Everyone (besides Ricky who was walking down the aisle to the others) were stretching to get ready for the dance-off.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this like they do in the movies." Fallon comments as she stretched by Luca and Ophelia. She grins. "It's so cool."

Luca chuckles. "Yeah, it's kinda cool. But also very weird." He furrows his eyebrows, shaking his head. "I don't even understand why we're doing this dance-off and how that will decide who's better."

"It's best not to question things, Luca." Ophelia comments, patting him on the shoulder. She furrows her eyebrows upon noticing Lily and Ricky talking. She did notice that Ricky looked like he didn't want to talk to her, but she wondered what they were talking about. "Like why Lily is talking with Ricky."

The other two teens exchange a glance before they follow Ophelia's line of sight to see Lily and Ricky. "Hey, you want me to punch her?" Fallon asks and she almost acted as if she was excited to punch Lily. "That offer will forever be on the table."

Ophelia and Luca laughs, looking at their best friend with amusement. "No, Fal, it's okay. Trust me, I would love to see Lily get beaten up, but you're better than beating up a mean girl."

Fallon raises her eyebrows, tilting her head to the side. "Am I?"

"Yes, you are." Ophelia chuckled, rolling her eyes.

"Fine." Fallon huffs with annoyance. "Okay, I won't punch her just 'cause you said not to."

"The fact you result to violence quickly scares me." Luca admitted, looking at Fallon with a nervous expression.

Fallon smiles widely at him. "That's the nicest thing you ever said to me."

"Okay, everyone." Lily was now standing on stage, holding onto her phone as she smiles at everyone. "Warm-up is over, gather around. I will now press shuffle to choose the song."

Antoine joins Lily on stage. "After which, I will prepare a dance remix of the song, since I, on occasion, DJ."

"Ah, of course he's a DJ." Big Red spoke with annoyance. Ophelia smiled sympathetically at him. She had seen Antoine talking with Ashlyn moments ago and overheard Antoine asking Ashlyn on a date. It also seemed like Antoine didn't like Big Red and it was obvious that Big Red didn't like Antoine.

"Non, monsieur, I DJ, but I would say I am a DJ." Antoine chuckled with a smile on his face.

Big Red rolls his eyes. "Thanks for the clarity."

"Everyone ready?" Lily asks. "And it's..." She presses shuffle on her 'Beauty and the Beast' playlist. The smile falls off her face after seeing the song. "'The Mob Song'." Everyone groaned and voiced their words of complaints while only two teens were excited about this song choice.

"Yes!" EJ cheered.

"I love that song!" Fallon exclaimed excitedly, hitting Luca's arm repeatedly out of excitement.

"Okay, I get it you're excited, but can you stop hitting me please." Luca pleaded as he looked like he was in pain.

Fallon glances at him with a sheepish expression, immediately pulling her hand away. "Sorry, Luca."

"I knew you all didn't like 'The Mob Song'." EJ frowns at everyone. He smiles at Fallon, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "At least Lonnie has good taste in music," Fallon smiles proudly, wrapping her arm around his waist while EJ looks at everyone else with a small glare. "Unlike the rest of you."

"It's not really a dancing song." Big Red spoke.

"I agree with Big Red." Ophelia nodded.

"It's boring!" Ashlyn commented.

"It's fine, guys." Gina cut in. "We're East High." She smiles. "We can make anything work."

"Yeah, we can." EJ grinned. He and Fallon let go of each other as Lily told someone to open the red curtain. 

When the curtain was opened, the stage and an amazing set of a platform and stairs was revealed. A bright light was shined momentarily causing some students to squint their eyes or cover their eyes because of the bright light. Standing at the top of the stairs looked like someone in a Beast costume.

"Wait, I thought we agreed on no costumes." Luca spoke with confusion, glancing at his friends with furrowed eyebrows.

"Yeah, that's not fair." Ophelia agreed, pointing at North High's Beast.

"Is it just me, or is all of this, like, off-the-rails insane?" Nini asked.

"Um, honestly, if you don't wanna do it with us, you could always take off." Ricky suggests. "Don't want you to feel confined." Ophelia glanced at him with surprise, thinking him saying that was uncalled for. She had a feeling he wasn't that big of a fan of Nini's song, but he didn't need to say that, especially when Nini just asked a simple question that had nothing to do with the song.

Nini is taken aback by his reply, looking at him with confusion. "Wait, what?" After he doesn't respond to her, she frowns and shakes her head. "This is a bad idea."

Ophelia watches Nini turn around to walk off with concern in her eyes. "Nini." She called out to in hopes of getting the brunette-haired girl to stop and frowned when Nini kept walking towards the door. 

Ophelia moves to stand by Ricky, gently nudging him to get his attention. "Rick, you okay?" Ricky shrugs, shaking his head in response. "That was honestly uncalled for." She spoke quietly so only he would hear. He looked like he was almost apologetic and like he wanted to say something but stayed quiet. 

