one thing's universal, life's no dress rehearsal

[stagemanagers]

[Prom night! The greatest night of your young lives if you watch any Western high school media from the past 60 years. The looks, the music, the copious amounts of fancy snacks, the sore feet from dancing heels and then spending the rest of the night in bare feet- it’s all part of the bigger package.

The courtyard and the roof have both been decked out in a special way for tonight, despite no one really seeing Hester or anyone/anything else decorating. There are round tables set-up in both places, covered in yellow-gold tablecloths. Some of them have platters of snacks laid out on them, one has a large punch bowl that never seems to empty no matter how many drinks are taken from it.

On the roof there’s an extra table with pencils, small slips of paper, a box wrapped in gold wrapping paper and a notecard labeled Song Requests. Just write a song, pop it in the box and within a few minutes it starts playing! Weird, there doesn’t seem to be a sound system anywhere...

Red paper lanterns have been strung around the outline of the roof and between stakes in the courtyard, granting soft romantic light for a night to remember. Put on your best costume shop formal wear, get ready to lose your shoes after an hour and sneak in liquor even though most of you are of age.

After all…tonight belongs to you.]

Comments

[fourbutts]

[ She doesn't need to narrator her way into Hester's brackets to tell, because like. Mood, girl.

She takes Hester's hand. ]

I think I can manage. I'm half narrator, you know. On my dad's side.

[tailor_made]

Lucky. I wish I knew what, if anything, I got from my dad.

[Hester flashes her a grin and spins her out on the dance floor as the music plays. Congratulations, Janis, you get to learn firsthand that Hester is a bomb ass dancer.]

[fourbutts]

Well... if I've learned anything here, dad is a state of mind. Especially when you don't have a canon one.

[ Then who was dad, Janis!! Anyway, "bomb-ass" may not quite be right for her, but if romancing Maya Tendo has prepared her for anything, it's using her moderate-to-solid dancing ability to keep up with bomb-ass dancers. ]

[tailor_made]

[Hester laughs at that, throwing her head back in a carefree cackle. Hester mostly takes the lead, spinning and dipping and, at least once depending on how Janis reacts, lifting her off the ground for a twirl. It's a lot! But hey, it means she's not excessively sleep deprived and dissociating probably so that's good.]

[fourbutts]

[ Janis is, as it were, cool both leading and being led! So it's cool. She vibes with this. ]

[tailor_made]

[Speaking of vibes...

While they dance, having the time of the lives as it were, Janis is going to be having a bit of an Anastasia moment. All around them she (and only she) will see spectral images swirling around them.

Hester, wearing a stunning blue dress, walking across the floor arm-in-arm with someone else whose image is a person-shaped blur in a tuxedo. Hester slow dancing with another girl, eyes closed and cheek on her shoulder. Hester wiping her eyes with a tissue with another person-shaped blur in a prom dress standing beside her. Hester standing awkwardly in dress nearly identical to the one she's wearing now, her straight hair a voluminous pile of curls.

Then, just before the song ends, a final vision: Hester, looking stunned and hurt but holding her head high with a crown on her head side-by side that immediately transitions to her with a tiara, looking stunned but thoroughly thrilled.

The real Hester sets Janis down, out of breath, a little sweaty and bright-eyed.]

Wanna go again?

[fourbutts]

[ Janis watches all of this as best she can. It's- some part of her can tell, maybe the part that knows that wasn't her bracket text, that this isn't a hallucination, not really. This is something else.

You love this place. You hate this place.

How long has she been here?

Caught up in circles
Confusion is nothing new

...

The loop of the-

Janis smiles, a mix of elation from the dance and the rush of emotion that whatever this is has given her. ]

... Do you?

[tailor_made]

[Hester, seemingly oblivious to all the spectral activity, laughs softly and nods.] Yeah! This is the most energy I've had in weeks and I haven't danced in... [She trails off, looking perplexed for a moment before shaking it off with a quick grin.]

Let's just say it's been a while.

[fourbutts]

A while, huh? Yeah, just... give me a sec to make a request.

[ ... You know what, it's a good song and she's a narrator. If she does this with intent, maybe something will happen.

