That evening, Denise put on her light blue dress and washed her hair. (Which, no kidding, took 15 minutes, and then it also took her 40 minutes to blow dry. And after all that, it still looked like it exploded.) After that, she decided to let it go, and ran downstairs, where Vanessa and Lin were already waiting.

30 minutes later, they parked in front of the Public Theatre. They walked inside, and Lin signed in. He greeted the stage door guard.

'Hey Sebastian,' Lin said, 'I've got someone I want you to meet.' He pulled Denise in sight, 'This is Denise, my new foster daughter.'

'Hey,' Sebastian waved, and continued with his work.

'Denise!' Renée came running down the hall, Pippa and Jasmine were following her.

'Do you three ever go somewhere without each other?' Denise laughed.

'Only sometimes,' Jasmine answered.

'We're sisters,' Pippa said.

Denise looked at her sceptically: 'Don't make me laugh. You three have literally different skin colours. You can't possibly be sisters.'

Pippa laughed: 'We're not actually sisters! We just play sisters, so that's basically the same.'

A memory flashed over Denise's mind. Yes, she thought, Yes, it's basically the same. She shook the thought off, and turned to Lin: 'You cast three different coloured girls as sisters? Where's your feeling for realism?!'

Lin laughed: 'Sweetheart, look around. This is a show about white dead people. Are those people white?'

'He is,' Denise pointed.

'Ah, that's Jonathan. He plays King George,' Lin said, 'Hey! Jon! Come over here!'

Jonathan came over to us: 'What is it, Lin?'

'I want you to meet my daughter, Denise,' Lin said.

'Not your daughter,' Denise growled under her breath, so soft that only she could hear it.

'Oh,' Jonathan said, 'Hi Denise! I'm King George the Third the Second, but you can also call me Jon, Jonathan, Groff, or Groffsauce. I've got quite a lot of names actually.'

Lin pulled his arm around Jonathan. Vanessa sent him a warning glare: 'Lin, I'm here, so behave yourself!'

'Hey who's this?' a man with curly hair asked.

'Denise, you simply gotta meet Thomas Thomas!' Lin sang, and the he said: 'Thomas, this is Denise, my new foster daughter. Denise, this Tommy Kaile, our director and the best Right Hand Man!'

'And what about me?' another man with curly hair asked.

'Uhm,' Lin said, 'You're the best left hand man! Denise, this is Alex Lacamoire, our orchestrator. Without him, the show wouldn't run.'

A while later, Denise had met all of the cast and a whole bunch of techies. She had the feeling that her head was about to explode of all the names she had to remember. Right now, she was sitting with the Schuyler Sisters in their dressing room. On stage, Story Of Tonight reprise was playing.

'So, Jazzy. How is it with you and Anthony?' Renée asked teasingly.

Jasmine's cheeks immediately turned a deep red: 'I don't know what you're talking about. We're friends, that's all.'

'He likes you too,' Denise said.

Pippa, Renée, and Jasmine looked up surprised.

'What?' Denise said, 'I saw him looking at you. It was more than clear!'

'We've been telling her that for mónths,' Pippa laughed, 'Maybe she'll listen to you!'

'Wait a minute,' Denise said, pressing a finger against her lips. 'What song is this?'

'It's called Wait For It,' Pippa said.

Denise stood up: 'I'm gonna watch it from the wings,' and she ran downstairs.

'I am inimitable, I am an original!

I'm not falling behind or running late!

I'm not standing still, I am lying in wait!'

Denise stood in the wings, and starstruck.

After the song was over, Leslie came her way. 'Hey, are you okay?'

'If there's a reason I'm still alive, while everyone who loves me has died, then I'm willing to wait for it,' she whispered.

'Yeah, it's a sad song, right?' Leslie said.

'Leslie?'

'Yeah?'

'Was your character an orphan?'

'Oh,' Leslie said as he realised why the song had so much impact on Denise, 'Yes he was. But that's not all. His wife and children all died young. He kind of seemed to be cursed or something. Everyone who cared for him died. And then came Hamilton, another orphan, and did everything possible to work against him. If you look at it that way, it isn't strange he hated Hamilton enough to kill him! Anyway, I gotta go on for Ten Duel Commandments.' With that, Leslie left, leaving Denise alone with her thoughts.

During intermission, Denise was sitting in the girls' dressing room with Ariana, Carleigh, Alysha, and Sasha. They were talking about their hair.

'Yeah but you're lucky!' Sasha said to Carleigh, 'You're hair is straight, you can do pretty much anything with it! Ours though...'

'It's horrible!' Denise said, 'It refuses to do what you want, and it takes almost an hour to blow dry!'

