Tech rehearsal continues on and Ophelia was helping Steph and Kourtney with the costumes since she needed a break from trying to figure out the lighting stuff. She didn't think figuring out the lighting of this theater would be so hard, but she was way wrong.

"Okay, let's pretend we've figured out the lighting. If we've got a sound system, we got a show." Miss Jenn walks over to the middle of the stage, holding a microphone. "I need someone to sing for microphone levels. Who's not doing anything?"

Ophelia shares a look with Steph, both grinning as they nod. They went to stand beside each side of Kourtney, guiding her over to Miss Jenn. "Kourtney is an amazing singer." Steph commented.

"Very amazing indeed." Ophelia agreed. She gave Kourtney a gentle push along with Steph towards Miss Jenn.

Kourtney nervously laughs. "I'm a singer, not an actor." She points at herself. "This voice is for church."

Miss Jenn smiles, stopping Kourtney from walking away. "Thank you for volunteering." She hands Kourtney the microphone. "Just sing anything from the show. Doesn't matter what. No judgement." She guides Kourtney over to the middle of the stage and Ophelia and Steph went to stand by the clothing rack, sharing excited smiles with each other. "This is a safe place." Miss Jenn said to Kourtney before walking off to the side.

Miss Jenn gestures for Big Red to turn on the microphones and he does. Kourtney glances back at Ophelia and Steph with a nervous expression. They both give her thumbs up and encouraging smiles. Ophelia knew Kourtney would be fine. She never heard Kourtney sing before, but she has heard the girl hum from time to time and she sounded good. Ophelia figured that Kourtney sounded even better when she sang and Ophelia believed Kourtney deserved her time to shine.

"I believe in dreaming, shooting for the stars." Everyone had stopped what they were doing when Kourtney started to beautifully sing 'Bop To The Top'. "Baby, to be number one you got to raise the bar. 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 and groove 'till the music stops."

The microphone giving feedback caused her to stop belting out the last word. Everyone had covered their ears upon hearing the loud noise from the microphone and uncovered their ears when it went away. Ophelia didn't hesitate to clap for Kourtney, everyone joining her. Kourtney seriously was so talented.

Miss Jenn walks up to Kourtney. "Kourtney, honey, that was a wow." Kourtney grins at her. "Unfortunately, it seems we have now broken the sound system, the lights, and possibly me." Miss Jenn sighs. She looks at Carlos. "Carlos, could you please clear the theater right now?"

Ophelia and Steph went over to Kourtney after Miss Jenn walked to her desk. "Kourt, I absolutely love your singing!" Ophelia complimented, looking at Kourtney with a grin.

Kourtney grins back at her. "Thank you, O! I didn't think I could do it, but I did and I have to admit I enjoyed it."

Steph gestures to herself and Ophelia. "O and I knew you could do it. Kourt, that was so good."

"Thank you, you guys." Kourtney said to them.

"Okay, everyone, um, follow me." Carlos speaks up and the conversation in the theater died down. He stands in the middle of the stage, looking at everyone. "We are going to take a long five?" He sounded confused as he said that and then led everyone out to the lobby.

Everyone was in their own little groups out in the lobby, conversing with each other until they were told to go back in the theater. Luca was talking with Kaden, Rico, and Kaison, who were some of the dancers. They're all really good guys and he had become good friends with them throughout rehearsals. He would normally be talking with Gina at a time like this, but Gina wasn't there and wasn't replying back to him.

Ophelia was sitting on the stairs with Kourtney, conversing with her. Fallon was going to join them, but stopped when she passed by EJ and grew confused at seeing him sitting by the concession area. The said boy was eating popcorn from the popcorn box he held and a sad look was on his face. Fallon knew she didn't have to go check on him, but she hated seeing him upset and it looked like he could use a friend right now.

EJ looks up from the popcorn, not surprised to see Fallon standing in front of him. He knew that she would talk to him about what happened on stage. "Let me guess," Fallon puts her hands on her hips, tilting her head to the side as she stares down at him with raised eyebrows. "The reason you've been acting so emotional lately is 'cause you looked in Miss Jenn's audition files?"

"Possibly." EJ muttered, avoiding her gaze and continued to eat popcorn. He felt kind of guilty for looking at Miss Jenn's audition files and the last thing he wanted was getting a lecture from Fallon about him doing something wrong and that he shouldn't do what he did.

Fallon sighs. "I can tell whatever Miss Jenn wrote about you made you upset, but you shouldn't let what she wrote bother you."

"It doesn't bother me. Like what I said earlier Fallon," EJ said, standing up to add some more popcorn in the popcorn box he held. "Apparently I have no emotions." He sat back down, continuing to eat popcorn and stared forward with a sad look on his face.

