Note: This edit was sent to me by my girl Liliana (aka, my longest and most faithful edit maker and a generally perfect person) with an adjoining tweet that went something like, "This makes The Famoux look like a cute rom-com." I thought I'd pick it today since I don't have a collage and I'm running out of wifi and it's the cutest thing. ROM-COM FAMOUX
If you know anything about me, you know that I'm all about that exposition and those terribly long beginnings before anything remotely exciting happens in a book. It's horrific. I am genuinely horrified to tell you that we reached page 95 in this new chapter. We have over 30,000 words. And. Nothing. Has. Actually. Happened.
But hey, WE'RE GETTING THERE!
If you haven't already, please go to your bookstore and buy IMAGINES. Anna Todd's name is big and bold on the front, but my name is on the back. For anybody outside the US, I promise you that international copies will come in existence soon. I don't have the details yet, but I'll tell you immediately! Until then you can order it on Amazon.
It would mean the world to me if you bought it. That would hopefully increase the chances of me someday publishing something else in the future. Like, maybe something you're reading right now . . .
PREVIOUSLY ON THE CLASSIX: Till existed and, according to some comments, slayed. She basically called Norax out for what you've been calling her out on since the Fissarex chapter in book 1. Why did she say the members were perfect only to totally change everything about them!?!? Why does Norax do any of the things she does!? Also, she's still absent and we don't know where she is. Figures.
emeray
As I make my way back to my room, he pulls me aside with an excuse.
"Sticks," says Chapter. He gestures to the papers he's holding in his other hand. "I have some revised scripts for Onward Train. We're starting on the Betnedoor set in a couple days, so we should review how we're going to act out everything."
He shows me the papers in his hands.
I look over my shoulder at Angad, perhaps like a child looking toward their parent for permission. He has his eyes on Chapter, arms crossed, lip stiff. It seems that he's trying to see through him, like there's another layer to his words.
And he wouldn't be wrong; I can see a different paper poking from the scripts. A gold oneââmy gold one.
He doesn't want to review lines. He wants to talk about DEFED.
"I don't know," says Angad. "I didn't get any calls about new scripts for your movie coming in today."
"They both came to me. Is that hard to believe?"
"Under your circumstances, everything is hard to believe, Stones."
"You can trust me. When have I ever been untrustworthy about hanging out with Emeray?" When Angad responds to this with another thin-eyed glare, Chapter just laughs. "Oh, c'mon. We're not going to be practicing any kiss scenes today, if that's what you're so worried about."
"It's not scenes I'm worried about."
"We already filmed all of those, I promise." A lie; the script calls for at least three more kiss scenes on the Betnedoor set. But whatever convinces Angad is good enough. "This is strictly business."
Angad sighs, loosening his shoulders. "Fine. Half an hour. I'll be waiting outside. It's a good thing Norax isn't here, or else she'd probably have me fired like the last one, what with all the things I let slide by."
"Wait." My face falls. "Gerald was fired?"
Angad backtracks. "Well, I don't actually know. He's got a new shift or something. I never see him around the Metropolix, anyway."
"Can you check?"
"I'm not authorized to do that."
Angad is all too willing now to pull back my door for me to go inside. His eyes harden, looking toward the wall with unshakable persistence. If I didn't know any better, I'd think there was some sort of puzzle on the wall he was trying to solve.
With a new sinking feeling, I enter my room, trying hard not to think, yet only thinking more and more about how many people I've lost in the short time since I've become a Famoux member.
Dalton, missing.
Foster, dead.
Marlon, advised to stay away from me.
Norax, gone for a whole week without explanation.
And now Gerald, fired?
And I thought losing my mom was the only loss I'd ever feel, back when I was Emilee Parvenu. Little did I know that there would ever be more people in my life valuable enough to lose.
Little did I know how many I'd be losing.
Chapter sets the papers down on one of the tables in the sitting area. Instead of immediately pulling out DEFED's note, he grabs my arm gingerly.
"Hey, I'll request for him," he says. "The staff who run the guard system are usually smitten whenever I say hello to them. That'll be enough for them to disclose whether or not he's still here. I can figure it out for you."
I nod, swallowing hard. "Do you think Norax would've actually fired him over a few little rumors?"
"There's no telling what she'll do half the time."
There's certainly no telling what she's doing right now. My mind momentarily goes back to everything Till was saying before I went to the Analytix. None of us expected to go through the Fissarex after everything she said to us about how perfect we were, and how that made us special. From the very beginning, there's no telling what she'll do. From then on, everything else is fair game as well.
"So, um, the papers?" I ask, changing the subject.
"Right," Chapter says. He coughs. "You already have your lines for Onward Train memorized, right?"
"Seeing that there isn't actually a new script, yes."
"Good." He pulls out the golden slip of paper from the stack, glancing up at me with a downturned grin. "We should probably talk about your future husband, then."
I immediately close my eyes. Although I would've easily preferred pretending the engagement threat didn't exist, I didn't really have much of a choice in hiding it. A few days ago, Chapter and Till approached me and asked if they could look at the note DEFED had left, since mine was the only one that we knew to be threatening.
"But . . . but shouldn't we wait for Kaytee and Race?" I'd asked, scratching the back of my neck. The two of them had just left the Metropolix to make one of their rare public appearances together at some restaurant. I figured that with their messy ties to Cartney, they would definitely appreciate all of us waiting until they were available.
Not to mention, of course, how unprepared I felt to be talking about it in front of Chapter. It wasn't necessarily that I was embarrassed to be around him while he figured out DEFED's plans to have me engaged to another man, no, it was something elseââsomething intangible.
"I can just tell Kaytee later," insisted Till. "We go out shopping all the time. She can pass it along to Race."
