Okay, so I sent this chapter to Billy to read over before posting it, and she says it's really good and she liked it, so I'm pretty confident about it. (She also says that she can't stop imagine Jareth talking in, and I quote, "this uppity David Bowie accent," lol.) I had to get online and do some research on certain things for this chapter, and Billy says that it shows, so I guess that's a good thing. Also, the vocal exercise/tongue twister that Sarah has her acting class do is one that I really did learn in high school, we used it in drama club and before shows and stuff, so that's where that came from. Um...and...I think that's about it, so...yeah.

I DISCLAIM!

"Hey, Rory," a voice said, "is it true your mom's keeping some guy at your house?"

Rory rolled her eyes. "He's not 'some guy,' Chris," she said, "his name's Jareth, and he and my mom used to go to school together. He came here from Los Angeles to visit her."

"That's not what I heard," Miranda interjected. "My mom says that she knew him in high school, and he's some washed up rockstar wannabe, that he probably came back to town because he failed hard, and he's staying with you guys because he and your mom used to date and they're getting back together."

"That's not what happened!" Rory exclaimed. "I mean...yeah, he and Mom used to date, but that's not why he's staying with us, and they're not getting back together."

"Yet," Miranda said.

"And he's not a washed up wannabe, either!" Rory continued. "He's actually really good at what he does, he just...he's having some trouble finding the right inspriation is all."

"Sounds like a wannabe to me," Chris said.
"Would you guys just leave him alone?!" Rory cried. "You haven't even met him, jeez!"

"What's your problem, Rory?" Sadie asked. "Why are you so defensive of this guy?"
"Because he's nice, and I like him," Rory said. "And him being here is making my mom happier than I've seen her in a while. She really missed him, okay? They haven't seen each other in fifteen years, and it means a lot to her that he's back."

"Just leave her alone, guys," Kasey said. "Quit talking trash about Jareth and leave Rory alone, okay? I've met him, he really is a pretty cool guy, and Rory has every right to be upset that you're bad-mouthing him."

The final bell rang, and everyone began gathering their things in preperation to leave.

"I still say he's a washed up rockstar wannabe," Miranda said as she put a book into her bag. "He wouldn't have come back from L.A. if he wasn't. That's what Mom says."

"Your mom doesn't know everything, Miranda," Rory shot back. "And neither do you, so get over yourself already, will you?"

Having said this, Rory grabbed her things, got up, and left the room before anyone could respond.

On the walk home, she was stopped by Mrs. Arrington, who prodded her with questions about Jareth, but Rory ignored her and didn't respond, instead adjusting the position of her backpack and continuing on her way.

"Mom, I'm home!" she called as she walked in the door.
"She's not here," Jareth's voice replied. "She called earlier and asked me to tell you she's going to be a bit late getting home."

"Oh, okay. Where are you hiding?"
"I'm not hiding, I'm right in here."

She followed the sound of his voice into the living room, where she found him on the couch with his guitar and notebook, tapping a pencil against the pages of the latter.

"People at school are talking about you," Rory said as she let her backpack fall to the ground beside her feet.
"Are they indeed?" Jareth replied absently. "And what, pray tell, might they be saying about me?"

"Miranda said that her mom told her that you're some washed up rockstar wannabe who came back because you failed hard in L.A. and the only reason you're staying with us is because you and Mom used to date and are getting back together. I told her it's total bullshit, but she won't listen to me."

"People say all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons, Rory," Jareth said. "You have to learn to ignore most of it. You can't let it get to you, otherwise you'll just go through life being miserable because you're so worried about what others think. Trust me. Kids in school used to say all sorts of shit about me just because of the way I looked and because I had to repeat a few classes. Like I said, you have to learn to ignore it."

"Well, it still pisses me off that they're jumping to all these conclusions about you just because their parents said some stuff."
"It's very noble of you to be so concerned for me, but unnecessary, I assure you. I stopped caring what most people think a long time ago."

"Can I ask you a question?"
"That depends what it is."

"What's up with your eyes?"
"I beg your pardon?"

