Being at school on a Saturday early in the morning and when it's winter was not something Ophelia preferred to be doing right now. She would rather be snuggled up in bed with her pjs on, but instead Miss Jenn had called everyone for an early practice. Today Fallon joined the main cast for practice just in case she was needed and she didn't have anything better to do. Ophelia's outfit today also portrayed how lazy she was with getting up this morning. She went with a lavender colored campion hoodie, black leggings, dark brown combat boots, and a brown colored beanie.
(this is her outfit for this chapter)
"Okay, everyone, gather around!" Everyone moves to sit at the risers as Miss Jenn stands in front of them with a smile. "We have got a two-hour window before the storm is expected to hit, and I intend to use every minute of it. Big, splashy group numbers always succeed at the Menkie Awards. So we need to workshop a punchy, breathtaking number that will put us in the number one spot."
From his place by Gina towards the front, Carlos steps forward to stand by Miss Jenn. "As our head choreographer, I am so happy to announce that today we will, at last, begin rehearsing one of the most showstopping, iconic, and bar-raising numbers of the entire show."
"'Be Our Guest'." Gina smiles, standing beside Carlos, and Carlos looks at her with furrowed eyebrows. Gina shrugs, smiling at everyone. "Yeah, it's 'Be Our Guest', guys." She glances at Carlos when she realizes he was looking at her. "What?" You could cut the tension with a knife because the tension was so thick between the two choreographers. Ophelia could tell that neither one was liking the fact they were co-choreographers.
"Before we begin, I'm going to tell you a little story a bout hospitality." Miss Jenn said and Carlos leaned over to her to whisper to her.
"Maybe we should..."
Miss Jenn ignores him and starts her story. "Once when I was a little girl,"
"Okay." Carlos nodded.
"My mom and I heard a clatter come from the kitchen. We thought it was a burglar. So my mom ran over, hog-tied the man, and promptly called the police." Miss Jenn explained and a gasp is heard from Ashlyn.
"As we waited for the cops to come," Miss Jenn went on to explain her story. "I watched my mother place a bowl of iced tea next to his face, 'Because', she said, 'Until the police come and get him, he's still our guest'."
"So, did he, like, get arrested or..." Kourtney's voice trailed off as she looked at Miss Jenn with confusion.
"No. Turns out, it wasn't a burglar at all, just a repairman who entered the wrong unit." Miss Jenn responds. "But the point remains the same. Just like our intruder, we need to make," She points at Ophelia. "Belle and our entire audience feel welcome. And with that, Carlos and Gina, take it away." Ashlyn was the only one who clapped for Miss Jenn. As the drama teacher walked off to the side, she looked back at Ashlyn with a smile.
"Thank you, Miss Jenn, that wasn't terrifying at all." Gina remarks, glancing at Luca with a small smile when he laughed at her comment. "Okay, so," She shakes her head and chuckles, bringing her gaze away from her boyfriend (now she had a smile on her face at the fact she could call Luca her boyfriend!) to everyone as she picks up two feather dusters on the front row. "My vision to make this dance really soar is to stage...Wait for it, a Cancan-style dance that features a feather-dusting spectacle. I don't know, it'll probably go a little something like..." She then showed everyone what the dance would look like and her boyfriend and friends cheered for her.
"Interesting." Carlos nervously chuckles, standing beside Gina to face her. "I had a different path that's a little more elevated and less basic." Luca frowns upon noticing the smile fell off Gina's face when Carlos said that. Carlos looks at everyone with a smile. "Think. A noir-inspired performance that Lumiere guides our audience through the entire time."
"M'kay. But I actually spent a month in France once, so I kinda know this dance inside out." Gina glanced at Carlos with a fake smile.
"And I choreographed all three of my sister's quinceañera dances, despite not getting one for myself, so I think I know how to twirl with a salad fork, okay?" Carlos spoke in a sassy tone.
"Okay!" Miss Jenn steps between the two glaring teens. "You know what? Let's stick a pin in 'Be Our Guest' and brush up on 'Gaston'." Gina sits down on the risers next to Luca, who puts a hand on her shoulder and whispers to her 'are you okay'. Gina nods, sending him a small smile in response. Luca nodded slowly and took his hand off her shoulder, but he didn't exactly believe her about being okay.
"EJ and Big Red, to the front of the room, please." Miss Jenn speaks. As Big Red stands up, she notices EJ is missing. "Wait, where's EJ?"
"I don't know." Fallon replies with a worried look on her face. "I haven't seen him at today." She glances at Ashlyn. "Is he here?"
Ashlyn nods, her face masking the same expression Fallon had. "Yeah, he should be."
Fallon looks back at Miss Jenn and stands up. "I can go look for him if you want."
Miss Jenn nods and smiles. "Yes, please. That would be great. And when you do see him, if you would please tell him that rehearsals are mandatory, even for soon-to-be college students who are obviously suffering from senioritis."
