Chapter 11: First Day of Rehearsal
The next day, all the women that were going to be in the pageant showed up bright and early at the theater, except Missy.
"I wonder where Missy is." said Ms. Crawly.
"Not a good idea to be late for the first day." added Ash.
The door opened, and Missy hurried in.
"Hey, I'm not too late am I?" she asked.
"Nope, Mr. Moon hasn't come out yet. Where were you?" Meena wondered.
"I had to get Cassia dressed, fed, and ready for school."
"I remember when I had to figure out a way to get my 25 little ones ready for the day back during the singing competition." Rosita recalled.
Finally Buster came out with a cup of coffee.
"Good morning ladies, glad you all made it so let's get started." Buster told them, as he sipped the coffee.
Missy rolled her eyes, at her brother's caffeine addiction.
"First we'll start with the introduction part."
He explained that they would wait backstage, and he'd first say some things about them, then say their name and they'd come out and line up. That part was easy, the evening gown part was a little more difficult.
First Buster would call them one by one, and then after all of them had gone, he'd call them all back on stage to show off their gowns to the audience one last time.
"Very good, ladies." said Buster, when they finished.
He looked at his watch to check the time.
"Now we'll take a break for lunch."
They all went backstage, and soon Mr. Bullard's catering company came by to drop off the food. Michael who worked as a caterer there, found that this would be the perfect time to walk to Ash.
"Hey, Ash." he greeted, walking up to her.
"Hey, Michael."
The two quickly hugged.
"I need to talk to you about something important." Michael informed, taking her aside.
"What's going on?"
"It's Brianna, I think she's a little nervous about you moving in."
"Nervous, why would she be nervous?"
"I don't know, but I really think she is."
"Aw poor kid."
"I was hoping that we could both talk to her."
"No problem, I'll come over tonight and we can do this."
"Great, I'll see you tonight then."
He gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and left with the rest of the workers.
"Who was that, Ash?" wondered Stacy, as Ash returned to sit with them for lunch.
"That's Michael, my boyfriend." Ash answered.
"They're moving in together." Ms. Crawly informed.
"That's nice."
"By the way, remember when we were talking about kids earlier?" Meena questioned.
"Yeah." answered Ash.
"You think you might be doing that for Brianna?"
Stacy looked confused again, Rosita told her that Brianna was Michael's younger sister.
"Very funny." Ash replied sarcastically.
"Speaking of boyfriends, I must be sure to give Herman a ticket for the pageant." remembered Ms. Crawly.
"Who's Herman?" Nancy wanted to know.
"A very nice lizard I know. We met moon bathing one night."
"That's adorable." complimented Meena.
"It's nice that you might've found someone, Ms. Crawly." said Rosita.
"You ever had anyone special back in Creatropolis, Stacy?" asked Missy.
"Oh, no. I didn't really have time to find anyone." replied Stacy quietly.
She reached for her drink, but she accidentally spilled it, and it landed on Rosita's pants.
"Stacy."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, it was an accident, really." Stacy told her in a quick and frightened voice.
The others looked at her with a strange expression, why was she making such a big fuss over a spill.
"It's all right, Stacy, it was just an accident." Rosita assured, as she dried herself with a napkin.
"Oh."
When she saw they weren't making a big deal out of it, she blushed a little.
"What was that about?" Ash wondered.
"Well, uh, nothing, excuse me."
And with that she hurried to the restrooms. She shut the door behind her, and splashed some water on her face.
"Okay, Stacy get it together." she said to herself.
When rehearsal was over, the ladies went home, but Stacy's new friends wondered what happened to Stacy.
"Why would she make such a fuss over a spill?" asked Ash.
"And she was so frightened." added Ms. Crawly.
"You know last night when she came over for dinner she got kinda scared when she saw my grandpa's cane." said Meena.
"Strange." said Rosita.
They decided to ask Stacy about it later, and went home.
Ash caught the train to Michael's apartment building so she and him could talk to Brianna. She went up to his apartment and knocked on the door. Michael opened it, and let her in.
"Thanks for coming." he said.
"No problem, I don't want her to feel nervous about me moving in." Ash answered.
"Brianna, could you come here please?" called Michael.
"Coming." Brianna called back.
She came out of her room, and walked up to them.
"Hi, Ash."
"Hey, Bree."
"Brianna, sit down." Michael told her, walking her over to the couch.
They all sat down, and Brianna looked up at them.
"What's going on?"
"Brianna, Michael told me that you're kinda nervous about me moving in, is that true?" Ash wondered.
"N-no, why would you think that?" Brianna asked Michael.
"Because you've been acting nervous and asking about Ash moving in for the past two days."
"Well I was just worried that once Ash moved in you'd forget all about me."
"Oh, Brianna that's just not gonna happen."
He put her on his lap, in an attempt to comfort her.
"It's not?"
"No, you mean as much to me as Michael does." Ash told her.
"Really?"
"Yeah, you're like a little sister to me."
Brianna smiled she was feeling much better about Ash moving in, and she was even going to help Michael and Ash with the packing.
That's chapter 11, plz review