Chapter 27 The Calm Before the Storm
December 2, 7:34 P.M.
Fabian's P.O.V.
Amber bowed once more to the crowd as applause flooded towards her from the entire theater. Practically everybody was on their feet, cheering and hollering for Amber's great performance during A Midsummer Night's Dream.
"Where the bloody hell did that come from?" Patricia shouted, smiling from ear to ear at the stellar performance. "There is no way that was the same Amber as last year!"
"People change Patricia." Mara said in between claps.
"She's so hot!" Alan said clapping his hands and hollering some more. I guess he got over being angry about Alfie ditching us.
Amber gave one more bow, blew out a kiss to the crowd, and the stage went dark. The applause began to fade after a few seconds and people began sitting down once again, talking amongst themselves. I looked back down at the play pamphlet and saw that we now had a five minute break Nina's performance would begin. My heart was beating with anticipation for seeing my girlfriend own that stage. I wasn't happy about Michael but I guess I can overlook him for now, Nina will out shine him anyways.
Alan fidgeted next to me, fighting me for control of the armrest. He had moved up a row to take Mick's empty spot since he didn't want to sit alone a row behind us. I didn't mind Alan, though it did bug me when we fought over the armrest. Alan gave up and looked over me towards Jerome.
"Did Alfie text you yet Jerome?" Alan asked.
"What? Oh yes, yes he did." Jerome said, pulling out his phone. "He says not to worry about him and that he's backstage now with Amber. No doubt getting cozy now that Amber's performance is over."
Patricia rolled her eyes at Jerome's insinuation and Alan chuckled, "Alfie you sly dog."
I rolled my eyes that time and noticed that Joy had gotten up from her seat and was moving up the aisle to the back of the theater. She saw me looking at her and gave me an innocent enough smile but I looked away quickly. She wouldn't fool me, she couldn't fool me!
"Just ignore her Fabian." Patricia whispered to me.
"I am." I said, perhaps a bit too hotly since Patricia scoffed and turned away from me. The group began talking amongst themselves as I waited for the break to end. There was only a minute left in the break when I heard a voice ask behind us, "Is this seat taken?"
"No." A male voice said.
I turned around and saw a girl smile at the guy and then sit down in her seat. As she sat down she noticed me and gave a smile that made her seem threatened by me in some way. It only took me a few seconds to realize that I was looking at Nina's nemesis, Charlotte.
"Charlotte?" Alan said shocked. "What are you doing here?"
"I've come to watch the play." She said timidly. I looked her over as Alan stared her down, I had seen her walking around the school several times but this was my first time coming close to her. She was not what I expected to say the least, Nina always made her seem larger and more threatening in person but now that I'm looking at her I just see a scared girl.
"I didn't realize that you cared." Alan said harshly.
"I guess you were wrong." Charlotte said, not aggressively but almost sullenly. She turned to me and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Charlotte."
"I know who you are." I said. Charlotte shuddered like she had been slapped and I quickly went to apologize, "I'm sorry. I'm Fabian." I said, holding out my own hand. We shook hands and I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Alan was still staring at Charlotte. I knew some background on Charlotte, specifically some parts of what happened between her and Michael. I didn't know the full story, but I knew enough to know it wasn't pretty.
"Ya, I know who you are too." Charlotte said, a small smile coming to her face again. "Nina wouldn't stop talking about you before."
"'Before'?" I said curiously. Alan made a loud noise with his throat which distracted me.
"I think Charlotte should get going now." Alan said, still starring directly at Charlotte. Whatever fear she had shown around me she wasn't showing to Alan. She was however a bit afraid when Patricia stepped into things.
"Yes, I think she should get going too." Patricia said.
Charlotte fidgeted nervously under the combined gazes of the three of us. "I just…. I just wanted to talk to Fabian. Al… Alfie said I could come over here." Charlotte stuttered.
"Well Alfie isn't here right now… so I guess that means you have to leave." Patricia said.
"Patricia don't be so rude!" Mara said.