Either way, she's going to come on back and. ]

You know, while we're waiting... I have most of the portrait roughed out except the face. Can you spare some time out of your busy schedule to come model for me at some point?

[tailor_made]

[It sure is worth a shot.]

Mmhm, oh sure! I'd love to. I've been told my face can be a little hard to capture right on the first try. Before I graduated I had to get my school pictures retaken at least once every year since they never turned out right.

[fourbutts]

[ Janis laughs. ]

My problem is always that I'm very bad at wearing appropriate clothing for them to take my picture in the first place.

[tailor_made]

I believe it. [She giggles and pushes a stray strand of dark hair behind her ear.] I like the way you dress though. It's...unique. It feels very you, if that makes sense.

[fourbutts]

Thanks. The vending machine seems to really want to spit out my whole closet, but... always nice to know I make an impression.

[ Casually winks at Hester. It's normal. ]

Now I'm almost sorry I didn't have time to do much to my jacket here.

[tailor_made]

[It's easier with Janis than it is with Maya to not show how affected she is by little flirtations. It is not, howevee, impossible and her ears are definitely turning pink.]

I like it. [She reaches out to straighten the lapels on Janis's jacket, running her thumbs down the fabric to the bottom of the jacket.] It makes a statememt. A bright, flashy, unique, sequined statement.

[fourbutts]

[ Listen, it's not exactly like Janis is 100% confident here, but she's only partially disarmed by Hester running her fingers down her jacket. Hester's good at this, whatever this is, but Janis has been training against Maya for weeks now. ]

I don't believe in being anyone except myself.

[ She has a whole song about it, even. ]

So... glad to hear you're into that.

[ It is at this moment, I think, that this comes on, because I think this is the funniest moment for it to do so. Janis smirks, gesturing towards the dance floor with her head. ]

Oh hey, they're playing my request.

[tailor_made]

Cyndi Lauper! Very iconic. [Hester grins, wrinkling her nose a little. In true high school dance fashion, she lets go of the jacket to lay her hands on Janis's shoulders and steps back a few inches. Leave room for Jesus (which never made sense to her personally), ect ect.

If Janis is keeping an eye on the dance floor around them, She'll notice the ghostly changes around them are...a little different than the last dance. Instead of glimpses of proms potentially past, the scenes she sees are a little more extensive, a little more detailed.]

[fourbutts]

Seemed right.

[ And, as hard as it is to pull her eyes away from Hester... this has become partly about the mystery of her, so! What do we got? ]

[tailor_made]

[What she sees is a quaint little scene- a four-poster twin bed, draped with a gauzy white canopy and yellow fake flowers gathered at the top of each post. There's a young girl, her dark hair pulled into twins braids, laying on her stomach on top of the comforter playing with a Tamagatchi. She looks about 11 or 12, dressed in stir-up leggings and a sweatshirt like she's ready to go to dance class.

Lying in my bed, I hear the clock tick and think of you
Caught up in circles
Confusion is nothing new

The vague shape of a door opens beside her and a man steps in. He's middle-aged, wearing a t-shirt, well-worn flannel and jeans. He raps on the "door", giving little Hester a warm smile as she leaps off the bed and throws herself at him in a hug. He returns the hug, squeezing her extra tight and planting a kiss on top of her head, before pulling away to jingle his car keys in universal language "let's get going". Hester bounces out of the room and he closes the door behind them.

Flashback, warm nights
Almost left behind
Suitcase of memories
Time after

Keep watching?]

[fourbutts]

[ Oh boy oh boy you know she's gonna! ]

[tailor_made]

[Hester seems, thankfully, blissfully unaware of Janis's divided attention. She's just having a lovely time here.

The next flash of apparent memory looks to be a few years time skip. There's Hester, her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and absolutely goddamn working it in a cheerleading uniform, is dancing on a patch of grass that shouldn't be there and waving a pair of pom-poms. She looks energized and genuinely thrilled to be here-

Sometimes you picture me
I'm walking too far ahead
You're calling to me, I can't hear

And then abruptly it cuts to her hiding in a bathroom stall, her face buried in her hands as she silently cries. Her uniform is covered in small, fresh stains and there's a banana peel stuck to her head.

