Students in Les Miserables Land by Jo Pearson

Jo glanced back over her shoulder and saw that Valjean had gone back through the gates and was no where to be seen.

The next morning came much quicker than anyone thought it would, but that is the way with musicals and plays. A day can take no more than a few minutes to pass, a night can take even less time. It was through a similar quirk that a barricade appeared in the street called the Rue de Villette with very little effort from the students. (Ah, such is the wonder of set design…) Anyway, it was morning. Students were milling about. Our group of friends had been reunited and were swapping tales of the night that had passed.
Suddenly the students were aware of lots of eyes peering out at them from inside the barricade. One by one, figures crept out from amongst the piles of tables and chairs and so on. They were cats, or rather people dressed as cats but I trust you get my meaning!
“ Excuse me, could you help us…” said a black cat, his eyes sparkling mischievously. This was clearly the magical, Mr Mistoffles.
“ We were wondering…” said two cats in unison. Their colours were similar, white, black and ginger. The friends instantly recognised them as Mungojerrie and Rumpleteaser.
“ Could you direct us to the heavy side lair…” asked a tall black cat with a very prominent mane, this was no other than the Rum Tum Tugger.
“ Erm…” mumbled a very confused Enjolras.
“ I think you’ll find it’s that way!” Jenny pointed and the cats bowed and they all ran off, or rather crawled and danced away.
“ Cats.” Jo and Rosie said in a matter of fact way.
Enjolras took a deep breath and was about to launch into another of his speeches when suddenly the sound of voices on the other side of the barricade filled the air, and they were singing! The students climbed the barricade to see what was going on now.
“ What’s the buzz, tell me what’s a-happening! What’s the buzz, tell me what’s a-happening!” sang the group of young men and women who were advancing towards the barricade. A young man dressed in camouflage gear approached the barricade!
“ Romans! Throw down your weapons and you shall be treated fairly!” The friends gasped when they recognised him as Simon Zealotes.
“ Romans?! There are no Romans here!” Enjolras shouted.
“ You mean you’re not Romans…?” Simon’s voice was a little less confident.
“ NO!” came the yelled response.
“ Oh…well…er….” Simon struggled to think of what to say when another man stepped through the crowd. He had dark features and a leather jacket.
“ Oh my god….that’s….” mumbled Lucy,
“ Judas….” Whispered Jo, Rosie and Jenny.
“ I told you this wasn’t the right thing to do!” he said to Simon, his voice deep and powerful. He looked up to the barricade, “ We do apologise, this idiot here…” he said slapping Simon on the arm, “ …has found the wrong rebellion…you have weapons…we need to find Jesus!”
“ Oh well…I…er…” Enjolras was becoming more and more confused.
“ I think you’ll find him over there somewhere…” pointed Jo as a blonde haired man appeared in the distance. A triumphant yell rose from the crowd as they ran towards him singing once more. Judas paused for a moment before following them, he turned back to look at the barricade again and muttered to himself.
“ What a strange thing…mystifying…”
He ran after the others and once the last of the singing disciples had vanished down the alley, Jo took Javert’s hand and led him to one side.
“ What is it Jo?” his holding hers tightly.
“ I know that you came here this morning to…to lie to these students…but please don’t…if you do then…” But before she could finish Enjolras turned to Javert and took another deep breath.
“If you know what their movements are we’ll spoil their game! There are ways that a people can fight, we shall overcome their power!” Javert squeezed Jo’s hand before leaving her side and going over to Enjolras.
“ There will be no attack…” began Javert but Gavroche interrupted him with a loud cry.
“ Liar! I know this man my friends, his name’s Inspector Javert! So don’t believe a word he says ‘cos none of it’s true!” Gavroche laughed loudly as the spy was cornered and bound. Although to say that Javert was cornered would not be exactly true. Javert didn’t try to fight his captors or run away, he stood where he was and waited for the students to react. On the far side of the street the small group of friends watched silently. One eye on what was going on, one eye on a member of their group; Jo was sat watching the whole thing through glazed eyes.
“ Do you think she’s ok?” Jenny looked concerned.
“ Probably not…but at least she’s not done anything stupid!” Rosie shrugged as the commotion died down. The Inspector was sat on a chair, his hands bound behind his back.
“ You will be shot…two minutes before the barricade falls.” Announced Enjolras. The students taunted their captive for a little while but they received no reaction. Soon they tired of this and resumed their previous positions. The friends sat down and their table was silent.
“ Jo…” Lucy whispered, “ Jo…”
“ They’re going to kill him,” mumbled Jo, her glazed eyes still focused on the other side of the road.
“ Of course they won’t…” Rosie offered, “ We know he doesn’t get shot…he’s going to be fine…” Jo’s eyes snapped back to them and when she spoke they noticed her voice was trembling slightly.
“ No, he’s not! He’s going to die…” it was then that her friends noticed that her eyes were glazed in shock or fear, but with tears.
“ No…Valjean will save him! Won’t he…” Mark smiled and Jo looked over at him.
