A/N: Sorry for the delay in updates, but this chapter will be taking an unexpected detour from the story - I'll explain in more detail in the footnote.

While it may have seemed as though there was no longer any bad blood between Shannon and Amy, that, unfortunately, did not appear to be the case with she and Rex as he awaited her arrival into the auditorium to plead his case from their quarrel of earlier that afternoon.

"Amy! There you are!" He exclaimed. "Look, about what happened…"

Amy, however, was having none of it; she very much was still stinging from her incident of falling into a feces-filled mop bucket in front of a corridor full of other students, including Rex, who, like the others, laughed at her misfortune. She brushed right past him as though he was a tree.

"Aw, come on, Amy; don't be like that…" he pleaded. "Look, none of this stuff means anything… it's just my warped sense of humor; I thought you liked that about me…"

Amy finally turned around to face Rex and barked, "Yeah, until I figured out I'm just one big joke to you!"

"No! You're not!" He insisted.

"Spare me, Rex!" She spat once more; this was certainly not the first time the other thespians had witnessed somebody within their club receive a dose of Amy's wrath, but this was the first time that the recipient of her wrath was Rex, of all people, and needless to say, this was most shocking and curious to them as they watched Amy continue her verbal tirade. "You can try to deny it all you want, but I know now I'm just a walking joke to you!"

"But, Amy…" He wanted to plead his case, but the furious ginger-haired girl refused to listen as she thrusted her palm into his face.

"Talk to the hand, Rex!" She barked one last time before she stormed away from him.

At the moment, Lyberti happened to be standing next to Shannon as she leaned over toward the bespectacled brunette and whispered, "What the heck did Rex do to tick off Amy?!"

"Trust me; you're better off not knowing…" Shannon whispered back.

Lyberti couldn't argue with that; her reaction to that response was a smirk and a knowing nod of her head before she walked off to meet up with Leo elsewhere on the stage. Shannon proceeded to wander away to another pocket of the stage herself, but as she was still within earshot of Rex, she could hear him sadly mumble to himself.

"I don't think she's a joke…"

"Well, you, of all people, shouldn't have laughed at her in the hall," Shannon pointed out in Amy's defense.

"I couldn't help it!" Rex insisted. "You know like how when you see other people yawn it makes you yawn? Everybody else in the hall was laughing, I tried my hardest not to laugh, but I couldn't help it; I even tried to warn her about the mop bucket, but she wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise!"

Shannon considered Rex's testimony; even in spite of their previous feud, she did not believe the ginger-haired girl deserved to be humiliated in the wake of her unfortunate accident, especially not by her own boyfriend. However unintentionally humorous Amy's accident may have seemed to others, she thought that, perhaps, Rex could be given some benefit of the doubt: she knew as well as anyone that is quite difficult not to laugh at something when laughter is contagious. Rex had just admitted to possessing a warped sense of humor, but even so, considering he seemed to be the lid to Amy's jar (or maybe she the lid and he the jar), not to mention being one of the very few people who could even tolerate her as a person, Shannon found it hard to believe that he would go out of his way to humiliate her under any circumstance. If he was this sincere, Amy needed to know.

"You should tell her, then…" suggested Shannon.

"How can I?" Rex asked with a shrug. "She won't even talk to me now…"

"She's probably still embarrassed about it…" theorized Shannon. "Maybe give her some space and time to cool off."

Unfortunately with Amy, she seldom cooled off from anything, and Shannon was all too aware of this – after all, Amy held a grudge against her for weeks over playing Hermia opposite Rex's Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream; it was highly likely that she would not let go of this incident anytime soon.

More often than not, during class changes, lunch in the cafeteria, and especially in theater club, Amy and Rex were practically glued at the hip, but the following day, it was quite the opposite; Amy was clearly avoiding Rex, while Rex clearly wanted to reverse this arrangement – he may have tried to smile at her if her head happened to turn toward his direction, only for her eyes to completely ignore him, which resulted in his smile turning into a frown. However, Amy also appeared to be very isolated, if not outright lonely; given her poor attitude and unpleasant demeanor, she clearly did not have very many friends… Rex was just about all she had… not that anyone could understand or comprehend what he even saw in her… must have been that whole lid-and-jar thing, again.

