A month and a half later school was out and the students of St. Mark's and St. Isabel's were meeting at the Hartford Airport. The late afternoon sun shone down through the skylights and made hot patches in the ticket line.
"I can't believe you graduated." Mia said as they pulled up to the airport. "That's insane." Mia and Cassandra had stayed at St. Isabel's for the interim period. Cassandra's father was still in Russia and Mia's mom didn't want to pay for a plane ticket and then have to send her back to the area for a flight to Paris. It was more economical and fun for all parties involved.
"I know."
"So does that mean you're a free woman on the trip?"
"Not exactly. They made me sign a contract saying I'd abide by all St. I's rules as long as I'm traveling with them, even if I'm no longer a 'member of the student body.'" They'd made it expressly clear that the rules of their school's applied, even if they weren't necessarily in session. It just meant that no one was going to be allowed to bring prostitutes to the rooms, call for pizza at all hours of the night or anything of the like. The seniors had been pulled aside and given rules that they were not to influence the other students into rebellion. While a strict curfew would be held for the underclassman, the graduates would be allowed to run on a much longer leash.
"But I will not tolerate all night drinking binges. You people are not to touch alcohol." Mr. Giles admonished. "And no driving…at all."
"Yes sir." They had echoed.
"That sucks." Mia heaved out her gigantic suitcases and threw them down on the sidewalk as Cassie did the same with hers.
"Oh, Cassie—do you think we can do it?"
"I know we can, Mary. We're gonna rock this." Cassie said setting her heavy suitcase down. She, Mia, Mrs. Giles and two of the other dancers had combined their dress clothes into one garment bag. It allowed them to pack more in their suitcases. They had been required to go out and get formal dresses because there was going to be a gala banquet thrown in their honor. Cassie had chosen a slinky black and white number. It was simple, but elegant and showed off all her curves. She was immensely proud of the dress she'd found.
Their flight boarded in and Cassie was disappointed that Ryan was so far away from her. They shrugged. The flight would be short from Hartford to New York.
"A four hour delay?" the students behind Mr. Giles as he found out the disturbing news. "But what of our flight?" Cassie slumped against the wall and sighed.
"Alright…we're staying in the airport….we're going to try to fly standby on an earlier flight…." Mr. Giles announced. "As it stands, our flight is four hours behind schedule, but the flight crew is going to have to be replaced and they're saying it could take twice as long as that to get our flight off the ground."
"That would mean it would be at least midnight before we got off the ground." Someone said.
"Exactly. So get comfortable." Mr. and Mrs. Giles moved off down the terminal in an effort to find someone that could secure the students blankets. There were twenty five cast members and another dozen or so technical workers. Some were going to get to work the lights, but mainly they were just there to help with the sets and costumes. The large group lay down at the gate and made the best of their 'camp out' in the airport.
"ERS?" Cassandra asked pulling a deck of cards from her back pack. Mia instantly agreed and pulled money from her wallet and made a dash for a vending machine.
"ERS?" Ryan, Matt and Mark asked.
"Egyptian Rat Screw." Cassandra said dealing out to five people. "Don't ask why it's called that…I don't know." Mia returned with root beers for everyone.
"It's not IBC, but it'll have to do."
"Now, you play by throwing your first card down. Mia will start since she knows what she's doing." Mia smiled.
"Virgins?"
"Yep." Mia snorted at the confused looks on their faces.
"Anyway, if a Jack goes down you have to put four cards down and hope for a face card or ace." She said to Mark who was sitting on Mia's left. "If it's a Queen, you lay down three, King two and ace one. But you have to get a face card or Mia gets to pick up the pile."
"If two cards go down back to back, like two six's, and you slap the deck, you get it." Mia interrupted. "Or if there's a sequence down like 7, 2, 7. Then that's a sandwich and you can slap that too."
"Everyone clear?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah, clear as paint." Matt sighed. "But the game sounds familiar…we'll pick up on it as we go."
The boys were better than the girls bargained for.
"You've played before!" Mia shouted as Matt slid his hand beneath hers.
"We never said we hadn't." Mark stated casually sipping his root beer. "You just assumed."
"This is embarrassing Mia." Cassie said. She was almost out of cards and the object was to pick up the whole pile.
"I think we need to play consequences." Ryan said grinning.
"Ah, yes…"
"Consequences?" Mia and Cassie echoed one another.
"Yes, the first one out has to take a dare. If they accomplish the dare, then they may receive cards to get back in the game."
"And the second one out?" Mia asked doing a quick scan of her cards.
"Same."
