Disclaimer: Rent isn't mine. Any mention of Wicked isn't mine. Adam's mine. Dr. Hart is mine. Andrea belongs to me. Coop is mine. And the twins are mine.
A/N: This takes place about 16 years…maybe a little less…after blast from the past. Which, according to my calculations would be in the year 2009. Special thanks goes to Niki for helping me develop my character's personalities and for lending me hers to shape one of the twins' (THE SINGER) personaility.
CHAPTER ONE
"Adam, I'm going to need you to talk to me. Nothing is ever going to get accomplished if you don't speak." Adam Davis looked at his latest therapist and snorted. He hadn't been open with any of the others? What was oh so special about this one?
"Um, thanks but no thanks. As you can see, I've done very well not talking about it. I'm an honors student, I play lacrosse, and I am a fantastic singer and guitarist. Life is pretty good for me, so I'm not so sure I need to harp on the past, thanks. I'm totally fine living my peachy life." Adam waved a hand through his sandy hair and smirked. No therapist had ever gotten through to him, this one would be no different.
"Your dad wouldn't have brought you to me if there was nothing wrong. But since we can't sit here silently for the next hour, why don't you tell me about this peachy life of yours?" Adam sighed and agreed. "Who's your best friend?"
"Coop. Well, his name is actually Ryan. But his middle name is Cooper. So we call him Coop, since his first name is my dad's best friend's wife's maiden name that she kind of kept for her career. Coop is like my brother. We do everything together."
"Does he go to Dalton with you?"
"Yeah. We both go to that hellhole of a yuppy prep school. Neither of us are to fond of it, but we have some pretty wild parties and it's a good school with a great lax team, so I can't really complain."
"What about a girlfriend? Do you have one of those?"
"Well sort of." Which was a true enough answer. She couldn't really be called a girlfriend if it was a secret. No matter how much sex they had, she wasn't really his girlfriend since they hadn't told anyone about their relationship. Oh screw it. Just the sex constituted them being boyfriend and girlfriend.
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"What?" Is that how he'd come off? No lady, you are so off your rocker. And you call yourself a therapist. "Oh no, I'm not gay. Not that I'm against gays or anything. Hell, Coop's moms are lesbians! But I'm straight. I have a girlfriend. She's just…our relationship is a secret."
"Oh I see. What's her name?"
"What does it matter?"
"Well, it doesn't. It just makes my notes easier." She smiled warmly, which freaked him out quite a bit. She was taking notes? And she was all smiley and happy about it? What a nutcase! What the hell was his dad thinking when he decided she'd be a good therapist. "So Adam, what do you like to do?"
"Sing, play my guitar. I'm co-captain of the lacrosse team. Party…I love to party. Just hang out with my friends…" Have sex with your girlfriend… "you know all of the typical teenager stuff."
"I see. What does your girlfriend like to do?"
"She's big into drama. She does any type of theatre she can get into. She's always going on and on about her soprano and her belt, but I'm not quite sure what that means, so I usually just smile and tell her how great her singing is. Which it is…beautiful, I mean. She has such a beautiful voice."
"What about your other friends?"
"Well, there's my girlfriend's twin sister. She actually has a pretty voice as well, but she'd rather be an overachiever than use it. My girlfriend is always yelling at her for not using her alto to it's full potential or whatever. But she's all leadership and crap. Vice president of the debate team. President of our junior class. Number one in the class. Coop hates her."
"Why does he hate her?"
"Easy, because she beat him for all the things he wanted. He wanted to be VP of the debate team, but she won. He wanted to be junior class President, but she won that too. He wanted to be number one in the class, but she loaded up on more AP classes than him, giving her a higher GPA and making him go down to second. It's terrible. Our families are best friends, but when we get together it's war between those two. They each are dating people, but if you really want to know what I think, I think they really have it for each other. That's why they hate each other so much. They should be enemies, but they love each other."
"Well you could be right. That does seem to happen a lot."
"Of course I'm right. I am always right. Just like I was right about not needing to come to you. I mean, now that you've talked to me, do you really think I'm someone that needs help? If anything get Coop and Miss Thing in here and make them realize that they want to screw each other's brains out. They need help."
