I just want to say thank you all so much! I didn't expect to get any readers/reviews/comments. I know 5 reviews aren't exactly a lot by most people's standards, but it is for me haha.
Also, I do post these to AO3 and FanFiction . net, just letting you all know. So, nobody is stealing anything. I'll reply to FanFiction reviews on the story, but a pro of AO3 is that I'll respond to comments faster.
John Dough: Yeah, I absolutely love the Gwourtney pairing, honestly. I think they have really great chemistry together.
Gucci Mane LaFlare and thwewolfgamergirl: Thanks for your review! It means a lot that people are enjoying this.
Crystaliser: Again, thanks so much for reviewing. As for the swearing, I don't want to make it so they say 'fuck' every other word but they're teenagers lmao. I'm glad I stayed in character for the most part.
Sammy opened the door to her house. It was a small, blue house with white trim and a neatly cared for lawn. It looked nearly identical to every other house on the block. She carried her longboard under her arm and walked in.
"Where the fuck was you?" Amy snarled, squinting at her twin. Sammy sighed.
"Play rehearsal? Like, last year?
"Yeah, okay, but I had to carry all my items from the bus stop to the house. By myself," Amy complained. "Do you know how long of a walk that is?"
"Um, half a block?"
"Exactly! Which is why you are going to wash my white vans and get out every single speck of dirt. Got it?"
"Uh, yeah, okay," Sammy said, taking Amy's shoes and heading upstairs. She was used to Amy's demands, so it's not like they had much of an effect on her anymore.
Sammy headed into her room. It was pretty small, but it was Sammy's sanctuary. The walls were painted a light blue, covered in posters, drawings, and a few Polaroid photos. She set her kanken on her small, white daybed, next to her pile of stuffed animals.
Sammy sat at her desk and pulled out a weathered, blue composition notebook, hidden under her mattress. She smiled and clicked her half-dead black pen.
"Dear Diary," Sammy mumbled, beginning to write in her swirly, scribbly handwriting on a fresh page.
Today was actually pretty good. I expected it to be terrible. Well, it almost was, but theatre was actually great, honestly.
Amy is still a bitch. I've pretty much accepted my fate, but the pain never stops. Having friends has really helped me, at least. I mean, my friend group is still tiny, but it's existent, right? And theatre has really helped me break out of my shell.
I'll check back in tomorrow then?
Sammy shut her diary shut and hid it under her mattress, then got to work on Amy's shoes, scrubbing off the dirt with a sigh as she daydreamed wistfully about the next play rehearsal.
/\/\/\/\/\/
Gwen yawned as she threw herself out of bed and headed into her bathroom. She finished a quick, cold shower before blow-drying her hair and drying off. She threw on a pair of faded mom jeans, a bulky belt, and a black camisole over a white t-shirt. She slipped on her combat boots and brushed her hair.
This month, she had chosen to dye her short bob a muppet blue color. Her roots were just starting to come in slightly, and her baby bangs were getting a bit too long. Gwen shrugged it off and finished off her look by darkening her eyebrows, coating her lashes with five layers of mascara, and matching her lipstick with her hair.
Gwen clipped on her choker, grabbed her cracked iPhone 7, and tossed on her simple, canvas backpack covered in patches and writing and stickers.
She got into her dented, old black Subaru and headed to Wawanakwa High. As soon as she entered the building, the bell signifying you to get to first period sounded. Gwen rolled her eyes and sat in her usual desk by the window for AP History.
A freckled blonde walked into the room afterward. She turned to Gwen and smiled, walking into the classroom before bumping into a desk. A few people laughed, including the goth girl. The blonde blushed and rolled her eyes before taking her seat next to Gwen.
"Hey, Bridgette."
"Oh, hey. How was your whole theatre thing?" Bridgette asked. "I can imagine it wouldn't be easy, considering Courtney's the stage manager." Gwen shook her head.
"Nah, we're both over the whole 'Duncan incident'," Gwen said before changing the subject to avoid exposing her paramour. "Man, school's already been such a pain in the ass."
Bridgette let out a short giggle. "Gwen, it's only the second day." Gwen sighed and pulled out her history notebook.
"Yeah, I know, but still. I don't really like any of the teachers, except for Art and English."
"I get that. What about Ms. Wover?" Bridgette asked. Gwen snorted.
"She's so fuc-"
"Ms. Weekes, I suggest you refrain from finishing that sentence," Ms. Wover said sternly as she walked into the classroom, the tardy bell ringing as she did. Gwen rolled her eyes and faced the front of the classroom. Bridgette smiled and began paying attention to the lesson.
Gwen busied herself by doodling skulls in the corner of her notebook, ignoring the World War II notes she was supposed to be taking.
