The Broadway Melody

Avery: Hi everyone, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

-Fiona-

When I walked into the room the first thing that caught my eye was the stage. It was not that high, probably only three or four feet off the ground. There were chairs stacked in neat piles against the walls that would be set up during show time. There were people everywhere, there was a group of college girls sitting on the stage talking, I overheard a nerd war between three boys about star trek. There was a group of people reading in a corner and another group playing some sort of hand slapping game.

"Ralph!" A girl who was sitting on the edge of the stage screamed and waved. "Hi Ralph!"

My friends and I followed Ralph to the stage where the girl sat. The girl had dark hair that was cut short in a pixie style and eyes that were two different colours, one green and one brown. Around her neck she wore a rainbow coloured pendant in the shape of a heart. Ralph smiled at her and climbed onto the stage to sit beside her.

"Hi Jackie" The girl said with a smile. I was a bit confused, how did this girl know who Jackie was? I turned my head to look at Jackie, whose eyes seemed to light up in recognition.

"Liza?" Jackie asked curiously. The girl smiled and nodded as she jumped down from the stage and gave Jackie a hug. "How have you been?"

"I've been good," Liza replied with a smile. "Amanda and her friends got arrested, and I joined the theatre club, everyone was so nice and accepting of me."

"Any new girls?" Jackie asked curiously.

Girls? Wait…

"A few but none can compare to Rach." Liza replied sadly.

"This is Liza," Ralph explained to us. "She was Rachael's girlfriend."

I smiled at her awkwardly, I have never been a homophobe before, however I had also never been around a lesbian before. My friends didn't seem to mind her sexual orientation. Moxie was sincere and friendly, as she always is, Christina and Ronaldo found out that she loved watching The Big Bang Theory and Breaking Bad as much as they did, and Gunther talked to her as if they'd known each other for years.

I slowly drifted away from the group and sat down at a table in the center of the room, high school and college students talked in groups around me, but I didn't care. I just sat down in the chair and read my book. That's when I heard a knocking noise on the table.

"Knock, knock!" A female voice said as she knocked on the table.

Without putting my book down I glanced at the owner of the voice. A tall girl, in her freshmen year of college perhaps, was standing over me. She was a very colourful girl, and yes colourful is the only way I could describe her. Her hair was bright red, obviously dyed, she wore a lime green tee-shirt saying "Hi, I'm Awkward" in big black letters, and she had a temporary tattoo of a moustache on her arm.

"Hello," She said flatly. "Your sitting in my seat."

"Oh," I said timidly, quickly getting up and closing my book. "Sorry."

The girl burst out laughing, and my face turned so red it matched my hair. "Kid I'm just playing with you," She said through laughs, she then extended her hand. "I'm Anita."

"Fiona." I said quietly. I wasn't very comfortable around people, especially ones that just made me think I was in trouble.

"You don't talk much do you kid?" Anita said with a smirk. I shook my head, and she laughed. "Come on kid we are all friends here."

I couldn't call this girl a friend, not only had she jokingly demanded that I get out of her seat but I couldn't help but feel awkward around someone who was proclaiming their awkwardness on their shirt. And, as if things couldn't get any worse, Mouth walked up to us and sat down on the table top.

"Hey Fiona, you gonna introduce me to your awkward friend?" He asked. Anita didn't seem to be offended by being called awkward, in fact she was beaming.

"Do you have any talents Fiona?" Anita asked me, she was smiling as if I were about to burst out into song. But no, I am not Rachel Berry, and this is not Glee. But I did have a talent, and maybe if I showed it to Anita then she would leave me alone.

"Get me a plastic cup." I told her. She giggled like a valley girl and skipped off to find a cup.

"What are you going to-" Mouth began to say but I gave him a look and he shut up.

Anita returned a moment later with a plastic cup. She stood over me smiling, anticipating what I was about to do. I turned the cup upside down so that the open side faced down. I then started a quick rhythm, I clapped twice, tapped the cup three times, clapped again, I had a good rhythm going, but Anita just looked bored and grabbed the cup just before I slapped my hand down on it again.