"Got it." Fallon nodded, smiling back at her and she walks out of the bomb shelter.
"G, if it means anything I think the feather duster brigade sounded cool." Luca said to Gina.
Gina smiles at him. "Really-really?"
"Yeah." Luca smiles back at her. He raises his eyebrows, his smile turning into a teasing one. "What, do I need to send you a random box of chocolates to prove it?"
Gina could feel her face heat up at his question and she sheepishly smiles. On Valentine's Day she had gotten a box of chocolates and she thought they were from Luca so she texted Luca a thank you, but it turned out they were from her mom. "Sick burn." She commented.
Luca grins and bows, dramatically speaking, "Thank you, thank you." Gina giggled, rolling her eyes at him and elbowed him in the side which earned a laugh from him.
Kourtney's loud excited gasp and her shouting 'nini' drew everyone's attention towards the door. Ophelia grins upon seeing the familiar brunette-haired girl at the door. Nini smiles at everyone. "I don't wanna interrupt." She opens her arms for a hug. "I just needed one more group hug."
"Hugs available!" Miss Jenn smiled while everyone got up to go hug her.
****
After the group hug, Fallon had left to go search for EJ and Nini and Ricky had a moment together out in the hallway. Back in the bomb shelter, everyone was conversing with each other. Ophelia was talking with Luca when Miss Jenn walks back into the bomb shelter. "Listen up, everyone."
The conversation dies down as she speaks. "I am going to step out for a little while to make sure that Nini catches her bus. Please go back to workshopping 'Be Our Guest' concepts until I return, and find a path forward. I've asked Mr. Mazzara to pop in." Everyone yelps and jumps when Mr. Mazzara suddenly looks into the room. "And make sure that you don't get too rowdy while I'm gone." Mr. Mazzara walks in as Miss Jenn walks out. She shares a smile with him, walking past him. "Thank you, Benjamin."
****
Miss Jenn had left to take Nini to the bus station and Fallon was still looking for EJ. Everyone who were left in the bomb shelter were talking amongst themselves besides Seb who was practicing some songs on the piano. Ophelia was conversing with Luca, the two teens hoping their best friend would find EJ and that everything will be alright with him.
"Has anyone seen EJ?" Ashlyn asked the group, walking into the bomb shelter.
"No," Ophelia frowns slightly. "But I'm hoping that Fallon will find him." She was getting worried about EJ since she hadn't seen him all day.
"Everybody, listen up." Gina called out, bringing everyone's attention to her and Carlos, who stood beside her.
"Great news." Carlos comments and gestures to himself and Gina. "Gina and I agreed to joint custody of you all."
"Oh, so who gets us on weekends?" Kourtney joked, earning a laugh from Ophelia and Luca.
"We're gonna workshop our 'Be Our Guest' visions on you guys separately before adding the dancers." Gina explains. She mouths 'mine', putting her hand beside her mouth so Carlos couldn't see. "The winning version will then be decided in an anonymous vote." She smiles, shrugging her shoulders. "Fun and easy."
Ophelia and Luca share a look. "It will defintely not be fun or easy." Ophelia muttered to him and he nodded in agreement.
"Yay." Ricky commented, not very excited about this workshop idea just like the rest of the teens were.
Everyone takes their seats as Carlos stands in front of the risers, holding onto a prop candle stick. "This number was inspired by my second-oldest sister's quince. Theme, sultry jazz. Sebastian," He points at Seb. "You may begin."
Seb nods with a smile on his face, turning to play the song. Ophelia furrows her eyebrows, exchanging a confused glance with Ricky (who she sat besides on the riser) when the lights flicker off. Seb stops playing and everyone looks around with confusion. Ashlyn stands up with a wide-eyed expression. "Oh, what was that?"
Ophelia jumps, startled by a loud thud and out of instinct she grabs Ricky's hand. She tries to steady her fast-beating heart, glancing around with wide eyes. "I'm really hoping that was just the storm." She mumbled, biting her lower lip. Upon noticing her nervous and scared behavior, Ricky gently squeezes her hand that he was now holding which made her glance at him. Ricky smiled reassuringly at her and Ophelia sent him a small smile. For some reason that smile of his and him holding her hand helped her calm down.
When the loud thud was heard, Gina had stood up with wide eyes, putting her hand on the shoulder of the person who sat beside her (which happened to be Luca) out of shock. Even though he was nervous and to be honest a bit scared, Luca reached a hand up to cover Gina's hand on his shoulder to comfort her since he knew by the look in her eyes and how on edge she was that she was nervous and scared as well. Gina glanced down at him with a nervous smile, feeling a bit better when he smiled reassuringly at her.
Gina sits back down, taking her hand off Luca's shoulder so now she's holding hands with Luca. She glances at everyone. "Maybe a power line went down."