"Well, actually, yes. You do need help. You have a secret girlfriend who you won't tell me the name of, you analyze the relationship of her twin and your best friend. You still must be hurting from—"
"Don't even say it." Adam warned coldly. She had no right to bring that up! He was not still hurting. He had learned to live with the fact that people didn't live forever and that people he loved would die eventually, no matter how much it hurt him. He had to live with it. After all love is only something to soften you up so you're a loser when you get hurt.
"You know talking helps. Are you aware of the Egyptian's belief?"
"The Egyptian's beliefs on what? Believe me, I'm not all that into Egypt. And I honestly don't care which one of their crackpot philosophies you have to relate to me. I stopped caring about philosophy since my uncle Collins died."
"There. You already applied the concept. The theory is: 'To talk about the dead is to make them live again?' Having said that, are you ready to give it a go? Reminisce?"
"Listen, no offense to you Dr. Hart, but I can't talk about it. I don't think you've ever been through what I'm going through, so don't pretend to understand when you don't and never will. Okay?"
"Really, I don't understand? What would you say if I told you that my father died when I was fifteen? He didn't die of AIDS, but he died. And it was super duper hard for me. I cried every day and every night uncontrollably for weeks. It got to the point where I started not doing as well in classes. I was at Spence, which I am sure you know to be a very tough school. My teachers tried to help me, but I wouldn't listen. I had just lost my daddy to cancer. It was hard. But then, at the request of our headmistress, my mom took me to a therapist. He helped me work it out and my grades went up again. Things would never be the same, but they got about as normal as they could be, given the circumstances. I just want to help you like my therapist helped me. Now can you tell me your story?"
Adam sighed. Maybe this woman did know what he was talking about. Maybe she could actually relate to him. "I was born to HIV-positive parents. In fact, most of the people I grew up around were HIV-positive. My dad got it from drugs and with my mom…well it could've been the sex or the drugs, they don't really know. But it was a miracle when I was born HIV-negative. My mom's best friend died from it before I was born. Her name started with an A, hence my name. No one else died though, until I was eleven. That was when Daniels got full-blown AIDS. He picked up an OI and died not too long after. Then not too long after Daniels died, Collins met the same fate. My dad was devastated. Collins had been like a father figure to him, despite them being pretty close in age. We had learned to cope. Then I hit thirteen. After my birthday, both of my parents went to the doctors. I remember they went on a Saturday, exactly two weeks after the twin's Bat Mitzvah. My dad was fine. My mom…her T-Cells were really low. She officially had AIDS. She had held out much longer than anyone could have expected. She had many near death incidents before. When she and my dad got back together, when I was born, when my sister Andrea was born. But it was still terrible. My dad was beside himself, but he stayed strong…for her. For all of us. It got worse and worse. She died in November. November 14. Three days after Andrea's birthday."
"I see Adam. Thanks for telling me this. I feel closer to you now. We have something in common. We both have lost parents at a young age. Now how did you react to your mom's death?"
"I bottled it up. I kept it in for a long time. I wasn't about to cry. Especially when my dad had gone into a deep depression and made himself a hermit. Not when Andrea was crying nonstop and was on Valium or something. I had to be the strong one. I thought that maybe if I were strong, everyone else would be strong as well. I really wanted to pull through. Eventually, I cracked. I cried for days at a time. I thought seriously about killing myself. My dad had started to wake up, remembering he had kids to take care of. He always tells us that we're all he has left of her, and I don't know how I feel about that. And it was around the time of his awakening that I was sent to the first shrink. That didn't end up well. And here I am, almost four years later, in your office. You are shrink number twenty-five."
"Lucky me." She smiled at him freakishly. He was beginning to think that maybe opening up to her had been a mistake. Adam didn't talk about his issues. "I'm glad I'm the one you decided to talk to about this."
"Whatever. I told you because I had to tell you. I felt obligated to tell you. It wasn't because I wanted to tell you. It was because you made me fell like I needed to. Like because you shared your little story with me, I had to share mine with you. And I am ashamed that my mind works that way."
"Well, regardless Adam, I'd call that progress. Now I think you can go."
"Really? My session wasn't supposed to end for another fifteen minutes." He looked surprised.
"Go ahead. Meet up with a friend or something. You did fine for today." She smiled warmly at him, which he took as his cue.
