AN: Well, I have defiantly fallen behind schedule. I will try as hard as I
can to keep writing, but spring is always the hardest semester. Anyways, I
did not like the original chapter 8 so I rewrote it to make it fit with my
overall plans. I bet that many of you will not like it, but it defiantly
sets up the ending. Well enjoy.
Chapter 8: Breaking a Leg
Lizzie looked at the pile of homework sitting on her desk. Slowly, she reached over an picked up the first notebook. Although it was Friday, and the opening night of her play, she still needed something to take her mind off of her miserable excuse for a life.
Earlier in the day, Miranda had seen Brad talking with Ken, Greg, and Dan. Instinctively she thought that the date was just a plot for David to once again humiliate Lizzie. "But he is on the football team," Lizzie retaliated, unwilling to admit that she had made yet another bad choice of guys. "Of course he is going to talk to those guys, it doesn't mean anything."
Miranda kept pressuring Lizzie to cancel the date, but Lizzie still refused. Now, sitting alone at her desk, Lizzie wished that she had taken Miranda's advice. She reached over and picked up her purple phone, and dialed Brad's number.
Lizzie let the phone ring six times before hanging up. Unable to cancel her date, she returned her attention to her homework. As she opened her science folder, all the papers inside fell to the floor.
"Ugh," Lizzie groaned as she bent over to pick up the papers. She began putting them back in order of the due date. This was the first time she had actually looked back at her work. They started off as usual mostly B's with a couple of A's thrown in. Soon the B's turned to C's then to C- 's. Finally Lizzie picked up the last two homework assignments, both D's. "Wow," Lizzie sighed realizing just how much her work had been slipping. She did not go through the rest of her subjects, but she knew they were the same way.
"Are you ready to go," Lizzie mom asked, sticking her head through the door. "You don't want to be late for your acting debut."
"Ah, yeah mom," Lizzie replied, quickly shoving the last two homeworks in her folder, "I'll be right down."
The ride to the high school was very quiet. "You alright sweety?" Lizzie mom asked, breaking the silence. "You look nervous."
"Yeah, I am just a little nervous," Lizzie replied. After answering her mothers question, Lizzie turned an stared out the window. As she watched the houses fly by, she realized how much easier it was to lie to her mom each time she did it. It was now to the point where she was doing it every day to keep her mom from knowing just how bad her life had become.
"Well why don't you tell me what your play is about," Jo suggested. "It will keep you mind busy."
Lizzie turned and looked at her mom. She really did not want to talk about the play right now, but decided it would help her cover if she did. "It's about the jury in a murder trial," Lizzie started.
"A murder trial," Jo exclaimed, shocked that the school would allow freshman to be involved with such things.
"Don't worry mom, it's just the deliberation process. There is no violence or anything like that happening." Lizzie's comment had effectively removed the concern from her mothers face so she continued her story. "Initially, there is only one guy who thinks the defendant is innocent. He reexamines the evidence and convinces everybody else that the boy is not guilty."
Lizzie's story had taken up most of the time, and after about a minute of silence they had arrived at the school. "Well here you are," Jo said, bringing the van to a stop. "Break a leg,"
"Thanks mom," Lizzie replied as she got out of the van. She walked across the wet grass and through the stage entrance.
After entering the school. Lizzie quickly made her way to the dressing room. Once inside, she changed into a white blouse, with a blue skirt and jacket. With her costume on, she made her way to the makeup room.
At fist glance the makeup room looked like normal. There were many makeup kits open with their contents strewn about the counters. Lizzie always thought it was interesting how the guys always took so much care with their makeup, when they were slobs with everything else. Upon further inspection Lizzie notices that there were a lot of non-makeup related items at everybody work aria. Flowers, notes, and balloons were the most popular items she saw. As she approached her chair she noticed that she had some of her own.
On the table were two roses, and a purple bear. Lizzie sat down, picked up the bear, and read the attached note aloud. "Lizzie, Sorry for being a dirk about Brad. I hope your date goes well. Break a leg. Miranda."
"Oh, Miranda," Lizzie sighed. Lizzie set the bear in her lap and picked up her second gift, which was a yellow rose. Attached was a small piece of paper which read "Break a leg Lizzie." Lizzie was puzzled by the gift. "Hay Barbra, did you see who put this here?" she asked the girl sitting next to her. Barbra shook her head no. Lizzie turned and asked others students the same thing, but no one saw who it was.
Lizzie returned to her station and picked up the third, and final gift. This one was a red rose stuck inside a folded piece of paper. Lizzie opened the paper and began reading it. "Dear Lizzie, I can not wait until your acting debut. I will be in the front row cheering you on. Break a leg. Brad"
"Ah, that is so sweat," Lizzie squeaked. She gave each gift one more look, before setting them off to the side. With the presents out the way, she turned her attention to her makeup. As she applied the layers of makeup needed for the stage, her nerves gradually became more apparent. On more than one occasion, Lizzie needed to stop what she was doing because her hands were twitching and she was afraid that she would make a mistake.
Lizzie tried as hard as she could to control herself. "You can do this, you have done bigger things than this, this is not nearly as bad as Rome, at least you have more than one days practice this time." When her self imposed encouragement did not help her she tried running through her lines, but still was unable to calm herself. She tried as hard as she could to continue applying her makeup amongst the jitters of her hands and the surges of pain from her stomach.
