~A Once and Again~

The Way We Are

Chapter 6//Play, Pause, Rewind

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"MOM!" Grace cried, screaming over the sound of the groaning washing machine. Lily's head popped up in the laundry room's door.

"What?" Lily snapped, a little irritated as she herd the washing machine clanking behind her. Couldn't Grace see Lily was busy trying to deal with the troublesome machine?

"I have to get to play practice by 4:30," Grace told her mother urgently. She had gotten a part in the play... a very good part. Probably the second best female part. Cynthia had scored the lead. Grace wasn't surprised. Her new friend was very good at acting.

"Grace!" Lily sighed. She drew back into the laundry room and slapped a hand on the stop button. The washing machine slowly clattered to a stop. She came back out, and found Grace glaring at her.

"Mr. Morris is not going to appreciate it if I'm late."

"Right," Lily moved to the kitchen, sorting through the pile of papers gathered there-- a mixture of bills, Rick's architecture plans, and Zoe's rather good drawings of animals --for her keys.

Grace picked them off the counter underneath a half-eaten piece of toast and jam and showed them to her mother.

"I'm going to have to call a repairman," Lily grumbled, looking back at the opened laundry room door.

"Hmm," Grace said, distracted as she checked her backpack to make sure she had her script.

"Maybe I'll have to buy a new machine," Lily continued.

Grace's fingers brushed against the script and she rezipped her backpack, pleased. "Let's go," She said looking up at her mother.

Lily was lost in thought.

"Mom?"

"I should call before the offices close and see if someone can come by tomorrow," Lily said aloud.

Grace groaned, glancing at the clock. The door that connected to the garage opened, and Grace looked over to see Eli entering. He was in the process of moving out to the newly redone garage room. Eli looked back at her, blinking. "I thought you had practice or something..." Eli commented.

Grace plucked the keys out of her mother's hand. "I do... will you drive me?"

Eli nodded, looking briefly at the incapacitated Lily, and they went out the doors.

Grace nervously unzipped her backpack as she sat in the passenger seat, and looked for the script again. It was still there. This time Grace pulled it out and opened it. She skimmed over the words she had already begun to memorize. Her character was Cilia, a young girl in her twenties who was engaged to the character, Milos. But Milos was in love with the lead character, Ronda... played by Cynthia. Travis had proved to be just as good as an actor as Cynthia and he had gotten the part of Milos.

"So, what part did you get?" Eli asked as they drove along.

Grace looked up from the script pages. "Oh, uh, Cilia."

"Is that the lead?"

Grace closed the script and stashed it back inside her backpack, "No... Ronda is the lead."

"Oh," Eli said with a slight nod.

"Cilia is still a good part," Grace quickly added, "And my friend Cynthia is playing Ronda, and she's a really good actress. She's been in like every play Upton Sinclair has done."

"Cynthia?" Eli asked. He took his eyes off the road long enough to look over at Grace.

"Oh," Grace gave him a small uncomfortable smile, "She's just this new friend I have."

"Oh." Eli looked back at the road.

[[Eli - I feel like she's slipping away. Like we're both out on the ocean, and her raft is slowly drifting further from mine.... so, why aren't we on the same raft?? Isn't that how relationships should be? But, no... we have our separate rafts, and hers is getting further and further away.]]

"So..." Eli said after a pause, "Anti-Inflammatory has a gig on Friday."

"Really?" Grace asked with a hint of a smile.

Eli nodded, "We miss having you at practices..."

Grace shrugged, looking away, out the window at the passing houses. "I've been busy." She glanced back over at him, but he was looking straight ahead, "And I've been trying to deal with... this thing with my father and Tiffany."

"Is it bad?" Eli asked, not wanting to pressure her into talking about it. But he knew something big was up with Jake and his wife. It was written on Grace's face, Zoe's face... even Lily's face at times.

There were pulling into the school, and Eli almost wanted to drive around the block once more, to give Grace the proper time to talk to him about this.

Grace sighed, "Well... I guess what they say is true."

"What is that?"

"Just drop me off at the doors, okay? I don't want to be late," Grace said, and Eli pulled the car up to the curb. Grace looked back at him, "Remember how everyone always says that it's bad luck to see the bride in her wedding dress before the wedding?"

"Uh huh," Eli said with a nod.

Grace brushed her locks of brown hair behind her ear. "Well, I've just been thinking lately... that my dad did that. He saw Tiffany before the ceremony. She wasn't really mad, though. It was her wedding day... why would she be mad, you know?"

Eli put a hand on Grace's cheek, surprised to feel her trembling.

Grace continued, "But, yeah... that probably doesn't mean anything. It's just a stupid superstition. But, I've just been thinking about that lately... because..." Grace sighed, looking up into his hazel eyes. "They've been fighting, and Tiffany's going back to her mother's for a while... maybe forever."

"Oh," Eli said, speechless. His other hand rose up, and he held Grace's warm face in them.

"And I might never see my half-sister or brother," Grace's eyes were misty.

"Oh, Grace," Eli leaned closer.

Grace looked away, at the school. Eli followed the direction of her eyes and saw two people standing in front of the doors-- a girl in a short black dress with brown curly hair and a guy in board shorts and a yellow tee shirt. "I have to get to practice," Grace said, pulling away from him.

[[Eli - Her raft is nothing but a splotch of color on the horizon... I don't even see her anymore.]]

"I'll come pick up you," Eli offered, "When does practice end?"