Fallon frowns, going over to take a seat beside him. "You have emotions, EJ. Sometimes it just doesn't seem to be genuine." His lips forms into a frown when she said that. "But I know you have a good heart." He looks at her with surprise and she nods, sending him a smile.

"And I know that you're really talented and you will get better with being more emotional to the context of this play and whatever play we do next." A smile tugs on his lips as she continues. "You're a great actor and with lots of practice of being more emotional to the context of the play you're gonna get to be so fantastic Miss Jenn and Carlos won't have any bad notes on you."

EJ smiles brightly at her, feeling butterflies swarm in his stomach. Sure, what he found out made him upset, but Fallon made him think that maybe he can get better with acting. "Thank you, Fallon. That really means a lot to me."

Fallon smiles shyly, bringing her gaze to the fidget ring she was now playing with. "Yeah, it was nothing. But you're welcome." She glances at the popcorn he held, realizing how good it smelt. "You gonna eat the rest of that?"

EJ chuckles and offers the box of popcorn to her. "How about we share?"

Fallon looks at him with a grin and looks box of popcorn, taking a handful of it before putting it in her mouth. EJ laughs a bit. "I'm gonna take that as a 'yes'."

Meanwhile, Seb had walked over to the stairs where Kourtney and Ophelia were at. "Hey." Seb greets and the two girls looked at him with a smile. "Um, I heard you singing earlier." He said to Kourtney.

Kourtney grins. "Oh, yeah?"

Seb nods and smiles. "You're not gonna quit makeup crew, are you?" The grin fell as Kourtney glances at her notebook that had her drawings of costumes in it. "Sorry," Seb quickly apologizes. "I know you're multi-talented or whatever, I just think you have a gift for making things look better." Kourtney looks at him with a bit of surprise. "I mean, the Sharpay makeup? You made me look the way I feel."

Kourtney smiles. "Well, I'm not gonna quit my day job, but I don't like categories. You know, why limit yourself to one thing, right?"

"I totally agree, Kourt." Ophelia chimes in with a smile on her lips. "I mean, I'm in yearbook club and drama club. I love both clubs and I'm good at them."

Kourtney smiles at her and nudges her. "Yeah, you get it."

"Right." Seb nods and Kourtney looks at him with a smile. Seb smiles back at her. "Cool."

"And the singing was amazing too." Seb adds. "You can do anything, I mean."

"I know that, Sebby." Kourtney smiles widely. "And you can too." She glances at Ophelia with a smile, nudging her again. "So can you." Ophelia smiled and nudged her back, chuckling along with Kourtney.

Chuckling, Seb smiles shyly. "Okay."

"Hey, O," Big Red walks over to the two girls after Seb walked away. "You want to come with me to get Ricky and Nini?" He points over his shoulder in the direction behind him. "I think they're in a room down the hall."

Ophelia nods. "Yeah, sure." She got up, sharing a smile with Kourtney before she and Big Red walked down the hallway to the room Big Red said Ricky and Nini were at.

"Hey, guys." Big Red greeted while Ophelia is the one to open the door.

She didn't expect to see what she saw. Ricky and Nini were sitting on the piano bench, leaning in as if they were about to kiss. She didn't really know what to expect to see, but definitely not that. She didn't know why she felt a little jealous. Why did she feel a little jealous when she like-likes Eric? Well, she thinks she like-likes Eric, trust her, she wants to feel that way about him. Eric is kind, caring, and talented. Plus he's really really cute and even on the football team. He's a total catch. But there was just something about the fact that Ricky and Nini almost kissed made her upset.

The smile that was on Ophelia's lips when she opened the door fell and she had a look that was mixture of confusion and sadness. "Um, we're ordering pizza 'cause, um, Miss Jenn is having some kind of midlife crisis." She didn't know what else to say beside that.

Ricky and Nini had gotten up quickly when the door opened and were staring at Big Red and Ophelia with a wide-eyed expression. "Okay." Ricky nodded, wondering why Ophelia avoided his gaze when he looked at her.

Big Red glances at Ophelia with concern upon seeing her expression. "O, are you okay?"

Ignoring his comment and ignoring Ricky's now concerned gaze, Ophelia asks, "You two good with pepperoni and soy cheese?"

Ricky and Nini nodded, voicing their words of agreement.

****

Everyone was carrying all of their stuff out to their cars since Miss Jenn said they were going back to East High. Fallon was handing Luca a box of supplies when she notices Ophelia walking by and waves her over before picking up the other box of supplies near her. "O!" Ophelia stopped walking, glancing over in the direction she heard someone say her nickname.