"Your eyes. Why are they...the way they are?"
"What, you mean two different colors? It's a rare genetic condition called heterochromania. I like to think of it as my eyes couldn't choose whether they wanted to be brown or blue, so they decided to be both. Oh, and by the way, I was asked to remind you to start on your chores when you got home."

Rory groaned. "Aw, man!" she exclaimed. "That's gonna take forever!"
"Forever's not long at all," Jareth remarked, one corner of his mouth turning upwards.

"No, seriously!" Rory said. "Mom gave me all this extra stuff to do as part of my punishment, there's no way I'll be able to do everything and still have time to finish all my homework before dinner!"

"What if I helped you?" Jareth asked.
"No," Rory said, sighing heavily. "Mom wouldn't like that. I have to do it myself, otherwise it doesn't count."

"Sarah doesn't have to know," he replied. "It will just be our little secret, how does that sound?"

"Really? You'd do that for me?" she asked in disbelief.
"You're a good kid, Rory," he said. "You only did what you did because you wanted your mother to be happy. I think that counts for something. So yes, I'll help you."

"Oh my gosh, thank you so much, you have no idea how much I appreciate this! Okay, um...hang on, she left a list of stuff for me to do, let put my backpack in my room and then I'll go get it."

She grabbed her bag and took off running towards her bedroom. While she did that, Jareth took his notebook and guitar back into the guestroom, putting the instrument back in its case and the notebook on the nightstand. When he went back into the living room, Rory was waiting for him with a piece of paper in her hand.

"Okay," she said, "I think the best place to start would be with the dishes. I have to unload and then re-load the dishwasher and put away the clean stuff. If you'll do the re-loading, I'll unload and put stuff away. That work for you?"

"Whatever you think is best," he replied.
"Okay, great, then follow me and let's get started."

So Jareth let Rory lead him into the kitchen, and she opened the dishwasher. He took off his biker gloves and shoved them into his back pocket so they wouldn't get ruined by the water, then went to work rinsing the excess off the dirty dishes that were in the sink.

For a while, they worked in relative silence, broken only by the sound of the water flowing from the sink faucet and the clanking of dishes and silverware.

"Alright, Rory," Jareth said finally, "you know a bit about me. Now tell me something about you."

"Like what?" she asked with a shrug.
"Anything that you can think of," he replied.

"Okay, um...let's see...I'm in drama club at school."

"Do you enjoy it?"
"Yeah, it's tons of fun!"

"Have you been in any of your school's productions?"
"Yeah, I was in the fall musical last year. I've also done running crew and ushered."

"What's your favorite play? Or is it a musical?"
"I have a favorite Shakespeare play, favorite non-Shakespeare play, and a favorite musical."

"And what are they?"
"My favorite Shakespeare is Twelfth Night, my favorite non-Shakespeare is A Streetcar Named Desire, and my favorite musical is Into the Woods. The Witch is one of my Top Five Dream Roles."

"What about your favorite book? Or favorite movie?"
"Favorite book is a tie between Phantom of the Opera and Les Misèrables, and favorite movie is The Outsiders, which is also my favorite book that doesn't have a musical based on it."

"What's your favorite subject in school?"
"Am I allowed to say theatre?"

"I meant academic subject."
"Oh. Um...I guess English. Okay, my turn! Other than music, what are you into?"

"Would you believe me if I said that I can do magic?"
"What, you mean like you're a magician or something?"

"Before I started taking guitar lessons, I discovered that I have a bit of a talent for card tricks and visual illusions and making objects disappear and reappear and other things like that."

"Can you make all these dirty dishes disappear?"

Jareth chuckled. "No, unfortunately I'm not that talented," he said. "However, coins, paperclips, and other small items are fair game. I've even been known to make a fork or two disappear from the dinner table."

"You'll have to show me some of your tricks later," Rory said.
"I might be a bit out of practice," Jareth replied, "but I won't object."

"So...Mom says you're gonna write a song while you're here and play it for us before you leave."
"I promised her I would finish the one I'm working on, yes. I'm having some writer's block, though, that's the trouble."

"You'll figure it out," Rory said encouragingly. "I know you will."
"It's good to know your mother isn't the only one who thinks so."

"So, do you have any siblings?"
"No, I'm an only child. I do, however, have a cousin."

