Rum and Coke

Although Brian was still a little down about the phone call earlier, he decided to not let it get to him. His head snapped up when the green door opened, revealing Ryan and. Ryan sat down on the couch next to Kay, since Matt wasn’t there (everyone knew about their “secret” relationship except for Matt), and Ellie sat on the floor in front of Bailey.

“Where were you two at?” Mark asked, plucking the strings on his bass.

“Adventuring!” Ellie proclaimed, one of her arms raised as if she were triumphantly holding a sword high above her head.

“Adventuring?” Zacky questioned.

Bailey, Ryan, and Mark gave out small groans. They already knew what the lead singer was going to say.

“Yes, adventuring! We traveled through the dark forest, down across the moors. We came across wild rapids…all to free the moors of Braxton Prendergast’s tyranny!” she said with a grin and a wild light in her eyes as she stood up.

“Ellie,” Mark warned.

“Now she stops!
Now she runs!
Will she escape?
Will she be caught?”

“Ellie Marie!” Bailey warned.

“With bold determination, the villainous aristocrat Braxton Prendergast, lurches for her-” Ellie spoke, acting out her words.

“No, let her continue, this is somewhat amusing,” Jimmy threw in from his spot on the couch.

“There’s no escape.
She’s but a child.
And yet she turns to fight
With eyes ablaze!
This noble girl meets his gaze,
Unafraid-”

“Josephine!” Ryan yelled.

Startled, Ellie looked back at him. “What? I didn’t do it!”

He gave her a look. “I’ll let you sing that later….like….much later in the tour.”

She huffed and sat down. “Very well then, Theodore Laurence, the third.” She stuck her nose up in the air like the drama queen that she was. “But I will sing Weekly Volcano Press before we reach New York.”

“Very well then, Thyona.”

“Constanine,” she sneered.

The adults and Kay looked around at each other, not quite sure what exactly what was going on. Bailey and Mark just rolled their eyes, clearly used to this “game.”

“Amy.”

“Well, that was a little below the belt, Peter Pan”

The guys and Kay couldn’t help but laugh at that.

Ryan scrunched his face up in mock fury…or, at least I think it was fake… “Metastophilis.”

“Hey, I was hot and sexy. Pulcher.”

“Julia.”

“Hey, I like that role, Juliet”

Brian looked to Mark for some kind of clarification.

“Gender reversal,” he said simply.

“Othello”

“It’s not every day a white girl gets to play a black man, Guiliano.”

“Oh, come on! I was him for a day, Octavia.”

“Sheppherd”

“Annelle,” Ryan shot back smugly.

“I never went to opening night with her. Hamlet.”

“Lady Macbeth!”

“Dude, she’d kick-ass. Petruccio.”

“Francis.”

“Frank.”

“Cosette”

“Little Boy.”

“Candy.”

“Takes one to know one, Bert.”

Ryan scoffed. “Tiny Tim.”

Ellie contorted her face in disgust. “Why I oughtta-” she lunged for him, but Mark caught her around the waist with one arm and held her down in his lap.

Ryan stuck his tongue out.

“You know, now that I actually think about it, Hamlet was your best role,” Bailey randomly said to Ryan, causing all eyes to snap in her direction. “What? it was! It made me cry!”

“Wow, Bails….just, wow…” Ellie said, completely forgetting about her previous “argument.”
“What?! You were there!”

“Yea, backstage and in character!”

“Oh, come off it. Are you telling me that if Ophelia ever saw that performance, she wouldn’t have burst out into tears?! The “to be or not to be” line is what got me the most! Hell, I didn’t care if he died or not!”

“Hey,” Ryan whined. “Not cool.”

“Seriously, for your last performance, it was brilliant…even if you were covered in fake blood.”

Ryan went slack-jawed and started sputtering incoherent thoughts.

“Aweh, don’t worry, Ry-ry, I’ll still be your tbfl!” Ellie exclaimed, launching herself over to him.

He caught her easily and wrapped his arms around her waist “For life?” Ryan questioned.

“Duh! What do think the last two letters stand for? Free love ?”

“Wow, you guys are worse than my cousins,” Kay said, a look of shock across her face.

“Tblf?” I asked.

“Theatre Brat For Life. Ryan’s parents were actors in my mom’s theatre.” Ellie answered with a smile.

“Danni had a theatre?” Zacky asked, very confused.

“Technically, it’s really kind of like a school….but equity actors come in all the time…I don’t know. It’s crazy…but, yea, she inherited from some guy that died. I don’t know. I was seven.”
“Ok. Enough chit chat. Start singing, Josephine.”

Ellie stuck her tongue out at him. “You’re just jealous.”

“Of a sixteen year old girl falling in love with a thirty something year old German professor. Yea, I’m really jealous,” he replied sarcastically. “Click.”

“I got me a 67 Chevy, she’s low and sleek and black
Someday I’ll put her on that interstate and never look back

Someday I’m finally gonna let go
‘Cause I know there’s a better way
And I wanna know what’s over that rainbow
I’m gonna get out of here someday”

“Click.”

“And when the night is cloudy,
There is still a light that shines on me,
Shine until tomorrow, let it be-”

“What is up with all the sad songs? Click.”

