All The World's a Stage

Macy-

James, it was James. She tried to keep her heart from skipping a beat as he helped her back to her feet. Then she remembered she was in a bad mood and looked down at her feet.
"Oh sorry, it was my fault, I wasn't looking where I was going." She said moving her left foot back and forth on the sidewalk to keep her eyes preoccupied.
"What are you doing out here, it's getting late.." He trailed off pulling his phone from his jacket, checking it then frowning and slipping it back into his pocket.
"Just walking, didn't feel like going home. Are you expecting a call?" She looked up at him when she said this, hoping he wasn't expecting a call, especially from Jayleen. Macy knew what she wanted.

Jayleen

"You're home late," Katheire remarked as Jayleen walked through the front door. Ray ha dropped her off at the top of her street to make it easier to take everyone else back.

"Are you alright?" Katherine asked her eldest child as Jayleen slipped off her coat and walked towards her room, sniffing and wiping her eyes.

"Yeah," Jayleen half-lied. "I've just got a bit of a cold. Call me when dinner's ready."

Katherine nodded and let Jayleen walk into her room. Jayleen tugged her phone out of her bag and checked it, one new message.

With nothing better to do apart from homework, Jayleen called James.

"Um, hello?"

"James, it's Jayleen. You wanted me to call you."

"Who's that?" said a quiet voice in the background. Jayleen immediately recgonized it as the new girl. Shocked that James was even hanging out with her, Jayleen quickly hung up before James had a chance to say anything. Letting her mobile fall the the ground, Jayleen threw herself on the bed and screamed into her pillow, wanting nothing more than for a bolt of lightning to strike Macy down.

Rebekah

It turned out to be unusually quiet with Portia in her room, Jayleen stabbing angrily at her food, and Jessica's dad working in San Francisco at an important buisness meeting. Rebekah sighed. It would be a long night.

"Why is everyone so gloom-and-doom?" Jesse asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. Rebekah and I have exams tomorrow, so I guess we're just thinking about that," Jessica answered for Rebekah.

"I'm full. I don't want anything else to eat," Jayleen muttered, throwing her napkin on her plate and storming out of the room. Soon they heard her door slam.

There was an awkward pause between them. Jessica's mom got up.

"Well, I guess I'll bring a plate up to Portia," she said rather hurriedly.

"So, gonna study with us for exams first or should we watch a movie?" Rebekah asked Jesse.

"Let's see the movie first and then study because if we study first the do a movie, I won't remember half of the stuff we did," Jesse said chuckling.

Jayleen

Jayleen pulled her diary out of her bag and flipped it open to that week. She had... a Music Composition, a Maths practice exam and... Oh god! She had a phsyc SAC first period the next day!

"Crap!" Jayleen muttered, pulling out her physcology notes and textbook. She opened to the pages about children behaviour and took out a new notebook, taking more, neater, notes.

Ten minutes into her study, Jayleen's mobile rang, the word JAMES flashing in big letters. Jayleen's hand wavered over the accept and reject buttons before they finally landed on accept. Maybe he could help her with the study, he had already done year eleven and twelve phsycology.

[James Underwood]

"No, no, it was my fault." James pulled his jacket around tighter. "You need to get inside, it's cold..." he laughed. "Well, I guess that was pretty obvious..."

Macy laughed with him, her lips were started to turn blue and her teeth were chattering. James checked his phone again and saw, ONE MISSED CALL. He shoved it back in his pocket and then looked back over to Macy. The cold wind started to blow again.

She must be crazy to stand this cold. James put his around her shoulder and walked her to the door. I knew it, she's blushing! he smiled to cover the laugh that wanted to escape.

"See you at school tomorrow!" he called out, waving a goodbye. If I'm not careful... I might start to like her, too. he made sort of a frown at the thought, but then couldn't help but smile again.

He took out his phone and called Jayleen again, she answered this time, withought hanging up. It was just then that he noticed he was at her house, right in front of him, he could see her holding a phone to her ear through a window.

James grinned and started climbing a tree beside the house. It wasn't that hard, considering his dad use to call him "Monkey Boy" because he used to climb trees a lot. He was good at it, too.

"Hello?" Jayleen's voice faltered a bit.

Once he was at the top of the tree, on one of the thick branches, he tapped her window. Jayleen's face turned to his in shock.

"May I come in?" he smiled softly, and then scooted farther back until he was able to lean on the tree behind him, trying to get into a comfortable position. "I'm fine sitting right here if you'd rather me stay out."

Macy-

Macy watched as James walked away and her shoulders tingled where his arm had been. She couldn't keep a smile off of her face, then her dad walked in.
"Where have you been?" he asked in an indifferent tone.
"Walking." she said curtly brushing past him. He gripped her arm a little too tightly.
"Don't take that tone with me, I was worried sick about you."
"Right, I'm sure." She said struggling in his hold, trying to make it up the stairs. She knew she was only provoking his anger by acting how she was but she couldn't help it.
"I said don't take that tone with me!" this time he yelled it and got right in her face. There was no one in the house to help her, no mother to comfort her. The first blow came to her face, the next to her shoulders; he shoved her and hit her all the way up the stairs then locked her in her room.
"Bastard." she muttered under her breath while wiping blood away from her mouth and forehead.

