Aaah! I'm back again! I know that it's been quite a while since I posted my last chapter on Just Like Me (even longer for this story but we don't have to go into that), but considering how much work I've had recently I don't think that two weeks to write a chapter is that bad considering that I haven't been able to write anything for most of those days.
Here it is though, this is what I've managed to put together!
"I can't believe we've been ditched on our first day back," Mack chuckled, half-jokingly rolling her eyes as she scanned the corridor again. No sign of any of the ten Wet Side Story teens. "I mean, what's so hard about remembering where the meeting point is twenty minutes after I told them it?"
"Hey, knowing them they could be anywhere," Brady said with a small laugh as he slid his phone back into his pocket. "They're not exactly the best when it comes to instructions either, are they?"
"Ugh," Mack groaned, throwing her arms down to her sides. "I can't believe we've wasted half of our free period fussing over them all. It's not like they can't take care of themselves, they seemed to know exactly what they were doing at lunch time when they all-"
"Mack! Brady! There you are!" Lela exclaimed as she came running around the corner. "I've been looking everywhere for you."
"And the last place you decided to look for us was the place where we told you that we would be?" Brady asked, raising his eyebrow at the girl.
"Where are the others?" Mack asked before Lela could even try to answer Brady's question. She didn't get a reply from Lela; she didn't need to. A buzz of chatter soon came into earshot and a few seconds later the rabble of Wet Side Story characters stumbled around the corner and came into view. "Found them," Mack muttered to herself. Suddenly she missed the quiet all over again; it was like she didn't know what she wanted.
"You guys ready to go?" Brady asked the group. He didn't get a proper reply but he took the continued squabbling amongst one another as a 'yes'. "Let's just get them on the bus," Brady mumbled to Mack, who promptly agreed and began ushering the teens towards the nearest exit.
Surprisingly the bus journey home was quite relaxed, well it was from Mack and Brady's view anyway. There wasn't any screaming or shouting from any of the ten teens so that was a huge bonus, plus it allowed Mack and Brady to just sit back and chill for the first time in what felt like an eternity.
What they hadn't picked up on whilst on the bus though soon became clear when everyone was safely back at home. Everything had seemed quite normal at first; the surfers had gone out to catch some waves, the bikers were chilling in front of the TV… It all seemed a little too normal, which is when Mack knew that something had to be wrong; nothing was ever 'normal' when it came to the Wet Side Story bunch.
But dinner went by without a hitch, it was seamless really. Struts didn't fight with Butchy over the potatoes, Rascal didn't break anything and not a single piece of food ended up at the other side of the room. But Lela and Tanner did seem to be unusually subdued, which was only really noticeable since they were usually the beacons of positivity that kept everyone in line.
Mack hadn't wanted to bring anything up initially in case she was just being paranoid about nothing, but as another hour after dinner passed and there was still no change she decided that she should step in. When she went into the living room to start interrogating, she only found Seacat, Rascal, Giggles and Coral (who were both still in their cheerleading uniforms) taking full advantage of the Just Dance game Brady had brought over for them to play. She should have been relieved considering that they were all engrossed in something that kept them all occupied instead of trying to wreck her house, but what worried her was that none of the others were in there with them like she thought that they would be.
"Um, guys?" Mack started. But the teens were so engrossed in mastering the move to One Direction's 'Kiss You' that they didn't even turn around.
"Yeah?" a slightly breathless Seacat eventually responded.
"Where are the others?" she asked, hovering in the doorway as she waited for an answer.
"I don't know, in one of the bedrooms I think," Seacat said without missing a step.
"Okay, thanks," Mack said. But she was so fixated on the fact that all four teens were nailing every move that she found herself still stood watching them thirty seconds later.
"What are you doing?" Brady asked her, catching her watching them as he walked through the front door after calling at home to check on his siblings.
"I was just – I mean, oh never mind," she sighed, giving up on trying to explain herself.
"Are they still playing Just Dance?" Brady asked, taking her place in the living room doorway after she'd started to make her way down the hallway.