She started dancing as she sung. “I want you,
I want you so bad
I want you
I want you so bad
It’s driving me mad, it’s driving me mad.”

“What is this now? A damn Beatles convention? And, oh my god, you’re actually doing that dance. Click.”

But deep in the dark green shadows,
There are voices that urge me to stay.
So I pause and I wait and I listen,
For one more sound,
For one more lovely thing
That the hills might say!

“Hell no! Click”

Ellie stuck out her tongue. In my own little corner in my own little chair
I can be whatever I want to be.
On the wings of my fancy I can fly anywhere
and the world will open its arms to me.

“fast forward.”

“[color] In the night I sally forth to seek my quarry
And I find I forgot to bring my gun.
I am lost in the jungle all alone and unarmed when I meet a lioness in her lair
Then I'm glad to be back in my own little corner,
All alone in my own little chair.

“Get the hell away from Julie Andrews songs. Click.”

“He’s a tramp
He’s a scoundrel
He’s a rounder
He’s a cad
He’s a tramp
But I love him
Yes, and even I
Have got it pretty bad
You can never tell
When he’ll show up
He gives you
Plenty of trouble-”

“What is this? The nightmare that never ends? Click.”

“ 525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes – how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes – how do you measure a year in the life?
How about love?- Oh, that sucked.” She ended after she hit a few sour notes. “Ryan, fix it!” she whined.

He laughed at her. “Hon, I think you have Vocal Fatigue.”

“Nonsense. I’ve never had it before.”

“You were also carefully monitored before.”

Clearly ignoring him, she went over to where I was and grabbed her cell phone.

“Ellie, what are you doing?” Brian asked.

“Brining in the big guns,” she replied.

“Hi, Ellie!” a feminine voice that only SY recognize sounded from Ellie’s phone. She had put it on speakerphone.

“Hi, Idina! I need your help.”

“Sure, Hon. What do you want.”

“She has vocal fatigue and she won’t listen to me!” Ryan called.

“I’m on speakerphone, aren’t I?” Idina asked.

“Yepp! Say hi to everybody!”

“Hi, random people I may or not know! Ok, so seriously, Ellie, you have vocal fatigue? I’m telling you it’s all that screaming you do. So, how did this come about?”

“According to Ryan, I have it…but I don’t listen to him. And it just came suddenly. I’ve done everything that you told me to do…so, yea…it’s weird.”

Idina laughed. “Ok, so sing the chorus for Take me or Leave me and we’ll see what’s up.”

“ take me for what I am
who I was meant to be
and if you give a damn
take me baby
or leave me” it sounded pretty bad.

“Hate to break it to you, Hon, but Ryan’s right. You’re not singing tonight.”

“But, I’m on tour!”

“So Adam told me…but you’re still not singing tonight. Is Bailey there?”

“Right here, mi madre!” Bailey called from the opposite side of the room.

“Good. Bailey, how about you sing?”

“M-me?”

“Yea, you’ll do fine. Listen, my lovelies, I have to go…stupid board meetings, but in the meantime, Ryan make sure that Ellie doesn’t sing or talk for the next two days. She is allowed to hum for ten minutes at a time every hour and that’s it. Oh, Taye, Adam, and the rest of the theatre family send their love. I’ll see you when you get to New York! Mwah.” click.

Ellie huffed and stared at the phone.

“Confusion. Who was that?” Jimmy asked, his hand raised.

“Idina Menzel, Ellie’s vocal coach,” Mark answered without missing a beat.

“Oh…ok.”

Ellie looked over at Bailey. “You heard the woman. What are we playing tonight instead of Little Sister? Since I know that’s really hard for you to sing.”

“Heroine?”

“No,” Ellie replied heatedly. “If we ever play that song live, I will be the one singing it. We can play it in New York.”

“Fine, I guess we can do Mercy Street, then…and I want to add another song You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid by the Offspring? We have enough time, since I’m not going to do your little preaching thing.”

“Sounds good. Now warm up…even though your warm up isn’t half as cool as mine.”

“Shouldn’t you be resting your voice?” Brian asked my daughter with a smile.

“It’s a good thing that tomorrow is an off day. For the next forty-eight hours, you’re on mute.” Ryan added, quickly taking on the big brother role.

She stuck her tongue out at me and grabbed her black Les Paul. She started fingering a heavy riff.

“Ok, Ellie. You made your point.”

Ellie quickly signed something with her hands that made Ryan’s jaw drop.

“Oh no, you didn’t.” he said incredulously before getting up off of the couch and chasing Ellie out of the room. Everyone who was left laughed.

“Man, they remind me so much of us when we were younger,” Zacky mused.

“When you were younger? Kay asked. “I’m sorry, have you not seen some of the crap that you’ve done recently?”

“She’s right,” Matt said from the doorway. No one even saw him walk up. “We do still act the same.”

“I won’t grow up.
Not a penny will I pinch.
I will never grow a mustache,
Or a fraction of an inch.
‘Cause growing up is awfuller
Than all the awful things that ever were.
I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up,” Bailey sang softly. She looked around, her cheeks bright red. “And I’ll take that as my cue to leave.” She mumbled before following her other two band mates.

“Yea, wait up for me, Bails,” Mark called, running after her.

“This night should be interesting,” Johnny mused.