I put this off for a while because I really didn't want to type Maureen. Maureen escapes me...but once I started writing, she started to appear, slowly but surely. I was going to have her meet April, but my plans changed. I have different plans for April, and I went back to my original plan of having her meeting Muffy. (To be honest, Roger and Muffy were going to meet first, and Collins and Maureen were going to meet. But I liked the idea of Roger and Collins becoming friends first, and so Maureen and Muffy got put together.) The idea of Maureen and Alison meeting was rather far-fetched to me, but as their conversation starting flowing and background story started to emerge, it actually turned out to be a pretty good couple. I was extremely pleased with the way this chapter turned out, and I hope you guys like it too.

Yes, yes, disclaimer, I don't own this, we got it.

Maureen Johnson just couldn't get enough of the clubs. She was a party girl, and proud of it. She had always been a flirt, and what better place to flirt than the clubs lined up in New York? She knew the ones on the street, the secret ones, she knew them all. Everyone thought Maureen went there for the sex.

Really, she went to dance. She never told anyone nowadays, but she always wanted to become a ballet dancer. In her room, she had a beautiful pair of light pink ballet slippers her grandmother used to wear. Maureen loved her grandmother, thought she was the most wonderful person in the world. She would often tell Maureen stories about dancing on the stage, how marvelous it was. Her grandmother gave her the ballet slippers, and told Maureen that she was destined for the stage.

Maureen cried so hard when her grandmother died. When one of her best friends would die many years later, she would compare it to the sorrow she felt when her grandmother passed away.

Maureen held tightly onto the dream of becoming a dancer, the urge to be a star just like her grandmomma strong in her heart. She told her mother, and she refused to pay for the lessons. Too expensive, and Maureen probably would get tired of doing ballet and focus on something else the next week. So flippant about her biggest dream. That's when she began to rebel. Staying out late with boys, going places and never telling her mother, getting drunk and maybe doing a little pot while she was at it.

And sometimes, when she wasn't rebelling in the natural teenage ways...she'd go to the local dance studio and ask for a few lessons. They were nice once she explained her situation. She knew she would never be able to professionally dance like this, but she didn't mind taking a few lessons.

Maureen never forgot about her childhood dream. Never. She still kept the slippers under her bed in a shoe box. That's why she came to the clubs, to dance, to be in the center of everyone's attention. Sure, she wasn't on the stage, but damn if she couldn't imagine it. Dancing with all the boys, dancing with all the girls, Maureen was labeled a flirt, and often a slut. She was hurt about this, because even though she was extremely sexual, she was selective of who she decided to go to bed with. But let them say what they wanted. Maureen didn't care.

She had plenty of boyfriends in the past. Why not? Why not have a little fun? She learned that a little fun in life was needed, especially when everything was so disappointing.

Maureen laughed, and tapped the boy she was dancing with on the shoulder. "I'll be right back, baby. I need a drink!" she shouted over the loud music, and left the floor, the boy looking after her with a longing look, knowing she probably wouldn't come back. "Sex on the Beach, barman," she said to the bartender with a wink, and then stopped to catch her breath. This wasn't the stage, but it was exciting all the same.

"Nice moves," she heard a sweet voice next to her croon. Maureen looked over, and smiled.

"Thanks. I work hard on them." And she did. Every time she was at the club, she added something new, something fresh. Variety was the spice of life, after all.

"Ever do ballet?" Maureen blinked.

"...How did you know?"

The girl smiled. "I took ballet when I was little. Parents made me. Said little girls had to learn to be graceful. Noticed you used some ballet moves while you were dancing." The bartender handed Maureen her drink, but suddenly she wasn't interested.

"I would have killed to take ballet class when I was a kid. My...uh, my grandmother was famous back in her day, in London." It had been so long since she has met someone who knew what they were talking about.

"Really? Ballet was okay, but jazz was better," the girl laughed, and shook her head. "I was too full of energy to really care about dance way back when. Always did wish I paid more attention." She sipped some of her drink, and smiled wistfully.

"I'm Maureen Johnson," she said, holding her hand out to the stranger. She surprised herself; usually, Maureen didn't give her last name out so willingly. Maybe it was because of this sudden feeling of being so close to this unknown female, the bond of dance between them.

The blond beamed, taking her hand and gently shaking it. "Alison. Alison Grey."

Maureen blinked. "You're not connected to the Westport Greys, are you?"

Alison hushed her. "Shh! Maybe," she said, a bit uncomfortably.

"Wow!" Maureen said. "Heard about them on the news! Your grandpop's a big man, isn't he?" Maureen put her drink down for a moment to put her arms in a circle around her belly, puffing out her cheeks.

"He really is!" Alison laughed, almost relieved. "We call him Humpty Dumpty behind his back."

Maureen laughed, a big, honest laugh. It felt good; she hadn't done that in a while. "What brings you here, A?" 'Alison' just didn't roll off her tongue too nicely. She shorted it to just the first letter, and Alison didn't seem to mind.

