Vivian was unsure how to react to the dog pile in front of the television from which no one moved when the three boys arrived. All of the Eccentrics, plus some other people he had never seen before, were immersed in an old recording of a play that looked like it was from around fifteen years ago. They were all munching on snacks that were brought by a young man with bright red hair and extremely tanned skin. With all the freckles he had, it was obvious he loved the outdoors.

The bright red haired man kept running back and forth between the living room and kitchen until he saw who had arrived. “Azazel! Quick, I need help feed all these teenagers! Also it's good to see you again Princey, and I’m assuming his Snow White?” He turned to Vivian who wasn’t sure how to respond to the automatic assumption. He didn’t have time to respond anyways though, since the man just kept going. “Make yourselves at home, the official introductions will have to wait since I’m on snack duty, and everyone else already started on the past recording binge. Probably won’t resurface until the pizza is done. Which reminds me, I should go check on them. Azazel, are you coming to help out with feeding your fellow youngsters?”

Azazel mumbled something about the young man being the same age as them, but still went to help out after dumping his bag onto a recliner that was surprisingly empty.

Vivian was then lead by Philip to the dog pile that had spilled off the mismatched couches onto the floor. Everyone made half-hearted attempts at moving to make room for the two newcomers, while still focused on the video. One of the guys they ended up next to leaned over and whispered in Vivian’s ear. “You are going to enjoy this next part. The original Eccentrics were masters when it came to the stage. Especially when it comes to the on stage outfit changes. I swear he is a reincarnation of a Shakespearean actor with his ability to switch between male and female parts on the dime.” The long winded guy next to Vivian sighed. “He inspired a lot of us to become members of the club, and yet no one knows who he is or where he is now. At least no one will fess up to it.”

Philip nodded from the other side of Vivian. “Even my aunt who knew him first hand won’t say anything other than he was one of her closest friends and tell stories of what their small group of friends got up to in their day. Although recently I might have found him.”

Whoever had the remote paused the recording suddenly. It ended up paused on a close up of one of the actors in the middle of spinning and releasing small straps that held their costume positioned to look like baggy trousers, but then be able to transform into a dress-like outfit. Vivian felt like he had seen this exact outfit before and decided to look closer.

While he was focused on the screen, the others had turned to Philip and started questioning him. Philip was shrugging it off like it was no big deal, but it was obvious that whoever this person was, it was a huge deal to every single person there, except one.

With a slip of the tongue the one person that wasn’t bugging Philip got everyone interested in him instead. “Dad?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Theodore sat in front of the almost three year old child who was apparently going to become his step-son in a few hours. He had no clue how it had escalated so quickly, but he felt a strange connection to this child, and he didn’t want the child’s mother to ruin his life any more than she already had. This child needed a loving adult who would prioritize him over anything else. If that meant he had to get married to this woman, so be it. If he had to get married in this life and couldn’t marry his one true love, then he would get married to protect this child. He would dump all his unused love into this child and give him the life Theodore wished he had.

Ajax looked up at Theodore with large eyes. “Iz at twu? Deo iz goona beh ma daadi?”

Theodore smiled at Ajax. “Yeah, I guess you are going to call me Dad instead of Big Brother like I originally thought.” He chuckled.

Ajax climbed up into Theodore’s lap. “Ay newer ad a daadi befew… Ay em gwad iz Deo.” He looked up and smiled even brighter at Theodore. “Ay thaw Deo pwac-i-on an daught Deo waz zoooo pwetty. Ay twod Mama an sowd er da pictoor ov Deo on mah cam-e-wa.” Ajax pulled a small simple kids camera out of his tiny bookbag and showed Theodore.

It was a picture of Theodore showing off a costume he had designed and brought with him from high school. He was showing how easy it was to use in a play, and the proper ways to make it seem natural to reach for and undo the straps. In the picture Theodore was smiling brightly with no sign of his past wearing him down. He really did look best and feel most comfortable on the stage.

Ajax continued to tell Theodore about how he had begged his mother until she gave in and called Theodore for him. Instead of handing over the phone to Ajax though, she had spontaneously suggested marriage. One of her advisers had been bugging her, much like her son was in a different way, to find a father for Ajax. That advisor then convinced her other advisers that the only way to increase her public image at the moment was to create a perfect family image. If she showed off her child more than she would be able to get more support from family type people, and even more so if there was a husband holding that child.

So when she reluctantly called Theodore for her son, she just blurted the first thing to come to her flustered mind, marriage. Theodore was so confused that he randomly accepted, only talking himself into not regretting it by reminding himself about the child. A child that had picked up calling him both Dad and Theo interchangeably. He was now the only father the child knew, and he prayed he wouldn’t mess it up.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vivian was still a little shook by recognizing the iconic outfit that Theodore was wearing in the first picture Vivian ever took of him practicing. Theodore had printed out and framed the picture shortly after they had warmed up to each other, and always kept the blurry picture on his make-up stand backstage in each performance he was in. This frozen frame was near identical to that picture, except it wasn’t blurry, and Theodore was wearing make-up in this image. Vivian had no idea how he didn’t recognize his step-father sooner as the recording was playing.