As was the usual case since Ruby had quit theater, Shannon mulled alone in a corner of the stage as she scrolled through her social media feed on her phone to see if any of her virtual friends had done anything interesting since she last checked their status updates, when a certain Asian boy in pressed clothing approached her.

"I really screwed up big time, didn't I?" Rex asked.

"Huh?" Shannon responded as she pulled her face away from her phone screen.

"With Amy… I really screwed up…" he muttered.

"I don't know if I would go that far…" said Shannon. "You made a mistake, but you can still fix it."

"I can't… Amy's been avoiding me like the plague," said a saddened Rex.

Shannon bit her tongue to keep herself from making any sort of remark on Amy's begrudging ways, but she then found herself on the receiving end of a rather unusual request.

"You think you could talk to her for me?" Rex asked.

Shannon looked at Rex with a rather puzzled face before she responded, "Rex, this is your problem; you have to fix this yourself."

She was not being entirely spiteful, given her previous feud with Amy, but Shannon, understandably, did not want to be dragged somebody else's mess when it did not concern her.

"Please?" Rex pleaded. "You're probably the only one she'll talk to right now, even though you said she was your arch-nemesis…"

"Well, we did finally reach a truce…" she informed him.

"Even better!" Rex said in a sense of delight, since he, too, felt like the feud between the two girls was rather unnecessary – even if he never said anything, since he was supposed to be on Amy's side, anyway. "Could you at least tell her I want to talk to her?"

With a heavy sigh, Shannon reluctantly agreed to do that much: just inform Amy that Rex wished to speak with her; he could pick up the slack from there and explain himself to her, then, hopefully, all would be right within their own little world again.

Moments later, Amy sat alone out in the auditorium, while Mrs. Bernardo, once again, attempted to rehearse the kissing scene of Romeo & Juliet between Benny and Luan; usually, Rex always sat by her side, but not today. Other thespians were paired up with a friend of theirs, engaged in exercises, warmups, or just idle chatter, which only seemed to heighten Amy's loneliness… loneliness that was about to be alleviated when Shannon took a seat next to her.

"Hey, Amy…" she greeted the green-clad, ginger-haired girl.

"Hey…" mumbled a sulky Amy.

Shannon attempted to get the ball rolling: "Look, about what happened yesterday…"

"I really don't want to talk about that, Shannon…" said Amy in a rather blunt and curt matter.

Shannon nodded understandably, "Fine, we don't have to. But, Rex wants to…"

"I have nothing to say to him!" Amy snapped.

Shannon could sense that same negative attitude emanating from Amy that she always had when their feud was ongoing, which was one of the reasons why she did not want to be dragged into their affairs now that the two girls had found common ground between themselves. Nevertheless, she pressed forward anyway, as per Rex's request.

"Won't you at least give him a chance to explain himself?" She asked.

"What's there to explain?" Amy asked. "Clearly, I'm nothing but a big joke to him!"

"That's not what he told me…" said Shannon.

"What's he doing talking to you?" Amy asked as she snapped her head towards the bespectacled brunette.

Shannon did not like where this was going, and she especially did not like the accusatory tone in Amy's voice; she resisted an eye roll as she explained, "He just wanted me to tell you he wants to explain himself to you."

Amy scoffed, "After the way he's treated me, I could care less about whatever he has to say."

"Look, Amy," continued Shannon. "I know you're upset, you're embarrassed, you're hurt… I get it… nobody deserves to be humiliated, not even you… but, I also think you deserve to listen to what Rex has to say; won't you at least to talk to him?"

It became clear to Shannon that even in spite of her newfound sense of humility, Amy, unfortunately, still had not shaken her stubbornness and obstinacy.

"You can tell Rex that as of now, we are incommunicado," said Amy as she turned away from Shannon.

Very well, then.

After another day of rehearsal failed to make it beyond the kissing scene (this time, Luan's excuse was that she had a massive headache that made it difficult for her to concentrate), Shannon approached Rex to relay Amy's response to him as the thespians departed the auditorium.

