The day after Carlos' birthday party Eric and Ophelia hung out together that night and that was when Eric explained to her that it was possible he and his family are leaving. Ophelia was beyond upset. She couldn't help but cry as they both held onto each other tightly. Eric was her first ever boyfriend and now he might be leaving so of course she was upset.

This morning through facetime, Eric confirmed to her that he and his family were in fact moving away next week. So now was she not only upset about her boyfriend leaving, she was also upset about something else involving North High. And that something else was why everyone in the drama club was currently freaking out. Why is everyone freaking out you might ask? Because of North High's drama club making such a cool video, saying they were now putting on the production of 'Beauty and the Beast'. The drama club was in the bomb shelter for practice on a Saturday and they were all huddled around Ricky, who was playing North High's video on his phone. 

Today for her outfit Ophelia went with a white graphic tee tank top with the band Kiss on it (here's a fun fact Kiss is one of her favorite rock bands), and Adidas sweatpants. The jewelry she wore was a black studded bracelet, and a couple rings on both hands, and the shoes she wore are shiny tan colored sneakers. She went with curly hair for today and did her makeup to match her outfit.

(this is her outfit for this chapter & the next chapter_

Ophelia had stepped away from the circle of teens and moved to the middle of the room to pace back and forth. She was biting her lip nervously, not for sure what to do with her hands because of how nervous and panicked she was feeling. She settled on wrapping her arms around herself as she continued to pace, thinking how she didn't compare to Lily at all. Beside having blonde hair, Lily looked like a real life Belle in the video which did not help Ophelia and her confidence.

"Oh my gosh, that's what's-her-name." Seb speaks in realization. "Lily, from our auditions."

"She isn't just co-directing their show, she's starring in it." Seb noticed.

"Oh, Lily?" Ophelia stops pacing to face everyone. She raises her eyebrows, glancing at the group of teens with a slightly annoyed look. "The girl who has perfect-pitch, looks-like-an-actual-Disney-princess, super-fangirl/mean-girl Lily?"

EJ shares a concerned look with Fallon, who sat next to him on the risers, before they both glance at Ophelia with a concerned expression. "I wanna say yes." He responded.

"Yeah, I may remember her just a bit." Ophelia spoke through gritted teeth and it was obvious she wasn't a fan of the blonde-haired girl. She continued pacing, her angered expression going back to her nervous and panicked one. 

Ricky looks at his best friend with concern and he was about to say something to encourage and reassure her when Miss Jenn walked in. "Thank you all for coming so quickly on a Saturday." 

Ophelia sighs heavily, walking over to the risers and sits on the first row next to Ashlyn, who sends her a small smile and squeezes her knee to comfort her. Ophelia smiled back at her, appreciating her effort of comforting her.

"Or most of you all." Miss Jenn added after seeing not everyone was there. She laid the hula hoops she had carried in on the table that would be used in the Gatson scene while Carlos laid the bags of pool noodles and other things on the table. 

 "We're missing a teapot and a village idiot." Miss Jenn said, turning back to face everyone.

"Uh, I think they're at the pizza place." Ricky informed Miss Jenn.

"Yeah, Kourtney texted in the group." Seb nods. "They said they couldn't get anyone to cover their shifts."

Ophelia and Ashlyn share a grimaced expression when Seb revealed that. You see, the drama club had two group chats. One with Miss Jenn and one without Miss Jenn. Kourtney had texted in the group chat without Miss Jenn. 

EJ hits Seb's shoulder as a way of scolding him for revealing there's another group chat. Seb glances at him with confusion and then cringes upon realizing what he did. "Oh."

"Oh..." Miss Jenn tilts her head to the side in confusion and gets her phone out of her pocket to check. "I didn't see that text."

"I meant the group chat with me and EJ." Seb quickly lied. EJ had an amused smile on his face as he glanced at everyone, using the 'okay' hand gesture. Seb smiled at his friends, giving them two thumbs up.

"Well," Miss Jenn moves to stand in front of everyone. She claps once. "Back to the matter at hand. I can tell from your solemn faces you've all seen..." She pauses for a dramatic effect. "The video."

"Yeah. Sadly." Fallon mumbled.

"It's incredible. Even I have no notes." Carlos admits with a sigh. "I can't believe they stole our show."

"I think their Lumiere is an actual French exchange student." Ricky commented.

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

"A nightmare." Ophelia speaks with a worried expression on her face. She sighs. "This is a literal nightmare."

