Ophelia had to admit it felt weird to be back at school after Spring Break, but she was glad to be back. Everyone was on stage, talking amongst themselves while they waited for rehearsal to start. 

"Alright, let's get started!" Carlos smiles brightly, walking over to the music stand Miss Jenn and Seb stood by. 

(this is ophelia's outfit for this chapter)

"Hello?" Carlos calls out in a louder tone and puts emphasis on the word, trying to get everyone's attention since they were all still talking. "Let's get started!" 

After Miss Jenn got done talking wtih Seb, the blonde-haired boy walks off the stage to sit at the piano. "Okay, Wildcats." Miss Jenn smiles widely at the group of students and claps her hands. The chatter in the room stopped and they all turn to face her with smiles. "Let's shake spring break out of our systems and try the Beast transformation one last time. And remember, this is the triumph of the show, the moment the audience has been waiting for." With a forced smile on her face, she chuckles nervously. "This has to work."

Ricky leans over to Ophelia, whispering, "No pressure, right?" 

"Yeah." Ophelia chuckled nervously, fiddling with the blue cloak she wore. Ricky had on the jacket Beast would wear during this scene and held the Beast mask in his hands.

Miss Jenn points at Ricky. "Ricky, try not to rush this time. We'll speed it up when you're more confident."

Ricky nods. "Got it."

"Let's take it from..." Miss Jenn turns to the music stand by her where the script was at. "'You came back.'" She then sat down next to Carlos behind the music stand.

Everyone else got out of the way to give Ricky and Ophelia space. Ophelia kneeled on the floor, closes her eyes and taking a deep breath, trying to get into character. Ricky put on the Beast mask and laid on the floor in front of her. Ophelia opened her eyes as Ricky laid his head on her lap. When Miss Jenn told them to start the scene, she wrapped her arm around Ricky's shoulders, putting her other hand on Ricky's arm that was on his chest.

Ricky had his right arm outstretched, his left arm laying on his chest. "You came back." He spoke in a strained voice, making it sound like he had been hurt. 

"If only I'd come sooner." Ophelia spoke in a sad tone and just like what Belle did during this scene she pulled him closer.

Ricky puts hand on her arm. "Maybe it's better this way..."

"Don't talk like that." Ophelia interrupts him in a firm tone with teary eyes. "Everything will be fine."

"No." 

Ophelia softly shushes him. "We're together now. You'll see." 

Ricky reaches his hand up to caress the side of her face. "I'm just glad I was able to see your face one last..." He lowered his arm, pretending to choke. Miss Jenn then gestured to Seb to start playing.

"We are home. We are where we shall be forever." Noticing that Ricky was pulling hair out of his mouth from the Beast mask, Ophelia grabs onto his hand. "Trust in me, for you now I won't run away."

"Belle, I...."

"Yes?" Ophelia softly said and she gasps like Belle did when the Beast died as Ricky turns over onto his stomach, pretending to die. She starts to think of how it would be like to actually lose Ricky which brought tears to her eyes and made her heart ache. She breathes heavily, staring down at Ricky worriedly. "No, no," She leans over Ricky, gently shaking him. "Please don't leave me. Please." In a shaky tone, she says, "I love you." 

Then Ricky tried getting the Beast mask off to do the transformation, but it wasn't coming off as easy as he thought it would. Ophelia awkwardly smiles at everyone, covering Ricky with her cloak. "It's stuck." Ricky announced.

Kourtney stands up from her place she sat at and exclaims out of frustration, "Rip the Velcro!"

Ophelia pulls away when Ricky finally got the Beast mask off. "I got it." Ricky spoke, throwing the Beast mask to where Natalie stood off to the side. Natalie stumbled as she reached to catch it. She bumped into a tree prop, causing everyone to gasp, watching wtith wide eyes as the tree props began to fall like dominos. 

Fallon yelps when one of the tree props got to closer for comfort, sighing with relief when EJ grabbed her arm and pulled her back before she could get hit. He glances at her with concern, taking his hand off her arm. "You good?" 

