Quiet Backstage: A Series of Lippa Oneshots

Nail Biter

Based on my crazy day!

It would be an understatement to say that I was nervous for tonight's show. I mean, it was our debut at the Public, that's crazy! It is only previews, but still.

"What is going on, Pip? You're doing your nervous thing." Renèe came in and leaned her shoulder against the doorframe of my open dressing room.

"What nervous thing? I'm not nervous!" I stuttered through my forced chuckle, which was a dead give away.

"Pippa." Renèe put her hands on my shoulder to stop my pacing. "What's wrong? I get you're nervous, but there's nothing to worry about. Do you need to clear anything up? Will that help ease your stress?"

"Maybe. Could we just go over the top of Schuyler Sisters one more time?" I asked, moving my thumb up towards my face, but Renèe grabbed my hand as well and slowly lowered it down.

"Of course we can. I'll go get Jazzy. Don't bite your nails, though, Love. It's a terrible habit to break." Renèe said before going to get "Peggy". She came back moments later with Jasmine, and we started going over the choreo one more time.

"Wait, wait, stop." I called out, only halfway through the part we were running.

"What happened?" Jasmine turned around. I sighed and held my high heeled shoe in one hand, and the skinny heel itself in the other.

"Yikes, alright, we should probably fix that before anything else." Renèe nodded. She went off to go find someone who either had an extra, or an idea on how to fix it.

Right in that moment, I was brought back into reality by hearing Groff yell, and doors being knocked on down the hall. "Hour call!" It had been his job to do that since something unknown happened to our P.A. system, and now it doesn't work. I sighed, taking my broken shoe back to my room, thinking I could probably just hot glue the heel back on in the worst case scenario. I closed my door, only to hear Groff's hour call knock right after. That brought a small smile to my face.

I sat down in nervous thought, only refocusing when a clap of thunder shook the building, making me jump. "Hey, just a heads up, there's a storm coming, so--" Lin opened my door to inform me of the pending storm. "Hey, you good?" He asked, walking farther into my room.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"You're biting your nails." Lin said, and I sighed, looking down at my thumb. He pulled up the other chair in my room. "Talk to me."

"What do you mean?" I asked as another clap of thunder was heard.

"What are you nervous about?" Lin asked, nicely. He was so sweet.

"I just don't want to let everyone down." I whispered, this was crazy to think about.

"Let everyone down? You're not going to let anyone down. You're great at Eliza, Pippa." Lin smiled. "Listen, I get what's going through your head, I underst--" Lin was cut off by a shriek from me when the power flickered out. At this, Lin swore aloud, causing me to turn my phone flashlight on, point it at him, and scold him. "Well, guess I'm staying here."

"Alright." I nodded as Lin too turned on his cell phone flashlight.

"What happened to your shoe?" He asked, pointing his flashlight at the broken heel.

"Oh, it broke." I chuckled lightly. "Renèe texted and said she found a backup pair, so we'll be fine."

"Good."

~~~~~

And just in time for curtain, the power came back on, and the cast and I were taking the stage. In what felt like the blink of an eye, Lin and I were kissing during Helpless. We turned back around to walk back, and Lin looked down at my hand. "You've been biting your nails offstage, haven't you?"

"Maybe, but shh, we have to go." I whispered, but then jumped back into the show. Then, in a two and a half hour long heartbeat, the show was over, and we were taking our first final bows. "Hey, Lin." I whispered as we walked off. "I had nothing to be nervous about. You were right. I'm done biting my nails."

"Good." Lin laughed and kissed the side of my forehead.

~~~~~

A/N: Hey, update: the power came back and the show happened, but sorry all of this is rushed and trash, I'm currently sitting with my pas de duex partner in a doctor's waiting room. So, I might have a stress fracture in my foot. (And about 12-ish (13 depending how you look at it) shows left, so...)

Long story short, the show happened, just not necessarily smoothly.

Still hope you enjoyed this one! Xx. ❤

-Katherine