"Yeah, it's insane," Mack said. "They don't even know the songs but they're still getting perfect scores!"
"Oh my god, you should have seen them earlier when Giggles and Rascal broke the high score for Hips Don't Lie."
"Really?" Mack asked, letting out a little chuckle of her own.
"Yeah, it was hilarious," Brady said. "I still don't think this is real. My brain refuses to believe that I witnessed two characters from a 1962 musical movie shimmying to Shakira."
"Oh my god," Mack said, letting out a laugh at the very thought. "Well they don't look like they're turning that thing off any time soon so go and enjoy the show. If they start whipping though then I expect to be notified immediately," she added sarcastically.
"Why? Where are you going?"
"I think something's wrong with Lela and Tanner," Mack started.
"Really? What is it?" Brady asked. His expression had changed from that of utter amusement to horror in a matter of seconds.
"I don't know, something just doesn't seem right between them," Mack explained. "I'm going to go and see if either of them will tell me anything about it."
"Alright," Brady said with a quick nod before disappearing into the living room again.
Although it might have been helpful for Brady to quiz Tanner whilst she quizzed Lela, having him entertaining the others was probably the best option so that she could sort out whatever problem the couple may have without the others even finding out.
The sound of the bikers' voices drifted out from the boys' bedroom thanks to the door being left ajar, so Mack didn't think to check in there; she could only hear CheeChee and Struts talking and Butchy and Lugnut adding occasional grunts to the conversation. But when she quietly knocked and pushed open the door to the girls' shared bedroom a new thread of anxiety wove its way through her. There was no one in there.
In the back of her mind she knew that Lela and Tanner wouldn't have gone anywhere without her permission but that didn't stop her from worrying. Eventually, after checking pretty much every room she came to, she found Lela sat on the window seat of the dusty back room that housed the piano and all the other junk that her grandfather had collected over the years.
"Hey, you okay?" Mack asked quietly.
Lela jumped at the sound of Mack's voice but her startled expression soon melted into a sort of sheepish relief. "Yeah," she replied, reaching her hand (which was hidden inside the sleeve of her pink cardigan) up to the side of her face to wipe away a tear before it could properly fall down her cheek.
She'd obviously tried to do it secretively but Mack noticed it anyway. This, along with the unusual quietness and separation from her friends, was more than enough proof that something was very wrong with Lela and all too suddenly that thread of anxiety started working its way through her core again. "Are you sure?" she asked, closing the door behind her and going to sit beside Lela on the grubby cushion under the window.
"Why?" was all that Lela croakily responded with, her gaze fixed on Mack with an edge of panic that just confused Mack more.
"You just…don't seem like yourself," Mack said. But the more she kept talking the more miserable Lela looked, so she tried to take on a cheerier tone. "Normally you're joking around with Struts and Giggles or cuddling up on the sofa with Tanner-" Mack saw Lela flinch at the mention of her co-stars name and yet another pang of anxiety drove through her. "So why are you sat in here by yourself?"
"I just…wanted some time to myself," Lela lied. In all honesty she just couldn't face the others right now.
Lela knew that Mack could tell that she was lying but Mack didn't bother to acknowledge it, much to her appreciation. Instead Mack just resorted to asking more questions. It probably wasn't the best idea considering that Mack didn't want to feel like she was pressurising Lela into telling her anything, but when she was worried she didn't really know what else to do.
"Was everything okay at school?" she asked. "If you don't want to go back then you really don't have to, I'm sure Brady and I can trust you to stay here all day without-"
"Mack," Lela started, cutting Mack off before she started babbling like an idiot. "School is not the problem, school's…amazing."
Although Lela was smiling, tears appeared to be glazing over her eyes.
"Then what is it that you're upset-"
Lela's eyes snapped to her with such ferocity that it startled Mack into silence.
"Tanner and I broke up."
Mack's jaw just about hit the floor.
"What do you mean she broke up with you?!" Struts screamed in Tanner's face.