Grace opened the car door and stepped out. "I'm not sure... I'll just get a ride with Cynthia or something."

"Okay," Eli said, disappointed. Grace closed the door, and Eli watched her walk over to the two people lingering by the doors. The guy and girl gave Grace friendly smiles and the three began talking and joking around. Eli put the car into drive, watching as the three of them disappeared into the school.

With a sigh, he drove away.

[[Eli - And I wonder if there is any way to call her back... to get her to notice the distance between us, and just... come back to me.]]

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"So, is there anything you can do?" Lily asked nervously.

Bob, the repairman, straightened up with a doubtful look on his face. "How long have you had this machine?"

Lily thought about it, "10... maybe 13 years."

Bob nodded, "The cost of the repairs to this one would probably end up equaling out to the cost of a new one. I'm not supposed to say that, because I'm supposed to be bringing business in..."

"Thanks," Lily said with a smile. "I appreciate your honesty."

Bob smiled back, "Hey no problem." Bob picked up his clipboard from the top of the dryer. He looked back at Lily. "So, are you uh, married?"

Lily blinked, "What?"

"I was thinking maybe you could treat me to a drink in reward for uh, my honesty," Bob gave her a toothy smile, and Lily was flattered. Bob wasn't her type, and she was married, but it still felt good to have a guy look at her in that way...

Lily held up her hand with her ring and smiled, "I'm married."

Bob nodded, "Alright, then. I'll just be on my way... but if you ever have any more problems... like say the dryer starts acting up, call me."

Lily nodded, and Bob slipped his card into her hand. Lily walked him to the back door, and after he had gone she looked down at the card with a silly little smile.

The phone rang, startling her out of her enjoyment of Bob's flattery.

Lily picked up the phone, "Hello?"

"Is this Lily Sammler?"

Lily smiled, still not used to the sound of her name linked with Rick's last name. "Yes, this is me."

The sound of ruffling papers, "Lily, this is Mira Thomson, at WIXP. You sent in an application three weeks ago with WIXP... as an assistant to the manager.

"That's right!" Lily said, cheerfully.

"Alright, Lily," The woman seemed to be smiling at her, "Les has picked you out of the applicants. You can start Monday if you still want the job."

"No interview?" Lily asked, surprised.

"Nope, Les likes to give his new assistants a shot at the real job, and then he sees if you fit."

"Oh," Lily clicked her teeth, "Well, yeah! I want the job. I'll be there on Monday."

"Alright Lily, we'll see you then."

Lily smiled as she clicked off the phone. Things were going good... finally. If only this good feeling could last.

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"Shut up!" Grace laughed, "I don't know every line!"

Travis smiled at her, "Well... you know all of Cilia's lines, at least... and probably most of the rest of them, too."

Grace smiled, "So, I read the play a few times."

"It's only the first week!" Travis kidded her. He plucked the script out of Grace's hands, "Live dangerously."

"Hey!" Grace tried to grab the book back, "I need to read my lines for the next scene."

Travis smiled smugly at her, he looked down at the script and read off a line at random, one of Ronda's lines, "My mother says that Milos is nothing but a bum."

Grace couldn't help but say the next line, Cilia's line, "Your mother doesn't know anything about Milos. And it doesn't matter to me what your mother says about my fiancé... so why does it matter to you?"

Travis smiled and nodded, "I told you." He handed Grace back the script, "You've got this down cold."

Grace shrugged, "I guess I just really into this play. It's something new, and different and fun... something to take my mind off everything else in my life."

Travis's eyes lingered on hers. Grace looked down shyly, looking at her script. "I know exactly what you mean," Travis spoke up. "Acting is such a release... you can become someone else. Everyone needs to be someone else, sometimes."

Grace looked up into his blue eyes, and smiled. He understood.

* * *

"Are you all moved out?" Jessie asked eagerly.

Eli nodded, "The attic room is all yours."

Zoe pouted in her seat at the table. "I still don't see why Jessie got the attic," She mumbled.

Lily overheard her as she was coming in from the dining room. "I thought you liked your room."

Zoe shrugged.

"Where's Grace?" Rick asked, coming in from the living room. "I thought we were going to have everyone together when we told them..."

"Told us what?" Jessie asked, a little fearful.

Lily caught on to Jessie's fear over what the news might be and quickly smiled. "I'll have to tell Grace when she gets home from practice... but well, I got a job."

"You did?" Zoe asked, curious.

"As an assistant to the manager at WIXP," Lily explained. "The bookstore just wasn't enough to support me anymore... and so..."

"That's cool," Jessie said, glad the news wasn't something that would be changing her life in any big way... like a baby or something.

Eli nodded, but he looked distracted. "When does practice get done?"

Lily shrugged, "Grace didn't say. She just said she'd get a ride home with one of her fellow actors." Lily went over to the cabinet and took out a stack of plates.

"Did you want me to run over and pick her up?" Eli offered.

Lily smiled, "There's no need for that... She'll be fine." Lily looked over at Rick and Rick nodded, encouraging her to speak whatever it was she wanted to say. "Eli, we were thinking that with Rick and I both having fulltime jobs, that maybe we could think about getting a third car. You know, something for you to use... and Grace when she turns 16. Another car around here would be very helpful."

Eli gave a small smile to his eager stepmother. This was something he had wanted... for so long. But, now, it just didn't really matter as much to him.

[[Eli - I wonder how she got so far away to begin with. Why didn't I see her drifting away earlier, and tie her raft to mine when I still had the chance?]]

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