In the morning she got up and got ready for school. Then when she was ready she drove to school. Once she arrived, she parked her car and headed into the school. She had a smile on her face as she walked down the hall and stopped at her locker.

"Morning, baby." Ricky greeted her, smiling widely.

"Morning." Ophelia smiled back, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down into a sweet kiss.

"You look beautiful, as always." He said, his arms snaking around her waist.

"Thanks, babe." She giggles, giving him a quick peck. "And you look handsome as always."

He grins at her and kisses her cheek. "Ready to go meet up with the others?"

"Yep." She smiled, pulling away, but she interwind their hands together as they waked away.

****

"This is so official. There's a sign on the door." Ashlyn gushed as the drama kids walked down the hall. On the door to the auditorium there was a sign that read 'Homecoming. Private rehearsal. Do not enter' Homecoming was a secret code word for 'High School Musical 4'. "What do we do? Do we knock? Do we make a grand entrance? Lie, what do they do in Hollywood?'

"If Fallon was here, I think she'd say a grand entrance." Luca said in amusement. 

"True." Ophelia agrees with a chuckle. "Oh, crap, that reminds me I gotta update her on what happened yesterday." She muttered to herself.

"You haven't told her yet?" Luca asks in surprise. He chuckles. "She's gonna scold you for that."

"I know." Ophelia sighs. "I'm mentally preparing myself for that."

"You guys, we're actually rehearsing for 'High School Musical 4'." Gina gushed and everyone exclaimed excitedly.

"Hollywood, more like Hollywill." Ricky jokes, but no one laughed at his joke. "Sorry, guys, I'm just excited." Ophelia just shook her head and sent him a sympathetic smile, patting his shoulder to comfort him. 

Kourtney grins. "My college applications are gonna love this. Kourtney Greene, scholar, philanthropist, Hollywood actress!" She squealed excitedly.

"Obviously my bone structure was built for the big screen, but is anyone concerned we have auditions for Miss Jenn in an hour?" Carlos asked.

"I am." Ophelia admits, biting her lower lip. "Think we can get there in time?"

"Hopefully this won't take too long." Luca sighed.

"Well, that's when this rehearsal ends. So we'll be warmed up, ready to go and in Wildcat mode." Ricky smiled.

A door to the auditorium opened. "Featured background?" A girl asked with a smile.

"Yes!" The group chorused excitedly.

"You're late. Why didn't you knock?" The girl furrowed her eyebrows.

"Funny story..." Ashlyn's voice trailed off, but the girl interrupted her.

"Time is money." She then walked into the auditorium and the group was quick to follow her.

****

"I'm Krystal, the choreographer for the movie," The dark-skinned girl explains. "And I've got two hours to teach you this dance combination."

Ricky raises his hand. "We thought this was just an hour 'cause we really need this theater."

"That what I was talking about." Carlos nodded.

"Ah!" Krystal raises her hands. "First rule of being an extra. No questions or talking unless it's an emergency. We shoot this in a couple of weeks. Confidentially, this is the big high school reunion song, headlined by Zac, Vanessa, Mo, Ashley, Lucas, and Corbin."

"I love how everyone keeps calling Monique 'Mo'. Ashlyn grins. Then she grimaces. "I'm sorry, I talked."

Ricky raises his hand again. "Krystal, I'd like to use an emergency question. If we theoretically had an audition here for our school musical in an hour..."

"Then theoretically, the director will laugh that you think a school musical is more important than her film." Krystal cut in.

Ricky nods. "Right, but..."

"We're honored to be here, Krystal." Gina smiled.

"So, here we go. A five, six, seven, eight." Krystal counts down and shows the group he moves. "Step, step, jump, clap, kick, cross, again, step, step, jump, clap, kick, cross. That connects with left grapevine and a back turn and hip." She faces the group. "Now, I know I taught that fast..."

Gina interrupts her with counting down. "And a five, six, seven, eight." She listed off the moves Krystal just did and the whole group did the moves perfectly.

Krystal stares at them in surprise. "Um, okay. Where did you guys come from?"

With a smile, Ricky raises his hand. "Miss Jenn's drama class."

The back door opens, revealing Quinn, the director. "If I may, I'm Quinn Robbins. I'm the director of this film. Some of you may know me from my Sundance runner-up movie about the global recession of 2007 entitled 'Where Has All The Money Gone?'."

Ashlyn claps with a smile, looking in awe. "Wonderful film."

Quinn smiles. "Thank you. To the featured background boy who just spoke," She looks at Ricky. "I don't know what a 'Miss Jenn' is, but I do know what a Miss Darbus is because I spent all of last night in Salt Lake City cooperate housing drinking thirteen dollars water bottles and watching the 'High School Musical' trilogy."

