A/N: I´m sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, my computer broke
down and ... oh, you don´t wanna hear my excuses. A big THANK YOU to
everyone who´s reviewed, I really appreciate it, honest, keep it up!!!, I
hope you like this chapter!!!!
Chapter 3
"YOU WHAT?!" Soun practically screamed, seeming to loom over his friend, the panda.
Signed a contract saying Ranma didn´t have to be in the play, Genma repeated, sullenly, on his sign.
Soun broke down and began sobbing. "What about OUR PLAN??!! You´ve RUINED IT!!!"
"Oh, Father, please don´t tell Mr Saotome off," Kasumi said. "He´s feeling bad enough already. Where did you say you went last night, anyway, Mr Saotome?"
All-you-can-eat buffet, Genma signed. And I rather wish now I hadn´t eaten all I could eat; I really don´t feel well.
"You see, Father?" Kasumi scolded. "And ... what plan is this, anyway?"
"Oh, is that the time?" Soun looked hurriedly at his watch. "I´ve got to go, Kasumi, dear ... very important ... well ... something very important, anyway ..." And he disappeared out of the room.
Kasumi looked back at the panda. "I don´t suppose you know what Father´s talking about, Mr Saotome?"
No idea, the panda signed, hurriedly. Well, I´ll be off to ... to do something ... thank you for the tea ...
Kasumi stared after him. "They´re up to something, aren´t they," Nabiki, her younger sister, said, coming in. Kasumi nodded, slowly. "I think they are."
"Why are YOU so happy today?" Akane asked, looking up at her fiancée. He was skipping along the wall on his way to school, humming to himself.
He grinned at Akane´s words, jumped down, and produced a piece of paper. "Haha... look at this!"
Akane looked at it. "I, Genma Saotome, hereby aggree that my son, Ranma Saotome, has the right to remain out of the school play if he wishes to ... Signed, Genma Saotome ..." Akane looked up. "So you´re not going to be in the play?"
"Nope," Ranma grinned, but half-heartedly. She sounded almost ... disappointed.
Akane looked down at the note again. "How on earth did you get your father to sign this?"
Ranma looked smug again. "Oh, you know what he´s like about food ... so I bribed ´im with a ticket to an all-you-can-eat buffet! No more stupid play for me!" He jumped back up onto the wall and continued humming.
Akane frowned, angrily. "But ... there isn´t an understudy for you yet! We won´t be able to do the show if you quit! That´s SO typically you, only thinking of yourself -"
"Relax!" Ranma said. "I got someone to do it for me."
Akane looked surprised. "Who?"
"Oh ... Ryoga ..."
Akane sniffed. "And what did you have to bribe HIM with for him to aggree to it?"
Ranma made a face, and then shrugged. "Actually, he wanted to ... I didn´t have to bribe him at all."
Akane smiled. "Good; then maybe HE´LL actually show some interest in what he´s doing." A thought seemed to strike her. "Shampoo won´t be pleased, though ... she´s only in this play because YOU are ..."
Ranma put his hands in his pockets. "No, I guess she won´t be pleased ..."
"WHAT?!!!"
Mr Huriko cowered away from Shampoo. Shampoo had asked where Ranma was at the practise that evening, and Ranma had been right; she wasn´t at all pleased to hear Ryoga would be taking his place.
"You no can do this!" the Chinese girl screamed, angrily, at the Drama teacher. "Shampoo airen must be in play!"
"I´m sorry, miss Shampoo, but Saotome produced a note from his father," Huriko began.
Shampoo crossed her arms. "If airen no be in play - Shampoo no be in play!" she declared, haughtily.
Huriko straightened up. "But - but you can´t!" he said. "We don´t have an understudy for you; you WERE the understudy, until that unfortunate accident last night-"
Shampoo instantly dropped the haughty attitude. "Yes - very unfortunate accident," she said, innocently. "Shampoo very upset to hear."
"What did you say happened again?"
"Girl that Shampoo understudy suddenly be attacked by mysterious old woman with stick," Shampoo said, sweetly.
"You mean an old GHOUL?" Akane snapped, from back in the class.
Shampoo jumped. She swivelled round to face her. "You be quiet pervert girl!" she snapped back. "You no know what happen!"
Akane stood up. "I can guess," she growled.
