Thomas was hanging out with his friends Joan and Talyn. Morality was looking at cute puppy pictures again, and Logic was rereading the Sherlock Holmes books in his room. That just left Prince and me. We were in the living room together, bored to the point of desperation.

"Do you want to watch something?" Prince asked. "There's nothing better to do. God, I hate being bored. No ideas, no creativity, no dream-chasing..."

"Watch something? Like what?" I asked.

Prince shrugged. "I don't know. I'm up for anything." Something about his word choice made him smirk. "Anything." He sang the word.

I looked at him, completely lost. "What?"

"You know, Anything. The song?" Prince said. He sang a little more of it for emphasis. "You can let yourself, let yourself do... Anything."

"I don't know it." I said.

"Oh, right! You weren't around for Thomas's musical." Prince said. "Anyways, it's from The Ultimate Storytime. And... I think I know what we're gonna do now."

Prince gave me a somewhat mischievous smirk and knowing Prince, I had a right to be scared.

"And what's that?" I asked.

"Listen to the entire The Ultimate Storytime soundtrack in order, duh." Prince said.

"Fun," I sighed.

"Oh, it will be. You just wait." Prince said, ignoring my sarcasm.

Prince got out his phone and played the first song. It was the title track of the album.

Music flooded the area and soon after the song started, I heard Thomas's voice.

The song played, and I'll have to admit, it was really catchy.

The next song up was "Warrior Girl", and Prince informed me that it was sung by Nicole, who plays Emma in the musical.

After that was "Birds", sung by Terrence, who plays Preston.

Then it was "Contemptible Me", which was sung by Jay Harper, who plays the villain of the story.

After that, we listened to the song "While The Moment's Good", and it was actually a pretty good song. Thomas, Nicole, and Terrence all sang, and they did good.

Immediately after that song was another Jay Harper song called "No, Never Yes". There was more dialogue in that one, and Jay's character was introduced as "Mr. Contemptible, the meanest dude around."

The song "No, Never Yes" ended and the next song immediately started. The first thing I noticed was the tune, because it was quite a change from the song that had been on before it. I looked at Prince's phone screen.

It's another Jay Harper song, but it's a lot different from her other songs. It's called "The Bad Guy", though, so it's obviously sung by the villain of the story.

The lyrics started and I heard Jay's voice. I listened the same way I had listened to every song before this.

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You think you do the right thing
But incidentally
You find the whole world would prefer it
Differently
You go from being fair
To falling flat
You see what's there
You find you're at
The wrong end of the stick
And you're starting to feel sick
Of when the story drops you hard into the pavement
Even though you thought you knew what "to behave" meant
But you find out you were thinking wrong
As you wind up back where you belong
And you try to get it right
But instead it just comes back to bite you

Wow. This song sure is... fun.

I never wanted to be the bad guy
The bad guy
The bad guy
I never wanted to be the bad guy
But that's just how the story goes

I felt really bad for Jay's character. Mr. Contemptible, as he was introduced as in "No, Never Yes". Anyways, the guy didn't choose to be a villain... But he is, and he can't change that.

My mind flashed to that time Thomas met up with Butch Hartman, and we all got to be a cartoon for just a little bit. Prince, Morality, and Thomas had enjoyed it so much, but.... They had made me the villain.

Why me? Just cause I give Thomas anxiety?

It's a trip discovering you're not the hero
You thought you were Augustus
But you're Nero
And you're playing on your violin
Might say it's just your evil twin
But it's not something that holds
No it's you and you alone to blame

I never wanted to be the bad guy
The bad guy
The bad guy
I never wanted to be the bad guy
But that's just how the story goes

And it goes and goes and goes
Just like balloons out of your hand
The world looks up while you
Sink in the sand
And you start to understand
That it can't be erased if it's traced out in pen
Though you scrub it again and again
And again and again

I never wanted to be the bad guy

But that's just how the story

I never wanted to be the bad guy
The bad guy
The bad guy
Never wanted to be the bad guy
But that's just how the story goes

I never wanted to be the bad guy...

Wow.

I... uh....

I didn't think. I stared at Prince's phone. The next track, "Dreams", started, but then Prince paused it.

"Uh... You okay? You sort of look like you've seen a ghost." Prince said.