"Yeah," Fallon sends him a small smile. She then glances at the tree props and breaths shakily. "Just startled." 

"Cut!" Miss Jenn shouted.

Ricky grimaces, glancing over at Natalie with an apologetic expression. "Sorry, Natalie."

"It's okay." Natalie responds. "It was just my face."

Ricky glances at Ophelia with a sheepish expression. "Guess I should practice that throw, huh?"

"Yeah, kinda." Ophelia nodded and chuckled lightly.

"The throw is great, Ricky." Miss Jenn calls out as she stands. "The mask is great. This is working. I will be in my office." She then walked off the stage and Ophelia watched her leave with concern. She knew that Miss Jenn was worried about this scene after seeing the forced smile on her face.

"Guys, we're on a long five until Miss Jenn returns." Carlos announced before he walked away.

Ophelia glances at Ricky while he gets up. She frowns slightly when she noticed his solemn expression. She stands and follows him. "Rick, you okay?"

"Yeah," Ricky reassures her, picking up his backpack. "I'll get it eventually."

"How are you doing?" Ophelia asks him, looking at him with concern as she unbuttons the cloak. "I haven't gotten to ask you about that since you got back." 

Ricky sighs heavily. "Breakups suck, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Ophelia nodded in undertanding, sympathetically siling at him. Even though she and Eric ended things on good terms, she still was heartbroken over the break up since she had never broke up with someone before. But she knew exactly how Ricky felt since she also thought break ups sucked.

"Especially when it's with the same person over and over again." Ricky frowns. He shakes his head, smiling at Ophelia. "But hey, I'm glad you reached out to Nini about working on that song. That was really nice."

Ophelia folds the cloak once she had got it off and holds it. She smiles at Ricky. "Actually, she reached out to me. I wish you were able to help us out with it. It was super fun."

"Well, that, uh, I mean, that is...Super." Ricky stammered and awkwardly smiled at her. She chuckled lightly, smiling softly at him and she patted his shoulder as she walked by him. Things have been kind of awkward with them ever since they both got the lead roles. Because they're best friends, it was weird having to play love interests.

****

Ophelia was now at Slicers with the some of the drama club members since Carlos had texted in the group chat for them to meet up there. "There you are." EJ noticed, gaining everyone's attention and they all turned around to see Carlos was finally there.

"You guys, mother is freaking out." Carlos said worriedly. "It's about the Menkies. Is everyone sitting down?"

"No." Big Red responded, sitting down on a chair backwards. 

"Obviously not." Fallon replied in a 'duh' tone. She was right because the only people sitting down was Seb, who sat on a table, and Ophelia who sat on a table near where Ricky and Big Red were at. 

"We can't win."

Everyone stares at Carlos with confusion when he said that. "What?" Ashlyn inquired.

"Why can't we win?" Luca frowned.

"Please tell me you're kidding." Ophelia pleaded.

"Listen, there's math involved." Carlos continued.

"I hate math." Fallon grumbled and from his place standing by her, EJ chuckled lightly and smiled at her with amusement.

"If we don't sweep the technical achievement awards, we don't have a chance." Carlos explains. He glances at Ricky. "And, no offense, Ricky, but..."

After seeing the looks everyone gave him, Ricky rolls his eyes. "Oh, is this about the transformation? 'Cause I can through that mask at someone other than Natalie."

"You haven't yet." Natalie sassily said.

"I hate to say this, you guys." Carlos speaks in a sad tone. "I mean, I know we all had a good time over Spring Break." 

Seb rolls his eyes. "Some of us a little more than others."

Carlos shakes his head, looking annoyed. "Not today." 

Nini furrows her eyebrows and glances at Seb with concern. "You guys okay?" Seb forced a smile, humming in response as he nodded.

"Honestly, we need to rally behind Miss Jenn." Carlos continues. "I mean, our sets are made of plywood and Elmer's Glue. We're humble. Humble does not win awards."