/\/\/\/\/\
Heather strutted down the hallway, Lindsay following close behind her. Heather carried herself with elegant, business-like poise. Her dark, raven hair was tied up into a perfect bun, locks of hair framing her angled, Asian features. She wore a burgundy wrap shirt that certainly broke the dress code, high-waisted shorts, and some sandals.
Lindsay walked behind her, carrying two backpacks on her as she did. She was dressed nicely, but not in the same way as Heather. Her bleached hair was pulled back by a blue headband, matching her eyes. She simply wore a red, high-waisted skirt, a black crop top, and long, black boots.
"Lindsay, do you have the late passes?" Heather asked.
"Right here!" Lindsay smiled as she pulled out the passes they had gotten Harold to copy for them. Heather's nude-lipsticked mouth set into a smile. She snatched the passes from the bottle blonde.
"Thank you."
Lindsay frowned as Heather opened the door to the English classroom. The two girls strutted in, fashionably late. Heather dropped the late passes on the ground as she did, leaving Ms. Burgess to pick them up. Lindsay dropped Heather's bag on her desk and took her seat behind Heather.
"Welcome to class, ladies. You're lucky you have a late pass." Heather rolled her eyes. Ms. Burgess narrowed her eyes and continued to teach. Heather smirked. She was practically worshipped at Wawanakwa High. Everyone hated her, but nobody could touch her. There were a few contenders for her spot, but they weren't anywhere close to overtaking her.
Amanda Kress, or Amy, was one of those contenders. She was only a sophomore, but she already established herself. She would constantly go out with seniors and juniors on the football team and was head cheerleader as a sophomore, an honor typically reserved for only seniors, but who could resist her daddy's fat wallet?
There was also Courtney, stage manager, student council president, and senior. Her looks boosted her popularity up as well. She used to date Duncan, but something happened and she stopped going out with guys. There were rumors about her being gay, though.
"Note to self: Look into that," Heather thought, imagining a scheme to overthrow some of her competition. She smiled maliciously at the thought.
"Heather, am I left or right-handed?" Lindsay whispered from behind her. Heather rolled her eyes. Lindsay was rich and attractive, but she sure as hell didn't have a brain, leaving her out of the popularity race.
"Right," she muttered back. Lindsay smiled and began filling out Heather's notes for her.
/\/\/\/\/\
Sammy left her last period with a smile.
"Finally, time for play rehearsal!" She squealed happily. Sammy took a deep breath to compose herself and began walking to the theatre room. She tied her blonde hair up into a messy ponytail as she did, humming to a Billie Eilish song.
As she turned the corner, she noticed a very familiar face standing outside of the theatre room.
Amy.
Sammy's eye twitched as she looked at her identical twin, who made eye contact with her and smirked. Sammy rolled her eyes.
"So, are there any open positions on the theatre club thingy?" Amy asked the stage manager, batting her eyelashes. Courtney pursed her lips. She opened her mouth to reply before getting cut off by Amy.
"'Cause, if there isn't, we can kick off my lame little sis," Amy suggested. Courtney shook her head.
"Why would I kick off Sammy? She's a good member of the drama club, and she's really nice, too." Sammy smiled at this. Amy frowned.
"Oh, is she now?" She shrilled in her condescending tone. "Well, I can be nice, too."
"Uh, t-" Amy shushed Courtney.
"Wait! Before you say anything, remember, I have a lot of social standing. Wait, aren't you gay? I could get someone to fuck you." Courtney pinkened at that. Sammy raised an eyebrow.
"Um, no, I'm n-not, and-" Amy snapped her fingers.
"Do you want money? 'Cause I could hook you up." Courtney smiled at this. Sammy frowned. Dad's wallet was her flash pass through life.
"Yes, actually…I'd like to get some stage lights, and a good venue, and-"
"Done!" Amy smiled, pulling out a few bills. Courtney took them from her reluctantly.
"If you need more, just ask!" Amy said. She smirked at Sammy and strutted into the theatre room. Sammy sighed. Courtney noticed her and walked over to the good twin.
"Hey, I know you guys don't have the best relationship and all." Sammy snorted.
"Understatement of the century." Courtney laughed a little.
"Honestly, she seems like- well, there's no other way to put this, a bitch," Courtney said, matter-of-factly. Sammy smiled at this.
"But, she does have a lot of money. Look, I'll try to keep things under control." The CIT paused. "This is probably wrong morally, but we're-we're struggling. Could you take one for the team?" Sammy paused before shaking her head yes.
"Hey, if it makes you feel better, you have seniority over her. And you're helping me with casting."
"Thanks, Courtney, you're...actually pretty nice."
"No problem."
With that, the duo walked into the theatre room. Most of the members were already there, sitting in the same seats they were yesterday. Amy sat with Heather and Duncan, the more popular people in the club, thus the ones Amy gravitated towards. Both looked like they wanted to shoot themselves.
Sammy took her seat across from Gwen, pulling out her notebook and waiting for Courtney to begin.
