“Oh God, this is bad!” AJ gasped to Ophelia.

“Huh? What happened?” Ophelia asked, concerned. She eyed his costume. “By the way, you look ridiculous in that.”

“I feel ridiculous, but this isn’t the time to talk about self-stupidity. You’re going to need to take Emily’s place.”

“Why?”

AJ gestured helplessly at Emily. “She can’t talk, which means she can’t sing, and if she can’t sing, she can’t perform, and the show is history!”

Ophelia sighed. “Okay, don’t get theatrical on me. I guess I’ll do it, but won’t Charise be ticked?”

“What better reason to do it?”

“You’ve made your point quite succinctly,” Ophelia replied quickly. “Give me five minutes to get into costume. Can you stall the audience?”

“Yeah, sure,” AJ replied. “I can tell them my infamous toilet story.”

Ophelia raised an eyebrow. “You’re weird, and coming from me, that says something. But whatever.”


AJ nodded and hurried onto the stage, grinning broadly at the audience. “Hey, guys,” he greeted everyone. “There’s going to be a bit of delay before we get started on the second half of the show. Just some small technical difficulties that are getting handled as I speak. But right now, I want to tell you a little story. As my family and friends will tell you, I have quite the imagination. This is both a blessing and a curse. There was one time where it was such a curse that my family is still laughing about it. One day, I was all alone at home. My parents were at work, and my sister was sleeping over at a friend’s house. There was a power outage due to a serious storm, so it was very dark inside the house. I could barely see in front of me. And, most noticeably, it was deathly quiet. Under circumstances like these, my imagination goes wild. I went to the bathroom, and after the toilet finished flushing, I noticed something rather… odd. The toilet was making sounds. Now, you have to understand, under normal circumstances, I would just say, ‘Oh, I need to jiggle the handle.’ But these weren’t normal circumstances. To me, it sounded like the toilet was talking or singing. So, what did I do? Nice rational me, I did what any sane, logical man would do… I ran out of the bathroom, slammed the door shut, and I hid in my room, just so I wouldn’t be alone with the evil toilet! I stayed in my room until the power came back on about three hours later.”


The audience was laughing hysterically at this story, and AJ grinned and blushed a little. From the wings, Emily gave AJ a thumbs up sign.

“Well, that’s enough about me. I’ve just been informed that our performers are ready. So, without further ado, the second half of the show!”

AJ hurried offstage, and Ophelia and Tiffani stepped onto the stage and began their performance. AJ turned and peered at Emily. A small, rather knowing smile crossed his face as he surveyed his sister's pleased expression. “You faked losing your voice, didn’t you?”

Emily smirked a little and whispered, “Caught me. It was cliché, but I couldn’t resist. Besides, Ophelia’s better at handling attention than I am, not to mention she sings better. I just figured I'd let her do what she's supposed to. Plus, she's not the only one annoyed by Charise's behavior. I'm just quieter about it.”

AJ chuckled. “Sis, you’re a lot sneakier than people give you credit for.”

“Must be genetic.”



“Hey, Char, sorry it took so long. We got stuck in traffic,” Tacita announced. She was followed by Sheridon, Gideon, S, Cy, and a strange man.

“Yeah, well, you made it in time,” Charise replied. She glanced over at the stranger, and then gave Tacita a questioning look.

“Oh, I forgot!” Tacita exclaimed. “Charise, I want you to meet Jeff Harris, my boyfriend. Sorry I didn’t introduce you sooner. Jeff, this is Charise Marlow. You two have something pretty major in common.”

“Is that so?” Charise asked, uninterested.

“Yeah, do you know who Jeff’s parents are? Beverly Victoria and Joel Harris. As in, the other half of All That Glitters, the band your parents were in.”

Charise was silent. She had nothing to say to this.

“Miss Marlow, I just wanted to apologize,” Jeff said, giving Charise’s hand a squeeze.

“Apologize for what?” Charise asked, genuinely confused.

“My parents were, in part, responsible for your parents’ divorce. At least, my father was. Apparently, my father was… how do I put this?… he was seeing your mother behind your father’s back. And... well, after your dad found out, your parents... well... I… uh… I just wanted to…”

“I didn’t know,” Charise said awkwardly. “But, you know, what’s in the past is in the past.”

“Right,” Jeff responded, shifting awkwardly.

“Sweetie, go find a seat in the audience, okay? We need to get costumed and all for the performance,” Tacita gently instructed.

“Certainly,” Jeff replied with a nod.


He made his way into the audience and quickly spotted a seat.

“Excuse me, miss,” he said, directing his words to the girl sitting in the next seat, “but is this seat taken?”

“No. Go ahead and sit,” the girl said.

Jeff sat down and peered at the girl. “So, are you here to watch your friends?”

“Close. I’m here to watch my brother.”

“Who’s your brother?”

“Samuel Verona. I’m his sister, Cassandra.”

“Really?” Jeff asked. “Which side of the family did you take after? I see no resemblence.”

“Neither. I’m adopted.”

“Oh… I see…” Jeff replied, settling into an awkward silence.