Everyone starts talking over each other, voicing their worries and complaints about this happening. "Wildcats!" Miss Jenn exclaims, clapping to get everyone's attention. The talking dies down while she continues to speak. "Take heart. North High is clearly focusing on bells and whistles. Impressive. But distracting. All we need is..."

"Friendship?" Seb smiled.

Ophelia glances at him with a small smile, thinking that was sweet. "No, Seb, all we need is to get back to basics." Miss Jenn explains. "Emotional performances that connect with the audience can make all the difference with these judges." Luca glances beside him at his girlfriend, raising his eyebrows upon seeing she was texting someone. Being the respectful person he is he didn't look at who she was texting, but he did have to admit he was curious as to who was so important she needed to text in the middle of practice. He shakes his head and turns his attention back to Miss Jenn. "And I have a plan. Which is why you've been called in today. And that plan is...A weekend acting intensive."

Fallon tilts her head to the side, narrowing her eyes at Miss Jenn. "A what?"

"Acting in tensive like..." EJ's voice trailed off, looking equally confused as Fallon was. 

"Improv." Miss Jenn answers. "Character work." She sits on some yellow mats that were near by her. She kicks her legs dramatically and then puts one leg over the other. "Movement exercises." She stands up, raising her eyebrows upon seeing Gina on her phone. "Hey, Gina." She leans to the side, waving her hand to try to get Gina's attention. "Gina."

Gina glances up finally, looking at Miss Jenn with confusion. She glances at Luca, who looks at her with slight concern in his eyes which made her feel bad for leaving without telling him. "Are you here?" Miss Jenn asked, causing Gina to look away from Luca and she looks back at the blonde-haired teacher. 

Gina shuts off her phone, setting her phone on her lap, and forces a smile. "Mmm. Yeah. Yeah."

"We're really going to connect with our characters." Miss Jenn speaks. "And impressive performances, not fancy staging or actual killer wolves, will be our key to the gold." Ophelia nods to herself, hoping that Miss Jenn was right about that. "And don't forget, we have something North High doesn't." 

Everyone looks at her with confusion. Seb tries guessing again. "Friendship?" 

"A brand-new original song for the Beast and the rose." Miss Jenn explained, gesturing to Ricky and Nini who sat together on the second row. Everyone smiled at the couple and applauded.

"Um, and uh, how is that coming along you guys?" Miss Jenn asked the couple.

"Uh..." After seeing the nervous look Ricky and Nini shared, Ophelia wouldn't be surprised if they haven't even started on the song.

Miss Jenn then suggested for Ricky to stay for deep-dive Beast character work while Nini skipped the workshop and get a first draft of the duet done. "Okay!" Miss Jenn clapped, smiling at everyone and walked over to talk with Carlos.

The group of teens got up from the risers to get ready for whatever Miss Jenn had planned for them. Ophelia joined her best friends, Fallon and Luca, as the stuff Carlos and Miss Jenn brought were handed out.

"Why do you think we'll need pool noodles?" Luca laughed when he was handed a blue one and he started messing around with it, using it like it was a sword.

"No idea." Ophelia replied, turning around a hula hoop she held repeatedly out of boredom. She had got the hula hoop in the process of everyone unpacking the bags. She chuckled, smiling at Fallon with amusement when the girl hid behind her to miss getting accidentally hit by Luca. 

Fallon gasps dramatically when Luca accidentally did hit her with the pool noodle, causing the boy to stop and apologetically smile at her. "But I'm sure it will definitely be interesting." Ophelia laughed when Fallon took the pool noodle from Luca and hit his shoulder, saying that it was payback. 

****

"Today is all about warm-up games." Miss Jenn smiles, standing in front of everyone who had hula hoops around their necks and they were lined up on blue mats that were now laid on the floor. "The important thing is that we all..." Her voice trailed off when the sound of someone using a hula hoop is heard.

Everyone turns to Seb to see him hula hooping. From her place between Fallon and Luca, Ophelia giggles quietly and smiles softly. After realizing everyone was staring at him, Seb stops and the hula hoop drops to the floor with a thud. "Focus." Miss Jenn continues her sentence, looking at Seb with an annoyed smile. She nods. "Strong start." She smiles, twirling around the hula hoop on her arm. "Here we go, my thespians."

Everyone now had either a blue or orange pool noodle for their next warm-up exercise. Everyone was acting like a total five-year-old with the noodles. While she was twirling the pool noodle around, Ophelia watched her friends with amusement as Fallon and Luca pretended to sword fight with each other with the pool noodles. She glanced over at Ricky and couldn't help the laugh that escaped her lips upon seeing him pretending that his pool noodle was a sword. When he heard her laugh, he glanced over at her and grinned at her. She chuckled and smiled back at him.

