Changed For Good.

Part 2

Cameron swung on the chair in her room, rechecking the spelling. J.o.r.d.a.n. She looked up at her laptop, clicking on the search engine. She slid her jersey over her knee, looking out the window at the moonlight.
“Cam!”
“What!?” She turned, hearing her little sister calling her again.
“Cam!”
“What Sadie? Fa...I’m busy!.”
“Cameron, stop yelling at your sister!”
“Ahh! Yes, mama.” Cameron pushed her glasses up. Her eye immediately caught the change of screen. Swinging back around, she scanned the profile pictures. “Where are you?”
They had shared this moment. She’d practically given her the lead role and this chick didn’t even thank her. There was something about her though, just something different.
“Where are you?” She scrolled the faces again, but she wasn’t there. “Who are you, Laura Jordan?”

“Sounds so boring, Jordy! I thought at least a co-ed school would be more fun than an all-girls school. Seriously you make it sound suck!”
Laura smiled, taking a seat upon her bedroom windowsill. She knew her friend Lucy would eventually check in on her. She missed her friends.
“It sucks! So suck that I ended up in the school production.” She heard Lucy lose herself on the other end of the phone.
“Fuck! Ahh, man, you are slaying me!”
“You’re welcome!” Laura chuckled, looking up at the moonlight.
“Oh, man..” Lucy calmed down. “But seriously, you’re alright, right? Does anyone know what happened at Sacred?”
Laura sighed, looking at the profile picture she had been looking up. “No, well, I don’t think so.” She sat on the bed, taking in the image she had on the screen. “I hope not because I really wanna get into Langley next year. I need to get through this term without any hassles.”
“I hear ya. Hey, let me know when your big production is okay. If you need me, chicky, just call alright.”
“Will do.” Laura smiled. She put her phone down on the bed. Sighing, she took in those brown eyes she’d sung into earlier. Cameron Rodriguez. “No.” She closed the screen, pushing it away. She couldn’t even afford to be thinking about her.

~~~

“He was gutted as! She just froze him out.”
“So heartless, Cam!” They were at their table in the cafeteria. Cameron was sitting between Ally and Malani, looking past Dayna.
Dayna looked over her shoulder, catching that girl walking past the window outside. “What is your deal with her anyway? Every time you see her, you, like, stop.”
“Yeah, what are you doing, Cam? You just gave her the lead in the play.”

Laura looked up, seeing them watching her through the window. Her eye landed on Cameron, looking back at her. She kept walking.

Cameron watched her disappear. “I don’t know.” She glanced down at her hands. “ She’s got talent. I want to see it.”

Laura walked into the auditorium. She was early.
Blair looked up, hearing the door open. “Ah, Miss Jordan, the star of my show! Welcome to the start of our journey!”
“Ha, thanks, Miss.” Laura chuckled, relaxing. She liked Miss Williams. “I take it I’m early?”
“That you are, but,” Blair stopped beside her, leaning back against the stage. “It took me about three weeks to lose the new girl label when I first moved here.” She smiled at Laura. “You’ll make friends here. Just be patient, be yourself!”
Laura laughed to herself. “Great, you sound just like my sister!”
Blair pointed to the aisle, remembering the dark-headed woman.
“Jo?”
Laura confirmed. “Yeah, she’s my guardian while I’m here.”
“Ha, well, she seems nice.” Blair smiled, watching the others arriving.
“She’s okay.” Laura felt her nerves suddenly start playing up as the four girls approached.
“Is she picking you up?”
“Yeah, she’ll be here later.”
“Okay.”

Cameron sat in the row behind Laura next to Ally. Dayna and Malani sat on the stage next to Missy.
“Right. Welcome to Wicked!”
“Wicked!” Dayna joked. Everyone laughed. Laura caught Cameron’s laugh in her ear.
“Well done. So...” Blair handed out the scripts. “We will do a simple read-through today to get the story out in the open. Alright,” She sat down at her desk. “I’ll narrate.”
“Act 1, scene 1” Blair read.
“We see a gigantic peaked black hat being used to symbolise the Wicked Witch’s demise. The hat disappears, and we are outside the Wizard’s Palace in the Emerald City, capital of the Land of Oz.
“Look! It’s Glinda!” Ally read.
Blair read as Cameron acted. “Glinda, resplendent and beautiful in her gown and tiara, descends from the sky on a mechanical device that spews soap bubbles as the Celebrants point and cheer.”
