SF Chapter 198: Songs
A few days had passed. It was Wednesday, and Dani was, as usual, at his sister's house. But this time, there was one more person there - Mischa.
[Haley and Dani commentary]
"Mischa and I have become good friends," Haley revealed, sitting on her house's couch. "We have many things in common."
"Messy and needy," Dani remarked. "As I've already told you before."
Haley ignored him and went on, "Especially liking to go shopping!"
"And..." Haley started picking up several teen magazines. "Mischa is basically one of the trendsetters! If she wears something, there's a good chance it'll become a hit!"
Then she asked her uncle, "How come you were the only guy they invited?" She pointed to the Vanity Fair photo of him and the nine other girls.
He shrugged, not mentioning how he'd crashed the photo shoot.
[Commentary ends]
Besides the three of them, Phil and Cam were also there, watching the episode of The O.C.
"What a jerk!" Haley exclaimed as she watched Luke, Marissa's boyfriend, cheating on her with a supposed friend of hers at a nightclub.
Soon after, Marissa, already shaken by the betrayal, found out that her parents were separating.
She went to a bar alone, mixed pills with alcohol, became progressively disoriented, and then stumbled through the streets of Tijuana until she finally collapsed.
"Holy..." Phil muttered. "That's really bad!" He felt really sorry for her.
"Poor girl," Cam said emotionally, hugging Mischa.
"The writers really went all in on throwing crap at Marissa, huh," Dani pointed out, not feeling quite as sorry for the girl.
Yes, she suffered, but that was no excuse to turn a very bad moment into an almost irreversible one.
"She almost died," Cam continued his rant.
But Mitchell gave him a small pat on the shoulder. "Yeah, and Mischa will die for real if you keep squeezing her that hard," he said dryly.
Cam immediately let go of her. "Oh, sorry, dear."
"That's okay," she replied, amused. "But Marissa needed one of those," Mischa joked about her character.
"Yes!" Dani readily agreed. "And a shrink. A more mature friend. A job," he started listing, "...and a brain. A brain would do wonders for her!"
"Shut up, Dani!" two voices said at the same time, then laughed at the coincidence. Mischa and Haley high-fived.
But Dani continued, "Ha, she could work in theater as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. The show wouldn't even need the Scarecrow!"
Mischa shot back, "And you could play the Tin Man, since you're clearly lacking a heart!"
"Ohh," Haley was about to tease her uncle when her sister chimed in as well.
Alex stopped reading her book and remarked, "Since you're all on a quest through Oz, you might as well ask for two more brains, for Luke and Haley."
Dani laughed. "That's my niece! She stops reading, delivers a roast, and then goes right back to reading. That's what I call commitment!"
Haley didn't stay quiet. "Too bad the Oz thing doesn't grant a boyfriend, or you could go too, Alex."
"Don't worry, Alex. I'll be your wingman," Dani proposed. "I overheard that you thought Daniel Radcliffe was cute. I'll help you when we go to the premiere."
"What?" Phil finally stopped paying attention to the show.
"I didn't say that!" Alex tried to deny.
Haley found another way to provoke her. "Ohh, somebody has a crush!"
Meanwhile, Dani tried to get Phil on his side. "Come on, Phil. It's Harry Potter. A boyfriend is inevitable sooner or later. At least this one would be awesome!"
"Well..." Phil muttered, conflicted.
"Dad!" Alex exclaimed. Then she called for help, "Mom!"
Claire, who had been in the kitchen, walked over to the couch. "What did Dani do this time?" she asked, exasperated.
"Hey! That's very insulting!" Dani exclaimed.
Alex immediately revealed, "He wants to set me up with a boy!"
Seeing his sister's expression, Daniel continued defending himself. "Still, it's insulting. There was a 15% chance it was Haley's fault, 10% Phil's, and 5% of anyone else's."
"You can't just accuse me right away just because there was a 70% chance it was me!"
Claire immediately started squeezing her brother's shoulder. "Start talking. A boy?"