"Please, girls," Huriko moaned. "Settle down. Ryoga Hikibi here," he indicated Ryoga, "has kindly offered to take Mr Saotome´s place in the play, and you, miss Shampoo, will be Carlotta -"
"Carlotta" jerked back to the Drama teacher. "Shampoo say she no be in play if airen no be in play!" she shouted again. "You make airen come back and send pig boy home or you no have any Carlotta!"
Huriko sweat-dropped. "Now, now, miss Shampoo," he said, patting her carefully on the shoulder, "there´s no need to get upset, we can´t do the play without having someone play Carlotta, and you really have a lovely voice -"
"SHAMPOO NO UPSET!" the Amazon girl screamed. "Shampoo say she no be in play until teacher man make airen come back, and Shampoo no change her mind!"
And with that, she stormed out of the classroom, slamming the door behind her. The silence that followed seemed to ring loudly.
Mr Huriko fell to his knees. "I give up!" he cried. "The role of Carlotta is essential to the play! We can´t do the Phantom of the Opera without Carlotta!" He seemed to calm down a bit. "And we can´t have Carlotta without Mr Saotome, it seems," he sighed. "Very well; it seems we´ll have to convince Saotome to come back, or we have no play."
Ranma shook his head. "Uh-uh. No way!"
Akane stamped her foot. It was later that evening. Mr Huriko had declared Akane was to convince Ranma to at least come and understudy Ryoga. But that was not going well. "Ranma, you jerk!" she shouted. "We can´t do the play if you don´t! That stupid Shampoo refuses to be in it if you´re not, and she´s Carlotta after that little "accident" the girl she was understudying had. If we don´t have Carlotta we CAN´T DO THE PLAY!"
Ranma pulled a face. "See if I care!"
Akane was fuming by now. "Ranma! How can you be so SELFISH?!" she shouted, whacking him across the head.
"Ow!" Ranma rubbed it. "Look, Pop signed the note, I don´t have to do it if I don´t wanna, so quit yellin´," he cried.
I signed a note saying you didn´t have to be in the play itself. Mr Saotome had entered the room. If you´re an understudy you´re not actually in the play, are you?
"That´s right," Akane said. "No-one´s actually expecting you to get up on stage; you´re just there as bait for Shampoo."
"What the -" Ranma sputtered. "BAIT? What am I, a worm?"
Akane tilted her head. "You could put it like that. Ryoga´s the one who´ll be doing all the work." She smiled. "And I bet he´ll do it a lot better than you could, anyway. We sung over a couple of songs today," she went on, "and I didn´t realise he could sing, but he can! You should have heard him -"
"Oh, really?!" Ranma snapped. "All right; I´ll show you I´m as good - no, better - than Ryoga." He stomped over to her bag, and began rummaging in it.
Akane tore it away from him. "What do you think you´re doing?!" she shouted.
"Findin´ your script!" Ranma shouted back. "If I´m going to understudy RAOUL in this stoopid play I´d better read the damn thing, hadn´t I?"
Akane clapped her hands together. "Oh - so - you´ll do it, then?" she exclaimed, happily.
Ranma looked sulky. "Sure," he muttered. "But only to prove I can do it just as well as Ryoga could," he added, angrily, snatching the script from Akane and stomping off to the room he shared with his father.
"....help me make the music of the ... NIIIIIIGHT!" Kuno concluded his solo, dramatically.
"Thank you, Kuno! Very good!" Mr Huriko beamed. "All right, everyone, we´re doing well, take a break."
The people exited the stage in various directions. The members of the school orchestra put down their instruments and began talking.
"Okay, Kuno, you can put me down now," Akane growled at the older boy, who was still holding her.
"Ah, fair Akane," Kuno, who obviously missed the dangerous edge to her voice, sighed. "Together, we make the perfect pair! If only the play ended differently ... if only Christine did not turn her loving Phantom away in so cruel a fashion ..."
"Put me down NOW, Kuno," Akane snapped, louder this time. She glanced out at the seats. There was Ranma, sitting with the other understudies. Shampoo had wasted no time in leaping into his lap, and was sitting there, her arms wrapped around his neck.
"Shampoo so happy Ranma come be in play with her!" the Chinese girl squealed. "She know Ranma love her too much for him walk out on her!"
"Whatever, Shampoo," Ranma muttered. Kuno was still holding Akane ...
