The Show Must Go On!

In an empty spot in the fields stood a lone boy, gazing up at the cliffs with a vacant stare that stretched out for miles. His eyes reflected the mass of land in front of him, smooth and clear. The curves of the cliff matched the curve of his head, concave yet still sturdy and unyielding. Even as another boy approached and nudged his shoulder, he refused to move. Motionless and unflinching.

"Hey, come on, Rishi," John said. "I wanna play. Everyone else is playing over there."

"Is he staring up there again?" Piper asked, hopping on her crutches to catch up to them.

"Yeah. He keeps doing that."

Piper looked up in the direction Rishi was locked in on. "Huh... I think the cave is right up there. Maybe he saw Timmy and the new kid?"

John shrugged his shoulders, then kept on shaking Rishi insistently. Eventually, Rishi slowly lowered his head and shifted his gaze to John. Rishi let out a grunt of acknowledgement mixed with confusion.

Seeing him respond, John repeated, "Hey! Let's go play!"

Rishi let out another grunt, which John took as an okay to take his hand and lead him over to the rest of the young children. Piper glanced at the cliff one more time, somewhat skeptical, but decided to dismiss it for now before joining them.

The younger children, including Angelica and Rydia, had gathered around to talk about what they wanted to do today. Timmy and Judas had climbed down from the cliff to join them as well since the roads were currently on government patrol. In Georgina's hands was a book with a picture of a princess and a dragon painted in watercolors on the cover.

"Did Melinda give you that book?" Rydia asked.

Georgina beamed and nodded. "Uh-huh! I wanna be like Pwincess Lily!"

"Yeah, be a princess," Judas said in a condescending tone and snickered. "Princess of the desert! Friend to scorpion and coyotes alike!"

Rydia glared at him, not appreciating his attitude. Angelica, on the other hand, sprang to action with stars in her eyes as she hopped on to one of the crates.

"Yeah, and I can be the queen!" Angelica declared. "Ruling over my loyal subjects!"

"I can be the knight!" John added as he raised his hand to jump into the conversation. "I'll stab the bad guys with my sword!"

"Me too! Me too!" Jermaine said, mimicking John's actions. "We can both be the knights who save the princess!"

"Oh, are you guys going to play pretend?" Piper asked, deciding to play along. "Who's going to be the dragon then?"

Judas wrapped an arm around Timmy's shoulders and pointed to the two of them. "We'll be the dragons! A big, scary, two-headed dragon! Right, buddy?"

Timmy, completely lost on what was going on, meekly replied, "Uh... yeah. Sure."

Caught up in everyone's excitement, Rishi started flailing his arms around and making noises. Rydia went over to console him, though it didn't seem like he was going to really do anything.

"Rishi should be the dragon," John said. "He already talks like one."

"JOHN!" Rydia yelled. "That's rude! He's a person, not a dragon."

John frowned and lowered his head, guilty when he realized he said something wrong. "I'm sorry..."

Rishi was unfazed by what John had said, instead going quiet and shifting his attention to nibbling on his sleeve. The content noises he made from that had Rydia assume everything was fine and she sighed with relief.

"It's okay," Rydia said more calmly. "Just remember every kid is different. He's no different than the rest of us."

"Okay..."

"He can be something else," Judas said. "I bet he'd make a great steed for the knights. Or we could have him be in the background as a tree."

"This isn't a play though..." Timmy said.

Judas smirked. "Why not? We could totally make this into a play!"

"That requires a lot of work," Rydia said. "We'd need props, costumes, a stage..."

"We have all that!" Angelica exclaimed. "Ayako can make the costumes and we can use the chapel as a stage!"

"But what about props?"

"We can make them ourselves!" Angelica then boldly pointed for the sake of being dramatic. "Let's do it!"

"Yeah, let's do a play!" John said.

"A play! A play!" Georgina repeated.

The younger kids were clearly eager to do this, making it harder for Rydia and Piper to step in to stop it. They were forced to go along with it, watching over them every step of the way.

---

When Rydia and Piper heard from Santo that another adult was going to assist in the project, they weren't expecting Santo to return with supplies alongside a beautiful woman in the passenger seat. She fit the appearance of a princess far better than any of them, taking Santo's hand to gracefully step out of her carriage. Angelica didn't hesitate to run up and embrace the woman, who happily knelt down to receive it.

"Freya, it's been forever!" Angelica said. "Where have you been?"

"Sorry, dear," Freya said. "I've been very busy."