In the short amount of time that Mack had spent in the back room with Lela, the situation in the living room (that Brady was supposed to have under control) had descended into utter chaos. Tanner had shuffled into the living room whilst Seacat and Coral were halfway through nailing the Just Dance 'Crazy in Love' routine but had instantly caught Brady and Giggles' attention after slumping down on the couch beside them.
"Hey Tanner," Brady greeted calmly before going back to watching Coral and Seacat body-rolling to Beyoncé.
"You okay?" Giggles asked a few seconds later after noticing that Tanner's subdued response was very out of character for him.
Tanner seemed to consider something before speaking. Presumably he'd thought about lying to make things easier, but these were his friends, what did he have to hide from them? They were there to help him when it came to things like this, right?
"Uh…no, not really," Tanner eventually answered, which caught Brady's attention again.
"Why?" Giggles asked as concern took over her normally smiling face.
This moment between the two surfers was quite rudely (but unintentionally) interrupted by Seacat attempting to squat along with the dancer onscreen and almost crushing the coffee table, which sent both Rascal and Coral into utter hysterics.
"Tanner," Giggles said softly, bringing his attention back to her. "What's happened?" At least Giggles was still looking out for him.
"I-uh…Lela broke up with me," he said, but it was like the words didn't want to come out of his mouth, so it was a struggle to even say them at all.
Somehow, even with all the ruckus, everyone heard what Tanner had said. And silence took over the room; the only noise was the quiet drumming of the beat from the video game on the TV. All eyes were on Tanner now, but his were avoiding everyone's gazes.
"What?"
"What?"
"What?"
"What?"
"What?"
"What?!" After everyone had individually expressed their shock, a resounding chorus of confusion echoed through the house.
"But…how? Why…" Giggles trailed off, at a complete loss for words.
Apparently the surfers had been so loud though that they'd attracted the attention of the bikers, who had been on a quest for snacks. And within seconds they'd flooded into the room as well to find out what was happening, which is how Tanner had ended up surrounded by nine very worried teens.
"I don't know Struts," Tanner stammered after she'd stopped shaking him by the shoulders.
"How do you not know?!" she shouted back.
"I thought I was being nice and then she just started talking…and talking and then she just went from one thing to another and then…that was it. She just said she was breaking up with me," Tanner said, still in the dark about the whole matter himself.
"Why?" Coral piped up.
"What do you mean: 'why'?" Tanner asked.
"Well she can't just break up with you over nothing!" Coral snapped out of frustration. She was actually quite protective over her brother, so situations like this, where someone had upset him, didn't sit very well with her at all.
"What did she say?" Giggles asked quietly, trying to calm things down a bit.
"'Tanner, I think we need to break up'," he quoted, clearly misunderstanding Giggles' question.
"From the beginnin' you idiot," CheeChee huffed, rolling her eyes at him.
"Well she started by saying that we should probably do some homework. But I thought that she'd want to do something more fun so I suggested that we go out surfing with you guys instead," Tanner explained, quickly glancing across at the surfers before continuing. "She clearly didn't like that idea very much though and just started talking like she was never going to stop…she was going on about never doing what she really wanted to, how she never felt like anyone understood her, how she wanted more…"
But then Tanner stopped, he'd gotten lost in his own thoughts, and a sudden look of real worry overshadowed his signature mannequin-esque grin.
"Tanner, buddy?" Seacat prompted. Everyone was on the edge of their seats here, more so than ever with this added layer of concern.
"You don't think that she wants more than…me, do you?" Tanner asked Seacat.
Tanner genuinely looked terrified and Seacat, who Tanner had seemingly singled out to get advice from, had no idea what on earth to do to comfort him.
"Er…I mean…" he started. His eyes instinctively darted to CheeChee, seeking some sort of help.
She just rolled her eyes again in response and turned Tanner to face her by his shoulders. "Tanner, snap out of it!" she barked. "You're bein' ridiculous."
