'A Simple Twist of Fate'

When I was in my 5th grade Science class, I heard four dreaded words. The Principal of San Diego Junior High (Mrs. White), came in and started talking to my teacher, Ms. Starsmore.

When Ms. Starsmore came over to me, I was like 'oh great what did I do now?'. But she had an 'I'm so sorry' look on her face.

"Please come outside Juliet," she said, looking like she was about to start bawling her eyes out. Although my given name is Avalon Juliet O'Shea, everybody called me Juliet or Jules.

"What happened?" I asked getting a little nauseous, and I knew it had to be pretty bad. I also knew that she was thinking of a good way to tell me bad news.

"Juliet, honey, your parents had a car accident. Your father is alright, but your mother is, um, she died in the car accident."

I wanted to run away, I was running away. This was a dream, and I was going to wake up at any moment. My mom couldn't have been dead. She had taken me to school that morning.

Why was Ms. Starsmore hugging me? I felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach. I knew it was true deep inside me, but I couldn't believe it.

A week goes by...

I didn't go to the wake. My father had said that I was too young; I was only 10. I still couldn't believe that my mother had died six days earlier. When I was at her funeral I remember still not believing that she was dead. At the end of the funeral, I walked over to her grave marker and lay a white rose on it. I asked myself, "Why did this happen to me?"

Five years later...

"Hey Juls! I want you to meet someone!" my dance teacher Mimi Davis yelled at me.

"Okay you guys. Just try not to fall over each other," so that was a bit rude. These guys were excellent dancers, but they didn't have very good co-ordination. Don't ask.

"Juls, this is Kenny Ortega. Kenny this is Avalon Juliet O'Shea," Mimi said. Kenny shook my hand.

"Nice to meet you Kenny. If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing here?" I asked him.

"Well, if you must know. Mimi asked me if I could do her a favor. The favor is," he paused as if there was a drum roll, "to employ you as a dance teacher, for a musical, movie."

Suddenly my face lit up. I guess I should tell you that since I was about 13, I dressed in all dark, dull colors and hardly smiled. It was more or less a gothic look. "Thank you Mimi!" I exclaimed hugging my teacher of ten years.

"So, can you start next Monday? You would have to work Monday through Friday, from 3 to 5 in the evening."

"Sure! I mean...yeah that would be great," I said smiling with out teeth.

I left Kenny and Mimi to talk, heading back to my charges. Sure enough they had all tripped and fell onto the ground.

"Well, I'm here!" I called out into the empty studio that Kenny told me to go to. I skateboarded into the studio until I got to this podium. I found a piece of paper that had:

Walt Disney Productions (tm)
Newsies
List of Cast Members

written on it.

"Gnarly," I said to myself. "Max Casella, huh? Vinnie Delpino from Doogie Howser."

"That's right," Kenny said while emerging from behind the podium.

"Geez! How do you do that?!"

"My secret. Okay, the guys will be here in a few minutes. We aren't going to do anything too difficult today. Just 'Simon Says' and posture checks."

"Guys? As in the general term for kids, right?"

"Well, actually-" he was cut of by about 20 guys coming through the door.

"Ahh...Kenny," I said in a monotone voice. But, Kenny was already trying to quiet down the guys.

"Okay, nice to see you all again. Now I want you to meet someone who's going to help teach you to dance. This is Avalon O'Shea."

"Actually most people call me Juls. Hi," I guess I must have scared them a bit with my appearance. I had made my complexion paler than it should be. I also had dark eyeliner around my eyes and black lipstick on. Along with looking like I belonged in a funeral parlor, as one of the corpses, with my fishnets, black shorts, and black shirt. I got a mix of gasps and "that's going to teach us?".

"What you've never been to L.A. before?" I retorted. Sure it hurt, but what was I going to do? I did get some laughs out of my retort though.

"Okay we're going to do a role call," I said taking the cast list. "Christian Bale?"

"Here," called an English sounding voice.

"Cool. Empire of the Sun. Right?"

"Yes! Did you like it?"

"Ahem! I think we're getting off the subject guys," Kenny interrupted.

"Sir, yes, sir!" I said while saluting him. "Marty Belafsky?"

