CW: SA
I was sitting at my vanity almost done getting ready for Dot's party when I heard a voice, "Going somewhere?" I froze. Mom. I had managed to avoid my parents all day until right before I was supposed to leave to meet the girls. I didn't have time to think up an elaborate and believable lie so I decided just to tell her the truth. "Dot's having a party tonight. I've never missed one of her parties and I feel horrible. I should never have let myself get sucked in with those other girls. I think I just missed Cynthia but, I now know what I did was wrong and I just want to make it up to my friends." Ok, maybe not the whole truth. I don't know what happened, the lie just sort of came out of me. She just stared at me and for a second I thought she could see right through my lie. "Well, I really shouldn't let you go, but you seem to have thought about what you did, so, you can go. Just don't tell your father." I nodded, mumbled a "thank you" and headed out the door and right next door to Dot's.
I waited for a few minutes before seeing the t-bird car pull up and we all went into the house together. We walked in and were immediately met with gasps and stares. We all were just staring at each other from opposite sides of the room until Cynthia spoke up, "What? Am I overdressed?" She joked. I let out a sharp laugh earning a smile from Cynthia and a glare from Susan. "What are they doing here? Dot, did you invite them?" Susan asked "We weren't invited. We're crashing." "Dot doesn't want a bunch of gang members messing up her house." "Hey, we're housebroken." Potato said, sending a smirk to Dot. "They can stay." She quickly said. She likes him. Cute. Maybe she'll leave the socs too and we can still be best friends.
She then went over her house rules and pulled me away from everyone, saying how happy she was that I was there. I've really missed Dot and wish so deeply that we could just go back to how we used to be without me actually going back there. After talking to Dot for a while she has to go check on something and I was all alone. I looked around the room for Jane, Olivia, Nancy, Cynthia, or even one of the t-birds, but found none of them.
"Hey." I turned around to see Neil, "I haven't seen you since that night at the drive in, really I haven't seen you since Dot's party on the first day of summer. Is everything ok." I'm sorry, is everything ok?
Dot's House
May 28, 1954
It was the first night of summer vacation, Dot was having a party to celebrate. It was wonderful, we played games, listened to music, just sat and talked. Every once In a while Neil and I would make eye contact from across the room. We had been friends since 8th grade but in the past couple of weeks something started to change, but neither of us did anything about it. Every once in a while he would try and talk to me but I would always get pulled away; first by Susan, then by Peg, then Pearl, then Rosemary. I was sitting on the couch talking to Dot when she heard a door slam and went to go yell at someone for it.
"Hey" I looked up and sure enough, there was Neil. "Hi" I smiled at him. "I finally got you alone" "probably not for long, with our luck" we were quiet for a moment until he said, "Hey, why don't we get out of here, we can go to the frosty palace or something?" "I would really like that actually." I replied and I got up to go say bye to Dot.
"Dot, I'm gonna head out I just wanted to say bye." As I said it I looked behind me and made eye contact with Neil as he was walking out the door. "Ella!" Dot looked at my with a knowing look. "We're not gonna do anything... that bad" and with that I rushed out the door and into Neil's car.
Now, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to do anything with him. In fact, all I could think about that night is how I wanted him to kiss me. But that's all I wanted. To have him take me home and kiss me before I walked into my house. I think I really liked him.
We made it to the frosty palace and talked over a couple of milkshakes then went back to the car to go home. But he didn't start the car. We just, sort of, stared cat each other. Like we knew something was going to happen but we couldn't move. Then he started leaning in and I thought "finally, I'm going to have that amazing first kiss I read about everywhere." And I liked it. Not exactly what I pictured, but I liked it. Then he started to gently push me onto my back and I froze, that is not what I had planned on, but it's not like we're actually doing anything, so I just kept going. Then he slid his hand under my skirt and I froze again. This time I couldn't ration it, I didn't want it to go any further, I didn't even want it to go this far. I started trying to sit up and I would always be able to a little bit before he would push me down again. Finally I gained my voice and said "I think I left my bag in there, I better go get it before they close." And got out of the car, tripping over my own feet.