"Oh please Mara. Charlotte?" Patricia said incredulously, jabbing her thumb in Charlotte's direction. "Joy is totally using this fool for her own end for one reason or another."
"I can believe that." I heard Alan say, standing up, "Come on Charlotte, let's bring you back to your original seat near the exit."
"I just want to talk to Fabian." Charlotte said.
"That's not happening. Come on." Alan said, reaching out to grab Charlotte's arm. Charlotte brushed him off and turned to me.
"So what do you know about the play that Nina's in?" Charlotte hurriedly asked. I looked at Charlotte, now even more confused and curious. Alan looked worried now.
"It's time to go now!" He said, grabbing Charlotte's arm and pulling her out of her seat.
"Let go of me Alan!" Charlotte said, struggling to release Alan's grip on her. Alan was surprising everybody by being stronger than he looked, though nobody seemed to be in a happy mood.
"Hey what are you doing?" Some guy called out.
"Let her go!" Somebody shouted.
"Alan!" Mara contributed, shocked and already standing up. Patricia held down her friend though and gave her a look of some invisible girl language.
"You don't want to cause a scene, do you Charlotte?" Alan said. Charlotte looked at Alan, and then around the theater. She stared down the rows at something and then held her head low.
"Let's go Alan." Charlotte said. Alan nodded his head and moved out of the row with Charlotte. When they both reached the end of row they moved quickly up the aisle and exited the theater.
"What is going on?" I asked Patricia.
"It's nothing; Joy is just trying to pull something on you Fabian. Alan can take care of it though." Patricia said reassuringly. She turned away from me and looked back towards the stage. Mara and Jerome looked as confused as me and at a loss for words.
"What do you think Charlotte meant?" I asked, "I mean with what she said about the play."
"It could mean anything." Mara said. Jerome didn't seem to care anymore though and began distracting Mara with the last bits of popcorn while Patricia was pretty much no longer willing to make eye contact with me. Defeated I looked forward toward the stage and noticed that Joy was looking at us. When she saw me her head quickly spun back around and she began talking with her friends. The lights began to dim now, signaling that two minutes remained in the break. I readjusted myself in my seat worriedly.
Suddenly I wasn't so excited to see Nina on stage.
7:37 P.M.
Alan's P.O.V.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked angrily, "Did Joy set you up to that?"
"Obviously." Charlotte said, not even bothering to deny it. "She thought that Fabian might cause a scene if he found out at that moment that Michael and Nina kiss."
I scoffed, "Well she only has to wait another few minutes for that to happen." I looked down at my watch, realizing that I was almost spot on with the timing. "But she didn't ask you to come tonight, did she?"
Charlotte was silent looking up down the empty hallway and I sighed angrily as her silence began to frustrate me. "Don't you have something to say? Anything to say?"
Charlotte was still silent and not even bothering to look me in the eye. I began to shake angrily at Charlotte's unresponsive nature and finally forced myself to accept defeat. I turned around and began making my way back inside the theatre when I heard a weak response from Charlotte.
"I wanted to see if he would do it." Charlotte said. I turned to her confused.
"Do what?" I asked.
"If he would really kiss Nina. And don't act like you don't know about them kissing, I'm sick of everybody pretending." Charlotte said, the last almost sounded like begging.
I sighed, tired of all the pretending myself, and decided to just speak my mind. "Of course I know about the kiss, it's kind of hard not to when your best friends with Michael." Charlotte nodded in agreement. I walked towards Charlotte and leaned against the lockers with her, rubbing my eyes. "Michael will go through with this kiss Charlotte. For one he's an actor and that kiss is part of the script so he has to do it. But he's also going through with it try out some crazy idea he has."
"That he likes Nina." Charlotte said.
"Yes." I said, "He has some stupid ass idea that if he kisses Nina he'll find out whether or not he actually likes her."
Charlotte lips came tightly together, and she nodded solemnly. "I could say he's delusional, but I'm not really one to talk."
"You're not." I said bluntly.