"Bye Dr. Hart. See you same time next week!" Adam Davis got up and ran out. He took at his cell phone and dialed a number. "Hey Coop! Man, I need to talk to you. Meet me at my apartment in fifteen? Done deal man."
Adam and Ryan "Coop" Pierce-Johnson stood in the large kitchen of the Davis penthouse. They were drinking beers taken out of his dad's case and just watching the view of the city through the panorama windows.
"Adam! You will never believe how The Bitch ruined my life today." Coop took a large swig of his beer and then looked seriously at Adam, who was rolling his eyes. Coop just continued. "So I was on my way to the Young Democrats meeting, right? And I was going to turn in my paper work to run for Vice President and guess who turned in her paper work? The Bitch, that's who!"
Adam rolled his eyes once more. "You know you could use her name."
"No. The Bitch is nameless to me. She will be henceforth known as The Bitch, officially. Anyway, she as the nerve to run against me. As if it isn't enough that she took away the class presidency and debate vice-presidency from me. Stupid tramp! She's going to win. She always wins."
"You forgot the part where she made you second in the class."
"Yes that too. But she always wins elections!"
"And why do you think she wins over you?"
"Because she's blonde and has a nice rack."
"Maybe you love her. I mean you've obviously noticed her boobs. And you seem so offended that she wins over you. Face it Coop: you've got it bad and that is so not good."
"Hey Adam! Try to stop sounding like a fucking girl. There is no way in hell I could ever 'Have it bad' for The Bitch. Sorry no way. I'm just saying that everyone votes for her because she's blonde with blue eyes and nice tits. They reason that just because she's beautiful, she's significant. Though what she signifies and to whom, no one can be certain."
"Okay, and I'm the girl? Low and behold, who's quoting the novel Wicked? You couldn't even be man enough to quote the musical! You had to quote the novel!"
"And who knew I was quoting the novel?"
"Point well taken." Adam took a large gulp of his beer. Soon his dad would be home and he'd have to tell him all about the therapist. Oh joy! "But you know, she is really smart. And creative. She's really nice you know. Hardcore, absolutely, but nice when it comes down to it."
"Maybe you're the one in love with her Adam, not me. Or maybe you're just sucking up to her to get into her sister's pants. We all know you want a ride on that pony. Not that I blame you. They're both gorgeous. But man oh man, The Bitch is…a bitch! No other words to describe her. She's just 110 pounds of complete total bitchiness."
"Who is?" Adam's father, Roger, had just walked in the door, a very annoyed Andrea by his side.
"The Bitch." Coop responded coolly. He looked at Roger, challenging him to ask more questions. Instead Roger focused on the beers.
"You know, I really don't care if you guys are going to drink, but could you please ask me before you take the expensive beers? The ones that cost me lots of money to ship over from Europe?"
"You weren't here." Adam shrugged, looking intently at his father.
"So how'd the therapist go, Adam?" A cruel and unfamiliar layer masked Andrea's usually sweet tone.
"Andrea, be nice and maybe I'll tell you." His dad gave him a stern glance. "Well since everyone wants to know, it went great. I actually like this one. She understands me. Which is more than I can say for the pedophile that Andrea sees."
"Don't talk about Dr. Dan like that! He's amazing!" Andrea seemed to be very defensive over her therapist. "He takes me out for pizza!"
"And this doesn't scream 'PEDOPHILE!' to you? Honestly Andrea. I knew you were thirteen and naïve, but get real. He's a creep show. And I am proud to say that I got out of there before he could get near my pants!"
"Adam Michael!" Roger tried to discipline his son but it was no use. Coop was in hysterics off to the side. "Ryan Cooper! Go home!"
"Um, right Roger…right away!" Coop turned to Adam and gave him a quick thumbs up before walking away.
"Adam, you know that he was a pedophile to you, he probably wouldn't be one to me, right?"
"Um Andrea, haven't you ever hear of a bisexual pedophile?" Adam raised an eyebrow at his younger sister.
"Enough Adam!" Roger glared at his son. "The Cohen's called. They have tickets to Wicked tomorrow night, because Blair and Riley wanted to see the new cast on their opening night. Which is odd since they're going tonight too. But to each her own, I guess. Anyway they invited us and we're going." Adam groaned. Sure he wanted to spend time with the Cohen's, but Wicked? This could only be his girlfriend's doing.