"Okay." Miss Jenn claps, gaining everyone's attention and everyone stops messing around. "Everybody, drop your noodle, and pair up for a mirroring exercise." Indistinct chatter filled the room as the group of teens laid down their noodles and separated to search for a partner for this exercise.

Fallon furrows her eyebrows when she felt someone tap her right shoulder and she turns around, smiling upon seeing EJ smiling at her. He outstretches a hand dramatically. "May I have this exercise?"

"Why, of course you may." Fallon dramatically replied and took his hand, ignoring the way her heart skip a beat when their hands touched or how her face was heating up. 

Luca walks over to Gina and smiles at her. "Hi, G." He outstretches his hand, looking at her with a hopeful smile. "Partners?"

Gina smiles softly at him, taking ahold of his hand. "Always."

Ophelia smiles at her friends, but as she glances around she suddenly realizes she might be left without a partner. She hated things like this when everyone else had a partner but you or no one wanted to be your partner for something. Like in gym class when you're the last one to be picked or-

"Lia?" Before her negative thoughts could get the best of her, she hears Ricky speak to her. She glances to her left, seeing the curly-haired boy walking over to her with a smile on his face. "Wanna be partners for this exercise?"

Ophelia smiles with relief and nods immediately. "Well, duh." She replied, speaking as if her answer was obvious. Ricky chuckled lightly and his smile grew.

Everyone now sat on the blue mats next to their partner for this exercise. Miss Jenn stands in front of the group, holding a beach ball. Why was she holding a beach ball? Ophelia had no idea. "What is acting, really? Acting..." Miss Jenn throws the beach ball at Carlos. He gasps and winces, bringing a hand to the side of his head. "Is reacting."

"Ow!" Carlos whined, looking at Miss Jenn with disbelief.

"In character, Lumiere." Miss Jenn told him.

Carlos raises his arms, pretending they were candle sticks. "Ow!"

Miss Jenn smiles and glances at everyone, her gaze landing on Ricky when she noticed him on his phone. "Ricky, could you please put your phone down and join the family?" She threw the beach ball at him, and Ophelia couldn't help but jump, startled by the beach ball being thrown in the direction she was at. Ricky was quick to drop his phone and catch the ball. 

Ricky nods, humming in response and throws the beach ball back to Miss Jenn. Ophelia furrows her eyebrows, wondering why he was suddenly acting weird. Her eyes widen in realization. Tonight was Miss Jenn's date with his dad. Ricky had facetimed her last night, going on a rant about how he felt about Miss Jenn and his dad going on a date and Ophelia listened to him, doing the best she could to comfort him. She knew that must be hard for Ricky. 

The group was now standing in a circle, passing the beach ball to each other. When the ball got to Ricky, he accidentally threw it at Miss Jenn. But Ophelia wasn't so sure that was an accident considering the fact Miss Jenn is going on a date with his dad tonight.

****

For the last activity the group was going to do improv. "Okay. Ophelia will start us off." Miss Jenn gestures to Ophelia. "And Gina," She then gestures to Gina. "Agree with what Ophelia says and then add on." She faces everyone with a smile. "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." She pauses for dramatic effect and then grins at everyone. "Fun!"

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

"The Louvre?" EJ suggested.

From her place sitting by him, Fallon chuckles. "That's the place you're suggesting?" She asked, smiling at him with amusement.

EJ rolls his eyes playfully and nudges her. "It's the first thing I thought of, okay?"

"Sure, the Loevre, okay." Miss Jenn nods in agreement. She turns to the two girls by her with a smile. "Go ahead. You ready? Okay."

Ophelia takes a deep breath before she gets into character. She turns to face Gina with a smile as she did her best to speak in a French accent. "Now, Madame Rousseau, I understand 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." Ophelia turns to the left, pretending to point at a piece of art. "Take this piece. Do you like it?"

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

Ophelia nods, a bit confused on what to say next. She didn't think Gina would reply with that and it looked like Gina looked confused which confused her. She stutters as she finally figures out what to say. "W-Well, um, what-what is your heart telling you?"

Gina glances at Luca, who was looking at her with slight concern. She then she looks away, shaking her head. "I really don't know."

"Okay." Ophelia dragged out the word, looking at Miss Jenn with confusion. She didn't know how to continue or if she should. 

"Yes, and?" Miss Jenn encouraged.