"Shit…." Cassandra looked to Mia who only shrugged. "So you won't play slap ins?"
"Nope, consequences or nothing."
"Alright, we'll play. But nothing that'll get us kicked off the trip, ok?" Mia pleaded.
"Oh, agreed." Mark said. "I'd hate to lose our best females to something stupid."
Cassie got two slaps in and ended up bulking her deck slightly. Mia ran out first.
"Oh, we have a winner!" Matt smiled. "What are we gonna do to her boys…and girl."
"I have an idea…but it would take two…" Matt said devilishly.
"How many cards are left, Cassie?" Mark asked.
"Eight." Cassie lied, she actually only had five.
"Someone has to go back to kindergarten and learn to count. She's only got five boys." Ryan said.
"Let's get her then." Matt said quickly. "Then we'll let them back in."
Cassie was out a turn and a half later. She slowly backed away.
"What do we have to do?"
"Conference!"
"I'm scared." Mia said as the boys scrambled to the windows of the terminal and conferred. "They're probably going to make us give them lap dances or something."
"No…they wouldn't."
"Ok." Mark said coming back to them. "We want you to go out and sing 'Hard Knock Life'."
"OK." Mia stood up and made to sing.
"No, not here….out there." Mark said pointing at the main terminal rotunda. "Where everyone can see and hear you."
"You guys suck!" Cassie said turning quickly. "You can't be serious?"
"We are. Either you go sing out there, or you don't get to play anymore."
"Oh, you're horrible."
Cassie and Mia walked to the central hub of the terminal where about five different terminals intersected into one big open space.
"Cassie and Mia are gonna sing!" Someone shouted and the entire group of students moved to where they could see Cassandra and Mia.
"Cass, are we really gonna do this?"
"Yeah, I want back in! Besides, they're using my cards!" Cassandra turned and smiled at the group of students. "Besides, this is easy."
Cassie and Mia started singing and actually got really into the whole thing, dancing and spinning around, just as they had on stage. They alternated who sang the verses of Annie.
It's the hard-knock life for us!
It's the hard-knock life for us!
'Steada treated,
We get tricked!
'Steada kisses,
We get kicked!
It's the hard-knock life!
Got no folks to speak of, so,
It's the hard-knock row we how!
Cotton blankets,
'Steada of wool!
Empty Bellies
'Steada of full!
It's the hard-knock life! ….
By the end of their number, the girls had gathered quite a crowd and several applauded.
The group of students laughed as Cassie and Mia bowed low to the crowd and went merrily back to the game at hand.
"Take that!" Mia said sitting down. "You owe us cards." The boys took ten cards from their stacks and passed five a piece to Cassie and Mia.
Ryan ran out of cards shortly after and was dared to walk up to an elderly woman sitting at the next terminal and serenade her with "all I ask of you"
"Oh no way."
"Come on, we sang "Hard-Knock Life""
"Yeah, but that wasn't serenading someone in particular."
"Well, you either do it, or you don't get any cards." Mia said fanning a substantial stack. Ryan tried to beg Cassie to get him out of it, but she wouldn't.
"Well then, I guess I have no choice." Ryan got up and went to where the old woman sat reading a magazine. He said something briefly to her before he sang. His voice cracking as he tried not to laugh. He only made it through two verses before he broke into uncontrollable laughter. The woman smiled and laughed at him as he knelt down and begged her forgiveness for screwing the song up.
He ran back over to where the students sat and the ERS crew shook their heads.
"Failure….Ryan, man…what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking about how it would be so much more romantic on a Gazebo with snow on the ground." He said as he sat back down, a pointed stare shot in Cassie's direction. She blushed and Mia tried not to snort root beer out her nose.
In the end Mark ended up winning as several people refused to do the consequences issued them.
Mr. and Mrs. Giles had come back part way through their game and had brought a cart full of blankets with them. If the flight was going to be delayed as long as they said it was, they would need them.
Mary and Josephine and Sara were curled together under a set of blankets as were several other people. The air in the airport was on full blast and lying on the floor was a cold affair. Mr. and Mrs. Giles were sitting in the far corner of the terminal with Mr. Villefort.
Ryan grabbed blankets for he and Cassie and set up a spot in an alcove off the side of the terminal where they could sleep and not be bothered by others. They curled up on the floor and Ryan threw the blanket over the two of them.
"I can't wait to get you to Paris." Ryan whispered.
"Why's that?"
"Because, I want to get you behind a closed hotel room door." He nuzzled her neck gently and heard her laugh.