"And after that order, you have one more, and then two more after that." Kourtney calls out to the worker behind the counter as she walks over to the group with two pitchers of soda in her hand. "Fresh soda. Y'all okay?"

"Carlos was just explaining..."

"I heard it all." Kourtney interrupted Gina.

Gina furrows her eyebrows. "While you were yelling at Howie?"

"Multitasking." Kourtney nods. "Look, I'm a designer, Big Red's a crew guy, between the two of us, you're looking at your answer."

"Quit school, get a job at the pizza shop?" Seb quipped.

Kourtney glances at him with offense. "Uh, no," She smiles at everyone. "We should invent something amazing. Something we can run at tech rehearsal tomorrow night. A next-level transformation that out-broads Broadway and out-norths North High." She squealed with excitement and everyone smiled, starting to talk with each other about Kourtney's plan. 

"Ashlyn, you have the biggest house." Nini said. She smiles at the red-haired girl. "What if I invite myself and the girls over after school, continue the collab thing?"

"I mean, square footage-wise, my house is slightly larger..." EJ cut in. Fallon rolls her eyes and elbows him in the side. "Uh, I'm going to shut up." EJ nodded with a sheepish smile on her face. Fallon giggled and rolled her eyes.

"A hundred percent, yes." Ashlyn smiled widely. 

"Wait, should we all stick together?" Gina inquired.

"Oh, no way." Nini links her arms with Ashlyn and Kourtney. "Boys verses girls."

"My basement's free." Big Red offers. "We have a ton of old tools. I'm sure the guys can make something cool."

Nini nods and smiles. "Great. May the best transformation win." 

****

"One hundred percent real faux fur." Kourtney grinned, laying the faux fur on the coffee table at Ashlyn's house. After making a Target run, the girls and Seb went to Ashlyn's house. 

"It's so soft, oh my gosh." Fallon said in awe as she touched the faux fur.

"How much is it?" Ophelia inquired, glancing over her shoulder while she took some items out of a Target bag.

"Thirty yards." Kourtney replied.

"Must've been a truly enormous faux animal." Ashlyn chuckles. "So, what are we doing?"

"Okay, so you know those sequined tops, where you rubbed them one way, they're purple, but if you rubbed them the other way, they're red?" 

Everyone nods and smiles at Kourtney. "Duh, love it." Gina commented.

"So, we're going to do that with the Beast cape." Kourtney explains. "But instead of purple and red, it's going to be fur," She picks up a blue satin piece of fabric and wraps it around her. She grins at the others. "And satin. Y'all feel me?"

"Kourt, you are a visionary." Nini complimented.

"Oh, thank you." Kourtney smiles. "The boys can build something that spins the Beast around to disguise the transition."

"Wow." Seb's eyes widen. "Won't that take a while?"

"I'm in if you are." Kourtney shrugged.

"I guess I could sleep over tonight." Gina joked and Ashlyn laughed along with the others.

"You guys, I'm all about costumes, but I don't know if my parents will be cool with a co-ed sleepover." Seb admitted in a  nervous tone. 

"Chip, this is your mother speaking." Kourtney said to him in a stern tone. "Go call your mother." Seb nodded, pointing finger guns at her before he left the living room as the girls began getting things out of the Target bags. 

"Behold my scissors bucket." Ashlyn dramatically speaks, holding up a bucket full of colorful scissors

"Wow." Ophelia, Fallon, Gina, and Nini spoke in unison, staring at the bucket of scissors with wide eyes.

Ashlyn smiles proudly. "Yeah, guys." 

****

Meanwhile at Big Red's house the boys were eating pizza, waiting to find out from the girls what they were supposed to make. "We're thinking of adding an off-menu vegan sausage option." Big Red spoke up.

"Is that a thing?" Ricky questioned.

Luca chuckles. "I'm gonna be surprised if it is a thing."

Big Red nods. "It is basically crackers."

"You guys," Carlos chimes in. "What are we making?"

"That's a great question." Luca nodded.

Big Red gets his phone when he got a notification. "Oh, a text from Ash." He notices. "Uh, they want us to construct something to slowly spin Ricky around on, so that they can change the fabric on his cape while he spins."