Luca turns around to face her, frowning upon noticing her upset expression. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Fallon frowns as she looks at Ophelia. "You look like a sad puppy who got left on the side of the road."

Ophelia sighs. "Well, I went with Big Red to get Ricky and Nini and they almost kissed."

Fallon and Luca looked at her with wide eyes but Fallon was the only one who dramatically gasped. "How can they almost kiss when Ricky doesn't even know how you really feel about him?"

Ophelia is quiet as she glances at the floor with a sad expression while Luca kicked Fallon's ankle, he did it gently but still in a way that it hurt Fallon. He would've flicked her forehead or punch her in the arm if he wasn't holding a kind of heavy box. Fallon winces, looking at Luca with a glare. "Ow! What the heck was that for?"

"Saying what you said was unnecessary." Luca replies, shrugging his shoulders. "And don't be upset with O for not telling Ricky yet. She's scared of what will happen if she tells him and isn't sure of her feelings yet."

Ophelia looks at him with surprise. "Okay, how do you know that? That's exactly how I feel. I'm a little weirded out that you know how I feel without me telling you."

Luca sighs. "I'm feeling the same way with Gina."

Ophelia nods, sending him a sympathetic smile. When she notices Fallon looking at someone walking by, she looks in that direction to see the person is Ricky and Big Red was with him. As if he felt her staring at him, Ricky glances back at her with an unreadable expression before he looked away and continued walking over to grab a box with Big Red.

Ophelia looks back at Fallon when the light brunette-haired girl says, "So tell us why you look sad about Ricky almost kissing Nini."

Ophelia notices Nini beside Kourtney and she shakes her head. She couldn't say why now that Nini was nearby and could possibly overhear. She gestures for two of her best friends to walk with her to the exit as she grabs a box of props on the way. "Let's head to Luca's car and I'll you why on the way."

"I was upset about Ricky kissing Nini 'cause I think I like-like him." Ophelia admits once the three best friends got to Luca's car. She bites her lower lip, shaking her head. "Which is bad 'cause that wasn't part of the plan I came up with to help Ricky get back with Nini. And lately I've been thinking that maybe he might feel the same way for me."

Fallon unlocks the car with Luca's keys that she held since Ophelia and Luca were carrying props. "But I really do like-like Eric." Ophelia continues to ramble, feeling her face heat up as she says the next sentence. "He's so sweet and really cute."

"You really do got a problem here." Fallon sarcastically comments, opening the trunk of Luca's car and stepped to the side to let Luca and Ophelia put the boxes of props they held in. "One cute boy likes you and another cute boy could possibly like you."

"But why would Ricky like you and then almost kiss Nini?" Luca questioned, closing the trunk of his car as he glanced at Ophelia.

"No idea." Ophelia frowns. "I wish I knew how he felt. 'Cause right now I'm just so confused and I don't know what to do."

At the same time Big Red and Ricky were walking to Ricky's car, talking about what just happened with the curly-haired boy and Nini. "Wait, so you for sure like Ophelia?" Big Red questioned, looking at Ricky with surprise. 

"I think so." Ricky replies with furrowed eyebrows. He shakes his head. "I don't really know. I still like Nini and I honestly did want to kiss her. But when I saw Ophelia catching us, I felt bad."

"Why?" Big Red furrows his eyebrows. "You and Ophelia aren't together."

"I know." Ricky nods. "Throughout the time she has been helping me get back with Nini my feelings for Ophelia started to change." Just thinking of Ophelia made butterflies form in his stomach, but when he thought of Nini that happened as well. "I always saw her as my best friend, but I think I'm starting to like her." 

When they get to his car, he unlocks it and opens the back, setting the box he of props he held inside the car. He turns to Big Red and sighs heavily. "I like two girls, dude, and I don't know what to do."

"Just go with the girl you like more." Big Red shrugs. "Which would be Nini, right?"

Ricky notices Luca's car nearby, seeing Ophelia standing beside Luca and Fallon. The three of them were conversing and she laughed at something funny Fallon had said. Ricky feels his heat skip a beat when she glances in his direction, locking eyes with him. He was a bit surprised when she smiled at him since he thought she was ignoring him now. But he was happy she wasn't ignoring him and he smiled back at her.

"Ricky?" Big Red asked, getting Ricky's attention.

Ricky glances back at Big Red with furrowed eyebrows. "Huh?"

"You like Nini more, right?" Big Red repeated what he said a few seconds ago, looking at him with furrowed eyebrows.

Ricky is hesitant to reply, slowly nodding as he speaks. "Right...Yeah, I like Nini more."

A/N yay ophelia admitted she likes ricky & ricky admitted he's starting to like ophelia :) things are getting more interesting !