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Chappie Number Two =)



James knew something was wrong even before he opened his weary eyes. Probably because his ribs usually didn’t usually feel like an eighteen-wheeler had run over them. He could barely see anything through his wince when he decided to try to see what could have caused his discomfort, and unfortunately for him he didn’t need to look very hard. Jessie dug the heel of a particularly vicious-feeling shoe into his stomach, smiling smugly as if she’d conquered him like a nation. He pushed her leg off him and took a gulp of oxygen that his solar plexus demanded, wondering just how mad he’d made her the night before. If that was what this was about, he was suddenly only half-glad he’d done it. He felt relief that nothing serious had occurred, otherwise he’d feel like his hands were about to become in extreme danger. He sat up and rubbed his stomach as the two inch dent slowly reverted back into his stomach. He asked her ‘what was that for?’ and formed a fool-proof plan in his head: deny everything. If she became even more violent, he had a one in five chance of making it out of the room where he could hide in the en suite. She didn’t reply, merely pointed behind him. He didn’t want to look in case he was moving into the perfect spot for her next inexplicable attack, but after a few seconds of purposeless watching her finger he turned and saw only one thing in that general direction, a clock radio. He failed to understand the significance when all he wanted was to turn around and return to sleep to forget about her attempting to crush his insides. He closed his eyes but remained sitting up and holding his stomach, but then he suddenly thought his eardrums were about to explode when she shouted at him.
“The auditions start in five minutes, get dressed so we’ll be heard at least. You know they’re only sticking around for two hours and you’re not holding me back in life!”
He jolted and at the last second clutched at the covers, feeling like he needn’t make the situation any worse by flashing her when he was still unclear about what the cause she had for her actions the night before. She turned away from the bed when she knew she’d woken him up, not wanting him to know she frequently watched him getting dressed in the morning and to keep her secret she was willing to sacrifice one morning’s worth. He hunted around for something when he was fully clothed, and they headed off to the sports hall together in almost silence. James was hoping the interviewers were looking for someone that could sleep standing up, because that’s all what he would resemble with this fatigue. Gods curse Jessie for making him lie awake nearly all night worrying about her and what effect it would bear on her. Considering she was trying to talk him out of public humiliation the day before, she really was becoming a nightmare about it. Holding her back in life?!
She seemed incapable of thinking things through, as she soon discovered whilst sitting in the waiting area. Everyone seemed to be practicing selected pieces for their few minutes of trial. Well, James wasn’t because he was mainly asleep, and she really didn’t know what to expect from him. He said he’d had acting lessons, but had they helped or was he as desperate as she was likely to be? She frantically prayed she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t any good there. She also prayed that if James got a place and she didn’t, she wouldn’t resent him for it as she’d wanted more than anything to carry on the night before, she’d just been too nervous as it was her first kiss, explaining easily the reason for her shaking. He’d never try it again anyway; he’d probably consider her a psycho if the same thing happened so he mightn’t want to risk it to spare her feelings. His was before hers, so that way she’d know how much effort she should put into the piece. She poked him in the ribs and he grunted in a complaint, too tired to start up anything with her. She poked him again, this time substantially harder and informed him his number was called for the audition.
The judging panel consisted of two male fifth-formers with a clipboard resting on the table in front of both of them. James knew their faces but couldn’t put a name to them even if he were wide awake, as he could hardly name a lot in his own year. There weren’t that many in the school as it was so expensive, but there were few opportunities to socialise as fun seemed to be a contraband item. He handed over the piece of paper, which turned out to be a certificate to prove he’d excelled in his acting course at the most elite academy in the world, making the youths impressed before he recited a piece that had won him first place in a planet-wide contest. He was naturally given a role of his choosing, so he decided to play the umbreon, as it was a main part but he’d still retain a percentage of his anonymity. To his surprise, one of the boys handed him the costume with the information that if there were any need for alterations to bring it back with the sizes required written down. He somewhat doubted they’d have made that offer to someone else and they were sucking up to the world champion.