"What's his name? Or...her?"
"You had it right the first time. His name is Calum, which means 'dove,' and his parents chose it because it was the sixties, and they were hippies."

"Is he older or younger than you?"
"Older, but only by a few months."

"So does that mean you were born in the sixties, too?"

"Sixty-nine, to be exact."
"So were your parents hippies, too?"
"My mother was. My father was a soldier in the war."

"So you were a love child, is that it?" Rory asked.
Jareth threw his head back and laughed. "Good God, where did you even hear that term?" he asked her.

"I read it in a book," she said, shrugging as if it were no big deal.
"No, I wasn't a love child," Jareth told her. "When my mother told him she was pregnant, my father had the good sense to marry her before being deployed."

"Okay, wait, when you say your dad fought in the war, you're talking about the Vietnam War, right? The one Forrest Gump fought in?"
Jareth nodded. "That's correct," he said. "Wait, Sarah's let you watch that movie? Some of the stuff in it is...a little mature for you, I would think."

"Mom lets me watch all kinds of stuff. She says she'd rather I'd be exposed to what's in it at home where she can explain it to me than out somewhere else where I might get fed bullshit about it," Rory explained.

Jareth considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Alright," he said, "that seems valid. I can understand why she'd prefer that, it makes sense. Honestly, I'm also a bit surprised she lets you cuss so casually. Or do you only do that when she's not around?" He smirked at her, and she laughed, giving a slight roll of her eyes.

"No," she said, "I do it around her, too. She says it's okay, just as long as I don't go around saying that sort of thing in situations where it will get me in trouble. She says that she understands how frustrating it is to be pissed off about something and know exactly which words you want to use, but not be able to use them because you would get in huge trouble if you did, and she wants me to be able to express myself however I need to, so just as long as I don't go around using that kind of language in front of my teachers or something, she's alright with it. Well, and I'm also not allowed to do it around Grandpa and Irene. Wait, do you know who Irene is?"

"She's Sarah's step-mother, isn't she?"
"Yeah. And I guess that means you also know Toby?"

"Your uncle, if I'm not mistaken."
"Yeah. He's only three years older than me, and it's kind of weird being that close to my uncle in age."
"He was only a year old the last time I saw him. I remember helping your mother babysit him a few times. How is he these days?"

"He's pretty good. He's a sophomore in high school, and he's got a girlfriend named Jazz who he took to homecoming. She's alright, I guess. I mean, I'm not crazy about her like he is, but she's better than his last girlfriend. She was a psycho manipulative bitch, we were all so relieved when they broke up."

"I'm assuming Jazz is a nickname for something?"
"Yeah, her name is actually Jasmine, but she says that she started going by Jazz after Aladdin came out because of having the same name as the princess from it. She kept hearing all these lame jokes, and people kept asking her where the Genie and Aladdin were and all kinds of other crap, so she said she finally just went, 'Screw it, I'm not putting up with this anymore, from now on, I don't answer to Jasmine, I only answer to Jazz, end of story.' And that was the end of that."

"What about you?"
"What do you mean?"

"Well, Sarah told me that Rory is short for Victoria. Is there a story behind how that came about?"

Rory shrugged as she closed the dishwasher and put it on the right settings before starting it up. "Not really," she said, watching Jareth pull his gloves out of his back pocket and put them back on. "Well," she continued, "I mean...kind of. Uncle Toby was only three when I was born, and he couldn't really pronounce the name Victoria yet, and he called me 'Rowy' until he was almost four, but then after that it got easier for him, and 'Rowy' changed into 'Rory,' and it just sort of stuck, you know? So that's how I ended up being Rory, it was all thanks to my then-three-year-old uncle."

Her eyes wandered to the guitar pick around his neck. "Is there a story behind that?" she asked, pointing at it.
Jareth looked at what she was indicating and chuckled. "As a matter of fact, there is one," he said, taking it between his fingers.

"Will you tell it to me?"
"Certainly. First of all, here, I'll let you get a better look at it."

So saying, he slipped the chain over his head and held it out to her. She took it from him and examined the pick. It was black with a white treble clef on one side, and on the other side, it said, 'MUSIC IS LIFE' in white letters, and there was something written in bright blue on the side with the words, but the handwriting wasn't very neat, so Rory couldn't really make out what it said.