After about thirty minutes Lizzie was finished with her makeup. "Hay Barbra, does my makeup look ok?" Although Lizzie had done her own makeup for some time, the ability to correctly apply her stage makeup had alluded her.
"I think you finally got the hang of it McGuire," Barbra replied sounding impressed.
"Barbra," Hank, her boyfriend, cut in, "I am going to check out the audience, you coming?"
"Sure," she replied. "What about you McGuire?"
"Why not," Lizzie replied as the three headed towards the stage.
Barbra and Hank blocked Lizzie from being able to see anything, so she walked to the other side of the stage to take a peek. She pulled back the curtain just enough to see most of the auditorium. The first thing she noticed was Brad sitting in the from row as promised. Lizzie heart stared to beat faster at the site of him sitting there. Almost immediately after she spotted Brad, she spotted her best friend. Her jaw dropped as she saw Miranda sitting next to Larry Tudgeman, the two laughing and carrying on. "This can not be happening," Lizzie quietly said to herself.
Lizzie continued scanning the audience, her parents and brother were there, along with Miss Ungermeyer, Kate, Ethan, David, and half of the school. The more she scanned the audience, the more people she recognized. With each person she recognized her level of nervousness increased.
Unable to take it anymore, Lizzie threw the curtain back into place and leaned against the wall with her eyes shut. "There is no way I am going out on stage," she said, her voice quivering.
"There you are," Dave said as he walked through an open stage door. Lizzie jumped at the sound of his voice. "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you. I just need to give you your microphone."
"Oh, yeah, thanks. I'll go put it on right away," Lizzie said, her voice still quivering. She took the microphone from Dave and headed to the dressing room.
"There is no time." Dave grabbed Lizzie arm before she could get away. "The play starts in a few minutes and Mr. O'Hara is calling for everyone to meet in the mini-theater. Take off your jacket and turn around. I will tape the cord to your shirt."
Lizzie's head was pounding due to her nerves, and the shock she had just received, and was not thinking properly. "What if I take off my jacket?"
Dave softly laughed. "If you take off you jacket, you will have more problems than just the cord. Mr. O'Hara will kill you for not sticking to your blocking." Lizzie closed her eyes as she realized how dumb her question was. Dave reached down and clipped the wireless pack to the back of Lizzie's skirt, an action that, without the microphone, would probably get him slapped by a girl. But Dave did his job with the utmost professionalism. He took out a roll of Gaffers Tape, ripped off a few small pieces, and began taping the cord to Lizzie's blouse. "Don't worry about the crowd, there is not that many of them. They haven't even opened the balcony yet."
"It's not that," Lizzie voice shook as she spoke. "Half of the school is out there. If I do something stupid, everyone will be talking about it Monday."
David laughed again. "Don't tell Barbra, but you could forget half of your lines, and still blow her out of the water. I think your reputation will survive the night." Dave put the last piece of tape on. "Alright, put you jacket back on and we will see if this works."
Dave handed Lizzie her jacket, and she put it back on. Dave fixed the microphone to her lapel, and reached behind her and turned on the transmitter on. "There you go," Dave said flashing a smile. "Now go break a leg."
"Thanks," Lizzie replied as she turned to go to do her warm ups. Although Dave's words had really brought no encouragement, and she was terrified of the crowd by the time she had entered the schools min-theater.
Lizzie quickly joined the rest of the cast in their warmup routines. Usually the constant stretching and pretending to be a tree had helped Lizzie clear her head, but just like every other remedy she had tried, it was no use.
As Lizzie walked with the others to the stage, she searched nervously for a way out of doing the play. Unfortunately her understudy was working, so that option would not work. Before she realized it she was standing just off stage. As the lights began to dim one final desperate thought arose in her head, RUN, but before she had the chance the stage lights brightened and she found herself following another student onto the stage.
Lizzie clumsily found her way to her seat, almost knocking over three chairs on her way. Once in her seat, she sat and waited for her first line. As she waited she looked up at the bright lights, then down at the black void where the audience was sitting. Although she could not make out any faces, she could see just enough of the outline of the audience to know they were there.
"Guilty," came a call from the boy sitting next to Lizzie.
This pulled Lizzie back into the play. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Sitting their on stage like a fool, Lizzie McGuire had forgotten her first line.
"Ah, ah, not guilty," Lizzie finally stated after a few minutes of silence. She then smiled in the satisfaction that she had remembered her line. As she awaited the next line to be said, Lizzie noticed that everyone was staring at her. "What?" she snapped forgetting that she was wearing a microphone.
The boy next to her quickly grabbed a pad of paper and a pen, which were part of the props, and quickly wrote the word guilty, and showed it to Lizzie.
"Oh, I mean guilty," Lizzie said completely breaking character, and letting her nervousness show. She then cringed as laughter came from the audience. This was how Lizzie's performance continued throughout the night. With each line there grew more and more laughs from the audience, which helped to lessen Lizzie's performance.
After what Lizzie thought was an eternity, the play drew to a close. All the characters had changed their vote to not guilty, and Foreman had informed the guard that the deliberation process was over. Slowly the students stood up and headed for the door.
