Heading Home

“Toto.” Conner heard his sister whisper and felt a light jossle to wake him up. “Hey Toto, wake up.” His sister whispered again. Conner slowly opened his eyes, waking up from his dreams, he noticed light pouring in from the window. He tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes only to remember he was still wearing the Toto costume.

“What time is it?” Conner groaned and looked around. He was still on top of Emily’s bed, she was sleeping on her pillows under the covers while he was at the end, she was still asleep herself.

“Shh, don’t wake up Emily.” Jessica whispered to him. “It’s just after seven, we need to head home.” Jessica wasn’t wearing the Dorothy costume anymore and had changed into blue sweatpants and a white sweater. She lifted Conner carefully off the bed and placed him on the floor, he took a moment to balance himself and followed her out of the room.

“You didn’t tell me we would spend the night, I would have changed at the school.” Conner scolded his sister. He wanted to stand up and walk around again instead of being forced to crawl.

“I hadn’t planned on staying the night but by the time I went to check on you, both you and Emily were asleep.” Jessica explained to Conner as they made their way through the house. “Sara and I figured you and Emily had a long day and let you rest. Don’t worry I called Mom and Dad and let them know, we won’t get in trouble.”

Conner wasn’t worried about getting in trouble, he wanted to change his clothes as well. The two stepped into the kitchen where Sara and Harvey were sitting at the table. Sara was wearing a pair of jeans and a T-Shirt and Harvey was wearing part of the Wizard costume from the play, he had clearly spent the night as well. “Sara, do you have anything for my brother to wear home?” Jessica asked Sara.

Sara looked at Conner who still looked like a puppy. “Yeah, I think something of Emily's will fit him.” She told them, getting up to find something.

“Come on Toto, let’s get you out of that costume.” Jessica told him. Conner hurried and followed her to the bathroom to finally change. He sat on his feet waiting for Jessica to unzip the outfit, he felt her tug and pull at the material. “Where is the zipper?” Jessica asked him.

“What do you mean, it should be at the top.” Conner said. “You unzipped it yesterday for me.”

“The pull tab is missing, I can’t unzip it.” Jessica explained. “Who zipped this up for you yesterday?”

Conner thought about the encounter yesterday. “It was Billy, he seemed upset at the time and wanted to use the washroom.” He told her.

Jessica stood up and groaned. “Yeah I bet he was upset.” Her voice sounded concerned and angry, she leaned out the door and called Harvey over.

Harvey entered the washroom to Conner’s confusion. “Apparently Billy is the last one to zip up my brother’s suit and now the zipper tab is missing, this was after our conversation with him.” Jessica explained to Harvey.

“Jeeze, he is such a jerk, that’s exactly the type of thing he would do.” Harvey hissed. “Let me call him. I bet that’s what he wants anyway.”

Harvey stepped away. “Let’s see what Billy says, otherwise we will need to cut the outfit off and I don’t think the school will appreciate that.” Jessica told him.

Conner started feeling humiliated, he had slept through the night in the costume and now he wasn’t even allowed to take it off. If they did cut it off of him there was no way Ms. Gray would let him be part of any other play in the future. Jessica noticed the fear building up in his younger brother. “Hey, don’t worry too much, everything will be okay.” She tried to reassure him. “Billy may seem like a big bully but he thinks this type of stuff is funny.” Conner felt a little better knowing his sister was being casual about everything.

Harvey stepped back into the room, he looked annoyed. “Okay, so apparently Billy does have the zipper tab and had expected us to call him yesterday. Now he says he will meet us at the school to give it to us.” Harvey explained.

The three of them headed to the door and Sara caught up with them before they left. “Here is a change of clothes for Toto” Sara said and handed Jessica a shopping bag. “Harvey told me what’s going on.”

“Thanks Sara.” Jessica said.

The three of them left Sara’s house and made their way back to the school, since it was Saturday they wouldn’t be able to go inside. Harvey and Jessica walked slowly to allow for Conner to keep a regular pace. “Hey you okay down there.” Harvey asked.

“I really want out of this thing.” Conner said and then gave it some thought. “I’ve been wearing it for over twelve hours!”

“Billy said he’s coming with the tab, so once we have it you can change right away.” Jessica told him she felt concerned for her brother. “Also I want to give him a piece of my mind.”

After a few minutes the group finally made their way to the school, Conner felt a little tired from walking all the way here on his knees and took a break. Billy was walking toward them from across the courtyard.

