Ophelia wore an orange striped tank top, black jeans with holes, and white and black shoes the next day of school. She brought sunglasses just in case and stuck those in her backpack and she wore a hair tie as well just in case. Ricky had texted Ophelia for her to meet him in the library which she thought was odd because Ricky wasn't one to be found in a library. When she got to the library, she started walking down the aisles, looking for where Ricky was at. A surprised yelp escaped her lips when she was suddenly pulled around one aisle to the side where bookshelves are on the other side lined up against the window.
She let out a sigh of relief upon seeing it was only Ricky who had pulled her over to the side. "Dude," Ophelia pulls her arm out of his grasp to punch him in the arm. "What the heck was that for?! You almost gave me a heart attack."
"Okay, first of all, ow." Ricky winces, rubbing the spot Ophelia punched him. "And second of all," He smiles. "I wanted to show you I've been practicing."
Ophelia looks at him with surprise. "You-You've been practicing for the musical?"
Ricky nods. "I stayed up late practicing one of the dances."
"The Ricky Bowen stayed up to practice a dance for the musical?" Ophelia blinks with surprise, shaking her head. "I can't believe it. I'm, like, in disbelief." She looks to her left, just then realizing Carlos was standing in front of them. She waves at the Mexican boy with a smile one her face. "Hi, Carlos!" Carlos returned the smile and waved back at her.
Ricky rolls his eyes. "Okay, it's not that big of a deal."
"It's a huge deal, Rick!" Ophelia excitedly exclaims, turning to face him with a grin. "You've never wanted to be involved with musicals and now you're practicing for one!" She looks at him with excitement. "I really need to thank Nini when you two get back together 'cause now I can finally convince you to watch some musicals."
Ricky chuckles and shakes his head. Ophelia had been trying to get him to watch musicals ever since she started liking them. She kept saying he won't know if he likes it unless he actually watches it, but he wasn't going to cave in. At least not yet.
"Okay, show us what you've been practicing, Ricky." Ophelia smiled, moving to stand beside Carlos.
Ricky nods, takes a deep breath, and then did the dance that he was practicing. The smile on Ophelia's lips only grew. She couldn't believe Ricky had actually been practicing and he was starting to get much better than he was. "Wow." Carlos smiles while Ricky continues the dance. "You've been practicing. I thought you quit."
"Not doin' that anymore." Ricky shakes his head. "Still not for sure about this last part." At the end of the dance, he did spirit fingers instead of jazz hands.
"You're doing spirit fingers." Carlos tells him. He shows Ricky how to do jazz hands. "I want jazz hands."
"Jazz hands." Ricky nods. "Okay."
"Try it again, Rick." Ophelia encouraged.
Carlos counted Ricky off and Ricky repeated the dance. The three teens didn't know that Nini had peeked around the bookshelf at the front, watching with a small smile on her face. This time at the end he did jazz hands.
"Bravo, Ricky." Ophelia clapped quietly for him.
Smiling, Carlos nods. "Ricky, that's it."
Ricky chuckles and looks at Ophelia beside him with a smile. She smiled back at him, wrapping her arm around his shoulders for a side hug and he wrapped his arm around her waist. While watching this interaction, the smile fell from Nini's lips, looking at the two best friends with suspicion and turned back around to leave the library.
"Let's try it again." Carlos suggested.
Ophelia excused herself from the two while Ricky practiced the dance again since she knew she probably didn't need to be there now. She walked down the hallway, stopping by the auditorium when she heard the piano being played. She walked inside the auditorium, seeing the curtain was closed. She was curious as to who was playing piano so beautifully, so she walked behind the curtain once she got on stage.
A small smile tugs on her lips upon seeing Ashlyn playing the piano. "Hi, Ashlyn."
Ashlyn immediately stops playing, looking at her with wide eyes. "Oh, um, hi. I'm sorry, I thought I was the only one here." She picks up her notebook and began to open her backpack. "I can be gone in, like, seven seconds."
"No, no, it's okay." Ophelia stops her, looking at her with a smile. "You don't have to leave. What song were you playing? It sounded really good."
Ashlyn looks at her with a bit of surprise but smiles. "Oh, um...Miss Jenn asked me to compose a song for my character." She sets her notebook back on the piano. "It's probably way too much. But I'm playing-"
"Ms. Darbus." Ophelia interrupts her and Ashlyn looked at her with surprise. Ophelia smiles at her. "Yeah, I know, Ash. How about you play your song for me? I would love to hear it."
Ashlyn nods, smiling a bit. She begins playing the piano before she starts singing. "Seems like a part of me will always have to lose. Every single time I have to choose. Swore that it felt right, but was I wrong? Is this where I'm supposed to be at all? I don't have the answers, not today. It's like nothing makes the questions go away. What I'd give to see if the grass was greener."
"On the other side of all I've had and lost. Would it be enough, or would I still be wondering?" Ophelia knew the red-haired girl was talented, but she didn't think Ashlyn was this talented. She has a such a good voice and is so good at playing piano. Ophelia would love to have talent like that.
"If I could go back and change the past. Be a little braver than I had. And bet against the odds Would I still be lost? Even if I woke up in my dreams. Would there still be something I'm missing? If I had everything, would it mean anything?"
Ashlyn gestures with a nod of her head for Ophelia to join her. Ophelia stares at her with wide eyes, quickly shaking her head. Ophelia never front of others before. She only sang when she was by herself, like in the shower or in her car. Ashlyn kept playing the same part, sending her an encouraging smile. "Come on, O. You can do it."