"But she said-"
"I don't care what Lela said, you two are the biggest pair of lovebirds I have ever seen. There's no way that Lela was bein' serious, she's just confused," CheeChee went on to explain.
"Confused about what?" Butchy asked. This was his little sister they were discussing after all, there was no way that he wasn't getting involved in some way.
"I don't know, maybe bein' in a different freakin' universe!" CheeChee snapped, fed up with the boys' lack of competence.
"Yeah, she did just find out that she's lived her whole life inside a movie," Giggles agreed, seeing the logic behind CheeChee's words.
"Tanner, you'll be fine whatever happens. But I'm sure that this is all just gonna blow over; like CheeChee said, there's no way that Lela was being serious about any of this," Coral added, going over to put a reassuring hand on her brother's shoulder.
"Wait, Brady?" Lugnut started.
"Yeah?" Brady asked, a little nervous about suddenly being introduced into the conversation. And his nerves only grew when he noticed that Lugnut had adopted Tanner's anxious look from before.
"Ain't our movie all about Lela and Tanner fallin' in love?" Lugnut asked.
"Yeah," Brady said slowly, worried about where this was leading.
"Well, if this doesn't all 'blow over' and Lela was serious about 'em breakin' up…what happens to the movie? And…us?"
If Brady had thought that it had been chaos before, this had reached a whole new level. It took a few seconds for Lugnut's words to sink in but once they had the living room descended into utter pandemonium.
"Lela, I really think you should reconsider all of this," Mack said, trying to talk Lela around to making some sort of sense. "You're jumping to conclusions before we've even got to one."
"Mack, this is what I want. Can't you at least be happy for me?!" Lela cried, fresh tears glistening in her eyes. "Can't someone at least once listen to what I want for myself?" Tears started to slip down her cheeks and her shoulders began to shake, but she held her gaze with Mack the whole time.
"Is it what makes you happy though?" Mack eventually asked.
"Why? What makes you think you know what makes me happy?" Lela angrily wept.
"I don't," Mack admitted. "But I do know that if you were happy you wouldn't be crying."
Lela's shoulders stopped shaking and her gaze on Mack intensified. She was silent for quite some time but eventually she swallowed thickly and confessed. "I don't know what I want then."
"I don't think anyone really does," Mack said.
Lela had bundled herself up as small as she probably felt right now. Her knees were tucked up right under her chin and her shoulders were hunched over as if she was trying to hide herself away from everyone. "Then why do I feel like this and no one else does?" she croaked.
"Because it's scared you…and that's what made you panic." Mack paused to see if her words had made any difference to Lela, but she still looked just as timid. So she took a deep breath and carried on in hope that she might be able to find the right thing to say to her. "Look, Lela, I know that the last few days have been…a lot for you. You've found out something about your life that you'd never have even thought possible before, I think you're allowed to be a little shaken up about that. And you've discovered this whole new world where you have the opportunity to do things that you would never have dreamed of doing back home. It's overwhelming, it would be to anyone. But the reason why it's gotten to you more than anyone else here is because you've learnt things about yourself that you wouldn't have learnt anywhere else. Lela, you're talented…so talented. You have a gift. I don't think you'd ever have believed me back in Wet Side Story if I'd have told you that you were one of the smartest people I know. The way you worked in the lessons at school today was amazing, to say the least. And you enjoyed every second of it. You've spent your whole life worrying about being like everyone else, when really you should have been worried about finding out what Lela's like."
Lela was quiet again for quite some time, but it was Mack's turn to be silent when she did finally speak. "I've known my friends my whole life, but I don't think a single one of them knows me as well as you do Mack."
"I-er- I think they know you Lela, I just don't think they're very good at understanding you…or anyone for that matter," Mack said.
"I think that's why I snapped at Tanner," Lela murmured as her gaze lost its strength and fell to her lap.
"Why did you snap at Tanner?" Mack asked. She knew Lela probably didn't want to be pushed to talk about it, but she'd gotten this far with her, there was no point giving up now.