Lizzie no longer cared about the blocking, she was only interested in getting off stage. She quickly got up and walked as fast as she could towards the exit. As she made her way behind the table, Barbra pushed back her chair and stood up. Lizzie tried to sidestep the new obstacle, but her feet became entwined in one another and she felt her body falling towards the ground.
For a moment, Lizzie thought that she had been spared the humiliation of falling to the ground as she collided with a piece of temporary walling that made the walls of the deliberation room set. A second after hitting the set, the wall began to fall away from Lizzie. She, and the rest of the cast, watched in horror as the wall crashed to stage floor, causing a domino effect and the other pieces of the wall soon followed.
Halfway through the collapse of the set, the lights quickly shut off, and the curtains quickly closed. Once the curtains were fully closed, the work lights shot on. Lizzie found herself staring at the fallen walls with everyone else staring at her. Slowly the tears began to build up behind Lizzie's eyes.
"Good job," the boy playing the Foreman said as he began walking off stage.
A couple of students followed the Foreman's lead and told Lizzie just how bad her performance was, but most just quietly headed for the changing rooms.
Lizzie tried as hard as she could to hold back her tears, but when Barbra put her hand on Lizzie's shoulder to comfort her, Lizzie broke down. With large tears falling down her cheeks, Lizzie ran past the fallen walls, and strait to the makeup room, ripping off her microphone and dropping it on the floor as she walked through the stage door.
"Miss McGuire," A voice behind her called. Lizzie turned to see Mr. O'Hara standing behind her. "Listen Lizzie, I know this will not be easy for you to hear, so I am going to just come out and say it. I am going to but your understudy in for the remainder of the shows, and I want to see you in my office Monday."
Lizzie did not know how to react to the news. On the one hand, she was not going to get embarrassed again, but on the other, she had just been thrown out of the play. Turning back around, Lizzie opened the door to the makeup room. The tears stopped falling as she entered the room, and she slowly made her way past the emptily chairs until she reached hers. Slowly she sat down and looked at the reflection in the mirror, which was slightly blurred from a few tears remaining in her eyes.
Lizzie wiped away the tears and began removing the already smeared makeup. When she was just about finished, the door opened and other members of the cast entered the room. At first Lizzie did not pay them any attention, but as more people entered Lizzie could not ignore the fact that nobody was saying anything, nor could she ignore the burning sensation on the back of her neck, due to their stares. Lizzie quickly finished removing the rest of her makeup and pushed her way through the now crowded room and retreated to the empty hall.
Unsure of where she was going, Lizzie wandered the halls thinking about what had just happened. As she turned a corner she recognized a tall boy with dark curly hair standing outside the prop shop. The last person she wanted to see now was David, so she quickly turned around began to walk away.
"I wanted to thank you McGuire," David yelled at her. Hearing his voice, Lizzie turned back around to face him. "I was worried that I would not be able to find any interesting footage to put in my review Monday, but thanks to your acting skills..."
"You are NOT going to air that during the school newscast," Lizzie interrupted.
"Why not?" David asked, pulling a small videotape from his backpack. "I think the rest of the school deserves to see this."
"David," Lizzie shouted back, "that would destroy me."
"And that would be a bad thing because?"
"DAVID," Lizzie shouted at the top of her lunges as the tears began to reappear. She was about to tell him how much like the old Kate he had become, when she noticed his smile growing. Lizzie immediately realized that David was fulling enjoying the argument, so with a loud "UGH" she turned around and quickly walked bach around the corner. As she turned the corner she noticed a pair of legs from a guy she was sure had just overheard her conversation with David. Not looking up to identify the boy, Lizzie quickened her pace as she headed towards the doors at the far end of the hall.
Lizzie wiped away a tear as she walked out into the crisp autumn night. Because of the slight chill in the air, and her mood, she folder her hands tightly across her chest in an effort to keep warm. "I can't stand him," She admitted to the cool night air. "We used to be best friends," she said with a sigh.
"You and David were best friends?" a strange voice said behind her.
"Yes we were," Lizzie said, slowly she turned her head to look at the stranger, "now would you please leave me alone..." Lizzie's head was turned just enough that she could see that it was Brad standing behind her. She also recognized the shoes as the ones she head just seen in the hallway.
"I'm sorry," Brad said softly, "I just thought that you might need some company, or would you rather be alone?"
"Thanks," Lizzie sweetly replied, "I could use someone to talk to." A smile grew on Lizzie's face, creating a drastic contrast from her cheeks, which were red from crying.
"No problem," Brad said. Noticing the slight chill in the air, Brad, being the gentleman he was, removed his jacket and draped it over Lizzie's shoulders. Lizzie accepted the offer and drew the coat tight around her. "So what happened?" Brad asked as they began walking away from the school.
The moon light guided their way to a local park about a half mile from the high school. It took Lizzie the entire walk their, and then some, to tell Brad what happened. To Brad's dismay she mistook his question. Lizzie never told him what happened on stage like Brad wanted, instead she rambled on about her relationship with David. Although this irritated Brad, what boy wants to hear the girl he likes talk about another boy that she likes, he realized that it was something that she really wanted, and needed, to talk about so he allowed her to continue.
"Well that explains a few things," Brad said as the two sat down on a park bench.
"Explains what?" Lizzie's words had no emotion behind them. The sad feelings that she had from telling her story, combined with her being happy that Brad was being so wonderful listening to her, and the emotions of her performance had left Lizzie drained of emotion and energy.
