A/N: I had the literal week from HELL at work and the heat didn't make it any better! Hope this week turns the tide.
Also, I wanted to use this time to revisit my notes and check up on where my characters are and where they are going. Lauren's part was especially challenging as she's rehearsing for a musical, which means...songs! I was originally going to be lazy and make it one of those jukebox musicals and use pre-existing tunes, but nothing really suited the story of the show.
So, it was time to once again roll up my poetry sleeves and crank out some song lyrics! I obviously won't do EVERY song, but I wanted to have a handful represented word-for-word in here to illustrate how emotional of a musical it is. Gotta admit, I was impressed by my first one. So, there's that. Don't know if I will be clever enough to think of titles, so the songs might just be referred to by who sings it and where we are in the narrative of the musical.
Quick update: I am outlining my next big story after this (VERY DIFFERENT!) but I had a huge breakthrough, which resulted in a major overhaul of the idea! Super hyped for this next one and I even have a title, so I can call it something even before I write chapter one! I might be able to juggle multiple projects after My Victorious Summer (we shall see). This new story has several characters in it, but they aren't spread out quite as much as here.
Stay tuned for the future and for my fellow writers, keep raising that bar!
The sun illuminated the park, the chain link fences casting shadows on the blacktop.
The Pitney Dragons were assembled, this time with an extra person. The girls recognized the tall girl who challenged their captain but lost. Judging from the demeanor of their leader, the two appeared to be on good terms now.
"Okay, let's do some introductions!"
Tambry stepped aside to present her friend to the team.
"For those of you who didn't catch her name, this is Jenna. Jenna Parker."
A couple of the girls were impressed while the rest were bemused.
"Wait, not the same Jenna that did that alley-oop that tied the game with three seconds left! Put the Dragons into overtime!"
"Yeah," sighed Tambry. "That's her."
Jenna stepped to shake the tall girl's hand.
"Georgina," she introduced herself.
The sophomore had the most beautiful chestnut skin with these perfectly symmetrical braids. They looked like they must have taken hours.
"Okay, I love your hair!" smiled Jenna.
"Thanks," Georgina smiled back.
"I'm Jackie," stood another statuesque newcomer. She was a warmer tone with a very short haircut. Jackie might be able to tie it into a bun like Jenna, but it would be more of a Samurai style bun.
"It's great to meet you, too!"
Jenna noticed a shorter girl. Especially when compared to the first two. She sported a blonde ponytail and a nose ring.
"Britt," she said coldly. "Don't call me Brittany! I'm not some bay area bimbo."
"Don't mind her," sighed the last girl, lighter and average height. "Alyssa."
She shook hands with Jenna.
"Well, it's nice to finally have a name for all of you."
"Why are you here?" shot Britt.
"Damn, kid!" scoffed Jackie. "Give her a change, alright!"
"Let me explain because I'm sure Tambry gave you the deal with me..." she glanced back at the girl who gave the so-so hand gesture. "The truth is...I was a Dragon once. Then I switched schools because I wanted to make a change. But I got a reminder that I still had friends in Pitney."
Jenna looked back again at Tambry, this time with a hearty smile.
"And I hope that includes you all, too. Word is the Dragons are struggling, yeah?"
Georgina folded her arms.
"That's putting it mildly."
"Well, look," Tambry started. "This is the team we have. Us five is what stands between playing and forfeiting. After the year we had, nobody wants to join!"
"So, it's up to us?" asked Jackie.
"That sounds...kinda dire," added Alyssa.
"We have just enough people to play," Tambry iterated. "If one goes, we're done!"
Jenna sighed heavily.
"Guys, if I could join you I would. But what I can do is help you train. Me and Tambry go back a way. We were pretty good then..."
"...and we can be again!" finished Tambry. "So, how about we buckle down and really train?"
Britt stood up and studied Jenna.
"You really think this motley crew has a shot?"
Jenna shrugged.
"If you think you're not up to it," she clicked her tongue. "You can take your high tops and skip on home."
"You think I'm not good enough?" she snarled.
"You said it, not me, Brittany."
The short girl grumbled and snatched up the ball and backed toward the basket.
"Jackie! Block me!"
"Okay, but we're gonna talk about that tone of yours later."
Tambry leaned over to Jenna.
"Reverse psychology, nice."
Lauren had finished reading through the book of the musical for the third time, the full emotion of the story truly washing over her. At first, she was paying close attention to the songs as she played the CD in sync to her reading the libretto. The second time, after listening to the music solo, she poured herself into the book on its own this time. Here she was paying much closer attention to the non-musical dialogue, picking up on the various side characters. By the time she did this recent readthrough, it became abundantly clear to her. It was a story about redemption and forgiveness.
