::maniacle laughter:: I'm BACK!!!
Erk: ::coughs through layers of dust:: so are we!
Nino: why were we in hiding again?
Erk: Because SHE'S insane
Hitnwey: I am not!
Erk: You are.
Hitnwey: anyway. So begins the FINALE! ::lightning, thunder:: We're almost through. Thanks to EVERYONE who reviewed! If you bought a ticket (hint, hint) there's a treat (or maybe not) for you near the end. So let us begin -
THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END!!! ::crack, DOOOM!::
And now, just to be wildly awkward, I am going to insert my Disclaimer here.
Disclaimer thingy: don't own it. I can pretend, but other than that...
The morning began in chaos.
Ms. Spencer had a spazz attack when over half the cast was an hour late – or more – for morning rehearsal. She almost went into cardiac arrest when Florina and Kent forgot their lines, Lowen walked off the stage for the 16th time, and Lucius almost killed Nino when a light came loose (they weren't sure how it was Lucius' fault, but Jaffar needed a scapegoat). Jaffar then killed Lucius, followed by Raven "The King's" attempt to kill Jaffar, and all hell broke out. Ms. Spencer's screams could be heard echoing around the school in the distant years to come.
(A/N - Lucius is not really dead. As becomes apparent.)
Finally – FINALLY, Hector thought – the front doors opened and the first act started at 11 in the morning, the audience comprised of mostly distant relatives, caffeine addicts, and people with no lives – namely Legault, who stayed for all three performances... mostly to get a good laugh.
Hector let his head fall back and groaned. Florina was stammering so badly, no one could understand her – even if she DID remember her line – which she didn't. This was the fifteenth forgotten line so far! What was going on?
Ms. Spencer, who was watching from the sides, trying to help people who forgot their lines, marched abruptly past Hector. He watched her go, puzzled, but understood as he heard her smashing her books against the wall. Apparently there was a lot of stress going around.
He stood at the edge of the curtain, watching the scene. It was not a pretty sight. He shook his head and decided to retreat for the time being. Hiding with the lighting people sounded like a good idea. Not even Lucius – or even Lucius and Farina arguing – could be more nerve-destroying than watching his class act like morons.
"Hey, guys, what's –" Hector froze, question half out of his mouth, and stared. Farina was nowhere to be seen, but Hector could understand that. Watching Raven and Lucius making out could be pretty distracting after a while. He seemed to have interrupted them, however, because they – by they he meant Raven – gave him pretty cold looks when they realized someone was watching.
"What?" Raven growled at him, looking very threatening. Hector wasn't scared of Raven – not really – but sticking around at that point didn't seem like a very good idea.
"Oh... nothing. See ya," he said, ducking out of the lighting room as fast as he could. "Ok... that... was creepy..." his eye twitched. "And knowing my luck it'll be stuck in my head all day..."
"What will be?" Matthew asked, popping up beside Hector.
"The picture of Lucius and Raven making out."
"Raven and Luicus were making out?" Matthew's eyes suddenly turned into dollar signs.
"Yeah, back there in the lighting room –"
"Well, yeah, that's cool, gottagobye!"
Hector stared after his friend as Matthew ran out like he was chased by the devil.
"What the hell...?"
The rest of the morning play passed with only minimal accidents. No more of the lights fell down, but they did go out a couple of times. Ms. Spencer went back once to talk with the lighting people, then came back out without saying a word. Hector figured Lucius and Raven hadn't stopped – not for long, anyway – and were probably further along than he wanted to see. He stood in the backstage, somewhere between the stage and the lighting room, wishing he were somewhere were he couldn't see people making out of screwing up. But, since Eliwood and Ninian seemed to insist on trading spit every time they were both offstage, it was pretty much impossible.
When the morning play finally –FINALLY!!! – finished, they were all treated to Ms. Spencer's screaming lecture. The only exceptions were Nino and Jaffar – Nino because she was Jaffar's girlfriend, and Jaffar because several people suspected he might go on a killing spree if Ms. Spencer started screaming at him and/or Nino – and it was long and painful. Florina looked like a beet red tomato, and several times burst into tears, even though she'd had only one line. When Ms. Spencer finally finished, they got to break for lunch, before staring the second play at 2 in the afternoon – the matinee act.
The second play was slightly better than the morning one. Lowen only fell off the stage once – Karla afterwards kept her hand on his neck, so it was hard for him to wander off, but he still managed to walk into the wall on his way offstage – and Florina almost fainted when it was her turn to speak. Serra, halfway through the play, decided to start chasing Erk, and several odd noises came from backstage. Several times Hector was run over as Erk ran into him trying to get away from Serra. Hector privately suspected that Erk didn't really mind Serra, he was only doing it for habit, which, in a way, made it even more annoying.
