(the picture above is what ophelia is wearing for this chapter)

For the first day back to school from winter break Ophelia decided to straighten her hair (which took a lot longer than she liked it to) and pulled her hair back into a bun. She wore a black long sleeve shirt, light blue jeans with different designs on them, and black converse. She also wore a long necklace and a shorter necklace. She wasn't really for sure what she was expecting to happen when she got to rehearsals after the winter break was over, but she definitely wasn't expecting the auditorium to be a mess and firefighters everywhere. She stands between Luca and Fallon, staring at the ruined auditorium with wide eyes. "I can't believe this happened."

"Me neither." Fallon agrees. Her lips forms into a frown. "It's just awful. I mean, what are we gonna do now that we have no stage?"

"What happened?" Nini questioned. 

"It's okay." Miss Jenn assures the group, walking over to stand in front of them. "Nobody was hurt. There was a small fire in the theater over the holiday and the sprinklers did their job."

A female firefighter walks over, holding a burnt basketball. "We're almost done in here, just have to finish up in the faculty room next. Some circuits blew in there over the break."

Sad expressions forms on the teen's faces at what the female firefighter says next. "Unfortunately, the show cannot go on."

Miss Jenn looks at her with shock. "What?"

"Fire ripped through half of your costumes and the sprinklers ruined a bunch of your sets." The female firefighter explains. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to red tag the entire backstage area for a month at least." She handed the burnt basketball to Miss Jenn before walking away.

Kourtney frowns. "Did she just say costumes?"

"Okay. Okay, listen up." Miss Jenn turns to face the teens. "Hug your neighbor, take a moment," Ophelia and Fallon wrap their arms around each other, Ophelia even wrapped her arm around Luca who had been quiet this whole time and was now currently on his phone, texting someone. "And let's reconvene in the cafeteria after school to talk about options."

Luca was texting Gina. He already texted her three times and she didn't respond to any of them which was making him worry. Not only was he worried about her he was worried if she was mad at him.

"Nini and Ricky, spread the word." Miss Jenn said and they both nodded in response.

****

Ophelia stood in the cafeteria with the rest of the drama club, standing beside Fallon and Luca by one of the tables. "Okay, guys." Miss Jenn claps, getting everyone's attention since they were having a conversation amongst themselves. "Wait, where's Gina?"

"I think she's going through a family thing right now." Ashlyn responded, sitting on top of one of the tables while everyone took a seat somewhere.

"Okay." Miss Jenn nods. "Prayers to our Gina."

Everyone either stands, takes a seat on the floor or at the tables. Ophelia takes a seat on the floor, next to where Ricky was sitting at a nearby table. They exchanged a glance, sharing a small smile with each other before looking away. Ophelia could tell that Ricky was nervous about what was going to happen now by the way his knee kept bouncing up and down. She didn't blame him because she was nervous as well. Fallon stood beside EJ, leaning against the table that EJ sat on, and Luca sat on the floor beside Ophelia.

"I'm not really for sure what to say." Miss Jenn continues. "You've all worked so hard. I've seen you all grow so much. But if we don't have a theater, we don't have a show."

Everyone looked at her with shock and began to chatter amongst themselves about how they didn't want that to happen. A frown was on Ophelia's lips and she glances to her left when she felt a squeeze on her shoulder. It was Luca who did that and he looked at her with a sad smile, equally as sad as she was about this, but he felt like he should comfort her. 

"Come on, Miss Jenn," Carlos urges. "We've gotta do something."

"I think we...I don't know, I guess we could consider other venues?"

Hearing Miss Jenn say that everyone started talking about the different venues they could put the show at. "Oh, oh, what about the old Kingston downtown?" Ashlyn inquired.

"It's condemned."

"The Lucky Ducky Puppet Pavilion?" EJ asked.

"It's a massive Starbucks now."

Carlos smiles. "How about the El Ray?"