"Well, why he kept bugging me to tell him were I was taking you tonight, and why JB told me that he is obsessed with humiliating you and that I shouldn't tell him anything."
"You didn't tell him anything, did you?" Lizzie asked, suddenly remembering her conversation with Miranda earlier in the day.
"Well he kept bugging me so finally I told him that I was taking you to the Holly Rigatoni." Lizzie's Eyes widened and her moth dropped as she heard the bad news. "Too bad I had reservations at The Palomino." A smile grew on both Lizzie and Brad's face.
"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry, I forgot about our date," Lizzie said apologetically. "We can still go."
"It's all right. We can stay if you want to." Brad slowly reached out and took Lizzie's hand to comfort her.
"Thanks." The two exchanged another smile before falling into an awkward silence.
The silence lasted for what the two thought was hours. Lizzie looked up and was admiring the stars. Brad was also admiring the stars, only he was looking at the reflection in Lizzie's eyes. He sensed that she wanted to talk about what had happened earlier that night, but was unsure how to bring it up. "So what happed to you on stage tonight," he finally asked. "You were so great during rehearsals."
Lizzie simply replied, "Stage fright." She looked over at Brad who had a look of disbelief. "I don't do well in front of crowds. During my junior high graduation speech I tore down a curtain, it ended up covering the entire class."
"But what about Rome?" Brad questioned.
"I... I don't know," Lizzie replied as her eyes returned skyward. "There was so many things going on that night, that I guess I never really thought about the performance that much. I mean, the red carpet was so much fun, and right when I was starting to get nervous, Gor..., ah I mean David, who I thought had left the country, showed up and told me that Palo was setting me up." Lizzie turned back to face Brad. "All I thought about before the show was how David managed to save me, just like he always did. It wasn't until I was actually on stage, in front of all those people, that I really got nervous. Luckily I did not have to sing, just move my lips, which I still didn't do very well."
"So that's the secret, you just don't give yourself time to think about your performance?"
"I don't know," Lizzie said, "maybe."
The two once again fell into an awkward silence. This time it would be Lizzie who would speak first. She pulled her hand out of Brad's and placed both of them in her lap. Not wanting to see the reaction to her question on Brad's face she turned away and looked down at the two hands fidgeting nervously. "Brad, why did you ask me out. I mean, Kate told me that I would have a lot of guys lining up to take me out if I wasn't in such a bad mood all the time, and I can't blame them I don't want to be around me sometimes. I just don't have the strength to do anything. I can't do my homework, I can't stand up to my former best friend even thought I have enough dirt on him to permanently destroy him, and I can't get over my stage fright anymore." Tears were now flowing down Lizzie's cheek. She would have continued had Brad not interrupted her by taking her hand in his once more.
"You really want to know why I asked you out?" Lizzie looked at him and nodded between sniffles. "I had noticed the way you had been moping around between classes, but I also noticed how happy you sometimes were."
"When?"
"Right after rehearsal." Lizzie gave him a questioning look. "Every day you always left the stage smiling with your head held high. You voice always sounded so cheerful when you spoke, and you were so polite to everyone. That is until you entered the hallway. Then your smile would fade and you would stare at your feet and hardly acknowledge anyone who talked to you. I just figured that if I could somehow get that girl to come out for more that a few seconds a day, you would be a great person to date."
"Really," Lizzie asked softly.
"Yeah" With his free right hand, Brad gently brushed a few strands of Lizzie's hair and tucked then behind her ear. As he gazed into Lizzie's eyes, Brad rested his hand behind Lizzie's head.
Lizzie felt her heart skip a beat. Even through she never realized that she had ever acted like her former self, Brad had focused on the few seconds when she did, instead of the hours spent in her perpetual bad mood. Slowly her eyes closed and she felt her body slowly lean towards Brad. Why she was doing it she did not know, she only knew that it felt right. As she leaned in, Lizzie felt Brads hand pulling her towards him. She puckered her lips right before What Dreams Are Made Of came bellowing out of her purse.
Lizzie's eyes opened to see that her lips were just a fraction of an inch away from Brad's. She quickly pulled back, which caused Brad to do the same thing, and pulled her cell phone out of her purse. "Hello," she said into the phone.
Miranda's voice came out the other end of the phone. "Lizzie, where are you?"
"In the park, with Brad. Why?" Lizzie responded dazedly.
"Lizzie, you were supposed to meet your parents in the lobby. They would have called you sooner, but your mom's cell phone is dead."
"I'll, I'll be right there." Lizzie looked back at Brad as she hung up the phone. She did not want to go, but she knew her parents would be mad. "My parents are waiting."
"Can I walk you back?" Brad asked.
"Sure."
Lizzie and Brad left the bench and started walking back to the school. The trip back did not take long as Lizzie was practically running. Brad, being about six inches taller than Lizzie, was having no problems keeping up with her.
"Lizzie," Brad said as they walked across the schools parking lot, "the fair is coming to town, and I was wondering if I could take you?"
"Sounds great, if I am not grounded," Lizzie smiled as she reached for the door.
"Ooo. You'd better not come in with me. My dad doesn't really like me dating you. I don't think I could explain being alone with you."
"Ok," Brad said after a moment.
