𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐘 ― r. bowen ¹ ✓

008

"Come on, guys, we're blocking this as a love story, not a SARS epidemic," Miss Jenn announced.

Carlos pointed to a chair on the platform. "I think that chair was over there."

"Oh, I can move it over in the scene," Nini stated, walking over to the chair and picking it up.

"Feels awkward," Miss Jenn commented.

"No, it's light," Nini insisted. "I can lift it above my head and walk."

"Sweetie, no one is walking with furniture on their head. This isn't The Lion King." Miss Jenn looked down at Big Red. "Strike the chair, please."

"With what?" Big Red inquired.

"Take it away. Remove it." Big Red got up to move the chair, and Miss Jenn kept on instructing. "Troy, once the intro begins, cross downstage and plant yourself at the piano. Which should be further downstage, okay?"

Big Red walked over to the piano. Athena gave him a small smile and a wave, but he began pushing it the wrong way.

"No, dear, that would be upstage," Miss Jenn corrected. Big Red sighed before walking to the other side of the piano. "Okay, Gabriella, you slowly approach the piano and rest an arm on it, naturally." She pointed to Big Red. "Can we make sure her bookbag is off stage right?"

Big Red nodded. "Sure, um . . ." He looked over to Athena. "A, which way is that?"

She pointed to the other side of the stage. "That way, Red."

He picked up Nini's backpack and moved it where Miss Jenn instructed him to. Once everything was in its correct place, it was time for the scene to begin.

"Okey-dokey," Miss Jenn began. "Take it from, Wow! Now that's really nice."

"Wow, now that's really nice," EJ repeated as Troy.

"Hmm," Nini hummed in response as Gabriella.

Miss Jenn pointed to Athena. She immediately pressed her fingers to the keys and began playing What I've Been Looking For while EJ walked up to the piano and rested against it.

"It's hard to believe that I couldn't see, you were always there beside me," EJ sang.

"Thought I was alone with no one to hold," Nini voiced, putting her arm on top of the piano very harshly. "But you were always there beside me."

Athena soon realized how much of an awkward situation she was currently in the middle of. She sent a wide-eyed, panicked look to Violetta for a moment. Violetta shrugged. Athena looked back at the sheet music and tried to only focus on playing the piano.

"This feeling's like no other," Nini and EJ harmonized. "I want you to know. I've never had someone that knows me like you do, the way you do. I've never had someone as good for me as you, no one like you. So lonely before, I've finally found what I've been looking for."

EJ crossed over to the other side of the piano to be closer to Nini. Athena willed herself to just keep her eyes trained on the sheet music, but that was kind of impossible as Nini began to do a bunch of runs during the do do do do do do do do do do's. She locked eyes with an extremely confused EJ, but she merely shrugged her shoulders and played the last few measures of the song.