“I see you two are just taking Toto out for his morning walk?” Billy shouted as he got closer.

“Billy! What you did was too far! What did Conner ever do to you?” Jessica shouted defending Conner.

“Conner?” Billy questioned as he finally got closer. “Never met him.” and he shrugged.

Conner was having mixed emotions, he felt pride in his sister defending him, but humiliation from Billy treating him like a dog. “I’m not a dog, my name is Conner.” Conner said to Billy.

“Oh so the dog speaks!” Billy laughed at his own joke.

“Billy, just give us the zipper tab so you can go.” Harvey finally said.

“You really want the zipper tab back, lover boy” Billy mockingly said while pulling the tab out and holding it out of reach.

“Billy, you aren’t being funny, you are just being a jerk.” Harvey protested.

“Oh, I’m the jerk now!” Billy was getting angry. “I’m not the one going on secret dates, even though you already had a boyfriend!”

“We talked about this yesterday, it’s over” Harvey was getting flustered. “Just leave us alone.”

Billy looked Harvey up and down. “You stayed over at Sara’s didn’t you?” He looked at Jessica and Conner. “All three of you did! That’s why you didn’t call me yesterday!”

“Just give me the tab!” Harvey demanded, getting closer to Billy. The two were furious with each other and eventually Harvey just gave Billy a shove that sent him to the ground.

Billy was shocked and surprised, Conner had never seen Billy like this; he looked like he was about to cry. “Whatever, just take it.” Billy sniveled and threw the zipper tab towards Jessica who caught it. “Harvey, you may think I’m the ass but you’re a piece of work yourself.” He then picked himself up and there was a look of acceptance and betrayal on his face. Without waiting for a response Billy took off running.

Jessica and Harvey gave a nervous look to each other, both of them feeling guilty. “Alright let’s get you changed so we can walk home.” Jessica took the zipper tab and spent a couple minutes trying to get it back on the outfit, eventually Conner felt the cold autumn air as the outfit unzipped.

“It’s colder than I thought it was.” Conner said. He pulled off the outfit and tried to stand up falling on his butt. “My legs are all wobbly.” Conner blushed realizing he was sitting in the school courtyard in nothing but his underwear, at least only Jessica and Harvey were the only ones around to see.

Jessica handed Conner the shopping bag with extra clothes he pulled out what Sara had picked out for him. Conner revealed bubble gum pink colored footie pajamas, he sat there looking at them until another cold breeze rushed over them causing him to shiver. “You have got to be kidding me.” He stammered.

“It’s only for the walk home, Sara said you can keep them since Emily doesn’t even wear them.” Jessica said, trying to hold back a laugh. “Besides, it’s not like you have shoes with you anyway.”

Conner sighed deeply, his humiliation would continue. He quickly pulled on the legs and tried to stand up, Harvey held his hand so he could regain balance. He pulled on the sleeves and started to button up the fleece pajamas, at least it was a refuge from the cold air. He looked himself up and down thinking he had stepped out of an Oz book with a puppy head and silly outfit.

“Let’s get going, hopefully no one sees me.” Conner said as he put the Toto outfit in the empty shopping bag, he also took off the collar and dropped it in the bag as well.

“Here Harvey, you carry this.” Jessica demanded and handed the shopping bag to Harvey, which he took.

Conner’s feet had anti-slip soles which protected his feet during the walk home. He spent that time untangling the ears from his hair and depositing those in the bag as well, he would deal with the makeup once he got home. During the walk he felt like he was on display for the neighborhood to see.

Once Conner saw his house he took the bag from Harvey and rushed to the front door, he put in the passcode and slipped inside. He was glad he was able to get home without even more embarrassing encounters. He left his sister to say goodbye to Harvey and headed for his room, he left the costume there while he started to tackle the makeup in his washroom.

Conner looked in the mirror and started to peel off the layers of fur, he winced as the adhesive left his skin. Then he pried off the nose prosthetic. Conner looked at himself, in the pink pajamas with some adhesive still stuck to his face. The only thing that concerned him were the black contacts, he had no idea how he would take those out. He sighed and finally took off the pajamas and stepped in the shower.

He thought about everything that had happened, the practicing, the performances and the party. He was proud of what he had accomplished, while embarrassing he was able to put that aside and perform with the main cast! He resolved to keep participating in future shows and plays.