"So, what'd she say?" Rex asked hopefully.

"She won't talk; she's still too upset about everything," explained Shannon.

Rex's hopes were dashed against the jagged rocks that rested at the bottom of his waterfall of despair.

"Did you tell her how much I wanna work things out with her?" He asked.

Shannon nodded, "Yeah, but, she doesn't want to hear it."

"Oh, this is bad…" he anguished before he began to plead with her again. "Tell her I'll do anything! Tell her I won't joke around with other girls, anymore! Tell her I'll do her homework for the rest of the semester! Tell her I'll…"

"Rex," interrupted Shannon. "Look… I told Amy what you said, and I told you what she said… like I said, this problem is between you guys, you need to work it out without involving a third party."

Rex, however, remained persistent, as he had practically dropped to his knees and begged the bespectacled brunette to further assist him.

"Please, Shannon? You're a girl, maybe you could talk to her again, woman-to-woman, and get her to understand I really wanna work things out!"

Shannon, once again, resisted an urge to roll her eyes; clearly, she herself would have no peace in her life until Rex and Amy had peace in their lives.

The following morning, Shannon did something she never thought she would ever find herself doing: she dropped by Amy's locker while she was collecting the text books she would need for her ensuing classes.

"Hey, Amy," greeted Shannon. "I told Rex what you said about how you don't wish to talk to him anymore…"

"Good," said Amy as she swung her locker shut and kept darting her eyes around the corridor, just to see if anybody was still talking about and/or laughing at her behind her back after what happened to her two days ago. "I hope he got the message."

"Yeah, he did…" nodded Shannon. "But, look, Amy, Rex really wants to make things right and work it out with you, and I think, deep down, you would really want to hear what he has to say… it could even strengthen your relationship."

"Do you even have a boyfriend?" Amy asked as she raised an eyebrow.

"No… I've never had a boyfriend before," admitted Shannon while Amy bit her tongue to refrain from making any snide remarks in how it came as no surprise to her that a socially awkward and introverted Jewish girl wouldn't be a magnet for boys.

"So, what makes you such a relationship expert?" Asked a leery Amy.

"Well, nothing…" said Shannon. "But, it sounds like Rex really cares about you… he must be a really great boyfriend if he's willing to do all of that."

"Then maybe you ought to go out with him, if you think he's such a great boyfriend!" Amy spat as she stormed off for her next class.

And so it went. Throughout the rest of the day, whenever Shannon happened to cross paths with either Rex or Amy, be it in the halls, or in the cafeteria, she found herself relaying information between the two of them as their main line of communication, all of which only reaffirmed her observation that, clearly, one of these two were the lid to the other's jar: she still understood nothing about what Rex even saw in Amy, other than he possessed genuine contrition for not being the boyfriend he felt she deserved; on the other hand, she also could see that Amy clearly was miserable without Rex, but continued to let her anger, ego, and pride dictate her feelings. Even in theater later that afternoon, Shannon continued to have to run communication between Amy and Rex as they sat on opposite ends of a row of seats in the auditorium. The longer this went on, the more Shannon had wished Ruby was still here to help her - she could be a little more aggressive and persuasive in these types of situations, not to mention she's known and dealt with Amy longer, and has more experience in dealing with her obstinacy.

While Shannon continued to run mini marathons between Amy and Rex, Mrs. Bernardo, once again, attempted to rehearse the kissing scene between Luan and Benny, but Luan still could not overcome her fear of kissing Benny – even as she watched him pucker his lips for a smooch, panic had set in all over again. To further compound things, after so many different manners of sabotaging the rehearsals to make a great escape, she finally ran out of ideas of what she could do to get out of kissing Benny; with no other alternatives in mind, she finally acted out of desperation…

"Wait! Uh, I have an idea… um, um, instead of a kiss, why doesn't Juliet just send Romeo a text?" She suggested while she produced her cell phone.

"A text?" Mrs. Bernardo asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," said Luan as she began selecting certain emoji's to illustrate her point. "I think a kissy emoji and a heart would really get the message across."