Shampoo squeezed him round the neck, almost cutting off his circulation. "You no worry, airen," she said. "Shampoo be Christine girl and Ranma be Raoul boy at big show, Shampoo promise ..."
Ranma turned to look at her. "Uh, Shampoo ... whaddya mean?"
Shampoo just beamed at him.
Ranma pushed her off his lap and into the next seat. "All right, Shampoo, I know that look. What are you plannin´ to do this time?"
Shampoo was already back on his lap. "Shampoo no plan," she smiled innocently. "You I love," she added, changing the subject.
Mr Huriko clapped his hands. "All right, people, places! We´ll take it from "Poor fool"."
Shampoo jumped to her feet, much to Ranma´s relief. "Shampoo go now," she called, over her shoulder. "Shampoo sing now very good for Ranma ..."
Ranma sighed, and folded his arms. He was still worried about what Shampoo had said ... what did she have planned THIS time?
Ranma watched as the others began rehearsing again. Shampoo DID sing well, and - he grinned - the character suited her. Kuno ... ah, he was all right ... a bit over-enthusiastic about the whole thing, though ... Ryoga ... Akane was right, he DID have quite a good voice, Ranma had to admit, despite himself. As for Akane ... He glanced at her. She was a good actress; she managed to look genuinely frightened as the fake body was tossed out onto the stage. And there she went, calling for RAOUL ...
Ranma glanced at his watch as they began "All I Ask of You". He didn´t really like this one ...
He sniffed, almost inaudibly, as they neared the end of the song. Ryoga looked positively ecstatic to be doing a song like this with Akane. Heh. Well good for him. At least that meant Ranma didn´t have to do such a stupid song ... He pretended not to notice the angry twinge in his stomach as Ryoga and Akane (It´s just a play, stupid! It´s not really them! It´s Raoul and Christine!) kissed at the end. Good job it didn´t have to be HIM doing that ...he was glad ... yeah ... ´course ...
A/N: Well that´s another chapter finished! Thanx for reading this far, I hope you liked it; if you did, REVIEW!!! and tell me. If you didn´t, REVIEW!!! and tell me. If you have an idea, REVIEW!!! and tell me. If ... Well, you get the idea. Anyway, I´ll start chapter 4 soon, see ya then! PS. Big prize for anyone (well, you can imagine me applauding for you, anyway ^_^,) who recognizes the scene from PotO in this chapter!!!
Chapter 3
"YOU WHAT?!" Soun practically screamed, seeming to loom over his friend, the panda.
Signed a contract saying Ranma didn´t have to be in the play, Genma repeated, sullenly, on his sign.
Soun broke down and began sobbing. "What about OUR PLAN??!! You´ve RUINED IT!!!"
"Oh, Father, please don´t tell Mr Saotome off," Kasumi said. "He´s feeling bad enough already. Where did you say you went last night, anyway, Mr Saotome?"
All-you-can-eat buffet, Genma signed. And I rather wish now I hadn´t eaten all I could eat; I really don´t feel well.
"You see, Father?" Kasumi scolded. "And ... what plan is this, anyway?"
"Oh, is that the time?" Soun looked hurriedly at his watch. "I´ve got to go, Kasumi, dear ... very important ... well ... something very important, anyway ..." And he disappeared out of the room.
Kasumi looked back at the panda. "I don´t suppose you know what Father´s talking about, Mr Saotome?"
No idea, the panda signed, hurriedly. Well, I´ll be off to ... to do something ... thank you for the tea ...
Kasumi stared after him. "They´re up to something, aren´t they," Nabiki, her younger sister, said, coming in. Kasumi nodded, slowly. "I think they are."
"Why are YOU so happy today?" Akane asked, looking up at her fiancée. He was skipping along the wall on his way to school, humming to himself.
He grinned at Akane´s words, jumped down, and produced a piece of paper. "Haha... look at this!"
Akane looked at it. "I, Genma Saotome, hereby aggree that my son, Ranma Saotome, has the right to remain out of the school play if he wishes to ... Signed, Genma Saotome ..." Akane looked up. "So you´re not going to be in the play?"
"Nope," Ranma grinned, but half-heartedly. She sounded almost ... disappointed.
Akane looked down at the note again. "How on earth did you get your father to sign this?"
Ranma looked smug again. "Oh, you know what he´s like about food ... so I bribed ´im with a ticket to an all-you-can-eat buffet! No more stupid play for me!" He jumped back up onto the wall and continued humming.
