Taking Chances

Wicked

     Bartholomew walked out of the theater in a daze, having just seen the Broadway version of Wicked preformed by real witches. So when elfaba started singing Defying Gravity she actually flew on a broom around the theater. That by far, was the best version of Wicked he had ever seen. Maybe he would ask Davia to go see it with him one day. But he doubted his mum would let him traverse about the city with an Elf.

     She was so anti-fairy that it made Bartholomew afraid to even mention that he had friends that were Dwarves and a couple that were Wizards.

     As it turns out, his best friend Gabriel that he's been friends with since elementary school has been hiding the fact that he's a Wizard from his parents and has been practicing magic in secret. Gabriel's dad was really anti-fairy too, so when he told him that he was a Wizard, Gabriel's dad grabbed a belt and tried to beat it out of him. Gabriel had managed to get away and was living at Michael's house for the time being.

     Bartholomew cringed when he remembered Gabriel's bruised face and arms. He then decided that his mum must never find out about his feelings for Davia. Bartholomew started walking to the Library. Since his mum would never let him see anything that involved fairy people he had to lie and say that he was going to study with his (human) friends. He glanced at his watch. The numbers read 6:50. He had gotten dropped off at the Library after school at 3:50 and the show had started at 4:00. Bartholomew picked up his pace to a jog since it would seem suspicious if he came waltzing up to the Library just as his mum pulled up. Luckily the Library was only four blocks away from the theater. The sound of his shoes hitting the pavement echoed as he jogged. It wasn't long before he plopped down on the edge of the marble fountain right outside the building. Bartholomew tried to slow his breathing as he dug his head phones out of his hoodie pocket, and pluged them into his phone. He put one ear bud in and started to browse his music, finally just hitting shuffle. He smiled as one of his favorite songs came on, and started to hum along to the lyrics.
     Oh! Well imagine, as i'm pacing the pews in a church corridor and I can't help but to hear,
     no I can't help but to hear an exchanging of words.
     "What a beautiful wedding!" What a beautiful wedding says the bridesmaid to the waiter,
     "And yes but what a shame, what a shame the poor groom's bride is a-"
     "Hey kiddo." Bartholomew looked up from his phone to see his mum waving from the car. He sighed as he stood up and started walking over.

     "So how was studying?" His mom asked as he climed into the front seat of the Mustang.

     "It was beneficial," he said quickly, not wanting to get into the details and make up an entire story.

     "That's all?" His mom questioned. Bartholomew sighed, she clearly wanted more than that, so he figured he might as well give her what she wanted.

     "Well David got irritated with the computer because the Internet crashed and I informed him to just aquire a book but he didn't know where to look, which was absurd considering our current location, so we had to go ask the librarian where the books on-"

     "That's nice dear," His mom interrupted. She promptly got on the phone and called one of her work friends to talk about some project, leaving her son quite annoyed.

     What was the point in pushing me for information if she wasn't going to listen to it?  He thought.

     Bartholomew spent the rest of the car ride listening to music and trying to ignore his mom's chatter. She was always doing stuff like that, and it got considerably worse after his dad left five years ago. Him and his mom were always fighting about everything. At first it was just about finances and whether or not they should buy a new house or car, but then it just kept getting worse. Soon they were fighting about trivial matters like laundry soap and the dishes. They tried getting a marriage Counselor but it didn't help, and his dad started drinking so they fought about that, and his mom was getting home late so they fought about that. His dad even went as far as to accuse her of cheating. Then one day he just didn't come home, and his mom never questioned it. Bartholomew had always wondered where he went. Turns out he had ran off with a younger brunette woman to California.

     Bartholomew grew sad as he remembered what happened. He glanced up from his thoughts when his mom pulled into their drive way, stopping the car with a small jolt. Pausing his music to return his head phones to his hoodie pocket, Bartholomew opened the car door and got out. He went around the front of the car to follow his mom up the porch steps and inside, stopping at the door to pick the mail up from where it had been dropped through the mail slot. He went to set it on the dining room table.

     "Oh I'll just take that sweetie," His mom stated.

     "Alright, I'll just go do my homework, " he said. He then turned to head up the carpeted stairs when his mom said,

     "Didn't you do it at the Library?" Bartholomew froze, realizing his mistake.

     "I didn't get to complete the assignment due to David's lack of computer skills, " He stammered out.

     "Okay fine, just find yourself something for dinner first," His mom said, then she went back to talking on her phone and walked back to the living room. Bartholomew exhaled. He didn't notice that he had been holding his breath until after his mom had left the dining room. Without bothering to even look for something to eat he went upstairs and to his room, shutting the door.

     His room had dark blue walls that were littered with all sorts of posters, from Lord Of The Rings and Harry Potter, to Falling In Reverse and Bring Me The Horizon. He took off his shoes and placed them neatly at the foot of his bed before letting himself fall face first onto it. Rolling over, he stared at the ceiling and debated whether or not to text Davia. He eventually did.

>Hey
...
>hey urself ;)
>What are you doing?
>jus chillin. My mom says we're going to a fairy pride rally this weekend wanna come :p
>I am not sure that I will be able to attend that event, although I definitely would if there were different circumstances.
>aww :( I was hoping you'd say yes
>As a matter of fact, I was actually going to ask you to a different event that would be happening on Friday.
>and what wood that be? ;)
>The last showing of Wicked is being preformed at 6:00 and I was wondering if you would find it acceptable to attend with me.
>OMG I WOOD LOVE TO! :O just let me ask my mom
...
...
...
>SHE SAID IT WAS OK! XO
>Very well then, I shall look forward to it. See you tomorrow at school.
>see ya ;)

     Bartholomew smiled at his phone and blushed, then panicked when he realized that since today was Wednesday he only had two days to plan and stage an excuse. Now how was he going to work this out without his mom finding out? This situation truly was Wicked.