>UNLIKELY DRAMA< {Victorious}

4. Play-Hyphen-Date

Unedited. Feel free to point out any errors :)
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UNLIKELY DRAMA

4. Play-Hyphen-Date
🎬 Robbie Shapiro 🎬

Over the ten years since I graduated from Hollywood Arts and met Guilette MonSwan, my wife and I have had four children. Only in recent years, however, have we finally had a boy: Mike.

At the moment, I am at the primary school of my two oldest daughters after having dropped Fotini off at reception. Mikey is sitting in my wife's lap beside me, holding his toy giraffe and chewing on its head.

Hannah and Saffron are twins. Guil chose both their names. And Fotini's. I chose Mike and Guilette made it 'Michael Rodrigo MonSwan-Shapiro'.

As Hannah steps up to the Mike in her dress pretending to be Dorothy, I reach out and grasp Guilette's hand. We watch in awe as Hannah sings flawlessly and halfway through the song, Toto her dog (Saffron in a suit) begins dancing at the back on two legs. It's break dancing so Guilette isn't best pleased but our nine year old daughters are both amazing.

At the end of the play, Guilette, Mike and I hurry to the front with the rest of the parents to greet our daughters and congratulate them.

"Hey Hannah, you were amazing," I say excitedly. "I wonder where you got that glorious voice from!"

"And Saffy," Guilette says, holding Mike on one hip and hugging her daughter on the other side, "even if it isn't ballet, your dancing was flawless."

Saffy's eyes widen. "You really think so?"

"I know so," Guil says and she kisses Saffy on top of her head.

Then my phone starts ringing and I recognise the theme tune immediately — a kitten meowing.

"I've just got to take this. Sorry girls," I press the green 'answer' button and hold my new generation Pear Phone to my ear. "Hello? Cat?"

"Hey Robbie!" Cat squeals on the other end. "Um... All our old friends are meeting up this Saturday and we thought you and Juliette would like to come!"

I clear my throat. "Ahem. Firstly it's Guilette and she's going to France this weekend so I'm meant to be taking care of the kids. Sorry, Cat."

Cat gasps. "Oh sorry Robbie, I forgot to say: we're all bringing our babies for a play-date." She pauses, humming in thought. "Well, except André. His baby's still growing. And Jade's really angry so she might not be coming either..."

I hesitate. I'm not sure about this. I've never taken the kids out on a play-date, especially without Guilette. But I really want to see Tori and Beck and Cat again and everyone. I miss them and our school days, even if they were crazy and dramatic and weird.

"Okay where are we going?"

"Daniello's Café on Main Street at 11 o'clock," Cat replies excitedly. "I can't wait to see you again Robbie! We haven't talked face to face since Mike's baptism!"

I laugh. "Yeah look Little Red Thing, I've gotta go. Bye."

"Oh, bye!" Cat sings and I hang up.

The reason we haven't seen each other is because of the incident at Mike's baptism. I bite my lip and turn to my two girls. First I pick up Hannah and twirl her around. Then I do the same to Saffy and then both laugh joyously.

"Now you guys better go to your classes," I remind. "We'll pick you up later."

Hannah and Saffy smile and then race off to follow their teacher back to class with the rest of the students. Then I turn to Guil.