“ Don’t you realise what’s happened! Marius met Rosie instead of Cosette, so he never went to the Rue Plumet and Éponine never prevented a robber there, So Valjean didn’t decide to leave, Marius never wrote Cosette a letter so Valjean never read one and so…” Jo paused for breath, “…Valjean…Valjean won’t come here to protect Marius and so he won’t free Javert!” Jo swallowed as her words sunk into the others. “ All we know for certain is that the barricade will fall and so…so…they’ll shoot him!” A tear rolled down Jo’s cheek as her eyes fell once more upon Javert. Rosie suddenly sniffed and the others saw a tear escaping her eye, she had realised that Marius had no chance either. With no Valjean to save him, he too would die. Quickly the friends realised that whatever miracle had allowed them to meet these characters, had also doomed them. Jenny sighed as she looked over at Feuilly and took Jo’s hand,
“ Well, there’s nothing we can do…” Had Jenny been fully aware of what she was saying, she would never have uttered that statement. For if she had been, she would have known the reaction it would receive from Jo. Nevertheless, it had been said and before Jenny could think about it, Jo had leapt to her feet.
“ Yes there is…” she turned back to face them, her eyes all at once bright. “ I can free him!” Jo took a step towards Javert but Mark appeared in her path. “ Get out of my way Mark…”
“ Jo you can’t do this…” Mark held Jo back as she trued to go around him.
“ But I have to…if I don’t he’ll die!” Jo looked up into Mark’s face, tears again running down her cheeks.
“ Not now Jo…at least wait until the other students have gone to a meeting or something. If you go now, we’re all in for it. And not just us. I know you think that all the students are doomed but what if…what if something can save them. If you go charging over there to free Javert now…well…they’ve all been very friendly to us and we know that Enjolras wouldn’t hesitate in capturing them too if he thought they were spies!” Jo paused and Mark and the others knew that Jo would wait. They didn’t know for how long, but she would wait.
“ I thought you met Valjean last night…” mumbled Lucy.
“ I did! But he doesn’t know anything about me, let alone Marius and so he won’t come to the barricade and so…” Jo’s voice was highly animated as were her hand gestures. Rosie stopped her from continuing.
“ I think we get it now Jo!” she smiled.
Their thoughts were broken by the sounds of a fight. They looked over to see Gavroche stuggling with another young boy. They were arguing heatedly about something.
“ Get off my patch!” yelled Gavroche.
“ Oo says it’s your patch anyway…” answered the other boy.
“ I do!”
“ And oo are you?”
“ They call me Gavroche.”
“ What kind of a name is that?!” laughed the other boy.
“ Well who are you then?”
“ Jack Dawkins. Known among me more h’intimate friends as…The Artful Dodger.” He bowed and Gavroche giggled.
“ You wouldn’t last five minutes here!” yelled Gavroche.
“ You wouldn’t larst one in Lahhndon!” shouted Dodger.
Before the fisticuffs could start again, a figure suddenly leapt onto the barricade, a voluminous black cloak swirling around him. Half of his face hidden by a mask.
“ I don’t suppose any of you have seen…” he started.
“ NO!” shouted the students. The sound of troops approaching the barricade filled the air and panic set in.
“ Shouldn’t we get out of here…” Mark asked quietly.
Students were dashing all over the place, getting into position with their guns.
“ STOP!” a voice rang out. Everybody stopped and turned to see who it was. Jo had climbed up onto the barricade.
“ Oh Jesus…” groaned Lucy,
“ She’s really for it now…” muttered Jenny.
“ You don’t need to fight!” Jo yelled. Enjolras quickly marched over,
“ What?!”
“ You’ll all be killed!”
“ We’re prepared to die for what we believe in!” A cheer arose.
“ Fine. But are you willing to die even if it makes no difference. Once you’ve gone there’ll be no one to stand up for people’s rights. You’d be better off making peaceful demonstrations!”
“ You what?!” Enjolras was dumb founded, he pointed his pistol at Jo and shouted at the students, “ What shall we do with this traitor?!” Jo swallowed nervously and glanced down at Javert who was trying his best to break free from his bonds. She glanced over at her friends and smiled weakly, this wasn’t exactly how she had hoped her speech would go.
“ Oh God they’re going to kill her!” Rosie shouted as she ran over to try and help but before she could get there…
“ She’s right…” a voice called out. Marius joined Jo up on the barricade, he moved Enjolras’ gun away from her head. “ We have to fight but not with guns. With peace we can prove ourselves stronger. Plus…more people will support us if they don’t think they’re going to die for it!!!” Another cheer arose. Grantaire rose to his feet.
“ Why don’t we ask them over for a drink and try and talk things through…” he suggested. This was met by riotous applause and so the soldiers and students sat down and had a drink and a chat. In the ‘confusion’ that followed, Javert was miraculously set free and Enjolras was so drunk, I mean happy by the whole thing, he didn’t care.

And so it came to pass that Marius, following encouragement from Rosie, became a very successful lounge singer. Javert decided that the police force was no longer for him and with Jo’s help he became a writer. Jenny, Feuilly, Lucy and Jean Prouvaire set up a foundation to help those repressed people in Paris. And Mark (still pursued by Éponine…) bought a bar with Grantaire which became one of the best in all fictional Paris.
And so the moral of the story is ~ NEVER jump into a red-swirly thing unless you’ve read your synopsis properly! Alternatively ~ go for it! Who knows what adventures you may have!!