Portia-

Portia walked the untouched cold plate of food down to the dark kitchen and sighed as she put it in the sink. The t.v. was going in the other room and she could see people sitting on the couch, books resting unopened on the coffee table.

*Would anyone like to play James for awhile? I'll be gone for 6 weeks starting tomorrow, so... yeah... So? Would anyone like to play him while I'm gone? First come first serve! ^_^*

Rebekah

They all sat on the couch watching (yet again) her all-time favorite, 'The Phantom of the Opera'. She was smashed between Jessica and Jesse when Portia walked in.

" 'Phantom of the Opera' again? How many times are you going to watch that?" she said rolling her eyes and sitting on an armchair.

Rebekah shrugged. "As many times as I need to until I can say and sing Christine's entire role by heart."

"And anyways, I thought you were supposed to be studying for exams," Portia said, gesturing tothe abandoned books on the coffee table.

"We will after the movie! Besides, tomorrow's Friday so it'll be our last exams," Jessica said, eyes glued to the screen as Christine sang her famous solo.

"But the movie's over three hours long!" Portia insisted.

They all rolled their eyes, paused the movie and picked up the books.

Macy-

Macy went to bed without eating, and without studying. She wanted to do well on the exams tomorrow, but she was tired, and couldn't get warm. She heard the front door open and slam shut at 9:30, he was leaving. She walked to her door and window and locked them both, they layed down in her bed and fell asleep.

Portia-

Portia sat in the mirror and tried to smile. She couldn't. She was tired of being so different, she always felt so apart from the world. She used to love being so different, and being able to do things others couldn't, but now she felt like it was holding her back. She had no real friends, people avoided her like the plague, even her family thought she was odd. And it scared her a little bit that she liked the boy at school, Mick, who liked her too. Mick also liked Trisha, she had blonde hair, blue eyes, and always wore pastel colored clothing. Mick was going to pick Trisha, Portia just knew it, but it made her sad and angry to think that he would.

Jayleen

Jayleen opened the window and let James climb into her bedroom. Her textbok lay open on the desk, and a few newspaper cuttings about Tony Mokbel sat o top of a closed notebook. James picked up the first article.

"You doing the Gangland killings for phsyc?"

Jayleen nodded.

"Ms. F said it'd be interesting. I've been working on it in secret the entire term, not even Mum and Dad know. They'd go crazy if they found out I'm studying these things."

James considered and put the article back. The gangland war, almost everybody knew about it. Jayleen hadn't said anything about what she was doing for her big assignment, but she had seemed intersted when all the Mokbel stuff came up in the news.

"So, why did you want me to call you?" Jayleen asked, sitting back in her chair and closing her textbook. Studying could wait. Jesse and Jessica were so lucky. They were only in year nine, which meant they only had a maths exam.

James shrugged.

"I don't know. I guess... you were acting really weird."

Jayleen raised an eyebrow. "I was acting weird?"

Rebekah

They pretended to quiz each other on math until they were certain Portia wouldn't hear them and had gone upstairs. Rebekah watched as Christine and Raoul were reunited in the dressing room. Oh, their lives were so romantic and wonderful! she thought to herself. If only it was like that for me.

*I don't know if I'll be able to write again for awhile so... here it goes! *

[James Underwood]

He shrugged again. "Or it could've been me thinking that you were acting weird because I was acting weird enough not to know who was weird or not."

"Wha-?"

"I'm not sure myself..." his sentance trailed off as the corners of his lips pulled up into a smile.

"So," James jumped onto the bed again and laid his head back. "I want to know..."

Jayleen eyed him suspiciously. "Know what?"

His smile dissapeared and he met her eyes. "Why it was again that you broke up with me?" the corners pulled up again.

Rebekah

They continued to watch the movie until she glanced at the clock that read 9:02.

"Eeep! Guys, I have an hour left before I have to go home!" Rebekah squealed and grabbed a Math book.

"But the movie's like, 5 minutes from being over," Jessica murmured, close to crying as the Phantom played the little monkey that sang the mascarade song.

She rolled her eyes and flipped through the book, occasionally glancing at the screen as Christine showed up and handed him the little ring and then left with Raoul. Finally, she and Jessica sobbed at the end, when old man Raoul put the rose and ring on his wife's grave; who was of course, none other than Christine Daae.

"Okay, we need to start studying now," she said, fighting back sniffles.

"Jesse are you okay?" Jessica asked as Jesse turned from us.

"That was great," he said his voice breaking. "Now I know why you girls watch this mush."

We laughed a bit and then turned to Algebraic functions and whatnot.