Chapter two of The Girl Who Sang the Blues

If you don't catch the title reference, I'll be a little sad. :c

This is the meeting at Tori's house plus preparations for Beauty and the Beast. Next chapter will be the actual production of the play.

If I put up a poll on my profile about which musical to put on, would any of you vote?

Tori was sitting in her house with Beck, Cat, and Jade when the doorbell rang. She got up to answer it. There stood Stevie and Robbie - and, of course, Rex.

"Come in," Tori said, standing aside to let them in. Stevie and Robbie walked in and sat down on the couch. Stevie sat next to Beck and Robbie next to Stevie.

"All right, everyone got their scripts?" Tori asked, holding up her own blue paper. Everyone held up theirs in response.

"Toooriiii!" came a yell from upstairs. "Who's here?"

Tori sighed. "Just some friends, Trina!"

Everyone heard the sound of loud footsteps slapping the stairs and Trina came down. "Hiiiii! What are you all doing? Wait, Stevie?"

"Eh...hey Trina," Stevie said, waving a little bit. Trina grinned and ran over to Stevie.

"So...how are your parents?" Trina said, a bit too innocently.

"Just fine," Stevie said, looking annoyed. "And yours?"

Trina ignored this. "I was wondering if your father might need a singerrrrr?"

"Nope," Stevie said. "He's got me and Maria. Thanks anyway." Trina pouted and walked away.

Tori must have looked confused, because Beck explained. "Her dad's a pretty well-known musician, and her mom's a pretty well-known actor. Trina's always wanting to sing with her dad or act with her mom."

"It gets obnoxious," Stevie added. Don't you think that your father's baritone would be balanced out by my contralto? I don't think that she gets that I don't want her to."

"Your dad is Freddie Stallings, right?"

"No, Marc Stallings. And my mom is Heidi Stallings," Stevie replied. "When Trina heard that, suddenly I was her best friend."

"That sucks," Tori said. "All right, so...who's trying out for what part?" The doorbell rang. It was André.

"I'm trying out for Babette," Stevie said. "Ya know, the feather duster."

"I decided on Lumiere," Jade said. "Can I actually set my fingers on fire?"

Tori laughed nervously. "Er, no. I'm going to be Belle."

"I want to be the Beast!" Robbie said. "I'll wear a mask for the entire play, but then at the end, I'll transform into a handsome Prince...that is, taking off my mask."

"You wish," Rex said.

"Robbie can be the Beast if he wants," Tori said, though hoping it was someone else.

"Actually, I wanted to try out for the Beast," Andr▲é said.

"You can have it!" Robbie said quickly. "I'll be Gaston."

"Can I be Mrs Potts?" Cat said, giggling. "I like her."

Tori smiled. "Sure you can, Cat. Now...we still need roles for the Silly Girls, Cogsworth, Maurice, and Lefou."

"I'll be Cogsworth," Beck said. "Jade can be Maurice. She does a good voice for him." Jade scoffed but didn't object.

"We can be the Silly Girls!" Cat said, holding up Stevie and Jade's arms. "Yay!"

"Don't push it," Jade said.

"All right, it's decided," Tori said. "Now let's practice."

...practicing...

Tori began to recite her lines. "Little town, it's a quiet village

Every day, like the one before..."

She went on with her lines, trying to make them sound as pretty as possible - which actually proved pretty difficult. Everyone in the group called out "bonjour!" to her. After a short exerpt from the song (which Tori knew how to do) they cut to a scene with Maurice, then to one with Gaston, and finally one in the castle, giving everyone a chance to practice their parts.

"I think we were all really good," Stevie said. "We'll probably get the parts." Cat agreed; she had absolutely adored being Mrs Potts. The scene with Stevie and Jade flirting as Lumiere and Babette had also been pretty amusing for everybody.

"Hey, do you have any more of that Belgian cocoa?" André asked Tori.

