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     "Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you."

     Various students had their eyes glued to the stage in front of them, watching as Lexi's character (a variation of herself, surely) read to Jade (obviously Rue).  Eliana looked towards Rue, who was sitting by herself, every time she expected the door to open.  Fez was supposed to be here by now?  But she found herself happy that Rue looked so much better already, and that she was finally getting clean.  The scenario was from Rue's dad's funeral, they all remembered being there at the Bennett household that day.  

      Eliana sat with Maddy of course, they were barely fourteen and not yet donning the extravagant outfits and not yet a single drop of makeup on their faces.  Plus, it was a funeral.  Probably one of the only times Eliana wore black.

     She was lucky to never have to go to a funeral.  Grace too, really.  Hardly anyone had experienced loss on the scale that Rue did, losing a parent was something that you would never be prepared for.

     "And this is life," Lexi continued narrating.  "Not everyone's life... But our life!"  She said, lifting up lettered signs with a couple of other people on the stage.  It was then as the audience started clapping that Eliana realized what she was watching.  

     "Wait, is this fucking play about us?" Maddy asked.

     Eliana couldn't help but chuckle when the mom character came on screen, obviously inspired by Suze but played by Ethan, whom Kat had just broken up with.  Of course, Eliana didn't know the extent of the breakup or what had actually happened — another story for another time.     "Look at you!"

     "I feel like a big baby," the older sister character, whom Eliana assumed automatically was Cassie, said. 

     "Hallie... I've been on this planet for 38 goddamn years, and I have never seen a baby with knockers like yours."

     The audience laughed.  "Mom, that was the grossest thing I've ever heard you say."

     "Look, I know being informed, smart, hardworking, and curious are all very important qualities, but imagine having all of those qualities and also being hot," Lexi addressed the audience.  "So, if Hallie was 433 days older than me, then all I would have to do is wait... 433 days, and I'd look just like her.  I could see myself now."  The audience cheered again after Lexi came back after a brief moment offstage, now dressed in a low cut red dress.  Eliana whooped and clapped at the sight.  "I'd be the girl... no one ever... could get.  Hey, Ted, how are you?  Hey, boys.  How are you?" the revolving stage turns to a different background other than a school.  "And I'd imagine my former classmates... sitting around at barbecues in their dirty, dirty backyards 20 years from now."

     "Man... I really wish I'd boned Lexi Howard," Ethan, in a stringy beard, said.  

     "Yeah, you and the rest of East Highland." 

     "All I had to do was wait."

     Eliana chuckled to Kat, unable to hold back how joyous she felt.  "She looks so good!' she exclaimed, with Kat nodding in agreement.  The show went on, taking turns in showing the highs and lows of, essentially, the lives that they lead.  It hardly had anything to do with Eliana, thank God.  The girl who was playing Eliana's on-screen variation, "Briana" was really only in scenes with Lexi's character or Maddy's.

     "When Hallie and Marta entered ninth grade, they became inseparable," Lexi narrated a scene now of the cheerleading squad, wearing the same uniforms as their school as if to make it further obvious that these were real people in Lexi's life, but Eliana didn't really care.  "When I first met Marta, she made me nervous.  I had never seen anyone as sure of themself as her.  Because of that, I didn't really trust her.  Until her parents started fighting all the time and she basically moved in with us for a few months."

     Ethan came back out dressed as Suze with a wig and all.  "Okay, okay, I'm not runnin' a brothel here.  All right, girls?" he asked the three on stage, mirroring Suze talking to Maddy, Cassie and Lexi.  "It's time for bed."

     "It's supposed to be me," Suze said as she laughed with Grace's mom Denise in the crowd.  "Oh, that's supposed to be me."

     "All righty, beauty queens.  It's time for bed," the mom closed the door and whispered, "Good night, sugar pops."

     "Marta..." Halle said.

     "Yeah?" Marta asked.

     "You can sleep in my bed if you want.  My parents used to fight all the time, too, so I get it."  Marta started crying, bringing Kat to reach a hand into Maddy's lap for comfort as Eliana sighed heavily.  "You can stay here as long as you want."

     It hadn't been but maybe a week since Cassie hid in her bathroom while Maddy banged on the door, parading through the school on Nate's arm like this was an everyday occurrence.  "She certainly looks the part," Maddy had remarked to Eliana and Kat once in the hallway, but other than that, they didn't bring her up.  Now, she was sitting rows behind them, Eliana making eye contact with her every time she checked to see if maybe Fez was standing around in the back somewhere.  He wasn't.

     "Jake and Marta's relationship was our first impression of love."

     "No one's ever loved me as much as you," Marta told Jake, wrapping a thick coat around herself tightly.  Eliana had borrowed that coat from Maddy multiple times, which made her skin crawl now thinking about it.