Charlotte looked at me, eyes watery and her mouth trying to form a smile. "I gave up everything for popularity, to rise above a bar that I had set for myself. And what did I get? A monster overlord and probably years of therapy in the future."
"Do you still like Michael then?" I asked.
Charlotte's eyes darted around, looking at what I don't know. It was quiet while she tried to make her mind, or maybe she already had and simply didn't want to say.
"I don't." Charlotte said in a soft tone. "I love him."
I sighed, trying to process that information while mentally congratulating myself. I knew that Charlotte still like Michael! Now I just have to get him remember that he like Charlotte, not Nina.
"But that doesn't matter." Charlotte continued, "He's about to kiss Nina, and fall in love with her."
"You don't know that Charlotte, I think Michael may still like you." I said, trying to comfort her now.
Charlotte laughed lightly. "It doesn't matter if he still likes me, Nina will win him over and then I'll be nothing again." Charlotte's mouth now formed into a sad smile. "Joy is crazy about most things, but she has one thing correct. No girl can compare to the bright, loveable, and exotic Nina Martin."
I looked at Charlotte, who seemed to have zoned out based on the direction of her eyes. I shook my head, "You have got to be the saddest person I've ever met, you know that?"
Charlotte laughed, "There's a reason for that." She said. Before I could respond that lights began to flash, signaling the beginning of the play. Charlotte turned to me, "Shall we go and watch? It seems as if everything has been building up to this one moment."
I looked at Charlotte and nodded. We both rose and walked to the theatre door, entering and sitting down in the back rows. The stage was dark and the theatre was filled with clapping as people prepared for the start of the next play. I sighed to myself, enjoying the last few moments of peace.
Things were not going to be the same in about fifteen minutes.
Thank you for all the reviews (Though they were very few)!
I want to apologize (again) for how long it took me to upload this chapter. To be honest I'm not quite sure how I feel so far about the second season. While I do enjoy the main plot line and most of the sub plots a lot more than the first season, I'm starting to get really annoyed with some of the characters. Fabian is starting to annoy me as I find his handling of the situation with Joy and Nina extremly annoying and his more timid nature annoying as well. Taking Advice from Amber? How's her track record been Fabian? And his reaction to most things that happen, BE A LITTLE BOLDER FABIAN! Victor is also annoying the hell out of me, and I know that he's suppose to because he's the villian, but the fact that he's allowed to walk around like he owns the place and make calls on the fly just isn't right. Half the stuff he does has to be against school rules (not to mention some federal ones) and I'm shocked that nobody has contacted their parents to get Victor replaced. Amber's dad got Trudy back, why can't they get Victor removed? Ms. Andrews is perfectly right when she said that Victor has too much control for a house care taker, and he isn't even a care taker! Mr. Sweet needs to grow up and realize that Victor has no power what so ever and is just a sad, delusional old man who could cost the school thousands of pounds in lawsuit money. And Mr. Sweet... what?... I don't even know what to say about him and Eddie... and don't even get me started on what I think about Mara not realizing Jerome was using her!
On the plus side I did like how Alfie wasn't able to handle Amber (I'm obviously taking a different approach in this story). It's very real and i'm surprised that Alfie didn't think more about what his life would be like as Amber's BF. To be fair though, Alfie doesn't do a lot of thinking. And while I just bashed Victor I do like Vera, who is just the right amount of evil mixed with brains. She's an excellent villian, and I can't wait to see where the show takes her. I'm also extremely happy that Mick is gone, who really isn't that interesting of a character. If all the other characters were able to move forward with their lives so easily after Mick left (even Mara did) I think that says something about Mick...
At any rate I will continue to watch, though I would love if some of my characters walked into the canon and showed these characters some sense. THEY JUST NEED TO THINK MORE RATIONALLY!
Well, with my rant done PLEASE REVIEW! Reviews were really down for last chapter and I thought that it was an impressive chapter that I wrote last time. Please Review this one! Next chapter is the long awaited play, so be prepared for a lot of dialouge.