Alex was definitely a better singer than she was a dancer. In fact, Alex was a phenomenal singer.

Kata was sat, awestruck as Alex belted "When There Was Me and You," up on the stage of the cafeteria. She could tell Alex was nervous, but that didn't stop her from performing beautifully.

What really surprised Kata was how loud Alex was. In class, Alex was the quietest person in the room at any given time, so much so that Kata forgot she existed half the time. While that may sound rude, it was the truth. When Kata and Alex were coming with blocking, Alex was a lot louder than in class, but still pretty quiet. Up on that stage, however, you would never know that she was even the slightest bit shy.

Alex caught Kata's eye and had to stifle a giggle which made Kata chuckle. This then made Alex lose focus, causing her to stumble, but she caught herself before falling and went right into the next step like nothing ever happened. Kata wanted to start clapping as loud as she could for Alex just because of that, but she knew she should wait until the end of the song, so she settled for a thumbs-up, earning a smile from Alex.

When Alex sang the last note, Kata was the first one clapping. She was impressed with her singing. She was impressed with her acting. She was impressed with how quickly Alex had mastered the blocking. Kata was just impressed in general.

As Alex dismounted from the stage Kata ran up to her. "You were so good!" she praised. "You're definitely better at singing than at jazz squares." Kata playfully shoved Alex making her laugh.

"That concludes rehearsal everyone! Notes will be sent out in tonight's email, get good sleep, we have a long week of rehearsals ahead of us."

As the students started to disperse, Kata made her way over to her backpack. She packed up and hoisted the bag onto her back which was painfully heavy, even with Kata's muscular build. Every day Kata was forced to bring extra textbooks to and from school that never offered any help. "Now you have all you have the tools you need to succeed. You can't blame failure on anybody but yourself." Kata's mother had remarked on one occasion. However, Kata's mother wasn't necessarily talking about the books. Kata felt like her mother was just talking about her life in general.

Kata shook herself out of her thoughts and tried to find one of her friends to walk out with. Though her mother didn't ever give her a chance to get close to people, she thought having connections and acquaintances were important in life. She believed that this would help with social skills which are helpful in many jobs, which she was right about, and Kata understood that. She just didn't like being given lectures on the matter, and she had learned early on that to avoid any it was best to walk out of school talking to someone.

Kata saw three girls, Zoe, Aadya, and Rose, already walking out the door, laughing together. She tried to swallow her jealousy because she knew it was irrational. However, the feeling still lingered, like a bitter aftertaste in her mouth, so she looked away. There was nothing to be jealous of, Kata knew that.

Most of the people had already left the cafeteria, Kata noted as she glanced around. Her eyes landed on one person, talking to Mr. Benj.

Kata walked over to her peer and her teacher just as Mr. Benj said. "You did a really good job up there, Alex. Did it help at all?"

Kata stopped in her tracks and waited patiently off to the side, not wanting to interrupt a conversation.

"It did. Thank you, Mr. Benj." Alex replied. "And I really enjoyed working with Kata." Kata couldn't help but smile at that.

"You are very welcome, but I didn't really do anything. That was all you, girl. You and your amazing performance."

Alex beamed at the compliment, and Mr. Benj smiled at her then told Alex goodbye when he saw Kata standing off to the side.

"What was that about?" Kata asked as she walked up to Alex who was gathering her stuff and putting an earbud in. Alex looked up at Kata and shrugged as if to say "it was nothing." A little smile tugged at the corner of her lips though, and Kata found herself smiling again.

"Something good I take it?"

This time Alex gave a big smile. "Yeah, it was."

"Well good." Kata waited for the other girl to say something else, and when it became evident that she wasn't going to Kata decided to change the subject. "What are you listening to?" she asked.

"Newsies," Alex answered, humming along slightly.

"Ah, show tunes. Should have known." Alex just giggled. "Newsies is good," Kata added after a moment. "Is that what you normally listen to?"

"Huh?"

"Showtunes. Broadway. Is that the music you usually listen to?" Kata asked as the two girls began slowly walking towards the front doors.

Alex nodded. "Yeah." The two were quiet for a minute. "Lately I've been listening to Newsies and Book of Mormon. Dear Evan Hansen is my favorite musical though."

Kata nodded. "I love Dear Evan Hansen," she said. The musical made her feel less alone in this crazy world, something Kata desperately needed.

"What music do you like?" Alex asked softly. Kata was caught off-guard by the question. She loved music and listened to it whenever she could, that normally being late at night with earbuds in, in the midst of doing something else, but she wasn't used to people asking her questions about herself. She didn't hang out with her friends often enough for them to ask too many questions about her, her mother thought she knew everything about her, and her dad was gone working at the hospital almost all the time. Lana would sometimes ask her questions about herself, but most of the time the two sisters were too busy to spend much time together. This never really bothered Kata too much, but it was nice to have someone ask her a question about herself.

