Captivated

Catch Up

Hello everyone! It's been a stressful day for me, but hey, it's done with now. Here's a nice long chapter, and I'm off to bed. comment/vote x
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August 26, 2025

Harper

"Harper, I can't do this," Brooke says, collapsing into a chair along the side wall of the rehearsal studio.

"Yeah, you can," I try to assure her. It isn't a lie. As hard of a time as she is having with counting the beginning of 'A Heart Full Of Love,' I know that she's perfectly capable of it. "Can I tell you a secret?"

"What?"

"When I first got this piece of music, it was the hardest musical theatre piece that I'd ever sung, as well as one of the hardest pieces I'd sung in general. It gets easier, I promise. I had the same issue. You've been beating yourself up over this for too long, love."

I turn to our music supervisor, Alfanso. "Can we just call it quits for the day? She just needs some time to rest her voice and get a good sleep tonight."

"Fine," he grumbles. "Be back tomorrow at 9:00 sharp, Brooke."

"I will be," she nods, standing up to gather her things. "Thank you so much, Harper."

"Not a problem, in the slightest. We are all tired. You've still got time. It's going to click for you any day now. As soon as it clicks, you won't understand why you had so much trouble with it. I promise."

"I just feel like I'm disappointing everybody."

"Don't even go there," I tell the blonde girl. "Every Cosette has this challenge. It took me a solid two weeks to figure out how to count it. I had to stay after my scheduled choreography and blocking rehearsals a lot of days for overtime music practices. You haven't had to do that yet, so you're in a fine place."

Brooke laughs. "But you came out to be so amazing."

"Thank you, but that's because I believed in myself. I knew that I could do it, and I set my mind to it. Then, I did it."

"Thank you so much for being supportive," Brooke tells me, giving me a hug, which I gladly return.

"Not a problem. Now, I'm meeting up with some friends for a late lunch, then I have a show to get to, so I'd best be on my way."

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow."

"You too," I smile, waving goodbye as Brooke and I part ways.

Holding my head up, I breathe in the air of the dog days of summer. It still isn't quite too warm here- I love the London weather. We rarely get the extreme warms or colds.

I make it to the tube stop and enter the underground network by scanning my Oyster card. After a relatively short ride, I make it to the proper tube stop, where I'm set to meet up with Nessa and Katherine near my old neighborhood, at a Nando's in West Hampstead. It's rare that all of us find a day where all of our schedules are clear that isn't a Sunday, but due to what I believe was a bomb threat in Katherine's studio, the area was closed for today so that police dogs could come check the area. Scary, but probably just rubbish and good for the three of us, as we are going to get some time for a much-needed catch up session.

"Harper!" Nessa squeals as I walk into the restaurant. I run over and we share a quick hug.

"Hey! How are you?"

"Good, how about you?"

"Tired," I laugh, "but good. Where's Kath?"

"She's on her way," Nessa assures me. "I'm pretty sure that she was practising her variation in the flat."

"Not surprised," I reply. Then, as if on cue, I see Katherine walking into the restaurant. Nessa and I greet her with hugs, then we place our orders and sit down to get catching up.

"I'm so hungry," I laugh. "It's later than I normally eat lunch, and I've been training the new girl all afternoon."

"Oh my gosh," Kath gasps, "when's your last show, again?"

"September 6th. I'm a little upset about leaving, but it'll be nice to change things up a bit, I guess."

"Can you get us tickets?" Nessa asks.

"I'll put you down on my list," I assure her. "Both of you?" I look at Katherine.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"I've got ten reserved seats, as it's my last performance. So far, I have Patrick, Taylor, Joe, my mum and dad, Ava, and you two. That's eight... two more seats, to anyone who wants them," I giggle. "After that, people are going to have to fight for their seats at the box office with the rest of the general public."

"I'm sure you'll be able to find people who will take them," Katherine assures me.

"I might ask a friend of mine from when I was a kid, Lucie. We met at West End Live every year, and that was the only time that we ever saw each other, but I just reconnected with her a few months ago. Or Patrick's parents. They'd like to come too, probably."

"I'm so glad that you've got such a great support group," Katherine remarks. "You got really lucky with Patrick."

"I did," I acknowledge.

"Any wedding plans yet?" Nessa asks. I blush.

"No. Plus, if there were plans, you two would be the first ones that I would tell."

We all laugh.

"Nessa, how about you share your exciting news with Harper?" Katherine prompts. Whatever this 'news' is, the mention of it causes Nessa to blush a bright red.

"Right... yeah, I'm dating this guy and-"

"OH MY GOD!" I cut her off, squealing. I get a few weird looks from others in the restaurant, but I don't really care. "That's so exciting, Ness. Tell me all of the details!"

"Okay, well... what do you want to know? His name is Logan, and we are in a class together at university. He asked me to help him study for a test one day, we met up at the library, and it sort of... escalated from there."

"Girl," I laugh, "I want the juicy details. Is he cute?"

"Very," Kath interjects. "I've only met him once, in passing, but I can confirm that he's very cute."

I laugh. "I want to meet him."

"You two can both meet him. We can do a 'multi-gender hangout' sometime, and catch a movie or something."

"A 'multi-gender hangout,'" Kath laughs. "To me, that sounds a lot more like Harper and Patrick, Nessa and Logan, and Katherine like... fifth wheeling."

"Bring James," Nessa remarks.

I whip my head around to look at Katherine. "Okay, wait... hold it up."

"Okay, James and I are not dating," she rolls her eyes. "He's just this new kid who got hired at my company a few months ago, and we are pas partners now."

"They're totally dating," Nessa whispers to me. "She just won't admit it."

I let out a laugh. "I've missed you guys so much. I forgot how much you make me smile."

"We've missed you too," Katherine says. "We have to do this more often."

"Well, I might have a lot of free time on my hands, come September 7th," I reply.

"No parts yet?"

"A callback in a few days," I tell Kath, "but I'm not counting on anything. I got my hopes too high for Sophie, then I got upset when I was rejected. I just don't want that to happen again."

"I'm sure you'll find the perfect part for you eventually," Nessa assures me, "but until then, I'm here for you, and so is Kath, and Patrick, and everyone else."

I smile at them. "Thanks guys. I love you both."

"We love you too," Katherine tells me, and Nessa nods in agreement.