"I meant a talent that is going to help you in life." Anita said sternly, her sarcastic sweetness melting away. I had no idea if she was acting again or if she was just a bitch. Most likely a bitch.

"That's enough Anita." I heard Ralph's voice behind me. Anita gave him a stern look and walked away. "Sorry about her, she thinks she's going to be the next Idina Menzel, she has a better chance of being the next Pamela Anderson with that hair, ya know what I mean?"

Mouth laughed, I didn't. It's not my fault that I preferred watching To Kill a Mockingbird instead of Baywatch. To Kill a Mockingbird was a wonderful movie and a wonderful book, in fact it was favourite book. I find it funny that Christina bears the same last name as the main character, Scout Finch, and that she has a widowed father. If she took off the makeup, put on some boys clothing, and moved to Alabama then she would become Scout herself. She has never read the book, not even in class, it's not that she hates reading she just doesn't read books that are longer then one hundred pages. Okay maybe she hates reading a little…

"Do you sing?" Ralph asked me.

"No way Jose." I immediately said, shaking my head quickly.

"That's alright," Ralph said kindly. He slowly grabbed me by my forearm and brought me over to a lone chair in front of the stage, Mouth followed curiously. "Just sit here and tell me what you think of our acapella group."

"Aca-what?" Was all I could say before he hopped onto the stage.

"Acapella," A voice said. I turned and saw Moxie standing behind me. "It's a group that sings songs by imitating the sound of instruments with their voices. They are really popular now with Pitch Perfect and all."

Pitch Perfect? Moxie will never learn, nor care, that I don't keep up with these trends that she talks about. Half the time I never understood what she was saying, who are Elena, Damon, and Stephan and why is their dramatic life so important to her? She is so weird.

"Their starting." Moxie squealed and her voice squeaked.

It was at that moment that the small group of teens on stage erupted into a melody of various sounds strung together into a song. I didn't immediately recognize the song until a girl dressed like Marilyn Monroe, complete with a blonde bob, started singing Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. The way they all seemed to move in harmony and have so many tones and ranges to their voices amazed me. They looked as though they had practiced for a very long time. Suddenly the notes and melody switched and a different girl began singing Material Girl. It was all in unison and it was all so perfect. It almost made me wish I had learned how to sing, instead I'm stuck with the vocal cords of a tone-deaf whale. It's a good thing that I never looked at singing as a career like Moxie did, as much as I hope that she will make it big I also hope she wont make it too big. Maybe she could become one of those less famous singers, like Kimberly Perry who is famous but not as famous as Taylor Swift. Plus when you're a less famous singer you are in the spotlight less often, sure you are still gossiped about but less often and it doesn't hurt as much. My thoughts are interrupted by Moxie and Mouth clapping for the accapellas, I didn't even realize that the song had ended. I quickly joined them in applause.

"Wasn't he amazing?" Moxie sighed dreamily. She then realized what she said and her whole face turned bright red, her skin was so fair that blush on her looked like someone had smeared red paint on a white porcelain doll.

"You mean weren't they amazing?" I asked, crossing my arms and wearing a smug smile.

"Yeah…" She said awkwardly, her face still red as a tomato. I smiled and rolled my eyes.

-Gunther-

I heard the sound of my best friend sighing in admiration of Ralph. I shouldn't have been as envious as I was of this action, she should be allowed to crush on whoever she wants. She has been single since we were fifteen, when she had a brief infatuation with Jason Wilcox. I was there when the two broke up at the coffee shop, Moxie and I were there with Kendall and Kick. She started crying when she saw Jason holding hands with Marcy Daniels, a popular senior at our school. When Marcy turned and saw Moxie she just smirked and kissed Jason, Moxie ran out and Kendall followed. Kick and I stormed toward Jason and shoved him into a wall.

"You think you can treat her like this?" I exclaimed angrily. Kick and I gladly showed him what happened when someone mistreated one of our best friends.

