(okay, just pretend that gina is hugging oliver in this gif)

The drama club members were gathered around Ricky, watching the video North High just posted on Instagram of how they were now doing 'Beauty and the Beast' instead of 'The Little Mermaid'. It got on Oliver's nerves how North High just changed their play at the last minute because they were threatened. He hated that the costumes actually looked really cool.

"Oh my gosh, that's what's-her-name." Seb points out. "Lily, from our auditions. She isn't just co-directing in their show, she's starring in it."

Oliver shakes his head, crossing his arms. "I knew she was bad news."

"You mean perfect-pitch, looks-like-an-actual-Disney-princess, super-fangirl/mean-girl Lily?" Ashlyn questioned, turning to face the group she stood in front of. She was pacing in front of them while they were watching the video. It was clear that she was nervous about being Belle. 

"I'll say yes." EJ responded.

Ashlyn puts her hands on her hips, nodding her head. "I remember her vaguely."

"Ash, just calm down, alright?" Oliver sent her a reassuring smile. "You're gonna kill it as Belle. Lily is obviously threatened by your talent." Ashlyn smiled back at him, his comment helping some of her nerves melt away.

"Thank you all for coming so quickly on a Saturday." Miss Jenn speaks, walking inside the bomb shelter with Carlos. Oliver furrows his eyebrows upon seeing the stuff that she and Carlos carried as he took a seat on the risers along with everyone else. "Or most of you all."

Miss Jenn and Carlos laid the stuff they had on the long table and Miss Jenn turns to face everyone. "We're missing a teapot and a village idiot."

"Uh," Ricky speaks up. "I think Kourtney and Big Red are at the pizza shop."

Seb nods. "Yeah, Kourtney texted in the group. They said that they couldn't get anyone to cover their shifts." From his place behind him, EJ hit Seb's shoulder since Seb wasn't supposed to tell Miss Jenn how the drama club members had a different group chat without her in it. Everyone looked at Seb with wide eyes. A cringed expression forms on Seb's face. "Oh."

"Oh..." Miss Jenn furrows her eyebrows, getting her phone out of her pocket. "I didn't see that text."

"I meant the group chat with me and EJ." Seb quickly said. EJ pursed his lips and nodded, holding up an 'okay' symbol while Seb gave two thumbs up to everyone. 

"Well, back to the matter at hand." Miss Jenn puts her phone back in her pocket. "I can tell from your solemn faces that you've all seen..." She takes a dramatic pause before she speaks again. "The video."

"It's incredible." Carlos sighs. "Even I have no notes. I can't believe they stole our show."

"I think they're Lumiere is an actual French exchange student." Ricky voiced. 

Oliver nods. "He most likely is. He spoke in French like it was natural to him."

"Miss Jenn," Ashlyn speaks up. "How are we supposed to beat North at the Menkies if they're churning out this second after changing their musical? It's like..." 

Her voice trailed off as everyone started voicing their complaints at how awful this situation is. Oliver could only wonder how talented North High Beast's is. Not knowing who is playing their Beast made him nervous and anxious. But he knows that he would most likely feel that way if he knew who played their Beast.

"Wildcats!" Miss Jenn exclaims, clapping her hands together. Everyone grew quiet as she talks. "Take heart. North High is clearly focusing on bells and whistles. Impressive. But distracting. All we need is..."

"Friendship?" Seb guessed.

"No, Seb." Miss Jenn shakes her head. "All we need is to get back to basics. Emotional performances that connect with the audience can make all the difference with these judges. And I have a plan. Which is why you've been called in today. And that plan is...A weekend acting intensive."

Oliver looks at her with confusion. "And that is?"

"Improv." Miss Jenn replies. "Character work." She sits on a stack of yellow mats, kicking her legs up in the air. "Movement exercises." She stands up, noticing Gina was on her phone. "Hey, Gina." 

From his place between Seb and Nini, Oliver glances behind him, seeing that Gina was paying more attention to whoever she was texting than to Miss Jenn. He wondered who she was texting. "Gina." Miss Jenn calls out to her and Gina finally looks up from her phone. "Are you here?" Miss Jenn asked her.

"Mmm. Yeah." Gina nods, putting her phone down. "Yeah."

Oliver hits her leg gently to get her attention. He looks at her with concern as she looks at him. "Are you okay?" He whispered to her. She smiled but it didn't meet her eyes. "Yeah," She whispers. "I'm fine."