"Luan… what you are suggesting is…" Mrs. Bernardo trailed off; it would have seemed that she believed her thespian's suggestion was blasphemy, until her attitude flipped on a dime. "PUURRRE GEEENIUUUS! A modern take on a classic… BRAVO!" With that, their drama teacher had herself hoisted back up into the air via her wire harness as she called out into the wings, "Prop department? I need cell phones for Romeo and Juliet, PRONTO!"

Feeling a burden finally been off of her shoulders, Luan smiled and waggled her eyebrows at Benny before she stepped away, but the curly-haired boy looked rather despondent… if this bizarre turn of events told him anything, it was that Luan was clearly not comfortable with him playing Romeo. This was so disheartening to him, given his crush on Luan – a crush that he had possessed for quite some time; he rather looked forward to sharing a kiss with her, and even had hopes that all of this could allow for their friendship to blossom into something more. So much for that.

Still, he regarded Luan as his best friend, and as such, he wanted to do whatever he could to relieve his best friend of her discomfort, which is why before the theater club had reconvened for rehearsal the following day, he made a tremendous sacrifice for her sake… he approached Mrs. Bernardo to inform her that he was quitting the play.

"You're WHAT?! You're quitting the play?!" Flamboyant and dramatic to the finish, Mrs. Bernardo dropped to her knees before her young thespian as she pleaded, "Say this isn't so, dear Benjamin! SAAAAAY THIS ISN'T SOOOOOO!"

"I'm afraid so, Mrs. Bernardo…" he mumbled.

"But, Benny, you are the PERFECT Romeo! How could you do this to meeee?!" She wailed.

Benny had figured that if Luan was so uncomfortable with him playing Romeo, she would probably be embarrassed if her secret had gotten out, so he had fabricated a cover for himself to spare her any sort of embarrassment.

"Well, it's come to my attention that I have a conflict with chess club, and being in this play will interfere with our end-of-semester championship," he fibbed while Mrs. Bernardo stared at him with watering puppy eyes. "I'm really sorry to disappoint you, Mrs. B., especially with the play being so soon, but this is the decision I've made."

Mrs. Bernardo responded with another wail as she pressed the back of her fist into her forehead and continued to put the drama in drama teacher, "Very well, Benny… I suppose I'll have no other choice but to find a new Romeo..."

Now Benny felt all the more conflicted about leaving Mrs. Bernardo hanging like this, but he still wanted to spare Luan any discomfort and embarrassment.

Although it had come as a big shock to other thespians when they had learned that rehearsals had been completely cancelled until further notice, it was also a source of exasperation for them as well: for weeks, they had been trying to rehearse this play, and some unforeseen circumstance would arise and derail said rehearsal to the point that Mrs. Bernardo would cancel it for the rest of the afternoon… but now this? It had gotten to a point that, by now, some of these thespians were certain that they would not be enrolling in this elective again next semester.

Nobody was more surprised and confused about Benny quitting the play than Luan, especially upon learning of this supposed conflict with chess club. Unbeknownst to Benny, Luan had obsessively fawned over him to the point that she even knew his full schedule, and chess club was one that he was not enrolled in… she knew that he enjoyed the game, she even watched him play a time or two, but Benny was very much immersed in the performing arts – even if he did have a scheduling conflict, it seemed to her that theater would win out with him. This just did not make any sense to her, and she went out in search of Benny to find out why he really quit the play.

Shannon had some questions of her own… Did Luan have anything to do with this? Her behavior had been so odd as of late, even for her, and especially whenever the time came to rehearse the kissing scene with Benny. Was she afraid to kiss him? Did that have some sort of influence over his decision to quit the play? All she had learned from Mrs. Bernardo was that Benny quit because of a conflict with chess club, which she was unaware he was even in (or that he lied about being in). None of this made any sense to the suspicious Jewish girl, either, but it was not the only matter that had grabbed her attention. As she walked away from the auditorium, Amy and Rex happened to turn down the corridor at the same time, where upon they glared at each other, though Amy still emitted icy vibes toward Rex. Once they saw a puzzled Shannon retreat from the opposite direction, they, too, were confused by this.