"Maybe I should turn around and take the other road." While Ophelia sings, she kept her nervous gaze on the piano, her voice kind of shaky at the beginning. Ashlyn smiles, thinking she had a great voice even though she was nervous. "Or maybe I'm just looking for what I already know."
"I'm just wondering." Ophelia didn't realize she sang the next verse by herself until after she sang it. She looked at Ashlyn with wide eyes, looking as if she was offended Ashlyn left her singing by herself.
Ashlyn chuckles lightly, looking at her with a smile. "You're doing great," She scoots over for Ophelia to join her on the bench as she kept playing the piano. "Keep going."
Ophelia takes a shaky breath, nodding at Ashlyn. She looks at the notebook in front of her as she sings, beginning to get more confident the more she sang. "It feels like I might have broke the best thing that I had."
The two girls didn't hear the footsteps that rushed onto the back of the stage. Ricky stops in his tracks when he saw Ophelia sitting at the piano with Ashlyn, singing. An awestruck expression forms on his face as he listens to her sing. He never heard her sing before. He was blown away by such a beautiful voice she has. Why did she never tell him she can sing this good?
"I said too much to ever take it back. Scared I'll never find something as good." Ricky slowly walks further onto the stage, standing a off to the side where the piano was sat. The two girls still didn't notice his presence, both too caught up in the song. "And would I even know it if I could?"
Ophelia sings the next verse by herself, and Ashlyn smiles widely at her, happy that it seemed Ophelia was more confident know after she got used to singing by herself with someone else with her. "If I could go back and change the past. Be a little brave than I had. And bet against the odds. Would I still be lost?"
Ophelia shares a smile with Ashlyn when the red-haired girl joins her for the next verses. "Even if I woke up in my dreams. Would there still be something I'm missing? If I had everything, would it mean anything?"
"To me?" Ophelia ended the song, staring at the piano with a smile. That was the first time she sang with someone else in the room and she felt good about it. Maybe this was just the start of her having the courage to sing in front of others.
Out of the corner of her eye Ophelia noticed Ashlyn looking to the right and Ophelia's eyes widen when she saw Ricky standing there with a stunned expression on his face. Her heartbeat started to increase at the fact that her best friend caught her singing.
"Um...We're...We're back." Ricky stammered.
"W-What?" Ophelia stuttered, part of her thinking that he meant he was back with Nini which made her even more confused because why did she think that. And why did she sound so hurt when she spoke?
"Downstairs." Ricky replies and at that moment Ophelia noticed he had teary eyes. "Miss Jenn wants to see everyone in the bomb shelter."
Ophelia slowly nods, taking a shaky breath. "R-Right. Yeah, okay."
-ˏˋ Ophelia is standing in the auditorium, looking at the camera as she sighs. "Why did Ricky have to find out I can sing? Now things are gonna be weird between us 'cause he'll want to know why I never told him. Honestly, I never sang in front of people or with people in the room 'cause I'm insecure of my singing voice. I never thought I sounded good singing and I never wanted to get judged or made fun of how bad my singing is."
She shrugs, looking at the camera with a small smile. "But after singing with Ashlyn, it seemed like she thought I was singing good and it did look like Ricky thought it was good as well. Or maybe he didn't." She furrows her eyebrows, shaking her head. "Why am I worried about what he thinks all of a sudden?" She laughs when the person behind the camera asks her if she likes Ricky in a romantic way. "What? No. We're just friends. Best friends." ˎˊ-
When Ophelia got back to the bomb shelter, she saw everyone was gathered around Miss Jenn who was unboxing something. She went over to stand beside Fallon and Luca.
Fallon looks away from looking at the fidget ring she was messing with and smiles at Ophelia. "There you are! We were wondering where you've been." Fallon always wore a fidget ring which is a simple silver ring. The middle part of the ring was sparkly and it spun around when you moved it. She always wore this ring and she used to just wear it when she's bored or nervous, but it has just become a habit for her to use it.
"Yeah," Luca nods, looking at Ophelia with mild concern when he noticed her quiet demeanor. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah." Ophelia nods. She forces a smile. "Just a little shaken up about the fact I just sang with someone in the room."
Fallon gasps. "Someone else heard you sing first before me or Luca?" She stops messing with her fidget ring, pretending to look hurt, and puts a hand over her heart. "I'm hurt."
"Same here." Luca nods in agreement, crossing his arms. He tilts his head to the side. "Who was the lucky one who got to hear you sing?"
Ophelia side glanced over in the direction Ricky was standing for a split second before looking back at Fallon and Luca. "It was Ashlyn. I heard her playing piano in the auditorium and she showed me her song Miss Jenn wanted her to write for the musical."
Fallon raises her eyebrows. "Ricky was also there, wasn't he?"
"What?" Ophelia scoffs, shaking her head. "No." Fallon and Luca shared a look before looking back at her, both looking like they weren't believing Ophelia. "Okay," Ophelia sighs, dropping her shoulders in defeat. "Yeah, he was."
"Here it is, people." The three of them looked back over at Miss Jenn when she spoke. Ophelia noticed that she's holding an old style phone.
"Is that a garage-door opener?" Seb asked.
"No, Seb." Miss Jenn responds. "This is Gabriella's phone. From the film. I plan on creating a time-capsule display in our lobby." As Miss Jenn spoke, no one noticed that Gina was stealing Nini's phone and putting it in EJ's backpack.
A/N just a reminder that these -ˏˋˎˊ- symbols is ophelia talking to the camera like how they do in the show. but anyway, i love ophelia & ricky, you guys. they're already so cute !