Next installment of MANSION$!
CHAPTER 36
$. The Back-Up Backing Dancer .$When we (meaning Bryan and I) walked into the hotel lobby, the dancers were panicking, shouting, some were even crying, saying ‘the show’s ruined’. It was chaos.
Me, still feeling tired, leaned on Bryan, with his arm over my shoulder and let him guide me. Not as good as a bed, but better than actually having to walk properly
Bryan asked what was happening, and when I heard the name ‘
Trish’ being repeated, I suddenly remembered what I so badly need to tell Bryan yesterday. Uh oh.
“Oh no . . .” I wailed. I couldn’t
believe I forgot something so important! “Oh noooo! Oh my God! She’s gone! Oh shi -”
Silence fell as I wailed on, ‘
No, no, NO!’ and Bryan gave me a little shake and said seriously, “Becca, calm down – What do you mean she’s
gone? Trish -
gone where?”
“My headache kills . . .” Russell moaned. Everyone ignored him; it was his own fault.
“What are we gonna do?!” another dancer breathed, and murmured started up again. “I mean, we can do this without her, but the numbers will be uneven. Triangles won’t look perfect. The lift can’t happen. The whole piece - just - won’t -
work.”
“I’ll find her. I just need to wait for my headache to go away first . . .” Russell whimpered, clutching his head of ginger-brown hair.
“Russell, you won’t find her.” I said softly, and silence fell again. “She’s gone
home.” I swallowed painfully, feeling awful. “I tried to stop her - I talked to her, and when she bolted, I -” I shook my head. “I’m so
stupid. Nothing I did made a difference.”
“But you tried, Becca.” said Reece comfortingly. “You did all you could do, and that’s what matters, even if it wasn’t enough.”
“May I suggest . . . ?” Russell suggested, still holding his head. We ignored him; we were scared, panicking silently. What now?
“Sonuva B*tch!” Jacob roared, breaking the silence. “She’s gone back to Georgia – what the
fucking hell FOR?!”
There was an outburst of babble again, panic replaced by livid anger. Jacob was right – how could she do this to us?! Russell whinged, “Can I say something?” but h was drowned out once again. Bryan’s arm tightened around me, and I buried my head in his shoulder. This was very very bad. We were
screwed.
“Please can I say my idea?” Russell said quietly, and as everyone talked over him worriedly, I said kindly,
“Russell, tell me.
I’m listening.” and his face lit up, as he faced me and said loudly and cheerfully,
“Before the tour started, you practised with us. You’re a dancer – you picked it all up quickly, but you couldn’t do it properly because of your ankle.”
Bryan shushed at the others, intrigued. He nodded to Russell to continue. “Well, it’s been weeks now. Your ankle should be pretty good. Why don’t you just . . . take her place?”
The silence was so long, I wasn’t sure whether to reply at all. How could I take her place? There was so much I didn’t know. I looked at Bryan helplessly.
“That’s really risky, Russell.” Bryan said quickly. “This is a big thing. Becca’s has lots of dance experience but not on stage.” he glanced at me. “Would you be . . .
comfortable . . . doing this?”
I shrugged. “To be honest . . . I don’t think it matters how I feel. Not o be weird, but like you said, I’ve had dance experience. We need someone to back-up the missing backup dancer . . . so I should do it. Not just because I can, but because we don’t have time to get anyone else.”
“She’s right.” said Jacob darkly. “Will we even have time to teach her the new choreography?” he sighed. “We’re running out of
time!”
“I know, I know.” Bryan said, stressed, “Let’s plan this. Today’s the 13th. Tomorrow, I have to go to some place and sign CD’s and – oh Sh*t, on the 17th is a tech and costume run, and the shows are on the 18th and 19th. Man . . . we have
four days of training.”
Everyone looked at me. I took a breath and said. “I guess we should get going, then. We only have four days - of
intense training.”
-----
Later, I’d gone to my room to call Shalia. I hadn’t spoken to her in ages, and after the Megan thing . . .
“Hey Lia, it’s Becca.” I said brightly when she answered. Her response was enthusiastic. We spent a good while catching up on Youtube videos, the concerts, pics up on the site . . .
“So have you two . . . ? I mean, Liline wouldn’t answer my questions, she just gave this lil’ smile – it’s so annoying! Please tell me . . . ?”
“Bryan and I . . . have gotten closer.” I admitted, and I heard Shalia squeal loudly, and then start screaming excitedly. “But we’re not -”
“Oh my God, this is like a cute little movie!” she burbled, “But what about Patr – oh,
sorry Shanice, I didn’t realise my ‘
shrieking’ was annoying you, God -” I smiled as Shalia moaned at her older sis, “- huh? Yeah, it’s Becca. So? What the hell are you
talking about?”
There was a long pause. “Um, Bec?” Shalia said hesitantly, “Shanice wants to talk to you. God knows why, maybe she’s high or something. Or maybe she’s a loner and wants to steal my friends – ow! B*tch!”
There were background scuffles. “Becca? S’up, this is Shanice. I know we don’t reall talk, just wanna quickly say that some bad Sh*t is going down back here – Zora’s changing things. Has been for a while.”
“What?” I said, bewildered. “What’s going on?”
I heard Shalia speak in the background. “Shalia says something about a – what? oh, a ‘Plan’. Zora’s getting her own back?”
“Does that mean she’s getting someone else to do the ‘Plan’, or she’s getting revenge on us?” I said quietly.
“Revenge, most likely.” said Shanice simply. “God, teenage girls overreact so much. Anyway, I’m telling you this because . . . someone broke into your house last night. Your Mom’s fine, but if you saw the state of your room . . .” Silence. “Something must’ve been stolen.”
