He Left Sparkles in his Wake

Not As Planned

(FYI Jimmy swears. As does John. Just a heads-up.)

Sleep evaded Richard that night. Jared was still on his mind. He went through waves of emotions: he would be happy for talking with Jared, then mad that he wasn't more confident, then sad as he wondered if he had the right to move on in his love life. He ended the cycle in sadness and decided it was time to finally try to sleep. Just as he laid down with tears in his eyes, a knock rang through the room.

"Richard, it's PBG. Can we talk?" The muffled voice asked. Richard groaned and jumped up from the bed. He quickly pulled the covers up before walking over to the door and opening it to revile an eager looking PeanutButterGamer.

"Richard! I-nice jammies, man." He cut himself off as he noticed the white shorts covered with orange crabs occasionally holding a blue umbrella or blue margarita paired with the white shirt with an orange crab saying 'I'm crabby without coffee'. Richard blushed slightly. He didn't handle complements well.

"PBG, can this wait until tomorrow?" He rebutted with a sigh. Behind him, his clock chimed the top of the hour; 12:00 am.

"Well, it's tomorrow!" The taller male enthused. Richard rubbed his face and had to remember that his glasses were on his bedside table. "I talked with the Normal Boots and, well, okay. SO there is a karaoke portion to the competition this year, and we want you on our team!" PuhBuhGuh pleaded. Richard's face flushed as he nodded.

"I-I guess. I'm willing to try at least." He stated trying to sound confident. The taller male quickly hugged the shorter of the two and ran off while calling out with a thank you. Richard locked the door and attempted to sleep although his nerves were rattled. He didn't sleep at all. Figuring to do something to appease himself and be productive, he decided to do drag for the day. He didn't plan on leaving the room so no one would see this side of him.

"Forte, you are looking fierce today! No one would bully you..." Richard talked to his reflection, calling himself by his drag name. Her makeup was subtle, besides the lipstick, and her outfit was between classy and punk. "What wig, what wig, what wig? Pink!" She exclaimed and popped the light pink wig on his head. Forte brushed the soft ringlets of pastel hair before pinning part of bangs up with a skeleton hand hair clip. She stood and looked at herself in the mirror: the knee length black dress trimmed with pastel purple framed her rather well, the chunky black heels that had cat faces on them flowed wonderfully into the nude colored hose covering his legs, the boldest part of the ensemble being her wine red crossed with violet lipstick, and of course the lovely pink wig. Her phone vibrated; it was a message from Jimmy asking to meet him in the stairwell. With a sigh, Forte made her way out of the room and to the stairs. She waved at Jimmy as he looked up at her.

"Sorry. I decided to do drag today to cope. This is Forte." She explained nervously.

"Oh my god girl! You look gorgeous!" The taller gay exclaimed happily. Forte blushed and smiled. "Wallid kicked me out of the room, so lets go to the café." He said and grabbed the drag queen's hand. They walked out of Bluebell with no one realizing that the person with Jimmy was Richard.

"I met Jared yesterday...he gave me his number!" Forte exclaimed with joy as they walked into the café.

"My smol gay is growing up! I'm also loving this part of you; you're so confident." His Fairy Gay-Mother declared. They walked towards the table where Luke and Ian sat with what appeared to be yogurt shots in front of them.

"You liar..." Forte trailed off as they reached the table. The other two males looked somewhat surprised at the individual who was supposed to be Richard.

"Well, I had to get you here somehow. Although none of us expected you to be in drag." The Wetzel Pretzel admitted as he and Forte sat across from Ian and Luke.

"I'm diggin' whoever this is!" The hatted individual stated as he passed out the yogurt shots. "Shake it up and enjoy. They're peach, I think." He continued with a grin. Ian remained stone faced and began shaking his shot.

"Get a man who can do both! This is Forte. And she wanted to have pink hair today." The almost girl remarked and she flipped her shoulder length hair. It settled back in it's original place immediately. Jimmy had been shaking his yogurt like a wild man and cracked it open; he took a sip before looking at the others who hadn't had any yet.

"Oo bitch. Oo bitch! That's good!" He exclaimed and sipped more. The others followed suit and enjoyed the semi-frozen treats. They chatted idly until Forte's phone buzzed.

"Who is it?" Ian asked. The individual in drag had a though as Ian spoke; he would be good a compliment to Jimmy if they got together.

"It's Jared. He...wants to know where I am right now?" She responded with confusion.

"Go get your man! Go get him!" Jimmy, aka SINamon roll, cheered causing the non Hidden Block member to blush as she texted Jared back.

"He's not my man. Why don't you chat up your man? Or am I not aloud to know who my precious bean likes? Is it because he's here?" Forte almost taunted. Jimmy's cheeks changed to a warm red color but he did not respond.

"Richard? Is that you?" Jared's voice asked from behind the drag clad individual. She turned, finally taking note that the café was empty except for the four of them and a table of what appeared to be Normal Boots members, and saw Jared standing behind her.

"H-hey Jared. I...didn't expect to see anyone while I was in drag..." She trailed off nervously. Jared smiled and offered her a hand.

"Well, my lady, would you accompany me please? I would like to introduce you to the rest of Normal Boots." He stated smoothly. He was like a suitor in Forte's mind. She accepted his hand and stood, following him over to the table full of males in Normal Boots jackets. "Alright everyone, this is Richard. Or, what are you called when dressed like this?" He asked politely. Forte was astounded by how kind Jared was.

"Forte. It's nice to meet you all." She introduced quietly. PBG waved happily at her.

"That's PBG, Jontron, Satch, Jirard, Paul, Nick, Josh, and Shane." He introduced with a wave of his hand. Forte put a hand on her hip.

"If you don't mind me asking, which of you doesn't like pink hair?" She asked slightly strictly. Jon pointed at Shane with a smirk. "I don't know what made you hate pink hair, but it isn't right to judge people by the color of their hair. Cake from Hidden Block is a perfectly nice girl, but you don't like her just because she's a Pinkett....I-I'm sorry. It's not my place to speak like this..." She stated quickly feeling slightly ashamed of herself. She did want to stand up for Cake, but this wasn't the way to get him to apologize. She quickly walked away from the table despite Jared and PBG calling out to her and headed back to Bluebell. She probably shouldn't have left the dorm at all; things would probably be worse now for Cake and it was all Forte's fault.