My neck strained. "Butââbut we should waitââ"
"Why?" Chapter asked. The way he didââit was like he already knew.
When I met his gaze, the look in his eyes made my chest ache. For a moment I wished it was him who was off to dinner instead of Kaytee and Race, and that Till could fill him in on the details some other time when I wouldn't be around.
I wasn't scared of how he'd respond. Chapter never gave me any reasons to be scared of him. I knew for a fact that he wouldn't be jealous of Cartney, or take this scenario as an opportunity to wish it was him instead, or anything inherently bitter like that. I knew that wouldn't start thrashing around or pointing fingers at anybody.
But I knew he'd be concerned, and for good reason. March marks the fifth month in not only mine and Cartney's fake liaison, but mine and Chapter's real, hidden one as well. He's gathered from this timeframe where I'm at, and he's gathered that it's most definitely no where near being ready for engagement.
Chapter knows me. He is consciously and continuously aware of my inexperience in all aspects of having a relationship at all, much less a real, functioning, healthy oneââthe kind with honesty mutual understanding. He shows every sign of wanting to assist that, to protect that.
"I've done my fair share of rushing," he always assures me. And it's true: When Chapter was turning seventeen, he'd already been taking care of his son Callan for almost a entire year.
So for there to suddenly be a propensity of me getting engaged to Cartney, who is three years older than Chapter, and just nearly seven years older than me, when I just turned seventeen a few days ago . . .
That, of all things, would be the very definition of rushing.
Whether I liked it or not, I handed them over the note and disappeared back into my room, insisting that I needed to get ready for another walk with Cartney. That was enough to buy me some time and spare viewing their reactions.
But here we are now. Here is Chapter, standing in my room with the note in his hands. The time was going to come eventually.
"What do you think?" I ask.
His disposition barely wavers from its relaxed state. He nods softly, reciting a line from the nursery rhyme. "'Then comes marriage.'"
I nod in return.
"So they wanted you to get engaged to him," he says, speaking out his thoughts for his own comprehension. "They said they wanted the world to be as annoyed with you as they are, and that's certainly the next logical step to annoy everybodyââadding marriage to an already overly public celebrity couple."
"They tried to put a ring in the jewelry box Cartney was going to give me at Ace," I say. Just explaining it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up again. I feel my throat start to close up remembering the first time he opened up the box and found the ring. For a moment there it was all set in stoneââthere was my future, and it was entirely with Cartney Kirk. "It was supposed to be a necklace."
His brow furrows. "But he didn't give you any jewelry at Ace."
"That was to make sure he didn't accidentally propose in front of everybody. Every time he checked the box throughout the day, it would have the ring in it again."
"Somebody at Buchan works for DEFED too?"
"It seems like it."
"They're all around us, and yet we can't find them." Chapter runs a hand through his hair with exasperation. "That means they're likely going to slip the ring somewhere later on for you two to find in front of the paparazzi, doesn't it?"
Again I nod. "Chapter, I don't want that to happen."
"Believe me, there are plenty people who don't want that either."
He sets the note down and begins to pace. A few steps forward, a few steps back. He keeps his brow crinkled, thinking hard about everything I've told him. As he moves, I watchââthe way his feet pivot as he turns, shoes giving off a muted squeak against the floor; the way his hands are in near continuous movement, fidgeting like he's pretending to play an instrument. I watch his eyes as they dart around the room in search for something, anything that would bring more clarity.
"If the ring shows up and you have no choice but to say," he says, "remember that there still is a choice. You can prolong the engagement. Make it last as long as the contract. Spit in Norax's face if she tries to make you renew it." It's supposed to be a joke, but his face lacks the amusement. "The ground could split in half right in front of you, but the end of the world doesn't have to be the end of the world."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask. "What do you do when the ground splits in front of you?"
"I don't knowââjump in?"
"That's easier said than done."
"None of this is easy, Sticks," he points out.
I look down at DEFED's note on the table. So I'll have to get engaged to Cartney at some point. I'll just have to treat it like another contractââanother situation that can become void at a certain deadline. Two more years. Two years, and it's over.
My morbidity can't help itself. If I make it to two years, that is.
Shuddering, I avert my attention back onto Chapter just as he pulls out a stack of Polaroids from his front pocket, leafing through them slowly. For a moment I'm confused, but then I remember the new members.
"Oh, I haven't chosen mine yet," I tell him.
"I feel like Norax is going to ask us for our choices when she gets back," he says. "You know, whenever that's going to be. We should probably be ready for it."
"Show me," I say.
He moves toward the couch and sits down with me, handing over the Polaroids. I switch through an array of facesââmore individuality than I've seen in a long time. So many different shapes, colors. I wonder to myself if Norax is going to change them, even just slightly, so they fit in better. Or is the real point of the new members to make us, the real Famoux members, look even more perfect than we already are?
But how could I knowââafter all, there's no telling what she'll do.
xxx
What did you think of today's chapter? This whole beginning is a mess, I know, but stick with me. We're getting to to the good stuff soon.
In the meantime, we got some Chapter in this chapter. Remember chapter 11 from book one? We were introduced to the "Sticks and Stones" concept for the first time.
(I will do anything to showcase my new collection of Colin Jost GIFs.)
IF YOU HAVE A KINDLE, SHOW MY GIRL ELLE ROSE SOME LOVE AND BUY SONATA. You know, the massively successful and amazing novel on Wattpad? It's available on Kindle now!! Look it up on Amazon and enjoy. Elle is the light of my life.
I hope you're having an excellent Friday, Wattpad! What are your plans for today? Also, pick a color scheme: Blue and yellow vs red and blue. This is a random survey.
Remember: Sticks and Stones may break your bones, but haters make you famoux. Stay classy, stay classix.