"Hey, what's going on?" Rex asked.

"The play's been cancelled," muttered Shannon.

"What? Why?" Amy asked.

"Apparently, Benny quit, and now Mrs. Bernardo has to find a new Romeo," explained Shannon.

"Well, don't look at me," said Rex as he folded his arms in front of his chest. "That would not be in my best interest at this time."

Amy raised an eyebrow and uttered a snide remark under her breath: "Yeah, sure it wouldn't…"

Rex glared at the ginger-haired girl before he spoke to the bespectacled brunette, "Shannon? Please tell Amy I heard her little wisecrack, and I'm not amused."

Shannon merely stood with a blank stare at Rex before she reluctantly turned to Amy to repeat what he had just said: "Amy? Rex said he heard your little wisecrack, and he's not amused."

Amy fired back, "Tell Rex that's pretty big talk coming from someone who thinks I'm nothing but a joke."

Was this ever going to end? Shannon turned back to Rex, and pointlessly repeated to him what Amy had just said: "Rex? Amy said that's pretty big talk coming from someone who thinks she's just a joke."

"Tell Amy if she thinks that I think she's just a joke, then the joke's on her," said Rex.

If you were to ask Shannon, she would say that this entire situation had become a joke, as she, once again, turned to Amy to relay Rex's remark: "Amy? Rex said if you think that he thinks that you're a joke…"

Amy interrupted, "Tell Rex I don't think he thinks I'm a joke, I know he thinks I'm just a joke."

"Tell Amy she doesn't know a thing."

"Tell Rex one thing I do know is that he's not gonna charm his way back into my life after what he did to me."

"I didn't do anything to you!"

"Just embarrass and humiliate me!"

"If you'd just let me explain myself!"

"There's nothing to explain!"

"How do you know if you won't even let me?"

"I have eyes, I saw what happened!"

"It's not what you think!"

"ENOUGH!" Shannon snapped, much to the astonishment of the bickering Amy and Rex; this had gotten far beyond ridiculous, and she had it.

Shortly thereafter, Shannon was back in the auditorium where she angrily stood guard outside a door that lead into one of the small storage closets behind the stage, from the other side of which Amy and Rex could be heard knocking on and yelling from within.

"THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" Rex yelled.

"LET US OUT OF HERE!" Amy yelled.

"Not until you two settle this like civilized human beings!" Shannon barked as she planted herself in front of the door. "I'm tired of playing the role of Messenger Girl in The Amy and Rex Soap Opera!"

Amy and Rex continued to pound on the door within the darkened closet and demand to be released from their sudden imprisonment.

"COME ON, SHANNON, LET US OUT!" Rex yelled.

"YOU CAN'T KEEP ME IN HERE, I'M, UH, CLAUSTROPHOBIC!" Amy yelled.

Rex stopped and turned toward Amy to call her bluff, "No, you're not! Remember last summer when we got stuck in the Tunnel of Butter at Dairy land for almost two hours? You so totally dug that!"

"Yeah, because I was with a boyfriend who actually cared about me!" She argued.

"I do care about you, Amy!" He continued to insist. "Why do you think I've been trying so hard to work things out with you?!"

"Because you're sorry I saw your true colors!" She continued to argue.

"Not true!" He argued in return. "Look, if I knew joking around with other girls bothered you so much, I would've stopped – and I still have every intention of stopping!"

"You really think that makes a difference, now?" She asked. "Clearly I'm still one big joke to you! You think I didn't see how my own boyfriend just stood there and laughed at me when I fell in a bucket full of crap?!"

Rex's mouth twisted while Amy relived the incident all over again with tears that gradually rolled down her freckled cheeks.

"It was the most… embarrassing… humiliating… mortifying thing that ever happened to me…" she sobbed. "And… and, you just stood there… and laughed at me… and… and…"

By now, Amy could no longer hold herself back, and just as it had happened on that very day, she began to sob uncontrollably; in the darkened closet, she could not see Rex's face very well, but she could just visualize him laughing at her all over again. It was then that Rex did something that he actually had not in quite a long time: he stepped over to Amy, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her into an embrace. Even in her state of hysterics, not to mention the emotional pain that she had drowned in because of this same boy, she was in no condition to fight it or pull away from him.