Ophelia smiles, pointing at him in a sign of agreement as everyone else did the same. Miss Jenn didn't seem to be on board with this idea. "Any other ideas?"

Carlos looks at her with furrowed eyebrows. "Miss Jenn, I feel like you just had a really weird reaction to what I just said."

"Sorry," Miss Jenn apologizes. "What did you say?"

Nini explains to her. "Carlos is asking if we can try and use the El Ray theater."

Carlos stands up. "My Uncle Ruben is the listing agent, and the last thing they had in there was a fashion show, like, four years ago."

Seb pulls up a picture of the El Ray theater as Carlos went to call his uncle. "Woah. This place has five hundred seats."

Upon hearing that everyone gathered around him to see the picture. The place was perfect to put on a musical.

Miss Jenn counters, "I can't imagine we'd be able to get in on short notice."

Carlos spoke to his uncle in Spanish. Ophelia didn't understand any of it beside the multiple Si's she heard which made her smile. "That sounded like a yes to me!" Ashlyn excitedly said and everyone cheered.

Miss Jenn looks at them all with a nervous smile. "The El Ray theater is it!" Everyone cheered louder and high fived each other.

****

"I thought this place would be a lot nicer." Luca commented, shining his flashlight around the dark place as they each continued to navigate there way through the theater. It was dark, old, and creepy. 

"Same here." Fallon agrees, looking at the place. "This place is kinda creepy."

"Yes, it is." Ophelia nods in agreement, instinctively moving closer to be by Ricky since she was kind of scared. "I'm not liking this at all." Ricky noticed she moved closer to him, now she was standing right beside him, and he couldn't help the small smile that tugged on his lips. 

"Right this way! Follow me!" Miss Jenn smiles, leading the group to the stage. She inhales. "Ah! Smell that smell, the theater. Mold, it's a sign of life." The drama club members get to the stage finally.

"Everyone, watch your step." Miss Jenn tells them. "And let me know if you haven't had a tetanus shot recently, okay?"

"Okay, hearing that doesn't help me calm down at all." Fallon mumbled.

Ophelia chuckled lightly, shining her light all over the stage. The stage was dark, but the multiple flashlights helped brighten up the place, revealing the many statues and props that were on stage. Everyone seemed to grow more happy upon realizing that this theater might actually be a great place to put on their show.

Fallon raised her eyebrows upon noticing EJ sneaking off to the hallway, holding a red tool box. She remembered that's the tool box Carlos was talking to him about in the hallway earlier, saying it was Miss Jenn's show file. What was he up to? Being her curious self she started to go in the direction EJ went.

"Lonnie," Luca calls out to her, shinning his flashlight at her as he notices her leaving. "What are you doing?"

"Gonna go check on EJ." Fallon replied, walking out to the hallway before her friends could tease her about checking up on the boy she likes.

Fallon got to the hallway EJ was at, seeing he was sitting at the bottom of the steps. She wasn't for sure where the steps led to, she assumed maybe the attic. "EJ," EJ had already put the notes of him back in the tool box and closed it by the time Fallon got there, but he was still startled by her sudden appearance. He jumps slightly, looking at her with wide eyes. Fallon raises her eyebrows at him. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, I just needed a break from everyone." EJ stands up, holding on the red tool box. He heads over to the door that led to the stage with a heavy sigh. "And found out apparently I have no emotions."

Fallon furrows her eyebrows, looking at him with a confused expression. She didn't know what to say to that and when she did he had already left. "Wait, what?" Fallon shook her head, wondering what EJ meant by that and went back to the stage. 

She stands beside Ophelia and Luca, noticing EJ standing off to the side and saw he put the red tool box away where Miss Jenn had it before. The sad expression on his face made her frown though. What did Miss Jenn write about him that made him so upset?

"Okay!" Miss Jenn exclaims. "Let's have some real talk." She moves to stand in front of everyone. "Welcome to tech rehearsal. I don't know if you've noticed, but most of the tech in this particular theater appears to be hand-cranked. Natalie Bagley, my dear, my stage manager, this is your chance to be the hero."

