Soulmates

Chapter 18

 Jason sat on the floor, leaning on the wall as he watched the first performance of the year. Mr. Apollo is making the cast of Hadestown go first.

Thankfully, he wasn't going first. Mr. Apollo was making the female lead go first.

Jason thought the lead was Drew; he hadn't bothered to make sure. She was always the lead.

Jason choked on his air when an olive-skinned girl with think, brown hair cropped to her shoulders walked onstage.

He knew of Shelby, and her performance at callbacks was memorable. However, he never talked to her, and the stigma around her was constantly changing. At first, she was the quiet girl, then one of the openly lesbian girls, the girl you steer clear of, the girl who gave the best advice. Jason just knew her as one of the few in musical theatre who was a decent dancer.

"Shelby, what are you going to sing for us?" Mr. Apollo asked as he took out his clipboard.

"Breathe," she said.

"The Prom?"

"No, In The Heights."

Mr. Apollo nodded, "Break a leg."

She nodded to Sadie, who winked and pushed play on the instrumental.

As soon as Shelby started singing, Jason understood why she was cast as Eurydice. She sounded a lot like Eva Noblezada, and by the climax, he found out she could riff like Cristina Aguilera.

"When I was a child, I stayed wide awake, climbed to the highest place on every fire escape, restless to climb. I got every scholarship, saved every dollar, the first to go to college. How do I tell them why I'm coming back home? With my eyes on the horizon. Just me and the GWB, asking 'Hey Nina, what'll you be?'"

Jason glanced at Mr. Apollo, whose eyes had widened as Shelby took a shaky breath and continued. "Straighten the spine, smile for the neighbors. Everything's fine. Everything's cool. Standard reply 'Lot's of tests, lots of papers.' Smile, wave goodbye, and pray to the sky 'Oh, God!' And what will my parents say? Can I go in there and say 'I know that I'm letting you down...'" She paused and closed her eyes. "Just breathe." She opened her eyes, looked down, and said, "Thank you," with a small smile.

"Alright," Mr. Apollo squeaked. "Compliments and opportunities, we'll start with compliments... Lacey?"

"Um, can I just say everything?" the little blond girl said. "Because that was amazing."

Shelby laughed. "Thank you."

"You really connected to the audience," Mr. Apollo said after a few more compliments. "You told Nina's story beautifully. Your technique was great, your blocking was great. The riffs, outstanding. I have no notes, so does anyone else have opportunities?"

"Shit," Jason said when he was called up to follow... that.

oooh a pov switch

Shel sat with Kaz after school. "So," she said as she pulled at her dragon ear cuff, "you want to ask out a girl to homecoming?"

"Yes." His voice was like salt on salt. The rasp made her question whether or not Kaz was actually a teenager. "Her name is Inej Ghafa."

Shel waited for a moment. "And?"

"I don't really know how to describe it," Kaz said. "She gets me and understands my boundaries. People say I'm an anti-social and cold guy until they see me around her. They say I get awkward. Once she got hurt from a gymnast routine, and I avoided her for two days before I could think of something to say to her."

Oh, he was definitely 17. However, it was a lot to build up. "Okay. We aren't going to do that last bit anymore, alright? I'm gayer than Prince Henry of Mount-shiner Windsor whatever-the-fuck-his-name-is, and that made me cringe." Kaz raised a brow. "Let me explain. I know what it's like to be in your shoes. When I was in my freshman year, I had a crush on Valentina Reyes." At Kaz's lightened gaze, she added, "Not a word. Anyway, I didn't want to talk to her because I didn't want to get the "ohhh.' So I didn't talk to her for a week and ruined my friendship with her, which was fine because I wouldn't need to deal with weird feelings anymore.

"Now, last year, I dated this girl, Gywn. We got in an argument about... something, I don't even remember what it was, and she didn't talk to me for a month." She met Kaz's eyes. "I dumped her when she tried talking to me again." Shel paused. "Moral of the story, while it might help you, it does a lot of harm to your relationship as a whole."

Shelby set up her makeshift studio while her mother was still at work. She turned on her mic, then her camera. Then she said, "Hi, as you all know, Fouzia just came out with a new song, like the goddess she is. So, I decided to wait until next week to do that one and sing Breathe from In the Heights for the second time today.

She posted hardly-edited videos like this on her channel. She had just gotten 12k subscribers.

She smiled as the first viewers for the video came in, then laughed when Sadie commented.

lmao go away: bloody hell, how many times will you sing this song today

ShelsByTheBeach: I'm gonna ft you and make you listen to it again

lmao go away: not totally against it

ShelsByTheBeach: Lmao

Nico commented as well.

Nico Di Angelo: Wow, this rando is really good. It'd be cool to collab with her one day.

ShelsByTheBeach: Nico I will fucking cancel you but yea

Nico Di Angelo: Next livestream?

ShelsByTheBeach: Sure

Her subscribers went apeshit crazy.

ok I know this was a shit chapter but I honestly just needed to get something out. I need ideas so please comment what you want to see.

i started that one ACOTAR fic and I can't wait to trash SJM

i might redo HC again because i didn't like where it's going. this time I'll wait to publish it

I plan on doing a ton of crossovers here btw. we already did SoC and now RWRB and also maybe kinda possibly sorta ACOTAR might do shadow and bone next

One thing i know will be in here is a 15th b-day where the super six (rwrb) come because Shel's cousin invited them as a joke and the super six are chaotic like that

ummmm i guess I should mention that RWRB is also canon in here

that all for today tho

love y'all!