Neighbors

S E V E N T E E N

PIPER

For the first time in my life, I was actually happy that Lynn was around. Without her showing up at my house, I would've never gone to the park with Beckett to relieve some stress and end up performing for a bunch of random strangers and a Broadway talent scout. I was still on cloud nine from what Mrs. Walder said. The fact that she thought we were good enough to be on Broadway meant a lot to me. I had always dreamed about being in a famous, award-winning musical when I was little. But as I got older, I pretty much abandoned that dream. But now that I had a chance to live out my childhood fantasies, I was ready to take the chance.

Beckett walked me home and grabbed his backpack from my room before going over to his own house. I sat in my room listening to some of my favorite musical soundtracks when I heard a knock at my door.

My mom opened the door cautiously, "Piper? You okay, honey?"

"I'm great, mom," I sighed happily.

My mother looked absolutely confused. "Are you feeling okay?" She placed her hand on my cheeks and forehead. "You've never been happy to have Lynn around."

"I'm still pissed that she's here but something wonderful happened because of her."

"I'm not sure I get what you mean," my mother gave me a funny look.

"Beckett and I went to the park and we ended up just dancing and having fun. While we were dancing, a crowd formed and a talent scout for Broadway said she wanted to work with us after seeing us sing and dance. She's coming to see the show on closing night with her boss to see if he wants to be in his upcoming production," I explained.

"Oh honey, that's great. I'm so happy for you. I remember when you wanted to be a musical star when you were little. Now you finally get to live out your dream." Tear began to well up in her eyes.

I shook my head and passed her my box of tissues, "I haven't made it yet, mom. For all I know her boss could hate me and not want to work with me."

She scoffed, "I doubt that will happen but we'll have to wait and see."

***

The next morning, my alarm woke me up at 7:30. Although it was Saturday, we had rehearsal to work on choreography with set pieces. Mrs. Raylen also wanted us to run as many scenes as we could to see how the show was progressing. Rehearsal started at 9:00, so I quickly got up and threw on a clean pair of leggings along with a sports bra and muscle tank. I grabbed my character shoes and drawstring backpack and went downstairs. I was about to pop a bagel into the toaster, I heard footsteps stomp down the stair case.

"What the hell? It's literally like 4 in the morning! Why are you up?" Lynn's whiny voice screeched through the house.

I rolled my eyes and bit my tongue so I didn't say anything I would regret. "First of all, it's 8:23. Second, I have things to do with my life unlike you. And third, I'd really appreciate it if you would lower you voice. That's not something I wanna hear this early."

Lynn opened her mouth to argue but was cut off by the ringing of the doorbell. Groaning, she marched over to the door and flung it open. She was about to cuss out whoever was on the other side of the door but she stopped herself when she realized that it was Beckett. "Beckett! Oh my god, what brings you over here so early?" she batted her eyelashes and attempted to pat down her wild and matted hair.

"I came to pick Piper up," he informed her.

"Well she won't be down for a bit so why don't you and I just chat for a while?"

That's when I burst in. "Oh, hey Beckett. Ready to go?" I asked him with my bagel in my hand. Before I walked past Lynn out the door, I turned back to her, "you might wanna go back to bed and get a few more hours of beauty sleep."

I thanked Beckett profusely for his good timing. Because of him, I was only subjected to a few minutes of my obnoxious cousin. He drove us to the school as I munched on half of my bagel, saving the other half for him. By the time we go to school, we still had 15 minutes before rehearsal started. The two of us stayed in the car, snacking on our breakfast. Once we were done, we gathered our things and made our way inside the building. 

After sitting his bag down, Beckett was attacked in a strangling embrace from Gabrielle. "What the hell, Gabrielle? Get off of me," he spoke, attempting to shove her off of his body.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes, "what's gotten into you lately? You were never like this until you started hanging out with her," she jutted her thumb in my direction.

"Well because of 'her'," Beckett used air quotes, "I realized that I don't need you." And with that, he simply shrugged and walked away.

"You bitch!" Gabrielle shoved me angrily. "Because of you Beckett broke up and made me a laughing stock!"

"I had nothing to do with that. It was Beckett's decision to stop seeing you. I had no part in that."

"I don't care if you did or not but now it seems that he's into you and that just can't happen. Beckett was mine first and he'll be mine again soon. So you better stay away or else I will make the rest of you senior year a living nightmare." She sashayed away after delivering her threat and I just rolled my eyes. She was just as ridiculous as Lynn.

***
a/n: hello! it's day three of my spring break and I've spent the last few days writing a bunch of chapters. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I love you and have a good day.