"Thanks," Lizzie said. She leaned up and kissed Brad on the cheek before adding, "For everything."
Lizzie then slipped through the door and towards her worried parents.
Chapter 8: Breaking a Leg
Lizzie looked at the pile of homework sitting on her desk. Slowly, she reached over an picked up the first notebook. Although it was Friday, and the opening night of her play, she still needed something to take her mind off of her miserable excuse for a life.
Earlier in the day, Miranda had seen Brad talking with Ken, Greg, and Dan. Instinctively she thought that the date was just a plot for David to once again humiliate Lizzie. "But he is on the football team," Lizzie retaliated, unwilling to admit that she had made yet another bad choice of guys. "Of course he is going to talk to those guys, it doesn't mean anything."
Miranda kept pressuring Lizzie to cancel the date, but Lizzie still refused. Now, sitting alone at her desk, Lizzie wished that she had taken Miranda's advice. She reached over and picked up her purple phone, and dialed Brad's number.
Lizzie let the phone ring six times before hanging up. Unable to cancel her date, she returned her attention to her homework. As she opened her science folder, all the papers inside fell to the floor.
"Ugh," Lizzie groaned as she bent over to pick up the papers. She began putting them back in order of the due date. This was the first time she had actually looked back at her work. They started off as usual mostly B's with a couple of A's thrown in. Soon the B's turned to C's then to C- 's. Finally Lizzie picked up the last two homework assignments, both D's. "Wow," Lizzie sighed realizing just how much her work had been slipping. She did not go through the rest of her subjects, but she knew they were the same way.
"Are you ready to go," Lizzie mom asked, sticking her head through the door. "You don't want to be late for your acting debut."
"Ah, yeah mom," Lizzie replied, quickly shoving the last two homeworks in her folder, "I'll be right down."
The ride to the high school was very quiet. "You alright sweety?" Lizzie mom asked, breaking the silence. "You look nervous."
"Yeah, I am just a little nervous," Lizzie replied. After answering her mothers question, Lizzie turned an stared out the window. As she watched the houses fly by, she realized how much easier it was to lie to her mom each time she did it. It was now to the point where she was doing it every day to keep her mom from knowing just how bad her life had become.
"Well why don't you tell me what your play is about," Jo suggested. "It will keep you mind busy."
Lizzie turned and looked at her mom. She really did not want to talk about the play right now, but decided it would help her cover if she did. "It's about the jury in a murder trial," Lizzie started.
"A murder trial," Jo exclaimed, shocked that the school would allow freshman to be involved with such things.
"Don't worry mom, it's just the deliberation process. There is no violence or anything like that happening." Lizzie's comment had effectively removed the concern from her mothers face so she continued her story. "Initially, there is only one guy who thinks the defendant is innocent. He reexamines the evidence and convinces everybody else that the boy is not guilty."
Lizzie's story had taken up most of the time, and after about a minute of silence they had arrived at the school. "Well here you are," Jo said, bringing the van to a stop. "Break a leg,"
"Thanks mom," Lizzie replied as she got out of the van. She walked across the wet grass and through the stage entrance.
After entering the school. Lizzie quickly made her way to the dressing room. Once inside, she changed into a white blouse, with a blue skirt and jacket. With her costume on, she made her way to the makeup room.
At fist glance the makeup room looked like normal. There were many makeup kits open with their contents strewn about the counters. Lizzie always thought it was interesting how the guys always took so much care with their makeup, when they were slobs with everything else. Upon further inspection Lizzie notices that there were a lot of non-makeup related items at everybody work aria. Flowers, notes, and balloons were the most popular items she saw. As she approached her chair she noticed that she had some of her own.
On the table were two roses, and a purple bear. Lizzie sat down, picked up the bear, and read the attached note aloud. "Lizzie, Sorry for being a dirk about Brad. I hope your date goes well. Break a leg. Miranda."
"Oh, Miranda," Lizzie sighed. Lizzie set the bear in her lap and picked up her second gift, which was a yellow rose. Attached was a small piece of paper which read "Break a leg Lizzie." Lizzie was puzzled by the gift. "Hay Barbra, did you see who put this here?" she asked the girl sitting next to her. Barbra shook her head no. Lizzie turned and asked others students the same thing, but no one saw who it was.
Lizzie returned to her station and picked up the third, and final gift. This one was a red rose stuck inside a folded piece of paper. Lizzie opened the paper and began reading it. "Dear Lizzie, I can not wait until your acting debut. I will be in the front row cheering you on. Break a leg. Brad"
"Ah, that is so sweat," Lizzie squeaked. She gave each gift one more look, before setting them off to the side. With the presents out the way, she turned her attention to her makeup. As she applied the layers of makeup needed for the stage, her nerves gradually became more apparent. On more than one occasion, Lizzie needed to stop what she was doing because her hands were twitching and she was afraid that she would make a mistake.
Lizzie tried as hard as she could to control herself. "You can do this, you have done bigger things than this, this is not nearly as bad as Rome, at least you have more than one days practice this time." When her self imposed encouragement did not help her she tried running through her lines, but still was unable to calm herself. She tried as hard as she could to continue applying her makeup amongst the jitters of her hands and the surges of pain from her stomach.