Near the end of the play, the lights started dimming and brightening at odd intervals. Ms. Spencer had separated Raven and Lucius after the morning fiasco, and stalked towards the lighting room with murder on her face. She disappeared briefly, then walked out again throwing her hands in the air. Hector, curious, looked into the room after Ms. Spencer left, and was surprised – if not shocked – to find Kent and Farina in a dark corner, filling up the void Lucius and Raven had left when Ms. Spencer threw them out. Now Hector knew what had happened to Farina during the first play. There was also a minor crisis when Jaffar suddenly cracked in the middle of the jail scene, and it took Hector, Matthew and Nino to calm him down while Legault ran for his life, much to the amusement of Matthew, who almost lost his hold on Jaffar.
It was with much relief that the second play ended. It was about 4 in the afternoon, and the last play of the day didn't start until 6. A defeated Ms. Spencer told them to do whatever they wanted, so long as they were back half and hour before 6.
"Are we allowed to change?" Hector asked.
"Sure, whatever," Ms. Spencer said, not really noticing the question. This announcement was followed by a mad rush to the bathrooms where people struggled to get out of their costumes.
"Oh, man, it feels so good to be out of that monkey outfit!" Hector grinned, flexing his arms.
"You said it," Eliwood agreed, his arm around Ninian.
"Is there any point of going anywhere?" Lyn asked.
"Let's get out of the school, at least," Hector said making a face. "I don't think I could stand another two hours in there."
The parking lot outside the school looked lonely with only a few student cars parked here and there. Legault's car was closest to the door, and was being used as a hang-out point by Legault, Isadora, Matthew and Leila.
"Who's the girl?" Ninian asked as they walked by.
"Leila," Hector answered, waving to the person in question. She smiled and waved back before returning to whatever conversation she and Matthew had been having.
"Who's she?" Lyn asked, eyeing him.
"As far as I know, she's Matthew's girlfriend. She goes to the high school across town."
"How'd you met her?" Eliwood asked.
"We used to live in the same neighbourhood when were kids?" Hector said evasively. Lyn glared at him, but didn't say anything.
Legault's POV
The first two versions of the play had almost sent him to the hospital. First, because he laughed at Jaffar, and second because he couldn't breath. He was met at his car by Isadora and Matthew, and Leila came by not to much later.
"How were they, Legault?" Leila asked when she joined him. Isadora looked a little embarrassed, and both Legault and Matthew started laughing. "Eh... that bad?" she asked. Isadora nodded her head.
"It was an unmitigated disaster," Isadora said, shaking her head.
"But worthwhile!" Matthew said with a wide grin.
"What happened, Matthew?" Leila asked.
"Well –" Matthew began.
"Leila!" Hector called to her as his group made their way across the parking lot. Leila waved back to him with a grin before turning back to Matthew.
"You were saying?" She asked, the picture of innocence.
Matthew didn't say anything, but triumphantly pulled several pictures out of his pocket.
"What's this?" Legault asked as the three helped themselves to various pictures.
"Oh, my, GAWD!" Leila almost screamed, her face breaking into a huge grin. "Where the hell did you GET these?" Isadora looked shocked, and Legault had his mysterious smile on.
"Hector," Matthew grinned. "He walked in on them. Lucius and Raven, anyway. I got Kent and Farina first, though, when I saw them running to get the camera. I think Hector walked in on them, too, during the second play."
"Would that have been when the light's started going screwy the fourteenth time?" Legault asked calmly.
"Probably," Matthew said offhandedly. Leila shook her head.
"How did you GET these? They're great!" Leila asked, shuffling through the pictures.
"Well, Raven almost killed me after the first three, so I had to be a little more careful, but Kent and Farina didn't seem to notice. Well... I'd thought they didn't notice, but Farina did, because she came up to me later and told me that I owed her ten dollars per picture. She can keep dreaming."
"Yeah, when do YOU ever pay ANYTHING?" Leila asked, punching Matthew in the arm.
"Never, unless it comes to you," Matthew said innocently.
"And not even when it comes to me," Leila said with a smile, then checked out her watch. "What time is the next showing?"
"Six."
"So we've got an hour and a half. What should we do?"
They stood around for a moment before Matthew's face split into a grin.
"Stay right here," he said.
"What?" Leila demanded, looking at him.