"Here, ma'am"

"Okay. Please don't call me ma'am. It makes me feel like an adult," perish the thought.

"Vinnie Delpino?" I asked, hoping that Max would answer.

"Yes," he answered laughing.

"Okay, I didn't think that would work. Dee Caspary."

"Right here."

"Joseph Conrad?"

"Over here."

"We love you Conrad, oh yes we do...Sorry. Mark David."

"Here."

"Ivan Dudynsky?"

"Hello."

"Ukrainian?"

"Yeah. Most people think I'm Russian."

"Well, I'm not like most people." I was going to go on to say that the reason I know he was Ukrainian was because I was a Rhythmic Gymnast. Most Rhythmic Gymnasts tend to be Ukrainian. But, a glare from Kenny stopped me. "Luke Edwards."

"Here."

"Robert Feeney."

"Hi."

"Hola. Matthew Fields." By now I was having fun with the names, and acting like an announcer at a hockey game or something.

"Here."

"Michael, um, Goorjian?"

"Yep."

"I actually pronounced your last name correctly?"

"Nope."

"Oh, well, fine then. Aaron Lohr?"

"Over here." This guy was, well, fit. He had well defined arm muscles (and chest muscles and stomach...well you get the idea), and in his tank top they showed. He was also pretty cute.

"Alrighty. Arvie Lowe."

"Here."

"Dominic Lucero?"

"Here." You could tell by the way this guy held himself that he was a dancer.

"Dominic Maldonado."

"Here."

"David Moscow?"

"Huh? Oh, here."

"Are you sure 'bout that Dave?" a guy with shaggy blond hair and blue eyes asked.

"You aren't by any chance Trey Parker?" I asked.

"That would be me," he answered.

"You're in the band E.Y.C. aren't you?"

"Um, yeah. How did you know?" he asked with suspicion. He probably thought I was a stalker or something.

"I'm from Australia, and still-"

"Juls," Kenny said.

"I'll tell you later. David Sidoni."

"Here."

"And Kevin Stea."

"Here."

"That's it," I said with a sigh.

"Thank you Miss Drifter. Okay, we're going to learn some basic dance steps today. Or for the 'dancers' go over some basic dance steps. Juls could you play the tape that's in the tape player?"

"Great. I'm getting paid to push the play button on a tape player," I said sarcastically.

"Who said that you were getting paid?" grinned Kenny.

"Very funny Ortega," I muttered.

"Okay. Play. There ya go," I said while pushing down the play button.

"This is an actual song from Newsies This is 'Carrying the Banner'. It's the opening number. First off we're going to do a basic spin...."

That's how the first day of dance class went. Mostly everyone got the steps down. Except for David Moscow. This guy couldn't dance if his life depended on it. What made that worse was that he was totally against dancing. Well, at least he could do a basic spin.

After class I went out front to wait for my dad. I started to do tricks on my skate-board, like spins and stuff like that.

"Hey, Juls!" I turned around to see Trey running toward me.

"Yes?"

"You have to finish your sentence," he said with a grin and a Southern accent.

"Oh yeah. I'm from Australia and still have relatives there. I visit Perth every so often."

"You don't smile a whole lot, do you?"

"Not really. Don't really see anything to smile about." I guess I also should have told you that I had tried to kill myself that winter. My dad never saw it coming. He's a lawyer, and a single parent, in L.A. Usually it was just me and Brett, my older brother.

"You need a reason to smile?" I nodded. "Really? I just smile for the hell of it," he grinned.

I, of course, stayed stone faced. I wanted to smile, really bad, but I think that I had forgotten how to after my mom died.

"Well, I guess my mission for the next 10 months is to make you smile. With teeth."

"You have an impossible mission then."

The whole rest of that week was a blast. Trey kept trying to make me smile. We became really good friends. He even came to one of the dress rehearsals to my school musical 'Anything Goes!'. I was playing Bonnie, one of the lead parts. He also came to one of my Rhythmic Gymnastics meets, where I won the silver medal.

One day when we were taking a break from dancing for a half an hour, Trey asked me to do my ribbon routine.