"Hey, looks like everyone is here," Courtney smiled. "So, first off, we're going to be doing script readings. We'll start with Cinderella, I guess." She began passing out scripts to the cast members.
"So, who wants to be Cindere-"
"I will!" Amy interrupted. Courtney squinted.
"Please respectfully raise your hand if you would like to read for the part of Cinderella." Ella, Heather, and Amy raised their hands. The stage manager smiled.
"Hmm, I choose...Ella." Ella smiled.
"Thank you, Courtney!" Amy rolled her eyes.
"Try hard." Sammy sighed. Amy was already making her safe place toxic.
Courtney continued casting roles. Sammy silently celebrated when Amy ended up as one of the evil stepsisters. The cast members read through their lines, highlighting them and studying to get a feel of their characters.
"So, we're just gonna start by reading through a few scenes, then we'll move onto the next musical. We may sing some parts of some songs, just to see how you guys are vocal-wise."
"Ella and I will be your vocal coaches, too, FYI." Amy glared at the singer.
They began reading through a few lines. A lot of the cast was lackluster. They stumbled over their words and showed no emotion. Courtney twitched slightly. Things weren't looking good for the show.
The crew was also busy. They read through the script, discussing the budget and how they would be able to pull off certain scenes. Sammy watched the cast perform, praying Amy would screw something up.
But, she didn't mess up besides a few word stumbles. Sammy's eyes narrowed. Of course, Amy managed to ruin something decent in her life. Sammy sighed again and continued reading along to the script.
The cast moved onto singing a few lines from the songs to gage their singing capacities. Ella started out first.
"He was tall, very tall, and his eyes were clear and blue…" Everyone in the room watched as Ella sang, her voice flowing through the room. Amy rolled her eyes as everyone listened in awe. Amy snatched the script from her.
"Hey, what the fuck, Amy?" Courtney asked, trying to give the script back to Ella. Amy raised it up in the air.
"Oh my god," Sammy muttered. Shawn and Gwen looked at her worriedly. Amy stood up onto the desk.
"I'm going to sing…" She flipped through Ella's highlighted script. "Stepsister's Lament!"
"Why would a fellow want a girl like her?" Amy sung, in the incorrect key. Sammy rolled her eyes.
"A frail and fluffy beauty!" Lindsay looked away in horror.
"Why can't a fellow ever once pre-"
"Ooookay!" Courtney shouted out. Everyone else sighed in relief.
"I think we should move on to Heathers, then." Heather smiled before hiding her excitement. Heathers had always been a guilty pleasure of hers. The dark comedy had always been one of her favorites. Ironically, she was now just as popular as the original Chandler.
"Hopefully I don't die by the end," Heather thought.
Courtney casted the temporary roles. Heather ended up as Chandler, just as she hoped to. Amy ended up being Duke, Ella as Mac, and…
"Sugar? As Veronica?" Scarlett asked.
"Well, I'd like to give everyone an...equal chance, I guess."
"Damn straight," Sugar said.
"Okay, let's start by singing 'Beautiful', I guess."
"September 1st, 1989," Sugar began, squinting at the paper and speaking in her thick, country accent.
"Dear Diary…" Sugar began singing through the first verse. She could barely carry a tune and her country accent and low reading level meant she stumbled a lot.
"Freak! Slut! Burn-out! Bug-eyes! Poser! Lard-ass!" The ensemble sang half-heartedly. They continued working through the verses. The crew looked at each other, unsure of how this was playing out.
"College will be paradise, if I'm not dead by Juunnne!" Sugar screeched out. Everyone covered their ears in pain. This time, Beardo took the lead for Courtney.
"Um, how about the Heathers sing some of Candy Store so we can hear them sing for once?" Courtney mouthed a 'Thank you' to Beardo. Heather, Ella, and Amy flipped through their script and read through the song before Heather started them off.
"Are we gonna have a problem?"
"You got a bone to pick?"
"You've come so far, why now are you pulling on my dick?" The Heathers began singing the first few verses. Courtney took scribbly notes as she went.
"Honey, what'chu waiting fo-" Amy starting belting.
"Shut up, Heather!" Heather said, shoving Amy off the table. Sammy smirked at this.
"Ow, hey, is that even allowe-"
"Step into my candy store!" Heather sang, holding the note for a decent length. She wasn't a bad singer. Some work could be done, but she was pretty solid.
"Okay, let's end it off here. Take five, get water, talk to each other, whatever. We'll take a vote after that." Courtney dismissed.
"Hey, why did you push me? That shouldn't be allowed," Amy whined. Heather chuckled.
"Well, it literally says I have to in the script."
"Bullshit." Amy flipped through the script.
"'Chandler shoves Duke to the ground.'" Topher read aloud. Heather smirked.
