A Shot in the Shadows

Not Enough Time

Flynn's only marginally surprised when an office aide walks into his first period class with a pass to go see Mr. James during lunch. Flynn's never actually had a class with Mr. James, but he's one of the school's few theatre teachers and someone who's directed a few shows that Flynn's been in. He's also directing the school's current show, and Flynn has an inkling of what Mr. James wants from him.

On his way to second period, Flynn passes Annie in the hall. He catches her eye and flashes his pass at her, and she frowns back, pulling her own crinkled pass out of her pocket in response. Flynn stops outside his class, watching Annie walk away from him, pass still in hand and with a thoroughly confused look on her face.

By lunch, she's figured it out.

"This is about our show, isn't it?" Annie asks, joining Flynn outside one of the doors to the theatre. "Well, his show. And our show. The two shows we're involved in. And the fact that we don't have the time for one of the them anymore."

"Probably," Flynn says cheerfully. "Why don't we see?"

Flynn opened the door, waiting for Annie to walk in before following. Mr. James isn't in any of the dressing rooms, or in the costume shop, or even buried in the room full of furniture, waiting to be used. A few people painting sets on the stage direct them to the staircase, and they find Mr. James fixing something in the sound booth.

"Well," he says, setting aside his glasses. "Our two stars."

"One, actually," Flynn corrects. "I'm just an understudy."

"And understudies are just as important as everyone else," Mr. James says. He shoots Annie a look that Flynn almost misses because he's too busy making a face.

"You think I should drop my spot in the crew, don't you?" Annie asks, getting straight to the point.

"I think that you've got too much on your plate as it is," Mr. James replies, smiling sadly. "Annie, I love you, both as an actress and a technician and a person, and you've been running around between school and this theatre and the theatre. I think that Shadows should be your priority right now, and I don't want to weigh you down with trying to handle our whole makeup crew and design everyone's faces at the same time."

"It won't be too much of a problem, will it?"

"No," Mr. James says. "We're perfectly capable of handling everything, and I've already talked to Lindsay. She's willing to take over for you."

"Oh, good," Annie sighs. Flynn watches her relax so much that for a second he thinks she might slump over and fall into him. "Don't worry, Mr. James, Lindsay knows how to do all the makeup already in place, and if you need any changes done, she knows all the color schemes and all the looks we're going for-"

"And the crew will be fine," Mr. James interrupts. "You can go get lunch if you want to. And you're always welcome to come back and help with anything if you somehow manage to find some free time with that busy show of yours. Now, Flynn."

"Yes, Flynn," Flynn repeats, grinning.

"You should probably think about dropping lighting crew for this show," Mr. James says. "And I hope you take this as more than a suggestion. We can find someone else to run the spotlights, and you'll enjoy the free time, I'm sure."

"You bet I will," Flynn says, faking a salute before turning and following Annie out of the sound booth.

"Halloween's coming up soon," Riley says, joining the others in the lobby.

Flynn looks up from where he's straightening piles of programs and flyers. "And?"

"We should do something cool," Riley says, grinning at everyone and poking Lara with her pencil. "Like, wear weird costumes and greet people at the door for the show, or something."

Lara grabs her notebook and scoots away from Riley.

"We can't do that when we're supposed to be backstage and in costume before the show starts, idiot," Flynn says.

Riley throws her pencil at Flynn. He ducks, and they both turn to look at the gray line she's left on some of the flyers on the notice board.

"Oops," Riley says, rolling her eyes as Flynn throws the pencil back at her.

"Besides," Paige whispers, "we're already having a trick-or-treating thing at all the dressing rooms for the kids."

Flynn instantly perks up. "Really?"

"Yeah," Paige hisses. "They think we're going to be having a rehearsal, but they've been told to get dressed up. So they're going to get here early enough to have some fun before we have to start getting ready."

"But it's supposed to be a secret," Annie adds. "So, Flynn, that means you're not allowed to tell any of the kids. That goes for you too, Riley."

"Drat," Riley mutters.

"Do I hear some secret Halloween plans being discussed?"

The teens all look up to see Addie walking down the stairs, closely followed by Leah and Claire. Flynn's about to shoot back a remark when Lara suddenly closes her notebook, stands up, and leaves without a word.

"What was that about?" Leah says, looking at the teens suspiciously.

Flynn tosses his hands up, dropping the flyers. "We're innocent," he declares.

"Probably not," Claire snorts.

"Anyway, what's this I hear about our star athlete getting dropped from the track team?" Addie asks, ignoring the confusion going on behind her.

Flynn turns in time to see Cameron flush a light pink. "I dropped the team," he murmurs. "There's not enough time for me to focus on colleges and the show as well as sports, and getting a sports scholarship probably isn't going to help me get into a good theatre program anyway."

"No one seems to have time for anything anymore," Annie mumbles.

"Well, when Halloween comes around, we're going to make sure everyone has the time to have some fun!" Riley shouts, grabbing some flyers from Flynn and tossing them up into the air.

"You're picking those up."

A/N: short little chapter to get me back into posting this story again. Thanks to everyone who's been so supportive by voting and commenting even while I've been the worst person for not writing in ages. It's you guys that make me want to wrap up this story. :)