A/N: Another update so soon? Yes, indeed! Actually, a lot of this material had originally been written for the previous chapter, so it was all a matter of fine-tuning some of the details with Albertson to ensure that this pivotal chapter validated a plot element that was otherwise left unexplored in "Stage Plight" (yes, we are still in this period of the timeline).
When Royal Woods High's various after school clubs had concluded on this blustery Thursday afternoon, Lori Loud drove she and her fellow high school-aged sisters homeward bound, but there was no denying that look on the face of the ponytailed sister, whose grin was so wide, her braces could have popped out; whose eyes were so sparkly, they shimmered like water reflecting sunlight; whose cheeks were so rosy and glowing, the setting sun could have been envious. This made her older sisters most curious as they began to pry…
"Penny for your thoughts, Luan?" Lori asked as she steered her way for home.
"Yeah, dude; I ain't seen you break your face like this since you got Joanie Sassafras' Jane Hancock," said Luna as she sipped on the bottle of root beer she had purchased from one of the school's vending machines after she had departed from the band room when the music club had adjourned.
Luan could contain herself no longer and blurted out, "Benny and me kissed today!"
Lori and Luna smiled, while Leni gasped and squealed; they knew their sister was having a difficult time mustering up the courage to kiss her crush during their Romeo & Juliet rehearsals, and it sounded to them that she had finally conquered her fear.
"That is literally amazing you finally got through your rehearsal!" Lori exclaimed.
"Righteous! Did you enjoy it, brah?" Luna egged on as she nudged her sister with her elbow. "Did he enjoy it?"
"Guys, it wasn't a rehearsal…" explained Luan. "We had our for-real first kiss!"
Luna had taken another gulp of her root beer, but like a nuclear reaction to Luan's bombshell, the fizzy sweet beverage sprayed out of her mouth and all over the back of Lori's head.
"Luna!" Lori shrieked in disgust and dismay. "Literally eww!"
"Are you jivin' us, dude?!" Luna asked her immediate younger sister.
"No, we really had our first kiss!" Luan squealed.
Leni turned around from the front passenger seat to face Luan and exclaimed, "O-M-GOSH! You and Benny had a real kiss, and not just some play kiss?!"
"Yeah," nodded Luan. "It's kind of a long story, but it turned out, Benny's been sweet on me all this time, too!"
While both Lori and Leni responded with in stereo with a gleeful, "Awwww!" Luna, however was a tad more skeptical...
"He said that? He told you he's sweet on you?"
"Yeah!" Luan cheered. "Well, actually, Mrs. Apple blossom told me…"
Mrs. Apple blossom? That name did not sound familiar to the other sisters, who were left rather confused by this information.
"Wait, Mrs. Appleblossom? Isn't she that mean old lady in charge of squirrel feeding club?" Leni asked.
Luan chose that moment to bring Mr. Coconuts into the conversation and allow him to explain, "Ding-dong, you're wrong, Toots! Mrs. Apple blossom happens to be a doll… literally and figuratively! She's Benny-Boy's fine little lady friend; I think I smell another little romance in the air… and it smells like Applewood…"
"I had no idea romance smelled like bacon..." said a rather clueless Leni. "That def sounds like it smells yummy, though!"
"Well, there could be some shakin' and bakin' goin' on," remarked Mr. Coconuts.
Ignoring some of the innuendos that, undoubtedly, flew over Leni's head, Lori asked, "So, if I'm reading you correctly, you and Benny are literally a for-realsies couple now?"
"YES!" Luan squealed in giddiness; this was the happiest moment of her life.
The other sisters shared in Luan's happiness, though Luna felt a little awkward about the discrepancy in the hunch she had in regards to the apple of her little sister's eye that she had based solely on watching him prance around on stage in a fairy king costume, as she mumbled under her breath, "Guess my gaydar was a little outta whack on him…"
"Say what?" Luan asked; she didn't quite get that.
"Nuttin, dude; just… brainstormin' lyrics for my new jam," she chuckled with a coy grin on her freckled face. 'Kay, maybe he don't swing THAT way, she thought to herself, buuuut, that don't mean it he don't swing BOTH ways…
Even in spite of Luan's joy and happiness, Lori's big sister instincts had begun to kick in, which prompted her to steer the conversation into a slightly different direction.