"Not a boy. He's the boy. The Chosen One. Harry Potter, or Daniel Radcliffe. Since Alex thought he was cute, I was going to help her."
Dani went on, "And you can't possibly be against him, sis. He started working at ten!"
"Where are you going to find a boy that hardworking? We're not in China."
He concluded his defense. "And he's a fine kid."
"How would you know that?" Claire asked suspiciously. "Did you meet him?"
"Not really. But his name's Daniel. It can't go wrong!" he joked.
Claire just deadpanned. "Okay, enough. And Alex is too young-"
"Oh, come on," Dani scoffed. "When I was fourteen-"
He stopped, seeing the look on his sister's face basically saying, Don't you dare start with one of your stories!
"Okay, when you, sis, were fourteen-"
Claire interrupted him. "I was a very good girl-"
"Yeah, right," Mitchell snorted.
But he quickly corrected his tone when he saw his sister's glare. "I mean, yes, right!" he said affirmatively.
Daniel, who was already getting another squeeze from Claire, mocked him. "Coward!"
"Ha! Now we have the final member of the excursion to Oz!" Dani chuckled.
[Mischa and Dani commentary]
Mischa turned her head toward him. "You have a family of comedians, don't you, Dani?" she joked about all their interactions.
"The coolest one! Just admit you loved them," he remarked.
She just rolled her eyes.
He pulled her closer, and she kissed him.
Once on his lap, Mischa gave in. "I did. And especially the biggest little clown in the family," she said before kissing him again.
[Commentary ends]
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After everyone had dinner, Mischa, Haley, and Dani returned to the couch.
"I can't believe that song you did for Natalie is already #16 on the Billboard chart, Dani," Haley said, talking about Beautiful Girls.
His catchy song was quickly becoming popular, especially because of the story behind it.
"And The Climb is at #3..." Mischa looked incredulous.
"Yeah..." Even Dani was very surprised by how popular the songs had become. "And my team was saying that, with how fast Beautiful Girls is spreading, it wouldn't be surprising if it hit number one..."
"How do you come up with these songs, Dani?" Haley asked. She didn't know, after all, most of the songs he did after getting laid.
Dani shrugged. "It just comes naturally. Inspiration from something I watched or did..."
Even he couldn't really explain it very well.
Mischa didn't say anything. But she was glad that, even if Haley asked more deeply about it, The Climb and Beautiful Girls were two rare examples of songs that had come to him 'normally'.
"Oh," he exclaimed. "Here's one example: I just got an idea from watching the episode of The O.C."
Dani started humming his song idea.
♫♪I miss the taste of a sweeter life
I miss the conversation
I'm searching for a song tonight
I'm changing all of the stations
I like to think that we had it all
We drove to a better place
But on that road, I took a fall
Oh, baby, why did you run away? ♫♪
♫♪I was there for you in your darkest times
I was there for you in your darkest night
But I wonder, where were you
When I was at my worst, down on my knees?
And you said you had my back
So I wonder, where were you
When all the roads you took came back to me? ♫♪
He stopped singing and said, "Like this. I drew inspiration from Marissa's suffering- I mean, her sad story. I mixed it with other characters, and this is what it turned into."
The two girls just stared at him.
[Lexi, Mischa and Dani commentary]
After hearing what happened, Lexi stared at Dani. "So, you watch Mischa's character nearly die of overdose, call her stupid, and then turn her misery into a song?"
"Pretty much it!" Dani confirmed.
He hugged Mischa. "I love Marissa. She entertains me and inspired me to write a song!"
"Asshole!" Mischa scolded.
"No need to ask twice," Dani smirked, jumping on top of her.
"Daniii," she said. "...just the tip... I don't want to walk funny tomorrow."
[Commentary ends]
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Song: Maroon 5, Maps
Author's note: For those who didn't get the reference, Mischa's character, Marissa Cooper, died in a car accident in Season 3 of The O.C. - and Mischa will be playing the girlfriend in the "Maps" music video (who also died in a car accident)
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