Chapter 6
November
November. Ashley could remember so many things about November that she enjoyed. In high school, there would not be a single full week of school, the air becoming much cooler in preparation of winter, Thanksgiving time…
But now was not the time for dwelling on the past. Because she had her mind on other things at the moment. She had completely neglected in finding a song to sing for her show in three days. THREE DAYS! She tried to find a great song that could have possibly topped Hold Me from two months ago, but nothing came to mind. Not only that, but she had been having a horrid headache the past few days. She continued assisting Madame Giry when they began work on new operas, but her focus was mostly on her next show.
"Ashley, are you feeling alright?" The older Giry asked.
"Yeah, why?" She replied.
"You seem slightly flushed." She reached her hand to the younger girl's forehead. "You feel very warm as well."
"That's nothing to worry about. Sometimes that happens." She explained. "I nearly gave my mother a heart attack one time when she thought I had a fever." She laughed a little bit thinking about the memory. But then a slight depression set in. It's been five months since she woke up in this world and she still had no idea how to get home. Not only that but she really started missing her family.
"Well, if you say you're alright, I'll take your word for it." She responded. "But if you collapse again-"
"I promise you, I'm fine." She didn't start pressing her again after that. However, by the end of rehearsals, Ashley was beginning to feel the day catch up to her. She had become exhausted and felt slightly dizzy. Christine noticed Ashley's sudden fatigue and came to see how she was.
"You okay?" She asked. Ashley nodded. "You don't look too good."
"I'll be fine. Just give me a minute." But as she made to walk, she fell over.
"Ashley!" Meg and her mother heard Christine shout and rushed over.
"What happened?" Meg asked.
"Ashley just fell." Christine explained. She reached over to touch the girl's forehead but quickly retracted her hand. "She's burning hot!"
"I knew she couldn't have been well." Mme Giry cursed. "We need to get her to bed."
The doctor pulled the thermometer from Ashley's mouth and examined it.
"39° Celsius, quite a high temperature." He said and Ashley groaned.
"Could you say that in Fahrenheit please?" She whined.
"It would be about 102° in Fahrenheit."
"Fan-bloody-tastic." Ashley said. "Well, I'm sure that if I rest a bit, I can be ready for the show in a few days."
"I'm afraid; you need more time to recover." The doctor explained. "Mademoiselle, I know you're enthusiastic about your music, but you need at least a few days rest before you can think about another show."
"Aw, come on!" Ashley shouted and tried getting out of bed but Christine and Meg pushed her back down. "This is ridiculous!"
"Ashley, calm down. You don't want to make yourself worse." After a while, Ashley gave in.
"Fine. I'll rest for a few days, but that's not stopping me from singing." The doctor gave an aggravated sigh.
"If you can reduce your temperature and keep yourself from fainting while you stand, I may let you sing in a few days." Ashley nodded to him, feeling the determination to get better.
The next morning, Ashley wanted to go back up to the roof, but with the doctor's deal planted in her mind she decided against it. Since the weather was starting to get cooler and it had been raining the past few days, it would only add to her terrible health. Christine entered the room after a while with a tray holding a tea pot and two cups.
"I thought you could use some company." She said.
"Thanks, I get bored real easy." Ashley said relieved. Christine set the tray on a small table near the bed and began pouring tea into both cups.
"Would you like some tea?" Ashley made a bit of a face.
"I've never had tea." She said.
"Never?" She shook her head. "You have tea in your world?"
"Of course. I've just never thought of trying."
"Well, there's a first for everything." She said placing a cup into her hands. "Just give it a little sip." Ashley swirled the liquid in her cup for a moment then looked back to her friend who just smiled and nodded. She took a deep breath then finally brought the cup to her lips and took a tiny sip. And as the liquid entered her mouth, she made a face. "You don't like it?"
"It's bitter!" She said in a slightly cartoonistic voice.
"Would you like some sugar?" She asked.
"A lot of it." Christine put a couple spoonfuls of sugar in her cup.
"We'll start with this much." Ashley sighed then took another sip.
"Well, it's better. But I don't think I can become much of a tea person." Christine started laughing.
"But you can live with it for a while?" She asked.
"For now." The girls burst out laughing. Ashley felt a slight bubble of joy in her chest as she sat with Christine.
"You know, you never told me who this other Christine is." The smile on her face had lessened a bit and she sighed.
"Christine is the made of my older sister." She said solemnly. Christine noticed when her eyes became gloomy.
"I'm sorry." Ashley shook her head.
"It's alright. I suppose I would have told you at some point." She said laughing mirthlessly. "That night, a few months ago, I sort of thought I saw my sister in a small fit of disorientation. It's pretty strange because my sister looks much different. Short hair, blond, blue eyes, sort of like-" but before she could say more, she let the words fade from her mind. "She's about two years older than I am."
