DANNY Chapter 33 by Roberta J. Cabot This is a story about Daniel, a guy with a unique talent and an even more unique problem: A great singing voice and the looks of his gorgeous sister. And how he and his family deal with his having breasts. And how he ends up as the female lead singer for a high-school cover band as well as a radio DJ. Practicing for the concert continued, and Danny's and the band's fans continued to grow, so much so that it took Tom Hennessy and his friends to keep everyone in line and things bearable. Yep, Tom Hennessy. The gang also started the ball rolling on "The Plan," i.e. letting everyone think that it was actually Danielle who was Dannie-the-singer. It seemed to be working, but for how long, nobody knew. Never a dull moment with Batch Fourteen, and Dan & his gang.

 
Chapter Thirty-Three:  A Showdown

***** (Danielle) *****

It was a hectic two weeks as we got ready for the concert, but everything went well for the most part.

Naturally, just like the folks of the other kids, Mom and Dad had a lot of questions. Danny and I did our best to explain, because, if they didn't agree, then we couldn't continue on. Thankfully, though, they agreed. Eventually. We had to be super-detailed with our explanations, though, and in the end, they were, grudgingly, for it, so long as we were being careful. I doubt if they would have agreed, though, if Danny didn't ask. Mom and Dad always did have a soft spot for Danny.

As to the security aspect, I explained that we could request for a car to bring us to and from the Arclight if we wanted, and we could have guards and everything. We explained the schedule, though, which meant that we'd be getting in at midnight, or even later, for the next two weeks but, curiously, they didn't really complain except to say they'd feel bad not seeing us much.

"Don't worry, Dad," I said. "It's just for two weeks."

To that, he just nodded, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. They also said that they'd be out of town during the concert because of a business meeting of dad's. But we promised to get a copy of the video for them.

We wondered why mom had to join him on his business trip, but the looks they were giving each other made it obvious. Danny and I gave each other winks and nudges, and Danny waggled his eyebrows at dad, and mom and dad looked so adorable as they blushed.

Anyway, Danny and I thought this was too easy. Something must be up. And we only found out later that Mrs. P already had a long talk with them earlier, and had ironed things out already. Grrr…

So, everything went smoothly.

Except when Janet showed up.

After school, Danny, Nikki and I would rush back home, shaking the kids trying to trail us. Some even tried cutting us off, but with Tom and his guys escorting us in their cars, that didn't really work. And once we were home, we were safe.

We'd then get ready for the night's rehearsal, and mom and dad would see us out the door.

The routine was, first, I would pick out our outfits. Danny gave me full access to his cabinets, drawers and dresser, and I was able to pick out my outfit from the stuff he had, and allow me to play-act as Danny. As for his outfit, that was easier to do, and I'd always pick functional but chic ensembles from my stuff that I myself would wear. But given his slightly more... voloptuous dimensions, it would always be totally sexy.

I was shocked, however, to find out that my tasteful clothes sense didn't translate well to boys' clothes. But with the both of us collaborating, Danny and I were able to come up with ensembles that passed muster with Nikki, who turned out to be a better judge of boys' clothes - after all, she was Danny's girlfriend, and it was to her interest that her boyfriend looked good.

This had the salutary effect of teaching Danny how to dress better as a guy, and we put together outfits out of his existing clothes that he could mix-and-match as needed, thereby quadrupling the number of outfits he could wear. From then on, Danny started looking pretty spiffy whether as a girl or a guy.

As for "Dannie," it wasn't as difficult to pick out her outfits, since they were just my regular outfits, except that we'd pick out two outfits instead of one everyday - one for "her" to wear to the Arclight and to practice in (so that was more like an exercise outfit, like leotards or sweatshirt & shorts, but with heels, which she'd cover up with a jacket when travelling from the house to the Arclight), and another to change into after practice.

Danny argued against that, saying he didn't need two outfits, but I used my veto - I basically said, because I was a girl, I knew better. So I won the debate by default.

So Danny would go to the rehearsal sessions outfitted in my best workout clothes, which I had to say, made him look oh, so sexy, with a spare set of clothes he could change into after rehearsal. As for me, I got duded up in Danny's clothes, and played my role as Danny, Nikki's boyfriend (one detail I had to change in our plan, though, was that Danny was now the band's manager, as well as Dannie's and Robin's).