For all you people out there who don't know what the hell Rhythmic Gymnastics is I'll tell you. It's a sport where instead of performing on the apparatus, you perform with the apparatus. You also can not go through the handstand position or do any sort of flipping. You can however do pre-acrobatic skills like forward and backward rolls. The apparatuses that you use are the rope, ribbon, clubs, ball, and the hoop. You also have to be pretty flexible. The minimum flexibility is 180 degrees (a straight line), but most gymnast tend to go past that into 200 or more degree splits (a curved line).

I swear, after I finished my routine all the guys mouths were hanging down to the ground. That's also where my nick-name came from. I was dubbed Kat, because I did like a 240 degree split. I guess I liked it better than Juls.

I also had a tendency to sneak around. Because I grew up in a creaky old house, I had learned to be quiet. I scared some of the guys a couple of times just coming up behind them and asking them a question. It might sound funny to you, but I got a lot of bumps and bruises that way.

One day I came to the studio from my Rhythmic Gymnastic practice (which I had every day except Thursday). I still had my leotard on when I got there. I usually changed before I left the gym, but that day we had run a little late. So when I got to the studio, I had to change in this little lounge thing-a-ma-bob. Usually before and after rehearsal we watch T.V. in there, and most of the guys would leave there stuff in there. As I was getting my leotard off I heard the door open. I guess someone needed to get something out of his bag. I threw my leotard at the guys face and he left. When I was done changing I went into the main dance room, and there was Dave, with my leotard.

"I believe this is yours," he said sheepishly.

"Yeah, um, thanks," I quickly nabbed the leotard and threw it into the lounge thing.

Chapter 4

"I remember this one song I learned as a kid. Nobody likes me everybody hates me, guess I'll go eat worms. That's the way I feel sometimes. Like nobody likes me," I told Trey. We were throwing sponges soaked with paint at a wall on the exterior of the dance studio.

"Is that why you tried to kill yourself?" Trey asked throwing a glob of green paint.

I stopped, "I never told you about that! H-how did you know?"

"I saw the scars on your wrists. Sorry. If you don't want to talk about it you don't have to," he stopped too.

"Well, I'm going to have to talk about it sooner or later. I've never had any real friends. I talk to people in my acting and dancing classes, but they weren't friends. Everybody who goes to my school is a total moron. My one friend moved to Wisconsin two years ago. In short, my life, sucks." All through this my throws became more violent. Right before I said 'sucks' I threw the sponge with red paint in the center of the wall so hard that paint got on me and Trey. He started to laugh and so did I.

"That's all it took? Red paint?" he asked with fake bewilderment.

"I guess so," I said smiling, with teeth.

Chapter 5

"What is your problem Nikki?" I yelled. I was trying to do a walkover and this girl had tripped me, sending me sprawling on the stage.

"You know, that makes sense. A girl with a mother would know," she spat back at me. I was practicing with my dance workshop, and some of the guys were there.

I gave Nikki a cold glare, went to the lounge, and started to bawl my eyes out.

All of a sudden Aaron came in.

"Are you alright?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said between sniffs. "No, I'm not. When I was ten, my mother died. I guess I still haven't gotten over it-" I started to cry again. Aaron wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on my head.

"Shh. It's okay. Hey, look at me. If anyone ever hurts you, I'll be there to take care of you," he pushed the hair out of my face, put his hand on my neck, and leaned in so our faces were only two inches apart. Then he kissed me. It was long and sweet.

"Hey, Kat are you, oh, um, never mind," Trey said. I hardly heard him though. We broke away from each other slowly.

"Does this mean we're not friends anymore?" I said, smiling up at him.

"I guess not," he replied smiling back. "You know you're gorgeous when you smile."

"You're gorgeous all the time," I whispered, getting another kiss, shorter this time. It felt just as good though.

Chapter 6

Trey went to the High School of Performing Arts in New York City, P.A. for short. He gave me a pamphlet for it, and I flew to New York over a long weekend to audition. They told me that they would mail me the letter that would say if I got in or not. I finally got the letter, but I wanted to open it at the studio.

"Aaron! Trey! I got the letter!" I yelled.

"Well, open it already!" Trey said getting up from his seat on the stage.

"Can you open it for me? Please!" I said to Trey while Aaron put his arms around my waist.