"It's just... Wow." I said.

"Wow what? The song? I agree, that is a really good song, I think Jay did amazing....." Prince trailed off. "But you don't look good. I don't think it's that."

"I dunno, it's just that I paid attention to the lyrics a little too closely." I said.

"I still don't get it." Prince said.

"Prince, think about it. Do you think... Do you think I chose to be anxiety? Do you think I chose to be a negative aspect of Thomas's personality? I was created to give Thomas anxiety, it's what I am. I can't control it. If I had a choice, don't you think I would choose to embody something that actually helped Thomas?" I said.

"Oh." Prince said.

"Yeah." I sighed.

"Anxiety, look. I know we might have made you out to be a villain in the past, and... I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. You're not a villain, and we all know that. You're more than just Thomas's fears, you're our resident emo nightmare, the one we've all grown to love. And you know, sometimes... You might have a point when you oppose me. I guess... I guess sometimes I might go a little too far with my ideas, and I might need you to... give me a more realistic idea." Prince said, obviously struggling to humble himself to admit his own faults. "And sometimes fear can be beneficial to Thomas. You stop him from doing crazy things that could be dangerous. You're the one who makes sure he arrives on time whenever he goes somewhere, for fear of being late. You're the one who makes sure things get done, because there's that fear of what would happen if they didn't get done. You're not a bad guy, Anxiety. You're you, and I wouldn't have it any differently, you little walking Hot Topic store."

I blinked at Prince. "But what about the cartoon?"

"Well, in all fairness, none of us were acting like ourselves in that cartoon. Logic was giving Thomas an idea for a video, and I've been meaning to talk to him about that, because uh... Mind you, that's my job. I'm creativity and new ideas." Prince said. "Anyways, that's not the point. The point is, we didn't mean to make you out to be a villain. It was just a silly little thing we were doing, and it wasn't supposed to mean much. I'm sorry if it came across differently."

"Well... Thank you, Prince." I smirked at him.

"Anytime, Emo Nightmare." Prince smirked back.

"Oh, you wanna play that game? Alright, Sir Sings-A-Lot." I said.

"Jason Dean." Prince said.

"Dreamer," I said.

"That's not so much of a nickname as it is an adjective." Prince said.

"Oh, shut up. I was never the creative one." I said.

Prince smirked at his victory. "Let's just play the music, shall we?"

"Who says 'shall we' anymore?" I said, but Prince ignored me and played the music. The song "Dreams" filled the area.

After "Dreams", the next song that came on was "The Bad Guy (Reprise)", sung by Leo Anderson as well as Jay, and I recognized Thomas's voice at the end as well.

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"That doesn't have to be how the story goes," Prince turned to me and spoke the phrase normally, but with emphasis. "You can be anything you want to be. That's the message of the musical. That's what the song Anything says."

"If this is about earlier, I can't change what I am. I can't choose to be something else." I said.

"No, but you can choose how you act. You may embody Thomas's anxiety, but you're also your own being. You have thoughts, emotions, feelings... There's some of it that you can control." Prince said. "But for the record... Just keep being you."

"Thanks." I said.

"Anytime." Prince said, and he let the next track play.

After "The Bad Guy (Reprise)" was a track called "The Closing Sequence", but it wasn't exactly a song. It wasn't a song at all. It was essentially just talking with music in the background.

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After "The Closing Sequence" was the song that Prince had sung before, "Anything".

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"That's really inspirational. I mean, I'm not surprised. This is Thomas's musical after all. He has an inspirational message in almost every video." I said.

"That's true." Prince agreed. "Well... There's still the bonus track, but other than that... That's it. Did you like the soundtrack?"

I nodded. "It was... Deep. To say the least."

"To say the least," Prince repeated in agreement. "Well, I'm glad you liked it. Now, let's listen to the bonus track. It's overall a very silly and lighthearted track. It's cute."

Prince played the bonus track, and we listened to Nicole sing the silly ditty, and it was obvious she was having fun with it.

I've gotta say, I didn't expect that much out of a simple soundtrack.

But I'm glad I listened to the soundtrack with Prince.

It was a good opportunity to bond with Prince a bit, and maybe now I'll actually gather up the courage to finally ask him out....

But that's something for another time.