Oliver nods, his lips curling downwards as he turns to the front. He knew something was wrong with her but he didn't want to push her into telling him. "We're going to really connect with our characters." Miss Jenn continues. "And impressive performances, not fancy staging or actual killer wolves, will be the key to the gold. And don't forget, we have something North High doesn't."

Seb smiles. "Friendship?"

"A brand new song," Miss Jenn speaks. "Original song for the Beast and the rose." Oliver and Nini shared a smile as everyone clapped. 

Yes, that's right. Miss Jenn came up with the idea of Nini being the rose in the play. Miss Jenn thought that it would be a great idea for the Beast and the rose to have an original song that Oliver and Nini could write. Miss Jenn looks at them with a smile. "And, uh, how is that coming along, you guys?"

Oliver and Nini looks at each other with wide eyes. "Uh..." Nini's voice trails off, not knowing what to say. "It's..." Oliver and Nini looks back at Miss Jenn with a nervous smile. "Going." Oliver responded and Nini nodded.

Truth is, they're having trouble coming up with something that would work. Everything they think that would be good in the song when they sing it, it just doesn't work.

Miss Jenn nods, pointing at Oliver. "Oliver, you stay here with me for deep-dive Beast character work." Oliver nods and Miss Jenn points at Nini. "Nini, take the weekend, skip the workshop, and get a first draft of the duet down for the Beast and the rose!"

"Okay!" Miss Jenn clapped twice before going over to talk to Carlos while everyone stood up. Oliver went over to Nini who was getting her backpack. "Hey, if you need any help with the song, don't hesitate to ask me, alright?" Oliver said to her, sending her a small smile.

Nini looks at him and nods, smiling back at him. "Okay." She sighs, putting her backpack on. "I have a feeling I'll be needing a lot of help with the song."

"If either of us can write a killer song it's you." Oliver told her.

She chuckles, shaking her head. She smiles at him. "Said the one who has, like, more than a thousand followers on YouTube after you posted a video of one of your original songs."

Oliver shyly smiles, shrugging his shoulders. "But still, if you need any help with the song, just let me know."

Nini nods. "I will." 

Oliver shared a smile with her before he went back over to the others after he noticed Ricky walking over to them. A few moments later, Ricky joined the group when Nini left. Oliver was confused why all of them now had hula hoops as they were all lined up on mats that were currently on the floor and hoped Miss Jenn would explain why they had hula hoops. 

"Today is all about warm-up games," Miss Jenn explains. "The important thing is that we all..." When she stopped talking and looked in a direction with an annoyed expression when a rattling noise was heard. Oliver looked in that direction as well to find Seb was doing the hula hoop. He couldn't help but smile. 

Seb stops, letting the hula hoop drop when he realized everyone was staring at him, and he sheepishly smiles. "Focus." Miss Jenn finishes her sentence, looking back at everyone with a smile. "Strong start. Here we go, my young thespians."

Oliver was confused throughout the warm-up exercises as to why they had hula hoops and how that was going to help them. When Miss Jenn gave them pool noodles for their next warm-up exercises, that was a bad idea. Each of them started acting like a kid with the pool noodles they had right after they got them. 

"Okay." Miss Jenn claps twice, getting everyone's attention. "Everybody, drop your noodle and pair up for a mirroring exercise."

Oliver turns to Gina to ask her to be partners for this exercise but stopped when he saw EJ going over to her and he felt himself taking a step back when he heard Gina agree to be partners with him. "Hey, Ollie, you okay?" He didn't even realize his lips had formed into a frown until Ricky asked him that. He glances to his right to see his best friend looking at him with concern. 

Oliver nods. He smiles but this time it was different. Even though he smiled, his eyes didn't. "Yeah, I'm good."

Ricky slowly nods, looking as if he didn't believe Oliver but didn't say anything about it. He smiles slightly at him. "Okay, wanna be partners for this exercise?"

"Sure." Oliver responded, smiling a bit.

Everyone now sat on the mats next to their partners for this exercise, looking at Miss Jenn who stood in front of them. "What is acting, really?" Miss Jenn asks. "Acting...Is reacting." She threw the small beach ball right at Carlos. Oliver's eyes widen, surprised that she did that. 

"Ow!" Carlos exclaimed.

"In character, Lumiere."

Carlos raises his arms up to pretend to be Lumiere. "Ow."