"Yeah, well, I'm going to be cast as Veronica anyways. Doesn't she kill Heather?" Amy fired back. Heather scoffed.
"As if you're gonna get a lead, anyway. Sugar is a better vocalist than you." Amy rolled her eyes.
"Um, we don't even know if we're going to be doing Heathers," Ella mentioned. "I hope we do Cinderella instead. Heathers doesn't seem, well, appropriate for a high school play."
"Shut up, Ella!" Amy and Heather said at once. Ella frowned. Courtney came over to the group.
"Hey, Ella has a point. We're going to have to do the PG-13 version of the play anyway. Plus, we could still end up doing Cinderella."
"Fine," Amy rolled her eyes and continued reading her script.
/\/\/\/\
"Things are looking pretty rough for the cast, huh?" Zoey commented as she looked over at them. Gwen smirked.
"Yeah, no shit." Sammy sighed as she watched her sister.
"Izzy wants to punch Amy!" Izzy commented, spinning in the desk chair. Eva stopped her chair, causing Izzy to fly off of the chair and hit the other desk.
"You and me both, Izzy," Sammy smiled.
"Yeah, your sister is kind of a bitch, no offense," Gwen commented.
"Oh, it's fine, I don't really like her either." Eva gave a rare chuckle.
"Well, I think I'd rather do Heathers now, what about you guys?" Shawn asked, taking a sip from his water bottle.
"Agreed, I'd rather see some bombs go off as opposed to whatever the fuck happens in Cinderella," Scarlett noted. A few crew members were a bit surprised at this, considering most of them figured she was just a quiet nerd.
"What?" Scarlett asked, observing their stares. "Am I wrong?" A few of them simply shook their heads and went back to reading through the scripts.
"Plus, I'd say it would be easier to replicate a school setting rather than a whole ass ballroom."
"Yeah, that's true," Shawn conceded. Courtney clapped to get their attention.
"Now, we are going to take a vote. If you would like to do Cinderella, raise your hand."
Ella, Lindsay, Tyler, Topher, and Sugar raised their hands. Beth and Zoey did the same after looking around the room for a bit.
"Put your hands down. If you would like us to do Heathers, raise your hand."
Gwen raised her hand first. Shawn, Izzy, Eva, Sammy, Scarlett, and Heather followed suit. Amy and Duncan hesitated before raising a hand. Courtney smiled.
"Well, it's decided then. We will be doing Heathers."
Ella sighed, knowing her dreams of playing Cinderella were crushed. Heather pumped a fist silently. Others just talked amongst themselves. Some cast members flipped through the script, seeing which parts they could play.
"Oh, please turn in your audition/enrollment forms to me. You can keep your scripts. Cast members, pick a song from the character you want to play and familiarize yourself with it. Auditions will be Friday. You guys can go now."
Sammy smiled. Things seemed to be looking up.
Amy walked over to her and put her hand on Sammy's shoulder.
"Oh, heeyyy, Sis. How would you like to carry me home? That's all you're really good for, an-"
"Actually, Amy, Sammy is going to be hanging out with me and Court after school," Gwen interrupted, glaring at the evil twin. Sammy blushed at this.
"Yeah, okay. Nobody would, like, actually want to hang out with my lame little sister," Amy rolled her eyes. Sammy slumped a bit at this.
"Look, if you're going to have a negative impact on drama club, I'm going to have to kick you off," Courtney mentioned. Amy looked behind her. Courtney stood, towering over her, arms folded.
"Okay, god, but you're not getting away with this, Samey."
"That's not her name."
"Fine, Samantha," Amy scoffed, walking out of the theatre room.
"Hey, um, thanks for that," Sammy said bashfully before grabbing her kanken and beginning to walk out of the classroom.
"Where are you going?" Gwen asked.
"Uh, home?"
"I wasn't kidding, you know. You're coming with us." Sammy gave a weak smile.
"Oh, you don't have to-"
"You're coming with us," Gwen decided. Sammy reluctantly followed the goth and the stage manager, unsure of where she was going.
/\/\/\/\
Amy narrowed her eyes as she began her walk home from school.
"Gwen and Courtney have got to go," she seethed under her breath.
/\/\/\/\
Heather and Lindsay strutted through the mall, Lindsay holding all of Heather's bags as Heather ranted.
"And then, Amy was all like 'I'm gonna be Veronica!" But I said-"
"Can I vent next, Heather?" Heather hesitated. One part of Amy's image that ruined her credibility was her treatment of that Sammy girl. While Sammy was a total nobody, she just looked needlessly cruel when she ordered her around.
"Sure, Lindsay. And, let me take a few of those bags." Lindsay smiled a golden smile.
"So, I was like-" Heather tuned her out as she thought about her plans to stabilize her popularity.
/\/\/\/\
A/N: Well, that was chapter two, I guess!
Thanks for the reviews and such again.
Next Chapter- July 26th