"So, are you sure you're ready for this, Luan?" She asked.
"What do you mean?" Luan asked.
"I mean, a relationship is literally a big step to take, it might even seem a little overwhelming at first," explained Lori. "Even I was a little unsure if I was ready to make such a major commitment when Bobby and me first started dating…"
"Yeah, I know; just the idea of kissing Benny in a play was overwhelming," said Luan. "But, this is what I've wanted for so long, and now that I know Benny feels the same, it doesn't seem so overwhelming now. I'm more than ready to take the next step!"
Lori smiled and said, "You can't blame your big sister for being concerned…"
Leni added, "You and Benny will totes make a cute couple!"
Luan's braces glistened in the sunlight that shone through the windshield of Vanzilla as the humongous smile returned to her face, and although Luna was equally happy for Luan to begin this new chapter in her life, she began to sense that overwhelming feeling that Lori had just described; it wasn't that long ago that she had slipped her love note into the locker of her crush, Sam Sharp, and even though the blonde musician seemed interested in hooking up with the Loud rocker sometime, they had yet to actually do so. Maybe someday soon, they may try to meet up and do something together... until then, she was still curious to know what it felt like to share a kiss with your beloved...
"You still danced around the question, brah," said Luna as she began to nudge Luan again. "Did you enjoy it?"
"Did you have butterflies in your tongue and feel your tummy tying itself in knots?" Leni asked; she, too, wanted to hear more about the moment.
Luan blushed and said, "It was... nice..."
Just nice? Was Luan being a little too modest to share juicier details?
"Aw, come on, sis, you can divulge more than that!" Luna continued to press. "Was it like fireworks? Did he slip his hand onto yours? Did he get hard-"
"LUNA!" Lori immediately shrieked to cut her off at the pass before she went off in that direction.
"-wired... into an electrical excitement, like a Sterrett cranked up to eleven?" She ad-libbed.
"Honestly... it was so sudden and unexpected..." confessed Luan while still blushing. "But... it wasn't all awkward and scary like I thought it'd be... it was just... really, really... nice..."
Luna's response to such an answer was to simply glare at her sister with a sly look on her face, as though to suggest she still repressed her true thoughts on her first kiss.
In as much as Lori also felt a nagging curiosity to hear more details about one of her little sisters making such a big step forward with her sweetheart, she also felt it was time to invoke her first-born authority to pull the reins in on her younger, purple-clad, freckle-faced sister...
"That's enough, Luna," she gently, yet firmly scolded. "If Luan doesn't feel comfortable talking about it, we shouldn't push her."
Luan breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't that Benny's technique was flawed in any way, she was more than satisfied with how the experience felt. It was more like she lacked the words to describe how the kiss really felt to her, or at the very least, found it difficult to put into words that would make sense.
Their budding romance aside, there was also still the matter that Benny had quit Romeo & Juliet, which left Mrs. Bernardo in an unexpected bind of trying to find a replacement for him, which was especially daunting, considering that the play would open in another two weeks. Now that everything had been resolved between them, Benny could return to the play, but Luan had come to realize that she had quite a lot to answer for in regards to how much of a disastrous train wreck rehearsals for their play had been these past few weeks because of her fear of having to kiss Benny. It really was not fair to any of the other thespians who worked so hard to try to put this play together for her to continually derail their rehearsals, even if they were unaware that she had been the culprit all along… but, she knew that they deserved an explanation, and as the old adage goes, the truth shall set you free.
After school the following day, a meeting of the Royal Woods High theater club had been called to order, though not by their drama teacher, rather, by Luan, which was highly irregular, but then again, so were the circumstances that lead to the calling of this meeting, and as the other thespians gathered on stage, they were in for quite a shock when the pony-tailed and brace-faced girl dropped a bombshell on them.
"Hey, guys…" she meekly greeted her classmates. "I, uh, have a confession to make… I suppose you've noticed a lot of weird things have been derailing our rehearsals…"
Her fellow thespians concurred with knowing nods and murmurs.
"Well, you see… it was all me…" she continued to collective gasps from everybody, including and especially Mrs. Bernardo. "The falling sand bags… the loose floorboards… the lights going out… they were all me…"
"And the pudding in my boots?" Lyberti asked.