Oliver got his phone out of his pocket when he felt it buzz and saw he got a text from Nini who was telling him she still had no luck with the lyrics, but she noticed it seemed like there was some chemistry going on between Kourtney and Howie. Oliver wasn't surprised. It seemed like Kourtney really liked Howie. 

"Oliver," Oliver was too busy texting to even hear Miss Jenn call out his name. "Could you please put your phone down and join the family?" Oliver's eyes widen and he was quick to lay his phone to the side when he noticed the ball being thrown at him. He easily caught it before it could hit him, looking at Miss Jenn with wide eyes. 

"Yeah," Oliver nods, sending her an apologetic smile as he threw the ball back to her. "Sorry."

Next thing they did for a warm-up exercise was forming into a circle and throwing the ball around. It went well for the most part, well, besides the part when Miss Jenn was accidentally hit with the ball. Oliver thought maybe Ricky did that on purpose because of the fact Miss Jenn is going on a date with his dad that night. Ricky had told him earlier that day, ranting about how he wasn't a fan of his teacher going out with his dad.

The last thing they did was improv. Ashlyn and Gina were starting it off. "Okay." Miss Jenn smiles, gesturing to Ashlyn who stood beside her along with Gina. "Ashlyn will start us off, and, Gina," She looks at dark-skinned girl by Ashlyn. "Agree with what Ashlyn says and then add on."

Miss Jenn turns to everyone else who were sitting on the mats. "It's 'yes, and', people. Remember, improv works best when you are all in. If you've got one foot out the door, it does not work and the audience will smell your fear. Fun!"

"Let's get a group suggestion from the group on a location." Miss Jenn continued.

"The Louvre?" EJ suggested.

Miss Jenn nods. "Sure, the Louvre, okay." She gestures to the two girls. "Go ahead. You ready?" When Ashlyn nods she smiles. "Okay."

"Okay, Madame Rousseau," Ashlyn speaks in a French accent, turning to Gina. "I understand that you're here to look into purchasing some art."

"From the Louvre?" Gina asked.

"Well, if one's as rich as you are, Madame, one can purchase nearly any piece of art." Ashlyn replies. She gestures to her right side, pretending there was an art piece there. "Take this piece. Do you like it?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure." Gina responded.

"Well, what is your heart telling you?" Ashlyn questioned. 

Gina glances over at Oliver. He tilts his head to the side, sending her an encouraging smile to keep going. Gina stares at the floor with a sigh leaving her lips. "I really don't know."

"Yes, and?" Miss Jenn spoke, trying to get Ashlyn to continue when it looked like Ashlyn didn't know what to say.

"Yes," Ashlyn speaks in her normal voice. "And maybe we should take a break." She walks over to sit back down on the mat while Gina turns to Miss Jenn. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Miss Jenn assures her. "We're learning. We're learning." She chuckles, walking over to stand in front of everyone as Gina sat down. "There are no rules here. Except that I will need you to do it correctly. Okay, let's try a new pair as an example."

"Um," Miss Jenn looks at Carlos and Seb with a smile. "Carlos and Seb, you boys wanna try?"

Carlos and Seb both nod and stands up. Oliver furrowed his eyebrows, growing confused when he watches Gina suddenly walk out of the room. 

****

"Five questions to really know someone's character." Miss Jenn voices, walking into the bomb shelter where everyone sat on the risers at practice that was after the next day of school. "Today, I want you all to go fully method. Stay in character for this entire exercise."

"I want each of you to come to the front of the room," Miss Jenn continues. "I'll prompt you with a question, and you'll answer in character. Gaston," She points at EJ. "Let's start with you."

EJ moves to stand in front of everyone as Miss Jenn moved off to the side. "Question one," Miss Jenn says. "'If you had to pick one book to live inside, what would it be and why?'"

"Ooh. Uh..." EJ is quiet for a few seconds before he responds with, "Like, a book of etiqueete? You know, 'cause Gaston could really use some manners, always spitting and shooting stuff, like 'chill, Gaston'." 

Some laughter filled the room after his answer and Miss Jenn smiles. "Love that. Okay. 'What would you ask your future self?'"

"Oh, trick question," Ricky chimes in. "Gaston's dead."

Oliver furrows his eyebrows together, glancing at him with confusion. He turns his attention back to EJ when he answers Miss Jenn, "I'd ask him if he could love anyone after Belle. I mean, anything's possible, right?"

