Forever

Chapter 5: Meeting the Cast

Hey guys! Sorry again for the long wait! I just went back to school this past week and things have been crazy. But hopefully I will be able to update again in the next couple weeks. Enjoy!

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Idina signed in and we walked back to her dressing room. We dropped our stuff off in her room and went to James' dressing room first. Idina knocked on the door.

"Hey James! It's Idina. Can I come in?"

"Sure! Come on in!" He replied

Idina pushed the door open and went inside. James got up and gave Idina a hug and a kiss on the cheek. EEEEKKKK. I fangirled inside. I sort of stood in the doorway awkwardly, not sure if I should go in or not. Then Idina motioned for me to come in.

"This is Christine. She's going to be staying with me for a little while," Idina told James

"That's awesome! Hey Christine, how are ya?" James asked

"Great!" I replied. "You can call me Chris or Christy, by the way."

"So Chris, are you from New York?" James adked.

"Nope. I'm from Pennsylvania, but I'm only two hours from the city, so I come up pretty often," I said.

"Cool! Well I hope you have a great time!" James told me.

"Thanks! I will!" I replied.

James gave me a hug and Idina and I left his room, and went to go see LaChanze. As we left JAmes' room, he and Idina gave each other a final, loving look. There is definitley something going on between them, I thought to myself. We kept walking until we found LaChanze's dressing room. Her door was open, so Idina peeked her head in and asked,

"Mind if In come in?" 

"Of course! Come right in!" LaChanze said

We both walked in the room and LaChanze aked,

"Now who's this? Do we have a special visitor?" She smiled.

"This is Christine. She's staying with me for a bit while we figure out where she is going to live," Idina answered. 

She then proceeded to tell LaChanze about the accident that killed my parents and aunt. 

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry to hear about that!" LaChanze said. "But you're in good hands with Idina. She can make a mean batch of pancakes." She winked and we all laughed. The three of us talked for a couple minutes, before Idina said,

"We're going to go visit Anthony now, but I'll see you later, ok?" 

"See you around!" LaChanze replied.

We walked across the hall towards Anthony's dressing room.

"Hey Anthony. It's Dee. Can I come in?" Idina asked

"Yup!" he replied.

Idina and I walked into the room.

"Hey how are you?" Idina asked him.

"Great!" Anthony replied. He turned towards me and shook my hand.

"I think I remember you from the stage door last night. Christine, right?" Anthony said. I smiled.

"Yup thats me! You can call me Chris," I replied.

We talked with Anthony for a while before Idina said that we were going to visit Jenn. 

"See you guys around. Good to meet you again, Chris!" Anthony said as we left.

I couldn't believe he remebered me! Wow. I met 3 of my idols AND I got to talk with all of them. And they all knew my name now! This was all so surreal to me.

We walked through the theatre until we got to Jenn's dressing room. Her door was wide open, and I could see Jackie talking with her. Jenn saw Idina and I walking towards the dressing room and said,

"Hey guys! Come on in!"

We walked into Jenn's dressing room and they both said in unison,

"I remember you from the stage door!" We all laughed.

"You do?" I asked

"Of course! I loved talking to you last night," Jackie said 

"I loved talking to you too, Jackie!" I replied, blushing. "Thanks for singing my Wicked playbill too!"

"Oh, it was no problem." She said

"You said your name's Christine, right?" Jenn asked. 

"Yup! You can just call me Chris for short," I told her.

"Well Chris, Jackie and I are going to do a Schmackary's run before the show. Would you like to come with us?" Jenn asked.

"Sure!" I replied.

"We should probably go take cookie orders and leave pretty soon. We don't have long before you guys need to get ready for the show," Jackie said, looking at her watch.

So we walked around the theatre, asing people what kind of cookies they wanted. We were out of the theatre on on our way to Schmackary's by 12:45. The three of us talked on the way there about If/Then, our favorite things to do in New York and how we all got into theatre. I got to hear about all of their funny onstage mishaps and what it was like to work on Broadway. By the time we got to Schmackary's, I felt like I had known them forever. There was thankfully no one in line, so we walked in and ordered our cookies. Jenn and I got a Maple Bacon and Jackie got a King of New York. We also got James and Idina a Monster cookie, LaChanze a Red, White and Blue cookie, and Anthony a Sch'mores cookie. We got another seventeen cookies, so we ended up with two dozen. After we payed, e quickly walked back to the Richard Rodgers, and we got back at 1:15, just before half hour. I popped my head into Idina's dressing room while she was getting ready and told her,

"Break a leg! You'll be awesome out there!"

Thanks sweetheart! I will," Idina replied. We smiled at each other, and I went to the girl's dressing room to hang out with Jackie and some of the swings until intermission. We started talking and after a little while, I heard the overture starting.

"Hey Chris, do you want to go watch the show from the wings?" Jackie asked.

"Of course!" I replied excitedly. Janet decided to come with us too.

We made our way up to the stage and got to the wings just as Idina said,

"Hey it's me."

It was so cool watching the show from this here. It was a totally different perspective than watching from the audience.

When she came off for her first quick change, Idina jokingly asked us,

"Hey where'd you all come from?"

"Jackie and Janet brought me up here to watch," I replied.

"Awesome. How's the show looking so far? Good?"

"Great!" I said.

Idina gave me a thumbs-up as she ran back onto the stage for her next scene. The rest of the first act flew by. At intermission, we all went down to the girl's dressing room and ate our cookies. James brought out the video camera and filmed for the Hey Kid.

"So, this week we have a special guest. This is Chris everyone." James said.

He then proceeded to interview me and asked me a bunch of hilarious questions. We were all laughing and started to tell funny stories. I wish intermission never had to end. By the time act two was about to start, we were laughing so hard that our sides hurt and tears were coming out of our eyes. I was starting to get so close with these amazing people, and finally, it felt like I had a family again.