Hearing that name jogged their memory. They could vaguely recall a woman at one point in Nevertown helping out with things. This was back during the town's development years ago, and a lot had changed since then.

After Freya was done with the hug, she went over to the girls with the sweetest smile and said, "Hello, ladies. I'm Freya. I know it's been a while, so it's fine if you don't remember me. Let me know how I can help with the play."

"We just need to make sure no one hurts themselves," Piper said honestly. "We plan on keeping it simple."

"Do you have a script or anything?"

Rydia shook her head. "No. Angelica is pretty much going to run the show. A script might be too hard for everyone anyway."

"Yeah, I know what to do!" Angelica proudly stated.

Freya giggled. "My, what a cute little director! But maybe you should at least write the key parts down so you don't lose track."

"Good idea!"

Rydia was surprised at how easily Angelica listened to her, but maybe that was a sign of respect. The group unloaded the supplies and brought them into Ayako's workshop. There were tables where all the kids sat to work on what was given to them to make props. The youngest just had to cut basic things and draw simple pictures like clouds, while the rest like Judas and Timmy were given the more complicated tasks. Ayako would occasionally drop in to quip at them about proper sewing and how to stitch in the right places.

Rydia and Freya circled around the tables to assist where needed, especially if it seemed like someone was stuck or about to do something stupid with scissors. Piper sat down with Ayako to brainstorm everything at their own table, from the prop setup to the costume design.

"The stage is going to be small, so we don't need too many trees and bushes," Piper said.

"Right. And this dress should be long enough without her tripping over," Ayako said.

"You're really amazing at eyeballing measurements!"

Ayako grinned. "It's a gift. My mother was the same way. She didn't even need to pull out the ruler half the time unless it involved multiple layers."

"What happened to her?"

Piper put a hand over her mouth, realizing she had asked a sensitive question without thinking. Ayako waved a hand to reassure her it was fine.

"Don't worry. She's alive," Ayako said. "At least I believe so. She's always been stubborn, even going as far as opening a shop all on her own when no one else supported her. Even when her business failed, she refused to call it quits and be married off again. She tried to climb back up as a hostess. But then..." 

She trailed off, the harsh reality of the situation sinking in. Piper didn't push the subject, but Freya had overheard them and came over to join the discussion.

"Himeko, was it?" Freya said. "I remember her. She helped us all with our outfits to truly bring out our inner and outer beauty. I wouldn't have gotten far without her."

"That does sound like her," Ayako said, then sighed wistfully. "But one day she didn't come home. No one knew where she went. Someone saw her being pushed into a limo, yet she's not the type of person to drop everything and leave town willingly without me..." Ayako clenched her fists and raised her head with a determined expression. "I'll find her. When I'm an adult, I'll open my own store and use the money to hire a detective to discover the truth!"

Freya placed a supportive hand on Ayako's shoulder. "I know you will, dear. Your designs will blow everyone away and you'll make all the money you'll ever need."

"I've got at least another four years to hone my skills," Ayako said.

"You'll get there," Piper assured her.

A horrifying yell from Rishi ended the conversation there, as everyone scrambled to stop him from burning himself with the glue gun. Judas was scolded very harshly for handing it to him, yet he simply shrugged it off with his guilty hands placed behind his head.

---

Everyone in Nevertown not involved with the play filled up the benches, passing around bags of popcorn Nina had prepared. Piper was allowed to rest up in the front row and enjoy the show, while Rydia and Freya were hovering over the cast to keep everything together. Talus and Ceri made a guest appearance, sitting next to Piper and Santo.

"I've never seen a play before," Ceri said. "Is this how they do it in Broadway?"

Talus chuckled. "Nah, but it's close enough."

Piper doubted this 'Broadway' place used hot glue and felt for armor pieces, but what did she know? At least the costumes came out as good as they did in such a short period of time. Georgina's glittery pink princess dress was adorable with all of its ruffles, Angelica's sparkling blue dress was sleek and queenly, and everyone else's medieval clothing was fairly accurate despite being so simple.

Angelica emerged on to the stage with a piece of paper in her hands, front and center for everyone to see and spoke loudly enough for all to hear. "Welcome, everybody! Today we're going to tell the tale of the princess and the dragon! And the knights who saved her! And me, the queen! I'm the star!"

The audience held back their laughter and instead clapped to cheer them on. Rydia gently gestured Georgina to step forward on to the stage. Gripping the ruffles of her dress, Georgina nervously waddled over to where Angelica was standing.