As he turned to leave with the costume in his hand, he asked if they’d found a lead female yet, and when they responded negatively, he asked to see the costume. They exchanged a glance as if to say the idea sounded like he had a cross-dressing fetish but not wanting to voice it in case it upset him. They couldn’t afford that, especially since this was the first year where there may be a scrap of talent in their production. James suddenly felt a heat spread through him when he realised the costume in front of him was nearly as skimpy as the one he’d visualised the night before, and it would hold very little to his imagination if Jessie wore it. He took it into his arms and asked for a bag, making them agree that if they wanted him in the play they’d hire the next person to interview, as she’d look so good in the outfit they’d sell out completely. They swapped another dubious glance, but agreed with the condition that if they weren’t convinced he’d have the choice to stay or drop his part. He sat down behind the interviewers’ desk as they called Jessie in, seeing her surprised look when she eyed James turning from examined to examiner. Without her saying a word, the people behind the desk conferred and announced unanimously to each other that she was right for the part, or more importantly for the dress. James left with her a moment later, carrying the costumes and two scripts in the bag.
“James?”
“Ungh?”
“How’d I get the part when I didn’t do anything?”
“I suggested you since you’re the only one there with red hair, and they agreed to my point of view”
“I don’t think that’s true; there was a redhead in first year too”
“They wanted me in and I wanted you in, okay? That’s the truth, because my curriculum vitae impressed them so they had to listen to my conditions”
“Honestly? I knew you’d taken lessons, but is that all it took for them to listen to a kid a couple of years younger then them?”
“My family can be very…influential; I guess they didn’t want to go up against them. But it could be because I’m the current best in the world for our age”
She stopped and stared at him, in disbelief at what she’d heard coming out of his mouth as it didn’t seem like he was capable of being champion of anything. He didn’t acknowledge her action and carried on walking, not even noticing it as he was still in a half-comatose state. The first thing he did when he reached their accommodation was flop down on his bed and sleep, the bag still in his hand. He didn’t even listen to Jessie’s threats of what she’d do to him for shutting the door in her face pretty much, if indeed he heard them at all.
Several hours later, he awoke with a deep hunger, only this time it was for food and he had to do something about it, unlike last night when he’d wanted to cease his starvation of a different nature but sensibly voted against it. The bag thudded softly on the ground when he sat up, reminding him of its presence. He got off the bed and walked into the kitchen to prepare something, noticing a note stuck to his forehead after a while when he’d sufficiently appreciated his surroundings. He peeled it off with a wince as it took a couple of hairs from his eyebrow in the motion, and discovered she’d written she’d gone out for a walk since he was proving boring company. He shrugged and threw it in the general direction of the bin at the opposite end of the room, missing it by half an inch or so. He took his food back to his bed and extracted Jessie’s costume whilst she wasn’t around, picturing her in it with incredible ease. Judging by the cut of it, it should go at most halfway down her knees, with the top of it exposing more skin than it covered. He liked this play already. He took out a script and flicked through it, stopping when he came to the scene where it said the umbreon was watching her from the bushes as she bent down to pick some flowers. He was seriously wondering if the writers had thought about his needs when they wrote it, as if Jessie bent down with any side of her facing him it would be ideal, the only problem being he’d have to calm himself down quickly since his scene would be up next.
He heard the key turning in the lock and immediately stuffed the items back into the bag, strategically placing the plate on a certain area of his body. She shot him a look of surprise at him being awake and commented on it. He chose to ignore this and asked her if she wanted anything. She said no and sat on the bed beside him, not overly close but he feared to move in case the plate followed suit, but in the opposite direction; he couldn’t risk needing to go to bed again when she knew he’d only recently awoken. He suddenly noticed the headers on the script read the solitary rehearsal date and the night of the concert, and he realised with horror they were within four hours of each other and it failed to grant time for mistakes or questions if it were to be done with time between the shows. His ashen face made Jessie worry it was her sudden presence after her schizophrenic mood last night, but instead of saying anything about it she followed his eyes and saw the dates, or more accurately, date. What was worse, it was in a night’s time, making it evident to everyone why the auditions had only lasted two hours—there was no more time they could possibly allow otherwise. Fortunately most of the play was going to be more visual than vocal and judging by the length of it, it would last for at most an hour. She snatched the script and read it, something suddenly striking her.