I walked in the Frosty Palace and found Nancy. We hadn't talked since middle school but I thought maybe she could help me. "Nancy! I need to get out of here but I can't go out the front, can you help me?" I asked frantically. "Why? Is everything ok?" "Not really but I can't explain." She quickly grabbed the back door key from behind the register and lead me outside. "Are you sure you're going to be ok?" She asked. "I'll be fine. Thanks" I said running off.
I got home as quickly as I could and went straight to bed. I didn't really see anyone the rest of the summer, knowing I couldn't go through being in that situation again.
Dot's House
September 1954
"Is everything ok?!" I asked Neil, taken aback by his question. "Well, yeah. Everything was fine then you abandoned me at the Frosty Palace and haven't talk to me since." Is he joking?! "That's not what happened and you know it" I said, still in shock that he was talking to me like that. "Ok, then what did happen?" "You forced yourself on me. You kept touching me when I tried to get you to stop. You didn't even care about me." "You never told me to stop." I can't believe I'm having this conversation. "I tried multiple times to push you off of me!" What came out of his mouth next you couldn't even make up, "You were trying to readjust how you were sitting. Ella, I would never-"
"Gather round, party people! It's spin the bottle o' clock." Richie said as Cynthia came out of nowhere and dragged me away, shooting me a look asking "you ok?" I gave her a reassuring smile and went to go sit down in the circle. I really didn't want to play but I knew someone would say something if I was the only one not playing. I really thought Cynthia was gong to sit down with me but she just continued, "Listen up, you fiends. I want a good, clean game. Keep your hands to yourself, your lips pursed, and if you land on someone ugly, just close your eyes and think of England."
We played for a while with Peg, Pearl, Olives, and Dot spinning, although dot's turns would always land on herself, when Cynthia suggested Jane go. Jane spun the bottle and it landed right in between Buddy and Richie. "It's pointing towards Richie. See?" Susan said. Cynthia then bent down to see for herself, "It's a dead heat. Chef's choice." "Buddy." Jane started, "And I want to do seven minutes in heaven." Susan protested while the soc boys praised Buddy. Eventually it was decided that Jane would go with Buddy. "We should keep playing while they're in there. Ella hasn't gone yet." Neil said, looking right at me. I froze. I didn't know what to do, I just froze. Normally it wouldn't be a big deal but the way he was looking at me.. I just froze. Then I heard a voice next to me "Ella went a few turns ago, it's my turn." Shy Guy. Of course. I sent him a thankful smile as he went to spin the bottle. It landed on Pearl, they kissed, and Neil looked at me again. But before he could say anything, Gil grabbed the bottle, sending me a quick wink. It landed on Olivia. I could tell by Gil's change in demeanor there was something with his and Olivia's relationship. As Gil was just about to kiss Olivia Cynthia came up behind him and pulled down his pants. "Ha! Nice skid marks." She laughed. "What the hell, Cynthia?" "Don't flip your lid. It was just a goof. I'm sure Olivia's seen worse undies, right?" "Why can't you act like a normal girl?" Gil yelled. Cynthia stood there for a second before running off. Oh Cynthia. I immediately hopped up and went after her.
A/N: Hi, so, they removed the show. I want to keep making this but I didn't want to do it without talking about everything going on. Honestly, I'm not surprised or even that upset about the cancelation, I seriously doubted it would get renewed. What actually hurts is them taking it down. As many of you know the cast and creators are trying to get it put on another streaming service and I don't know what's going to come from that so I'm not trying to get my hopes up. but this show is important and it deserves to be remembered.
I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing people talk about what this show means to them. I've been trying to pin point exactly why this show affected me so much and I can't pin point it, it just did. I relate to Nancy so much, I'm asexual which is a very popular head cannon for Nancy and I just relate to her so much in every way. As you might have guessed, I'm also madly in love with Cynthia, which is strange because up until this show premiered, I said a was heteromantic. Then I cried listening to Merely Players and thought, this is not heteromantic behavior. That's the best I can articulate what ROTPL means to me.
I'm also finding it increasingly hard to find Grease references to name the chapters, so, if anyone has any ideas, let me know.