After about thirty minutes Lizzie was finished with her makeup. "Hay Barbra, does my makeup look ok?" Although Lizzie had done her own makeup for some time, the ability to correctly apply her stage makeup had alluded her.
"I think you finally got the hang of it McGuire," Barbra replied sounding impressed.
"Barbra," Hank, her boyfriend, cut in, "I am going to check out the audience, you coming?"
"Sure," she replied. "What about you McGuire?"
"Why not," Lizzie replied as the three headed towards the stage.
Barbra and Hank blocked Lizzie from being able to see anything, so she walked to the other side of the stage to take a peek. She pulled back the curtain just enough to see most of the auditorium. The first thing she noticed was Brad sitting in the from row as promised. Lizzie heart stared to beat faster at the site of him sitting there. Almost immediately after she spotted Brad, she spotted her best friend. Her jaw dropped as she saw Miranda sitting next to Larry Tudgeman, the two laughing and carrying on. "This can not be happening," Lizzie quietly said to herself.
Lizzie continued scanning the audience, her parents and brother were there, along with Miss Ungermeyer, Kate, Ethan, David, and half of the school. The more she scanned the audience, the more people she recognized. With each person she recognized her level of nervousness increased.
Unable to take it anymore, Lizzie threw the curtain back into place and leaned against the wall with her eyes shut. "There is no way I am going out on stage," she said, her voice quivering.
"There you are," Dave said as he walked through an open stage door. Lizzie jumped at the sound of his voice. "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you. I just need to give you your microphone."
"Oh, yeah, thanks. I'll go put it on right away," Lizzie said, her voice still quivering. She took the microphone from Dave and headed to the dressing room.
"There is no time." Dave grabbed Lizzie arm before she could get away. "The play starts in a few minutes and Mr. O'Hara is calling for everyone to meet in the mini-theater. Take off your jacket and turn around. I will tape the cord to your shirt."
Lizzie's head was pounding due to her nerves, and the shock she had just received, and was not thinking properly. "What if I take off my jacket?"
Dave softly laughed. "If you take off you jacket, you will have more problems than just the cord. Mr. O'Hara will kill you for not sticking to your blocking." Lizzie closed her eyes as she realized how dumb her question was. Dave reached down and clipped the wireless pack to the back of Lizzie's skirt, an action that, without the microphone, would probably get him slapped by a girl. But Dave did his job with the utmost professionalism. He took out a roll of Gaffers Tape, ripped off a few small pieces, and began taping the cord to Lizzie's blouse. "Don't worry about the crowd, there is not that many of them. They haven't even opened the balcony yet."
"It's not that," Lizzie voice shook as she spoke. "Half of the school is out there. If I do something stupid, everyone will be talking about it Monday."
David laughed again. "Don't tell Barbra, but you could forget half of your lines, and still blow her out of the water. I think your reputation will survive the night." Dave put the last piece of tape on. "Alright, put you jacket back on and we will see if this works."
Dave handed Lizzie her jacket, and she put it back on. Dave fixed the microphone to her lapel, and reached behind her and turned on the transmitter on. "There you go," Dave said flashing a smile. "Now go break a leg."
"Thanks," Lizzie replied as she turned to go to do her warm ups. Although Dave's words had really brought no encouragement, and she was terrified of the crowd by the time she had entered the schools min-theater.
Lizzie quickly joined the rest of the cast in their warmup routines. Usually the constant stretching and pretending to be a tree had helped Lizzie clear her head, but just like every other remedy she had tried, it was no use.
As Lizzie walked with the others to the stage, she searched nervously for a way out of doing the play. Unfortunately her understudy was working, so that option would not work. Before she realized it she was standing just off stage. As the lights began to dim one final desperate thought arose in her head, RUN, but before she had the chance the stage lights brightened and she found herself following another student onto the stage.
Lizzie clumsily found her way to her seat, almost knocking over three chairs on her way. Once in her seat, she sat and waited for her first line. As she waited she looked up at the bright lights, then down at the black void where the audience was sitting. Although she could not make out any faces, she could see just enough of the outline of the audience to know they were there.
"Guilty," came a call from the boy sitting next to Lizzie.
This pulled Lizzie back into the play. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Sitting their on stage like a fool, Lizzie McGuire had forgotten her first line.
"Ah, ah, not guilty," Lizzie finally stated after a few minutes of silence. She then smiled in the satisfaction that she had remembered her line. As she awaited the next line to be said, Lizzie noticed that everyone was staring at her. "What?" she snapped forgetting that she was wearing a microphone.
The boy next to her quickly grabbed a pad of paper and a pen, which were part of the props, and quickly wrote the word guilty, and showed it to Lizzie.
"Oh, I mean guilty," Lizzie said completely breaking character, and letting her nervousness show. She then cringed as laughter came from the audience. This was how Lizzie's performance continued throughout the night. With each line there grew more and more laughs from the audience, which helped to lessen Lizzie's performance.
After what Lizzie thought was an eternity, the play drew to a close. All the characters had changed their vote to not guilty, and Foreman had informed the guard that the deliberation process was over. Slowly the students stood up and headed for the door.
Lizzie no longer cared about the blocking, she was only interested in getting off stage. She quickly got up and walked as fast as she could towards the exit. As she made her way behind the table, Barbra pushed back her chair and stood up. Lizzie tried to sidestep the new obstacle, but her feet became entwined in one another and she felt her body falling towards the ground.