Lisa was the child of divorce, whose father dealt with by working long hours to provide for her. With not much of a home to return to, she spent a lot of time with her friends on the streets. They were nice to her but mischievous. One evening, she caught her friends robbing a bodega and when she tried to stop them, they were caught by the manager and in a panic, they took off. Unfortunately, Lisa was the only one who was scooped up by police. Apparently, this wasn't her friend's first time stealing and they knew the streets enough to get away. What's more, none of them called or came to visit her. Even worse, she had to see a shameful look of disappointment from her father.
She was charged with petty theft and had to serve six months at the SoCal Juvenile Detention Center, which was a fictionalized co-ed prison setting for minors. During her stay, Lisa gets a roommate named Maria. She appeared emotionally withdrawn, barely saying a word to the newcomer. Lisa just keeps to herself most of the time until the common room opens, and the young inmates were allowed to interact and eat. They were under watch, so any fights would be broken up. Then there was recess outside, which consisted mainly of a concrete slab and some rubber balls to bounce off the walls. It overlooked a gorgeous field that stretched into infinity, just rubbing the idea of freedom in the faces of the incarcerated.
Over the course of her stay, Lisa meets and befriends more people like herself. Turned out a good amount of the teens in this place were victims of a neglectful or non-existent home. Representing the small minority, the kid who was beyond treatment or punishment, was Robert. He was arrested three times for assault and attempted arson. But it would reveal that he was a much darker soul underneath. Robert was a cold-blooded sociopath. The musical doesn't shy from showing the practice of lumping in punks who just needed to be taught some manners, and the incurably evil together was very dangerous.
"You can't grow a conscience!" one of the lyrics declared. Lauren laid down on her bed and reflected on those powerful words.
Rehearsals began tomorrow and she was equal parts excited and scared.
To be in front of others was nothing new in Lauren's experience, but she was doing more than singing. She was carrying the weight of another person's story (even though she was fiction). Lauren had a good life, and she felt very blessed. How was she going to bring any kind of authenticity to a girl who didn't have it so easy and took time to realize what was important. Her mother always told Lauren how wise she was, and not just in a book sense kind of way. There was a wisdom behind her eyes as if everything that her family had learned, even the folks she never met before, was within her.
As a teenage girl, she had her moments sure. You're only human. But Lauren would arrive at a place of reason before it was too late and often exercised her grandmother's words: "Judge slowly." Your initial reaction to a person may not be truth. You've got to give them time; opportunities to show their humanity or lack thereof. Sometimes it shows upon first sight, like when she met Mia at a very vulnerable moment. Lauren comforted her and they were fast friends. Then others had to prove themselves. Her opinion on Chase had evolved from their first meeting. And then you have the ones who were total jerks and there wasn't much else beyond the surface.
There was no shortage of musical talent, but nobody in her family had acted before. Lauren pondered what she could do. She was bright enough to remember lines and learn her marks on the physical space of the stage. But to portray someone else and to do it well? After all, the worst thing you could do was take the audience out of the experience. The more she read her part, the more she adored Lisa. And while not real, Lauren wanted to do her justice.
It felt like giving the eulogy at someone's funeral. How was Lauren going to honor this girl's journey?
She reached for her phone and dialed Jenna. It rang for a bit until: "Hey, it's Jenna. Go for it." followed by the beep to leave a voicemail.
Lauren sighed as she hung up.
Taking a deep breath, the girl sat up and looked at herself in the mirror.
"How do I become someone else?"
Chase was digging through his stuff in a panic.
(I know it was here! Where the hell is it?)
He barely noticed his door opening, his dad standing in the frame.
"What's going on?" Jim asked.
"Dad...uh...have you seen my plane ticket?"
His dad cleared his throat and took a couple steps in.
"Listen, Chase...I...I've got your ticket."
The musician blinked rapidly, and he stood to face him.
"You do? Why?"
The man put his hands on his shoulders. So much time has passed, it didn't sink in how much his son had grown until moments like this when they were face-to-face.
"You're not leaving, Chase."
"What are you talking about?" he asked. "Dad, can I have my ticket back? I need it!"
He exhaled through his nostrils, maintaining a stoic expression. He was clearly not backing down from what he was saying.
Chase backed off of his contact and went around him.
"Mom? Mom! What's dad talking about? He told me that I wasn't going home!"
"You ARE home!" Jim retorted.
"Bullsh-"
Strong fingers tapped him on the arm, which got Chase's attention.
"Watch your mouth, young man" he warned.
The woman dashed from the master bedroom and looked at her son with worry. She then shot a gaze of scorn to her husband.