Akane frowned, angrily. "But ... there isn´t an understudy for you yet! We won´t be able to do the show if you quit! That´s SO typically you, only thinking of yourself -"
"Relax!" Ranma said. "I got someone to do it for me."
Akane looked surprised. "Who?"
"Oh ... Ryoga ..."
Akane sniffed. "And what did you have to bribe HIM with for him to aggree to it?"
Ranma made a face, and then shrugged. "Actually, he wanted to ... I didn´t have to bribe him at all."
Akane smiled. "Good; then maybe HE´LL actually show some interest in what he´s doing." A thought seemed to strike her. "Shampoo won´t be pleased, though ... she´s only in this play because YOU are ..."
Ranma put his hands in his pockets. "No, I guess she won´t be pleased ..."
"WHAT?!!!"
Mr Huriko cowered away from Shampoo. Shampoo had asked where Ranma was at the practise that evening, and Ranma had been right; she wasn´t at all pleased to hear Ryoga would be taking his place.
"You no can do this!" the Chinese girl screamed, angrily, at the Drama teacher. "Shampoo airen must be in play!"
"I´m sorry, miss Shampoo, but Saotome produced a note from his father," Huriko began.
Shampoo crossed her arms. "If airen no be in play - Shampoo no be in play!" she declared, haughtily.
Huriko straightened up. "But - but you can´t!" he said. "We don´t have an understudy for you; you WERE the understudy, until that unfortunate accident last night-"
Shampoo instantly dropped the haughty attitude. "Yes - very unfortunate accident," she said, innocently. "Shampoo very upset to hear."
"What did you say happened again?"
"Girl that Shampoo understudy suddenly be attacked by mysterious old woman with stick," Shampoo said, sweetly.
"You mean an old GHOUL?" Akane snapped, from back in the class.
Shampoo jumped. She swivelled round to face her. "You be quiet pervert girl!" she snapped back. "You no know what happen!"
Akane stood up. "I can guess," she growled.
"Please, girls," Huriko moaned. "Settle down. Ryoga Hikibi here," he indicated Ryoga, "has kindly offered to take Mr Saotome´s place in the play, and you, miss Shampoo, will be Carlotta -"
"Carlotta" jerked back to the Drama teacher. "Shampoo say she no be in play if airen no be in play!" she shouted again. "You make airen come back and send pig boy home or you no have any Carlotta!"
Huriko sweat-dropped. "Now, now, miss Shampoo," he said, patting her carefully on the shoulder, "there´s no need to get upset, we can´t do the play without having someone play Carlotta, and you really have a lovely voice -"
"SHAMPOO NO UPSET!" the Amazon girl screamed. "Shampoo say she no be in play until teacher man make airen come back, and Shampoo no change her mind!"
And with that, she stormed out of the classroom, slamming the door behind her. The silence that followed seemed to ring loudly.
Mr Huriko fell to his knees. "I give up!" he cried. "The role of Carlotta is essential to the play! We can´t do the Phantom of the Opera without Carlotta!" He seemed to calm down a bit. "And we can´t have Carlotta without Mr Saotome, it seems," he sighed. "Very well; it seems we´ll have to convince Saotome to come back, or we have no play."
Ranma shook his head. "Uh-uh. No way!"
Akane stamped her foot. It was later that evening. Mr Huriko had declared Akane was to convince Ranma to at least come and understudy Ryoga. But that was not going well. "Ranma, you jerk!" she shouted. "We can´t do the play if you don´t! That stupid Shampoo refuses to be in it if you´re not, and she´s Carlotta after that little "accident" the girl she was understudying had. If we don´t have Carlotta we CAN´T DO THE PLAY!"
Ranma pulled a face. "See if I care!"
Akane was fuming by now. "Ranma! How can you be so SELFISH?!" she shouted, whacking him across the head.
"Ow!" Ranma rubbed it. "Look, Pop signed the note, I don´t have to do it if I don´t wanna, so quit yellin´," he cried.
I signed a note saying you didn´t have to be in the play itself. Mr Saotome had entered the room. If you´re an understudy you´re not actually in the play, are you?
"That´s right," Akane said. "No-one´s actually expecting you to get up on stage; you´re just there as bait for Shampoo."
"What the -" Ranma sputtered. "BAIT? What am I, a worm?"