"And the seltzer water in my hair spray?" Erroll asked.
"And the red dot on my sweater?" Jackee asked.
"Me, myself, and I," said Luan as she took responsibility for all of these incidents and occurrences that, in whatever way, had interrupted their attempts to rehearse Romeo & Juliet.
By now, all of her fellow thespians were outraged to learn that Luan was the sole cause of all of these strange happenings that they had previously concluded were just strange and odd accidents – perhaps, even a curse on their club… that is, except for two: Benny, who stood by Luan's side as she confessed to her crimes before a jury of her peers, and Shannon. In Shannon's case, she looked more annoyed, and even somewhat confused, than she did angry; she knew Luan was a master prankster, and it sounded to her as though Luan was admitting to planning all of these incidents as pranks against her fellow thespians… at the same time, however, if that was, indeed, the case, these pranks really did not seem like Luan's usual style… perhaps, these were not pranks at all, but rather, Luan covering up for something else.
"Luan Loud… I am INCENSED! I am OUTRAGED! I am ACRIMONIOUS!" To say that Mrs. Bernardo was disappointed to learn that one of her star pupils, a girl she felt could very well be her protégé, was responsible for all of these incidents was a gross understatement, as she continued to let her dramatic disappointment speak for her. "To think that YOU, out of ALLLL my students, could have perpetrated such a disloyalty! Not only vandalizing school property, but putting the lives of your fellow thespians in danger! What if somebody was seriously injured by a falling sand bag, or falling through a loose floorboard?!"
"I gotta be honest… none of that ever occurred to me…" confessed Luan.
As far as the other thespians were concerned, this should have been grounds for Luan to be booted from the club – an opinion they very much voiced in the heat of the moment, which only deepened Luan's guilt as she made an attempt to make amends with her fellow thespians.
"Look, I'm so sorry, guys," she said. "I never intended to hurt anybody or anything; it's just… well… I was afraid…"
Even in their anger at Luan for being the one behind these incidents, they were already confused as to what had even possessed her into perpetrating them in the first place; to hear her say that she was afraid only added to their confusion.
"I mean… I've never kissed anyone before… and, I was afraid… I was afraid not only would I be bad at it and embarrass myself on stage in front of everybody… but, I might even embarrass Benny on stage in front of everybody… and, that would've been even worse, because… I've had a crush on him for a long time… and… I didn't want to hate me for embarrassing him…"
This had finally confirmed Shannon's suspicion that Luan was afraid to kiss Benny… but, she had no idea that Luan had harbored any sort of a crush on him for so long. Luan's revelation, however, did little to alleviate the upset that had consumed not only her fellow thespians, but also her disheartened drama teacher; Mrs. Bernardo listened to her testimony, and while she could believe that Luan may not have intended to bring any harm to her fellow thespians, the fact of the matter was, as a teacher, she had a responsibility to see to it that the infractions she had committed against not only the school itself, but her fellow students, were brought to the attention of the principal for disciplinary action.
"Well, Luan, regardless of your intentions, or lack thereof… it still PAINS me to have to report all of this to the principal… even if it means you have to face suspension, or even be removed from of our club!" Mrs. Bernardo fretted.
Now, Luan really felt as though she had dug her own grave, and cursed how her irrational behavior had been her undoing; all she ever wanted was to spend more time with and become closer to Benny, of which being in the drama club with him gave her exactly what she wanted… caving into her fears caused her to throw it all away. Benny, however, chose that moment to play devil's advocate…
"Wait… must we be so hasty to condemn Luan?" He began, much to the others' surprise. "Don't get me wrong, there are no justifications for any of what she did… but, I can understand why she did what she did…"
This entire scenario just kept getting more and more interesting, as everyone else in the auditorium listened to Benny's defense.
"Like Luan said, she was afraid," he continued. "And, let's face it, when we're afraid, fear clouds our judgment, which results in us doing some rather irrational things that we later realize were not, exactly, the best course of action we should and could have taken if we were able to think rationally. Haven't we all, at some point, been so afraid, that we let our fear become the driving force behind our thoughts or actions? I know I have... like the time when I was younger, and I ate a batch of macarons my mom made, not knowing she made them for a bake sale, and because I was so afraid of getting in trouble, I pinned the blame on Mrs. Appleblossom and said she ate them..."