"That's quite a difference." Christine said.
"Oh yeah, she dyes her hair pink." Christine's eyes widened.
"Pink hair?"
"Theater kids." She said shrugging. "I also have a younger brother who speaks tech talk and Spanish just to annoy me." Christine laughed. "He too has blond hair and blue eyes. I'm the only one with darker hair and hazel eyes, besides my dad."
"You can't all look alike."
"Yeah, well I was blond before, but my hair just kept getting darker. I liked my blond hair. But, enough of that."
"I'd like to know a bit more about your family." Christine said. Ashley began feeling uncomfortable.
"Um… there's a bit about my family that isn't too good." She warned. But she just looked at her determined to know everything. "Well, since we started with my sister, I'll start with her. Basically, my relationship with my sister wasn't too good when we were growing up. She and I mostly never got along. She adored my brother though. I was told it was basic sibling rivalry; since I was the second child the older sibling would have had to share the parent's affection. But, by the time my sister started college, she and I were able to become more… I wouldn't say we became close because with our history, but we're able to get along fine.
"My brother is about two years younger than me. When he was young, we were very close. Even now we are a loving sister and brother, even if we like picking on each other a lot. Whenever we would play video games he'd be able to complete it in less than a few days if he just kept at it, and I would always come to him for help when I was stuck somewhere. But one thing that really gets me is that as he got older, he just kept growing taller. Now he's taller than I am, making me the shortest out of the three of us. He'll even make sure to remind me all the time. He's also pretty good looking too. Now, I'm just saying this from a sister stand point. He never really has problems getting a girlfriend though.
"Now, my parents are a bit of a touchy subject. If you knew me when I was a child, you would understand why I'm the way I am." Christine continued watching her, waiting for her to press on. "Basically, my parents got a divorce when I was eight years old. I always knew they would split. Half the time I found them alone together, I could hear them fighting. What made things worse was they did split after we came home from a family vacation. For a child, seeing your parents constantly fighting then finally leaving each other, it hurts us the most. For a few years, my mom would constantly drag my dad to court over the stupidest things. She was mostly trying to get custody of the three of us and never let our father see us again. We barely realized what was going on though. After a while, the court dates stopped and my mom got remarried and my dad started dating again.
"My mother was a bit… I'm not sure how to put it. She's a compulsive liar, always telling us all these things about our father trying to get us to hate him, making up reasons why she started drinking, she would just tell us all this stuff. We began wising up to her as we got older, but there was nothing we can do about who she is. She also has a bit of a drinking problem. We would always find wine glasses hidden all over the place and sometimes in the most bizarre hiding places. She even used to drive us around with a box of wine in the car with her when we were still kids. There was also an incident some time ago where she had been drinking and she nearly got herself and my brother hit by a truck. Luckily, all three of us can drive now and had our own cars.
"Now, my dad is sort of a mix. He is a loving father, but he just…" Ashley sighed. "He would tell me that when I was a baby, I was his little girl. While I was a kid I would always play with him. You could say I was 'Daddy's little girl' in a way. But after the divorce, the relationship between us changed. But also, as I was getting older, he would still treat me as if I was a little kid. And, for a teenage girl living in the twenty first century, it's not cool. When my dad started dating again, we met quite a few of the women he was going out with. One was a royal… I can't say this with you here, but she wasn't too nice to us. Another, she was very nice. She even got along with my sister, which is a very rare thing. But she wanted to have kids of her own, and my dad wasn't keen on the idea since he already had us. After her, he has his current girlfriend. My sister and she never got along. My brother certainly doesn't like her. As for me, I just didn't want to start a conflict, so I would try to keep the peace and be polite.
"That's basically my family in a nutshell." She turned to her friend and smiled sadly. "I was very relieved when I was able to go away to college. I was able to get away from all the drama at home and live somewhere where I could be to myself. But, when I went to school, it was also kind of nerve wracking. It takes a while for me to get use to a new place. I had to start from scratch and make new friends. And being a girl who was extremely shy, that's not easy. But when I do make friends, when I'm able to warm up to people, I can open up to them. Let them see the real me."
"Much like now." Christine said touching her shoulder. "You were able to tell me all this and you seemed very comfortable doing so." A smile cracked on her lips hearing her say that.
"I suppose so." She admitted. "But, even in such a stressful situation, there was something that I always had to comfort me."
"What was that?" The brunette asked.