"I just felt like if our lives were a book, I was always three pages ahead of him. Like you said, I was realising all these things about myself, discovering who I was, but Tanner still seemed to think that I was the same girl I was back at home."
Mack listened carefully to what Lela said before speaking again, knowing that she would have to proceed with caution. "That's not necessarily Tanner's fault though, is it? Not if you don't tell him these things."
"No," Lela said slowly, letting out a shaking sigh that seemed to carry a lot of built up tension with it. "But it's like I've finally realised that we're not as alike as I thought we were… We both wanted to break out of the boxes we'd been put in by our friends and that's how we fell in love but really…we fitted into those boxes quite nicely."
"Lela, that doesn't stop you from loving each other," Mack said. "Yeah, okay, you and Tanner have your differences but that's what makes things exciting."
"But if we're nothing alike then how are things supposed to work between us?" Lela asked, failing to see things Mack's way.
"Well they'd work out even better, wouldn't they?" Mack asked.
"What?"
"Think of all the things you've tried that you'd never have thought to if you hadn't gotten to know Tanner," Mack started. "I doubt you'd ever have played volleyball, you wouldn't have wanted to learn how to play the guitar and…you would never have dreamed of breaking up the rivalry between the bikers and surfers…would you?"
Lela sat for quite some time without saying a word. Thoughts whirled around her head at a million miles an hour but as more and more seconds passed the calmer the storm in her brain seemed to get. And eventually, all that was left was a soft little rainbow arching towards the answer. "No…and all those things make me so happy."
"And why do they make you happy?" Mack asked knowingly.
"Tanner. I've always been with Tanner when doing them," Lela said slowly. Finally, she understood. "Tanner's what really makes me happy, more than anything else could, doesn't he?"
"I'm not the one that can answer that," Mack said, but Lela had pretty much answered it herself already and she knew it.
"I've done something stupid again, haven't I?" Lela asked meekly, wincing at her own foolishness.
"It's nothing that can't be fixed," Mack said with a small smile. "Come on, I think I heard Tanner in the living room," she continued, holding a hand out to Lela to help her to her feet.
"Thanks Mack, I really don't know what I'd do without you," Lela said, hugging her almost as soon as she'd stood up.
"I'm sure that you'd get by," Mack said, letting out a soft chuckle.
Just when Brady thought that he was about to break the barrier between barely coping and having a complete meltdown because of how loud the Wet Side Story characters' frantic bickering was getting, Mack appeared in the doorway. She went unnoticed by everyone but Brady, and then Tanner after she prompted Brady to nudge him. As soon as Tanner's gaze locked onto hers she beckoned to him. He managed to dodge past his friends and slip out unnoticed into the hallway to greet Mack, who quietly closed the door behind him.
"What's up Mack?" Tanner asked as concern flickered across his face.
"I think that there's someone in the kitchen that would like to talk to you," Mack prompted him, indicating to the place where she'd told Lela to wait with her head.
"I think Lela's told me everything that she wants to," Tanner said slowly, disappointment replacing the concern in a matter of seconds.
"Well I don't," Mack said. "Look Tanner, she's been struggling with things lately and she lashed out at you because of it. She's had some time to think things over and she's come around."
"Really?"
Mack didn't think that she'd ever seen such an immense sense of hope in her life than what the hunky surfer boy had shown her then.
"Really," she confirmed as a smile curled at her lips. "What I think that she needs though is to talk it out with someone."
After a slight pause Tanner seemed to catch on to what she was implying. "Thanks Mack," he said, already making his way over to the kitchen door. Although he was smiling, something seemed different about him. But after a moment it clicked for Mack: instead of the goofy, over the top grin that adorned Tanner's face more often than not, this smile was smaller, but much sweeter. Is somehow felt more genuine, more human even, which made Mack's heart swell a little.
Once Tanner had disappeared into the kitchen Mack retired to the living room to help Brady calm down the mob of Wet Side Story teens, who were all still yelling at each other.