"It will be my pleasure," he said as he violently ripped open the envelope. "Dear Avalon O'Shea. In regards to you audition. Blah, blah, blah. Oh, Kat. I'm sorry."

"I knew it! I knew I wouldn't get in," I turned around to bury my face in Aaron's shirt.

"You didn't let me finish! First of all, how are you going to get your dad to move to New York? You got in to P.A. Kat!" I looked up at Aaron's grinning face, kissed him, turned around and ran to Trey and hugged him. He spun me around.

"I got in! Oh my God! I got in!" I went back to Aaron and kissed him, only this time it was longer. Then I hugged him. I guess he motioned for Trey to come over and hug me also, because I was suddenly sandwiched between Trey and Aaron.

"Hey, you guys. Let's start prac-. Kat? Did you get in?" I nodded. "Congratulations!" Now Aaron and Trey had their arms around my shoulders. "Well, this calls for a celebration. You guys get ten more minutes of free time."

"Whoopie! Gee, thanks Kenny!" Dave Moscow said sarcastically.

"Oh shut up Davey. You'll enjoy it," Kenny retorted.

"1, 2, 3, 4," I yelled over the music. We were working on Seize the Day: Reprise. "Wait. Stop!" I yelled. "That was good everybody. Okay. Does anybody have any questions about any of the dance steps?"

"Yeah. How do you do the jumping spinning thing?" Dave Moscow asked.

"Kat, why don't you take this one?" Kenny said.

"Gee, thanks Kenny!" I said sarcastically. I got up onto the stage and started instructing. "So Davey. You want to know how to do the jumping spinning thing. Well, first I'll need a volunteer. How about," I did a turn on my toe, "you." I pointed to Dominic Lucero, who in my opinion was the best dancer out of the nineteen boys/men in front of me. I spent about half an hour teaching the step.

In his words, "I'm sorry, but my body doesn't want to bend and turn like your bodies."

And in my words, "No shit Sherlock."

"Trey stop twitching! Or do you want me to call you by your real name?" I said between coughs. I wasn't feeling really great. We were at Universal Studios and I was trying to tie Trey's eye-patch on.

"No! Anything but that!" he said, stressing anything.

"Okay, there ya go. You're Kid Blink. Except for the fact that your shoes are untied," I said while looking him over.

"Geez! I forgot. Don't know what I'd do without you Flexakat."

"Why do you have to use that name? You know I hate it," I said, this time between sneezes and coughs.

"'Cause I like to annoy you. Are you okay babe?"

"Yeah. Fantastic," I lied. I felt miserable. I sat down on a 'curb'.

"Hey Kat! I need your help with something!" Kenny yelled at me.

"Coming. Oh God. Trey I can't stand up."

"Kat!" Kenny yelled again.

"Kenny she can't stand up! She's sick!" Trey yelled back at him.

"Coming," Kenny jogged over to where we were. "Kat, are you alright?"

"No, I'm not. I feel like shit."

"Okay. Trey carry her into that building at the end of this street. Kat there's a bed in there and you're going to stay in that bed until your dad comes to pick you up. Got it?"

"Kenny I don't think she can argue with you right now. Come on kiddo," Trey said as he lifted me up into his arms.

"I think I'm gonna throw up," I mumbled.

"I think I'm gonna walk faster," he said speeding up. "Okay, here we are. We have about twenty more minutes so I'll stay here with you." He lay me on the bed and sat down . "Ya in the mood for chit-chat?"

I turned onto my side and said in a hoarse whisper, "Only if you do most of the talking."

"Okay. You really like Aaron don't you?" he smiled.

"Yeah, he's a sweetheart. Why?"

"No reason. I just want you to be happy. You're like my little sister."

"Aww, Trey. Come on, give me a hug," I said motioning with my hands for him to hug me. "You're my first real friend." I whispered in his ear. He pulled away, kissing me on the forehead.

"I'll make a deal with you. If you're always there for me, I will always be there for you. Deal?" he outstretched his hand.

"Deal," I said putting my hand in his. "Trey, I'm going to go to sleep."

"Okay. I gotta go make a movie anyway," he said giving me a soft pat on the back and grinning. "Sleep well Kat."