Danny already had my voice down pat, but as for me - surprisingly, I didn't have a hard time mimicking his voice: his normal speaking voice was relaitvely high, to begin with, and all I really needed to do was to speak in a slightly lower register, and though it was far from perfect, it was good enough, especially when I matched it with Danny's normal cadence and intonations, which I knew back-to-front. After all, I grow up with him so I knew his voice well.

Anyway, once ready, we'd proceed to the Arclight.

After a hairy encounter with some fans, Mrs. Piper decided to hire some drivers for us for the duration of the preparation for the show, as well as a nondescript car: the new routine was that one of the drivers would take Danny's Mustang and conspicuously drive it to the Arclight while another would pick us up at the back of the house in the nondescript car, and would make our way to the Arclight via a circuitous route. The kids would easily trail the Mustang but would never catch it - the driver was a professional stunt and safety driver, after all - and would eventually get to the Arclight's underground parking entrance (where people not on Arclight business were not allowed to enter) long after we had gotten there: while they were chasing the decoy, we would arrive at the Arclight's loading dock entrance twenty or thirty minutes ahead of my mustang.

As for after, eating out (and getting home) was not easy, so most of the time, Mrs. P would order takeout for everyone, and we'd eat in the Arclight's employees' lounge-slash-cafeteria before going home.

Sometimes, though, because the Glee Club kids couldn't stay late too often, the size of the group was small enough that we felt it okay to eat out instead. We'd concoct a plan where our two drivers would use Joanne's van and my mustang to lure the fans away. Someone would let us know when the coast was clear and we'd take one of the PiperCorp minibuses and we'd look for a nice place where we can have dinner. But wherever we did have dinner, we wouldn't be able to eat at that place again for the duration of our practice period.

We'd then be driven back to our houses but using alternate routes so as to avoid attention.

- - - - -

***** (Danielle) *****

On the Wednesday before the concert, when the Glee Club kids had long gone home and we finished practicing our "alternate set," we decided to have dinner at this out-of-the-way pizza-and-pasta place that Mel knew about, and when "my" drivers had lured away the bulk of the crowd, we then took one of the buses and made the short drive to the restaurant.

We settled down at a spot in the middle of the empty place. The waiters then took our orders and we gorged on the breadsticks while we waited for our orders.

As I laughed at yet another joke from Jerry and Mel (they had grown to be quite the couple) and chewed on my breadstick, our minibus driver came up.

"Ummm… Mr. Fairchild," he said, trying to get my attention. I almost didn't respond. He wasn't let in on "The Plan" so he thought I was Dan while I momentarily forgot who I was supposed to be.

I got up and we had a short discussion away from my noisy friends.

"What's up, Fred?" I asked. I didn't have the voice-imitating skills of Danny, but I think I do a fair imitation of Danny's boy-voice. It wasn't perfect, but thank god Danny's regular boy voice was fairly high-pitched.

"I think someone was successful in following us." Fred gestured to the parking lot outside.

I groaned. "Fans," I grumbled. "Why can't they leave us alone?"

"It's actually just the one. I think the decoy cars worked well enough, but this one was able to see through our little trick. Anyway, I saw this one car parked in the Arclight Coliseum's parking lot pull out and start following us the same time we left. I thought I was able to give it the slip, but then I saw the car parked just outside. I guess I wasn't too successful. Sorry 'bout that."

"Not a problem - you did your best."

He led me to the front window, and we peeked through the curtains. In the empty parking lot outside, there were only two vehicles - our minibus and a nondescript station wagon.

"That the guy?" I pointed to the car.

Fred nodded. "It's a girl, actually, Mr. Fairchild."

That piqued my interest and I squinted through the window, trying to see who it was. "Ohmigod! It's Janet!"

I turned to Fred.

"How long has she been out there?"

"I don't know," he said. "I wasn't looking at the lot the whole time, so she could have been there since we went into the restaurant. Maybe twenty minutes."

I rushed back to our table.

"Danny!" I called, and he came over, along with Nikki.

"What up?" he said. I mean "she." Heehee.

"Janet's outside the restaurant," I said without preamble.

She and Nikki looked at each other.

"Where, exactly? What's she doing?"

"I don't know. She's just sitting in her car outside."

"But she knows we're here?"

"Yes - she followed us all the way from the Arclight."

