The Crumbling Pyramid

Anette was very curious about the notes on the call board that appeared about mid-October. It read, "Gerard, Matt and Dalton, see me -Wind," and Anette hope to all goodness that none of them were in trouble. That would be terrible, especially with opening night just over four and a half weeks away.

Speaking of the show, it was going amazingly. Anette spent just about every waking moment either going over songs or lines in her head or actually on the stage running her blocking. And everyone involved was doing such a wonderful job. The set was looking really nice, props were coming along, they had costumes almost finished, and they had started using lights and sound at the beginning of the week. Anette really couldn't have asked for more, and didn't feel like they would be in the squeeze they usually were during tech week.

It was also odd, because she was hanging out now with people she had never in her wildest dreams would had spent a good deal of time with. Chase was so busy with sports, and so was Rachel, that they hardly ever saw each other. Dawn was working her butt off for Student Council, organizing Homecoming Week, which would be the same week as Halloween. And because of this, Anette’s spare time she had that wasn't lunch was spent with Ray Toro, who was a bit shy, but brilliant, and was helping her pass Algebra. While this was an oddity, Anette found herself liking Ray more and more (as a friend of course). The one time she did eat lunch with him, he was with his other friends, the Way brothers and Frank Iero. They were quite an interesting bunch, and one time, Anette caught herself wishing that they were her friends instead of Rachel and Kate and Chase because these four were far more interesting.

But even though they were spectacular, one was not, and that was Mikey. He never said anything to her, and not really to anyone else when she was around. It was weird, because from what she had heard from Gerard, he was usually a bit talkative and was much nerdier than Gerard, but maybe not more than Ray. Anette wondered if she had done something wrong, but Gerard assured her that Mikey was just being an asshole and needed to stop being shy or whatever it was that his problem was. Anette hoped this was the case, because she didn't like it when people were mad at her.

At the end of the day when Anette and Ray parted ways and Anette found herself in the theatre once more, the explanation of the note from the morning was there on the stage. Mr. Wind was up there, and so was Gerard and Matt, but Dalton was no where to be seen, and he was never one to be late. "Everyone, please take a seat," Mr. Wind said, and not in his usual chipper voice. No one talked louder than a whisper as the cast sat down. Anette sat right in the front row, catching Gerard's eye. From the look on his face, this wasn't good.

"Alright everyone, we've got some major changes to discuss," Mr. Wind said, looking at everyone. He took a great sigh, then said, "Yesterday, I was informed of a party that went on over the weekend from one of the other teachers. At first, I didn't worry, because I knew that all of you knew you are on contract." The contract of which he spoke of was similar to the athletic one, in that if you did drugs or drank while a show was in rehearsal, you were kicked out of the show. "But then I decided to check, just in case." He paused to take a breath. Whatever had happened, he was pretty pissed about it. "Unfortunately, I was wrong. Dalton will not be joining us for the rest of the season."

Murmurs ran through the cast. Hailey muttered, "That idiot," to Anette, who nodded.

"That is why I've called this meeting. Gerard here was my second choice for Danny, and so he will be taking over his role, while Matt will takes over his role of Doody. I expect every one of you to help both Gerard and Matt with lines, lyrics, and dancing. After warm ups, we're going to start learning this show again from the top."

Everyone groaned as they stood up, including Anette. Poor Gerard. It was great that he was picked, but he now had only half the time to learn the lead role, not to mention perfect all the songs and dances, which Anette already knew he struggled with. So when warm ups were done and everyone was grabbing water before they started Scene One, Anette pulled him aside.

"That must have been a shocker," she said, concerned.

"Yeah... yeah it was," Gerard finally said, running his hands through his messy black hair. "Anette, I'm not cut out for this role."

"Stop thinking like that right now. Of course you are or Wind wouldn't have put you in it. He did say you were his second choice, after all."

"Yeah, that's true."

He was looking paler than usual, which was saying something. So Anette made up her mind. "You doing anything tonight?"

"Besides learning an entire new part?"

"Yeah."

"Nothing."

"Good, you're coming to my house and I'm teaching you the songs."

Gerard looked a bit startled. "Really? You sure that'll be okay?"

"Yeah, my mom won't care. She'll probably be working late anyways, she has a huge order of wedding flowers she has to fill for this weekend."

"Well... I'll call my mom and ask. Is it okay if Mikey tags along?"

