Conner's Performance

Chapter 9 - Heading Home

"Toto." Conner heard his sister whisper and felt a light jossle to wake him up. "Hey Toto, wake up." His sister whispered again. Conner slowly opened his eyes, waking up from his dreams, he noticed light pouring in from the window. He tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes only to remember he was still wearing the Toto costume.

"What time is it?" Conner groaned and looked around. He was still on top of Emily's bed, she was sleeping on her pillows under the covers while he was at the end, she was still asleep herself.

"Shh, don't wake up Emily." Jessica whispered to him. "It's just after seven, we need to head home." Jessica wasn't wearing the Dorothy costume anymore and had changed into blue sweatpants and a white sweater. She lifted Conner carefully off the bed and placed him on the floor, he took a moment to balance himself and followed her out of the room.

"You didn't tell me we would spend the night, I would have changed at the school." Conner scolded his sister. He wanted to stand up and walk around again instead of being forced to crawl.

"I hadn't planned on staying the night but by the time I went to check on you, both you and Emily were asleep." Jessica explained to Conner as they made their way through the house. "Sara and I figured you and Emily had a long day and let you rest. Don't worry I called Mom and Dad and let them know, we won't get in trouble."

Conner wasn't worried about getting in trouble, he wanted to change his clothes as well. The two stepped into the kitchen where Sara and Harvey were sitting at the table. Sara was wearing a pair of jeans and a T-Shirt and Harvey was wearing part of the Wizard costume from the play, he had clearly spent the night as well. "Sara, do you have anything for my brother to wear home?" Jessica asked Sara.

Sara looked at Conner who still looked like a puppy. "Yeah, I think something of Emily's will fit him." She told them, getting up to find something.

"Come on Toto, let's get you out of that costume." Jessica told him. Conner hurried and followed her to the bathroom to finally change. He sat on his feet waiting for Jessica to unzip the outfit, he felt her tug and pull at the material. "Where is the zipper?" Jessica asked him.

"What do you mean, it should be at the top." Conner said. "You unzipped it yesterday for me."

"The pull tab is missing, I can't unzip it." Jessica explained. "Who zipped this up for you yesterday?"

Conner thought about the encounter yesterday. "It was Billy, he seemed upset at the time and wanted to use the washroom." He told her.

Jessica stood up and groaned. "Yeah I bet he was upset." Her voice sounded concerned and angry, she leaned out the door and called Harvey over.

Harvey entered the washroom to Conner's confusion. "Apparently Billy is the last one to zip up my brother's suit and now the zipper tab is missing, this was after our conversation with him." Jessica explained to Harvey.

"Jeeze, he is such a jerk, that's exactly the type of thing he would do." Harvey hissed. "Let me call him. I bet that's what he wants anyway."

Harvey stepped away. "Let's see what Billy says, otherwise we will need to cut the outfit off and I don't think the school will appreciate that." Jessica told him.

Conner started feeling humiliated, he had slept through the night in the costume and now he wasn't even allowed to take it off. If they did cut it off of him there was no way Ms. Gray would let him be part of any other play in the future. Jessica noticed the fear building up in his younger brother. "Hey, don't worry too much, everything will be okay." She tried to reassure him. "Billy may seem like a big bully but he thinks this type of stuff is funny." Conner felt a little better knowing his sister was being casual about everything.