"I'm sorry, Amy…" Rex said softly. "I'm sorry… I really tried so hard not to laugh at you, but all the laughter in the hall was so contagious, I couldn't help myself… I even tried to warn you about the mop bucket, but you wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise…"

"You did?" Amy sniffed. "You really tried to warn me?"

"Yeah," said Rex as he tightened his squeeze around Amy. "You really think I wanted to see you fall into a bucket of poo?"

"I don't know…" she sobbed.

"Look…" he said as he pulled away from her, "I screwed up… I've been a bad boyfriend, and you deserve a lot better… but, I swear, I would never want to hurt or humiliate you, and I'm sorry I did…"

After another sniffle, Amy gradually began to smile.

On the outside of the door, Shannon had since slumped down to the floor to post a status update on social media…

i somehow got cast as a messenger girl in a melodramatic soap opera. worst role of my life. LOL.

To add a few laughing face emoji's, she hoped that her virtual friends and followers would understand that she was merely posting in jest, but it was at that moment that she came to realize that it had become quiet in the house… too quiet… in fact, it had then occurred to her that she hadn't heard a single sound come from within this closet for a little while; she certainly hoped that neither Amy nor Rex had murdered each other while locked in there; maybe this was not such a good idea after all… She hopped to her feet, unlocked the door, and flung it open, but the sight that met her eyes gave her a different sort of surprise: not only were Amy and Rex wrapped in each other's arms, both of their faces were planted into each other's, as they enjoyed an impromptu make-out session… a session they felt had been so rudely interrupted.

"Do you mind?" Amy sneered at Shannon for her invasion of their privacy.

"Oh, excuse me," said Shannon before she shut the door and left them to their own devices.

While Amy and Rex went back to locking lips, Shannon was at least satisfied that order had been restored, and she could finally be released from the role of their personal messenger girl; as much as she loved drama, this sort of drama she would not miss in the least. She went about her way, and as she strolled down the corridor for the nearest exit, she sent her mom a text to inform of her the play's cancellation and that she was ready for a ride home; if she happened to glance out of the window she had just passed, she would have noticed another pair of her fellow thespians sharing a kiss with each other: her friends, Benny and Luan.

That little detour into Amy and Rex's episode of The Young and the Restless was unexpected, but this was the fault of yours truly for failing to consider how Rex's actions (and inactions) toward Amy's mop bucket incident would negatively impact their relationship, and how order would need to be restored in their little world, which took Albertson and I some brainstorming to figure out the best manner in which to execute this. Otherwise, we'll steer the story back on course next chapter.

In the meantime, since "Stressed for the Part" has finally seen the light of day (albeit, only in Italy), I won't go into deep discussion regarding this episode, though, there are a few minor points I will address in relation to our story - and not about Luan planting another kiss on Benny's cheek that has many Luanny shippers overjoyed (so, if you have yet to see the episode, consider these minor spoilers). First of all, the episode confirms that Ruby is, indeed, still in theater, although, Spencer was conspicuously absent again (as was Rex, actually). There also appears to be a new blonde girl... it's not Juney, though... that wouldn't make sense. Second of all, remember that it was mentioned earlier in the story that Shannon once took Advanced Mime as an elective? This episode actually canonizes that concept; Mrs. Bernardo also teaches a mime class, in which Shannon is enrolled. Last of all, do you also remember that Shannon mentioned earlier in the story that one of her favorite musicals is Rats, an obvious parody of Cats? As one reader deduced, yes, this was something of an homage to Hey Arnold (and to subtly imply both of these Nicktoons share a universe), though, as it turns out, Loud House does have its own in-universe parody: Kats (spelled with a 'K,' for legal reasons)... in which one Kate Bernardo performed in 1989... and was lauded for. Sigh; this woman tries desperately too hard to leave her mark on the world.

Okay, enough jabbering. We'll now return you to your irregularly scheduled high school drama...