"Music." She said. "For the longest time, music has always been my way of releasing all my pent up emotions and just expressing what was in my heart. All throughout school, from grade school to high school, I would join a choir class and would enjoy every moment of it. I just loved to sing so much, I thought about making it my career. But…" She let her voice trail off.
"But?" Christine echoed. Ashley turned towards the window and watched as the rain poured down upon the city.
"…but when I said that's what I wanted, I was shot down. I was told that I would never get anywhere with such a dream." Ashley felt on the verge of tears, but she took a few deep breaths and went on. "After a while, I decided to go into Atmospheric Science. It seemed like a fascinating field, and I was fairly good in math and science, so it seemed like a good idea."
"But music was still more important?" She queried. Ashley nodded.
"Yes. Always has been, always will be." She turned back to her friend. "No matter what, I will continue to have music on my mind. I will always have a song in my heart. Even if I can't have my dream, I will make sure that it can stay with me, even if I can't share it with the world." Christine touched her cheek and smiled.
"Ashley, you are a wonderful person." Ashley was taken aback by her words. "You're kind, loving, bright, and you hardly ever think of yourself. And I have noticed that you've come out of your shell quite a bit since you've been here. And your music is absolutely wonderful. I can't understand why someone would say such a dream is ridiculous." Ashley felt so moved by Christine's words. No one has told her such things before and it made her feel happy to hear them. As tears began springing to her eyes, she jumped into her arms into a tight embrace and began weeping.
"Thank you so much." She whispered. Christine hugged her back and stroked her hair.
"I meant every word." She said which caused her to cry harder.
After about half an hour of bawling her eyes out, Ashley realized how tired she was, whether it was from the emotional roller coaster she was just on or her fever she didn't really care. So it was about time for her to go back to sleep. Christine smiled as she watched the older girl sleep. She seemed much happier now that she was able to get all those problems off her chest. She could tell that she must have been holding so much in for the longest time and it felt so good to finally let it all out.
"I guess even girls from other worlds have problems." She said. She grabbed the tray she had brought up and made her leave.
Just as Ashley said, she managed to make a full recovery before her performance. Mostly because she just stayed in bed and slept. But by the appointed day, she was ready and eager to go out on stage.
"We're glad to know you're feeling better." Meg said.
"I feel good as new!" Ashley exclaimed. "In more ways than one." She looked over towards Christine and winked. Christine caught her and winked back. "Alright, I better give them what they want." And she made her way out onto the stage. As she walked out, she was greeted by a roar of applause. She raised her hands to silence the audience then began speaking.
"Before I begin, I would like to thank you all for coming to see me. Now, I'm sure none of you know about how I came to be here, and frankly, neither do I." The crowd began laughing. "I didn't really have a choice when I left my world and woke up here. I had left behind my family, my friends; I basically left behind my life as I knew it. On one side of my mind, I was very relieved that I left home, because I had left behind a life that had cause me nothing but a lifetime of turmoil and stress. I won't deny, I hated my life back home because I had a pretty rough life. But at the same time, there's another side of me that really missed that world. I had friends that cared about me and the experiences I've had. I have memories both good and bad there, but its home either way. So, I dedicate this song to my world and to this one. Because, I know, my heart will lead me home." She pressed the play button on her iPod and the music began to play.
Sunny days and starry nights
And lazy afternoons
You're counting castles in the clouds
And humming little tunes
But somehow right before your eyes
The summer fades away
Everything is different
And everything has changed
If you feel lost and on your own
And far from home
You're never alone, you know
Just think of your friends
The ones who care
They all will be waiting there
With love to share
And your heart will lead you home
Funny how a photograph
can take you back in time
To places and embraces
That you thought you'd left behind
They're trying to remind you
That you're not the only one
That no one is an island
When all is said and done
If you feel lost and on your own
And far from home
You're never alone, you know
Just think of your friends
The ones who care
They all will be waiting there
With love to share
And your heart will lead you home
There'll come a day when you're losing your way
And you won't know where you belong
They say that "home is where your heart is"
So follow your heart and know that you can't go wrong
If you feel lost and on your own
And far from home
You're never alone, you know
Just think of your friends
The ones who care
They all will be waiting there
With love to share
And your heart will lead you home
If you feel lost and on your own
And far from home
You're never alone, you know
Just think of your friends
The ones who care
They all will be waiting there
With love to share
And your heart will lead where you belong
I know your heart will lead you home
As the last of the music played, Ashley could feel tears begin streaming down her face. She felt somehow liberated now. She looked over to Christine who was nodding to her and she smiled. Somehow, she felt like everything would be okay from here on out.
The song used in this chapter was Your Heart Will Lead You Home by Kenny Loggins from The Tigger Movie.
This is another chapter I left alone. Just thought it didn't need changing.