Seb glances up from his phone with a worried expression. "Oh, no, you guys. I missed an alert from my Farmer's Alman-app."
Luca stares at him with raised eyebrows, tilting his head to the side. "Your what app?"
"Salt Lake just got half a foot in half an hour." Seb explained.
Ricky lets go of Ophelia's hand to get his phone out of his pocket when it buzzed. He scoffs, standing up. "My dad says the roads are completely closed."
Ophelia frowns. "So now because of the snow storm we're stuck at school?"
"Oh my gosh, you guys, get out here!" Carlos shouted. The ones who hadn't got up yet stood up and everyone ran out to the hallway where Carlos was looking at the wall of windows with a shocked expression.
A snow storm was defintely happening outside. They could hear how loud the wind was from inside and because of the wind the snow was blowing like crazy. "This is insane!" Ricky laughs in disbelief. He glances around the dark hallway that was only lit by the light of the sky outside. "Are we the only ones stuck at school?"
Kourtney looks down the hallway. "Looks like every other club went home." She looks at everyone with worry. "Should I check on Nini?" She didn't wait for anyone to reply, getting her phone out to text Nini.
Smiling, Big Red leans closer to Ashlyn. "I don't mind the idea of being stuck together all night."
Ashlyn smiles. "Maybe we should hold each other for warmth?"
Ricky's eyes widen slightly and he points at the couple. "Okay, you guys." He said as if that was his way of telling them to stop acting all lovey-dovey with each other.
Gina lets go of Luca's hand to take the action of being in charge, standing in front of everyone with a sigh leaving her lips. "Listen up, folks. We need to act fast and gather supplies in case this gets worse."
Carlos scoffs, rolling his eyes. "Love the commitment, Gina, but I don't think it's that serious."
"If it does get serious then this way we'll be prepared." Luca chimed in, defending Gina, who smiled thankfully at him, and he smiled back at her.
"It doesn't hurt to be prepared, Carlos." Ophelia added.
Gina smiles thankfully at her as well and she glances back at Carlos. "Rehearsal can wait. Follow my lead." She looks at everyone. "Contact your parents every half hour but conserve your phone batteries." When everyone just stood there, she waves her arms around in a dramatic gesture as if to say 'let's go'. "Waters, flashlights. Let's move, people."
She walked over to Luca, who had a proud smile on his face and outstretched his hand to her. Gina smiled widely and she could feel the blush creep up her neck as she intertwined her hand with his.
The group of teens disperse to groups to get supplies faster. Ophelia ends up with Kourtney and Seb while Luca is with Gina and Carlos who ended up hesitantly following them.
****
"You sure this is a good way to get cell phone service?"
"If you have any better ideas please tell me now." Kourtney replied to Ophelia's question in a pleading voice.
Seb sighs. "I'm not getting any bars."
"Try a different angle!" Kourtney suggested.
"Guys, I don't think we're gonna get any single." Ophelia speaks, trying to convince them to stop whatever they were doing. She didn't want them to get hurt. "I'm sure that the storm ruined the chance of us getting any internet access here."
Seb moves his phone to hold in his other hand. "There's only so many ways a human arm can bend."
"Oh, please," Kourtney rolls her eyes. "You have no idea how much my human spine is bending right now."
Seb glances at her and Ophelia with a confused look. "Why are we doing this?"
"Because I left my flashcards at the pizza shop, and I need someone to take a picture of it and text it to me." Kourtney said with a determined look on her face. She shakes her head. "Kourtney doesn't fail tests."
Ophelia puts her hand on her hip, glancing at the window to look at the snow storm. "At this rate I don't think we'll have school on Monday."
"O is right. And with no school you'll have more time to study." Seb said. He looks down at Kourtney, who was holding him on her shoulders, with furrowed eyebrows. "And if it's your phone, why do I have to be the one up here?"
"It was either me, you or O and you said you got struck by lightning that one time on your farm." Kourtney explained.
"Which makes you a better power conductor than both of us." Ophelia remarked, pointing at herself and Kourtney.
Kourtney points at her in a sign of agreement. "Exactly!" her eyes widen when she stumbles slightly. "Oh!"
Ophelia looks at her worriedly, reaching out so she's ready if she needs to help Kourtney stand. "Kourt, you good?"
"Yeah, I think so." Kourtney replied, sending her a small smile.
"I'm not a cell phone tower." Seb commented.
"And I'm not a body builder." Kourtney speaks in a sassy tone. "But we're both doing our best here."
A surprised yelp left Ophelia's lips when she saw a flashlight turning around the corner. She sighs with relief, putting a hand over her fast-beating heart when she saw Mr. Mazzara standing there. She hated that she was getting scared a lot today. Mr. Mazzara looks at the three teens with confusion. "Hi. I need everyone in the rehearsal room, pronto. It's the closest thing we have to a bomb shelter. Because it's a bomb shelter."