"Yes! I'm going to see Wicked again! You know how long I've waited? Since Aunt Maureen was in it and we went opening night! And that was…let me see…like 5 years ago." Andrea couldn't contain her excitement.
"Five years since my ears have last bled so badly in a theatre. Do I really have to go?" Adam never had been a huge fan of musical theatre. In fact, he claimed that most musicals made his ears bleed. There were a few exceptions, but not many. He actually really like Wicked but felt the need to say that he didn't just because he didn't want to seem like a teenybopper.
"Please Adam, get real. We all know when you think your alone you jam to the original Broadway cast recording. We also know that once you, Coop, and Blair all said you were going to the lower school play and entered the lotto instead. And you all three managed to get tickets." Adam lowered his head. All his sister was saying was true. "I bet it's even a dream of yours to be Fiyero. You try to hide behind that macho rock stuff, but you're just a Broadway lover at heart."
"In case you don't remember, sister dear, I do not act. I sing. I like music. My acting skills will never be as good. You dance, I sing, there's no acting in there. And therefore, I will never be Fiyero."
"That's not to say it isn't a secret ambition of yours!"
"Whatever. I have calc homework anyway. I'm going to go do that. Later dad, later Andy!"
In his room, Adam started his calculus homework. It was hard; each question grew increasingly more difficult. He didn't know why his school required calculus. It was too hard. In fact to quote Coop it was "hard as a priest at a playground." Disturbing as that analogy was, there really was no better was to describe it. Calculus needed to die. And quickly, please.
"POPULAR/I'LL HELP YOU BE POPULAR!" Only one person in his phonebook had that ring tone: his girlfriend.
"Hey baby." He answered his cell phone and twisted a pencil around in his fingers.
"Hey Ady." Her clear voice chirped through the earpiece. "You're coming to Wicked with us tomorrow! Except, so is Coop. So you may have to keep an eye on him to make sure he and my sister don't murder each other during 'No One Mourns The Wicked.'"
"I can actually see that happening. Coop would be all like, 'No one mourns the wicked so I guess no one would mourn you bitch!'"
"And then she would say, 'Well I'm going to kick the dear old shiz out of you!'"
Adam chuckled into the phone. His girl was just too adorable. "So what's new babe?"
"Nothing much. This calc homework is making me wish I didn't have a brain." She laughed. "But then I look at Wicked. Fiyero never used his brain and then wanted it back the second he didn't have it."
"I'd rather be a scarecrow than do this. What the hell does Pratt think we are? Geniuses? I mean just because we're in AP Calc…it's not like any of us want to be in the class anyway."
"I can think of two: my sister and Coop." She laughed that funny, almost silent laugh of hers.
"Yep. They just said 'How can we drive one another to insanity? Oh, I know! Let's take the exact same AP Calc class so then we can compete for the highest grade!'"
"Or you know, they just wanted to see each other in class. And stare. Since we all know that they are itching to get together. Sadly enough, they are the only two that don't know it."
"But of course."
"Ady, when are we going to tell our parents about us? They need to know."
"I know they do. But we can never find the right time. That is something we need to discuss in person, so we'll try to at some point tomorrow okay?"
"Okay. Adam, my parents are going to some benefit in L.A. this weekend. I'm pretty sure your dad's going too. We should have a sleepover." He could almost see a sexy smirk on her face.
"I think that's a very good idea darling." He sent her smirking vibes right back. Or at least he hoped he did. He couldn't be sure that she got them.
"Crap. My dad is coming to my room and he expects me to be working on the calc." He heard her room open and her dad say something. "Thanks Meg for the help. I'll see you tomorrow in class. Thanks."
"Love you too babe." He clicked his phone shut and hoped no one had heard that conversation.
A/N: Chapter one of the sequel is up! I rewrote this a few times because I kept wanting to mention which twin was the overachiever and which one was Adam's girlfriend. So far it's a pretty well guarded secret. It should be revealed next chapter, in the Wicked thing, among some other secrets. I'm really excited about this story and I hope you are too! Oh and the whole thing about Maureen being in the OBC of Wicked was totally intentional, and yes, she would've been Elphaba. In this universe, Idina Menzel doesn't exist and is replaced(ish) by Maureen.