Anette's stomach clenched a bit, but she said, "That's fine. Dinner will be provided, but you'll have to put up with my little brother."

"How old is he?"

"Three."

"Not a problem."

Anette smiled, squeezed his shoulder, and said, "Gerard, you're gonna be great."

"Let's get started!" Mr. Wind yelled, and everyone took their places to start the scene.

-

Gerard had called his mom after rehearsal - Anette's house would be fine as long as the two of them were home before curfew at midnight. Mikey didn't look too happy when Gerard told him where they were going, but he didn't say anything from the back seat of Gerard's car as they drove to Anette's house.

"It's so weird driving," Anette commented as Gerard pulled up to her house. "I usually walk."

They all got out and started up the walk to her house. It was big and white, with a large porch, flowers of nearly every color imaginable growing everywhere, and a trampoline in the side yard.

Gerard whistled. "Damn, Ray was right. You do have the nicest house on the block."

Anette smiled. "Thanks. My dad used to be a lawyer."

"Used to be?"

"He died my freshman year."

"Oh," Gerard said, frowning. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine, you didn't know."

Anette led them inside. Her mom must have just dropped off Terrence from being in the shop, because he was sitting in the living room with potting soil on his face and hands. His blue eyes lit up when he saw Anette. "Annie!" he called, making grabby-hands at her.

"Hey buddy," she said, smiling and picking him up. He smelled like fresh dirt and flowers. "This is Gerard and Mikey, they're going to be here for a while, okay?"

"Okay."

"What do you want for dinner?" Anette asked Gerard and Mikey, but it was Terrence that responded with enthusiasm.

"Mac and cheese!" he cried, grinning.

Anette shot Gerard a look, but he just grinned as well. "Sounds good to me. He's got good taste," Gerard said, winking at Terrence.

"Most days. Alright Terrence, let's get you cleaned up-"

"NO BATH!"

"Not, not a bath, just get your hands and face clean so you can play, okay?"

Terrence frowned. "Okay," he said grumpily.

"You guys can go pretty much where ever you want," Anette called over her shoulder as she took Terrence through her mom's bedroom and to her bathroom to get him cleaned up. He protested a little, but Anette just talked to him gently and soon he was cleaner than clean, and she took him back to the kitchen to let him color while she made dinner.

Gerard had his script out and was reading lines so fast Anette didn't think it was humanly possible, but he said, "Mikey's in the dining room. I think he's just playing WoW on his laptop, so he shouldn't be much of a problem."

"Wow?" Anette asked, filling a pot with water and setting it on the stove to boil, then pulling out a pan to make the sauce in.

"World of Warcraft. You know, the online fantasy game?"

"Oh, right. I've just never heard it called that."

Gerard laughed. "Obviously you haven't hung out with Ray that long."

"You know about that?" Anette asked, opening the fridge and choosing a few different cheeses and the milk that still looked okay.

"Yeah. He told us you just kinda found him."

Anette didn't know whether this was good or not, and felt surprisingly self-conscious. "What does he say?"

"Nothing bad. He thinks you're pretty nice, but weird 'cuz you like hanging out with him."

"I like hanging out with you, too."

"Thanks, but it's not like you have a choice," Gerard said, pulling out a stack of sticky notes from the depths of his bag and started marking pages in the script. "To hang out with me, anyways. We're kind of the leads of the show now."

"I'm making you dinner, aren't I?"

"True."

They didn't speak for a few minutes as Anette started making the cheese sauce and cooking the noodles and Gerard read the script, his lips moving silently as he spoke the lines to himself.

"Annie, all done!" said Terrence, and held up a picture he had finished drawing with his crayons. It depicted Anette, himself, their mom, and their older sister Noel all standing together smiling. Anette smiled, feeling a prang of sadness that their dad wasn't in the picture.

"It's good, Terrence."

"Here!" he said, giving it to her. She set it down on the table.

"Thank you. I'll go put it my room after dinner."

"Okay," he said, wriggling out of his chair and walked shakily out the room to go play with some of his other toys. Anette cleaned up his crayons in between cooking chores.

Gerard glanced at the picture. "Who's the other girl?" he asked, motioning to Noel.

"My older sister Noel. She's in college right now, majoring in dance."

"Talent runs in the family, eh?"