"Have you not seen them before?" Emmy asked.

"I wanted to be fresh when pitching the 'High School Musical 4' movie," Quinn admits. "So no, I hadn't technically 'seen' the original films." Ophelia was surprised to hear this. She figured a director of this movie would have seen the originals way before filming this movie.

"So she hadn't seen them?" Carlos questioned quietly, looking confused. 

"Quinn, these kids are unbelievably quick. I'm gonna be done teaching them the combination in, like, five minutes." Krystal commented.

"Okay, great. Well, let's just see if we can get Mack and Dani on set early." Quinn suggests. "Where are the PAs? Do we have enough PAs?" Quinn called out, looking around the auditorium.

"Hey, um, I'm actually here early." Mack admits, walking on stage. He notices Ophelia and smiled. When they locked eyes, he waves at her. "Hey."

"Hi." Ophelia smiled.

"You weren't called for two more hours." Krystal reminded him.

"Yeah, but whenever I'm first on the call sheet, I always like to hang out on set, just in case somebody needs me." Mack explains. "A pretty famous actor taught me that. It was Neil Patrick Harris."

"Wow!" The group gasped, staring at him in awe or with an impressed look.

"This guy." Ricky muttered and rolled his eyes. 

"Hey," Ophelia leans over to nudge him. "Be nice." She whispered.

"Mack, feel free to hang on the side." Krystal offers. "I'm gonna finish teaching the featured background this choreography, then we'll add you and Dani." With a thumbs up, Mack walked to sit in the audience.

"FYI," Kourtney chimes in. "It might be a minute. Dani just posted that her cooperate apartment doesn't have steam showers. Horrific, I know. SO she asked her followers to help pick which hotel to stay at."

"Dani's lucky she's being housed. When I shot 'Where Has All The Money Gone?' I spent eighteen days on a friend's couch in Bushwick." Quinn explains. "The couch got bed bugs. It caused a breakout on set. That was a movie." 

"Miss Quinn, did your movie win any Oscars?" Emmy raised her hand, looking at Quinn curiously.

Quinn is silent, staring at her with a blank expression. She then went over to Krystal, whispering to her to remove Emmy and how she said she didn't deserve this. She then left the stage. "I'm sorry my dear, but you've been let go from the project." Krystal spoke up, walking over to Emmy.

Everyone gasps, eyes widening and they look over at Emmy worriedly. "What?" Emmy's eyes widened.

"If it makes you feel any better, Quinn is famous for firing at least one actor per week on her films." Krystal told her.

Emmy scoffs. "Thank you, but it does not make me feel better." She backed up, tears in her eyes as she turned around to leave.

"We've still got the school musical, Emmy." Ricky speaks up, trying to cheer her up. "Turn that frown upside down." 

"Tell my story." Emmy told her friends and they all watched sadly as she left.

****

Ophelia and the others now had a break and were waiting for Dani to show up as Mack practiced his dance with Dani with Krystal. "Hey, Lia." Ricky smiled at Ophelia, intertwining his hand with hers.

"Hi, babe." Ophelia smiles at him, squeezing his hand. "It's unbelievable they fired Emmy." She frowns. "I feel bad for her."

"Yeah, me too." Ricky admits. "Hollywood is unfair and devastating. It's the only explanation."

"I still can't believe we'll be extras on a movie." Ophelia chuckled.

"Yeah, and I'm so proud of you for how far you've come." Ricky told her and kissed her cheek, earning a smile from her.

"Today's been quite exciting, hasn't it?" Ophelia smiled at him.

"Sure has. It's kinda like that one episode of Mark and Spark where Spark and his girlfriend, Lark, both win at the country fair dog show." Ricky commented.

Ophelia's raises her eyebrows. "Ricky Bowen, did you watch the show finally?" She asked in surprise, but her smile widened.

"There's a chance I fell down a rabbit hole and hate-watched all of season one last night. Plus significant episodes of seasons two through six." Ricky confesses. "It was awful." 

"Come on, you gotta admit the theme song is catchy." Ophelia grins and she sings part of the theme song. "Let's go for a W-A-L-K. I'll wait the whole dog day." She then clapped twice like in the song.

Ricky laughs, smiling at her. "Oh, gosh, you remembered the theme song. Red flag." He teased and she giggled.

Then suddenly they heard rustling behind them. They turn around, noticing Miss Jenn peeking out from a prop back stage, but she had a wig and glasses on. They shared a look of confusion before they walked over to Miss Jenn, followed by Kourtney.