"That sounds promising." Carlos nodded.

"Yeah," Luca agrees. "It sounds a lot better than the transformation we have now." 

"What do I have that spins?" Big Red asked himself and stood from the chair he sat on, beginning to search his room. 

EJ glances around the room, getting up when he noticed a lot of skateboards on a shelf. "Wait, hey, there's a bunch of these back here, we could use, maybe..."

Luca nods and smiles. "I think that could work." He furrowed his eyebrows after noticing the panicked look on Big Red's face. 

"Oh! My retired skateboards."

"Retired skateboards?" Luca asked, his voice laced with confusion.

"I mean, if it's to help Miss Jenn finally win her award." Ricky tried to convince Big Red to let them use the skateboards.

"I'm wrapping my head around it." Big Red nods. "Emotionally."

"That could take all night." EJ remarked and Luca nodded in agreement.

"I could do that." Ricky said and stands up. "Stay all night." He glances at Carlos. "Carlos?"

"Yeah, I need to talk to Seb at some point, but it can wait." Carlos replied and Luca looked at him with concern along with Ricky.

 "Are you sure?" Ricky asked him.

"It's waited all week." Carlos responds. He smiles at everyone. "Let's spin Ricky around for a few hours."

****

"Ooh, this is going to be so good, Carlos would wear it." Kourtney commented. Seb stood in front of a full length mirror and Kourtney had the faux fur wrapped over his shoulder. Everyone smiled and chuckled at Kourtney's comment.

"Does he just walk around in Armani sweatpants?" Ashlyn asked and everyone chuckled again.

"I guess." Seb's short reply gained everyone's attention and they all looked at him with concern. 

"Uh, Sebbie?" Kourtney questioned, pulling the faux fur away from him.

"Is something going on with you guys?" Nini inquired.

"And don't lie." Ophelia chimes in. She smiles reassuringly at Seb. "You can talk to us about anything."

Seb turns around to face the girls with a frown. "I guess you could say he met a group of extremely photogenic guys when he was down in Mexico, and he seems pretty happy. So, now I'm pretty sad."

Gina frowns. "Seb, come on."

"You want to see him happy. That's with you." Ashlyn told the blonde.

Seb shakes his head. "Mmm, but I guess he has to be, out of default, right?"

Kourtney furrows her eyebrows and sits down on the couch beside Fallon. "What does that mean?"

"There's not a lot of other choices for a boy like Carlos here at East." Seb answered. He walked over to the couch to sit down by Kourtney and Fallon.

"No, Seb." Nini frowned.

Ashlyn sits by the right side of Seb since Fallon sat by the left side of him. "Have you told him how you feel?"

"I bet you he would understand." Ophelia chimed in.

"Not so good at saying the feelings part out loud." Seb shook his head, looking nervous. 

"I don't think it hurts to put yourself out there." Fallon smiles. She pauses for a moment and shrugs. "I mean, that's what I heard." Seb and the girls chuckled at her comment.

"Okay. Also," Nini turns to face her with a smile. "Did I see you and EJ giggling at the pizza place?"

"We weren't giggling. I was the only one giggling." Fallon corrected her, ignoring the way she could feel the blush begin to creep up her neck. 

"I have some questions in the same general area." Ashlyn cut in. 

Fallon looks at her nervously. "They're not disapproving questions are they? 'Cause if they are, then that might be a problem." 

Ashlyn sighs, looking at her with disbelief. "Of course they're not disapproving questions." She smiles. "Fallon, you're my friend and he's my cousin. It's a little weird, but if he makes you happy then go for it." 

"It already happened." Fallon said in a shy tone, blushing as the others gasp and look at her with surprise.

"What?" Ophelia exclaims out of shock. She pouts. "Fal, why didn't you tell me earlier?" 

"We haven't really told anyone that we're together." Fallon admits. "It just hasn't been brought up in conversation until now." 

"Well, I'm happy for you guys." Ophelia smiled and Fallon smiled back at her.

