Misc RH OC Scraps

[TANYA/TANYESSA] Mystery Girl

"Big trouble, guys!" Carmen Major burst into the music room, gripping a crumpled magazine in her hand.

Vanessa, Lyric, and Tanya gave her their attention. "What's wrong?" asked Vanessa.

Carmen shoved the magazine into her hands, and Vanessa unraveled it to see the big letters on the cover: MYSTERY GIRL! RAINBOW DREAM'S NEW MEMBER... OR GIRLFRIEND? under the bold lettering was a blurry photograph taken from behind of Tanya surrounded by the band. Obviously whoever had taken the photo hadn't wanted to be caught. Everyone looked over Vanessa's shoulder. Nobody spoke for a moment. Vanessa turned to the page the full article was on. There were more photographs there. The angles always obscured Tanya's face, but it was obvious to anybody who knew her who it was. Lyric grabbed the magazine and began to read the article aloud.

"'An inside reporter who asked to remain anonymous caught the band Rainbow Dream, with all three members Lyric Lucas, Carmen Major, and Vanessa Tempo, enjoying private time with one of their classmates on Friday. The girl didn't appear to have an instrument. Rainbow Dream is a notoriously tight knit group, so the likelihood that she is a new band member is low. We can only speculate as to who this mystery girl is, and what she was doing with the band on a Friday night when they were supposed to be rehearsing...' Ugh, and boy did they speculate," Lyric said in disgust as she skimmed the rest. "Where do they get off writing such disgusting things?"

Tanya began shaking. Vanessa put a calming arm around her shoulders. "What can we do about this? Will our label take it down?"

"Even if they did, this is already out and published. It's not like this is an advance copy they gave me to approve of. I bought this from the gas station," Carmen snapped. 

Tanya buried her face in Vanessa's shoulder. Tears fell from her beautiful blue eyes. "I thought that Rainbow High was safe," she said, her voice a hoarse whisper. Vanessa kissed her head, Lyric patted her back, and Carmen rubbed her arm, all trying to comfort her. 

"It'll be alright," Lyric said, "your parents aren't the type of people to buy tabloids. They probably don't even know what Rainbow Dream is." 

"I'm right on the cover..."

"Oh, right. Well, maybe they won't see it?" 

Vanessa pulled Tanya away from her just enough so she could look at her face. She wiped Tanya's tears. "It'll be alright," she said softly, "Whatever happens, we'll be here for you."

Tanya nodded. 

A knock on the door-- Carmen went to get it while Tanya and Vanessa separated as a precaution. It was Dorian and Kelly. Carmen let them in and closed the door. 

Dorian was fuming. "Of all the underhanded-- Giving journalists a bad name-- OUTING Tanya-- You guys have seen that so-called article, I assume!" Everyone nodded. Tanya laughed a little to see Dorian so upset. 

"I notified Ms. Wright about the reporter who trespassed on school grounds and photographed students without permission," said Kelly, averting her eyes from Tanya. "School security is on alert. It won't happen again." 

"So I can keep seeing Vanessa as long as we're on school grounds?" Tanya asked. Kelly nodded. 

"But for now, we don't know how many rabid Rainbow Dream fans are students here. We'd better get you away from them just until we can get a better handle on the situation."

Dorian and Kelly each took one of Tanya's hands and helped her up. She was still shaking slightly, but she'd stopped crying. Carefully they made sure nobody was paying much attention to the door into the music room, then the group of three walked out. Dorian and Kelly put out their most intimidating upperclassmen vibes and hid Tanya as best as they could between them. Nobody bothered them and Tanya made it to her dorm room safely. She hugged each of them in thanks.