     "No one ever will," Jake (also played by Ethan) replied.  "All right, babe.  Time for me and the boys to work out.

     "You guys are so gay."

     "Babe, that's not funny," Jake said seriously before Marta walked offstage.  "Come on, let's pump some iron, boys!  Hey, Paulie.  Could you rub a smidgen of oil on my back?  I can't reach.  My pecs are gettin' too freakin' big."

     "Anything for you, Jake."

     "Hey, Jake.  Your body's fantastic.  Can I help?"

     Eliana's jaw dropped open as the group of guys mimicking the men's football team broke out into a dance number to Holding Out for a Hero, Ethan even lip singing most of it.  It was obvious how much it was making fun of Nate, but Eliana didn't expect him to actually storm out right after the scene was finished.  "Lexi, you're a fuckin' G!" Maddy cheered.  Eliana stood up and clapped loudly.

     The next scene was already beginning to play, another between Marta and Halle, when Cassie started walking down the aisle.  Eliana made eye contact across the way with Rue, who looked equally as confused as she was.  "Lexi, you really outdid yourself," Cassie laughed.  "I mean... where did she find these knock-offs."

     "Oh, shit," Lexi whispered to Grace who was standing right next to her, equally as confused.

     "What the fuck is she doing?" Grace asked.

     "I had no idea that my sister had this in her.  Good job, right?  Isn't she brave?  She's up here, unpacking all of her trauma.  I had no idea how hard your life was, Lexi.  Can we give a round of applause for how hard Lexi's life is?   Come on, guys.  I know they hack the heads off of women in Afghanistan or wherever."

     "That's racist!" someone shouted from the crowd.

     Eliana sat forward, placing her hands on her knees.  "God.  It is nothing compared to living in my shadow," Cassie continued.

     "Yo, is this like a part of the play?" 

     "Don't go out there," Grace said, bringing her thumb to her lips and anxiously nibbling on the skin.  "It's a madhouse with her.  We can just say she's having a psychotic breakdown.  It's not too far off."

     "I don't think this is a part of the play," Eliana told someone who was sitting in the row in front of them.  She turned to Kat.  "Right?"  Kat shook her head immediately no.

     "I don't know," Cassie answered.  "Lexi. Is this part of the play?  Lexi?  This is your show.  Come out!  You're the big star of the day!"

     Eliana's eyebrows furrowed together.  "She's embarrassing Lexi.  I'm gonna kill her."

     Lexi walked out, Grace's heart thumping as Lexi along with the rest of the cast and crew was certainly not expecting this to happen.  "Please, Cassie, stop it."

     "You're the star of the night.  She's always wanted to be the star.  Go, Lexi!  This is your big moment.  Shine!"  Cassie smiled, but anyone with eyes could see that it was venomous.

     "Please, stop.  Please, stop.  Please, stop.  Please, stop."

     "I should stop?  Me?  I'm not the one putting on a play to humiliate and embarrass you!"

     "I didn't do that."

     "Oh, really?!  Then what is this?"

     "What act are we in?" the people backstage rushed around.

     "Don't question it," Bobbi said.  "That's the brilliance of Lexi Howard."  Grace rolled her eyes, placing a hand on her hip as she worriedly watched Lexi.

     "Hi, everyone.  I'm Suze.  I'm the girls' mom in real life.  Um, played by Ethan.  Where is he?  Ethan?  Who by the way..." the audience cheered as Ethan came out in a robe.  "He... you have me down to a, to a, to a science, honey.  Thank you.  Thank you.  I appreciate it.  He's gonna win an award.  Honey, let's go home."

     "I deserve this, right?"

     "Oh my God, please, Mom, Mom."

     "I deserve this?"

     "Stop!" Lexi exclaimed.

     "Mom, stop!" Cassie fought back.

     "Shh, you stop it."

     "This is horrible," Eliana grumbled.

     "Lexi, I'm going to fucking kill you," Cassie said, intriguing everyone in the audience.  "I deserve this, right?  Because I've actually lived a life?  Mom?  I'm the one who takes risks."

     "Show us your boobs!" someone else from the audience shouted.

     "I'm the one who falls in love?  I'm the one who gets hurt, not you, Lexi!  You never even fucking lived!  That's why you're able to stand up here and judge all of us!  You're just a fuckin' bystander."

     "Alright, alright..."

     "Mom, stop!"

     "Alright!" the audience started booing.  Cassie scoffed.  "Oh, okay... Well if that makes me a villain, Whoo!  Then so fuckin' be it." she scoffed again.  "I can play the fucking villain."

     Eliana rubbed her temples while Kat sighed.  "This is some bullshit," Grace said from her place behind the curtain.

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