With that, Benny produced his redheaded marionette who bore a pink sun hat and matching petticoat to scold himself, "Indeed, Benjamin, that was quite naughty of you! You naughty-naughty-naughty boy!"
Luan repressed an inward giggle, not only to hear about such a childish little incident from Benny's boyhood, but also over the thought that she and he were so much more alike than she had previously thought. Meanwhile, the other thespians quietly considered the point he made as such an incident had resurfaced in Lyberti's mind...
"Yeah… I remember a couple of years ago, I was at the mall with my cousins, and we noticed this creepy kinda guy kept following us, and thought he was stalking us, so we ran off and found a mall cop to scare him off… then, it turned out he saw a bow fell out of my hair, and he was just trying to give it back to me…"
Amy was the next to speak up, as she relived another embarrassment from her past:
"One time when I was a little kid, a cop showed up at our house looking for my mom, and I was, like, so wigged out that he came to arrest her and take her to jail or something, so I made up this big story that she wasn't home because she went missing and we didn't know where she was… they actually called a search for her and started contacting our family and friends about when they last saw her, and if they knew anything about where she might be… then I found out that the cops were only looking for her because she had volunteered to do some community work for them, and they wanted to pick up some old things she was donating to a charity bazaar they were having…"
These additional testimonies had helped prove Benny's point, and further solidify his defense for Luan.
"I don't blame Luan for being scared about kissing me… if it wasn't for the fact that this is only a school play, I'd probably be scared, too, because…" he paused before he turned to her and took hold of her hand to further show his support. "I've actually had a crush on her for a long time, too…"
This was a double whammy for Shannon; she had known both Benny and Luan for almost four years, they were just about the only real friends she had in her life, and if either of them possessed a crush on one another, they sure did not show it – at least, not around her, because she never suspected either of them of having feelings for the other. This day was just chock full of surprises.
It was rather moving to witness Benny and Luan go public with their feelings for one another, not to mention how Benny had defended her… but, the more that she thought about it, the more she realized that her drama teacher was correct in that she should face the consequences of her irrational actions.
"Thanks, Benny… but, Mrs. B. is right… even if I did let my fear take over my mind, I still vandalized school property and put everyone else in danger…" with a heavy sigh and the lowering of head, she walked herself before her drama teacher in shame and disgrace. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Bernardo… not just for all those stupid things I did, but also for letting you down… I guess you can take me to the principal's office now…"
By now, everybody within the auditorium looked far more sympathetic than they had only moments ago when they were hasty to condemn Luan for her irrational behavior.
"Wait... maybe kicking Luan out of the club is kinda harsh..." said Lyberti.
"Yeah... I mean, like Benny said, we've all done things we later regretted because we acted out of fear..." added Amy.
"Couldn't we just forgive and forget?" Rex asked.
"It's not like she meant any harm..." added Jackee.
"And, next time you're afraid, Luan? You can talk to one of us, that way, you don't have to pull any more crazy stunts like this," offered Lyberti.
The others agreed. To see her fellow thespians were now willing to extend to her this opportunity to redeem herself, a small, cautious smile appeared on Luan's face... but, would this be enough to influence Mrs. Bernardo's decision?
With a sigh through her long nose, she made her thespian an offer: "I'll tell you what, Luan... until the end of the semester, I hereby put you on probation… whenever we're not rehearsing any of your scenes, you will assist in making sure everything on this stage is in working order, including repairing any damage that you have caused, as well as cleaning up the stage after every class."
"So, does this mean the play's back on?" Luan asked.
"As soon as I can find a new Romeo to replace Benny," groaned Mrs. Bernardo.
Benny blushed; he had almost forgotten about his cover story that he fabricated, as he explained, "Actually, Mrs. B... I really don't have a conflict with chess club... I just said that because I suspected Luan was uncomfortable with me playing Romeo, and if she was, I didn't want her to feel embarrassed about influencing my decision to quit the play."
Luan had a knowing smile on her face; already, she felt like such a lucky girl to have a boy who was so considerate of her feelings. This, meanwhile, also had further confirmed Shannon's suspicions that Luan was, indeed, the real reason why Benny had quit the play.
