When the drama club members got back from Thanksgiving break they weren't expecting for the auditorium to be a mess and for firefighters being there. But that's what's happening. Oliver stood beside Ricky, watching with wide eyes as he looked over the auditorium. There was dust everywhere and dripping water. He wondered what could've possibly caused all of this damage. And where are they gonna put on the musical now?

Nini was the first to ask a question. "Oh my gosh, what happened?"

Miss Jenn explains there was a small fire that happened and that no one got hurt. A firefighter walked over to her, carrying a burnt basketball. She told the cast's teacher the cause of the fire and explained how the costumes and sets got ruined.

After the firefighter walked away Miss Jenn turns to the students. "Okay, listen up. Hug your neighbor, let's take a moment and let's reconvene in the cafeteria after school to talk about options."

Oliver gets his phone out of his pocket, checking to see if Gina has responded back to the many text messages he sent to her. He was beginning to grow worried about her and her not responding back to him didn't help calm him down at all. 

****

After school the drama club members met in the cafeteria. "Okay, guys." Miss Jenn gets everyone's attention. She furrows her eyebrows when she noticed someone was missing. "Wait, where's Gina?"

"I think she's going through a family thing right now." Ashlyn replied as she sat down on top of one of the tables.

"Okay, prayers to our Gina." Miss Jenn nods. She stays standing while everyone else takes a seat. "I'm not really sure what to say. You've all worked so hard. I've seen all of you grow so much. But if we don't have a theater, we don't have a show."

Worried chatter filled the room after Miss Jenn said that. Oliver didn't like hearing that there possibly might not be a show anymore. She was right. They all worked so hard and now they're not going to do the show just because they don't have a theater? They should just put on the show somewhere else. 

"What if we look at other venues?" Oliver questioned causing the room to get quiet. Everyone nodded in agreement. Oliver smiles a bit when some of them even told him that was a good idea, and everyone started thinking of venues they could possibly use. There were a few suggestions thrown around, but it turns out those places are either condemned or turned into a Starbucks.

"How about the El Ray?" Carlos asked and everyone else was on board with him, but Miss Jenn was not. 

"Any other ideas?"

"Miss Jenn," Carlos looks at Miss Jenn with furrowed eyebrows. "I feel like you just had a really weird reaction to what I just said."

"Sorry," Miss Jenn apologizes. "What did you say?"

"Carlos is asking if we can try and use the El Ray Theater." Nini responded.

Carlos stands up as he speaks. "My Uncle Ruben is the listing agent, and the last thing they had there was a fashion show, like, four years ago." He then walked off to call his uncle.

"This place has 500 seats!" Seb exclaimed, looking at the El Ray Theater on his phone.

Everyone gathered around him immediately while he showed them his phone screen. The place was perfect for a musical. "I can't imagine we'd be able to get in such short notice." Miss Jenn said.

Carlos spoke to his uncle in Spanish and all Oliver could understand was when his uncle replied with a lot of si's. Ashlyn smiles. "Sounded like a yes to me!"

Oliver smiles, high fiving Ricky as everyone cheered. "The El Ray theater it is!" Miss Jenn exclaims. She talked to Carlos for a few seconds before facing everyone else again. "Wildcats, let's grab all the props and costumes that didn't get damaged and let's load out."

****

The El Ray was not what Oliver expected. He didn't really know what he was expecting it to be like, but he definitely didn't expect it to look abandoned, old, and creepy. "Right this way, follow me!" Miss Jenn calls out, leading everyone inside, each of them using flashlights since the place was dark as night. "Ah! Smell that smell, the theater. Mold, it's a sign of life."

"Or it's a sign that the building is old and shouldn't be in use." Oliver commented.

Miss Jenn nods. "Yeah, that might be true." She looks at everyone with a nervous smile. "Everyone, watch your step! And, uh, let me know if you haven't had a tetanus shot recently, okay?"

When they made it to the stage thanks to their flashlights they could see multiple statues and other props that were on the stage. After someone found a light and turned it on none of them wasted any time to get to work on moving out old props and bringing in their own. Everyone's mood seemed to get better as they kept on working once they realized that this could be a perfect theater for their show.