"Hey, it's me, Miss Jenn." Miss Jenn smiled, pulling her fake glasses down to reveal more of her before pushing them back up her nose. 

"That's crazy." Ricky said, pretending to sound shocked that it was her.

"What are you doing?" Ophelia raised her eyebrows, staring at her in confusion. She didn't know why their drama teacher was pretending to be a student. 

"Miss Jenn, are you okay?" Kourtney asked in concern. 

"Quinn stole the auditorium from us as you can see. So I wanted to spread the word that we're doing auditions in the rehearsal room now." Miss Jenn explains. "So, come quick."

"For sure." Ricky nods. "Looks like the rehearsal's running a little longer than we thought it would."

"What?" Miss Jenn's eyes widened.

"Like, all afternoon." Ricky adds, earning a gasp from Miss Jenn. "Don't worry, I think I can sneak everyone out one at a time without the director even knowing."

"Well, we need all the bodies we can get. We're barely filling out the cast as it is." Miss Jenn said worriedly. "Apparently most of the school signed up to be extras in the movie."

"About that..." Kourtney grimaced. 

Miss Jenn faces her and gasps. "Kourtney, don't tell me you're second guessing the musical."

"Wait, really?" Ophelia's eyes widen, staring at Kourtney in surprise.

"I might be too busy." Kourtney defends herself. "I'm applying to all the Ivys, my laptop might explode." She chuckles, but she looks worried. "It's a lot, y'all." Ophelia sent her an encouraging smile, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder and squeezed it. Kourtney looked at her with a small smile.

"Come on, Kourt, it's senior year." Ricky tries to convince Kourtney. Kourtney didn't say anything as she looked away, but she looked hesitant. He looks at Miss Jenn. "See you in the rehearsal room?"

"Sadly, yes." Miss Jenn nods. "Hollywood is unfair and devastating."

"See, I keep saying that." Ricky spoke.

Ophelia, Ricky, and Kourtney went to talk to their friends about the news. "Excuse me, feature background number 8?" Krystal called out, looking at Ophelia.

Ophelia looks around in confusion, making sure she was actually talking to her. "Me?" She pointed at herself.

"Yeah, you, can you stand in for Dani for a moment?" Krystal asked.

"I would love to." Ophelia admitted, smiling and she walked on stage, sharing a smile with Mack. 

Meanwhile, Ricky backed up, whispering to Carlos to head to the rehearsal room for auditions. As Carlos rushes to the bomb shelter where the rehearsal room was, Krystal guided Ophelia and Mack into the positions for the dance that was supposed to be for Mack and Dani. When Carlos was done, Ricky gave Ashlyn the signal and she quickly went to the rehearsal room to audition. After Ashlyn was done, Kourtney then went to the rehearsal room. Meanwhile, Ophelia and Mack continued to do the dance that Krystal was teaching them. Luca and then Gina went after Kourtney auditioned.

Ophelia and Mack had just got done getting the dance right when Emmy was auditioning. Ricky had auditioned for the musical right before Emmy. "Sorry, I just gotta go somewhere real quick." Ophelia apologized and then ran out of the auditorium.

After her audition, Miss Jenn gave her a smile and a thumbs up before Ophelia smiled and ran back to the auditorium. She and Mack ran through the dance one more time to make sure they got it. The others danced as background dancers as well while they danced this time. Unknowingly to the group, Quinn and Dani had walked into the auditorium on stage. 

At the end of the dance, Ophelia and Mack were quite close. His arm was around her waist, his other hand on her leg that was pulled up, one of her arms were around his neck and the other and on his chest as they stared at each other. "Hi." Ophelia said shyly, blushing slightly. They were both panting and trying to catch their breath from the dancing. She could feel his heart beating fast just like hers. Their noses were almost touching. "Hi." He breathed out with a smile. "You were amazing." 

Ophelia's blush deepens and she smiles. "Thank you. You were great, too." He smiled back at her in response.

Ricky didn't like this. He could feel the jealousy rise. He wanted to be the one dancing with her like that. Not Mack. He couldn't help but imagine how that would be if that were him and Ophelia instead. He clenched his jaw and his hands tightened into a fist. Then suddenly he heard clapping, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Yes, featured background dancers, great job. You are released." Krystal smiled as se clapped. "Mack and Ophelia, stand by." Ricky and the others went back stage, but Dani stopped Ricky.

"Ricky, right?" Dani asks. "Whos that girl dancing with my boyfriend?"

"Ophelia, she's my girlfriend." Ricky replied and Dani raised her eyebrows, looking intrigued. He then pretended that Ashlyn called for him just so he could get away from this awkward moment. 

