watch what happens

chapter 2

ella's pov
"hurry up marie!they aren't going to care what fun home shirt you wear!" i called to my best friend, who, for the first time probably in her life, was talking longer than 20 minutes to get ready.
"they might! ok, im just going with the black one and my blue pants, and my fun home hat bc it's amazing. you should wear your hat too!!" Marie said, and stepped out of the bathroom.
"already done! so are we ready to head over to the theatre?" I asked, grabbing my bag.
"yeah! let's go!" she slipped her fun home hat backwards on her head and grabbed her bag, and we walked out the apartment door.
~le time lapse~
as we approached the netherlander theatre, i could see a figure outside,pacing and mumbling to himself. i giggled when i realized it was andrew.
"andrew!" i called out, giving a little wave. he looked up, smiled, and ran over to us.
"hey ella!" he called, and gave me a big hug.
"hey andrew! this is my friend marie!"i pointed at the now nervous looking marie behind me.
"nice to meet you marie!" they hugged, and then andrew said,
"let's go inside!" he motioned for us to follow him, and we walked inside the lobby. we followed him into the back, and onto the stairs to the dressing rooms.
"so, do you guys want to meet all of the guys first, or go hang out in my dressing room and see the stage first? "
"let's go meet the boys!" marie said.
"she has a thing for broadway men" i told andrew. he snickered and motioned for us to follow him. He knocked on one of the dressing room doors and said,
"it's andrew and some friends!"
"are these friends girls?" someone inside said.
"yes they are."
"then come on in."
andrew opened the door, and looked in on a dressing room full of boys. along the dressing room counter there were chairs, so i guessed that about 5-6 boys shared this dressing room. there were 4 boys in there, and the one sitting closest to the door said,
"yo, andrew, did you bring us some girls to hang with?"
"well, one at least. this is ella, and the other one is marie."
"hey! im tommy, tommy braco. over there is ryan steele, garett hawe, and  ryan breslin."
"hi!" the other boys chimed in, and we waved.
"sit down, sit down!" tommy said, and he patted a chair next to him for marie. she sat down in it, and andrew and i looked around for someplace to sit. there was only one place, a couch in the back of the room.
"wanna share the couch?" andrew asked, and i nodded. we sat down, and and tommy said,
"so, andrew, how do you know these ladies?"
"well, i met ella yesterday, and marie is her best friend, who she brought along to hang out!"
"how'd you two meet?" tommy kept pushing for answers.
"i tripped, and he caught me."
"very romantic, i must say."
"tommy........" andrew warned.
"what? anyways, what about you miss marie?"
"what about me? what do you wanna know?"
"anything! just talk!" garett chimed in.
"we are very good listeners." ryan said, placing his head on his hands and staring intently at marie.so marie started to talk. she talked for a long time, and as she did and andrew and i listened, i put my feet up on his lap. he looked at me and smiled, and we continued listening to marie talk. after around twenty minutes of marie talking and conversing with the boys, andrew and i got tired of listening, so he said,
"im going to go show ella my dressing room and the stage, marie, do you wanna come or stay with the boys?"
"ummmmmm..... i think ill stay. you kids have fun."
"let's go." andrew led me out of the room and over to another door.
"look, it's crutchie!" andrew pointed to a picture of lotso from toy story with the crutch/ cane he has in the movie.
"awwwww did you color that?" i asked him.
"yes i did indeed, aren't you proud of me?"
"yes, very proud."
"does andrew get a little gift for coloring in the lines?" he asked, tapping his cheek. i give him a quick peck on the cheek, and his face blushed and he smiled. He opened the door to his dressing room, and ushered me to go inside.
"who's this?" the other boy inside asked.
"ben, this is ella. ella, ben."
"nice to meet you ella!"
" so, el, come here. i wanna show you my really cool side of the dressing room. here is my crutchie costume, and my crutch. here." he put his crutchie hat on my head, and grabbed my hand.
"cmon, follow me!" he brought me down the stairs, and told me to close my eyes. he led me up one more flight of stairs, and then said,
"ok, open your eyes."
I couldn't believe my eyes when I did. I was standing in the middle of a stage, looking out at a huge theatre. It was prettier than I could have imagined, more amazing than I had dreamed of all my life.
"o h  m y  g o d." I said, and looked over at Andrew.
"beautiful, isn't it."
" i have always dreamed of this, but i never thought it would be this amazing, i- i don't know- "
"shhhhhh. you don't have to know. i found it doesn't work to take it all in at once. don't hurry, just take it in slowly."
I kept looking around the theatre, taking it all in. I barely noticed when Andrew took my hand in his and squeezed it tight. I turned to look behind me, and I saw the big metal structures they used in the show. I pulled Andrew behind me as I ran toward them and then ran up the stair to get to the top level.
"woah...."
"it's even better from up here, isn't it?" he asked, looking at me.
"yeah..... i must be dreaming.....this can't be real, i can't be standing on a broadway stage."
"well, it's all real. completely and utterly, even though i still do sometimes think it's not."
" some nights, it's amazing as it was the first time, but some nights its not. right now though, it's better than ever. " he squeezed my hand, and kept looking at me looking out at the audience.
ten minutes later, I was back in his dressing room, talking to Ben. Andrew was in another room getting dressed in his costume, but I was still wearing his Crutchie hat.
The door opened to reveal Andrew, or no, Crutchie.
"i believe you are missing something." i said, and put his hat on his head.
"thanks!" he said, smiling at me.
"five minutes, this is the five minute call, five minutes."
"oh my god. i totally forgot. i haven't done my warmups! guess i gotta do them now. "Ben said, starting to sing.
"oh no. have fun with him for the next twenty minutes." andrew said, rolling his eyes.
"wait, what do you mean? don't i have to leave?" i asked.
"nah, you and marie can stay backstage. if anyone comes to yell at you just tell them i said you could stay. by the way, you should go find marie! wonder what she's been up to." andrew told me. he helped me out of the chair(which I didn't really need, but it was nice of him), and we walked out of the dressing room, the sound of ben singing,
"the poor guy's head is spinning!" still vibrating through the hallway. well, actually, i was walking, andrew was doing his crutchie walk.
"what? i gotta get into it!" he said when he saw me looking at him.
"i think it's cute." i told him, smiling.
he blushed, and opened the door to the boy's dressing room.
marie was still inside, talking away to the boys.
"hey lovebirds! where ya been?" tommy  asked, and andrew and i both blushed.
"checking out the stage and hanging out with ben. hey marie-I told ella that you and her could stay backstage in my dressing room for the show if you want! is that ok with you?" andrew asked.
"it's more than ok! thanks so much andrew." marie said, smiling broadly.
"places, this is the call for places, places" the loudspeaker blared.
"guess we gotta go. wish me luck?"andrew asked me.
"break many legs. well, not too many actual legs, you only have one to lose as far as I can tell." I joked.
"it's not broken, it's gimp. do i get a little something for good luck?" he asked. I gave him another quick peck on the cheek, and he blushed, waved, and walked down the stairs with the rest of the boys. Marie smirked at me, so I said,
"shut up." , and we walked into ben and andrew's dressing room to hang out with ben, who was still singing,
"the poor guy's head is spinning!"
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hey guys! so, i gave in and made a newsies fan account on Instagram! it's called @letterfromtherefuge . if you are into newsies and have an insta go follow!! in other news, I am buying my tickets for the toursies soon!!! yayayayayay!
ALSO- VERY IMPORTANT: so ella and andrew are not in a relationship yet. they are just friends, and you'll see how they feel about each other in the next chapter ;)
- Beth ❤️💙💛