Everyone was separated into their friend groups on the stage after they were ready to rehearse and while Oliver conversed with Ricky noticed EJ standing off to the side looking sad which confused him. He doesn't think he has ever seen EJ upset before.

"Okay!" Miss Jenn shouts, gaining everyone's attention. "Let's have some real talk." Oliver looks at Miss Jenn as she walks to the front of the stage, standing in front of everyone. "Welcome to tech rehearsal. I don't know if you've noticed, but most of the tech in this particular theater appears to be hand-cranked."

"Natalie Bagley, my dear, my stage manger, this is your chance to be the hero." Miss Jenn said, looking around the stage for the dark haired girl.

Oliver glances around the stage, furrowing his eyebrows when he didn't spot Natalie. Seb then spoke up saying that Natalie is getting her wisdom teeth out. "Okay," Miss Jenn purses her lips together. "So I'm down a stage manager, my 'Taylor's' MIA."

"Everything's gonna be fine." Oliver tries his best to reassure her. "And Gina will be back on opening night. I hope." He said, mumbling the 'i hope' part.

"Wait," Ricky looks at him, tilting his head to the side. "Did she text you?"

Oliver frowns. "No. What about you?" Ricky shakes his head in response. Oliver glances at Nini. "Did she text you?" "No," Nini replies, shaking her head. "She didn't."

Everyone looks over, screaming when a sandbag fell from the ceiling. "Totally normal. Just, heads-up from now on." Miss Jenn said to everyone. She looks at Big Red. "Alright, Big Red. Do you know how to hang a light?"

Big Red furrows his eyebrows. "I know how to hang out."

Miss Jenn nervously smiles. "Cool." She looks at Carlos, telling him to set marks to light Status Quo. She then told Ricky and Nini to find a quiet place to run the rooftop scene.

****

"Okay, we just need to nail our lightening and our sound, and, ta-da, we've got a show." Miss Jenn smiled. She was standing on the middle of the stage that was cleared off now and Carlos stood at the table where they had their notes at. "I need some bodies for the rooftop scene.

Oliver was helping Big Red with the lights since he has been enough musicals and plays to know about the backstage stuff and it seemed like Big Red needed some help. EJ offered to be Troy and Miss Jenn volunteered Carlos to be Gabriella. 

"I'm pretty sure the light is this one." Oliver pointed at one of the handles and Big Red tries it out. Oliver glances at the stage, furrowing his eyebrows when some of the teens let out a scream. He then noticed some mannequins standing off to the side. He tilted his head to the side upon noticing the mannequins had neon clothes on.

"Sorry, everyone!" Carlos apologizes. "My Uncle Ruben said that there might be some leftover stuff from the fashion show." Carlos furrows his eyebrows as he looks at the mannequins. "I guess, the theme of the show was '80's rave'?"

"In a nuclear reactor?" Ashlyn added, laughing along with some of the others.

"Okay, so that's the blue light." Oliver mumbled, glancing at the light Big Red just tried. He glances at the other light handles, wishing that they had a name tag on them so they weren't just guessing what they are. 

"Big Red, Oliver, do we have something a little more flattering?" Miss Jenn asked them.

"Yeah, sure." Oliver replied, reaching forward one of the handles that he thought was the one that would turn off the blue light. He smiled when the blue light was off after he pushed the handle up. 

"Okay, Troy, basketball stuff, Gabriella, math stuff, nobody doesn't cry," Miss Jenn walks over to sit down at the table in front of Carlos and EJ. "And we end up here, on center stage." Miss Jenn instructs. "Gabriella, give us your cue."

In Oliver's opinion, EJ was using too much emotion for a scene that was so simple. It even sounded like he was going to cry. "That's excellent," Miss Jenn speaks after EJ was done. "And a little weird." She looks at where Big Red and Oliver were standing by the lights. "Boys, can we hit these guys with a spotlight?"

"Looking for it!" Oliver responded as he and Big Red was looking for the spotlight. They looked for the next few minutes, but they couldn't seem to find it so Big Red went to go tell her. Oliver's eyes widen whenever he watched a ladder fall right in front of where Carlos stood causing him and Miss Jenn to let out a scream.

