To say Oliver was nervous would be the understatement of the year. He didn't realize how close opening night was and then it snuck up on him. Now he was trying not to have a panic attack because of how nervous and worried he was about tonight. To make things worse Miss Jenn doesn't have an understudy for Oliver or Ashlyn. You might wonder why that's important when they're both great at their roles. Here's the bad thing. They both got hurt when the main cast members tried to do the transformation scene during practice. Oliver has a broken wrist and a sprained ankle while Ashlyn has a sprained wrist. 

The drama club members were gathered in the bomb shelter, everyone was either dressed in their costumes and makeup or getting ready. Oliver was with Ashlyn and she was trying to calm him down.

"I-I feel like I'm going to faint or throw up." Oliver admits, feeling like his heart beat was pounding out of his chest and his hands wouldn't stop shaking. "Maybe both. I hate that I'm so nervous." He bites his lower lip, fiddling with ends of the sleeve of the yellow and red Prince's coat he wore. "I-I just never played the lead of a play before and I'm so afraid I'm gonna screw up."

A look of disgust forms on Ashlyn's face for a few seconds before she shakes her head and puts her hands on his shoulders. "Ollie, calm down. You just have opening night jitters. It's totally normal. You're gonna do great."

Oliver nervously smiles at her and shakily lets out a breath. "I hope you're right, Ash."

Ashlyn smiles, taking her hands off his shoulders as Nini walks up to them. Nini smiles at them, handing them each a card. "A little note for good luck." 

"I'll take all what I can get." Ashlyn commented, taking her card from Nini.

"Y-Yeah, me too." Oliver stuttered as he took his card. 

Nini glances between the two teens, noticing Oliver acting nervous and how Ashlyn was jumping up and down. "You guys feeling alright?"

"Fantastic." Oliver lied, faking a smile and awkwardly gave her a thumbs up.

"Operating at full capacity." Ashlyn replied.

-ˏˋAshlyn and Oliver stand next to each other, looking at the camera with worry. "We're screwed." The two teens said at the same time, raising their wrists that has braces on them. "The thing that they don't tell you about theater is that when your co-star falls on you," Ashlyn sends Oliver a look and he sheepishly smiles at her, rubbing the back of his neck. Ashlyn looks back at the camera with a fake smile. "That's just something you have to live with." 

"Miss Jenn got a little too confident after how good 'High School Musical' was and so..." Oliver's voice trailed off, nervously smiling at the camera. Ashlyn shrugs, a nervous smile making its way to her lips. "We don't have any." Oliver nods. "Yeah, but you know, the show must go on." Ashlyn grabs Oliver's wrist, showing their braces to the camera. "And these can't come off."ˎˊ-

Oliver sits down on the chair he stood beside, outstretching his leg that had a brace on and laid his right arm (the one with the brace on) on his stomach, bringing his other arm behind his head, and he laid back on the chair. He and Ashlyn decided to try to practice the scene when the Beast dies one more time to make sure they get it right. 

"So when the Beast was dying, was she holding him up like this," Ashlyn leans over Oliver, putting one hand on his shoulder and the other hand on his back. "Or..." She moved her hand away from his back and moved so she was standing beside Oliver, moving her hand on his shoulder so its wrapped around his shoulder.

"Ash, why are you asking me? I literally have no idea." Oliver confesses, looking just as confused as Ashlyn was. "I-I mean, it's like a Renaissance painting. No one really knows how those paintings are made." 

Ashlyn takes her arm away from him and the two teens look at Nini when she asks, "Is this because of North High's show last night?"

Oliver presses his lips together and nods slowly. "Possibly."

"'Cause I thought it was impressive, but..." 

Ashlyn puts her hands on her hips, interrupting Nini. "It was like if James Cameron and a circus had a baby." Oliver nodded, pointing at her in a sign of agreement.

"I'm definitely rooting against myself." Oliver sighs, fixing the crown on his head since it had moved lopsided as he sits up straighter. "I don't know how I can ever be as good of a Beast as Howie was."

"Ashlyn," Natalie walks over to them, looping her arm through Ashlyn's. "It's time to bedazzle your wrist."

Ashlyn glances at Oliver and Nini with nervous smiles and sighs while she follows Natalie. Nini looks at Oliver with a smile. "Oliver, don't worry, you're gonna be great."

