Disclaimer: Oz I hope I don't get flamed... Wicked is not mine, and neither is RENT. AND WE'RE IN SPOILER TERRITORY NOW! I'M SORRY! -LostOzian
The end of yet another perfect finale. Maureen and Roger had just run off stage, Joanne, Mark, Collins, Angel, Benny, and Mimi had just finished screaming the final 'WICKED!', and the recording came to a climactic end.
"You guys…" Maureen said slowly. "I think we're ready!"
Everyone cheered, thanking God that this crazy project of Maureen's was almost over.
"No, no, ready for dress rehearsal!" Maureen corrected. Enthusiasm dropped a few notches.
"Eh, but the end is in sight!" Collins added, and general morale improved.
Suddenly, someone knocked at the door. The Bohos all whipped around, eight lightning-speed head counts going on at once. To everyone's dismay, there were indeed eight little Bohos in the loft. The person outside knocked again.
"Um… I'll get it," Mark said, the only person in the room to move toward the door. He slid it open, and everyone had little heart attacks.
"What? What are you all looking at?" Elphaba of Wicked said, breaking into a smile.
"Oh my God!" Maureen squealed like the little fan girl she had the potential to become. "It's the Wicked canon!"
And she was right. Outside the door in the famous Act Two costumes was Elphaba, Glinda, Fiyero, Boq (but not a Tin Man) and Nessa (but with the Ruby Slippers, so she was walking).
"Mo!" Mark hissed urgently. "They might not know they're from a musical!"
"Oh, we know," Nessa said casually.
"We're not the actual people, we're just the aesthetic manifestations," Boq added.
"We're antiseptic what?!" Fiyero looked at Boq confusedly. Boq sighed.
"Just forget I said anything," he said dejectedly.
"Well, we were just about to run dress rehearsal," Angel said, the perfect hostess. Glinda nodded enthusiastically, blonde curls bobbing.
"That's why we're here!" Glinda said excitedly. "Wouldn't miss this for all Oz!" Maureen smiled, but noticed Joanne looked like she was going to be sick. She excused herself from the general babble of conversation to check on her.
"What's up, Pookie?" Maureen said. Joanne pointed discretely at Glinda, now admiring Angel's jacket.
"That," she said. "That's Glinda. I'm not that." Maureen wrapped her arm around Joanne's waist, surveying the Ozians as they interacted with the Bohos.
"It doesn't matter," Maureen said. "We're all imposters here. Look at Elphaba and me, Nessa and Mimi, Boq and… well, bad example." Both Boq and Mark were staying on the fringe of the conversation, looking over the 'new' people with the same wide-eyed raised-eyebrows look. "But I know you can do it!" Maureen turned Joanne to face her. "We can do it together." Joanne looked at the floor, shaking her head nervously.
"Kiss, Pookie," Maureen begged, giving puppy dog eyes. Joanne looked up, and for once, gave in. It was nice to have Maureen kiss you, even if she wanted to kiss almost everyone else.
"Now, let's kick ass," Maureen said, taking Joanne into the 'girl's dressing room', aka Roger's room. The boys were in Mark's room, though Angel the drag queen was with the girls. And nobody minded, because that's how cool Angel was. Either way, the separate changing rooms were more to prevent random make-outs backstage from interrupting the flow of the show. And everyone trusted Maureen to be too absorbed in the lead and Joanne to be too serious to spontaneously snog, so they were together in the dressing room.
"Well, its show time," Roger said, pretending to be bright and cheery to help him get into character. Fiyero did the little finger guns. Gotta remember to do those somewhere… Roger thought as everyone dragged the sofa, chair, and coffee table into a line for seats, which the Ozians… seated… themselves…upon. If there's anything else you do with seats. Mark checked that nobody was watching him, then approached the canon.
"Um, well, first of all, thank you very much for coming," Nods all around. "But… we have next to no budget. The most expensive item in the show is Mi- um, the Nessa chair…" More nods, with a slight smile from Nessa seeing as they spent the most money on her.
"Also, there's only eight people in the cast, and there's a lot of swing parts. Like, everyone except for Maureen and Joanne," Mark pointed to Elphaba and Glinda. "It gets pretty confusing, so bear with us,"
"Shouldn't be a problem," Fiyero said.
"Great," Mark said. "Because, y'know, I didn't want you to get insulted thinking we didn't do justice to your show. Oh," Mark felt the need to add this, mostly because he felt inexplicably proud. "I'm… playing Boq," he said with a small smile. The Ozians compared faces.
"It works," Elphaba said.
"I can see it," Fiyero added.
"Boq's hotter," Nessa said dreamily, discretely trying to hold Boq's hand. Boq happened to notice, and pulled his hand away before Nessa could get it in a vice grip.
"That's just Nessa," Elphaba said. "She will always say Boq's hotter no matter who it is."
"Ah," Mark said, wondering what his childhood self would have done if someone told him the Wicked Witch of the East had the hots for the Tin Man.
"Cohen, get your ass in costume!" Roger shouted from Mark's room. Mark made a face.
"My cue," he said sarcastically, turning around. "Pan to Roger, the self-appointed stage manager from hell!" Elphaba nodded behind Mark's back approvingly at the sarcasm.
Everyone changed hastily into first costume, making sure second costumes were lying around where they could be easily changed into.
"Mo?" Roger the self-appointed Stage Manager of the Guys whispered. "Boys are ready."
"Girls, too," Mimi added, self-appointed Stage Manager of the Girls. Maureen nodded.
"Alrightie," she said, tipping the witch hat in the classic pose over the poster. "Showtime."