****

The group were now together, standing out in the hallway at school by the stage door. "These two are for the pizza shop. This one's for the front door of my house. This one's for my bike lock. Oh! I haven't seen this one in a while."

Ophelia stares at Big Red with surprise. "How many keys do you have?"

"You do have the key, right, babe?" Ashlyn asked.

"Yeah," Big Red smiles, holding up part of the key chain which had a few keys. "I narrowed it down to this half of the chain."

"We're gonna be here all night." Fallon whined, leaning her head on EJ's shoulder. 

As Big Red kept trying to use the keys he had, the door suddenly opens, revealing Natalie. "You could've just knocked."

"Okay." Ashlyn chuckled. Big Red smiled and held the door open for everyone and once they were all on the stage, he followed them and closed the door behind him.

Now the group all stood or kneeled by the floor plans of the show. Yeah, Kourtney got the hands of the actual floor plans of the Broadway show of Beauty and the Beast from Howie. Apparently North High were getting their hands on the floor plans for the Broadway show, but they got it first. "Wait. So, in the Broadway show, all they did was suspend the Beast in the air, and then he takes the mask off." 

Nini's eyes widen. "Wow."

"That's kind of anticlimactic." Ophelia commented.

"Yeah, I was expecting something with a little more flare." Fallon admitted.

"But combine this with the wire from Get'cha Head in the Game, we're golden." Ashlyn chimes in with a smile. "Do we still have Ricky's harness?"

"Ooh, it's in the costume shop, somewhere." Kourtney responded.

"Everyone, let's meet back in fifteen." Natalie suggested and everyone nodded in response before they all went separate ways.

"So, this came from Howie?" Big Red asked Kourtney with a teasing smile.

"Yeah, I thought you two weren't talking anymore." Ophelia said as she grinned at Kourtney.

Nini chuckles. "Good luck getting a comment out of her. I've been trying for an hour."

"Okay. The comment is, he's finally figured out my love language." Kourtney smiled.

"Ooh!" Ashlyn said, sharing a smile with Seb.

"Which is?" Big Red questioned.

"Uh, gifts, music, flattery, and begging." Kourtney sassily answered and they all laughed at her answer. Seb then walked away when Carlos talked to him. 

Fallon was standing off to the side, getting some tools they would need. "Hey, Lonnie." 

She glances up when she heard EJ talk to her and smiles softly at him. "Hi, Eej."

"How's the slumber party going?" EJ asked.

"It's fun." Fallon admitted.

"Cool." EJ awkwardly said.

Fallon slowly nods. "Yeah." 

EJ is quiet for a few moments before he nervously asks, "Would you, um, like to go on a date sometime? Since we're together and haven't been on our first date yet, I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me." He ramble, ignoring the blush appearing on his face. "Preferably sometime soon." 

Fallon smiles widely, feeling her heart flutter as she blushes. "Uh, yes." She said in a duh tone, earning a relieved smile from EJ. "Just name the time and place." 

****

After getting everything set up fifteen minutes later, Ophelia had the blue cloak on, Ricky had on the Beast mask and his harness. Ophelia knelt on the floor with Ricky's head laying on her lap.

"I, I, I..." Ricky stammered, pretending to sound like he was choking.

"Please," Ophelia said shakily. "I love you." Ricky then turned onto his stomach, acting as if he died. Ophelia glanced over at Big Red with a smile and nodded at him, gesturing for him to pull the rope. 

Big Red nods and spins the wheel that brought Ricky up with ropes. Ophelia stands up as Ricky is being lifted up in the air. Everyone watches the scene in awe. "Y'all, this is some Broadway stuff." Kourtney excitedly said.

"We're going to win." Natalie speaks in a surprised tone. "You guys, we're actually going to win."

"We're going to make Miss Jenn so proud." Carlos smiled widely. 

Everything was going great...Until it wasn't. Let's just say this night took an unexpected turn.

A/N  ej & fallon are going to go on their first date yay :) pls i cant believe that no one tried to catch ricky.