Before Mrs. Bernardo could make a final decision, she still had one last point to address: "Is this kissing still a problem?"
With that, Benny stepped over to Luan and recited the only line he had been able to rehearse all of this time: "Then, move not, while my prayer's effect I take…"
Without any hesitation from either party, Benny and Luan leaned in until their lips met for a kiss, which elicited a heartwarming response from their peers who responded with a chorus of, 'Awwww's, and even some claps of approval, making both of their cheeks tinge with redness as they pulled away from one another.
"BRAVO! BRAVO!" Mrs. Bernardo exclaimed. "THE SHOW WILL GO OONNN!"
To the pleasure and relief of everyone in the auditorium, Mrs. Bernardo had called rehearsal into order for the rest of that day, as Luan expressed her gratitude to her new boyfriend.
"Thanks for defending me, Benny," she said before realizing how he seemed particularly natural about it. "You were so glib and articulate… I almost felt like you were my lawyer or something…"
Benny smiled, but also blushed a little as well, as he began to stroke the back of his head and explain, "I suppose my mom's occupation has rubbed off on me a little…"
"Your mom is a lawyer?" Luan asked in curiosity.
"Well… let's just say she works in a law office… as a clerk…" Benny was severely downplaying the fact that his mother was, in fact, a federal judge, whose responsibility to society was to place high-profile criminals in prison, but preferred not to have her occupation crowed about, so as to not make she and/or her family targets for vengeful associates.
Still, Luan was surprised to learn of this little white lie about Benny's mother; no wonder he seemed so litigious in defending her. She wasn't the only one who was still in shock of the new information that had been revealed in the auditorium that day, as their mutual friend stepped over to them.
"I can't believe this…" said Shannon. "I mean, I've known you guys since middle school, and I had never suspected either of you had feelings for each other!"
Luan suddenly produced her Groucho Marx glasses and placed them onto her face to visually assist her punny response, "I've gotten pretty good as masking my feelings."
That may have given Benny and Shannon a chuckle, but little did they know that Luan's little quip was more of a truth than it was a joke, which this entire situation would have proven if they were aware that she had essentially trained herself to do just that: mask her feelings; it was something of an occupational hazard of being a performer who put herself out there in front of the world so regularly. Nevertheless, this turn of events seemed so unreal to Shannon.
"I still can't believe you guys are a couple now…" she said. Shannon wasn't much of a romantic herself, but the happiness for her friends' budding relationship was undeniable. "Somehow, I feel like you guys were made for each other! Just your rapport and chemistry with one another… no wonder it always felt so genuine and natural…"
Luan and Benny shared another smile with each other.
"I just hope this doesn't mean I'm a third wheel now," quipped Shannon.
"Why, are we a human tricycle?" Luan asked as she shared in another laugh with her two friends.
For the first time in weeks, that day's Romeo & Juliet rehearsal went off without a hitch, and the club could not have been happier – it was such a relief to finally move forward beyond the kiss between the titular characters, but none of them were more relieved than Benny and Luan… throughout the rest of that day's rehearsal, Luan kept wishing she had not been so afraid to kiss Benny for all of this time, especially since she knew now that the crush went both ways.
As per the condition of her probation, she was required by Mrs. Bernardo to remain in the auditorium after their rehearsal to help see to it that their props, costumes, and sets were put away safely and properly, in addition to the technical equipment such as lights and sound were in proper working order – considering that her only other option was to be removed from the club and face probable suspension, she really could not complain about the arrangement. She actually considered this a learning experience; for years, she had been on stage, but she had never really taken the time to observe the tasks that had to be accomplished off stage to ensure that shows could go on for audiences with as few problems and difficulties as possible – it gave her a deeper respect for stage crews, the unsung heroes of the theater world who never got the same kind of glory that the actors on stage received.
Later that same evening, as had been the tradition for the past several Friday nights, the bleachers had gradually filled with crowds of local spectators for the penultimate game of the Rocket Squirrels' current season – a bittersweet occasion for high school football fans, to be sure, that there would be only one more game after this; it all flew by far too quickly for those who felt as though it was just yesterday that the season had begun. Ruby didn't even have her mind on the game that evening, instead, her mind focused on other things that were on her horizon, such as the fact that school would be closed for much of the following week for the Thanksgiving holidays; involved preparations for the obligatory family gathering aside, she anticipated a few days of freedom – just doing whatever she felt like doing, whenever she felt like doing it.