"Danny, I thought she didn't want anything to do with the band anymore," Nikki said.

"We don't know that, Nikki. She just stormed off when we were talking about the KRPQ concert that one time. Sure she said what she said, but shew might have been carried away by her emotions and didn't mean it."

"She did say she wanted out."

Danny shrugged. "She thought we were sort of taking away the band from her. We weren't, but things were changing a lot. I guess that's why she felt the way she did."

"Why doesn't she come in then?"

I shrugged. "What do we do?"

"I guess we need to invite her in…" Danny said.

"Do you think that's wise, Danny?" Nikki asked, worried.

"I don't know, Nick. But regardless of what happened before, she doesn't deserve to be all alone in that parking lot while we're all inside having dinner." She looked at me. "And, maybe we can clear things up. Maybe she might want to come back, and we need to give her the chance to come back. It's her band, too."

"What about Fallon?" I asked.

"Well, whether Janet decides to come back or not, Fallon will be part of the concert. After all her work, it's only fair."

I nodded. "So… we go out and fetch her, then?"

"Yes."

"I'm nervous. Fred? Can you come with us?"

He nodded. "Not a problem, Mr. Fairchild."

We stepped out of the restaurant. I shivered in the cool night air, and Nikki came over and we hugged each other around the waist against the cold.

Danny walked ahead of us towards Janet's car while we followed, and Fred, our bodyguard-driver trailed all of us.

We stopped about ten feet away from her car and just looked at her. Clearly she noticed us since she was staring back.

Danny tentatively waved, and she rolled down her window.

"Hey, Janet," she said.

"Hey," Janet replied mildly. I saw her red-rimmed eyes and it was obvious she had been crying.

"We're just about to have some dinner. You wanna join us?"

She looked at Danny and burst into tears.

Danny came over and opened the door. Janet practically fell out and into Danny's arms.

Danny caught Janet and allowed the tall girl to sob on her shoulder.

"I missed you," Janet whisper-sobbed into her ear. "I love you."

Danny nervously looked around, especially at Nikki, but she just shrugged. Knowing Danny, though, I knew she probably sighed in relief.

"We missed you, too," she said diplomatically, and just continued to hug her. "So - are you hungry? There's pizza and stuff…"

Janet's pretty big, compared to Danny, but Danny didn't seem to be troubled by practically carrying the taller girl.

Janet pulled back and grabbed Danny by the back of her head and crushed Danny's lips against hers.

"Hey!" Nikki cried and rushed to them. I was about to do the same thing but Nikki beat me to it.

Nikki pulled Janet away from Danny and stood between them.

"Stop!" Nikki said. "Keep away from him!"

"You b…" Janet was about to backhand her but Danny's hand shot out and grabbed her wrist.

"No, Janet," she said. "I can't let you do that."

Janet tried to wrench her arm away but Danny wouldn't let go. By the way Janet's arm trembled, I could see how hard she tried. And we all knew Danny was pretty strong.

Danny stared into the tall girl's eyes, and she was able to stare Janet down despite the half-foot height difference between them.

"Stop it, Janet," she said. "Now."

Janet sighed and nodded. "That's all you had to say, Danny."

"Janet, one of these days, we're gonna have to talk about things. You're not being yourself."

She frowned at Danny. "What do you mean?"

"You're hurting your friends."

She scoffed. "They're not my friends. They took my band away from me."

Danny looked down. "If someone took your band from you, it was me. Don't do this to the others."

"No, it's not you. It can't be you." She reached out and touched Danny's cheek. Nikki bristled at that.

"Hey! Don't touch him!" Nikki swatted Janet's hands away. Janet glared at her but Danny again interposed herself between them.

Janet looked at Danny, and then at Nikki, and sighed.

"You don't know how lucky you are Nikki. I only wish…"

"You only wish what," Nikki asked.

Janet started crying again.

- - - - -

***** (Danny) *****

"You only wish what," I repeated Nikki's question.

"I wish I was the one. Your one."

I've seen that kind of look before. From Danielle and Betsy and Nikki and, ohmigod, even from Morgan and some of the guys. I wasn't any kind of stud, but I knew enough to recognize that look.

But Danielle and the others never acted this weird. She seemed like one of those crazy-obsessed people on drugs you see on TV shows.

"My one?"