"Ah, yes! My beautiful daughter!" Angelica said. "Just as beautiful as me! And so kind! You want to make everyone happy, right?"

Georgina's lip quivered and her eyes turned to Piper, clearly lost.

"Say yes!" Piper whispered as loud as she could get away with. "You got this!"

After a moment, Georgina let go of her dress and replied, "Yes! You got this!"

Piper buried her face in her hands. Oops.

Not missing a beat, Angelica pushed back one of her pigtails and said, "Why, yes I do! But even I can't do EVERYTHING! That's why we have knights! They're going to defeat the evil, two-headed dragon!"

Hearing her say 'knights', Jermaine and John ran past the adults to have their turn on the stage.

"Yeah, we'll kill the dragon!" John said while holding up his toy sword.

"To protect the people!" Jermaine added as he copied him.

"No!" Georgina shouted, shaking her head. "No kill!"

"Yes, kill!" John shouted back.

"No kill!"

"Yes, kill!"

"No kill!"

To get the two to move along, Rishi was motioned on to the stage. He was dressed as a messenger with a letter, and he was able to walk up far enough for Angelica to go over and take the letter from him.

"Ah, yes! A letter from the king," Angelica said, then squinted her eyes to pretend to read the letter. "It says that if the dragon can be a friend, he can live! But if he stays evil, he dies!"

"Dwagon fwend!" Georgina said.

Piper had read the book Georgina was being motivated by. This was somewhat close so far aside from Angelica's 'adjustments'. It ended with the princess befriending the dragon, proving it wasn't evil and simply misunderstood, and they all lived happily ever after. The dragon in the original only had one head though, and she was worried Judas was going to make his own adjustments as well...

Once it was time for the dragon to appear, Timmy and Judas awkwardly hobbled over in their stitched up costume that looked more like a plushie than a menacing creature.

"Rawr! We're the evil dragon!" Judas roared, nearly causing Timmy to stumble as he stomped around. "We don't want friends! We want CHAOS!"

"Um... I want a friend," Timmy murmured, barely heard by the audience.

Judas shoved Timmy, causing him to step on one of the props and break it. "No! No friends!"

Jermaine and John charged forward to fight the dragons, whacking at them with their foam swords as hard as little children could. Judas swiped back at them with his claws while Timmy floated his hands around to act like he was fighting too. The swords were continuously knocked away and even snapped at one point, but the boys picked them back up and resumed regardless. At the climax of this epic battle, Georgina entered the battlefield.

"Stop!" Georgina yelled. "No fighting!"

"The princess is right," Timmy said, his tired voice reflecting how badly he wanted this to be over already. "Let's stop fighting and be friends."

"Yeah, fwends!"

However, this was the moment Judas decided to go off script. He swiped what remained of the boys' swords, tossed them off the stage, and pulled John into a headlock.

"NO!" Judas roared. "I hate humans! I will never be friends with any of you!"

John's groaning and struggling signaled that Judas's hold was serious, and he was practically on the verge of tears.

"Hey, stop," Timmy said, but not taking any other action. "I-I think you're hurting him..."

"NO!"

Rydia and Freya jumped in when they saw Judas was taking this way too far, grabbing a child each to force them apart. Wesley rose from his seat, ready to step in as well, but Judas saw this and immediately surrendered. John cried into Rydia's chest, and his sister stroked his hair to console him. The stitching on the dragon costume had fallen apart, yet Timmy remained frozen, not knowing what to do.

"Oh, come on! I was playing," Judas said, trying to sound cheerful like nothing was wrong.

"You're evil!" Angelica declared, dropping back in to save the show. "You will be executed! Your good head can stay though."

Judas pouted and crawled out of his costume. "Fine! Whatever! I hate you brats!"

Judas took his exit off stage where Santo was waiting to give him quite the earful. Meanwhile, Georgina approached the remaining dragon and gently tugged on his costume.

"Fwend?" Georgina asked.

Timmy looked at her, then over to Judas in the corner, then back to Georgina. "Um... yes. We're friends now. B-But I have to go..."

Timmy limped off the stage after that, pieces of the costume still clinging on to him.

"And so the evil dragon was defeated!" Angelica narrated. "Thanks to the kind princess befriending the good half, and the brave knights killing the bad half! And we all lived happily ever after! The end!"

The audience gave a round of applause. John cheered up after being reassured that he was, indeed, a very brave knight who did a very good job. The cast sans Judas and Timmy took a bow, and thus the play came to an end.