Once Upon A Time...

“Rion, may I speak to you for a minute?” the principle called for me during the middle of Calculus. Lizzy was standing right in back of him, peeking at me and smiling. I lightly smiled, taking out the pen I was biting out of my mouth (bad habit) and stood up, trying to make my way out of class without interrupting the teacher’s lesson even more than I already did.
“You might want to bring your belongings with you,” he pointed to my backpack on the ground and small water bottle on my desk (I tend to play with the cap – another small habit). Once I gathered everything I finally exited the room as the principle nodded to the teacher, a form of apology for disrupting the class.
Once we were in the hallway on our way to wherever they were taking me, I hung my backpack across my shoulder and fixed my hair.

“So, where exactly are you guys taking me?” I asked.

Lizzy turned around and started walking backwards as the principle was too ahead to hear what I asked.

However, she wasn’t of much help as the only thing she said was, “You’ll see,”

I raised my eyebrows in surprise and questioning as the place we had arrived to was the auditorium.

OK?

Once the big doors opened and I took a look inside, I became even more confused by all the students standing there, as if waiting for something, for someone – me.

The principle looked at all of us –some music students, the boys in the soccer team, and the girls from the cheerleading squad – and smiled, before leaving, saying us seniors would be able to fill each other in.

“Alright people, lets get a move on!” Lizzy clapped her hands, grabbing everyone’s attention and jumping on stage as I hoped to God she didn’t just purposely do that so the boys would get a view of her as* in that short skirt.

“As you all know,” she began, “some of the music students, including the lovely Rion,” she gestured towards to me, “have been kind enough to ‘waste their precious time’” she was quoting me from last time, I know it, “so, in return,” she continued, being completely oblivious to the silent glare I was giving her, “it would be nice if we helped them with something they need. Now, I looked into Rion’s school schedule, and apparently she has ‘theatre’ and ‘film acting’ and such,” she giggled, adding, “sorry Rion, don’t mean to sound stalker-ish,” she played with her hair, “Anyway, in my opinion, the experience probably won’t be as good if we don’t do it live, so I thought maybe we could help them with theatre, right? I mean, most of the music students have theatre so it’ll be cool, yeah?” Everyone cheered as Lizzy looked at me for approval. I bobbed my head side to side, weighing my options.

It was pretty accurate, I mean, what else would we need them for? We could find a way to incorporate a scene for the cheerleaders to do some pretty sick moves and stuff and the guys might be able to set up the props or something. She was right, we couldn’t really use them for film, which would be recorded as a movie.

“Alright,” I uncrossed my arms, throwing them up in the air in defeat. Lizzy smiled, cheering, jumping up and down.

“Great, so what play are we doing?” Harry stepped up, and I tried not to look at him, because I knew if I did, it would be hard to stop.

“Well, we haven’t had exact auditions but the principle nominated me for lead female role and it’s a musical. That’s pretty much all I know. Leadership members who are in theatre were supposed to be holding auditions tomorrow…”

“Great!” Lizzy interrupted, “You’ll be the lead role, and since I’ll be helping too and I’m in Leadership I’ll help you do an audition for all the other characters.”

I managed a smile, “Yeah, that sounds cool,”

Oh Lizzy, you have no idea what you just got yourself into…

“Yeah, that idea’s really good actually,” I continued, “There’s only a few members in theatre who have Leadership so my schedule would’ve been pretty packed without you guys.”

Lizzy widened her eyes, “Wait, what do you mean? I thought the only thing Leadership were doing was auditions? Then the rest of the girls in cheerleading and the guys who aren’t in Leadership would help with other stuff…”

I shook my head, “Sorry Liz, but it’s not like that. Just because you help with auditions since you’re in Leadership doesn’t mean you’re off the hook just yet. You have to do other stuff that the girls are doing too whereas the boys will set up the props like I said.”

“OK, so what exactly will the girls be doing?” Becca asked, cutting in.

“Well, cheerleaders who aren’t in Leadership – which is basically everyone but Lizzy – will have to probably be extras in the play or something, I don’t know yet. But, Lizzy will probably be doing both.”

“Both? Both of what?” She asked, afraid.

“You’ll be doing what the other cheerleaders are doing and you’ll also be helping me personally since you’re also in Leadership.” I explained.

“I already know that!” she was getting frustrated, “I meant, what am I going to be doing with you exactly besides auditions?”

I smirked, “Well, that you’ll just have to find out once we get there,”

She let out a loud, annoyed sigh as everyone was staring at us – including Harry, but honestly? I don’t care anymore; I’m not going to act like another person just so he could notice me. If he does, awesome, if he doesn’t, oh well, I’ll just have to find a way to ‘move on’. The whole point of this actually was to get close to him, but now I’m finally realizing what I’m doing. I’ve been chasing – and still sort of am- a guy I knew since like 7th grade, perhaps? I’m now a senior in high school, and this is ridiculous. On one hand, I’m scared if he does happen to notice me and something starts between us, my feelings will be much stronger and I won’t be able to stop since I’ve liked him since middle school.

Then again, on the other hand, I’m scared this isn’t real. Whatever ‘this’ is. I haven’t really talked to him until this year (pathetic, I know). I remember I first ‘met’ him in middle school; he came up and asked for a hug before class and I rejected him, not knowing who he was. I myself don’t even know how that developed to ‘this’. What if I’m just lonely? Is that it? Perhaps the only real reason I’m jealous of Liz is because she has people who love her, people who she loves. Everywhere I go, she’s hugging someone, laughing with someone, while I literally have no one.