Ophelia glanced around the stage, realizing that Natalie wasn't there. "Natalie Bagley's getting her wisdom teeth out."

"Okay." Miss Jenn nods. "Okay, so, I'm down a stage manager, my 'Taylor's' MIA."

"I'm sure Gina is okay." Luca speaks up and everyone looks at him. He smiles the best smile he could muster up since he was still worried about Gina. "And she'll make it back for opening night."

"Wait," Fallon looks at her, tilting her head to the side. "Did Gina get back to you?"

Luca sighs. "No." He looks at her and Ophelia with a hopeful expression. "How about you two?"

Ophelia and Fallon had sent a couple of texts to check in on Gina, but she didn't reply to any of them. The two girls shook their heads in response with sad expressions on their faces which made him frown.

Suddenly a sandbag fell from the ceiling. Everyone screamed, backing away. Ophelia and Fallon had grabbed onto each other out of fear, both staring at the sandbag with wide eyes.

"Totally normal." Miss Jenn assures the group. "Just, heads-up, from now on." Ophelia and Fallon let go of each other, beginning to calm down. "Alrighty," Miss Jenn looks at Big Red and Ophelia. "Big Red, Ophelia, do either of you know how to hang a light?"

Big Red looks at her with confusion. "I know how to hang out?" Some laughter filled the air after his response.

Miss Jenn slowly nods and fakes a smile. "Cool."

Ophelia chuckles and shrugs. "I don't know how to hang a light, but I could learn if I need to."

"Thank you, Ophelia." Miss Jenn sent her a genuine smile. "I'll let you know if we'll need someone to hang a light." She glances at Carlos. "Carlos, let's set marks to light 'Status Quo'." She looks at Nini and Ricky. "Troy and Gabriella, find somewhere quiet and run the rooftop scene."

Nini and Ricky went off to find somewhere quiet to practice the scene as everyone else cleared the stage. Ophelia had brought her camera in case she decided to take some pictures of them rehearsing at the El Ray. The drama club page was looking quite nice and already had a few pictures on it. Some extra pictures never hurt so she took a couple of pictures of the group when everyone was clearing off the stage.

She went over to backstage where some technical equipment that would be used for the show is at. Miss Jenn was right. Everything was hand-cranked which was odd. She wasn't used to having to deal with hand-cranked stuff like this. Honestly, the whole theater was outdated.

Ophelia bit her lower lip as she looked at each of the options. She wished they had a label on them so she could tell what they were all for.

"Have you found the one that works the light?" Big Red asked, walking over to her. 

He and Ophelia we're in charge of the technical equipment for the show. Even though Ophelia knew more about this kind of stuff with being in yearbook club she was confused at how to work stuff like this.

"Nope." Ophelia sighs. "Why does this have to be so complicated?"

Big Red shakes his head. "No idea."

Ashlyn walks over to them. "Do you two need any help?"

"I think we'll figure it out." Big Red responds, glancing at the hand-cranked levers that were used for different things. "I just don't know how to make things light up."

Ashlyn smiles at him. "You walk into a room."

Big Red looks at her with a bit of confusion at first and then a big smile tugs on his lips. "Oh..."

Ophelia smiles at the two, quietly saying 'awe'. "Seriously, though, I've been through a few tech rehearsals in my day." Ashlyn glances at Ophelia and then back at Big Red. "You guys just holler if you need me."

Big Red nods, the big smile still on his lips. "Thanks, Ash."

Ashlyn puts a hand on his shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. "You got this." The two stare at each other longer than they probably should. Ophelia watched the two with a knowing smile. Ashlyn quickly breaks away her gaze from Big Red, gesturing with a nod of her head to Ophelia as she looks at the girl with a smile. "Besides, you got Ophelia to help you. She's a genius at this kind of stuff."

