Break The Cycle (Chris Motionless' Daughter)

Chapter 39

Riley's POV

Today is Friday and its the day before the show. I'm pretty nervous, but I'm ready. After mine and Max's fun evening I totally passed out. I slept amazingly though, so now I'm wide awake and have tons of energy.

I grab my things and shut my locker to see Jack walking up to me.

"Hey." I say, "How was the reunion?"

"A bunch of people I don't know telling me, 'Oh, look how handsome you've grown up to be'? Oh yeah, tons of fun." He says sarcastically.

I laugh, "Well all that matters is that you're back, and we have a lot of work to do."

Jack nods, then looks passed me, "Hey, Max."

I turn to see her and smile, "Hey..."

She bushes, "Hi..."

Jack quirks an eyebrow, "What did I miss here?" He asks. His eyes then widen and he smirks, "Ohh, I get it. You guys 'sealed the deal', eh?"

I smack his arm, "Shut up."

Jack laughs, "Don't worry. Your naughty little secret is safe with me."

"Good." I say.

"Just don't get too distracted with each other, got it? We all have a lot of work to do."

"Hey, at least you're not practically directing the show." Max says.

"You've got like six other kids in a bunch of different grades to help you." Jack points out.

"You got someone to cover your shift at work?"

"Yup. I'm all good."

"Is your dad gonna be able to make it to the show?" Jack asks me.

"He says he's gonna be there, but I'm not gonna get my hopes up."

x

The rest of the school day seemed to go longer than usual and the pencil smudges on my hand bothered me even more. I was anticipating rehearsal with Jack. This is because it won't just be me and Jack rehearsing. The school is having all of the talent show acts rehearse the show in the auditorium today after school.

The seniors in Student Council - because seniors apparently hate freshmen - picked a freshmen to be the MC of the show. And who's the most hated freshmen of them all? You guessed it. Emily Poncher was elected MC.

So with that being said, here's how everything is going to work:

We're going to rehearse everything as if we were actually doing the show. Emily will walk on stage, announce the act as if it were actually happening, then walk off. The curtains will open, the spotlights hit the stage, and the act will rehearse. When they finish, the spolights turn off and the auditorium will go dark. The curtains will close and the next act sets up. Them Emily announces them, and so on.

Currently, Jack and I are backstage at the piano. He isn't playing, but we are rehearsing somewhat.

"Okay, so when we get to 'Everything I can't be' is when you hop up on the piano, and you stay there until after 'That's why I need you here'. Then you hop down and walk around the piano as we repeat the bridge, and during the pause before 'so hear this now' is when I'll reach up and take your hand and you do a little spin or twirl or whatever. Then you sit on the piano bench next to me and stay there until the end of the song. Song ends, we take a bow, and walk away." Jack tells me.

I blink, "Got it." I say, sort of fibbing, "Do you think I should stay backstage until it's my turn to sing so I'm not just standing there?" I ask.

"Oooh, yeah! That'd make a cool entrance."

Once we figure out what we're doing, Jack and I watch some of the other acts from backstage and I feel terrible for anyone coming to see me perform. Some of the acts aren't bad, but for the most part, it's all corny magic acts and solos on untuned instruments. Some of the gymnastics acts are impressive - Lord knows I can't bend like that - but I honestly do think that if this were a competition, Jack and I would win.

Finally, it's mine and Jack's turn to rehearse. We have a few kids help us push the piano on stage, then I go back stage. I'm handed a microphone and wait for my cue.

Emily introduces us, and the curtains are opened by Max and one other kid. Before we start, the teachers have us test our microphones to make sure they're working. They also have Jack play a few notes on the piano to make sure they could hear it, even from the back of the auditorium.

I'm suddenly nervous. For one thing, Jack and I are the last act, so no one else is practicing, meaning they're all watching us. Secondly, I'm starting to realize just how big our school's auditorium is, and how many people are going to see Jack and I tomorrow night. I don't know how my dad does this for a living.

I guess I'll have to suck it up for now though, because Jack just started playing.

A/N: Okay sorry that was short. The next chapter is going to be niiiice long one.

The next chapter is also going to be the very last chapter of this story. I cannot believe it's already almost over. I started the plans for this story a year, year and a half ago. From planning it to hand-writing it to finally being able to publish it has seriously taken a lot of hard work and I am so, so happy that it turned out the way it did. I also really want to thank you all for having so much support for this story.

You guys should also know that I have a new story in the works. I'm not going to give away any spoilers, but since I'm sure you guys are curious, I'll be nice and give you the first name of the main female character of my next story.

Corianne. Cory, for short.

And when it gets close to the end of THAT story, I'll give you the name of the girl for the next story. And when THAT story comes to it's end I'll tell you the name of the girl in the story after that, and so on. Make sense? Good.

I hope you guys will enjoy the very last chapter of Break The Cycle. It'll be up soon.

ALSO. Check out my new one-shot! It's called "Drain This Diesese" and it is based off of the music video for "Break the Cycle"!

xoxo, Scissorhands.