CHAPTER XIX (2)

- the performance -

"Hello, everyone," Liam heard Jason say from behind the curtain: a little uncertain, but otherwise remarkably collected for such short notice. "Thanks for waiting. I'd like to introduce the performance Musical Theatre club will be doing tonight..."

Esther arrived a couple of seconds into the introduction. She looked a little annoyed and a little distracted, Liam noticed, until she noticed the cast gathered in the backstage area milling around, drilling each other last-minute on their lines and snapped out of it. "Liam, Mackenzie, get ready," she said, grabbing the script from under the stool she was sitting on. "You're on as soon as he walks off the stage."

Liam nodded, humming his harmonies underneath his breath impatiently. All of this stress about CC had gotten the rest of the cast into a subdued kind of mood; he could feel the atmosphere drop slightly. He was on first, so he couldn't afford to get sucked into that spiral; he needed to be in the zone, ready.

He could feel that rush rising now, his feet already feeling the choreography that had been drilled into him over the past three months. He couldn't stand waiting: out there was where he wanted to be, on the stage, reliving that thrill he'd got the first time he'd performed on that stage, auditioning for CC; and then again with Fives, under the ground in a bicycle shed, on a bandstand in the park...

"Stop moving around so much, Liam; you're putting me off," Mackenzie said, a little haughtily.

"Gotta get in the zone," Liam said, keeping his voice low. "Get my head in the game."

She rolled her eyes. "This is hardly the time for quoting High School Musical."

"To be honest, I can't think of a better time. Don't want it to be like that practise session all over again."

She grinned. "That was mostly your fault."

"What? You tripped me."

"Trust me; I was doing everyone a favour."

"I can't believe you just said that."

Esther shushed them. "Can we not do this right now, guys? I kinda can't hear."

Mackenzie sighed patiently, pulling her blonde hair out of its ponytail and retying it up for the fiftieth time. "Just don't screw it up."

"You don't screw it up."

She poked her tongue out at him, and then grinned. "For the record, I'd much rather do this with you than Jesse." She pulled a face and held up her hands. "Sweaty palms. That guy's like a –"

She stopped talking abruptly, gripping Liam's shoulder so hard he winced in pain.

"What the heck is up with you?" he hissed, but she shushed him and pointed onto the stage, where a short familiar figure was making its way onto the platform. He heard Jason trail off, then mutter: "Oh – CC, you made it..."

The other performers must have heard, because they'd soon gathered round the gap in the curtain to look, crushing him slightly against Mackenzie. In the glare of the spotlight CC looked off; slightly out of it, like he'd just woken up from a nap. Jason handed him the mic and he just sort of stared at it for a second like he had no idea how to use it.

"Hey, CC, you alright?" Jason said, too quiet for the audience to hear, but if you leaned forwards you could just about catch the words from backstage.

CC's response was quieter. "I...don't really know what to say."

Jason grinned and clapped him on the back. "It doesn't matter. The important thing is that you showed up."

"Um," he said. "I'll keep this brief. I suppose Jason has already talked a little bit about the play and...it's inspiration, and everything, so I suppose...I should just focus on..." he coughed, and continued: "this is, um, actually my last year at Foxhill, and the last performance I'll have the privilege of directing with the people of musical theatre, so I guess I'll always remember tonight fondly, no matter what happens..." he trailed off again, uncertainly, and for a brief moment looked like that was all he'd decided to say.

Beside him, Mackenzie cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled: "GO GET 'EM, CC!"

The sound was deafening, and Liam winced again, but the others, squished up against him, pitched in with their own words of encouragement.

"Come on, make us proud!"

"You got this!"

CC turned to look at them, surprised, and then his face broke into a startled smile.

"The people you may hear shouting at me from backstage," he continued, "are perhaps some of the most talented, dedicated and enthusiastic people I've worked with. And I owe them all thanks, because tonight they reminded me why I love musical theatre so much: it takes a group of random people and makes them into a family. That's a little cheesy – did that sound cheesy? It is a little cheesy, but that's the best way I could say it. There's been setbacks and disagreements but every time no matter what, they've always overcome them and brought everything together, and I couldn't be prouder of them all for it. I – I know I can be a little demanding at times, but they've been able to overlook that so we can do this event year after year almost seamlessly. So before we go on I just want – to thank everyone. For putting up with me – and for making this performance what it is, and what it will be tonight. So...thanks, everyone. And thank you all for watching!"