"When I was twelve," Jareth said, "I went to my first concert. It was in 1981, and I'll never forget it. I went with a friend to go see Journey, and when we got to the venue, we ended up getting caught in the middle of some fight that was going on. Well, one of the band members happened to be taking a smoke break before the show, saw what happened, and came to our rescue. It was Neal Schon. He's been their lead guitarist and done backing vocals since 1973. Anyway, Schon yanked us out of the crossfire and made sure we were alright, then, to make it up to us, he gave us backstage passes and told us to come and see him after the show, so we did. While we were backstage, I told him that I wanted to ask for an autograph, but didn't have anything he could sign. So you know what he did? He got up, went through his stuff, took out that very guitar pick that you're holding in your hands right now, grabbed a thin-tipped Sharpie, and wrote on there, 'To Jareth: Never stop believing.' And then he put his autograph on it, handed it to me, and told me to keep it somewhere safe. So as soon as I was able to, I went and had a small hole punched in it so I could put it on a chain and wear it as a necklace. And that's what I've been doing with it ever since."

"...Wow," Rory said. "That is so. Fucking. Awesome. I cannot believe something like that actually happened to you. No wonder you never take this thing off, I wouldn't, either, if I were you! Oh, here. I guess you probably want it back, huh?"

Jareth grinned as he took it from her and slipped it back over his head.

Rory opened her mouth, about to start asking questions about what it had been like to get to go backstage at a Journey concert, but before she could say anything, the sound of a car pulling up in the driveway could be heard.

"Sounds like Mom's home," she said.
"Sounds like it," Jareth agreed.

"Thanks for helping me with the dishes. I really appreciate it."
"Not a problem. And remember, it will just be our little secret."

"Right. Yeah, no kidding."

"Rory?" Sarah called. "Jareth? Anybody home?"
"Coming, Mom!" Rory shouted back.

She glanced at Jareth, and he grinned at her, winking and putting a finger to his lips. She giggled quietly and nodded.

Deep down, Rory knew it was stupid and childish, but a small part of her couldn't help but wish that Jareth could stay forever and not ever have to leave. She knew that part of her would be very disappointed when the time came for him to go back to Los Angeles, but for now, she would just focus on enjoying the time with him that she and Sarah were being given.

Finding Jareth King, Rory decided, was so worth getting grounded.

"Okay," Sarah said, "next, we're going to do a vocal exercise that we used in my high school drama classes that helps with enunciation. We're going to start off slow and soft, and we're going to get progressively louder and faster with each repetition, alright? It's a tongue twister, some of you may have heard it before, it goes like this; 'Way down south where nobody goes, there's a wishy-washer woman who washes her clothes, she goes ooh, ahh, ooh ahh ahh! That's how the washer woman washes her clothes!' Go ahead and do that, alright, I need to run down the hall and make a phone call real quick, so do it without me, and I'll be back in a couple of minutes. Go ahead and start."

While her class started with the exercise, Sarah left the room and did a quick sprint down the hall to the nearby office room, where she grabbed the phone and started dialing. It rang a few times, then there was a click.

"Hello?" a man's voice said.
"Jareth, is that you?" Sarah asked.

"Oh, Sarah, hey. Yes, it's me. Everything alright?"
"Yeah, everything's fine. Rory's not home yet, is she?"

"No, not yet, why?"
"I just needed to let her know that I'm going to be home a bit late, that's all."

"I'll be sure to pass along the message when she gets here."
"Alright, thank you. Are you doing okay all by yourself over there?"

"Me? I'm fine. I've been trying to work on my song, but I'm not having much luck."
"Don't worry. You'll figure it out sooner or later, I know you will. I believe in you."

"Thank you, that...that's actually somewhat reassuring."

There was a pause.
Jareth cleared his throat.

"S-So," he said, "was there anything else you needed, or was that all?"
"Hm? Oh, right. Um...remind her to do her chores, also. And...I think that's it."

"You home late. Chores. Got it."
"Great, thanks. Um...good luck with your song. I'll see you later."