"Big Red, Oliver, did you do that?" Miss Jenn asked, looking around with nervous eyes.

"Nope." Oliver replies with the same time Big Red responds with, "No."

Miss Jenn looks behind her where Big Red stood, letting out a small scream upon noticing Big Red since she didn't know he was standing there. 

****

It was soon time for someone to sing for microphone levels. "Okay, let's pretend we've figured out the lightening. If we've got a sound system, we've got a show. I need someone to sing for microphone levels."

Oliver grins and since he was helping Kourtney with the costumes, he gently pushed her over to Miss Jenn. "From what I heard when we all sang 'Truth, justice, and songs in our key' Kourtney is an amazing singer."

"What?" Kortney scoffs, pushing him away as she shakes her head. She nervously laughs as she looks at Miss Jenn. "I am a singer, not an actor. This voice is for church."

Miss Jenn smiles, handing her the microphone. "Thank you for volunteering."

Kourtney looks at Oliver with a small glare, but he just gives her two thumbs up. "Just sing anything from the show. Doesn't matter what. No judgement." Miss Jenn spoke to Kourtney, guiding her over to the middle of the stage.

"I believe in dreaming, shootin' for the stars." Kourtney sings a verse from 'Bop To The Top' and Oliver smiles. He remembered how good she was with singing the song they used to help get Miss Jenn back and he thought that she deserved to be noticed for having that talent. 

"Baby, to be number one you got to raise the bar." The more she sings the more confident she got. Everyone started to gather around her, smiling as they listened to her sing. "Yeah, we're gonna bop, bop, bop, bop to the top. Slip and slide and ride that rhythm. Jump and hop, hop 'till we drop and start again. Zip, zap, zop, hop like a mop, scoot around the corner. Move it to the groove 'till the music stops."

At the end she belted out a high note and that's when the microphone gave feedback causing everyone to plug their ears at how loud it was. When the microphone feedback faded away everyone cheered for Kourtney who had a bright smile on her face.

"Kourtney, honey," Miss Jenn steps towards Kourtney, smiling at her. "That was a wow. Unfortunately, it seems we have now broken the sound system, the lights, and possibly me." She looked at Carlos, asking if he could clear the stage.

"You did amazing, Kourt." Oliver said to Kourtney as she turned back to him the others that gathered around her. 

"Ollie, I should be mad at you for pushing me here," Kourtney points at him, but still had a smile on her face "But I'm not mad and I'm just gonna say thank you for believing in me."

Oliver smiles and shrugs. "You're welcome."

"Okay, everyone, um, follow me." Carlos turns back to face everyone after talking with Miss Jenn. "We are going to take a long five?" He said but it sounded more like a question. Everyone follows him out to the lobby, leaving Miss Jenn alone.

"Kourt, you should've auditioned for the musical!" Steph, one of the dancers, said to Kourtney once they got to the lobby.

Kourtney shakes her head, chuckling a bit. "I'm fine with being in the costume department."

"You should at least think about auditioning for the spring musical." Steph smiled.

Kourtney smiles a bit, shrugging her shoulders. "Yeah, maybe."

Oliver found himself engaging in conversations with Kourtney ad Steph for a couple of minutes. But that ended when Big Red walked over to them, holding a flashlight. "We were gonna get some pizza since we're gonna be here late." Big Red said to them. "You guys okay with pepperoni and soy cheese?"

"Sure." Oliver responded, nodding along with Kourtney and Steph. He gets his phone out whenever it buzzed while Big Red went to go talk to Nini and Ricky. He looked at his phone, seeing he got a text message from Gina. His lips curled upwards a bit, happy that she responded to him finally, but that tiny smile fell when he read what she texted him.

"Is that Gina?" Kourtney asked, tilting her head to the side.

Oliver nods. "She said there's drama with her mom's job and she thinks they'll have to leave a day early."

Steph frowns. "That sucks." 

"Yeah," Oliver sighs. "I agree with that."

He hoped that Gina was okay and honestly hoped that she would come back. He missed her probably more than he should.

A/N in this chapter we got to see oliver being friends with someone else other than big red, gina & ricky yay :) dont worry there will be some olina in the next chapter so get ready for that 'cause next chapter is opening night!