As I started boiling up inside, there were more scuffles, and Shalia’s voice, “Gimme the damn phone!” then, Shalia said breathlessly, “Yeah, Becca – it’s gotta be revenge. The Plan wouldn’t work anyway – the boys are, like, in love with you now.”
“I know!” I wailed. “I need to know how to undo this, Shalia!”
“Liline’s got a plan up her sleeve - ‘matchmaker’, most likely - so I say don’t worry – but you’ll have to sort out Bryan on your own.” she sighed. “I had no idea about the break in at your house until Shanice said just now. She was in the area when she saw the cops, so she went to ask Lauren if everything was okay . . . I can’t believe it.”
Before I hung up, she reminded me to call Liline soon, and I barely heard her, my brain was whirring so fast.
Then next thing I did was call someone who was close enough to the enemy to provide useful information – but was he still on my side?
“Yeeeeellow?”
“COOOOODYYYYYY!!!!” I howled cheerfully at him. “If I was with you, I would hug you!”
“And I, you, Fierce One.” Cody said nobly, and I could tell he was grinning. Like Bryan, it was all he ever did.
I snorted. “Who says that?! Have you been watching Lord Of The Rings?” I lowered my voice, “How’s your . . . little one? Little Robin?”
“Good, good.” Cody sighed. “She’s growing up fast.”
“Aww, the lil’ trooper. I’m glad she’s okay.” I smiled, then cleared my throat. “Okay, so what’s the word? Oh, scrap that, I just heard it from Shanice. You’ll never guess what I just heard?”
Cody paused, going totally still, and I know he got my drift.
Cody is Zora’s older brother. He’s a bit older than Shanice, but they went to high school together. Man, he acts like a kid sometimes. He gets on with my Uncle James so well, but his own sister is ashamed to be near him. Zora is even more lethal and cruel than other sisters.
I heard female voices in the background, then footsteps, like he was moving to a different room. I grew tense.
“She’s planning revenge, which is nothing new ‘cause I’ve seen this loadsa times but
this time . . . it’s serious. Maaaaajor payback.” He paused. “You must have really pissed her off Becca, God knows how. You were, like, her little golden girl. A puppet too, yeah, but it was like she was proud of you. She liked you more than the others.”
Wooooah! Wasn’t expecting that one! If Zora thought so highly of me, why didn’t she just lay off the bullying?! But Cody is right, though. She bullied me less than the others . . . until The Plan.
“Well, look - at least you’re safe over there. Bad things are happening back here, and -” I heard him swallow. “Would it make sense to say . . . I think she’s building an . . . an army?”
“A
whaaaat?!” I shrieked, “What?! What the fu - ? What like a gang? A crew?” my shock melted into scorn. “What she gonna get her scouts to do? Beat me up?”
“She can try,” chuckled Cody, “But I wouldn’t mess with Tru Tempa myself.” Before I could question, he answered, “Um, yeah, the whole neighbourhood knows. Part of Zora’s revenge, I’m sure.”
As I groaned, he went on, lowering his voice, “But this is what I mean, Fierce One. Zora doesn’t need to beat you up. She is one of the most influential and manipulative people in town. She has a million and one other ways to torture you.”
“Okay, okay.” I said quickly. “Lemme hear more about this ‘army’.”
“At first, it was just Megan; I thought that maybe she’d fallen out with the others. Then other girls started coming; a black girl with a afro, -” Nadine. I closed my eyes. So
that’s what she meant.
“- a girl with ginger hair, looked the youngest-“ didn’t ring a bell, “- and then another girl with reddy-browny hair, the newest addition to the group, turned up yesterday.” He sighed again, troubled. “That’s five, including Zora. And if I eavesdropped correctly, another girl is on her way.”
That must be Trish. Oh – miGod. Things are fallen into place, little parts of Zora’s plan. Megan didn’t just spend more time with Zora, she betrayed us. Zora knew she was someone in our group that she could manipulate . . . she must still like Patrick . . . I can’t believe this.
“They’ve been keeping tabs on you, dunno how. It was Becca this, Becca that – way too suspicious. I doubted that they were member of your fan club.” I managed to smile a little at that. I heard more voice, now louder. “I’m gonna call your friend Liline now. She said -”
A female voice, “Are you taking my phone calls?! How dare you!”
He said hurriedly, “Look - the break in, the Tru Tempa thing – there’s more to come so you need to watch your back -”
“Give it!” I heard scuffles, “Hello?”
It was all I could do not to lose my temper. “Hello Zora.” My voice still went deadly quiet. There was complete silence. “So,” I faked cheerfulness, “What have you been up to?” Ha, like I didn’t know.
“Nothing that you’d like, I’m sure. You wouldn’t be interested.” I could tell she was smirking. “But you’ll see when you get back, maybe even before that, so don’t worry. Hey - Patrick was your favourite wasn’t he?” My breath caught in my throat. B*tch. “My advice to you - I suggest you give him a little call. Have fun with Bryan, honey.”
And she hung up.
I was seething, so many thoughts running through my head. Had she got to Ashley and Hayley as well? How much could Aimee protect them? I need to speak to . . .
Raven. ‘Deadly Demon’, who was the closest friend of ‘Tru Tempa’ back then. Only she would know what to do now. My temper was worse then hers – but se was so much more dangerous than me.
Big problem – now . . . she’s a mother. I know. What’s more – Cody’s the father. I KNOW. Problem.
Before I could think any more and call anyone, I heard someone know the hotel room door and shout, “Becca Cross? Rehearsal is starting now!”
Yup.
Subject: Re: $.MANSIONS.$ 
Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:39 pm
Must spend next week reading. Lol, I would be complaining that you were supposed to update ... was going to until I saw exactly how much I've missed. 
L.O.L