Oliver glances at her and smiles a bit. "Thanks, Nini." 

Nini nods. "Of course." She patted his shoulder, sending him a small smile before she walked away to continue giving out cards to everyone in the play.

Oliver finds Ricky and talks with him. Ricky did his best to encourage and calm Oliver down which helped him out a lot and he appreciated it. Oliver then went to find EJ and talks with him for a bit. Oliver definitely teased EJ for how he looked with those fake sideburns and eyebrows. After they talked for a few moments, he found himself walking over to where Gina was at. He smiles at her, noticing she was practicing her lines and had headphones on. He taps her on the shoulder since she was facing away from him. Gina took her headphones off, turning around to face who tapped her shoulder and her face brightened upon seeing Oliver.

 Oliver smiles at her. "Hey, Plumette." 

"Hi, Beast." Gina smiles teasingly at him. She tilts her head to the side. "You nervous?"

Oliver scoffs, crossing his arms. "Why-Why would I be nervous? Do I look nervous to you?"

Gina glances at him up and down and nods. "Yeah." She chuckles. "Ollie, you're gonna be amazing, okay?" She leaned forward to kiss his cheek. She stood straight after the kiss, folding her hands in front of her, a shy smile is on her lips, and she felt her face heat up.  

A wide-eyed expression forms on Oliver's face, his face turns a bright pink color, and his lips form into a smile. He couldn't believe she just kissed him on the cheek. And she did it in front of everyone. "O-Oh, um...Uh, you know, um..." He finds himself stumbling over his words and Gina giggles, thinking he was adorable. "Thanks." Oliver finally managed to say something without stuttering and the two teens smiled at each other. They both looked over when they heard Nini call out to Gina.

"Ah, there she is!" Nini exclaims, walking over to Gina and Oliver with a smile on her face. "The amazing Duster!" She hands Gina a card and Gina smiles at her in response. Nini points at the cards in Oliver's and Gina's hands. "Don't open these until we get to Slices tonight, okay?"

Oliver and Gina exchange a look before they both look at Nini with wide eyes. "Oh." Gina spoke.

Nini furrows her eyebrows. "Is there a problem?"

Oliver shrugs. "Well..."

-ˏˋOliver is standing in an empty area of the bomb shelter, smiling widely at the camera. "Gina and I aren't going to the after party because..." 

The camera pans over to Gina, who was in the dressing room, smiles brightly at the camera and raises her arms out of excitement. "We're going on a date! That's right, Oliver and I are going a date!"

"We were actually going to have this date a couple a weeks ago, but then, you know," Oliver raises his wrist with the brace on it and points at his leg with the brace on it and the camera aims at it then back at his face. "Somehow the harness broke."

"And Oliver broke Ashlyn." Gina cut in. "Which was a total accident!" She quickly added.

Oliver sighs, shaking his head. "It's just been a little hectic."

"So we rescheduled for tonight after the show." Gina explained.

"Yeah," Oliver grins at the camera. "We're definitely going on a date." A nervous look forms on his face and he rubs the back of his neck. "She used the d-word, right?" When the camera guy nods in response, he sighs in relief. "Okay, good." He grins again. "Then yeah, we're going on a date!" 

Gina looks at the camera with a nervous smile. "What do you wear on a date?"ˎˊ-

Soon it was only a half hour before the play. Oliver was rehearsing his lines, worried that he would forget them. "Wildcats! Villagers!" Miss Jenn calls out. Oliver sets his script down and gathers around with everyone else in the middle of the bomb shelter. "My friends and allies. As you know, there is a judge out there in the audience tonight who is very important to the future of this theater program."

"He is going to score every performance, our music, our sets, Lord help us, even me." Miss Jenn continues. She takes a deep breath. "And in two weeks at the Menkies, we could win," She whispers, "Fifty thousand dollars."

Everyone voices their words of excitement after she whispered that. "So tonight," The talking dies down as Miss Jenn speaks again. "We are going to put the 'U' in Utah!"

Silence fills the room after her bad joke and Seb is the only one who claps once. Miss Jenn glances at him with a thankful smile before she looks at Oliver and Ashlyn who stood by each other. "And to Oliver and Ashlyn, some words of inspiration." Oliver and Ashlyn share a smile before they both look at Miss Jenn. "My deep and shameful disappointment in your recent accident has mellowed to numbness, so there's that."