*******

The next day, the doors opened wide while we were discussing what time the auditions would be and who how we would spread the word (flyers, newspaper, etc). In walked the vice principle, her black heels clicking against the floor tile.

“Students,” she began, “Please excuse my interruption. However, the senior theatre group is having a bit of trouble…”

I finally acknowledged her, waiting for her to continue.

“As you all know, theatre performs plays for children charities. Unfortunately, we think we should stop the charity funding and start collecting the money for this school –”

Before she could say any more, I suddenly stood up from my chair, “No!”

Everyone looked at me, surprised by my sudden outburst.

“That’s not fair! This school is fuckin’ rich-ass enough as it is! If we can afford to send 100 students to Europe for a field trip, we can afford to give money to a charity! This is a magnet school if you have forgotten!”

“Rion,” she sighed, expecting this from me, “I value your opinion and I understand why you would want to do this-”

“No, I don’t want to. I need to! It’s not the kids’ fault they were abandoned. They deserve so much more then what they have right now.”

“Look. The money will go to you and the other people part of this instead of this charity, isn’t that good enough?” she argued.

“No, its not, because we don’t need your fucking money, they need it.” I seethed, angrily grabbing hold of my backpack and storming out.

*******

A few days passed, and I was still trying to convince the vice-principle to have the money be donates, but she wouldn’t listen. Just my luck, the principle had left for a business trip for a week (apparently a very important meeting discussing our seniors?). The audition was after school in the afternoon, so Liz and I got ready while some of the boys helped set up a table and chairs in front of the stage. Everyone had been a great help by making script drafts and passing out flyers. There’s still a few hours until the actual auditions, but Lizzy and I were already seated on our judge’s seats. There were a few of the guys and girls from the cheerleading and soccer teams (they were allowed to watch if they wanted to) in the back, seated on the chairs. The vice principle and some of the other official staff were among them also, because they didn’t want us giving biased judgments. I think they all know we wouldn’t actually do that, but it’s a district policy.

I tapped my fingers to a drumbeat on the desk where our papers and clipboards lay, as I lightly took a sip of my drink. Lizzy laughed.

“What?” I asked her, jokingly acting offended, though I was curious to why she was laughing.

“It’s nothing. It’s just the way you were chilling – you were giving off an “Ah, this is the life” aura.”

“LOL, what?” I asked, confused to why that was funny.

Once she realized I was flustered, she let it go, shaking her head, “Never mind,”

I nodded my head and went back to drumming my fingers and sipping my iced tea. It’s the only way I like my tea – iced.

After a few moments of silence, she spoke up, a bit hesitant, “You know I support you, right?”

I looked at your confused as to what she was talking about, “What do you mean?”

“The way you stood up for the charities,” she answered, “It’s amazing how you think so much of it. I agree with you when you say we need to give the money to the kids, not keep it for ourselves. And they agree with you too.” She pointed with her head.

I looked back, seeing the cheerleaders and soccer players conversing with each other, waiting for the auditions to start. As soon as my eyes fell upon Connor, I quickly turned my head away and smiled at her in appreciation.

After that, the room became heavy, as if we were all at a funeral. Everyone had simmered down and as I looked back along with Lizzy, I realized why. The vice principal had pulled out an envelope and in it were checks that hadn’t been filled out yet. She was probably thinking of passing it out to everyone’s parents when she can so they can give money to us to buy the tickets for the show. The only reason she probably hasn’t told the parents about our play yet is because its not yet fully developed, we don’t know when we are going to do it – we don’t have it planned down to the small details. Why would we? We’re barely holding auditions right now.

My patience snapped and before I realized it, I was already up on stage with a microphone in my hand. I’ve got much time to kill and if everyone else singing along with me because they agree with me won’t convince her, then I don’t know what will.

“Seems like everybody’s got a price,
I wonder how they sleep at night.
When the sale comes first,
And the truth comes second,
Just stop, for a minute and
Smile

Why is everybody so serious!
Acting so damn mysterious
You got your shades on your eyes
And your heels so high
That you can't even have a good
Time.

Everybody look to their left (yeah)
Everybody look to their right (ha)
Can you feel that (yeah)
We're paying with love tonight...

Chorus:

It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the Price Tag.

Ain't about the (ha) Cha-Ching Cha-Ching.
Aint about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling
Wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the Price Tag.

(Listen, Okay.)

We need to take it back in time,
When music made us all UNITE!
And it wasn't low blows and video Hoes,
Am I the only one gettin... tired?

Why is everybody so obsessed?
Money can't buy us happiness.
If we all slow down and enjoy right now
Guarantee we'll be feelin
All right.

Everybody look to their left (yeah)
Everybody look to their right (ha)
Can you feel that (yeah)
We'll pay them with love tonight...

It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the Price Tag.

Ain't about the (ha) Cha-Ching Cha-Ching.
Aint about the (yeah) Ba-Bling Ba-Bling
Wanna make the world dance,
Forget about the Price Tag.”

Notes

Song - Price Tag by Jessie J cuz she's just too fab for her own good. I dont think I'll be able to update todays chapter today, as this was a double update for yesterday and the day before. However, i'll do todays and tomorrows update tomorrow and then we'll be back on track. Go check out my other stories meanwhile! Btw, i have a tumblr and askfm, so if you want to know, just ask!

Questions for upcoming chapter:

• Do you guys like Lizzy?
• What do you think the principal's meeting was about?
• Do you think they'll end up giving the money to charity?

• Brandon is back...
• What happened to Theresa...
• The truth of what happened at the dance may be revealed...