Conner's Performance

Chapter 8 - The After Party

Conner felt nervous as the group left the school and entered the courtyard. Sara pointed to a house which backs onto the school, it was surprisingly close to the school. The group quickly walked toward her place, leaving Conner to hurry behind them. He rushed as fast as he could however was having a great deal of trouble keeping up, he looked up and saw Emily standing and waiting for him.

"I figured I would walk with you Toto!" She told him as he caught up.

Conner took a moment to catch his breath after running after his fellow cast members. "Thanks." He mumbled. She just reached down and patted his head.

The two slowly walked toward the house, Conner didn't feel the need to hurry anymore as most of them had already disappeared inside. "I should have just taken this thing off after the play." He complained.

"You make such a cute Toto! We can play together!" She suggested.

Conner wasn't really sure what to do at a party like this, he was closer in age to Emily then the other cast members. "I don't know about that." He said.

Conner and Emily finally make it to the house, it's a one storey house and luckily doesn't have any steps up to the door. Emily holds the door open for Conner and they hear the loud teenagers chatting about the play, relationships and other school work. Conner follows Emily into the living room which had a large television at one end of the room and multiple couches and sofas for sitting. Pillows had also been laid out on the floor for people to sit on. On one end of the room Conner spotted a dejected and seemingly depressed Billy sitting at the end of a couch. Jessica was sitting next to Harvey, both of them looking flustered. Sara and Rayna were herding snacks and people into the room where Jamie was fiddling with the remote trying to get a recording of the play to appear on the television.

Conner followed Emily to the pillows on the floor and sat beside her, not wanting to clumsily try and get onto the couch. Tom who was awkwardly sitting in his Tinman getup looks at Conner. "It looks like our lost puppy finally made his way here." He called out, and some of the others snickered "We should introduce him to Diamond and Sugar!"

Conner had no idea who Diamond and Sugar were and looked at Emily who was smiling. "Great idea, I'll go get them!" Emily happily got up and ran out of the room.

Conner heard yapping from down the hall and Emily returned with two dogs, both of them excited about all the new people in the house. Conner got nervous when he saw the two large dogs one was a full grown saint bernard that rivaled even Emily's standing height, the other was a regular golden retriever, who still stood taller then Conner while he was kneeling. The dogs bound into the room jumping from person to person until they spotted Conner, sitting there as the smallest dog in the room. "The big one is Diamond and the golden retriever is Sugar." Emily told the crowd.

The dogs eyed Conner and started moving closer to him, they were clearly curious about the dog boy. Their posture changed quickly and they took an aggressive stance. Conner, not knowing what to do, started to slowly shuffle backwards away from them and further into the room, he really regretted not changing now. Diamond, who towered over Conner, then let out a loud 'WOOF!'. Conner got legitimately scared, the bark was loud and rang in Conner's ears, tears started to blur his vision, that's when they lunged at him.

"Eeeek!" Conner squeaked, holding his paw clad hands in front of him. Lucky for Conner, the dogs never made it to him. He lowered his hands and saw that Diamond's collar had been grabbed by Billy of all people and Sugar's had been snagged by Harvey. The three boys looked at each other all breathing deeply with relief.

Jessica stood up and rushed over to Conner. "Hey Toto, it's alright." She knelt down and gave him a hug while Billy and Harvey quicked ushered the dog away. She wiped away the tears from his black eyes and stood up and looked at the rest of the cast members. "So Jaimie are we watching this play or what?" She asked, trying to move the focus away from her brother.