“Wait, this person is your father? The Papa Bear of the Eccentrics, and Mr. Lawson’s obsession with protecting the club, is your DAD?!” Edwyn was the one who was voicing his surprise the loudest as he jabbed a finger towards the screen. Apparently this person they froze on was the elusive master of the stage they had just been talking about.

“Step-dad, actually…” Vivian half whispered, overwhelmed yet again. At least he now understood a little more about his adopted father’s background. Vivian was actually kind of glad his meltdown happened earlier opposed to now while he was surrounded by new classmates and strangers.

Philip sat next to Vivian like a strong knight protecting him from anything that could harm him.

“So this Theodore you always mention is Papa Bear?! He has been back in town for so long and no one knew? Our drama club GOD is back home?! How could you hide this from us?” Edwyn continued on, in too much shock to notice that he was the only one still voicing their thoughts. Everyone else had quieted down from noticing Philip’s protective arm around the currently shrinking Vivian.

“He just found out tonight, if anything you guys should be blaming me, since I found out within Vivian’s first week of school. I was sworn to secrecy though, so I couldn’t tell you even if I wanted to until now.” Philip let loose some of the anger that he had towards Theodore earlier as it came back to him about his darling Princess’ pain. “If you want to ask questions, hold off until after Theodore and Vivian workout this major miscommunication problem. Until then, I believe the pizza is done.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Vivian could tell everyone wanted to interrogate him about Theodore still, but knew that he wouldn’t be able to answer many questions until he talked with the elusive “Papa Bear”. (Vivian was definitely curious himself where that nickname came from.) The topic slowly turned to other topics to everyone’s relief.

Vivian soon realized that all the strangers here were actually already graduated Eccentrics, who were back in town specifically for Halloween and to welcome newcomers to the group. They had learned about the last minute sleepover from a group chat app, and had quickly set up an account for Vivian under the nickname SnowWhite.

They explained to Vivian that every three years of Eccentrics got a new nickname theme in the chat. The current theme was fairytales, and then the previous theme, which Tara and Fintan (the red haired man) were apart of, was mythical creatures. Vivian knew most fairy tales, so he quickly lined up the person with the fairytale reference. The alumni were a little harder to figure out since he didn’t actually know them, but they were all patient as they introduced themselves and welcomed him to their strange family.

The only true family Vivian had ever known was his mother and Theodore, so he wasn’t sure how to approach this new “family” filled with weird aunts, and uncles, and cousins. The community drama team in Eastedge was definitely close, but never to the point of this close-knit club that shared everything and visited each others houses outside of practice on a regular basis. They were close enough that even alumni made a point to show up to random sleepovers just to introduce themselves.

Vivian was excited, yet also scared about letting himself just merge into their family. He knew from experience that every family had their secrets, and when secrets get out it can ruin and tear families apart. Vivian wondered if his past and his locked up secrets would end up making him lose his right to be in this family. He couldn’t risk it, yet he wanted the warmth of this welcoming group so bad.

For now though, he would try to put his worries in a small little box in the back of his mind, only to be opened by his little inner demons when they needed to restock their ammo. This had to be a stress free night for him. It could only last so long and soon the fairytale would be over and he would have to confront his step-father.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Philip was glad Vivian seemed to be enjoying himself still. He was still a bit nervous meeting the alumni that had randomly stopped in (most likely Finny’s influence…), but he had quickly fit right in. It was hard not to, considering that the group was based on being different and embracing those differences at least while they were all together. The club was meant to be a safe spot for anyone who felt like they didn’t belong. That’s why once an Eccentric, always an Eccentric, no matter how normal you appear to become to the outside world.

The only times you weren’t an Eccentric is if you truly bash someone for their unique personality. Edwyn only got away with it because he never really meant it, and the others knew who he really was. He was like most of them; broken somehow, in someway, looking for someone to see the true him. His Eccentricities was not being a bully, but something much deeper that lead to him only knowing how to lash out to gain attention. It was all he ever knew, so it was all he ever did.

Then there was Dillion. Jack of all trades, master of none. He was on an unending quest to find himself. He didn’t know where he belonged or who he was, so he turned to the misfits to take him in. There he found that he could be whoever he wanted to be, and he didn’t need to conform to just one thing. So he wanted to try everything, hoping that eventually something would click. Everyone was brought together by their differences and held together by the support they find. Even their advisor Mr. Lawson had a story to tell.

Drama club was the perfect way to express their differences too. By acting different characters and working as a team to produce something large to show off, they learned different things about putting up a front everyday, learning to act as their own selves, and that they have never been alone.

Philip knew from his aunt’s stories that the original Eccentrics were a small group of hurting teenagers that felt like they only ever had each other and never knew who they could truly rely on, especially after some stuff went down that tore them all apart. Philip knew that he was in the direct middle of it all too. Ann never had to say it, but Philip knew enough and put the pieces together. His existence caused that generation to all scatter, leaving only Ann and a baby Philip left in Oakhaven. Aristotle of course returned, but he always insisted that he was never apart of the Eccentrics back then, guilt written all over his face.