"Hi, there." Quinn greeted Ophelia, stopping her from walking over to her boyfriend and friends.

Ophelia is surprised and confused as she looked around, making sure she was talking to her. "Um, hi?"

"The next time my leading lady is late for dance rehearsal, do me a favor and try not to take her place. Hollywood 101." Quinn informed her. 

Ophelia's eyes widen, staring at her in surprise. She didn't mean on doing that at all. She just did as she was told by Krystal. "Oh, no. I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to." She tried to say, but Quinn was already talking to Krystal.

Mack walks over to her, glancing at her in concern. "Hey, are you okay?" He asked. 

Ophelia looks over at him and gives him a small, nervous smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. That was...quite intense." She admits. "But thank you for asking. I didn't mean to take anyone's spot."

Mack nods in understanding. "I know. You were told to fill in for Dani, it's not your fault." He reassures her.

"Thanks." Ophelia smiled at him.

Dani then walks over at them, smiling but Ophelia could tell it was fake. "Baby, can I talk to you privately?" She asked Mack, holding onto his hand. 

"Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah, sure." Mack agreed and the two walked off.

****

(ophelia's outfit for the rest of the chapter)

Later that night, Ricky told Ophelia to get dressed up and that he would pick her up at her house to take her out on a surprise date. Ophelia had no idea where they were going and she was very curious. When they got in the car, Ricky put the blindfold on her. She was sitting in the passenger seat, waiting in anticipation for whatever he had planned.

Soon they stopped at the destination, he helped her out of the car and he guided her over to the building they were going. "Where are we going?" She giggled, letting him guide her. 

"You'll see." Ricky replies with a chuckle. Soon after a few moments she felt his lips kiss her cheek. "We're here." Ricky smiled. He removed the blindfold and she opened her eyes. Her mouth dropped open, her eyes widened and she looked over at him. 

They were at an animal rescue center and they were in the front area with pens and golden retriever pups were running around and playing. "Oh my gosh." She gushes, eyes widening. "Okay, I'm gonna die from a cuteness overload." She jokes, turning her head to look at him and he laughs. "This is incredible, babe." She gushed, taking his hand and squeezed it. 

He grins, squeezing her hand back. "I'm glad you like it. I felt a little bad for making fun of Mark and Spark earlier, and I'm sorry about making fun of it..."

"It's okay." She reassures him. "It's a really cheesy show so I understand-"

"Well, it's important to you so it's important to me." He smiled reassuringly, watching in amusement as she went to pick up a puppy. 

"Oh, why did you let me pick one up? I'm not gonna wanna let it go." She cooed as she pet the puppy she held.

He chuckles, watching her play with the puppies and smiles at her. "You're adorable, you know that?" He commented.

She grins at him. "So are you." She said as she set the puppy down and stood up, walking over to him.

He wraps an arm around her, kissing her forehead. "Okay, honestly there's, like, point five percent of me that's a bit threatened by Mack and so I'm overcompensating." Ricky admitted.

"You have nothing to worry about that." Ophelia she said softly. "He was my crush. I love you and always will." She smiled softly.

"Copy that." He grins. "As they say in Hollywood. I love you too. And as they say in musicals 'sit down and let me sing you a song'."

"Ricky." Ophelia laughs. "No."

"Ricky yes." He grins.

Ophelia laughed, shaking her head, holding the puppy in her lap. "This is the Mark and Spark theme song, Ricky Version." Ophelia's eyes widen and she smiled widely at him as he started playing his guitar.

"Let's go for a W-A-L-K. I'll wait the whole dog day 'cause you're the only one I wanna chase this spark is here to stay. I'm scruffy and eager, an overachiever. But, hey, you rescued a golden retriever." Ricky sang and Ophelia mouthed the lyrics along with him, giggling as she did and he grinned at her. "Just call my name and I'll come runnin'. Jump for joy when you get home. Life gets rough, but here's my promise. You'll walk alone. I might not be trained, might drive you insane, but there's no one more loyal or true. Yeah, puppy's love the love I got for you." He smiled at her as he sang. "Puppy's love the love I got for you. Puppy's love the love I got for you."

She couldn't stop smiling at him. He made her so happy. When he was done with the song, she set the puppy down and leans over to kiss him. "I love you." She smiled and kissed him again.

"I love you, too." He grinned wrapping his arms around her and kissing her back.

Then Ricky's phone buzzes with a notification, causing them to pull apart from each other. He got his phone out, eyes widening. "There's an emergency cast meeting to announce the HSM3 cast list."

"And it's at Gina's house." Ophelia noticed.

