Ellie was hanging out at Big Red's house after they got the message about Miss Jenn. She was sat on the floor besides the chair Ricky was sitting in.

" It feels weird not being at rehearsal." Ricky admitted and then he chuckled. " How stupid is that?"

" It's not stupid, Ricky." Ellie speaks up as she looks at him. " It is weird not being at rehearsal, we're so use to going there everyday and it's weird not being there all of a sudden."

" What if we just did the show without her?" Big Red suggested.

Ellie and Ricky shook their heads.
" We can't even take a picture without her." Ricky said.

Ricky looks at Big Red. " No offense."

" Nah," Big Red said. " you're right, dude."

Ellie looks up whenever she hears the doorbell ring. They hear the door open while Big Red yells, " Down here, Caden!"

She watches as Kaden walks down the stairs with two other people. " I hope it's cool I invited Stef and Rico."

" What's up, guys?" Ricky said and Ellie sent them a smile.

Big Red looked at Ricky. " Uh, when you didn't text back I reached out to some peeps. I wanted some company tonight."

The doorbell then rings again and Big Red, Ellie and Ricky share a confused look. " It's open." Big Red said and Ellie wondered who it was.

Everyone looks over to see Ashlyn, Avalon and Trevor walking down the steps. " Hey, guys." Ashlyn greets while Avalon waves.

" Okay," Ricky stands up as he looks at Big Red. " how many people are coming?"

" Uh, that should be it." Big Red said as he looked back at everyone.

" Actually give it a minute." Ashlyn said.

" Yeah, we might have invited some more people over..." Avalon admits.

Ellie looks at her. " How many?" she looks up whenever she hears multiple footsteps and distant chatter. Her eyes grow wide as she watches multiple people walk down the steps. 1Everyone that was in the play was now in Big Red's basement.

Ellie was still sitting on the floor besides the chair Ricky was sitting in while Gina sat besides her and Ellie honestly hated the awkward silence that filled the room.

" This is a terrible party." Natalie was the first to speak up. " There aren't even pretzels. What are we all doing here?"

" We all ended up in the same basement after a really bad day, so someone should say something." Ashlyn said.

" Fine." Carlos said. " I'm mad at Miss Jenn."

" Why?" Gina scoffs. " Because she got a couple of skeletons in her closet?"

" No, because she's giving up." Carlos tells her. He looks at everyone. " She was the first teacher to not see me as a punchline and now she's not even a real teacher."

" Define 'real teacher'." Ashyn said.

" He's got a point." Kourtney speaks up.

" Does he though?" Natalie asks.

" Guys." Big Red said, not wanting anyone to be fighting.

" So," Natalie said. " why are we all here then?"

" Yeah, good question." EJ speaks up.
" This is a waste of time."

" Honestly? Because she gave me a shot." Carlos said. " And it's been a long time since someone has gave me a shot." he admitted and Ellie felt bad for him.

" She helped me not be afraid with being in the spotlight." Ellie speaks up and everyone looks at her.

" Okay," she chuckled. " so I'm still a little afraid of it, but I'm a lot better than I was before and that all that's matters."

" And it's sad no one gets to see your talent because Miss Jenn made a mistake." Trevor said.

" Okay," Ashlyn rolls her eyes. " does anyone here actually care that her past is a little sketchy?" she looks around the room. " Anyone?"

Ellie looked over at Ricky with surprise when he said, " I do."

" Seriously, dude?" Big Red asked.

" What, because you live the perfect life?" Kourtney rolls her eyes.

" Not at all." Ricky shakes his head and stands up. " Because she put our show in jeopardy. And now we're all here, maybe for the last time together."

Ellie frowns. She didn't want to believe it, but she knew that he was right. " And for some of us," Ricky continues to speak. " this has become..." his voice trails off and he shakes his head. " I don't know."

" Family." Nini speaks up and Ellie nods in agreement. Ricky looks at them with a smile and then looks at everyone.

" What team?" Ricky asked.

" Wildcats." everyone replies.

" Okay, Wildcats." Ashlyn said. " So, what are we doing about it?"

