A/N: I was toying with a premise that involved something like this but couldn't figure it out. Then as if by magic, Invader Johnny came into my PMs and told me this idea that I fell in love with.

I'm still putting out entries of Thank You for the Music regularly, but I needed a side project to keep me writing when I was slow on ideas for the anthology.

This ought to be a few chapters because I felt this was too big for a one and done. But stretching out a story to epic lengths has been a problem for me lately. Things have been nuts at work, limiting my writing time so to commit to a 20–30-chapter saga was a lot.

Enough rambling, on to the start.

The surface beneath her was hard and unforgiving. Jade opened her eyes, blinded by the lights hanging high above her. She had to have been on the stage floor, flat on her back.

She attempted to move but a horrid pain in her left leg made her retreat to her original position.

Jade wasn't getting up. Not on her own.

"Lay still," a disembodied voice said. She couldn't crane her neck far enough to see, but whoever it was he had to be close by.

Then she became aware of a couple of figures on their knees tending to her. Jade was being checked over for injuries.

"What's going on?" she asked in a daze. "What happened?"

"You fell," came the voice she had heard a second ago.

"Try not to move," said a second voice. This one was female. "You suffered quite a long fall."

"Fall?" groaned Jade.

She flashed back to what she last remembered. Jade was fit for her harness moments ago, ready for her big scene where she would soar over the stunned audience. Though they had rehearsed the scene numerous times, she never got accustomed to the strain of wearing the intrusive harness.

It was pretty routine, but there was a last-minute change.

Jade was originally going to hover above the crowd from left to right, one side of the stage to the other. The rig was set up to pull this off and was checked and rechecked that it would fully support Jade and act on cue.

The director of the play, Stan Weimer, who was a big shot from CalArts; wanted to prepare the senior class of Hollywood Arts for the future and took over the school play. He had some grand ideas for the show and was rather demanding for the cast and crew. He was the one to have Jade's character, Evelyn Lyons, to fly above the spectators in a visionary dream sequence to showcase her mental state.

Feeling the original plan wasn't captivating enough, Weimer sought to alter the flying sequence by having Jade go out into the audience and zoom around in circles.

This meant the planned rig was no longer sufficient. Engineer students that set up the rig had to quickly adapt the mechanics to produce the more elaborate flying effect. Weimer happened to make this change the morning of opening night and he was so engrossed with final dress rehearsals that he paid little mind to the flying rig. They didn't even have time to test it out properly.

Weimer's long and exhausting schedule ultimately led everything to be postponed and next thing they knew, Jade was being fit for her harness on a track that hadn't been tested yet.

Opening night, Saturday the 20th.

The beginning of Act III was underway.

Jade did her last scene of dialogue with actors on stage before going around back to be fitted for her harness. There was a platform just below the gantries, accessible by ladder. Electricians normally were stationed here to operate the lights and various effects like the fog machine.

It was from here that Jade would "take off" with the assistance of Sinjin. He was a backstage veteran, so he was entrusted with day to day matters on the set. The college student that was going to do this called in sick so the boy who wore a thousand hats was tasked with getting Jade ready for her big scene.

Sinjin was nervous about the whole stunt, but he was assured by the director that the flying rig was safe. He personally didn't see to that, but he was just trying to get the strange teen out of his hair.

Jade waited for her cue, and she ascended like she had done before in rehearsals. So she wasn't nervous at first. However, the sudden shift to flying much further into the crowd and for a longer stretch of time; Jade was not looking forward to the next couple of minutes.

Once at the desired height, about 30 feet; the rig sprang into action and Jade was launched.

The first pass went okay. The audience gasped as the star of the show graced the air above them. Some cheered and pointed while others got out their phones. It was like a circus act in the middle of this school play.

Jade basically empties her mind, just keeping focused and not moving. She had been instructed during practice that staying stiff while ensure a smooth flight. Just let the rig do all the work.

She did as she was told and so far, so good.

But on the second pass, the hastily assembled rig installed that day gave way and people in the seats got out of the way of the falling metal. The angle of Jade when thrown from the track had her land on the floorboards of the stage.

She completely lost her senses for a moment; things were dark, and she could hardly hear until people began to come around to her aid. Shortly after the paramedics arrived along with the fire department.

Jade was carefully moved onto a stretcher and carried out of the auditorium.

Hollywood Regional Medical Hospital was the closest emergency room to the high school, so she was admitted there along with the audience members that suffered minor cuts and abrasions from the falling debris.

After a couple hours in triage, Jade was told that she didn't appear to be bleeding internally but x-rays showed that she shattered her leg and it will take a while to heal.

Jade was eventually taken up to her room which was actually a shared room with a young boy who hurt his clavicle falling out of a tree. She had caught this information second hand when hearing the tail end of a conversation the boy was having with his older brother. He joked with his sibling that when he gets better he can go back to kicking his butt at basketball. Their mom advised them not to make too many jokes. He was supposed to relax and too much laughing was too much movement.

It was a while until the boy's family cleared out and left. The mom said she was going to get something to eat downstairs at the cafeteria and would be right back. She kissed him on the forehead and walked out of the room.

Things got a lot quieter, much to Jade's relief.

She reached for the remote and tried the TV but it wasn't working. Bored, she then checked her phone for messages. Nothing. Not even a missed call.

Jade was feeling exhausted from the disaster tonight, so she lowered the bed and closed her eyes until she went to sleep.

She didn't recall hearing the boy's mother returning so she must have fallen asleep fairly quickly.

Her last thought before drifting off was,

(Whoever started the whole "break a leg" thing before a performance was a sadistic bastard!)