Chapter 7- In Which the Second Act Starts and Joly's plan backfires
A/N: There is still a slash warning. Now, we'll focus more on Eponine and Joly during this act. I do not own Les Miserables, The Work and the Glory, or Ragtime. Please Review but no flames.
Enjolras stood center stage holding the pistol as the music started. The curtain rose and he looked up into the heavens.
"Say goodbye to music
Say goodbye to light.
Anything I care for
Take it from my sight.
Let me feel no comfort
Let me hear no sound!
Only darkness and pain
The anger and pain!
The blood and the pain!
I buried my heart in the ground!
In the ground!
When I buried you in the ground." Enjolras sang as he fell to his knees. He looked up suddenly with a rather crazed expression.
"I see your face
And we will ride
On the wheels of a new dream
Grantaire
A new dream, Grantaire
Now
I'll play them the music of something beginning
An era EXPLODING!
A century spinning
MY law!
And MY justice
In rhythm and rhyme!
Listen to that ragtime!" Enjolras yelled at the end, firing four times. He then stood on a platform center stage as Lesgles and Toussaint, dressed as newsboys entered with newspapers.
"Extra! Extra! Negro gunman shoots three dead!"
"Murderer's demands revealed!"
"One. That my car be returned to me in its original condition. Two. That the white excrescence Fire Chief Javert be turned over to me for my justice! Nothing less, nothing more."
The entire cast entered holding newspapers.
"Somewhere in the city
There's a madman waiting
Standing in the shadows with a gun in his hands
A man of color who is calmly stating
'Jolras demands!
'Jolras demands!"
As the song went on, the dancing became more elaborate and "West Side Story-ish" as the cast faced off throughout the song. Javert went into hiding after being threatened by the other firemen. Courfeyrac, Feuilly, and Jean Prouvaire swore to Enjolras that they would stand by his side. Combeferre denounced Enjolras' actions and Eponine and Joly denied ever knowing Enjolras. The whole number ended with mass confusion and terror. At the end of the number, Eponine walked over to the mirror and stole some of Cosette's makeup.
"Eponine? What are you doing?" Cosette asked.
"I need to look pretty. Someone is meeting me on the roof to change my life," Eponine replied. She smiled at Cosette (Eponine had not smiled a lot so it looked slightly deranged). Cosette gasped in horror when she saw the mess Eponine had made.
"Here. Let me help you with that. In makeup, less is more."
As Cosette helped Eponine, Grantaire and Enjolras went back into their room. Feuilly saw this but had to go onstage for a scene in which Gavroche was introduced to baseball.
Meanwhile, Joly was on the roof. He sat there, looking at the stars.
"I wonder if she'll really come up. Maybe she'll reject me… I think it's a high enough fall to kill myself if she does…" He mused. He soon heard a door open. He turned to see the door of the stairway open. He saw Eponine's silhouette in front of the billboard for "The Work and the Glory" (Utah thing). He smiled.
Eponine looked out and saw the silhouette of someone in a dress. This someone had longer hair than most guys and was rather thin. Eponine gasped in horror. It was a woman who wanted her. Probably Toussaint (She had always had her suspicions) or Azelma playing a cruel trick.
"I don't go that way!" She cried out before leaving down the stairs.
Joly sighed. He just wasn't destined to be happy with the girl of his dreams. He sat down up on the roof and cried.
Eponine went downstairs and sat down angrily. She was being tricked, she knew it. It was all an elaborate scheme to make her go crazy, she was sure of it. Eponine buried her face in her hands and cried.
The scene onstage was changing to the family moving to Atlantic City. After Gavroche told Houdini for the fourth or fifth time in the play to warn the duke, he exited, leaving Valjean to sing about making movies.
Gavroche looked over at Eponine when he exited and felt that rare compassion for his sister. He ran over to her.
"Eponine, what's wrong?"
"I was told to meet someone on the roof and I was hoping it was the man of my dreams but it wasn't… it was a woman…"
"How do you know?"
"Well I saw the silhouette of a person with longer hair in a dress…"
Gavroche, once again, had a decision to make. He could either tell Eponine that it wasn't a woman but Joly (since Joly had told him about Eponine) or…
"You're probably right. I think it was Cosette or someone… I've seen her look at you longingly."
Eponine cried harder. She was never going to find her true love… and the person who loved her was the person she had despised…
Meanwhile, Joly had made up his mind and was standing on the ledge of the roof…
A/N: Sorry about the cliffhanger. I just needed something to happen (I can't make everything happy… right away…). Anyway please review but No Flames.