****

The next day was the board meeting. Ellie sat between Ricky and Gina as they listened to the board meeting. Ellie looked over at the parents that were in the room and she smiled when she noticed her mom there. But her eyes grew wide when she saw the man that was sitting next to her.

- ˏˋ Okay, why is he here? I mean, it's nice that he finally decided to support me, but why did he just show up out of the blue? And why didn't my mom tell me about this? I wonder if Andy knew...and I know that Dexter is a Deputy and is busy, but it would be nice to get a phone call every now and then. ˎˊ-

Ricky looked over at her noticing how nervous she was all of a sudden. He looked over at who she was looking at and saw who it was. He knew how tough it was for her with her mom's new boyfriend and such. He knew that Dexter was never around that much so he wondered why he decided to show up for this.

" Are you okay?" he asked her.

She looked over at him and shrugged her shoulders. " I think so." she looks back forward at the Principal begins speaking.

" Miss Jenn," Mr. Gutierrez said. " it may not surprise you to learn that we have heard earfuls about your unorthodox style ever since you got to East High. Personally, I always chalked it up to the well-known fact that people in the dramatic arts are insane."

Miss Jenn is quiet for a moment, not really knowing what to say before she finally decides on saying, " Thank you."

" But now," Mr. Gutierrez continues to speak. " we have news that your resume is exaggerated." he said as he looked at the resume. " Your teaching credentials is from some obscure online university, and even your official name might be some version of a stage name."

He looks at her. " What do you say to this charge?"

" I have always done my best by these kids." Miss Jenn said.

" Just answer the question." Mr. Gutierrez tells her.

Miss Jenn is quiet for a moment before Mike, Ricky's dad, stands up.
" Excuse me. Can I say something?"

Ellie glances at Ricky, wondering if he knew what was going on and Ricky looked just as confused and surprise as she did.

" I'm sorry. We're not opening up the floor to parents about this." Mr. Gutierrez said to him.

" Let him speak." one of Nini's mom's said.

" Yeah, we should be allowed to speak." Clara speaks up and Ellie smiled.

Mr. Gutierrez sighed. " Go ahead, Mr. Bowen."

" I'm a little late to this party, but I gotta say that the real crime here would be booting a teacher who is making a positive impact." Mike said as he gestured to Jennifer and she smiled.

" I never seen my kid this interested in anything," he continued to speak.
" and I don't think that's something that we should punish, your...honor."

Murmurs filled the room as Mr. Gutierrez started to speak. " Mr. Bowen I appreciate your statement, but I think we can all agree that theater isn't unique in this regard."

" Excuse me," Clara said as she stands up and Ellie stared at her with surprise. " but I disagree with that. Theater is very important to multiple people. It lets people not be afraid to be themselves. My daughter was and sometime still is very shy, but theaater and also Jennifer has helped her get out of her shell and realize how talented she truly is. I'm very thankful for Jennifer for helping with that."

Ellie was surprised that her mom said that, she didn't think that her mom thought that way, but she was happy that her mom spoke up.

" Thank you for your statement, Ms. Hutcheson, but it doesn't have some special fairy dust that can't be filled by another extracurricular." Mr. Gutierrez said as humming filled the room. He looked at the microphone with confusion and tapped it to see if it wasn't working.

" Who's humming?" he asked once he realized it wasn't the microphone and everyone looked around the room.

Ashlyn was the first to stand up, but then Ellie and Ricky stood up, followed by Nini and the rest of the theater kids. There were even some that put signs that said stuff like 'we love miss jenn' over the railing.

Ashlyn points at Nini. Nini points to Ellie and Ricky who both point up at Kourtney who was standing on the second level. Big Red was standing next to her with a grin and she grinned as she held up a stereo that played music.

Big Red runs down the stairs while Miss Jenn looks around with confusion as Caden and Rico carry the desk that was in front of her out of the way.

Kourtney was the first to start off the song that the cast members created in one night and they didn't know it know, but it would save Jennifer's job.

A/N yay dexter is mentioned,  you'll get to meet him in the next chapter so that should be interesting! I'm so glad I finally got another chapter of this book up! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter & don't forget to check out some of my other books!