"Stay right, here," Matthew said, pointing to the ground. "I hope you brought a camcorder, Legault, because the last showing is going to be the best thing you ever saw!"
The three stared after the high-wired thief as he bolted off in the direction of the gym.
"I wonder what he's doing?" Isadora worried. "I hope it's not illegal..."
"Ah, don't worry about Matthew," Legault said, getting into his car. "You two want to go for a drive? I need to go get my camera, like Matthew said. Want to come?" Legault asked, looking at the two. The girls looked at each other, shrugged, then got into the car.
"You'd better make sure we're back in time, Legault!" Leila warned him as she slammed the door and they sped off.
Ms. Spencer's -WOW! a Teacher's - POV
The world was ending.
She was so totally, utterly, screwed beyond belief. The first two attempts at the play were total disasters. Lowen kept falling off the stage, Florina kept fainting, Sain kept winking at the girls in the audience. Why, oh WHY was life so cruel.
At around 5:45 people began to drift back, just behind most of the audience. Serra, Erk, Priscilla, Guy, Heath and Rebecca had hung around all break, lacking a ride anywhere and not willing to ride with Lowen, and were now in charge of the door. The trickle of people coming through the door had turned into a stream for a while, but now most of the people were in, waiting for the play to start. Ms. Spencer paced around the backstage, fuming. Where was her cast?
"Ms. Spencer?"
And what was with her lighting people? Lucius and Raven, ok, people had know about them for a while. But KENT and FARINA? Where had THAT come from? The images of the make-out scene's she had witnessed made her twitch with jealousy.
"MS. SPENCER!!!!!" Serra's loud voice cut across her thoughts and she jumped.
"What? WHAT?" she asked, looking around wildly for the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Instead she saw a dog, and screamed, her over-active imagination thinking it really WAS a horse. Serra and Rebecca stared at her as she recovered her composure. "Oh! Eh... eh-heh. Yes? What's wrong?"
"Well..." Rebecca looked at the animal, but didn't seem to know how to begin.
"This dog just kinda wandered in, and, like, wants to buy a ticket. Is she, like, allowed?" Serra asked, loudly as normal.
I think I'm getting a migraine, Ms. Spencer thought. "Oh course not. Just kick her out."
"I've got money!" The dog protested. "And I'm NOT a dog! I'm a WOLF!"
Ms. Spencer stared at the dog – Err, wolf. "Did it just talk?"
"Yes I did."
"Tell me it didn't just answer me.
"She/I did," the three said at the same time. Ms. Spencer stared at them, then blinked.
"Oh my god... ok, whatever, let her in," she said, waving her hand. "Where's my aspirin?" she wondered, begining to wander off.
"Uh... Ms. Spencer?" Priscilla asked.
"What?"
"Um... there's kinda... this girl who wants 64 tickets... and she kinda, um, like, has this army of ninjas, pheonixes, assassins, samurais, theives, swordmasters..."
"And a dragon or two!" Serra added.
"Yeah, and she, like, um... wants to know if there's room?"
Ms. Spencer stared at them.
"This is a nightmare..."
Leila's POV
They'd gotten back just as the doors opened. The tree of them had hung around with the door greeters for a while before parting with Isadora. She and Legault walked through the short hall to the gym and took the seats closest to the middle in the front. Things seemed quite boring for a while, until more and more people started coming in, all at once. Leila and Legault relaxed, watching all the people come in, sometimes laughing at the people they saw. They DIDN'T laugh, however, when the dog walked down the aisle and sat next to them. They both stared, and their mouths dropped open when the dog – who calmly informed them she was NOT a dog, but a wolf – turned into a human.
"Well THAT'S not something you see every day!" Legault said, and Leila nodded in mute agreement.
It was 10 past 6, and still nothing of note had happened. Sometimes the curtain would part and someone would stick they're nose out to look into the audience. Legault pointed out Nino, Florina, and Guy. Matthew stuck his head out too, waving at them with a cheery smile, before popping back behind the curtains. Bored, Leila got up and started wandering around the gymnasium, looking at the various people.
Two people were talking near the aisle as Leila walked by.
"I hope she robs the audience!" One girl was chattering away randomly, squeezing to familiar-looking plushies around the neck. Leila raised an eyebrow, noticing the plushies looked like Hector and Lyn. When the girl looked away, Leila leaned over and stole her wallet.
'xZero84x?'" Leila said, looking at the random pen scribbles on the wallet. "What kind of name is THAT?" Leila wondered before looking at the second girl. She was sitting, quite still, holding something small and white between her hands, muttering under her breath.
