The Lost Girl

Chapter 1: The Girl

The girl's POV

I don't remember what happened to me. All I remember is walking into a theatre after waking up in an alley. I could hear people singing, so I went towards it. There were a lot of people on a stage. They were singing and dancing. It looked like they were rehearsing for a play. Suddenly they stopped. They all seemed to look at me. Two of them jumped off the stage and approached me. I got scared and turned to run away. One of the two had run up to me and he grabbed my arm. It wasn't a rough grab, but a grab of someone who wanted to help. Yes there is a difference between grabs. There's a harmful one and a not harmful one. Anyway, the other guy caught up to us and they both led me to the dressing rooms. I was absolutely terrified. I stopped walking and just stood there looking at them. They stopped and looked back at me. One of them came up to me and knelt down so we were eye to eye.
"Look, we don't wanna hurt you. We just wanna know what happened to you and who you are," he said. He stood up and held out his hand. I slowly went to grab it. I was still terrified of them. When we got the dressing rooms, they led me into one with a picture of bear on the door.
"Who are you?" One of them asked. He was short with black hair and a small gap between his two front teeth.
"Where are your parents?" The one who tried to comfort me asked. He was taller and had slightly floppy hair.
"What's your name?" The other one asked. They went off like this for a little while. It just made me even more scared. The tall one noticed and grabbed a pad of paper and a pen. He handed it to me and asked one of the questions again.
"Who are you?" He asked. I jotted down that I didn't know. "My name is Ben Fankhauser. This is my co-star, Tommy Bracco."
I'm scared. I don't know anything about myself. Please help me. I wrote. Ben nodded.
"Of course we will. Us and the entire cast will help you," he said. I felt less scared now. "Do you wanna meet the rest of the cast?"
Sure. I wrote. Ben held out his hand for me to hold. This time there was no hesitation. Ben smiled at me and I smiled back. He led me back to the theatre with Tommy following.
When we entered the theatre, everyone was standing around, waiting to see me. Three more people leapt off the stage and approached me. I got a little scared and hid behind Ben.
"Hey, kid, it's okay. They're not gonna hurt you. I won't let them," Ben said. I looked at them from behind Ben. One of them had a crutch that he didn't seem to need or really be using. He came up to me and Ben. He set the crutch down and tried to talk to me. He looked up at Ben with a slight look of worry.
"Kid, this is Andrew Keenan-Bolger. He plays Crutchie. He's one of the nicest people I've met," Ben said. I looked at him, but still stayed behind Ben. "I don't think she's gonna come out from behind me."
"This might be a problem. We have to go on tonight, but she probably won't come out from behind you," one of the people said. It was a girl. She was wearing a costume like everyone else. She looked as kind as Ben. She came up and stood next to Andrew.
Hi. I wrote. I had carried the pad and pen all the way from the dressing room.
"Hi," the girl replied. She was smiling now. "Why don't you sit in the front row and watch the rest of our rehearsal? I promise you we'll come back to you." I nodded and Ben and the girl led me to the front row and sat me down. Then they all went back on the stage and started from the beginning of the song they'd been singing when I showed up.
When they finished, Ben, Tommy, and the girl came back to me. They led me to the dressing room with the bear on the door.
"We need a name for her. Something to call her other than kid," Ben said.
Can I get a say in the name? I asked. Ben smiled.
"Of course you can. Got any ideas?" He replied. I shook my head.
"What about Rey?" Tommy suggested. I shook my head. There was a long moment of silence. Towards the end of it Andrew came into the dressing room.
"Hey guys. What's going on?" He said.
"We're trying to figure out what to call her," the girl said.
"She kinda looks like a Quinn." Andrew said.
"I like that name," I said quietly. Ben turned to face me.
"What did you say?" He asked.
"I like that name," I repeated. Everyone just looked at me.
"You can talk?" Ben asked. He was surprised at this. Everyone else was too.
"Of course I can. I was just too scared to before," I said. My voice was still quiet. They didn't seem to mind though.
"We should go get some food somewhere. We can even bring Quinn," Tommy said.
"I don't think she's ready to go other places, but we can get take out," Andrew said.
"I don't mind leaving the theatre if you guys are coming too," I said.
"We should go somewhere quiet then. I don't want you to get scared because of a crowd," Ben said.
"Then we're screwed," Andrew said.
"What do you mean?" Ben asked.
"There's a crowd outside the theatre. There always is. This is New York City, there's a crowd everywhere," Andrew replied.
"True, but I think she'll be fine if she's with us," Ben said. He turned to me. "Do you wanna go out or get take out?"
"As long as I don't get lost, I'll go out," I replied. Ben smiled.
"Let's go," Ben said. He grabbed my hand and we all left the theatre to go get food.