"May the best school win," Lily remarks. "Places, please."

East High is on one side of the stage and North High is on the other when they all get on stage. Antoine makes a dance remix of the song at the DJ station that's on stage off to the side before the beginning of the dance-off. 

Ricky had grabbed an acoustic guitar from behind back stage and North High's Beast had done the same thing, but Ricky is the one to start off the song. "Through the mist, through the woods. Through the darkness and the shadows. It's a nightmare but it's one exciting ride."

"Say a prayer, then we're there at the drawbridge of a castle." North High's Beast sings. "And there's something truly terrible inside."

Ricky steps forward. "It's a Beast!"

"He's got fangs."  North High's Beast sang as the two of them circled each other.

"Razor sharp ones." Ricky added.

"Massive paws, killer claws for the feast." They both stopped circling each other.

Ricky backs up, stepping forward with each sentence he sung and he steps close enough to get North High's Beast to feel threatened enough to back up. "Hear him roar. See him foam." 

North High's Beast walks forward, causing Ricky to walk backwards. "'Cause we're not coming home, 'till he's dead. Good and dead."

"Kill the Beast!" Everyone sang.

Kourtney starts off the dancing part and Ophelia honestly didn't know she could dance that well, but she thought Kourtney did amazing. East High students cheered for Kourtney as she danced. She stepped backwards after her dance when a North High boy stepped forward and began to dance. The two of them stayed in the middle as the rest of the students circled them.

East High goes onto the steps of the set while North High stays on the stage. As they sing, East High did their own choreography. "Light your torch. Mount your horse. Screw your courage to the sticking place. We're counting on Gaston to lead the way."

 They get off the steps, standing in front of North High. They dance towards North High who run around them and get on the stairs. "Through a mist, through a wood. We're within a haunted castle. Something's lurking that you don't see every day."

East high stands at the bottom of the steps as North high sings and do their own choreography. "It's a Beast. One as tall as a mountain. We won't rest 'till he's good and deceased." They go up the other level of stairs to the higher platform. "Sally forth, tally-ho. Grab your sword, grab your bow. Praise the Lord and here we go."

Antoine makes his way down the stairs. "No one's safe until he's dead. He'll come stalking us at night."

"Set to sacrifice our children to his monstrous appetite." Carlos sang, meeting Antoine at the end of the stairs. 

The two boys circle each other as Antoine sings, "He'll wreak havoc on our village if we let him wander free."

"So it's time to take some action, boys." Carlos backs up towards his friends and gets lifted up into the air by the help of EJ, Ricky, and Luca and Seb helped to steady him so he wouldn't fall, then Carlos is spun around. Antoine backs away to join his fellow North High students while Carlos sings. "It's time to follow me."

The rest of East High follow the boys to the other side of the stage while the North High students were now across from them. After the boys set Carlos down, East High marches towards North High the same time North High marches towards them as they all sing at the same time. "We don't like what we don't understand, in fact, it scares us." They all line up and stand in front of who plays the same character from opposite school. "And this monster is mysterious at least." The North High students get in a circle while the East High students walk around them. "Bring your guns, bring your knives, save your children and your wives," Then they switch places now having East High students in the middle and North High students walking around them. "We'll save our village and our lives. We'll kill the Beast!"

The two schools back up so they're both on opposite sides of the stage. Gina steps forward to dance and Fallon joins her. The two girls kill it at the dance and their friends cheer for them. They high five each other after their dance, backing up when a North High girl steps forward and began dancing. A North High boy joined the girl on dancing and when the boy jumped through the splits the girl did on her hands Gina and Fallon started to back up. They continued backing up, watching the boy dance with annoyance on their faces. At the end of his dance, they rolled their eyes, both waving a dismissive hand as they turned away from the boy. 

Everyone turns their attention to Lily when she sang, seeing she was now on the lower platform. "Hearts ablaze. Banners high. We go marching into battle." East High goes to the other side of the stage as North High goes over to the stair. Ophelia, however, was determined to win against Lily and found a way to get to the higher platform backstage. "Unafraid, although the danger's just increased."

Lily begins walking up the steps to the higher platform with a smirk, the smirk falling off her face when she saw Ophelia walking over to her with a smirk on her face. "Raise the flag." Her friends cheer loudly for her as she sings. She does the 'come at me' gesture with her hand at Lily to challenge her and was surprised when Lily looked nervous and turned to walk down the steps to get back on the lower platform. "Sing the song. Here we come with fifty strong," Ophelia follows her down the steps, glaring right back at the blonde who was now glaring at her. She pushes Lily around to face her (and she did that rather roughly) the blonde turned around. "And fifty Frenchmen can't be wrong." She belted out the last word, smirking at Lily when she saw Lily's upset expression.

"We'll kill the Beast!" Everyone finished.