"I told you we would discuss this!" she told Jim through gritted teeth.
"Sherri," Jim huffed. "This was always meant to be temporary."
"Well, temporary turned into three years!" Chase shot back.
"Don't take that tone with me!" Jim pointed.
The mom got between her boys.
"I think what our son is trying to say is that three years is a very long time. A lot can change."
"So I've heard," he huffed.
"Listen, dad, moving in with Uncle Neil was the best thing that ever happened to me!"
The two men had never seen eye to eye over the years. Neil wasn't the biggest fan of who his sister married but he was what she wanted and had to say in the matter. So, for Jim to be told that his only child would rather live with his brother-in-law than him grated on his nerves.
"Chase, you're seventeen. Almost an adult. You have to start thinking about your future. A real future!" He pointed to the guitar. "Not this shit!"
Jim sighed.
"Look, hobbies are nice and all. God knows I couldn't get you into fishing or football. But you can't expect to make a living out of this. You really think you're gonna support yourself with this music crap?"
"What would you want me to do, dad? Work at the brewery? Or the mill?"
"What the fuck is wrong with that?" Jim shrugged aggressively. "It's honest work."
"So is this!" Chase insisted, holding his guitar. "Dad, I didn't start playing music because I wanted to coast through life. I've been practicing my ass off!"
"BOTH OF YOU, LANGUAGE!" Sherri protested.
(This isn't right! Chase was supposed to live out west for a while to get away from the bad influences. Not for Neil to fill his head with pie-in-the-sky nonsense. The plan was for him to get his shit together and come home!)
"Maybe it's my fault," Jim admitted. "I should have...I should have come for you sooner. Now I feel like you were there for too long."
"What are you saying?"
Jim folded his arms, heels dug firmly.
"Fine. I think that whole place made you soft!"
(Unbelievable. I had to take shit from those morons, Bart and Stu and now him?)
"Hold on a minute!" Sherri intervened, finger pointing to her husband. "We saw how he was before. Chase was directionless, swayed by the bad seeds in this town. Now he's a gentleman, a good student, and it turned out he is also creative. I couldn't ask for more!"
"For god's sake, Sherri! He's gotta be a MAN if he needs to make it in this world!"
Jim sighed heavily as Chase stormed back into his old room and furiously threw everything into his bag.
"What are you doing now?"
"You won't give me back my ticket...FINE! I'll make my own way back to California."
His dad chuckled, "What, with the guitar on your back, pulling your luggage from the airport?"
"Screw you, dad! You know what? I don't need any of this! I can get more clothes; I can replace everything. What I wish I could get is new parents!"
Chase brushed past Jim, his bag slung over his right shoulder, with the guitar across his chest.
He angrily left through the front door. Jim followed several paces behind, allowing his son to get past the house before he was even outside.
"Chase! CHASE! Go on, you're still not eighteen, buster! I can just call the cops, and they will DRAG YOU BACK! YOU HEAR ME?!"
Grey clouds loomed overhead menacingly. The tiny rumble of thunder from miles away. Chase filtered out his dad, picking up on the warm breeze and the clear signs of an impending storm. He had to move quickly if it was going to rain. There was a bus depot a few miles from here. With any luck he could make it there before he gets soaked.
Jim's shouts gathered some onlookers in the neighborhood. Despite being somewhat embarrassed, he paid them little mind with his eyes. Instead, he kept focus on his son who rejected him and took off. It was a long street that eventually turned left. Once Chase took it, he was out of sight. Jim rubbed his hands over his head and turned only to see a frenzied Sherri, holding the keys.
"JAMES! Get your wallet and let's go!"
This time, he couldn't help but notice the neighbors who were watching him get scolded by his wife.
(I don't fucking get it! First, he didn't want to leave and now I can't get him to stay?)
He just didn't know his kid anymore, not that they were the best of friends when he was a delinquent. A familiar feeling came across him, a tightness in his chest made him grab onto the small railing at the top of the three steps leading to the front door. Sherri noticed right away and patted his back.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Nothing," he coughed. "I'm okay."
"WELL, I'M NOT!" Sherri nudged him. "You just drove your son away and the longer we stand here, the further he gets!"
She bounded down the steps, jumping down the distance rather than allowing her feet to touch them.
"Move your ass, Jim! I can't drive AND look around for Chase!"
He nodded and ran into the house to the bedroom, where his wallet sat on the nightstand. He didn't need to complicate things by getting pulled over for driving without a license. Jim hesitated in front of the mirror; his tired eyes surrounded by crow's feet.
"Goddammit!" he grumbled before taking off, locking the door behind him.