The audience started to clap, and the musical theatre crowd followed suit, yelling incoherently from backstage. The orchestra joined in, playing a raucous, dissonant burst of sound, and Liam let out a whoop along with the others, feeling the energy of the cast spike, rearing up and spilling over. As CC stepped off the stage and Esther ushered him and Mackenzie on to begin the first song, the orchestra started to play the familiar opening notes of the opening song, and everything came flooding back: everything he'd learned and rehearsed and prepared for.

The lights were eerily bright – he could see the orchestra just in front of the stage, their figures edged with white, but the faces of the audience were completely drowned out by the light. Just the idea that Jen was probably there in the audience, watching him, made him even more energised.

He took a deep breath in, caught Mackenzie's eye, and they both hit the starting note in perfect synch just as the verse rolled in. He'd never put as much effort into singing than he had tonight – more than any of the stuff he did for Fives. The evening passed by in a blur. From what he could see of the play backstage, it was doing well. There had been no major hiccups – a couple of minor ones, sure, but that was to be expected.

Esther was a flurry of movement: Liam didn't see her get more than a few seconds of downtime for the whole event. She was always occupied with something – grabbing a costume for someone to change into, cueing people up for the next scene, bringing on the props and rearranging the set, trying to find some safety pins to hold together a costume when someone tried to put it on and ripped their hand straight through the shoulder.

There wasn't time to talk; they communicated mostly through gestures: a quick smile before he went on, an approving nod of the head when his song finished and he swapped with Jesse. It was a little weird, being friendly with her; he'd almost gotten used to her disapproval by now. He figured what with her being so busy, she probably didn't have enough time to remember to dislike him.

She looked relieved when they announced they were going to take half an hour for the interval and the crowd burst into applause. Some music started playing over the speaker: airy and mellow, with a catchy melody.

Liam shrugged off his costume into the plain shirt and trousers he was wearing underneath. The co-ordinators were giving everyone involved in the play some tea and biscuits for refreshments, but Liam felt around in his pockets and managed to scrape together enough change to get something a little nicer from the canteen. One of those little pots of raspberry ripple ice-cream they did; he could go for that.

It was really odd, being at school at night. Everything was the same, but different. The atmosphere in the canteen was charged, filled with people talking enthusiastically and pushing to get to the desk to order some food. He'd just joined the queue for ice cream pots when he noticed Scottani standing just ahead of him, headphones in ears.

Technically they weren't supposed to associate outside of rehearsals, in case someone made a link, but the room was mostly adults, and the students in there were far too preoccupied to notice them. And Scottani had been markedly less snide with him since the wedding, so he figured it wouldn't hurt to talk.

"Hey."

Scottani jumped, startled, and nearly dropped the paper plate he was holding. "Jesus," he said, turning around and taking one bud out of his ear.

Liam grinned. "I didn't think you'd be here."

"I don't usually come," he admitted. "I thought I should check it out. It's pretty good."

"You think?"

Scottani nodded. "What was all that stuff about with the director?"

"Oh, that? I don't know what was up with him. Pre-show nerves or something like that, I don't know."

Scottani gave him one of his sly smiles. "Not something you'd know about, huh?"

Liam grinned again. "You know me."

Mackenzie snuck up behind him and punched him in the shoulder, surprisingly hard.

"Jesus, Mackenzie–"

She put her hands on her hips, looking down on him with a triumphant smile. Liam didn't like how girls suddenly got taller than him when they were wearing heels. It shifted the neat paradigm he had in his mind. "There you are! I thought I'd find you by the food."

"Missed you too," Liam replied, turning to her. Scottani took the interruption as a cue to leave, mumbling 'bye' to Liam before he went. Liam gave him a wave.

"Come on, get your ass back to the stage," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "We're back on soon." She looked closer at the queue he was standing in gave a theatric gasp. "Liam! Don't tell me you're getting ice-cream! Do you know what that does to your voice?"

Liam deflated a little. "I can't eat ice-cream?"

She rolled her eyes. "You're useless, you know?"

Mackenzie trailed him all around the canteen as he hurriedly found a place to buy something to eat, complaining loudly that they were going to be late, telling him all the stuff he was and wasn't allowed to eat, and then stealing his crisps as they brisk-walked back to the auditorium to begin the second half.

And then it was back intothe frenzied blur of the performance again, back to the breathless musicalnumbers and the glare of the lights and the wild sound of applause. 

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a/n: 

it was very cheesy tho