"Okay, thanks. Yeah, see you later."

"Bye."
"Bye."

She hung up and sat there for a moment with her lips pursed before shaking her head and snapping herself out of it, then going back down the hall to the auditorium where her acting class was held. "Alright!" she called over the noise of her students' chanting as she came back in. "You can stop now, good job, guys! Everyone get off the stage, go into the house and grab a seat, and please, stay within the first two or three rows so I don't have to shout to be heard all the way at the back of the room like last time, because I was hoarse for almost two whole days afterwards, and I do not want to deal with that again, so please and thank you."

While her students got settled in the house seats, Sarah herself sat down cross-legged at the front of the stage with her binder of lesson plans, warm-ups, exercises, and acting games.

"Okay," she said, "first of all, has anyone been to any shows since the last time we met? Remember, people, even your kids' school shows count for something here."

A hand in the second row went up.

"Okay, Linda, great, what did you go see, where was it?"
"The high school's production of Bye Bye Birdie. My daughter was in it."

"Okay, great! That's great, um...hang on, let me give you the points for that...Okay. Anyone else?"

She noticed two women whispering quietly to each other and frowned.

"Hey!" she said. "Marianne! Do you and Kathy have something you wanna share with the rest of us? Or should we stop and wait for you to finish your conversation?"

Marianne and Kathy looked at each other, both with embarrassment written across their features.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Sarah said. "Now, if nobody else has seen any shows, then I'd like to talk about—"

"Is it true Jareth King is back in town?" Kathy said suddenly.

Sarah froze for a moment. Of all the things she had thought the other two women might have been discussing, it most certainly had not been that.

"Yes," she said quietly, "it's true."

A murmur went up around the room.

"Calm down, everyone," Sarah said, "it's not—"
"Are you really keeping him at your house?" Marianne demanded.

"Forget about where he's staying," Rachel exclaimed, "what I want to know is what the hell he's doing back in town after all these years!"
"Wait, he's staying at your house?" Elaina said. "Sarah, are you trying to cause a scandal? Think about Rory and what that would do to her!"

'Figures that only the women are getting in on this,' Sarah thought dryly.

"Will everyone please just calm down?" she said, trying to make herself heard over the noise. It was no use, though. The women were too worked up into a ruckus to be paying any attention. Finally, though, Richard, one of only a handful of men in the class, frowned.

"Hey!" he shouted, his voice rising over everything else. "Everybody shut up, Sarah's trying to talk! Give her a chance to explain, will you?"

Sarah let out a sigh. "Thank you, Richard," she said. He nodded, as if to say that it was no problem.

"Okay, everyone just...chill out, as my daughter would say, and let me explain what I can. Yes, Jareth King is back in town. Yes, he is staying at my house. No, there is nothing going on between us. I am letting him stay in my guestroom because as I'm sure a lot of you know, he and I used to be...well, we were very close, and he needed a place to stay, so I offered to let him stay with me and Rory, and he accepted. He came back because...Oh boy...Okay, people, get ready for a bit of a story. As some of you may be aware, Rory and Kasey Anderson both disappeared not long ago. As it turns out, they ran away and went to Los Angeles to track Jareth down, and they managed to convince him to come back with them. So...he's here, and...I'm not sure how much longer he's going to be here, but...yeah. That's pretty much the story."

"Aren't you worried that he's a bad influence for Rory?" Elaina asked.
"What? No, not at all," Sarah replied. "Why would I worry about that?"

"Well, it's just...he was always a bit...shall we say, questionable back in high school, and if he's been living in L.A., then—"
"What do you mean 'questionable?' It's not like he ever did drugs or anything like that. He was a good kid, he just looked wild."

"I have to agree with her on that, actually," Kathy said. "If there's one thing I remember clearly about Jareth King, it's that he wasn't the troublemaker he looked like, especially not compared to certain other boys."