“You landed me the role with almost all of the lines!”
“Would you prefer to be the creepy old wrinkly grandmama?”
“NO I WOULD—hang on; you sounded so gay just then!”
He shot her a dark contemptuous glare that should have silenced her, but instead it filled her with evil inspiration.
“Can I see the costume please?”
He passed her the material and she shook her head in disgust, whilst James’ mind was roaring for her to try it on there, in front of him, so much so in fact he was afraid of her overhearing him.
“I’m not wearing that”
“You’ve got the role and it’s too late, unless you want the whole school to know you were the one responsible for the lack of this year’s talentless show. Why don’t you want to anyway?”
“There’s something about me you don’t know”
“Like what? You’re secretly a man?”
He wished he hadn’t said it and prayed even harder it wasn’t true. His mouth went incredibly dry and his eyes involuntarily wandered to her nether regions. Damn her for wearing a long dark pleated skirt that made his search futile.
“No I’m completely woman; in fact I’m too much woman for it”
“I’m not following you here”
She undid a couple of buttons of her vibrant blouse, noting with embarrassment his eyes were locked on that location. He was incredibly glad the plate was there, but it was beginning to tilt at an odd angle even though he was holding it up. Damn her for doing this to him…unless she was hinting she wanted to do something else to him. Damn her for making him think instead of telling her.
“I strap every day to keep a decent figure; it’d be too much if I can’t do it with that neckline. I’ll look like a hooker”
He saw the bandages underneath the small ‘v’ she’d created in her clothing but felt disappointment when she failed to continue. At least this explained why she never wore anything he’d like to see her in and only got changed for bed with her back to him, but then again if she had any shred of modesty she’d do that anyway. He mentally screamed for her to keep stripping even though he had a fairly decent idea she was very much disinclined to follow his notion.
“You can’t look all that bad in it, I’m sure it’ll look even better on you that way, as…”
He trailed off having decided that ‘you’ll fill it out more and make the length shorter’ was not an altogether appropriate reply when he was convincing her to wear it. She gave him a hopeful look for him to finish so he had a retry.
“It’ll show the school you’ve a good body and talent to match it, not just a beauty, you have brains too”
“‘Beauty?’”
“Erm, yeah”
“Now I know you’re messing around”
“I’m not, have you known me to lie? Would I have--?”
He trailed off, this time because he did not want to bring up their brief liaison in the dark in case she thought him immature to obsess about it. If she figured out what he was about to mention it, he’d expect her to storm off again. She knew only too well what he intended to say and responded with something he’d never have expected in thirty lifetimes. She grabbed the costume and headed into the en suite with determination in her stride.
She emerged a couple of minutes later, looking far better than anything he could have ever fantasised. She’d undone her twin plaits and let her slightly crinkled hair lay freely beyond her shoulders. The velvet overcoat hung loosely on her body, whereas the shiny satin under-piece suited her figure perfectly. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t noticed the difference in the size of her bust when he’d seen her getting changed last night—it was nearly twice as big. As suspected, the material failed to hide much of her legs and looked even hotter when she walked, where the material moved with her but didn’t move so much she exposed anything, only gave delicious hints to the male. She sat where she’d been only a few minutes before but this time her legs were firmly closed, as the material moved even further up her body as she sat down. The plate slid off his knees and onto the bedcovers, and it was difficult to tell who was more embarrassed by this revelation. James at least plucked up enough courage to speak first in case she made another sudden unexpected departure.
“I apologise but I can’t control my body, you’re gorgeous in that. Well, you’re gorgeous anyway but it seems it was too much for me to hide from you this time”
“That’s why I don’t want to be on display for all the men out there, I don’t want to be the local porn star. Hang on, what did you mean by this time?”