"Guys, shut up!" Brady shouted above the noise. But they didn't. Yes, the squawking died down significantly but the bickering remained incessant.
"How do ya expect us to shut up when our whole world is fallin' apart?!" CheeChee shouted back.
"Yeah, if Lela and Tanner have broken up then love pretty much doesn't exist!" Struts exclaimed.
"They haven't broken up," Mack sighed, suddenly exhausted by the frantic nature of the supporting movie cast.
Silence fell over the group like a lead balloon and their mouths all formed perfect, perplexed 'o's.
"Well that's not what Tanner said," Rascal dared to pipe up.
"Both of them said things that they didn't really mean, but they're working things out now," Mack explained to the group of baffled 1960s teens and a very impressed Brady.
"So are we, someone's gotta take over Lela and Tanner's movie roles if they can't fill them," Seacat started, fuelling the previous argument again.
"Look, surely since Butchy and I are their siblings then we're obviously the first choice to replace them," Coral snapped as her anger started to boil again.
"But I'd be the one replacing Tanner as head surfer and I can sing all the solos really well," Seacat snapped back.
"Are you saying that I can't?!" Coral cried in horror.
"Why would a surfer get to take over Lela's part? I think I should get a shot since I'm the next most talented biker girl," CheeChee cut in.
"What?!" Struts shrieked.
"Guys, no one is replacing anyone!" Mack yelled, losing her patience with them. "Lela and Tanner are perfectly happy, they've got nothing to worry about and neither do you."
"Says who?" Butchy asked accusingly.
"Me," Mack shot back. When she first met Butchy she very may well have been intimidated by his big, bad biker ego but she had no trouble challenging him now.
"How do you know?" Lugnut asked, doubtingly.
"Do you want to see for yourself?" Mack asked, wearily motioning to the kitchen doorway, which all eight teens went running over to almost straight away.
The bikers and surfers crowded around the doorway, each poking their heads around the frame to see for themselves. Lela and Tanner were so engrossed in their conversation though that they didn't even notice them, thankfully. And it didn't take them more than a few seconds to see from the way that they were gazing at each other and holding hands on the table to realise that Mack was in fact correct. It was only confirmed further when they both shared a small smile, which led into a kiss quite nicely.
"Okay, that's enough of that," Coral mumbled, averting her eyes as her friends all trudged away from the door.
"Well, I guess yous was right Mack," Butchy rather painfully admitted.
"Aren't I always?" Mack asked, allowing a small, smug smile to tug at her lips. All Butchy did in response though was roll his eyes and sigh.
"Well, that was fast," CheeChee said, flopping down onto the sofa. She felt kind of deflated now that all of the drama had disappeared so abruptly.
"She's not wrong you know," Brady said under his breath to Mack as the Wet Side Story characters took up their places in the living room once again. "I can't believe you managed to fix everything so quickly."
"There wasn't really anything to fix to be honest; Lela just needed to get a few things off her chest," Mack said, but she still allowed herself to feel some sort of pride for fixing possibly one of the biggest problems that she had been faced with during the Wet Side Story characters' stay. After all, if Lela and Tanner weren't a couple then there would be no story left for them to return to…and that would have meant that the characters wouldn't... Mack didn't even want to start thinking about that.
"That was a little too close though, don't you think?" Brady asked.
"Yeah, you're right. We'll just have to keep an eye on them," Mack said. "I really don't need them creating any more drama." But glancing across at the eight bikers and surfers, who were back to happily playing Just Dance she couldn't imagine that there would be much more. They all seemed to be getting along quite well with the four girls killing the dance routine to Bang Bang and the boys…enjoying the view. They'd all be fine now that they'd made it over this little bump in the road.
But poor Mack had never been so wrong.
Well, it was kind of a mess but I hope that you still enjoyed it!
I don't really have anything to say though (surprisingly). I guess I'll just see you guys when I post the next chapter of Just Like Me or back on this story if you're not reading that.
Thank you for reading! Don't forget to leave a review!
-cherrygorilla