Part Seven
As for Maria, not working at the CD left her with a lot of free time on her hands. It was the last thing she wanted so she filled it up hanging around with her new friends, always keeping herself at a distance. Once a week she had a rehearsal with Marc but by Wednesday, Maria decided to increase her extra curricular activities. She tried out for the school play. Without much effort on her part, to the disgust of other contenders, her acting and singing abilities won her the lead role and it seemed in minutes Maria was engrossed in learning lines, practising. Her new circle of friends widened even further to include the drama students. Yet none of them knew her at all. If they did they would see the smiles she gave never reached her eyes or the subtle looks she sent in the way of her former friends.
What made her even busier was the cheerleaders. With the big game coming up they decided they needed something special and she was it. They were using her but Mara didn't mind. She wanted to be busy and she was using them as well. The plan was simple. Maria would sing a song and lead while the cheerleaders followed. They chose Madison Avenue's Who the Hell are You? As the song they were going to use was fast, between the lot of them with Maria's input, they choreographed a dance routine worthy of Britney or Christina. If it wasn't for Maria's hurt it would have actually been a lot of fun even though it was hard work. Still the routine did cheer her up immensely and the cheerleaders and her spent every spare moment they had practising. They even kicked the team away a few times so that they could have what they termed a private discussions with Maria.
Some of the girls were actually quite nice and after a the first couple attempts they made to find out what made Maria separate from her friends and being shot down, they got the hint, and the subject was left alone. Instead she and the other girls did girl things, discussed guys and planned their routine. It made Maria miss Liz, Isabel and Tess a lot but she refused to give in to her tears.
Maria passed probation that first week and was now a permanent member of the staff. She spent all of Friday and most of Saturday there, her face in the kitchen now a familiar one and her doing her homework in the breakroom a regular occurrence. Marc even joined her there sometimes with his homework, while the chefs brought in a variety of foods for her to taste and eat.
By the time, the 10th day since the break up – but who was counting - had passed life had changed little. Alex and Kyle finally decided, after spending the weekend deciding whether or not to interfere, to ask Maria why she wasn't working at the CD anymore. They were not stupid and were aware that Maria would probably not talk to them, judging by her avoidance tactics of late but they had a plan. It was a simple plan.
Alex and Kyle, with Isabel and Tess's help would record a cassette for Maria asking what they wanted to know. They decided against leaving a message on her phone to prevent Amy hearing it. Phoning her was also out of the question since she would probably hang up on them. Isabel would unlock Maria's car door at school and they would place it in her radio ready to play when she got it. It was for this reason Alex brought his dad's voice activated tape recorder to the Crashdown. He stored it in the breakroom in Liz's locker till the place was almost empty and they could come up with a good message.
That evening, it was almost closing time. Liz and Courtney were the only ones on duty when Alex went to get the recorder finally. He switched it on and was about to begin the message they had decided on when Liz called him into the kitchen to help lift something. Leaving the recorder on the table he left the breakroom and headed into the kitchen. Michael had a box and was trying to pick it up when Alex showed up and lifted the other half. Together they moved it out the way, and carried it down to the basement under Liz's directions.
In the breakroom, however Courtney was making her weekly phonecall to her superiors on the status of the group. Unbeknownst to her the voice activated recorder began recording the second a sound was heard and her entire conversation was recorded.
"4523 reporting in."
"Yes, sir. Things are going splendidly here sir."
"Yes sir. I realise that they are still together but they barely speak. Michael is almost never there and Maria hasn't been seen anywhere but school since the mission was accomplished. Right now they aren't talking to her, thinking she betrayed them and they aren't talking to each other."
"Another week, sir and they will completely fall apart."
"You picked the right person to appear as a betrayal. Maria kissing Max was act of genius on your part and a genius act on Santia's part."
"No, sir, no-one suspects it wasn't really Maria."
"Yes sir. Tomorrow sir."
The recording stopped as Courtney stopped speaking.
End Part Seven
A/N
To answer a question on how i started writing this fic...lets just say it was therapy. I had this huge fight with a friend, and was feeling a tad underappreciated, so i did what i usually do...i started writing, and this was the result.
Thanks for the feedback - you guys are the greatest, even if i do repeat that all the time.