For a moment, Lizzie thought that she had been spared the humiliation of falling to the ground as she collided with a piece of temporary walling that made the walls of the deliberation room set. A second after hitting the set, the wall began to fall away from Lizzie. She, and the rest of the cast, watched in horror as the wall crashed to stage floor, causing a domino effect and the other pieces of the wall soon followed.
Halfway through the collapse of the set, the lights quickly shut off, and the curtains quickly closed. Once the curtains were fully closed, the work lights shot on. Lizzie found herself staring at the fallen walls with everyone else staring at her. Slowly the tears began to build up behind Lizzie's eyes.
"Good job," the boy playing the Foreman said as he began walking off stage.
A couple of students followed the Foreman's lead and told Lizzie just how bad her performance was, but most just quietly headed for the changing rooms.
Lizzie tried as hard as she could to hold back her tears, but when Barbra put her hand on Lizzie's shoulder to comfort her, Lizzie broke down. With large tears falling down her cheeks, Lizzie ran past the fallen walls, and strait to the makeup room, ripping off her microphone and dropping it on the floor as she walked through the stage door.
"Miss McGuire," A voice behind her called. Lizzie turned to see Mr. O'Hara standing behind her. "Listen Lizzie, I know this will not be easy for you to hear, so I am going to just come out and say it. I am going to but your understudy in for the remainder of the shows, and I want to see you in my office Monday."
Lizzie did not know how to react to the news. On the one hand, she was not going to get embarrassed again, but on the other, she had just been thrown out of the play. Turning back around, Lizzie opened the door to the makeup room. The tears stopped falling as she entered the room, and she slowly made her way past the emptily chairs until she reached hers. Slowly she sat down and looked at the reflection in the mirror, which was slightly blurred from a few tears remaining in her eyes.
Lizzie wiped away the tears and began removing the already smeared makeup. When she was just about finished, the door opened and other members of the cast entered the room. At first Lizzie did not pay them any attention, but as more people entered Lizzie could not ignore the fact that nobody was saying anything, nor could she ignore the burning sensation on the back of her neck, due to their stares. Lizzie quickly finished removing the rest of her makeup and pushed her way through the now crowded room and retreated to the empty hall.
Unsure of where she was going, Lizzie wandered the halls thinking about what had just happened. As she turned a corner she recognized a tall boy with dark curly hair standing outside the prop shop. The last person she wanted to see now was David, so she quickly turned around began to walk away.
"I wanted to thank you McGuire," David yelled at her. Hearing his voice, Lizzie turned back around to face him. "I was worried that I would not be able to find any interesting footage to put in my review Monday, but thanks to your acting skills..."
"You are NOT going to air that during the school newscast," Lizzie interrupted.
"Why not?" David asked, pulling a small videotape from his backpack. "I think the rest of the school deserves to see this."
"David," Lizzie shouted back, "that would destroy me."
"And that would be a bad thing because?"
"DAVID," Lizzie shouted at the top of her lunges as the tears began to reappear. She was about to tell him how much like the old Kate he had become, when she noticed his smile growing. Lizzie immediately realized that David was fulling enjoying the argument, so with a loud "UGH" she turned around and quickly walked bach around the corner. As she turned the corner she noticed a pair of legs from a guy she was sure had just overheard her conversation with David. Not looking up to identify the boy, Lizzie quickened her pace as she headed towards the doors at the far end of the hall.
Lizzie wiped away a tear as she walked out into the crisp autumn night. Because of the slight chill in the air, and her mood, she folder her hands tightly across her chest in an effort to keep warm. "I can't stand him," She admitted to the cool night air. "We used to be best friends," she said with a sigh.
"You and David were best friends?" a strange voice said behind her.
"Yes we were," Lizzie said, slowly she turned her head to look at the stranger, "now would you please leave me alone..." Lizzie's head was turned just enough that she could see that it was Brad standing behind her. She also recognized the shoes as the ones she head just seen in the hallway.
"I'm sorry," Brad said softly, "I just thought that you might need some company, or would you rather be alone?"
"Thanks," Lizzie sweetly replied, "I could use someone to talk to." A smile grew on Lizzie's face, creating a drastic contrast from her cheeks, which were red from crying.
"No problem," Brad said. Noticing the slight chill in the air, Brad, being the gentleman he was, removed his jacket and draped it over Lizzie's shoulders. Lizzie accepted the offer and drew the coat tight around her. "So what happened?" Brad asked as they began walking away from the school.
The moon light guided their way to a local park about a half mile from the high school. It took Lizzie the entire walk their, and then some, to tell Brad what happened. To Brad's dismay she mistook his question. Lizzie never told him what happened on stage like Brad wanted, instead she rambled on about her relationship with David. Although this irritated Brad, what boy wants to hear the girl he likes talk about another boy that she likes, he realized that it was something that she really wanted, and needed, to talk about so he allowed her to continue.
"Well that explains a few things," Brad said as the two sat down on a park bench.
"Explains what?" Lizzie's words had no emotion behind them. The sad feelings that she had from telling her story, combined with her being happy that Brad was being so wonderful listening to her, and the emotions of her performance had left Lizzie drained of emotion and energy.