"You're such a horn dog, Ryan." Cassie rolled over to face him and placed her head against his chest. "Just go to sleep, and keep your hands to yourself." Ryan obliged and they slept curled together for a few hours, unaware of anyone staring at them.
They're flight finally made ready to board. It had been impossible to fit 40 students on a standby flight. Ryan ran around and found someone who had a seat beside Cassie's and traded them for it. Ryan and Cassie ended up in the back of the plane with virtually no one around them. They put the arm on the chair between them up and slept most of the flight cuddling together, Ryan's fingertips tracing circles on Cassie's knee.
"Bonjour, bienvenue aux dames de Paris et messieurs!" A man smiled as they exited the plane and made their way to the taxi's that would carry them to the hotel. "You must be ze group from America, no?"
"Yes…that's us."
"Well, you all must be very weary from your journey. We'll get you to the dormitories quickly."
"But aren't we…." Mrs. Giles was interrupted before she could finish.
"Ah, oui -- naturellement... comme c'est idiot à moi!" The man said quickly. "You will be staying at the Hotel for the first few nights and then will be moved to the dormitories at the Opera house for the performance. You knew this, correct?"
"Oui, nous avions été juste dits que nous serions dans un hôtel ces jours premiers. Vous nous avez confondus monsieur." Everyone stared as Mr. Villefort conversed in excellent French with the gentleman. The cabs took the students to the large hotel and they eagerly climbed the stairs to their rooms. Cassie looked around her room in awe. It was huge. A large canopy bed took up a big portion of the room. Mia came in close behind and stared as blankly as Cassie was.
"Whoa…."
"Votre pièce est-elle satisfaisante, dames?" A maid asked from the hall.
"Oh yeah…it's fine." Mia answered in broken French. "Cassie...this is our room…."
"wow…" Cassie flopped her bag down and launched herself onto the big feather bed. "Oh, Mia…it's so soft!"
"Move!" Mia was airborne as Cassie rolled sideways to avoid her friend. They erupted into a fit of giggles. "This is so cool, Cass." They unpacked some of their things and unfolded some of their shirts to decrease wrinkles.
Mia and Cassie were laying on the bed that night eating some of the junk food that Mia had brought along.
"So are you and Ryan going to do it?" Cassie nearly spit the cheese puff she was eating out.
"What?"
"Oh come on, Cass, you can't tell me you haven't thought of it?" Mia said, an impish grin settling onto her face. "Going to the champs ellise, the eiffel tower…..Notre Dame….and then coming back here and fucking like a couple of Rabbits."
"Amelia Cartwright! Where did you learn such vile language?" Cassie's face was bright red.
"Well, some I learned from you, Miss Virgin Ears." Mia made a face and Cassie laughed. "Come on, have you thought about having sex with Ryan or not?"
"Well…." Cassie thought that if the room had been dark, her whole body would have glowed.
"You have!"
"Well, come on Mia. For the love of God….." Cassie got up and went to the window of the room and looked out at the Parisian night. "He's handsome, he's nice, he's ambitious. I think…."
"You think what?" Mia asked when Cassie didn't continue.
"I think I love him." Cassie said it so quietly Mia had to strain to hear. Cassie turned and looked at her friend and smiled. "I love him, Mia."
"Wow." Mia held a cheese puff part way to her lips and sighed. "Wow."
"Mia, don't do that."
"Hmm? Don't do what?" Mia said, her eyes partially glazed over as if she weren't in the hotel room.
"Don't get that moony eyed look. For heaven's sake you look possessed, besides….you're drooling and I don't want cheese puff ooze on my bed."
"Sorry." Mia popped the cheese puff into her mouth and grinned viciously. "I was thinking….You know, those kids would be blessed with all the looks in the world….." Cassie threw a pillow at her friend and laughed as Mia tumbled off the edge of the bed. "I'm just saying what everyone will be thinking in a few years!"
"Mia, I don't even know if he feels the same way for me. I'm not going to plan anything."
"When did you go blind?" Mia asked picking herself up off the floor and putting the snacks away. "Did you ever see the look on his face when you sang? Or when you're near?" Cassie shook her head. "His eyes light up. Those gorgeous eyes….and when you sing—his chest swells with pride….everyone noticed it."
"Mia…"
"You can't deny it, Cass. He's so into you it hurts." Mia climbed into her bed and turned off the light. "He may not have said anything yet, but he's as into you as you're into him."
Cassie stood in the near darkness for quite a few minutes more before she too turned in for the night.
A/N: I'm not a Language person. I use a translator online and I know it's awful...please tolerate the horrible french in this and some in future chapters.