On His Own: A Sing Fanfiction

Half the Group is Late

       Our hero woke up with a mouse on his chest. Chuckling to himself a bit uncomfortably, he carefully picked the sleeping Mike off of him and walked downstairs to make breakfast early, duly noting that the little man drooled in his sleep as he went. He then realized it was 10:30 and almost tripped down the stairs.
       "We're an hour late!" the gorilla shouted, yanking up the blinds and jumping on the bed, sending Mike flying. Mike, still in a dream, punched Johnny in the nose as he came down. As the young gorilla ran into his closet and started throwing on clothes, a now fully conscious Mike shouted "Whaddaya think you're doin', tossin' me sky high like that?"
       Johnny tripped, legs restricted by shorts, and hit the floor with a loud thud. The mouse was instantly silenced, but soon used Johnny as a springboard to the floor, saying, "Serves ya right, Sherlock."
       Mike felt himself be squeezed by a hand, and was lifted into the air. "We're going. Now," Johnny stated flatly. "In my jammies?" the mouse retorted. The teen let out a giant "UGHHHH."
       As the pair entered the theater, they heard singing from the auditorium. Rosita and Gunter were trying out a song on stage. Apparently, everyone had gathered to watch, so Johnny assumed Mr. Moon had called a full rehearsal. He liked to do that often. As Johnny sat down, Meena asked anxiously, "Hey, did you see Ash as you came in? O-or at all? Mr. Moon's really worried."
       Johnny knitted his brow in confusion, then looked around. For sure, Ash was even later than him and Mike. He glimpsed the mouse looking just as perplexed and shaking his head at Mr. Moon, who had just been speaking aside to him. "Uh, no I haven't," Johnny muttered, turning back to meet the elephant's frightened gaze. Meena looked back up to the stage, and Johnny soon followed. Rosita sang on, but still had a glimmer of fear in her eye. Gunter was unreadable. Suddenly, Johnny jumped at the presence of the despairing koala beside him.
       "Hey, Johnny, have you seen Ash? She didn't text you, by any chance, did she?"
       "Did you try texting her?"
       "What do you think? I tried both texting and calling. She didn't answer," the manager replied quickly. This is where Johnny began to worry, but he kept cool. "Well, you should calm down first," he soothed, ushering Mr. Moon into a seat, which was a little easier said than done. "Do you, by any chance, know her address?" he continued.
       As the koala shook his head fearfully, the sought-after porcupine ran in. She did have a somewhat different air about her, though.
       "About time, Sparky. You had the boss worried sick," Mike hustled as the girl hurried in. "I really am sorry, Mr. Moon," Ash said as the koala jumped down to meet her. He palmed his heart. "No, all's forgiven, just as long as you're okay. You're really late!" Johnny could see the porcupine's face break a little. Mr. Moon was relieved, but Johnny was still worried.
       As the pig pair's song ended, Mr. Moon called everyone on stage to more comfortably simulate a performance. "Since it isn't just Meena out here now," he mused. As all but the elephant squeezed backstage with the tech crew, just a sheep named Eddie, Meena began singing. Midway through, the doors burst open as out of the blue as ever, and a disheveled-looking young man charged through. The music stopped as everyone looked up. The short, raging boy scrambled on stage and scared Meena right off of stage left. The performers pushed out onto the stage, though Johnny couldn't get a look at the character. Out scurried Ash from the crowd.
       "What do you think you're doing here, Lance!?" She tried to sound intimidating, though her voice noticeably shook.
       "Well, you just forgot your guitar, babe! I thought I'd bring it by for you."
       Babe? Johnny thought. He remembered Ash's disgruntled comment a while back, and connected the dots. He soon got around Eddie and Gunter, the only ones tall enough to block his vision, and got to see this former boyfriend of Ash's. He certainly did look disheveled; his dark grey tee was rumpled and covered in a myriad of stains, and he smelled rotten. His quills were matted and stuck to his back or to each other, as if he had been running for a long time. There were no signs of a guitar with him.
       "W-well, leave it and get out. You aren't welcome here," the girl warned unsteadily. Mr. Moon attempted to break up the altercation, but the boy snapped, "Back off!!" and that worked quite splendidly. "What, aren't you gonna thank me? Lance resumed angrily.
       "I-I said get out, you..you has-been!" she stammered.
       Lance grabbed Ash's shirt and pulled her close to him forcefully. "DON'T think you can get away with that just because you're a big shot now, little miss famous." Johnny separated from the crowd. "Hey, that's enough," he tried to break them up as well. The porcupine shoved Ash to the ground and whirled over to Johnny. "What are you gonna do about it, huh, punk?"
       Johnny, despite being the heir to a gang, never liked violence. But seeing a friend of his being hurt or scared, something that didn't happen often at all, made his blood severely boil. Johnny presently slugged Lance right in the nose, flooring him immediately.
       He got on the ground too, partially thinking he was gonna back out and help the boy up. Instead he screamed, "How does it feel!?!" in Lance's face. "HUH!? How does it feel to be laying in the dirt?" he slammed the ground and was standing tall almost instantly. "How does it feel to be treated like garbage!?" he belted, resounding through the whole auditorium. "What makes you think you can just go around pushing down the people you're supposed to care about!?" He kicked Lance hard in the gut, then yanked the blathering porcupine up by the shirt. "See? How's it feel?" he repeated and threw the boy down and picked him up again. "Doesn't feel nice, does it, champ!?"
       Johnny dragged Lance outside and tossed him onto the concrete. "Get out of my sight," he growled, waiting for the boy to get up before heading back inside. As he heard Lance weeping as he left, Johnny stormed right back out onto the steps. "That's right! CRY!!!" he roared after the youth, who yelped and broke into a limping, pathetic run.
       Johnny walked back inside and saw that everyone had been watching and was staring at him. He cleared his throat. "Umm... I'm sorry."
       Mike started repeating, "Nice, nice, nice!" over and over and half-prancing, half-shambling around in a circle. Rosita just stepped back, slackjawed and Gunter started dancing(?) with Mike. Meena's eyes were as big as saucers. The tech guy began to slowly clap his hands. Buster eventually managed to utter, "Wow wee."
       Once the silence was well broken, Ash laughed weakly. "Oh my gosh.." she started. "Uh, thanks, Johnny. He, uh.. Just.. Wow. Is he okay?"
       Johnny scratched the back of his neck. His face burned. "Uh, well, he got up. He was limping, but..." Seeing her gaze put Johnny off a bit. She was concerned. Maybe even afraid. "I got ahead of myself there. I apologize, Ash."
       "Oohhhhh, he's his father's son, boysssss!" Mike called excitedly. A chord was struck in Johnny there. He stepped back from the porcupine girl and prompted Mr. Moon with, "Wasn't Meena supposed to be singing? Shouldn't we get on that?" as he backtracked sheepishly into the auditorium.