"Intriguing." Miss Jenn claps along with everyone else as EJ went to sit back down beside Gina. 

Watching the two share a smile with each other, Oliver finds himself frowning a bit. He didn't fail to notice the fact that the two have been getting a lot closer. He shouldn't have a problem with it since he isn't with Gina and part of him doesn't have any problem with them being friends or even more than that because they could do whatever they wanted. Oliver couldn't help but be jealous. He hated how it seemed like he was growing apart from Gina while she just got closer with EJ. 

"Mr. Beast," Oliver looks away from EJ and Gina to Miss Jenn, forcing a smile as he raises his eyebrows in question. "You wanna give it a go?"

Oliver lets out a heavy breath, standing up. "Yeah," He gets off the risers, moving to stand in front of everyone. "Sure. Why not."

"'If you had to pick one book to live inside, which book would it be and why?'" Miss Jenn read off the first question.

Oliver is quiet as he thinks of his answer, fiddling with the black ring he always wore. "Maybe, like, a romance book?" He replied but it sounded more like a question. When Miss Jenn tilted her head to the side, silently urging for him to continue, he sighed since he wasn't really for sure how to continue. 

"Actually," Ricky speaks up. "It's technically cannon that the Beast can't read." Some of the drama club members chuckled at his comment.

Miss Jenn sent him an annoyed expression. "Ricky, please don't interrupt when someone is in the middle of an exercise and please take this seriously." Ricky grows quiet as he nods. Oliver sent him a reassuring smile to let him know that he wasn't mad at him for interrupting. Ricky nodded and smiled back at him.

"Because since I needed a true love to break the curse I could picture myself being in a romance book where you'll most likely have your happily ever after." Oliver continues his answer, looking at Miss Jenn with a small smile. He shrugs. "And I was stuck in the castle all the time because everyone was afraid of me. So, finding someone that could break the curse, someone like Belle, was hard."

Miss Jenn smiles a bit. "Interesting. Next question. 'What would you ask your future self'?"

"When I missed being in the castle by myself." Oliver responds. "Kind of living in my own world, being invisible to everyone else." He puts his hands in his pockets, staring at the floor. "Not having anyone that could hurt me or make me feel upset."

"Okay," Miss Jenn nods. "Let's go deeper with this feeling."

"I...I don't think I can." Oliver stammered, shaking his head as his heartbeat began to increase and his anxiety began to rise. He was referring to himself when he answered that second question and he knew if he spoke about how he really felt when he felt like he was invisible to everyone before Gina came he knew he would start crying. He didn't want to embarrass himself in front of everyone. 

Miss Jenn tilts her head to the side, speaking softly as she asks, "You don't think you can or you don't want to?"

"He said he can't which means he can't." Ricky defends Oliver, shaking his head. "Just back off, okay?"

Miss Jenn looks at him with a stern expression and scolds him. "Can you watch your tone with me?"

"Yeah," Ricky scoffs. He whispers, "Okay, mom."

Miss Jenn turns to everyone and sighs. "Let's take a ten, everyone. But stay in character, please." Oliver looked up from the floor when he heard footsteps. He tilted his head to the side, watching Ricky leave the room with a concerned expression. 

Meanwhile, Gina is in the dressing room talking with Ashlyn. Since things were kinda rocky with them they made up. Gina even told Ashlyn about something that she did the night of the opening act that involved Oliver.

**flashback**

It was after the first show of 'High School Musical' East High had just put on. Oliver was in the hallway talking with his family who were congratulating him and telling him how great the play was.

"Hey, um," Oliver turns around upon hearing Gina's voice, his lips curling into a smile as he sees her walking up to him. "Can I speak to you for a moment, privately?"

"Yeah, of course." Oliver nodded, glancing at his parents and sister. The three of them got the message and his mom let him know that they would see him when he got home before they left the school.

Oliver follows Gina over to an empty hallway. "Okay, I just have to say that Gina, you were so amazing as Taylor." Oliver comments, looking at the girl with a smile. "I mean, I shouldn't even be surprised since you do everything perfectly."

Gina scoffs lightly, shaking her head even though there was a small smile on her lips. "I wouldn't say that. Everything I do is far from perfect." She sighs. "My thing is that I keep pushing and never quit."

Oliver smiles a bit and nods. "I know."

"So," Oliver's smile falls off his face upon noticing her teary eyes and how shaky her breath is as she speaks. "I guess what I want to say is...."

