young, scrappy and hungry | a hamilton story | √

Chapter 19

Kasey went back to the apartment she shared with Carleigh. To her surprise, she saw most of the girls in the cast sitting there. She quickly closed the door and put her stuff down.

"Hey, Kasey," Alysha greeted. They were all sitting around the coffee table, but the atmosphere was subdued.

"Hey, guys," Kasey said, sitting next to Ariana. "What are you guys doing here?"

"We needed something to take our minds off of what happened, and we came up with the idea to post a video," Alysha explained. Kasey thought about it, then nodded approvingly. "Sending a message that we won't give into hate, and showing those that are trying to destroy us that we aren't afraid."

"I think that's a wonderful idea," Kasey said.

"We were going to sing 'It's Quiet Uptown,'" Carleigh said softly. Kasey froze.

That was when the guns had gone off in the first place. She wanted to say no instantly. But, the more she thought about it, the better the idea was. The lyrics were perfect, and the song now had an even deeper meaning to the cast.

"I was going to film," Thayne said. Kasey smiled a little, seeing him sitting cross-legged with all the girls of the ensemble.

"Alright, let's do it," Kasey said. Thayne pulled out his phone. "What are we going to say?"

"Just talk about love, and speak from the heart," Betsy said. "I think that everyone should say one sentence, but try not to say what someone else has said."

Thayne counted them down and they started the familiar words to a song that now held a completely different weight. It felt strange, and almost wrong to be singing 'It's Quiet Uptown' when so many people had lost their lives two nights before. But at the same time, Kasey felt like it fit so perfectly and captured exactly what they were saying.

They all sang all the lyrics, harmonizing when they could. When the song ended, Carleigh, who was at the end of the line of girls, stepped forward.

"Just remember, love is love," she said.

"We love you, the fans, so much, and we wanted to give this to you to let you know Hamilton will return to Broadway," Betsy said.

"Our freedom will never be taken away, no matter what racists or extremists do to try and bring us down," Ariana added.

"Our hearts and our prayers go with everyone affected by the shooting," Alysha said. "We are putting the welfare of those in the audience and those onstage first and foremost."

"'Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light'. You, the fans, must also be lights within this time of darkness," Morgan Marcell told the camera.

"Don't give into hate," Megan said.

"We are not letting one moment of tragedy and prejudice define who we are, instead, we are letting those moments define ourselves, and we are letting them make us better people," Kasey said.

They all picked up the glasses that were sitting on the coffee table and silently toasted.

Thayne turned off the camera. They all looked at each other, seeing tears in the eyes of each cast member.

They all hugged.

Thayne handed Carleigh her phone back.

"I'll log into the Hamilton Twitter account and post it now," Carleigh said, looking around at everyone else. "If you're alright with it."

"You should," they all agreed.

Carleigh posted it.

"I actually had better get going," Ariana said. "I have a lot of people I need to talk to and they want to see me and make sure I'm alright."

"Yeah, I'm sure you all have places you need to be. We'll see each other soon," Carleigh said, opening the door for Ariana.

Everyone slowly began to file out until it was just Kasey and Carleigh.

"It's just us now," Carleigh said, sighing deeply.

"We haven't gotten a chance to talk that much," Kasey said. "How are you?"

"I'm hanging in there. I think we all are."