Domino
As for Maria, not working at the CD left her with a lot of free time on her hands. It was the last thing she wanted so she filled it up hanging around with her new friends, always keeping herself at a distance. Once a week she had a rehearsal with Marc but by Wednesday, Maria decided to increase her extra curricular activities. She tried out for the school play. Without much effort on her part, to the disgust of other contenders, her acting and singing abilities won her the lead role and it seemed in minutes Maria was engrossed in learning lines, practising. Her new circle of friends widened even further to include the drama students. Yet none of them knew her at all. If they did they would see the smiles she gave never reached her eyes or the subtle looks she sent in the way of her former friends.
What made her even busier was the cheerleaders. With the big game coming up they decided they needed something special and she was it. They were using her but Mara didn't mind. She wanted to be busy and she was using them as well. The plan was simple. Maria would sing a song and lead while the cheerleaders followed. They chose Madison Avenue's Who the Hell are You? As the song they were going to use was fast, between the lot of them with Maria's input, they choreographed a dance routine worthy of Britney or Christina. If it wasn't for Maria's hurt it would have actually been a lot of fun even though it was hard work. Still the routine did cheer her up immensely and the cheerleaders and her spent every spare moment they had practising. They even kicked the team away a few times so that they could have what they termed a private discussions with Maria.
Some of the girls were actually quite nice and after a the first couple attempts they made to find out what made Maria separate from her friends and being shot down, they got the hint, and the subject was left alone. Instead she and the other girls did girl things, discussed guys and planned their routine. It made Maria miss Liz, Isabel and Tess a lot but she refused to give in to her tears.
Maria passed probation that first week and was now a permanent member of the staff. She spent all of Friday and most of Saturday there, her face in the kitchen now a familiar one and her doing her homework in the breakroom a regular occurrence. Marc even joined her there sometimes with his homework, while the chefs brought in a variety of foods for her to taste and eat.
By the time, the 10th day since the break up – but who was counting - had passed life had changed little. Alex and Kyle finally decided, after spending the weekend deciding whether or not to interfere, to ask Maria why she wasn't working at the CD anymore. They were not stupid and were aware that Maria would probably not talk to them, judging by her avoidance tactics of late but they had a plan. It was a simple plan.
Alex and Kyle, with Isabel and Tess's help would record a cassette for Maria asking what they wanted to know. They decided against leaving a message on her phone to prevent Amy hearing it. Phoning her was also out of the question since she would probably hang up on them. Isabel would unlock Maria's car door at school and they would place it in her radio ready to play when she got it. It was for this reason Alex brought his dad's voice activated tape recorder to the Crashdown. He stored it in the breakroom in Liz's locker till the place was almost empty and they could come up with a good message.
That evening, it was almost closing time. Liz and Courtney were the only ones on duty when Alex went to get the recorder finally. He switched it on and was about to begin the message they had decided on when Liz called him into the kitchen to help lift something. Leaving the recorder on the table he left the breakroom and headed into the kitchen. Michael had a box and was trying to pick it up when Alex showed up and lifted the other half. Together they moved it out the way, and carried it down to the basement under Liz's directions.
In the breakroom, however Courtney was making her weekly phonecall to her superiors on the status of the group. Unbeknownst to her the voice activated recorder began recording the second a sound was heard and her entire conversation was recorded.
"4523 reporting in."
"Yes, sir. Things are going splendidly here sir."
"Yes sir. I realise that they are still together but they barely speak. Michael is almost never there and Maria hasn't been seen anywhere but school since the mission was accomplished. Right now they aren't talking to her, thinking she betrayed them and they aren't talking to each other."
"Another week, sir and they will completely fall apart."
"You picked the right person to appear as a betrayal. Maria kissing Max was act of genius on your part and a genius act on Santia's part."
"No, sir, no-one suspects it wasn't really Maria."
"Yes sir. Tomorrow sir."
The recording stopped as Courtney stopped speaking.
End Part Seven
A/N
To answer a question on how i started writing this fic...lets just say it was therapy. I had this huge fight with a friend, and was feeling a tad underappreciated, so i did what i usually do...i started writing, and this was the result.
Thanks for the feedback - you guys are the greatest, even if i do repeat that all the time.
Domino