Unfortunately for the Rocket Squirrels, Ruby's lack of focus seemed to have a negative effect on their match against the Kalamazoo Kangaroos… at least as far as Spencer was concerned. The Roos played like madcap marsupials, which left the Squirrels feeling quite scrambled, as they endured a number of upsetting setbacks throughout the evening, ranging from a number of their passes being intercepted; wide receiver, Brandon, being knocked out of bounds while running with the ball; running back, Horatio, nearly sustaining a concussion after a head-on collision with an opposing player; even Spencer found himself taking on more of a beating than he was accustomed to as he and the rest of the Rocket Squirrels' line were continually tackled by the Kangaroos' line. At one point after he recovered from another tackle, Spencer stole a glance up in the stands, and he could have sworn that Ruby looked as though she wasn't even watching the game; the glazed look on her face as she stared out into the starry sky above them as though she were daydreaming didn't seem to do much for his ability to play that evening. Even so, she continued to take cues from the rest of the crowd throughout the evening in terms of cheering and jeering when necessary, but, otherwise, the game itself was almost nothing more than just white noise for her. By the end of the evening, the visiting Kangaroos came out on top and crushed the Rocket Squirrels at 20-14, which prompted them to partake in their team's customary celebratory victory hop across the field.
The defeated Rocket Squirrels retreated to their locker room with a sense of disappointment; while this game was nowhere near as upsetting as their previous away game in which they still failed to defeat the Great Lakes City Lake Loons, a second loss in a row had surely dampened their spirits – especially since they had been on such a winning streak in the weeks prior. While he changed out of his uniform and cooled off in a quick shower, Spencer still lamented over how he was not on top of his game tonight as he should have been… it was very much as though Ruby's lack of attention throughout the evening had thrown him out of his groove, and even when he and Ruby met up together after he and the other played exited the locker room for their trips home for the evening, he had a thing or two to say about it.
"Tough break out there, my dude," said Ruby to offer her boyfriend the requisite consolation she knew he would need after such a loss this evening.
"Were you even paying attention to the game at all?" Spencer asked rather bluntly.
"Yeah," nodded an unconvincing Ruby.
"Really?" He pressed. "Seemed like you were zonin' out up there."
Could he really tell that? She thought when Spencer was out on that field, all of his concentration and focus was on the game he was playing, rather than whether or not she was paying attention up in the stands.
"I mean… okay… maybe I did kinda, like, zone out from time to time," she confessed. "Guess I'm just, like, totally stoked about Thanksgiving break next week."
Spencer released a rather long and exasperated sigh through his nose; he could give his girlfriend some benefit of the doubt, as just about all of the students, and even much of the faculty, were looking forward to a few days off from school next week… still, he felt it was imperative that she continue to direct her focus out onto the field…
"Alright, point taken, I get it…" he said. "But, just make sure you really pay attention next time; after all, it's our last game, and we really wanna win it and go out on a high note this season."
"Yeah, like, sure…" said Ruby with a nod of her head and a shrug of her shoulders, though the feeling did begin to sink in a little that the way Spencer was so adamant about her watching their every single move out on the field was as though he operated under the belief that, somehow, she was a source good luck for he and the rest of the team.
And that, dear readers, is how Benny and Luan had squared away everything with the rest of the club to get Romeo & Juliet back on track for their big opening night... you probably already know where this particular plot thread is going.
But, before we get into that, be prepared for some traditional and customary Loud sibling hi-jinx in our next chapter...
Also, the note of Luna having suspicions regarding Benny's sexuality was something that Albertson had thrown into his story, Nightmare on Franklin Avenue (in which Luna specifically mentions seeing him in A Midsummer Night's Dream had influenced her suspicions), and something I eventually took and ran with, so, in a sense, these two stories share a universe. As does the fact that Nightmare on Franklin Avenue also explains that Benny's mother is a federal judge, and since one good turn deserves another, I thought I would work this reference in my story after he had worked that previously-mentioned little detail into his. By the way, if you haven't yet, do go check out Nightmare on Franklin Avenue.