"Dammit, yes!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some movement behind me: seems the guys have come out and they were all behind me.

"I'm sorry, Janet," I said carefully. "You're one of my best friends, but that's all it is - I don't feel the same way about you."

"But I love you!"

"I'm so sorry, Janet."

Her expression grew hard and backhanded me across the face. I flew back and fell on the parking lot's asphalt.

The others started to move in, but she jumped back into her car.

She screeched out of the lot, almost running me and Danielle down, but before she escaped out onto the street, she hit our minibus near it's driver's side headlight. It was stong enough that the bumper was half torn off, the fender wrecked and the left front tire ruined.

"Janet!" I cried and ran after her car.

She just stopped in the middle of the street, just beyond the parking lot entrance.

I stopped at the curb and looked at her. From the car, she stared back at me.

"Bye, Danny," she said, and sped away.

- - - - -

***** (Danny) *****

Hours later, all of us were back in our houses, and a report was filed about the minibus. However, Mrs. Piper decided not to file any charges. She explained that the concert couldn't afford to have any bad publicity.

I also didn't file any charges personally, which surprised everyone.

"Why, Danny?" Betsy, the most logical among all of us, asked. "She almost ran you guys over! She's dangerous!"

"Betsy's right, man," Morgan said. "She's out of her head. She could hurt someone."

"I know, I know," I said. "But she didn't."

I looked at them. "Clearly, something's happening with Janet, but she's our friend. We gotta find out what, and at least try and help her first."

"But…"

"We just need to be careful."

"We need to find her first."

"The logical place to start is at her house, right?" Betsy said.

"We can try," I said, "but she won't be there, I almost guarantee it."

Morgan shook his head.

"I think you're wrong for not filing charges, man," he said, "but whatever…"

I clapped him on the shoulder.

"Thanks, dude," I said, and Morgan just shrugged.

- - - - -

***** (Danny) *****

The following two days went back to normal, or as normal as it ever was, and the remaining practice nights went just as well as the other nights, except that we did two repeats of the routines each time, and we had Harry, Sally and the others there to practice with for a change.

All throughout, we had to contend with our fans, but with the help of Tom Hennessy and his friends, and Mrs. Piper's people, we managed.

The thing was, we kept on seeing Janet, usually in the crowd that hung outside, and sometimes around our houses, but before we could confront her, she'd disappear into the night.

We called up Janet's folks, and they said that she left a note that she'd be out with her band for a while, practicing for a gig. But she came home sometimes to grab a change of clothes and such, or to borrow some money, but other than that, they hardly saw her.

We didn't bother to correct Janet's... mis-statement, and just left word with her folks to tell Janet that she should contact us.

It was worrisome, but what else could we do?

Anyway, we finally became proficient in our routines enough to satisfy our director and choreographers - we reached that point where we thought we couldn't be more ready.

Guess it's time.

- - - - -

***** (Danny) *****

On the day before the concert, we had our final dress rehearsal. Before going to school. Mom and Dad took their leave as they left for Dad's weekend business conference, and we were on our own. In the old days, when the parental units were out of town, Danielle would probably be arranging a party and I would be hiding in my room, or spending the night at Morgan's, but at the moment, all we were concerned about was the rehearsal.

"We're trusting you kids," Dad said, The veiled warning was hard to miss.

"Oh, Dad," I said, and sighed. "You know you can trust us!"

Dad grabbed me in a bear hug. "I know it, Danny. So." He grabbed Danielle, too, and squeezed us both. "Good luck with the show tomorrow, okay?"

- - - - -

***** (Danny) *****

Our final, full-dress rehearsal went almost flawlessly. We just did one run-through and after which, Mrs. Piper told us all to relax and get some rest.

All of us said good night, but, per Nikki's request, Danielle and Betsy rode in our camouflage car, and I drove Nikki to her house.

And, when I was about to drop her off at her place, she insisted I drive my 'stang into their garage.

I followed her into the house, and found that her family was out for the night - her folks were spending the night with some friends, and she had bribed her siblings with tickets to the concert to stay with friends as well.

She dragged me to her room, and started taking off my, or rather Danielle's clothes, not even waiting.

Not that I'm complaining.

to be continued...

 

click here to read my old Working Girl Blogs, click here to read all of my blogs, click here to read my stories in BCTS, and click here to see my profile & know more about me.