"I listen to broadway occasionally, but I mostly listen to rock and alternative stuff."

"What bands?"

Kata glanced at the innocent-looking girl next to her. Her blue jeans, blouse, and delicate silver dolphin chain she wore did not scream 'rock' at all. She smirked.

"I highly doubt you'd know any of them." Kata retorted.

"Try me."

Kata looked at Alex who had complete seriousness displayed across her face and seemed like she had taken on a slightly more confident posture.

"Okaay..." Kata said, drawing out the word. "Well, my favorite band is definitely MCR- er- sorry, it stands for-"

"My Chemical Romance." Alex finished smiling. Kata must have looked shocked because Alex then said: "I've listened to rock and alternative before." And with that, she laughed and left Kata with the same expression written across her face as before.

Once Kata pulled her face together and accepted the fact that maybe Alex had more to her than what she let through, she caught up to her. They walked in silence for a good ten feet before it started getting awkward so Kata asked: "What's your favorite song?" Alex looked at her in confusion. "Your favorite MyChem song?"

"Oh!" Alex thought for a moment while biting her bottom lip. "I think Bulletproof Heart is probably my favorite." She paused, thinking again for a moment. "But there are so many good songs, it's really hard to choose just one."

Kata couldn't stop smiling. It was so nice to talk to someone who knew what the band was. She hoped that Alex not only knew who MCR was but also how they could make someone feel. She couldn't describe how she felt when listening to the band. They poured all their emotions into their songs and spoke to so many misunderstood people. There were so many people in Kata's life that didn't accept her for who she was and even though she didn't actually know the members of My Chemical Romance, she felt like she did. Their music felt like someone finally saying to her: "It's okay to not be okay. You're not alone, and we get it." It killed her every time someone found out about her obsession with the band and called it an "emo quirk," or "weird," or "a way for her to try to be different." It killed her that when her mother found out she listened to MyChem she didn't even try to understand what they were about. She immediately deemed them as a bad influence and deleted all the songs from her phone. Luckily her mother was not aware of google incognito, so Kata could listen to the music on Youtube.

"It's not hard to choose just one, it's impossible!" Kata exclaimed because it really was. There were so many songs that were so good and had so much emotion poured into them. Alex laughed.

"Yeah, that's kinda true." Kata's smile spread wider.

"I guess if I had to choose a few of my favorites, Famous Last Words would definitely be up there. Along with I'm Not Okay, and Disenchanted, and- oh who am I kidding! I love them all!" Kata laughed again, but this time Alex didn't laugh with her. In fact, any traces of happiness that had once been on her face were gone. Despair clouded her eyes and she didn't look like she was in the hallway of the school anymore; Alex's mind had gone somewhere different entirely. Any openness Alex had gained with Kata had been erased. The sadness that Kata had sensed around her when they first started working together earlier that day was back and ten times stronger. Kata's stomach started tying itself in knots.

"Alex?" She said with concern, stopping her footsteps. "Are you okay?" She gently placed her hands on Alex's arms. Alex was jolted out of her masked state and quickly stepped out of Kata's grip. She grabbed her arms tightly and her knuckles turned white. She looked so fragile and small. She looked helpless.

"Y-yeah." Alex stuttered. "I-I'm fine. I just gotta go."

Alex hurried out the door, and Kata stood there for a moment, too shocked to do anything. She quickly recovered and bolted outside, but Alex was nowhere in sight. Her mother however was waiting in her Lexus and waved starkly to Kata. Kata continued to look frantically around for Alex. She didn't know what had happened to her, but she knew it wasn't good and that Alex didn't need to be alone. Her mother honked the horn of the car, and Kata felt her stomach drop another foot lower. Whenever that happened, Kata knew she was in trouble. She stood in the doorway for a second, debating.

"Screw you, Mother," she finally grumbled through gritted teeth. Kata didn't know Alex well, but she knew she had to help her. She could worry about the consequences later, but right now she had to see if she could find Carson.

***

A/N: So good news I have found some motivation! It's not all back, but at least I have some motivation now!!!

Thank you all so much for reading, if you enjoyed this chapter please consider giving it a vote before you click onto the next chapter!!!

Love,
Sunny <3

***DISCLAIMER***

I do not own any My Chemical Romance songs or lyrics stated in this chapter or any other chapter for that matter, they belong to My Chemical Romance. I also do not own any of the musicals listed in this chapter. (I feel the need to put this every time something comes up because...better safe than sorry! Also anxiety)