Akane tilted her head. "You could put it like that. Ryoga´s the one who´ll be doing all the work." She smiled. "And I bet he´ll do it a lot better than you could, anyway. We sung over a couple of songs today," she went on, "and I didn´t realise he could sing, but he can! You should have heard him -"
"Oh, really?!" Ranma snapped. "All right; I´ll show you I´m as good - no, better - than Ryoga." He stomped over to her bag, and began rummaging in it.
Akane tore it away from him. "What do you think you´re doing?!" she shouted.
"Findin´ your script!" Ranma shouted back. "If I´m going to understudy RAOUL in this stoopid play I´d better read the damn thing, hadn´t I?"
Akane clapped her hands together. "Oh - so - you´ll do it, then?" she exclaimed, happily.
Ranma looked sulky. "Sure," he muttered. "But only to prove I can do it just as well as Ryoga could," he added, angrily, snatching the script from Akane and stomping off to the room he shared with his father.
"....help me make the music of the ... NIIIIIIGHT!" Kuno concluded his solo, dramatically.
"Thank you, Kuno! Very good!" Mr Huriko beamed. "All right, everyone, we´re doing well, take a break."
The people exited the stage in various directions. The members of the school orchestra put down their instruments and began talking.
"Okay, Kuno, you can put me down now," Akane growled at the older boy, who was still holding her.
"Ah, fair Akane," Kuno, who obviously missed the dangerous edge to her voice, sighed. "Together, we make the perfect pair! If only the play ended differently ... if only Christine did not turn her loving Phantom away in so cruel a fashion ..."
"Put me down NOW, Kuno," Akane snapped, louder this time. She glanced out at the seats. There was Ranma, sitting with the other understudies. Shampoo had wasted no time in leaping into his lap, and was sitting there, her arms wrapped around his neck.
"Shampoo so happy Ranma come be in play with her!" the Chinese girl squealed. "She know Ranma love her too much for him walk out on her!"
"Whatever, Shampoo," Ranma muttered. Kuno was still holding Akane ...
Shampoo squeezed him round the neck, almost cutting off his circulation. "You no worry, airen," she said. "Shampoo be Christine girl and Ranma be Raoul boy at big show, Shampoo promise ..."
Ranma turned to look at her. "Uh, Shampoo ... whaddya mean?"
Shampoo just beamed at him.
Ranma pushed her off his lap and into the next seat. "All right, Shampoo, I know that look. What are you plannin´ to do this time?"
Shampoo was already back on his lap. "Shampoo no plan," she smiled innocently. "You I love," she added, changing the subject.
Mr Huriko clapped his hands. "All right, people, places! We´ll take it from "Poor fool"."
Shampoo jumped to her feet, much to Ranma´s relief. "Shampoo go now," she called, over her shoulder. "Shampoo sing now very good for Ranma ..."
Ranma sighed, and folded his arms. He was still worried about what Shampoo had said ... what did she have planned THIS time?
Ranma watched as the others began rehearsing again. Shampoo DID sing well, and - he grinned - the character suited her. Kuno ... ah, he was all right ... a bit over-enthusiastic about the whole thing, though ... Ryoga ... Akane was right, he DID have quite a good voice, Ranma had to admit, despite himself. As for Akane ... He glanced at her. She was a good actress; she managed to look genuinely frightened as the fake body was tossed out onto the stage. And there she went, calling for RAOUL ...
Ranma glanced at his watch as they began "All I Ask of You". He didn´t really like this one ...
He sniffed, almost inaudibly, as they neared the end of the song. Ryoga looked positively ecstatic to be doing a song like this with Akane. Heh. Well good for him. At least that meant Ranma didn´t have to do such a stupid song ... He pretended not to notice the angry twinge in his stomach as Ryoga and Akane (It´s just a play, stupid! It´s not really them! It´s Raoul and Christine!) kissed at the end. Good job it didn´t have to be HIM doing that ...he was glad ... yeah ... ´course ...
A/N: Well that´s another chapter finished! Thanx for reading this far, I hope you liked it; if you did, REVIEW!!! and tell me. If you didn´t, REVIEW!!! and tell me. If you have an idea, REVIEW!!! and tell me. If ... Well, you get the idea. Anyway, I´ll start chapter 4 soon, see ya then! PS. Big prize for anyone (well, you can imagine me applauding for you, anyway ^_^,) who recognizes the scene from PotO in this chapter!!!