“You really don’t want to know the answer to that”
“Hey, you—”
He never found out what he was though, as at that moment there was a knock on the door. James looked at her as if she should get it, but with her glare and glance downwards he sighed and wished he could make his problem a little less obvious. It was the pair of auditors again, with three students he recognised, but again couldn’t name.
“Is Jessie around? I thought we could talk about the rehearsal times, and to see if she’s okay with the pressure of basically having the whole play to learn. These are the other actors, and I assumed you didn’t want to meet each other for the first time tomorrow”
“Yeah, erm now’s not a great time but—”
One of the actors, the boy, sneezed and when he opened his eyes he noticed James’ problem, and shot him a look of a hybrid between shock and disgust. James met his expression and hoped the others hadn’t noticed it either. He pushed the door open so they could walk in, the actor pausing to whisper ‘what the hell’s wrong with you?’ to which James pointed behind him, and it became evident he’d seen Jessie from his face change. He shut the outer door and knew what Jessie meant when she didn’t want to be on show, as the men in the room were staring at her with looks of lust displayed on their faces. He coughed loudly to remind the auditors their reason for being there, and the one with glasses said:
‘Ah yes, glad to see you’re getting into character and all, how do you feel with this?”
“Actually, I have a prob--”
“Excellent, it’ll be easy to say your performance will be the breast, er best. This is Stephanie; she’ll be playing your mother in this”
He indicated to a shy brunette who nodded quietly, wishing attention hadn’t been placed on her like that. She was the only other female that had shown up that hadn’t stormed out when they learnt they’d given away the leading role already. He’d cut Jessie off without even listening to the start of her protest, far more interested in the light reflecting off the clothing and how it teased at what lay beneath. His partner continued for him.
“This is Cassidy; she’ll be playing your grandmother”
A jealous looking blonde sourly looked at the room mates, making it lucid it was the redhead’s role she desired.
“This is Timothy, he’ll--”
The boy whispered into his ear.
“Sorry, this is ‘butch’, is it? Butch is going to play the woodcutter. I expect to see you all at dress rehearsal tomorrow at twelve sharp in the auditorium”
“Why was there only a day between casting and the production?”
“Because if the play’s a disaster, at least the audience will stay to laugh at the terrible acting, pointing out victims for future torture”
Stephanie gulped loudly as the other interviewer said it was all they wanted, not being able to bring himself to run over the scripts with them like he usually did every other year he’d been in charge of the productions. A couple of minutes passed before James spoke up again.
“Could you please get out then if there’s nothing else instead of staring at the leading lady in so foul a manner?”
They left, with Timothy, or Butch as he liked to be called for the weightlifting he did, reluctantly staring back behind him, allowing Jessie to receive another evil glare from the blonde. Apparently he must be her boyfriend or something, and she was jealous because of this as well. Within minutes the whole school knew of the attire and how it looked on the lead, guaranteeing total ticket sales the next day. When they were alone again James opened the door to the en suite, expecting Jessie to storm right into it when given the first chance. Instead, she looked at him and asked him if he wanted her to take it off in that case, to which he replied negatively. James stood in front of her and caressed her face as he inquired if she was feeling all right, deliberately not looking anywhere except for her face. She nodded a little shakily then pushed him back with some force so he landed on his back.
He was about to protest as soon as his back hit off the floor, but silenced his words when she knelt, straddling his hips and bent down so her lips were just above his. The dress barely covered her now, as he pleasantly discovered when she removed her overcoat, feeling heat like nothing before rise in him. He could see each partition in her irises, feeling this was infinitely better than the night before when she’d been almost shy and this time the light was on, glorifying the moment for him. She lowered her lips and touched against his before standing back up and walking back towards his bed. She got under the covers as he watched her, partly afraid to move in case she wanted him to leave her alone, and partly afraid in case she wanted him to join her there and then he didn’t. She folded her knees so they created a triangle with her feet a couple of inches away from her derrière and took off the skimpy dress, knowing she couldn’t have flashed him from that angle. He was immediately standing and on his way over, feeling she couldn’t have done that without ulterior motives in her mind. She clutched the material against her and asked him how much he wanted her.