"Well, I had to get away." She leaned against the bar, sipping her drink. "My family is so rich, it's suffocating." She didn't say this with pride, as if boasting, but with a sigh.

"Well, if I was rich, I'd be happy!" Maureen replied, sitting on a stool. "I mean, I come from Hicksville." She rolled her eyes. "It's not exactly the richest of the rich over there."

"Well, it's just that they try and make me do things I don't want to do!" Alison said, looking to Maureen, blue-gray eyes flashing. "They think because I come from that bloodline I shouldn't be able to do normal stuff, like go clubbing." Alison took a big swig of her glass, and raised her eyebrow. "Well, fuck them. They don't know a fucking thing about living."

"What makes you say that?" Maureen asked. Alison was just getting more interesting by the minute to her. She forgot about the boy she was supposed to be dancing with, all attention focused intently on her new acquaintance.

"All they do is sit around and count their money," Alison continued, not hiding the disgust in her voice. "I hate it. They want to eat caviar and sulk around all day, complaining about the problems in the world and not doing a thing about it. They make me wanna irk," she added, and Maureen giggled. "I never want to be like them, so I try to get as far away from them as possible." She blushed suddenly. "Sorry. I don't mean to tell you my whole sob story."

"Nah, nah! I think it's pretty damn interesting," Maureen said, and even she could hear the ring of truth in her voice. "I mean, yeah, my parents would try and bring me down, but I did all I could to try and not be them." She looked in her drink. "I hate 'em. Dad left when I was young, and my mom was a real bitch."

"Your dad left?" Alison said, looking at Maureen with a concerned face. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be!" Maureen said, waving a hand to signal that it was okay. "Yeah, he left. I got a stepdad, but damn if that did anything. I mean, he just got slapped around when my mom got drunk."

"Your mom slapped your stepdad around?"

"Yup! Strange, huh?" Maureen said with a wink. "Turns out that's why my dad left! He was so fucking sick and tired of my mom. It wasn't 'cause he didn't love me; I found him later after I ran away from home, and lived with him ever since. He's a really cool guy," she said after a small pause, smiling to herself and drinking from her glass.

"Wow," Alison murmured. "Never heard a story like that!"

"I'm special," Maureen quipped, laughing. "But I need to get my own apartment soon. I mean, I don't want to live off my dad forever," she added, looking into the dark of her drink. "I don't want to mooch off him forever."

"You know, I think we could help each other out," Alison mused aloud, and Maureen looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

"Help each other out?" she repeated, blinking. "How would we do that, A?"

"Well, you want to get out of the house so you wouldn't have to burden your father anymore, right?" Maureen nodded, and Alison continued, a slow smile spreading on her face. "And I want to get away from my snobby rich family. We should get an apartment together!" she squealed over the D.J., and Maureen gasped.

"Really?" she said in a high pitched squeal that rivaled Alison's, and the blond girl nodded.

"Yeah! I could get the money, and then we could get away from everything and do our own thing!" It was a good thing Maureen didn't have her drink in hand at the moment, or else she would have slipped it all over Alison when she gave her a huge hug.

"God, that would fucking rock all!" she said, almost crying. "I mean, I would help; I want to be a performer, so I could go everywhere and try to get a job—"

"We can worry about all those things when we actually do it," Alison interrupted, laughing. "For now, tell her dad, and I'll somehow convince my parents I need an apartment like that." She rolled her eyes. "As long as I make up some excuse about how it'll get us more money, I'm sure they'll buy it."

"And to think, all this started by ballet!" Maureen said, laughing as well. She paused. "Hey, A..."

"Yeah, Maureen?" Alison asked, curious.

"Why do all of this?" she said, a serious look on her face. "I mean...we just met a couple of minutes ago. I could be a fucking serial killer for all you know. Why do all of this when you don't even really know me?" Maureen paused and flushed red. "Oh, shit, I didn't mean to be rude or anything like that, but I just wanted to know. Trust me, this is the best thing that's ever happened to me in a while!"

Alison laughed. "I guess because I really don't want to go back home...and I really do like you, Maureen. Like, not like-like, but I think you're a really nice person. I think we're gonna get along really well...and, hey, I say first impressions are always the most important," she added, shrugging. "Plus, I think we could survive as roomies, don't you?" They two girls laughed.

"Well, we'll find out, won't we?" Maureen added, and hugged Alison again. "I think this is one of the strangest yet best days of my life," she said, smiling.

"Ah, getting all mushy on me?" Alison joked, obviously as emotionally impacted by the whole situation as Maureen. The future diva laughed, and softly punched Alison's shoulder.

"Well, the night's still young, A, and I think we should spend most of it dancing." She put Alison's drink on the bar, and grabbed her hand, pulling her onto the dance floor.

It was quite a start to an unexpected friendship.

conscient et humble

Time to try to fly.

Joanne comes next, just 'cause I need to have ALL the character backgrounds in here. Then, whew, we start getting into the big things! Slowly but surely, guys!