"I guess. Dad used to be a really good piano player. He's the one who got me into singing."

"Did Terrence ever know your dad?" There was silence as Anette tried to decide on an answer. Gerard, however, shook his head. "Sorry, that was stupid, I-"

"It's fine. And no, not really. He died when Terrence was about six months old."

Anette finished cooking and called everyone into the kitchen to get the food. Mikey came in, looking irritated.

"How's WoW?" Gerard asked as he served himself Macaroni and Cheese.

"Dumb. Ray and I just failed a quest, and we were almost done with it."

"Sucks, man."

"You're tellin' me."

Dinner was actually quite pleasant. Anette helped Terrence only a little bit, and she was actually pretty proud of him not spilling a lot of food. It was almost like he was eating as carefully as he could to impress the guests.

At one point, Gerard said, "You know Anette, you're like, the coolest prep I've ever met."

She laughed a bit nervously. "What do you mean?"

"Like, you dress all nice and hang out with all the jocks and are like, insanely popular, but you're like... a real person. Everyone else seems just, fake, you know?"

"I guess. Not many of them seem fake to me," Anette replied. "Take Dawn for example. She's class president and the most pessimistic person ever, but she still hangs out with, as you call it, the popular people. She's quite a character if you get to know her."

"What about Andrew?" Mikey asked, and Anette almost jumped. It was the first time he had spoken to her all day.

"Andrew isn't welcome in our group," Anette pointed out. "Not really, anyways. He's just a big jerk. Someone needs to put him in his place, but for now, Chase and I usually keep him from harassing most people. Besides, he and Chase hate each other. Andrew keeps his own company."

Mikey glared at his dinner, but didn't say anything.

After everyone was done eating, the dirty dishes were stacked in the sink, and Terrence was clean, Anette brought Gerard upstairs and into the art room. It was a big, open room with wooden floors, a stereo, a black grand piano, an art easel, and lots of paintings on the walls. "Well, this is the room," Anette said, picking her Grease music book out of a basket and setting it on the piano.

Gerard just stared around in shock. "This is... amazing."

"Well, our family is big on the arts, so it only made sense to have some kind of room devoted to it."

"If it didn't have windows, it'd be perfect."

"Don't like the sun?"

"Not when I'm drawing," said Gerard. "Alright, how do we do this?"

"Well, I can play enough to sort of accompany you, and all the words are in here. Ready to learn Danny's songs?"

"I guess."

They worked until almost nine thirty at night, and Gerard's throat was sore by the end of it all. Anette sang with him where appropriate, and Gerard understood why the piano was in here – the acoustics were amazing. And at the end, he knew enough to practice every song on his own that he would be required to sing on stage.

"Man, I forgot about the drive-in scene," he said as they walked back downstairs together. "We're gonna have to kiss, aren't we?"

"We'll work on that later," Anette said, kind of half-laughing. "That's in the second act. It'll probably be next week."

"Yeah. Shit that's gonna be awkward."

"Hopefully it won't." Anette paused when Gerard snickered. "I meant for on stage you idiot."

"Mmhmm, sure," Gerard said, and Anette rolled her eyes.

They found Terrence passed out on a couch in the living room and Mikey in the dining room on his laptop, doing homework now instead of playing video games. Gerard started putting his stuff away as Anette went to the kitchen to start cleaning the dishes, but instead, she found clean and dry dishes on the counters. Puzzled, she went back into the dining room.

"I didn't know where you put your dishes," Mikey said simply as she came back in.

Anette stopped. Why in the world had he done the dishes? Not that it mattered much, but it was nice. "Thank you," she said, smiling as un-awkwardly as she could.

"Yeah."

He saved, turned off his computer, and stuffed it in his bag.

"Well, this was fun and productive. Thanks, Anette," Gerard said, and he surprisingly gave her a hug.

"No problem," she replied brightly, hugging him back. "And you can come over any time, really. I'm here to help or hang out."

"Will do," Gerard said, grinning. "Night."

"Night."

Anette showed them to the door and picked up Terrence carefully. He didn't stir. She took him upstairs to his room, tucked him into bed with his stuffed dinosaur Chomper, and then went downstairs to put away the dishes. She found that Mikey had put away the leftovers in the fridge, and she thanked him again out loud even though no one would hear her. "Mikey Way, you are so weird," she said with a smile as she closed the fridge door.