Dinglehoppers

Twenty Eight

28. Have a scene where a character sympathizes with Quasimodo.

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“What do they have against people who are different, anyway?”

-Esmeralda, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

“Ellie… Ellie, you need to breathe, you need to relax okay?”

Sam’s voice barely registered in Ellie’s mind as the thoughts swirled around in her head.

She knew there was absolutely no reason to panic, but she just couldn’t get her brain to understand that.

“Sam… how can- How… How can I calm down when opening night is literally two days away? I can’t… I can’t-” she stopped short when she felt Sam’s’ gentle hands set on her shoulders.

“So what if opening night is in two days? I mean, you’ve learned your lines, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve got your costumes, right?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ve been rollerblading every morning, right?”

“Yes.”

“And Oz’s all taken care of, right?”

“Yes.”

“And-”

“Okay, okay, I see your point. But it is completely inevitable for me to panic. I mean, two days, Sam…” Ellie trailed off as she took a few steps away from him and began to pace back and forth in the living room.

She had come to see Celia, and when Sam told her she wasn’t home, Ellie had most likely expected her to be out with Milo.

She wasn’t.

She’d gone out with Paige to pick up her Vanessa dress and the seashell necklace she’d gotten made.

And Paige insisted she go along to be the first one to see her with the dress on.

That was it. That had been what had set Ellie off and made her go into a panic attack because she remembered that the play was on Friday.

The fact that everyone was out getting their costumes and getting together with a partner to rehearse their lines one more time was completely and utterly scary for her.

It was normal, she always got this way before a play, but no matter how many times it happened, she never got used to it and always ended up getting hella nervous again.

But anyway, Celia was not here, Sam was just making her more nervous, so Ellie decided to bail.

That was, until she remembered Lionel lived two houses away from there.

“Hey Sam,” she began, drastically changing the subject.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“A Page in the Sun makes pizzas, right?” she asked as she began towards the front door and slipped her shoes on.

She had wanted to talk to Lisa because Lisa very strangely and almost always helped Ellie’s nerves subdue a little bit, but Lisa was out with her husband Tom and Sam said he didn’t know when they’d be back.