Disclaimer: I don't own RENT. I don't possess the brilliance required to write a musical at all, let alone such a mind-blowing one. Thank you, Jonathan Larson.
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Jared walked in the back door of First Presbyterian Church at ten til seven, not quite knowing what to expect. He knew Bri and had a vague memory of Camille, and of course knew Matt and Will by reputation, but he wasn't close to any of them. He tended to stick to his own social group, namely his band, and he was a little worried that he wouldn't be able to find a niche in what was apparently an already close-knit social circle.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of music blasting from a nearby room. He opened the door, and most of his fears immediately vanished.
Bri and Camille were standing on a table dancing like crazy people. The song that was playing so loudly was "Out Tonight." They were singing, or rather yelling, along. I hope that Camille's actual singing voice is better than the one she's using now, he thought wryly.
When Bri noticed him, she jumped off the table and ran to greet him. Her face was flushed from dancing. She looked even better than he remembered. She was wearing long jeans and a purple tank top with a silver skull-and-crossed-guitars on it. The little diamond stud in her nose glittered.
"Um, hi," he said.
"Hi, Jared," she said with a smile. She has a beautiful smile, he thought. Why did I never notice that before?
Camille got down from the table a little more carefully than Bri had and turned down the volume on the stereo. She walked over to them.
"All right, I think everybody's here," she said. "Katie, what time is it?"
"Seven til seven," replied Katie, glancing at her watch.
"Wow, that's gotta be a record. We were all early… that's scary. Anyhow, hi, Jared. I guess you know Bri, and I'm Camille, but this is Matt-" she indicated a boy with shaggy brown hair whose jeans were covered in colored duck tape-"and Will-" she pointed to the other boy, a tall sort of guy with short, dark hair wearing a pink and black hoodie-"and Emily, but you can call her Em-" a skinny girl with long brown hair who was sitting on a table waved at him-"and Katie." She pointed to a girl with curly blonde hair who was sitting on the floor with a pencil and a notebook. She nodded at him, then went back to writing.
"Oh, and my brother Tim is going to be our Benny, for now anyway, but he isn't here. Today isn't going to be so much a practice as a planning session, and besides, I have to pay him five bucks per rehearsal."
Jared chuckled. These people didn't seem so bad. They were all obviously raving lunatics, but so was he, after all.
"All right, people, everybody pull up a chair and let's decide just how we're going to go about this," said Camille. They took their seats in the chairs around the table Emily had been sitting on. Camille pulled a folded-up piece of paper out of her pocket.
"I watched RENT yesterday and put together a list of essential props for each character. My thought had been that we would all get the props for our characters. Is that okay for everyone?" she asked briskly. Jared was astonished that she was so businesslike. She's really serious about this, he realized.
"Katie, let's see, you're going to use Matt's scarf and jacket, right? So you only need to bring an old video camera, a bike, your glasses, and a red sweater. Plus any other little Mark-type things you think of."
"Yes to everything but the bike," said Katie. "There's no room on the stage to ride around, and besides, I don't know how."
"You don't?" asked Matt incredulously.
"No, I never bothered learning," replied Katie.
"Okay, I'll cross off the bike then…Bri, you need whatever 'censored'" Camille made quote marks in the air with her free hand, "costume you're using for 'Out Tonight,' a leopard print coat if you can find it, a pink outfit thingy like the one Mimi wears in 'Light My Candle,' a candle, obviously, black leather boots, an outfit like the one Mimi wears in La Vie Boheme – including the fishnets, I insist that you wear them, you'll look hilarious - a little bag of baking soda, and any other little things you think of."
"Where the hell am I going to find a leopard print coat?" asked Bri.
"You can use my leopard print bathrobe," said Emily.
"Okay..." agreed Bri.
"Em, you'll need some dress you can use in Tango: Maureen, an outfit for the protest, a black tank top with a dragon on it, black spandex pants, a white jacket, etc. Will, you'll need a black hat-type-thingymabob-"
"A beanie, you mean," Will interjected.
"Whatever," Camille said, but she was grinning as she said it. "A black hat-type-thingymabob-" she stuck out her tongue at Will, "a leather coat, that vest thing that Collins wears, and an empty bottle of vodka."
"Does it have to be empty?" asked Matt.
"Yeah, unless you want us to drink it here, at church, where some old lady who knows our parents might happen across us at any time," Camille said.
"Oh, fine," sulked Matt.
"Matt darling, you need a ten-gallon pickle tub, drumsticks, a leather tote bag, and some Angel outfits. You can borrow some of our clothes for that, if you want," Camille added.
Matt looked thoughtful for a moment, a rare thing for him, then looked up and said, "No, I'll buy the Angel outfits myself. The wigs, too." He smiled. "I've always to try on a wig, you know? A beautiful blonde wig, something like your hair, maybe," he said, indicating Katie's shoulder-length curls. Jared squirmed uncomfortably.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to me. You'll learn to love me eventually," Matt said, seeing the look on Jared's face.
"Not if you talk like that, he won't," said Camille. "Jared, you'll need a black leather jacket, a blue plaid vest - you could probably find one at Salvation Army, in fact that's probably the only place you could find one – a pack of matches, and of course a guitar."
"Hmm…I probably shouldn't use my own guitar. I don't think Roger had stuff written all over his," Jared said.
"Could you borrow one from one of your bandmates?" asked Bri.
"Well, theirs are just as personalized as mine. There is my brother's guitar, of course…" he trailed off.
"So use it, then," said Matt.