Oliver stares at her with wide eyes and he exchange a confused glance with Ashlyn. "Oh, were those the words of inspiration?"

"'Cause they weren't really inspirational." Oliver added and Ashlyn nodded in agreement.

Miss Jenn smiles at them. "Yes, they were!"

"Thanks...I guess." Oliver awkwardly replied after a few moments of silence. 

"Okay," Miss Jenn speaks, glancing around the room with furrowed eyebrows. "Where is Lefou?"

"Sorry I'm late." Big Red apologizes, walking into the room, holding a bottle of stomach medicine. "Just some dry heaving."

Everyone looks at him with disgusted expressions. "Dude." Ricky shook his head. 

"Dry." Big Red shrugged.

"Um..." Ashlyn bends down to pick up a big basket of flowers that were on the floor by her and faces Big Red with a smile. "Biggie, I got you a little something for your big debut. There's a card and everything."

Big Red smiles. "Oh, wow." He then gagged and ran out of the room.

Ashlyn glances at everyone else over her shoulder with a nervous smile. "He's ready."

****

"And when she touched, she didn't shutter at my paw." Oliver sang softly, walking in the hallway. He was on his way to get on stage, but felt like he needed to review some of the songs. Plus he still felt anxious about being on stage so he hoped if he walked around for a bit and revied some songs he would feel more confident.

"Peek-a-boo!"

Oliver stops walking, turning around to face the blonde-haired girl with a surprised expression. "Lily! You're uh...You're here..."

"Hi." Lily smiled, holding onto the strap of her purse. 

"Why-Why are you here?" Oliver asked, tilting his head to the side and looked at her with furrowed eyebrows. He honestly didn't really want to talk to Lily. He didn't know why Lily wanted to talk with him or try to be his friend. He was never a fan of Lily and always knew she was not nice. He wondered if she was there to pull some trick to sabotage the play or something.

"I just came by to support my favorite actor at East High." Lily replied.

Oliver nods slowly, not for sure if he was believing her. "Oh, okay. Ricky or EJ?"

Lily giggles, playfully shoving his shoulder. "You, silly."

"O-Oh." Oliver stuttered and he couldn't help his face turning a light shade of pink. He wasn't used to girls acting this way with him. 

"I hope that's okay?" Lily asked.

Oliver shrugs, rubbing the back of his neck. "I-I mean, I guess it doesn't matter. Your show was incredible, by the way." He smiles a bit. "People kept talking about the wolves you guys had...And the very talented humans." Oliver quickly added.

Lily smiles at him. "Honestly, your advice really helped me turn things around with my cast. Being nice, what a concept."

"Well, it should've been obvious that you should always be nice," Oliver shrugs. He smiles slightly. "But, uh, I'm glad I could help."

"Yeah." Lily nods. She glances down, suddenly becoming shy. "Maybe we could talk more sometime over a slice of pizza," She looks at him with a smile and shrugs. "An advice slice, lol." 

Oliver stares at her with shock, not thinking she would ask him out. "W-Wow, um...I'm sorry," He bites his lower lip, fiddling with his hands. "But, uh, I actually kinda have a thing with Gina."

"Oh, okay." Lily slowly nods, looking disappointed. "But I mean, it doesn't have to be a date." She smiles at him. "We can just hang out."

Oliver opens his mouth and closes it like a fish and his eyes were wide. He didn't know what to say. Thankfully, Natalie came by just in time so he didn't have to answer. "Prince Adam. Five minutes." She tells Oliver. She glances at Lily with a glare. "Lily. Scram." She said and walked into the bomb shelter.

"Cast and crew, this is your places call." Natalie's voice is heard over the speakers a few seconds later.

Oliver looks back at Lily with an apologetic smile, awkwardly pointing in the direction of the auditorium. "I should, uh, I should go..."

"Good luck, Wildcat." Lily smiled and winked at him. Oliver nodded slowly, sending her a small smile, and walked away. 

-ˏˋOliver is standing in the empty hallway, staring at the camera with a shocked expression. "Okay, what the heck just happened and why did it happen?"ˎˊ-

A/N a lot happened in this chapter! got some sweet moments between oliver & other characters & got a cute moment with olina! im making things more interesting with lily & oliver if you couldnt tell :)