Chapter 9

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Juls. Happy birthday to you," my dad, Brett, Aaron, and Trey sang as my dad carried my cake to the kitchen table.

"Make a wish," Dad said in a thick Australian accent. Brett and I had accents also, but not as strong as Dad's.

I though hard for a second, took in a deep breath, and blew out my sixteen candles.

"Now for the presents," I said while rubbing my hands together.

"Come on. Let's have the cake first. Okay Juls?" Brett said.

"Fine. But hurry up okay?"

Just to piss me off, Brett took at least fifteen minutes to eat his cake.

"Okay. Which present is first?" I asked.

"Leave Aaron's for last. How about you open Brett's first?" Trey asked.

"Okay Bretty boy. Where is it?" I asked grinning.

"You better like it. It took me almost a day's shopping to find it," he said while handing it over.

"Oh my God. I love it!" He had given me a silver watch with the Rhythmic Sportive Gymnastics logo on the face. "Thank you!" I hugged him tightly.

"Here sweetie." My dad came into the room carrying a long big box.

"Mr. O'Shea, I'll help you with that," Aaron offered.

"Thanks Aaron," Dad said as they got it on the counter. I walked over and started unwrapping it. When I got to the gift I couldn't believe it. "Dad! It's an electric guitar! A nice electric guitar! Thank you!" I hugged my dad fiercely, almost cracking some of his ribs.

"Okay sweetie. You can let go now," he said with very little breath.

"Okay Trey. Your turn."

"Here you go Kat," he said while giving me a average size box.

"Oh. That's the candle I told you I liked."

"There's more," he grinned.

"Where? Oh. Trey! Best friend necklaces...well they're kinda chokers. But, that's okay! Here ya go," I gave him one of the necklaces.

"Well, Aaron. You're last," I said smiling.

"Um, my gift's kinda private. Can you guys leave for a second?" he asked looking nervous.

"Sure. Come on guys," my dad said ushering Brett and Trey out of the kitchen.

"Well, what is it?" I asked getting excited.

"Kat, we've been going out for almost a year. Well, eight months. I was wondering will you be my steady?" he asked while handing me on of those brown velvet jewelry boxes. I opened it and inside was a silver ring on a black string.

"Yes! Aaron, I would love to be your steady. Could you help me put this on?" I said, hold my hair up.

"Yes. Sorry I made your dad, Brett and Trey leave. There you go."

"It's alright. I couldn't have done this if you hadn't," I kissed him.

"Kat?"

"Mmm-hmm?"

"I think I love you," he sad looking me straight in the eyes.

"I think I love you too," I said back to him.

All in all, it was the best birthday that I had had since I was five.

Chapter 10

"That's the foist thing ya gotta learn. Headlines don't sell papes; Newsies sell papes. Y know we're what holds this town tagedda, widout Newsies nobody knows nuttin'."

"Hey fellas."

I walked in front of the boys, and Trey started cracking up. It was like a chain reaction, and soon ever I was laughing.

"Cut! Okay! Trey, you already screwed up the scene before this would you mind not screwing up this on also?" Kenny yelled from behind the camera.

"Sorry! It was just, well, funny!" he yelled back grinning at me.

"It's alright, just don't it again, okay? Scene 15. Take 2. Action!"

It took us like ten takes to get that scene down. Trey interrupting four times, Aaron thrice, Dominic Lucero once, and I laughed twice.

For the last three months that I was living in California I was in the musical 'Les Miserables'. I played Eponine. Eponine has on major song in the musical, 'On My Own'. I already knew that song though. The only song that I had trouble with was a duet that I had to sing with Marius, 'A Little Fall of Rain'.

I asked Aaron to work with me on it, but he was busy on the day I was free. So I asked Trey. Ever since I met Trey I fell in love with his singing voice. I don't know what it was about it, but I loved to listen to him sing.

Trey more or less introduced me to song writing. It let me express myself. Obviously the name of his band was after what people felt songwriters, or any kind of writers do.

But, anyway, back to the duet. We went to the studio where the I taught the 'newsies' dancing, and where the production of 'Les Mis' was going to be held. Trey picked me up and we get there around noon.