"Yep," Tori said, heading to the kitchen to make more cocoa. She was happy that everyone was satisfied with her performance as Belle. Whenever she got the lead part in the play, she had to deal with Jade's brooding (she didn't mean to take her performances) but this time, Jade got to play two characters and didn't even care that Tori got the lead.

"I have no singing parts in this one," Stevie said to André. "I guess we'll have to wait a little longer to continue the duo, huh?"

"Guess so," André said, "but Tori's mostly been singing to my songs nowadays."

"Cool," Stevie replied, spreading out on one of Tori's couches, using Cat's lap as a place to rest her legs. "We can do something at the next big showcase...or maybe the next musical."

"Anything you want to perform in particular?"

"Yeah, I do have something in mind, but...I'm keeping it under wraps," Stevie said. "I'll tell ya in advance so you can learn it, though."

"And what's that?" Tori said, still preparing the Belgian cocoa.

Stevie twirled her hair. "I'd rather not say right now."

Tori shrugged. "...'kay then." She handed André his mug of Belgian cocoa. "What does everyone have planned for this year, anyway?"

"I'm going to concentrate on Sikowitz's musicals and movies for class," Jade said.

"Lots of acting." This was from Beck, predictably.

"I want to sing, and dance, and act!" Robie said excitedly.

"Of course," Stevie said, grabbing her bookbag and pulling out two bags of candy. "Beck, peanut butter cup or candy cane Hershey's Kiss?"

"One of each," Beck said. Stevie tossed him one of each, which he caught easily.

"Hey, I want candy cane," Tori called. Belgian cocoa really takes forever to prepare for seven people. Stevie got up and handed her two.

"It's September, how do you even have these?" Tori asked.

Stevie shrugged. "Don't know, to be honest. Mom just bought them." She passed out the rest of the candy. "Anyway, this year...I have to dance but mostly I'll be doing the musicals. Maybe do some songs with André if he's not too busy with Tori."

"Nah, we can share," Tori said. Everyone except Robbie took a drink of Belgian cocoa and sighed in satisfaction. (Well, Jade made a face, but it was obvious to everyone that she liked it.)

"And when Les Misérables rolls around, I'll be Cosette," Stevie said.

"You'll get to marry Beck, yay!" Cat said, giggling. Tori froze and looked at Jade.

"What?" Jade said, noticing Tori looking at her.

"Stevie will kiss Beck," Tori said slowly. "Aren't you mad?"

"Well, I already have," Stevie said, laughing.

"You guys dated?"

"Of course not. It was a stage kiss."

Tori scowled. "I once kissed Beck as a stage kiss, and Jade flipped out."

Stevie looked as if she was fighting to not laugh. "Well...I did it after my first day of school...plus, I checked with Jade first. Even Cat's kissed Beck." Cat smiled and waved to Tori.

"I have kissed all of you, huh?" Beck said.

"Mostly me," Jade said.

"Yeah."

There was a silence for a little bit as they all drank their Belgian cocoa. "So..." Stevie said. "André, how would you feel about an Adele song?"

André choked on his Belgian cocoa.

...next week...

"All right, here's the cast," Sikowitz said, not sounding particularly surprised.

"The character of Belle will be played by Tori Vega. The Beast will be André...Gaston is Robbie..." Everyone got the part they had tried out for. Robbie was Lefou, which was pretty convenient. And everyone had found Jade and Stevie as a couple pretty funny, since they had a pretty low-key relationship in the production and wouldn't offend anyone in the audience.

"Awesome," Tori said. "When do we put on the play?"

"Musical," Sikowitz corrected, "and in four weeks. Here are your scripts."

"Four weeks?" Tori asked. "I have a ton of songs to learn!"

"Ahh, you'll do it," Sikowitz said. "Just practice with all your friends. It'll come naturally."

Sikowitz is kind of psycho. :) That's all right though.

So...musicals that people want me to do:

Wicked, West Side Story, A Chorus Line, Rent, Hair, Wizard of Oz, Guys and Dolls. What do you think?