Ophelia shares a smile with Ashlyn before the red-haired girl walked away. Big Red glances to his right where Ophelia stood when he felt someone looking at him. He raises his eyebrows upon seeing she was grinning at him. "What?"

Ophelia points at him. "You so like her!"

Big Red scoffs, glancing at the floor to avoid her gaze. "No, I don't." Ophelia continues to grin at him, noticing that he was blushing, but she didn't say anything about it. "Let's...Let's just try to figure this out." Big Red said, looking at the levers in front of them. Ophelia nodded and looked at the levers as well. Big Red pulled down the one that's in front of him and the two teens looked around with confusion when nothing happened.

"Maybe that doesn't do anything?" Ophelia commented but it sounded more like a question.

"Okay, we just need to nail down our lighting and our sound, and ta-da we got a show." Miss Jenn said to everyone with a smile. "I need some bodies for the rooftop scene."

"I can do Troy." EJ offers. He shakes his head, mumbling what he says next, "Or at least some people do."

Miss Jenn nods, gesturing for him to get on stage. "Fine." She looks at everyone sitting in the rows, her eyes landing on Fallon who was reading the script. "Fallon," The said girl continues to read the script, not paying attention to Miss Jenn.  Miss Jenn sent her a smile. "Can you stand in for Gabriella?"

Fallon's eyes widen. She looks at Luca beside her with a panicked expression which made him chuckle. She looks back at Miss Jenn still having a panicked expression on her face. "But I-I'm playing Kelsi."

"I know, dear," Miss Jenn chuckles. "But Nini is practicing lines with Ricky right now and we need someone to do it. Being Kelsi you don't really have a lot of time to shine and so I thought this could help you shine more." Fallon smiles a bit at hearing what Miss Jenn says despite the fact her nerves are growing more upon realizing filling in for Nini meant that all eyes would be on her. "You're very talented and I'm sure you already know Gabriella's lines."

Fallon isn't sure why Miss Jenn picked her to fill in for Nini at the moment out of everyone else there and the fact that EJ is filling in for Ricky made her even more nervous. She doesn't have stage fright, but she sometimes got nervous when she had to speak in front of a lot of people, knowing that they were watching her every move.

Although what Miss Jenn said is true. She does know Gabriella's lines. She doesn't have many lines since she's Kelsi and she's not in many scenes which meant she had a lot of time on her hands during rehearsals. So when she wasn't being a dancer in a scene she often read over the script, just in case something like this situation happened and Miss Jenn needed someone to fill in for someone who was busy.

"She does." Luca spoke for her when she saw her staring forward with the same panicked look on her face she had when Miss Jenn asked her to fill in for Nini.

"Great!" Miss Jenn smiled and gestured for Fallon to get on the stage.

Fallon stands up, sending a glare to Luca for making her to do this. Luca just smiled at her and sent her two thumbs up. Fallon took a deep breath, walking up the steps onto the stage and walked over to stand in front of EJ.

Miss Jenn turns to Big Red and Ophelia who were still figuring out the lights. "Do we have a working lightboard? Do we have a working light switch?"

"Found it!" Big Red exclaimed, reaching toward the third lever. 

A confused look forms on Ophelia's face and she shakes her head. "Wait, I don't think that's-" She stopped herself in the middle of the sentence when Big Red pulled down the third lever and a blue-purpleish light was shined down on the stage.

Fallon glances over her right shoulder to look at Big Red and Ophelia, but something else caught her eye. She screamed when she saw the mannequins in the corner of the right side of the stage. EJ screamed as well, noticing the mannequins as he looked in that direction. Everyone else either screamed or gasped upon noticing the mannequins, no one remembered seeing those mannequins on stage when they got there.

"Sorry, everyone." Carlos apologizes. "My Uncle Ruben said there was gonna be some leftover stuff from the fashion show." He glances at the mannequins with furrowed eyebrows. The mannequins had bright neon clothes on. "I guess, the theme was '80s rave'?"

"In a nuclear reactor?" Ashlyn inquired. She laughed a bit along with some others.