“I can’t express how much I want you, and that’s a fact. It’s not just your body I’m after in case you’re thinking that”
“What would you do to have me?”
“Anything”
“Even if meant you’d forever lose your pride because of it?”
“I wouldn’t be ashamed of going out with you; it’d be more like I wouldn’t feel worthy enough to be with someone as fascinating as you. I’d die for you”
“That won’t be necessary, but you’re not lying just to be with me are you?”
“No, I don’t lie, ever. You’re safe with me, I’ll never mistreat you”
“Good”
She had an ulterior motive, but first she’d have to lure his trust a little closer. He was sweating slightly as he approached her, dreading the possibility of her asking if he had a girlfriend at home; how could he explain he was due to get married in a couple of years? He kissed her passionately, wanting her to drop the covers but didn’t want to force her to do it either, hoping he wouldn’t wake up with a mouthful of feathers like he’d done in the past, and this was real. She dealt with his clothing as best she could, then she remarked his hips did look a little girly as he stood up to remove his lower clothing. He shot her a look of sheer annoyance but held his tongue lest it endangered the opportunity he presently had. She grinned to herself not-so-innocently, and asked him to try on the dress. He looked at her with a hint of disgust and asked her straight-out if she was bisexual. She denied it and explained she just wanted to see what he’d look like as it was a turn-on, even though that sentence was a total lie. She looked at him in it, despite his protests at feeling gay, and made him turn around so she could view him from all angles. He mentally vowed to get her back for this and wished he could be strong enough to deny her something. When he turned around again she was sitting with the covers still around her but she was sitting with her legs hanging off the side of his bed. She asked him to remove her red shoes, which he did obligingly, hoping to get out of the dress soon even if he didn’t have sex with her as it made him feel highly uncomfortable. He gave her a look of disdain-tinged horror when she spoke her next order.
“You’re playing the girl”
“No way, I don’t do drag”
“What about now?”
“You asked me to, it’s not by personal preference let me assure you”
“You want me to be stared at like a lump of meat? What happens when one’s too horny to control it and rapes me afterwards? Do you want to be the one to cause that risk? Did you want me to just be Little Red Riding Your Manhood? I thought you said you never lied anyway”
“I don’t, but you’re not being very fair here”
“You said you’d sacrifice your dignity to be with me, was that just a lie to screw me?”
“No, I’ll do it because I said I would and I’m a man of my word”
“Someone’s already made a man out of you?”
“No, but I’m not a child either”
“I can see that, which is why I believe you. Now get out of the dress”
She stood up and let the covers fall and kissed him when the offending item was thrown off with a heavy blush creeping across her cheeks. He touched her hips gingerly, too afraid to do anything else in case she shied away like last night. She turned and pushed him onto the bed, sitting on his lap with little care. He pulled back sharply with watering eyes, as she’d successfully twisted two very delicate parts of his anatomy. She apologised and sat beside him, saying he’d get her side of the bargain when he’d completed his. She kissed him again and left for the bathroom to put on what she’d been wearing before and to give him a few minutes to relieve the pain. When she returned fully clothed, he was lying back, dressed, reading the script again. He suddenly despised the story very much and wished it were something where he’d have clothes on and play a man. Oh wait, that’s what it was until he agreed to everything Jessie had said without finding out what she wanted first. Why had he read out the article on it to her in the first place? She asked him what he was doing and he replied a little sullenly that he had to learn almost the whole play that night and suggested he learned ‘his’ lines so the swap ran smoothly the next day. He acrimoniously wondered how he was going to prance through the forest picking flowers without falling over his feet or flashing the audience (the very thought made his blood run chilled).
He was just glad there was a hood he could pull over his head before she made him dye his hair or pluck his already fairly nice naturally shaped eyebrows. He just hoped she’d listen to him when he pointed this out tomorrow. Especially when it came to him wanting to veto anything to do with wax.