What you've said
Then you say, "go slow"
And I fall behind
The second hand unwinds

Just before the memory swipes away to something new, Janis will see a hand, the cuff of a black-and grey flannel just barely in visible, reach out and gingerly pluck the banana peel off her head. She lifts her head to look at them and offers a teary smile.]

[fourbutts]

[ Well, this doesn't exactly scream foster kid, does it? Janis is really going to try to not divide too much attention away from Hester, the evidence that this girl has been messed with is literally all around her, but. She's going to keep looking, even if it's just over Hester's shoulder.

Also sidebar, what kind of uniform? Colors, logo? ]

[tailor_made]

[It looks like the primary colors are red and white! Her pom-poms get in the way of any kind of school logo unfortunately.

If you're lost, you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting
Time after time

The scene shifts again to a slightly younger Hester, probably around 15. She's curled up in a beige leather chair that would scream "hospital room" as if the hospital bed in front of her didn't give it away. The man from before, more than likely her foster father, is lying pale and still on it but even at a glance it does look like he's breathing. Hester's chair is pulled up as close as she can get, her head pillowed on his hand. Next to her chair is an untouched bright yellow backpack with patches for things like "Wicked" and "West Side Story".

After a beat someone else steps in, seemingly from thin air. A woman dressed in dark blue jacket and slacks who looks at the two of them with a mixture of concern and pity. In her arms she has a thick manila folder marked with the name Hester W..

If you're lost, you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting
Time after time]

[fourbutts]

[ Oh no..... sucks!! Sucks a lot actually!!! But there's still some more song to go. And so, still paying what attention she can to the real Hester in front of her, Janis keeps dancing. ]

[tailor_made]

[Yeah, kinda sucks! The real Hester meanwhile has been getting progressively closer, with a little experimental hesitation, rests her cheek on Janis's shoulder.

After my picture fades
And darkness has turned to gray
Watching through windows
You're wondering if I'm okay]

...I'm having a nice time, Janis.

[The next one is another short glimpse: Hester slow dancing the same way she is now, cheek resting on the upper arm of someone taller than her. It's impossible to tell what they look like, only that they're wearing a black suit jacket. Her partner steps back and twirls her, slowly and a little awkwardly into-]

If you're lost, you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting
Time after time

[A new memory and this one feels somehow final. Hester is standing at a brightened street light, a lit-up train schedule above her head. The time on it reads 11:45 pm. She has a single suitcase next to her and is staring at her feet with apprehension. But...the scene almost seems to glitch- suddenly she has several people around her. The man from before, not quite the picture of health but looking better than he was, is wearing a red flannel. He leans in to plant a kiss on top of Hester's head and she hiccups, wiping her eyes before throwing her arms around him in a hug. The others look to be some other teens about Hester's age, a blurry-looking couple with an even blurrier child between them and another figure in a black and grey flannel.]

You said, "go slow"
I fall behind
The second hand unwinds

[Another glitch and Hester is alone again. She looks back and forth, like she's looking for someone, before she checks the time again. Glitch. Hester is hugging the small family and gives the child's hair a ruffle before she moves on to the other teens. She stops at the person in the monochrome flannel, rising up on her toes while they lean down to kiss them. They wrap her in a hug, picking her up off the ground momentarily, before setting her back down. There are fresh tears now and her foster father comes over once more to hug her a final time.

Glitch.

If you're lost, you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting
Time after time
If you're lost, you can look and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall, I will catch you, I'll be waiting
Time after time

[A train has pulled up. Both Hesters simultaneously pick up their suitcases and start to step onto it, glancing back one more time- one at the people she's leaving behind and one at empty air- before stepping onto the train and vanishing.

Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time
Time after time]

[fourbutts]

... Me too.

[ Well, if nothing else, this all settles that Hester is now solidly in camp "Janis Will Now Die For You!!!!" With any luck, this trust is going to come in handy someday.

She's also going to kill and eat the Wizard herself, but that's for later. For right now, she just holds Hester close, not entirely able to distance the one she's dancing with from any of these in her past. And she just closes her eyes, and focuses on the Hester in her arms, and also on trying not to cry. No one likes a girl who cries during her first slowdance. ]