Ophelia didn't realize how close she was to the edge of the steps until Lily pushed her. She yelped, eyes widening when Lily pushed her off the lower platforms. Her friends gasped and all moved forward, ready to catch her. Ricky is the only one though who actually gets to Ophelia in time, shoving Lily out of the way and ignoring Lily's look of offense as he grabbed Ophelia's hand to quickly pull her back on the stage. 

They're both breathing heavily and stare at each other with wide eyes when Ophelia is back on the stage. Ophelia had grabbed onto Ricky's arms as she was brought close to him after he pulled her back on the stage. She felt as if her heart was beating out of her chest and her life defintely flashed right before her eyes when she almost fell. 

Ricky had a look of relief on his face, holding onto her tightly as if he was still afraid she would fall even though she was on the platform. It was at the moment when Ophelia was falling did Ricky realize his feelings for her. He likes her, but not platonically, he likes her romantically. And the thought of her getting hurt badly most likely scared him enough to make him realize his true feelings for his best friend. 

After the two best friends let go of each other, East High then went back stage to leave. "Let's get out of here, guys." Ricky said, throwing an arm around Ophelia to comfort her, knowing that she was still shaken up from almost falling by seeing the upset look on her face and how she had her arms wrapped around herself. They both walked towards the exit with their friends and they all were once again stopped by Lily.

"Uh, for the record," Lily chuckles. "We won."

"If this stupid dance-off even mattered at all you guys most defintely did not win." Ophelia speaks up for the first time since she almost fell. The smile fell off of Lily's face when she spoke. "You're just jealous that you're not as talented as we all are. For some reason you're super jealous of me and so you pushed me." A small chuckle leaves her lips. "Can't believe you stooped so low that you would do that." By now an angered expression formed on Lily's face and she was looking at Ophelia with a death glare. But Ophelia was too proud of herself for standing up for herself and her friends to even care about Lily.

"Are you serious?" Kourtney asked Lily in disbelief.

"Just because someone almost fell?" Gina questioned, looking at Lily with disbelief. Luca, who stood by Ophelia and Ricky, put a hand on Ophelia's arm to comfort her, and Ophelia exchanged a small smile with him.

Luca scoffs, looking at her with raised eyebrows. "How on Earth did you guys win?" He crosses his arms. "Because you guys went against the rules and had someone dressed in costume?"

"Yeah, and did you see Gina's and Fallon's moves?" Kourtney comments. "No way you beat that."

"Maybe we should have figured out some sort of points system?" Seb pointed out.

"You know what? It's fine." Carlos decides. He glances at his friends. "Let her say they won. This dance-off doesn't matter. The Menkies matter, and we're gonna win that because we've got one thing you don't have." Nini happened to join them just after he said that.

"The sympathy vote?" Lily raised her eyebrows.

"No." Seb responds. "Nini's 'Rose Song'." His friends nodded in agreement or voiced their words of agreement.

Lily chuckles. "Sorry, not sorry, Wildcats, but if you perform her song in your show, you will be disqualified from the Menkies."

The East High students look at her with surprise and some voice words of complaint.  "Are you serious?" "Since when?"

"You can't alter the original Menken text." Lily explained.

"Well, let's just do it anyway." Nini chimes in. "Stick to the plan and take the risk."

Carlos looks at her with furrowed eyebrows. "And risk letting them win? Isn't there a sports metaphor for this?" Everyone faced EJ, assuming he knew the answer to this since he was the only jock of the group. Instead, he was quiet and stared at the floor with a wide-eyed expression.

Fallon chuckles lightly, smiling at him with amusement as she pats his arm to comfort him. "It's okay, EJ."

"EJ, you had one job!" Carlos complained as everyone else voiced their words of complaint as well.

"I mean, what if the song didn't really fit in the show anyway, you know?" Ricky speaks up. "Seems a little heavy." 

Ophelia glances at him with surprise and after glancing at Nini to see her hurt expression and watched her leave. She glances at Ricky with a slightly disappointed expression and elbows him. "Not cool, Rick." Although she did slightly agree with Ricky about the song, he didn't have to say that now, especially right after he said something unnecessary to Nini that made her upset and got her to leave.

 "Let's go." Carlos said, turning around to leave and Ricky took his arm away from Ophelia as they both follow Carlos and their out of the auditorium. 

Ophelia was now walking with Fallon and Luca since Ricky had caught up with Nini to talk to her. "How about a sleepover at my place tonight?" Fallon suggests. "It feels like the three of us haven't hung out in forever and after all that happened today I think we deserve a night of watching Disney movies in our pjs and eating ice cream." 

Ophelia and Luca smile at her. "That sounds like a fantastic idea." Ophelia commented.

"I'm always down for watching movies," Luca grins. "Especially if ice cream is involved."

A/N honestly mad that ej didn't get a solo part during the mob song since he's the only one who liked the song & he would be the only one to sing it in the play since he's gaston but anyway i lowkey loved it, i thought it was so good! okay but the duo of gina & fallon? they're such besties, i love them!