Eleven O'Clock Number

MUSICAL #23: RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN'S CINDERELLA

"We are?" Allison feels like a parrot, but, like, really?

There's a moment during which she's sure Daniel is rolling her eyes. "Yeah, Allison. You are. You act like more of a married couple with him than you do with Lydia, and that's saying something." You and Lydia catches in her head, but only for half a second, because his tone turns teasing on the other line as he continues, "And the way you couldn't keep your eyes off him at Lydia's party –"

Allison can feel a blush beginning to rise into her cheeks. "Shut up."

Daniel laughs. "Anyway. What I'm saying is, go for it. Don't – don't let, uh, you know. Stuff. Stop you."

"Stuff?"

"Yeah. Stupid...stupid bro stuff, or whatever."

 "Isn't this kinda weird for you?"

"A little," he tells her honestly. "I mean, you and Toby? I don't know. It was weird. He's never actually told me that he likes you but, I mean, I have eyes."

Allison laughs, a little high-pitched. "I don't think I –"

"Shut up, Allison, you totally do," Daniel says dryly, and she can tell how much it pains him inside, all this girl talk. Only a minute in and it's already  too much for the guy.

"I might not –"

"Sure," he says, as though appeasing her. "Of course. But just in case you do. Go for it. You guys are both my best friends. And if you're happy together, then...why should I get in the way?"

"We're not together," Allison says, automatically.

"Okay, Allison."

"I don't think I like him."

"Okay, Allison."

"He's my friend."

"Okay, Allison."

"Daniel –"

He laughs. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay." Allison pauses, then says, "I love you."

"Yeah, I know."

"You're meant to say it back, jerk."

"Okay. I love me too."

"Ugh," Allison huffs. "I'm hanging up on you."

"Bye!"

✦

Allison does see Toby, eventually, sitting alone at the back of the classroom in AP English. If she' s being honest, he looks all kinds of awful. His hair is sticking up even more than usual, a complete bird's nest – the circles under his eyes are darker than she's ever seen them, and what's probably worse is his actual eyes. Kind of...dead. Empty. It makes her want to walk up to him and tell him she'll watch a thousand musicals a day if it means the look he's wearing will change.

But she doesn't.

She averts her eyes before sitting behind Lydia in the third row from the back, taking out her copy of Crime and Punishment. Out of it slips a piece of paper torn from a notebook, scrawled upon in Toby's large, familiar cursive. It's her copy of the list of musicals they're meant to be watching. Trying not to wince inwardly as she does so, she brings her pen down to Mary Poppins and puts a check mark by it, before letting her eyes slip lower to the next one on the list.

Rodgers' and Hammerstein's Cinderella.

Allison frowns. Unless there's a full version of YouTube, she has no idea how she's going to find the musical without Toby's help. Ms. Blake still hasn't arrived, so she settles for staring thoughtfully at the list, before a voice from beside her jolts her out of her thoughts.