"Thank you, Kathy, that's exactly my point," Sarah said. "Now, can we please stop talking about Jareth King and get back to the lessons? Thank you. Now, as I was saying before, I'd like to do some character analysis for one of Rory's favorite shows, which some of you may be familiar with, Into the Woods. First of all, I'm going to start off by giving you some background information about the show for those not familiar with it. It is a musical that premiered on Broadway in November of 1987. Music and lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim, and the book was written by James Lapine. It combines several Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault fairy tales, and the main characters are Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, the Witch who trapped Rapunzel in her tower, and finally, not from any fairy tale, there is the Baker and his Wife. The original cast consisted of Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason, Danielle Ferland, Kim Crosby, Ben Wright, Chip Zien, Pamela Winslow, and the Narrator-slash-Mysterious Man was played by Tom Aldredge. There are several other smaller roles, some of which had their own actors, but most of which, such as the Wolf and one of the Princes, were doubled up on one actor or actress. Raise your hand if you have seen the show or heard any of the music from it."

There was a pause.

"Really, nobody? Wow, I'm surprised. Okay, um, well, in that case, we're going to have to watch it. Um, they filmed a live Broadway production of it with the original cast, and since it's Rory's favorite musical, she has it on DVD, so I'm going to have to go home and ask her if I can borrow that so we can watch it in class, and then after we've done that, like I said, I would like to do some character analysis. I do have to warn you, though, the second act is a bit dark. Um, Sondheim musicals have this habit of, um...The way Rory describes it is that at the end of the first act, he makes you think everything is happy and all dandy and everything, but then the second act starts, and he completely crushes your soul."

A laugh went up around the room.

"Um, no, but I really think you guys are going to like it, it's a great show. The story is really good, the music is fantastic, it's got some great jokes, um...yeah. I'm looking forward to sharing it with you guys, I think you'll really enjoy it. Um...other than that, I don't think there's anything else, so class dismissed for today, get your things and let's get out of here."

Everyone got up and started gathering their things. As Sarah collected her own stuff, she couldn't help but overhear some of the conversations going on around her.

"...failed in L.A., so..."
"...never stood a chance..."
"...but at her house?"
"...heard that he..."

She closed her eyes and bit her lower lip, knowing that they had to be talking about Jareth. She shoved her binder into her bag, shaking her head as she left the auditorium and headed down the hall towards the exit. As she was making her way across the parking lot, a voice called out behind her, making her turn.

"Sarah!" Jenara repeated as she came running up beside the brunette.

"Hey, Jen," Sarah said. Jenara Anderson was Kasey's mother, and like their daughters, she and Sarah were quite close.

"Sarah, you know you can't let them bother you, right?" Jenara said. "As long as you and Jareth know there's nothing going on between you, and Rory knows there's nothing going on between you, that's what matters, right?"

"I appreciate the concern, Jen, but I'm fine, really," Sarah replied.
"Are you sure? You just look a little...I don't know," Jenara told her.

"I'm sure. Thank you, though. By the way, I'm sorry about Kasey running off to L.A. with Rory."
"What? Why apologize for that? It wasn't your fault. Kasey is the one who made the choice."

"Well...good point, I suppose."
"Yeah, she got good and grounded for that."

Sarah laughed. "So did Rory," she said.

They came to Sarah's car, and she pulled her keys out, unlocking it and opening the driver's door, tossing her bag in the backseat.

"You sure you're alright, Sarah?" Jenara asked again.
"I'm sure, Jen," Sarah replied.

"Okay. Well...if you need anything, give me a call. You know where to find me."
"Right. Thanks, I will. See you around."

"See you."

As Jenara walked off to her own car, Sarah got in hers and buckled up, then stuck the key in the ignition.

"Rory better have done her chores, or I swear to God," she muttered to herself.

And with that, she backed out of the parking space and drove out of the parking lot.

For those unaware, YES, they really did film a live performance of Into the Woods and put it on DVD LONG before they ever made it into an actual movie, and I have it! It was how I first discovered one of the Queens of Broadway herself, Bernadette Peters, and when my mom first brought it home and showed it to me, I took one look at her picture on the cover and went, "HOLY SNOT, IT'S HELENA BONHAM CARTER'S LONG-LOST TWIN SISTER!" because in my opinion, they look a LOT alike.

Anyway, as usual, remember to review, because if you don't, Jareth will suspend you above the Bog of Eternal Stench, and nobody wants that, now, do they? Nope, didn't think so. So review!