'Okay, that might be,' Carleigh said, 'But your hair is so beautiful! Much better than mine! Also, it's so soft! It feels like lamb's wool!'

'Did I hear someone quote The Color Purple?' Renée walked in. To Denise, she said: 'Your father asks if you want to come to his dressing room.'

'He's not my father!' Denise said, but she stood up, and walked to Lin and Jon's dressing room.

'You asked to see me?'

Lin looked up: 'Yeah. Denise, come in.'

Denise walked a bit forward: 'Have I done something wrong?'

Lin laughed: 'No, of course not! I saw you watching from the wings, and I was wondering if you liked the show.'

Denise was still a little tense: 'You're not mad at me?'

'I could never be mad at you!' Lin smiled, and told her to sit down.

'Hey!' Denise heard from the other side of the curtain, 'You normally say that to me!'

'Oh yeah, and Jon is listening to us so don't say anything bad about him!'

'Well,' Denise started, 'The show was okay, but King George was horrible! Honestly, how could you cast him? He's terrible!'

Jon came through the curtain: 'Really?' he asked insecure.

Denise laughed: 'No of course not! You were hilarious! I loved it! Also, Lin, those lyrics are insáne! The music is great! I loved literally every single bit of it!'

The rest of the show, Denise kept watching it from the wings. She made sure to give every single cast member a compliment. Ariana and Alysha did her hair, she laughed with Jon and Andrew, and she ate cookies with Thayne. In short, she had a fun time.

After curtain call, Lin stepped forward. He waited until the applause had faded. 'Like you know,' he said, 'this is the last show before the show is going to be transferred to Broadway!' His voice cracked a bit on that last part and the audience exploded.

'Look at how proud he is!' Vanessa whispered to Denise. Denise nodded and looked at Lin.

'But that's not the reason I'm here, you already knew that! I have someone I want you to meet. Denise, could you come over here please?'

Denise's heart skipped a beat. She didn't want to go on a stage again. She looked at Vanessa, who smiled and nodded. Denise took a deep breath, and walked on stage.

'This is Denise, my new foster daughter. That means, if any of you hurts her, I'll kill you.' Lin turned to the cast: 'By the way, that also counts for you! Thayne, if you steal her cookies, I swear...'

The audience laughed.

'You laugh,' Lin said, 'but I'm death serious! If anyone hurts her, I'll...' he paused, searching for a good threat, 'I'll attack them on Twitter! And that's something to take very, véry seriously.'

'Hey Denise,' a girl who worked backstage at the theatre walked towards her, 'Do you have Twitter?'

'Uhm yes, but I don't really use it,' Denise said.

'Do you want me to tag you in the video of Lin's speech? Be warned: if you do, your Twitter will explode!'

'Uhm yeah sure,' Denise said.

As soon as the girl clicked Send, Denise's phone started buzzing.

'Wow!' Denise laughed, 'You weren't kidding when you said my Twitter would explode!'

Later that night, Denise was lying in bed. Vanessa and Lin were already sleeping, but Denise was wide awake. She stared at the ceiling. You stupid, stupid girl! she cursed herself, You went to the theatre, huh? How could you do that?! And even worse, you actually enjoyed it! She quietly stood up. She turned on the light, and picked up a belt from her closet. She would punish herself for her disobedience. She hit herself with the belt. She flinched as the belt touched her arm, but she barely felt it. She hit once again, harder this time. Her arm turned red. She bit on her lip not to scream. She stopped, trying to find the courage to hit again. Just as she thought she would never do it again, she hit herself twice in a row. She let out a little scream as the pain suddenly hit her. Denise put the belt away, and went back to bed, ignoring the pain in her left arm. She wasn't back in bed, or Sebastian started crying. Denise sighed, and got out of bed again.

Denise picked up Sebastian. 'Hey little one,' she whispered, 'Did you wake up?' Sebastian didn't reply, but he did stop crying. Denise hushed him, softly humming a lullaby. Sebastian pointed at Denise's red arm. Denise flinched as his finger not so softly touched the sore spot.

'Isa ouch?' he asked.

'No,' Denise smiled, 'I'm fine.'

Lin woke up by Sebastian crying. He sighed, and quietly stood up, because he didn't want to wake up Vanessa. He walked to Sebastian's room. When he got there, he saw Denise hushing Sebastian. He smiled. Denise looked up, and pressed her finger against her lips. She layed Sebastian in his crib, and came over to Lin. Lin frowned: there was something strange in her walk, but he couldn't quite lay his finger on what exactly. Together they walked back to their rooms.

'Goodnight,' Lin said.

'Night,' Denise yawned.