Three Cheers for Sweethearts [Frerard AU]

PART III: Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6 – PROPS & MAYHEM

A/N: I strongly considered THIS AIN'T A SCENE, IT'S A CLASS ASSIGNMENT for the title of this chapter but in the end picked PROPS & MAYHEM and didn't want the effort of syllable matching to go to waste. So now you know. Enjoy the chapter.

I called him as quickly as my fingers would allow. "No you are not," I cut to the chase.

"Yes I am," I could hear him smiling, which made me that much more irritated.

"Who told you it was going on? And don't you have a class you can't exactly skip?" As much as we hated school, at the end of freshman year we'd promised each other we would never let each other cut class for the sake of our own grades.

"Your Juliet was... complaining about it. I technically have orchestra, but we have sectionals on Mondays and Wednesdays. Meaning? I play my cello for ten minutes then have free reign of the school. Boom."

"Ray, seriously. It's embarrassing enough as it is."

"Do you really think I'd miss this? The other three of you are seeing it."

"The other three of us are in it."

"Nothing you can say can stop me going."

"RAY."

He hung up.

***

Mr. Burner let us know before we left school on Friday that his room would be open for rehearsing in all weekend. When Austin texted us all and suggested we come in Saturday morning, we didn't really have a choice.

Austin was the only one in the room other than our teacher when Mikey and I arrived, meaning we were only waiting on our Juliet. Mikey and Austin decided to start reviewing Mikey's only line again, running my exit again and again and again until I could probably do it in my sleep. It seemed even Mikey had stopped caring by the time Frank finally showed up to interrupt us; he had stopped being reluctant to Austin's direction and did everything without argument.

"Sorry I'm so late," Frank muttered, flying into the theatre. We chorused a few "no worries" and begged Austin to pick any other scene to do.

"Wow, is it already one o'clock? Time flies, doesn't it?" he grinned. We rolled our eyes.

"I'd like to run the scene a little after Gerard exits and it's just me and Austin," Frank suggested.

"I'd like some food," Mikey whined.

"You and Frank work on that scene," I said to Austin, "and I'll order a pizza or something."

"Yes, please," they agreed collectively.

They agreed on a cheese pizza, and then jumped onto the stage to start the rehearsal. I grabbed my phone and sat in the front row of seats.

I muttered under my breath as I Googled the number. "Hi, I'd like a cheese pizza – no... Hi, I'd like to deliver, or I'd like you to deliver... Hi, could I get a large cheese pizza delivered? Can I get a delivery of a large cheese pizza? Hi, could I order... Can I get a large cheese pizza delivered?"

"You usually rehearse that sort of thing?" Frank scrunched his eyebrows at me while he flipped pages in his script, but he looked genuinely interested. I looked up at him, my train of thought cutting off abruptly when his voice pierced through it.

"Oh, uh, yeah," I admitted, "I rehearse close to every conversation I can anticipate having."

"Why?" he asked.