"I didn't know you had a brother," said Bri.
"He's dead," said Jared softly.
"Oh, Jared, I'm so sorry," said Bri. "I wouldn't have said anything if I'd known."
"There was no way for you to know, I don't know any of you all that well," said Jared, staring at his shoes. "It happened before we moved here, anyway."
An uncomfortable silence descended on the room.
"So, um, what are we going to do about the guitar?" said Matt finally. Will glared at him, "you insensitive brute" written all over his face.
"I'll use Bryan's, my brother's that is," said Jared heavily. "I don't think he would have minded. In fact, I think he would have liked the idea."
"Okay," said Camille slowly. "And…um…we'll also need three tables, two sets of "stage stairs," one for each side of the stage; an old beat-up sofa and an armchair or two; a round coffee table; some kind of backdrop - Bri, do you think your mom could paint one for us?"
"Yeah, I'm sure she'd be happy to," said Bri.
"Your mom's an artist?" asked Jared.
"Well…technically, she's a real estate agent, but she paints in her spare time, yeah," said Bri.
"Cool," said Jared. He gave Bri a small smile. She smiled back.
Camille paused for a moment, looking back and forth between the two of them. Then she reluctantly broke the silence.
"Okay, we'll need some folding chairs, obviously, for the Life Support scenes, La Vie Boheme, etc.; a microphone for Maureen's protest; and I also think it would be really cool if we had that moon made of wheels and stuff for the protest. I'm going to the dump tomorrow to find some stuff to make it with, actually."
"I'll go too. I think Maureen should help build her own props," said Emily.
"Awesome, it'll be a helluvalot more fun with you there," said Camille. "Hey, have any of you already eaten dinner? Cause my mom gave me plenty of money if we want to go get something, or maybe order a pizza."
"Oh my God, I have pizza withdrawal, I haven't had any in forever," said Matt.
"What about the rest of you, is pizza okay?" Camille asked.
"Hell yes! When is pizza not okay!" said Bri.
"Right, what topping do we want?" said Camille.
"Sausage," said Bri.
"I second that," said Katie. "What about you, Em?"
"Cheese."
"Pepperoni," said Will.
"Sausage, of course," said Matt.
"Oh, uh, anything works okay for me," said Jared.
"Right." Camille went to go get a directory from the church office.
"Anybody want a soda? There's a vending machine down the hall," said Bri. "Jared, can I get you anything?"
"Yeah, I guess a Dr. Pepper would be good. Thanks," said Jared. Bri flashed him another of her dazzling smiles and left the room.
"Soda sounds good, eh Will?" said Emily.
"Sure," he said. He, Matt, and Emily also left the room. Jared was alone with Katie. Neither of them spoke. She didn't even give a sign that she knew he was there, she just pulled out her notebook and began to write.
"So…you're Katie, right?" he finally said. "And you're playing Mark?"
"Yeah," she said, putting down her pencil and looking up at him. He raised an eyebrow.
"It's not that I wanted to play a guy, it's that Camille was a little drunk when we first started planning this, and she absolutely insisted. Normally even that wouldn't be enough, but Matt said he'd buy me any hardback book I wanted if I played Mark, so I'm not complaining," she explained.
"Oh. Hey, uh, is Bri always that nice, offering to get people sodas and stuff?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
"Offering to get you a soda, you mean. I have to hand it to her, she has a way with boys."
"You think she likes me?" he asked, eyes wide.
"Well, if I didn't at least suspect that she did, I probably would have gone after you myself by now," she said, then blushed as she realized she had said it.
"Shit, I did it again. Every time I open my mouth I say something stupid…just forget I said anything, I'm sorry," she mumbled. She went back to writing in her notebook.
Jared was quiet for a moment, then he tried again to strike up a conversation.
"What are you writing?"
"Oh, nothing. A book."
He whistled. "That doesn't fit my definition of 'nothing.' What's it about?"
She shrugged, then said, "Racial tension. Religious fanaticism. Poverty. All the problems of the world rolled into one volume along with dragons, griffons, and all sorts of fun. I doubt it'll ever get published, but it keeps me occupied."
"Like Mark and his documentary," Jared said.
"Sure, if you want to think of it that way," she said.
"So, you're like a bookworm, right?" he asked.
"The bookworm," she replied. "And you're the lead singer of a band. It would never have worked, anyway." She shrugged again.
"How did a bookworm come to be friends with someone as crazy as Bri?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, back in elementary school we were the only two in the class who weren't preppy beyond all reason, so we had to stick together," she said.
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of laughing voices in the hall. Shortly, the door opened again and Emily, Bri, Will and Matt came back into the room.
"Sorry we took so long. The damn machine ate Matt's dollar, so we had to go to the one upstairs instead," said Bri, walking over to Jared. She handed him a can of Dr. Pepper, then sat on the table close to him to drink her own.
"You owe me a dollar," Matt informed her.
"Suck it up, I bought you a soda, didn't I?" she said.
Camille returned not long afterward.
"Two sausage pizzas and a hlf-pepperoni-half-cheese will be here in about half an hour," she said. "Until then, we should probably get back to work."
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A/N: Sorry that I updated later than planned. This chapter was a little harder to write. By the way, I should tell you now that there will be no Jared/Katie/Bri love triangle. I'll just have to suppress the inner Mark/Roger shipper... Don't despair, there will be more lyrics, but probably not until they start actually practicing songs. The next chapter will be the second half of this first rehearsal. Keep reading, and please review!