dumb?'
'If you want to' he didn't really care what was going on. He was thinking about Sandy/Christine (surprise, surprise).
I grinned internally and shrugged saying, "I always act odd."
Mr. M sighed. Maybe he knew that I was trying to play dumb. "By odd, I don't mean acting odd in general, I mean acting different than you normally do."
"Okay"
"Is there a reason that you're acting differently than usual?"
"I'm not acting different."
"But has it occurred to you that you might be acting differently without even noticing, when the people around you did notice?"
"No."
Another sigh. "Has anything at home to make you feel uncomfortable?"
"Your home or mine?"
"Yours."
I pretended to think for a moment. "Nope."
"Are you sure there's nothing you want to talk about?"
"Yep."
"Then you can go."
We got up out of the huge chair and walked out into the hallway. We stopped at our locker to get our backpack (still painfully heavy) and then went outside -most people had made their escape while I was talking to Mr. M so the door wasn't too crowded.
'Well, that was weird.' I thought, eventually.
I'm not sure wether he was going to respond or not because we were, yet again, stopped by someone who no doubt was about to ask us what was wrong with us.
"Hey, Redmond!" we turned to see Lola about ten yards away, running towards us. At least, she was trying to run, it can't have been that easy seeing as she also had a deadweight backpack.
'Do you feel like another why-are-you-acting-like-an-alien interrogation?' I thought, already knowing the answer.
'Not particularly' still so emotionless. It kind of freaked me out.
'Okay then. Let's go, compadre.' we turned back around and continued walking in the opposite direction that Lola was coming from.
"Oh come on! I'm on the track team, I can keep up with you." she called after us. She wasn't lying, in about twenty seconds she had fallen into step beside us.
"You've been acting weird lately." she stated matter-of-factly.
"Oh?"
"Yeah. So what's up with you?" she looked like she wasn't going to give us a break until she found out the answer.
"What makes you think something's up?" I had decided to play dumb again.
"You've been acting really weird lately," she repeated, "especially since Sandy and Joe started going out."
I shrugged. "I like Joe and Sandy's my friend" it seemed like a valid excuse to me.
"That isn't a valid excuse" she said. I stood corrected.
"And why isn't it?"
"Sandy is everyone's friend. And every girl in the school likes Joe, he beyond hot."
Erik silently wondered if this included herself.
"So I've noticed."
Her shoulders slumped. "Sandy won't tell me anything either. And neither will Joe. And they're both doing the same thing as you. Is it something about me?"
"No."
"Then why won't you tell me?"
Erik, wasn't really angry with Lola, he once again wasn't paying much attention and didn't care what was going on. My own patience, however, abruptly boiled down. "Look, why can't you just accept that I'm a freak and go make up rumors about me like everyone else? Why do you have to know so bad?"
She looked completely unfazed by my angry questions. "People don't just act normal one day and then start acting weird the next. No one's programed to just change at the flick of a switch, everyone has thoughts going through their head. I want to know what yours are."
As quickly as my unforeseen anger had started, it disappeared. The thing was, a lot of people did think other people just acted weird for no reason at all, not everyone acknowledged the fact that everyone else had thoughts and feelings. I was glad that Lola did. But I still wasn't telling her.
"Okay. Well, I'm still not telling you but... feel free to try and figure it out on your own." what were the odds that she would guess right anyway. Actually, if I remembered correctly, she was a pretty obsessive phangirl...
She smiled brightly. "Great. So, I can make, like... observations?"
"Sure. Um, observe way."
"Awesome! So can you come to my house this Saturday?"
Sigh. What the heck. "Sure."
Summer: And there you have it. I'm sorry if my description of highschool is inaccurate. I'm not actually in highschool yet...
This one was kind of short. I'm planning on the next one being a lot longer. Erik has blind dates every night this week so I can't send him after you if you flame.
Erik: ...I do?
Summer: So I'll have to send some one else after you if you flame... I know, RAOUL! Hahahahaha, fear the FOPPISHNESS!! Flame and I'll send Raoul after you and if you review I'll set Erik up on a blind date with you.
Erik: you mean the other Erik, right?