Moxie had a few crushes since then, even a date or two, but she never had a real relationship after that. I guess it was because after being hurt so many times she started building a wall of caution around her heart. It broke my heart every time she called me in the middle of the night crying about some boy who wronged her. The first time was when we were twelve, she lived in Memphis then, and her first boyfriend left her for her best friend. I can still hear her sobbing over the phone, telling me what happened, and how she regretted wasting her first kiss on a jerk. I just hoped that if she wanted to go on a date with Ralph that he would treat her with the respect that all women deserve.

After a few hours in the community center we got back in Ralph's car and started driving home. We drove slowly through the town, so slowly that an elderly man in a wheelchair lapped us. Fiona read her book in silence, while Mouth was having a conversation with Moxie and Ralph about some movie I've never heard of, Christina lay her head on Ronaldo's shoulder and closed her eyes. Jackie was beside me with her head out the window, her long brown locks dancing lazily in the breeze.

"I missed this place." She whispered breathlessly.

"It must have been nice coming here as a kid." I said with a smile. I hadn't talked to Jackie much since we had a brief affair when we were younger. I don't even know if she liked me for me, I always thought that it was just because I was acting like Kick.

"It was," She said with a hint of sadness. "I really wish Rachael were here, she would have wanted to meet you guys."

I gave her a sympathetic smile and rubbed her back slowly.

"It's okay," I told her calmly. "She's smiling now because you're here."

Jackie turned her head to face me and smiled. "I sometimes imagine her with wings and a halo, telling me that I shouldn't be afraid to live my life."

"That's because you shouldn't." I told her, she grinned and a blush crossed her cheeks.

"Home sweet home." Ralph said as we pulled into the driveway of his house. I could see Ralph's father, Robert, inspecting the damage on our tires, he waved to us as Ralph parked the car and opened the car door.

"I have good news," Robert said as Ralph approached him, with Moxie and I following close behind. "My friend Matt the mechanic said that he could get new tires and put them on for free."

"That's great," Moxie said with a smile. But I could tell that she was waiting for a catch.

"The only problem is that he can't come and do the job until tomorrow," Robert explained. "You guys can stay the night here, I already talked to Jennifer, and Kick, and Kendall. The guys can sleep in the guest room and the girls in my daughter's old room."

It was so nice of him to offer to do that for us, since we're practically strangers.

"You really don't have to do that for us." Fiona said from behind us.

"Yeah, we could just pay for rooms at a motel." Mouth added.

"I don't want you to waste your money on hotel rooms," Robert told us, then he stifled a laugh. "Plus I think your friend is already comfortable."

"What?" We all said in confusion, and with a smirk Robert pointed to something behind us. We all turned and saw Ronaldo, carrying a sleeping Christina bridal style in his arms. He stopped short when e saw us staring.

"What are you doing with my sister?" Mouth said fiercely.

"I wasn't just going to leave her in the car and I didn't want to wake her." Ronaldo replied timidly, his face turning red.

"I'll take her." Mouth said with venom in his voice. He was obviously mad about Ronaldo and Christina's feelings toward each other. I had never seen a brother so protective over his sister. Mouth carefully took Christina into his arms, her head slowly bopping as Mouth walked towards the door, Moxie held it open so that he could go inside.

"Rachael's room is upstairs at the end of the hall." Jackie told Mouth, who nodded and hiked up the stairs.

I found Kick and Kendall sitting on the couch with Jennifer, they were flipping through an old scrapbook and watching Jaws on the twenty-four hour movie channel while eating freshly baked cookies. Kick had what looked like nylon tights tied around his head underneath his helmet. Kendall looked up and smiled at me.

"Hey, you guys are back." She said happily.

"Yeah," I said. I walked over to the couch and sat next to Kick. "Are you wearing nylons?"

Kick touched the top of his helmet embarrassingly and untied the tights from his head. He turned bright red and looked down and almost timidly whispered, "It's good for headaches."

Avery: I achieved my goal of finishing this before midnight, on a school night… Yawn… *falls asleep at computer*