****

"Everyone sit, everyone breathe." Carlos instructed as everyone all sit down in Gina's room. "Today was big. We rehearsed for a Hollywood movie." Everyone cheered excitedly. "But in my humble opinion, the following is even bigger."

"Are we too late?" Ricky asked as he and Ophelia rushed up the stairs to Gina's room in the attic.

"For Ricky Bowen, you're right on time." Carlos chuckled. "Ophelia, though, that's new."

"We were on a date," Ophelia explained with a sheepish look. "Sorry."

"Okay," Carlos smiled. "You're forgiven. Sharpay will be played by Kourtney Greene." Kourtney squeals excitedly and everyone cheers for her. "Ryan will be played by moi." He grinned and everyone cheered for him.

"Dream team!" Kourtney cheered, pointing at him.

"Kelsi will be played by Ashlyn Moon Caswell." Carlos dramatically said, pointing at Ashlyn who smiled widely and everyone cheered for her. "Taylor will be played by the famous, controversial Hollywood exile, known only as Emmy." Emmy squealed excitedly as everyone cheered for her. "Here we go, Troy will be played by, not shockingly, featured extra number two, aka Richard Bowen."

"Ooh, let's go, seniors! Yes!" Ricky cheered and Ophelia laughed at his enthusiasm, smiling as he stood and raised his hands before he sat by her again.

"And now the moment we've all been waiting for." Carlos continues. "Gabriella."

"It better be me." Ophelia mumbles to herself, biting her lower lip nervously. "Carlos, is it me? Stop leaving me hanging." She whined.

"Let me have my moment." Carlos tells her, wanting to have a dramatic moment. "It's you." Ophelia grinned and squealed excitedly along with the others cheering.

"I knew we were gonna be Troy and Gabriella." Ricky grinned at Ophelia and kissed her cheek, earning a wide smile from her.

"Martha is Gina." Carlos smiled and Gina smiled excitedly as the others cheered for her and everyone chuckled as she did the pop and lock thing Martha did. "I am personally lobbying for Miss Jenn to play Miss Darbus." Carlos admitted. 

"Wait, what about Chad?" Gina asked

"Right, my boyfriend?" Emmy stood immediately, looking worried.

Carlos glances at the cast list. "Chad is not cast yet." Emmy's eyes widened in surprise.

"I'm sorry, how do we not have enough people to fill out an HSM3 Cast?" Gina questioned in surprise.

"It appears the movie sucked up all other potential drama kids." Carlos shrugs. "They're getting a hundred bucks a week, plus all the kettle corn they can eat. We can't compete with that."

"You guys," Kourtney chimes in, staring at her phone. "Dani just posted something really cryptic on Instagram." Carlos,  Emmy, and Ashlyn gather around her to read it. "It reads, 'Hollywood is brutal. Stay grounded out there, babes.'" She gasps. "Mack commented. 'S**t messed up.' Ooh, what kind of tea they got going on there?"

As the others gathered around Kourtney to look at the post, Ricky elbows Ophelia with a grin. "Troy and Gabriella."

"I'm still pinching myself." Ophelia grinned and Ricky laughed. Then suddenly Ophelia's phone started ringing. She got her phone out, confused at the number. 

"Uh, guys," She speaks up, gaining everyone's attention. "Anyone familiar with the area code 310?"

"310..." Carlos' voice trails off as he thought, then his eyes widened in shock. "That's Hollywood, baby."

"Hold on, Hollywood is calling me?" Ophelia gasps. "How did they even get my number?"

"Anything can happen in Hollywood, I guess." Luca shrugged.

Everyone gathers around Ophelia in anticipation. "Look, if you're fired from the movie, you're still Gabriella." Ricky reassured Ophelia. Ophelia nodded and she took a deep breath, smiling a little as Ricky intertwined their hands together and squeezed her hand to comfort her.

Ophelia then presses the answer button, putting it on speaker. "Hi." She greeted, sounding a bit nervous and confused.

"Ophelia Roberts." Quinn's voice is heard on the other line. "Hi. It's Quinn the director. Sundance runner-up for 'Where Has All The Money Gone?'"

"Yes, of course, I remember." Ophelia quickly said. "I'm so sorry if I ruined anything earlier today. I only filled in because Krystal told me to while Dani was gone..."

"Listen, that is the exact thing I need." Quinn admits. "I spoke to your drama teacher today and she said that you have the range, talent, and ambition to really make a mark. And not just in the background."

Ophelia's eyes widen as she registered this. "Wait...are you saying...?"

"Ophelia Roberts, how would you like to replace Dani in High School Musical 4?" Quinn offered.

A/N rickelia are so adorable omg