"Well, why he kept bugging me to tell him were I was taking you tonight, and why JB told me that he is obsessed with humiliating you and that I shouldn't tell him anything."
"You didn't tell him anything, did you?" Lizzie asked, suddenly remembering her conversation with Miranda earlier in the day.
"Well he kept bugging me so finally I told him that I was taking you to the Holly Rigatoni." Lizzie's Eyes widened and her moth dropped as she heard the bad news. "Too bad I had reservations at The Palomino." A smile grew on both Lizzie and Brad's face.
"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry, I forgot about our date," Lizzie said apologetically. "We can still go."
"It's all right. We can stay if you want to." Brad slowly reached out and took Lizzie's hand to comfort her.
"Thanks." The two exchanged another smile before falling into an awkward silence.
The silence lasted for what the two thought was hours. Lizzie looked up and was admiring the stars. Brad was also admiring the stars, only he was looking at the reflection in Lizzie's eyes. He sensed that she wanted to talk about what had happened earlier that night, but was unsure how to bring it up. "So what happed to you on stage tonight," he finally asked. "You were so great during rehearsals."
Lizzie simply replied, "Stage fright." She looked over at Brad who had a look of disbelief. "I don't do well in front of crowds. During my junior high graduation speech I tore down a curtain, it ended up covering the entire class."
"But what about Rome?" Brad questioned.
"I... I don't know," Lizzie replied as her eyes returned skyward. "There was so many things going on that night, that I guess I never really thought about the performance that much. I mean, the red carpet was so much fun, and right when I was starting to get nervous, Gor..., ah I mean David, who I thought had left the country, showed up and told me that Palo was setting me up." Lizzie turned back to face Brad. "All I thought about before the show was how David managed to save me, just like he always did. It wasn't until I was actually on stage, in front of all those people, that I really got nervous. Luckily I did not have to sing, just move my lips, which I still didn't do very well."
"So that's the secret, you just don't give yourself time to think about your performance?"
"I don't know," Lizzie said, "maybe."
The two once again fell into an awkward silence. This time it would be Lizzie who would speak first. She pulled her hand out of Brad's and placed both of them in her lap. Not wanting to see the reaction to her question on Brad's face she turned away and looked down at the two hands fidgeting nervously. "Brad, why did you ask me out. I mean, Kate told me that I would have a lot of guys lining up to take me out if I wasn't in such a bad mood all the time, and I can't blame them I don't want to be around me sometimes. I just don't have the strength to do anything. I can't do my homework, I can't stand up to my former best friend even thought I have enough dirt on him to permanently destroy him, and I can't get over my stage fright anymore." Tears were now flowing down Lizzie's cheek. She would have continued had Brad not interrupted her by taking her hand in his once more.
"You really want to know why I asked you out?" Lizzie looked at him and nodded between sniffles. "I had noticed the way you had been moping around between classes, but I also noticed how happy you sometimes were."
"When?"
"Right after rehearsal." Lizzie gave him a questioning look. "Every day you always left the stage smiling with your head held high. You voice always sounded so cheerful when you spoke, and you were so polite to everyone. That is until you entered the hallway. Then your smile would fade and you would stare at your feet and hardly acknowledge anyone who talked to you. I just figured that if I could somehow get that girl to come out for more that a few seconds a day, you would be a great person to date."
"Really," Lizzie asked softly.
"Yeah" With his free right hand, Brad gently brushed a few strands of Lizzie's hair and tucked then behind her ear. As he gazed into Lizzie's eyes, Brad rested his hand behind Lizzie's head.
Lizzie felt her heart skip a beat. Even through she never realized that she had ever acted like her former self, Brad had focused on the few seconds when she did, instead of the hours spent in her perpetual bad mood. Slowly her eyes closed and she felt her body slowly lean towards Brad. Why she was doing it she did not know, she only knew that it felt right. As she leaned in, Lizzie felt Brads hand pulling her towards him. She puckered her lips right before What Dreams Are Made Of came bellowing out of her purse.
Lizzie's eyes opened to see that her lips were just a fraction of an inch away from Brad's. She quickly pulled back, which caused Brad to do the same thing, and pulled her cell phone out of her purse. "Hello," she said into the phone.
Miranda's voice came out the other end of the phone. "Lizzie, where are you?"
"In the park, with Brad. Why?" Lizzie responded dazedly.
"Lizzie, you were supposed to meet your parents in the lobby. They would have called you sooner, but your mom's cell phone is dead."
"I'll, I'll be right there." Lizzie looked back at Brad as she hung up the phone. She did not want to go, but she knew her parents would be mad. "My parents are waiting."
"Can I walk you back?" Brad asked.
"Sure."
Lizzie and Brad left the bench and started walking back to the school. The trip back did not take long as Lizzie was practically running. Brad, being about six inches taller than Lizzie, was having no problems keeping up with her.
"Lizzie," Brad said as they walked across the schools parking lot, "the fair is coming to town, and I was wondering if I could take you?"
"Sounds great, if I am not grounded," Lizzie smiled as she reached for the door.
"Ooo. You'd better not come in with me. My dad doesn't really like me dating you. I don't think I could explain being alone with you."
"Ok," Brad said after a moment.
"Thanks," Lizzie said. She leaned up and kissed Brad on the cheek before adding, "For everything."
Lizzie then slipped through the door and towards her worried parents.