"I got a ticket, I got a ticket, I got a ticket..." Leila raised her eyebrows very high, stole the girls necklace, and walked away whistling.
Leila wandered around the gym a bit more, running into a few odd people – named, she believed, Flamefirefox and Firelein, who were sitting together arguing who was the best pairing. Winteress was sitting next to some poor bugger beating his ass in because he didn't believe two people (Matthew and Leila, or something) were the best couple ever. When she finally got back to her seat, she was smiling and whistling, her pockets full of the various things she'd stolen from the people in the audience. Next to a curious-looking Legault was wolf-boy and another person – Wandering Cat, or something. They were calmly discussing the best pairing ever, both deciding that Lyn was PART of the best pairing ever, but neither giving ground on who she should be paired with, Hector or Rath? Leila retook her seat, wondering where the couples all these people seemed to be debating about came from.
There was a sudden commotion from backstage, and the room went dark.
"Well, it's about time!"
Hector's POV
"Where have you BEEN?" Ms. Spencer screeched at the renegades as they finally made their way backstage.
"Would you even begin to believe us if we told you the bus broke down?" Lyn asked wearily.
"Why the hell were you on the bus?"
"Because my car broke down," Eliwood admitted.
Ms. Spencer stood, looking at them, her eye twitching in a very disturbing manner.
"Fine. Whatever. Hurry up and get dressed, we're half an hour behind!"
"Yes'm," they all muttered, running to get dressed.
"Where were you?" Matthew caught Hector and Eliwood in the bathroom.
"Don't go there," Hector said with a dangerous look.
"Err... Yeah, ok. Oh, incidentally, this is what we're going to do for Act 5..." Matthew said, going into hasty conference with Hector and Eliwood. The two friends glanced at each other with wide grins on their faces.
"Well, it's about TIME!"
And there's the first chapter of the Finale! I know there's no script in it - ::pauses while everyone stares either a) throwing tomatoes at her or, b) throwing parties:: - but you've had so much script in the past chapters, and when I DO do script I tend to get lazy, I decided to do a... prelude to the finale. The script will come next chapter. Plus, there were some things I wanted to put in - like Lucius and Raven - that I couldn't do otherwise.
Hopefully the people in the audience didn't mind (too much) the larceny of Leila. Stuff may be returned... for a price.
For people who still wish, I will grant last-minute tickets. These will be avaliable ONLY in this chapter. :)
and now....
Review Responses:
Bloody Mary: I like Legault and Isadora. In the game, I like putting as many people as possible together - but only if they give me a double ending. I like putting Legault & Isadora, and Hearken & Vaida together. Plus, I think they're so cute.
Winteress: well, I did think about it. Thought about it, then realized how much trouble I would be in with 16,000,000 people coming after me with stones. There will be no death of Leila in this fic. Unless some of the people who had stuff stolen by her decide to hire out Jaffar as a head-hunter.
Lady Lyndis: when the chapter is long, my grammar dies very, very quickly. You will find tons if you go looking for them.
The Winged Wolf: Bwahaha, you're going to want to watch out for the next chapter.
Erk: be afraid. Be very, VERY afraid!
katelynn: I think you're one of the only people who's guessed at the person I wanted the "dark figure" to be... although it was really just a cheap way to end the chapter because of writer's block. I meant for it to be Jaffar, but really, anyone works.
flamefirefox: NERGAL? Oo errrr... sure. BTW, if you know - do Legault and Isadora get a joined ending? If they do, do you know what it is? Honestly, I'm such a sucker for spoilers, and I got stuck on the Ursula chapter... Jaffar keeps dying on me, Dammit!
elven-girl10: Well, it wasn't soon, but it is an update....
xZero84x: well, that was random. But then... you appear to be a random person. And, apparently, you didn't look after your money...
Hector: hahahahah!
::takes money (and Jaffar) and runs:: bwahahahah!
Xelion: This is a comedy. if you want dark stuff... I'll try and add some in the sequel. I'm glad you like it, I swear! :) And, there's going to be a "surprise ending"... if you keep reading... fufufufufu...
Wandering Cat: Is the game cool? There's no where to get forgien games where I live - I like in the backwoods of Canada. Well, actually, it's not QUITE that bad, but it feels like it sometimes.
And someone strict for the donkey WOULD be funny. Well, I have to do a little bit of planning, and I AM taking nominations... for parts as well as pairings... (HINT! HINT!)
WildfireDreams: here's more! :)