"You guys," Miss Jenn turns to Big Red and Ophelia. "Do we have anything more flattering."

Nodding, Ophelia looks back at the levers as Big Red pulls up the lever to turn off the blue-purpleish light. "I think this is the normal light." She pulls down on the lever in front of her, smiling proudly when the normal light shined down on the stage. She glances at Big Red. "Maybe we should, like, put labels on these levers so we know for sure what they are."

Big Red smiles and nods in agreement. "Great idea."

"Okay." Miss Jenn turns to EJ and Fallon. "Troy, basketball stuff," She walks over to where her table was set up at the front of the stage. "Gabriella, math stuff, nobody doesn't cry," EJ and Fallon flip to the correct page in their scripts while Miss Jenn sits down at the table. "And we end up here on second stage."

She points at Fallon. "Gabriella, give us your cue."

After taking a deep breath and getting into character, Fallon takes a glance at the line she has to say before looking at EJ. "'Remember in kindergarten, you'd meet a kid, know nothing about them, then ten seconds later you're best friends?'"

EJ nods. "'Yeah'."

"'Singing with you felt like that'." Fallon spoke her next line, not having to glance at her script yet since she remembered most of it. The rooftop scene was what she was reading earlier. She tried not to break character as she noticed EJ was getting teary eyes which made her confused.

"'Look, I never thought about singing, that's for sure.'" EJ shakes his head and his eyes were teary. Fallon looks at him with confusion. Why was he using so much emotion for a simple scene? "'Until you. And now, I don't wanna stop. Ever.'"

Fallon glances over at Ophelia with confusion, not really for sure what to do next. Ophelia was watching the two with an amused expression and she shrugged when she locked eyes with Fallon, holding back laughter.

"That's excellent and a little weird." Miss Jenn comments. She glances at Big Red and Ophelia. "Big Red, Ophelia, can we hit these guys with a spotlight?"

"Got it!" Ophelia replied, starting to look for the lever that might be the one to turn on the spotlight.

"Okay, EJ, what's going on?" Fallon questions, looking back at EJ with furrowed eyebrows. "Why are you acting weird?"

EJ looks at her with a smile. "Oh, I'm just emoting, Fallon. Feel free to join me."

"Yeah, that didn't answer my question at all." Fallon remarks. She looks at him weirdly, shaking her head. "It only made you more weirder."

"Okay, kids, let's not wait for the lights." Miss Jenn speaks to EJ and Fallon. "Just stand on your marks and gimme your cue again?"

The two teens nod and turns to face each other. Fallon couldn't help but look at him weirdly when he starts to cry. It was obviously fake which only made her even more confused as to why he was pretending to cry. "'I never thought about singing, that's for sure. Until you.'" Some giggling fills the air as the boy in front of Fallon continued to fake cry. "'And now, I don't wanna stop.'"

Fallon raises her eyebrows, leaning her head back slightly when he leaned towards her and put his hand on the side of her neck. "'Ever.'" She mentally scolded herself when she felt butterflies at his touch. This was not the time for that.

"EJ?" Miss Jenn calls out. EJ and Fallon look at her and EJ takes his hand off of Fallon, going over to Miss Jenn when she gestures for him to go over to her.

"Yeah?" EJ asked her, wiping the tears from his eyes.

Fallon's eyes widen in realization. EJ did look through Miss Jenn's files about why he got the role he has. "I knew it." She mumbled, quickly moving backwards as a small scream left her lips when a nearby latter fell down near her. She wasn't the only one who screamed or jumped because of the sudden latter falling down. Miss Jenn had screamed as well.

"Big Red, Ophelia, did you do that?" Miss Jenn inquired, glancing around the theater.

"No." Big Red replied from behind her.

Miss Jenn turned around, screaming again upon seeing him standing there. She wasn't expecting him to be standing there.

A/N this was a fun chapter to write! loving all my ocs & their cute moments with their love interests :)