"Um," Her voice trembles while speaking. "I'm sorry. This is so stupid." She shakes her head. "I don't know why I'm crying."

"I don't know why either, but it's okay." Oliver assured her, sending her a small smile as his own eyes starting to get teary. He wasn't for sure hy he was starting to cry either but maybe it was because he hated seeing people he cared about cry or maybe he just realized that he won't ever see Gina again since she's moving.

"I wouldn't quit on us if I wasn't moving away." Gina told him with a tear falling down her cheek.

"So now I'm going to give you a really tight hug and walk away with my head held high." Gina continues, looking at him with a sad smile. "Okay?"

Oliver nods, feeling a tear run down his cheek. "Okay."

When she steps towards him and wraps her arms around him tightly he didn't hesitate to wrap his arms back around her in a hug. "I'm gonna miss you." He mumbled, not wanting to let her go.

Gina's voice cracks as she speaks. "I'm gonna miss you too."

**end if flashback**

"You told him that?" Ashlyn asked the girl sitting in front of her.

Gina smiles a bit and nods, shrugging her shoulders. "Yeah, the plane was going down."

"Well," Ashlyn tilts her head to the side. "Have you talked about it since then?"

Gina shakes her head. "No, and I don't even think he remembers that. Things would be even more awkward and weird than they are already between us if we talked about it."

"Maybe if you two talked it out things would be better between you guys." Ashlyn suggested, looking at her with a small smile.

Gina sighs. "I don't know. Things have just been really hard and Louisiana sounds like a nice break."

Both of them were called back to the bomb shelter a few seconds later. "It seems like we have a missing Cogsworth." Miss Jenn speaks, noticing Ricky had left. "Anyone seen him?" When no one replied, she looks at Ashlyn. "Belle? You wanna come up and do the five questions?"

"Um..." Ashlyn glances at Gina who Oliver noticed was on her phone, standing beside the risers. Ashlyn looks back at Miss Jenn, standing up to walk over to her. "Could I ask for permission to explore my character by singing a song from our show instead?"

Miss Jenn smiles widely. "Of course." She looks at Oliver, pointing over at the acoustic guitar that rested on top of the piano, silently asking him if he could play the guitar for this song. Oliver nodded with a small smile on his lips as he got up and went over to grab the guitar.

"Is this home? Is this where I should learn to be happy?" 

Oliver sat down on the piano bench that was in front of the piano, getting ready to play the guitar. He had learnt the chords for this song just in case Miss Jenn needed him to play guitar for it for some reason. Oliver begins to strum on the guitar as Ashlyn continues singing, walking over to the clothing rack. "Never dreamed that a home could be dark and cold."

Ashlyn grabs a grey scarf and wraps it around her. "I was told every day in my childhood even when we grow old," She stands on a platform in front of a stein glass that was one of the sets for the show. "Home will be where the heart is. Never were words so true. My heart's far, far away, home is, too."

She steps off the platform, walking over to stand in front of everyone. Oliver smiles while Ashlyn continues to sing. That girl was so talented. "What I'd give to return to the life that I knew lately, but I know that I can't solve my problems going back."

Oliver glances over at Gina, noticing her walking around the risers to the right side of the risers to sit on the first row. Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, he glances at the door to the hallway, smiling a bit upon seeing that Ricky came back. "Is this home? Am I here for a day or forever?"

Ashlyn sits down on a bench that Miss Jenn placed in the center of the room for her, facing everyone. "Shut away. From the world until who knows when? Oh, but then as my life has been altered once it can change again." She takes off the grey scarf, standing up from the bench. "Nothing lasts. Nothing holds all of me."

Oliver glances back at Gina as he continues playing the guitar, his lips curling downwards when he sees her wipes away some tears. "My heart's far, far away. Home and free." At the end of the song, Oliver looked back at Ashlyn to see she now stood directly in front of Gina where Carlos and one of the dancers moved the fake window to.

Gina smiles at Ashlyn. Ashlyn walks around the fake window over to Gina. Gina sniffles and stands up. They both shared a tight hug. "Okay." Gina whispered. Ashlyn let out a small laugh of joy and hugged Gina tighter.

Oliver wasn't exactly for sure what Gina was saying okay to, but he assumed it was a good thing since the two girls seemed so happy about her comment.

A/N honestly kinda teared up writing the flashback part of this chapter. i love olina so much ! im loving oliver's & nini's friendship that is forming. i just love oliver in general tbh