"Yes, and I don't know what else to say." Ophelia admits, speaking in her normal voice. She apologetically smiles at Miss Jenn. She felt really bad for not knowing what to do now. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't apologize. It's okay. You and Gina did a great job. We're learning. We're learning." Miss Jenn reassures her. She chuckles. "There are no rules here. Except that I will need you to do it correctly." She smiles. "Okay, let's try a new pair as an example. Um, Carlos and Seb, you boys wanna try?"

Before Ophelia went to sit back down next to Ricky, Gina stops her. "Hey, I'm sorry I totally ruined your scene." She smiles slightly and shrugs. "Improv's weird."

Ophelia smiles reassuringly at her. "Don't worry, G, okay? It's not a problem." she nods in agreement. "And yes, I agree. Improv is really weird. I was surprised I could come jp with that stuff on the spot and I'm positive I did a terrible French accent."

Gina smiles thankfully at her and nods. She chuckles. "You didn't do that bad. But thanks for being so cool about me kind of messing up."

"Like I said, G," Ophelia said, putting a hand on Gina's arm and squeezes it to comfort her. "Not a problem."  Gina looked relieved and she smiled. 

****

"Five questions to really know someone's character." Miss Jenn announces the next day at practice. "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, I'll prompt you with a question and you'll answer in character." Miss Jenn then suggested for Gaston to start first. EJ went up to the front to stand in front of everyone while Miss Jenn walked off to the side.

"Question one. 'If you had to pick one book to live inside, what would it be and why?'" 

"Ooh. Uh...Like a book of etiquette? You know, 'cause Gaston could really use some manners, always spitting and shooting stuff, like 'chill, Gaston'."

Everyone laughs at EJ's reply to Miss Jenn's question. Miss Jenn chuckles. "Love that. Okay. 'What would you ask your future self?'"

"Oh, trick question. Gaston's dead." Ricky chimed in and chuckled. Everyone stayed quiet, exchanging confused glances with each other. 

"I'd ask him if he could learn to love anyone after Belle." EJ responds to Miss Jenn. He shrugs. "I mean, anything's possible, right?" He chuckled, glancing at everyone, but his gaze landed on Fallon and he smiled softly. Fallon could feel her face heat up as she smiled back at him.

"Intriguing." Miss Jenn commented, joining everyone else with clapping for EJ. EJ sat back down and Fallon patted his shoulder, whispering to him 'good job' and shared a smile with him.

"Mr. Beast, wanna give it a go?" Miss Jenn asked Ricky.

"Sure." Ricky whispered, walking to the front of the room and sat on the stack of mats.

"'If you had to pick one book to live inside which book would it be and why?'"

"Well, actually as the Beast, it's cannon that I can't read. So..." Ricky chuckled and some students chuckled along with him at his comment.

Miss Jenn didn't seem to be amused by his comment though. "Beast, I'd like you to take this seriously. Next question. 'What would you ask your future self?'"

"Uh, I guess...If I ever miss the old days, when I was all alone in the castle." Ricky replied.

Miss Jenn nods. "And why would you miss that?"

"Everything was the same every day." Ricky shakes his head. "Nothing changed. Um, I mean, the forks didn't talk, teapots didn't sing." He chuckled quietly as everyone else chuckled.

Ophelia looks at him with slight concern, noticing he was looking nervous and she wondered why. In fact, she noticed he had been acting a little off yesterday and today. She knew it probably had to do with Miss Jenn dating his dad. 

"Okay, let's go deeper with this feeling." Miss Jenn suggested.

"Think that's all I got." Ricky nodded.

"But when you say that nothing changed..." Miss Jenn spoke, trying to get Ricky to continue.

"I'm really trying here. Can you get off my back?" 

"Can you watch your tone?" 

"Yeah," Ricky scoffs and then whispers. "Okay, mom."

"Rick..." Ophelia spoke up softly, thinking it was a bit rude of him to speak harshly towards Miss Jenn for no reason, but she was also now very concerned about him. She could see how much Miss Jenn dating his dad was hurting him and she hated seeing him so upset.

"Let's take a ten, everyone." Miss Jenn said to everyone. "But stay in character, please."

"Ricky." Ophelia spoke louder to get Ricky's attention when she noticed Ricky walking towards the door. She even tried to reach out to grab his arm, but he just walked past her and didn't look at her. She sighed softly and stayed where she was, knowing that Ricky most likely needed time to himself.

A/N poor ophelia :(  & also poor ricky this boy goes through a lot ! i love the trio of ophelia, luca & fallon so much, they're the best !!