Cameron smiled, waving and playing it up. “It’s good to see me, isn’t it? No need to respond—that was rhetorical.” She smiled down at them.
“Fellow Ozians.” She started to sing. “let us be glad, let us be grateful, let us rejoice that goodness could subdue the wicked workings of you-know-who.” she pointed at Laura. “Isn’t it nice to know that good will conquer evil, the truth we all believed by and by outliving a lie for you and—”
“Glinda!” Blair said. “Exactly how dead is she?” Cameron responded. “Because there has been so much rumour and speculation—innuendo, outuendo—let me set the record straight: According to the Time Dragon Clock, The Melting occurred at the thirteenth hour, the direct result of a bucket of water thrown by a female child. Yes, the Wicked Witch of the West is dead.”
Blair pointed to Ally. “No one mourns the wicked!”
“Everyone.” Blair pointed.
“No one lays a lily on their grave. What we miss when we misbehave.”
Cameron began to sing. “and goodness knows the wicked lives are lonely. Goodness knows the wicked die alone. It just shows that when you’re wicked, you’re left alone.”
Cameron moved to the front. “After all, she had a childhood. She had a father? Who just happened to be the Governor of Munchkinland. You’re a Munchkin.” Cameron smirked at Laura.
Blair read. “From out of the past appears a sombre-looking man, the witch’s father.”
Cameron pointed. “And she had a mother. As so many do.” She read. “And like every family, they had their secrets.”
Blair pointed at Dayna. “And her lover, a mysterious man whose face remains in the shadows, appears.” Everyone laughed.
“Me?” Dayna laughed. “Ahh crap! Okay.” She read the script. “I have another drink, my dark-eyed beauty. I’ve got one more night left here in town, so have another drink of green elixir, and we’ll have ourselves a little mixer. Have another little swallow, little lady, and follow me down.”
Blair read. “They kiss and sink to the floor.”
“Lay one on her, Dayna!” Cameron said, taking a seat next to Laura. Blair continued.
“The lover disappears. The mother struggles back to her feet, now hugely pregnant.”
“Oh, what!” Malani sat up, holding her stomach. “You bitch, Dayna!”
“Was it good for you?” Dayna winked.
Cameron read. “But from the moment she was born, she was well,” She glimpsed at Laura. “different.”
“Me?” Laura pointed to herself, smiling shyly.
Blair read. “Suddenly, the witch’s mother clutches herself in pain!”
“Agghhh!!” Malani cried. “It’s coming!”
Missy as the midwife came closer. “The baby’s coming! I see a nose.” She sang. “I see a curl. It’s a healthy, perfect, lovely little...
Ohhhhh! Sweet Oz!” Missy gasped.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” Malani looked down at her imaginary baby.
Missy stood up. “How can it be? What does it mean? It’s atrocious! It’s obscene! Like froggy, ferny cabbage. The baby is unnaturally—”
“GREEN!!” They all said, laughing.
“Take it away! Take it away?!” Missy marched.
“So you see,” Cameron said. “it couldn’t have been easy!”
Cameron sang. “We know what goodness is; her life was lonely. Goodness knows the wicked die alone. She died alone.” Cameron sat up quickly. “No one mourns the wicked!”
“Good news!” She jumped again. Laura laughed. “No one mourns the wicked!”
Cameron swung around in her chair. “Well, this has been fun. But as you can imagine, I have much to attend to, what with the Wizard’s unexpected departure. And so, if there are no further questions—”
“Glinda!” Blair yelled. “Is it true you were her friend?!” Everyone gasped.
“Uhm? Well,” Cameron scratched her nose, glancing at Laura. “I, I, Yes.” She nodded. They gasped again.
”Well, it depends on what you mean by a friend.” Cameron looked Laura over. “I did know her." She tilted her head. "That is, our paths did cross. At school, but you must understand it was a long time ago, and we were both very young.”
Laura smiled at her, pursing her lips softly.
Ally flipped over her paper to follow on. There was nothing. “Is that it?”
The others flipped their pages over.
“That is the end of scene one.”
Blair stood up, moving in front of them all. “So, how is that sounding?”
“You guys were funny.” Laura directed to Malani and Missy.
“Can we keep it like that?”
“Of course!” Blair smiled. “This is your guys’ production. Make it original; make it your own.
Laura sat back, her arm touching Cameron’s next to her.
“Hi,” Cameron smiled softly.
“Hi.” Laura curled her lip shyly.
“Alright, you want to continue?” Blair asked, reaching for the papers on her desk. “Yeah, this is cool.” Dayna got up, offering to hand them out.