"Okay. What are you having trouble with? The words? The notes?" he asked me stepping up onto the stage.

"Actually, I'm having trouble with the acting," I replied following him.

"You? Having trouble with acting?" he asked dodging a punch I threw at him. "So do you want to do the dialogue before the song or just the song?"

"Let's just start at the beginning of the song. Okay, I'm bleeding and Marius, that's you, is holding me. We're on the floor," I instructed.

Trey raised his eyebrows, but followed my instructions. I started to sing, "Don't you fret, M'sieur Marius, I don't feel any pain. A little fall of rain can hardly hurt me now. You're here. That's all I need to know. And you will keep me safe. And you will keep me close. And rain will make the flowers grow."

"But you will live 'Ponine- dear God above. If I could close your wounds with words of love."

"Just hold me now, and let it be. Shelter me, comfort."

"You would live a hundred years, if I could show you how, I won't desert you now..."

"The rain can't hurt me now. This rain will wash away what's past. And you will keep me safe, and you will keep me close. I'll sleep in your embrace at last. The rain that brings you here is heaven blessed. The skies begin to clear and I'm at rest. A breath away from where you are. I've come home from so far."

"Hush-a-bye, dear Eponine. You won't feel any pain. A little fall of rain, can hardly hurt me now. I'm here."

"That's all I need to know."

"I will stay with you till you are sleeping."

"And rain."

"And rain."

"Will make the flowers..."

"Grow," he sang, holding my head in a hug and stroking my hair.

"I guess I didn't have any trouble with the acting," I said pulling away from him.

"Nope, guess not. I've never actually listened to your singing voice. You sound a lot like the original Eponine."

"You mean Frances Ruffelle?"

"Yeah! How did know here name?" he said with his usual grin.

"I have a lot of useless information about musicals stored in my head. Like for instance, did you know that Donna Vivino was the original Young Cosette?"

"Can't say that I did. Well, since we're done. Do you want to go out for lunch?"

"Sure! Whoa, was that me being enthusiastic? Oh, God. Trey you've rubbed off on me!" I said.

"And that's a bad thing because?"

"I never said it was bad," I said putting my arm around his shoulders.

He returned the gesture and led me out of the studio.

"God, I hate this airport," I said trying to forget that in ten minutes I'd be leaving my home of eleven years, my best friend, and my boyfriend, all at the same time.

"Now boarding flight 204. Passengers in rows twenty through thirty-five please board now."

"That's us honey," my dad said.

"Okay Daddy, just let me say goodbye," I said.

"Brett and I will be waiting in line," he told me kissing me on my forehead.

"Well, I guess this is it," I burst into tears. Trey wrapped me in a hug. Soon Aaron was hugging me also.

"Do you promise you'll write to me?" Aaron asked, his eyes were welling up with tears. ,p> "Yes! Of course I will!" I hugged him again, and then kissed him.

"Trey, I'm going to miss you so much. My first real friend," I whispered hugging him again.

"I never want to lose touch with you, so write me! Got it!" he grinned.

"Yes, I promise. And I'll give you both monthly phone calls. They're probably going to be more frequent though," I gave them each one last hug, and then walked over to my dad and Brett.

I waved to them and got onto the plane.

When I got to my seat I opened up my back-pack. Inside was a going away present from Trey and one from Aaron. I had a going away party with the cast beforehand. I had gotten a cat (believe it or not) from the nineteen boys I had taught. I named him Kid Blink because he reminded me of Trey. He was always grinning.

I opened Aaron's gift first. It was a silver (I hate gold jewelry) locket with a picture of Aaron and me in it. I put it around my neck and admired it for a second before closing it.

Then I opened Trey's gift. It was a photo album filled with pictures and notes from the cast. Trey's note went something like this:

Dear Flexakat (Sorry, I couldn't resist!),
I'm really going to miss you. You've been a great friend to me this past year. Don't forget to write me and Damon! Oh, don't forget about Aaron either! (Joking) I hope you like this book, and I know you're going to love P.A. If anyone bugs you, just call me and Aaron and we'll 'soak 'em'. (Sorry, another thing I couldn't resist.) Well, that's about it. I love you! (Platonically, Don't worry!)