"Oh, but we..." Kourtney started, but Mr. Mazzara interrupted her.
"The less I know, the better." Mr. Mazzara sighs, walking down the hallway. "Where are the others?"
When Mr. Mazzara was out of earshot, the three teens shared a look with each other and burst out laughing.
****
Ophelia was now with Carlos and Gina. She had left Kourtney and Seb, saying she would go try to find some of the others and Carlos and Gina were the first ones she found. And now she was stuck listening to the two of them argue while she tried to be the peacemaker between them.
"I'm not yelling! I'm saying, with passion," Carlos corrects Gina. "That the song is called 'Be Our Guest', not 'Be Babette the Feather Duster's Guest'."
Gina looks at him with anger. "Why don't you just choreograph the whole show yourself, and we'll call it a day?"
"Wait, Gina!" Ophelia's eyes widen when she turned and started walking down the hallway. Gina stops and turns to face her and Carlos when Ophelia called out to her. "Don't leave, okay? I'm sure that's not what Carlos meant."
"She's right." Carlos agrees. He sighs. "I'm not saying that I should choreograph the whole show by myself. " He points at Gina. "I need you! Do you know how freaked out I am to be even appearing on stage this semester? Nobody outside of my family, and Seb, and my Barbies has ever seen me sing and dance. I'm a behind-the-scenes guy."
"Ophelia would understand what I'm talking about since she's usually behind-the-scenes." Carlos said, gesturing to Ophelia, who nodded in agreement. Carlos points at Gina. "You wouldn't understand that, you're in the scene."
"No, I'm a change-of-scene." Gina argues. "I'm living in a house I don't own, playing a supporting role I didn't want, and I'm trying to figure out how to not screw up my first relationship with a boy who means the world to me." She walks forward until she's standing a few inches away from Carlos with tears in her eyes. "And I'm sorry, but you wouldn't understand that."
That's when Ophelia heard enough and she quietly turned around. She walked down the hallway with a heavy heart and tears forming in her eyes. Playing a supporting role I didn't want. Those words kept repeating in her head. She knew that Gina had auditioned for the role of Belle and the fact that she got the role and Gina didn't surprised her. Gina had much more experienced with theater than her and in her opinion she was much more talented than her. She can't dance like Gina can, she can't sing like Gina can. Maybe she should just give the role to Gina. She thought that Gina would be much better as Belle than she ever could.
She didn't even realize she had walked to the bomb shelter until she heard distant talking of her friends. She didn't feel like going inside yet so she sat down by the wall beside the door of the bomb shelter. She brought her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. She laid her head on them and closed her eyes as her negative thoughts about herself took over.
Ophelia didn't even hear footsteps beside her to acknowledge that someone was now there. "Ophelia?" She should the familiar voice and she knew who was standing by her now, but she didn't look up. "Lia?" It wasn't until there was a gentle hand on her shoulder did she look up at the curly-haired boy, who now knelt beside her.
Ricky looks at his best friend with concern in his eyes. His heart ache at the fact that she looked so sad. "Lia, what's wrong?"
"Everything." Ophelia mumbles, bringing her gaze away from Ricky to the floor in front of her. "I'm not good enough to be Belle and I stole the role from Gina, who obviously deserves it more than I do."
Ricky is silent as he stares at her with surprise, taken aback by her reply. He knew that she had some doubt about being the lead female role of the play, but he thought she was fine after he talked with her about that earlier. But the fact that she still had those thoughts made him feel guilty, like maybe he should've asked her before if she still felt that way so he can reassure her what she says isn't true.
Ricky shakes his head and sighs. "Okay, first of all, you are more than good enough to be Belle." Ophelia looks back at him, opening her mouth to speak, but Ricky beats her to it so she closes her mouth. "Yes, I know this is your first role, but you are extremely talented," He smiles at her and she couldn't help her lips beginning to curl upwards into a smile. "Second of all, you didn't steal the role from Gina, okay? You got the role fair and square. And the fact Miss Jenn picked you to be Belle proves that you're perfect for this role."
Ophelia had gotten teary eyes at Ricky's reply and she was smiling a bit, but because of some of her worries still there she was still hesitant with asking, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure." Ricky chuckles lightly, moving to sit beside her instead of kneeling beside her. He wraps his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close so now they're sides and legs were touching. Ophelia smiles softly when she felt him kiss the top of her head. "You are gonna be incredible as Belle, Lia."
Ophelia locks eyes with him as he pulls away enough so he can look at her and she smiles brightly. "Thank you, Rick. I don't know what I would do without you."
"Probably quit the show." Ricky responds and the two best friends shared a laugh. He takes his arm off of her and stands up, looking at her with a small smile. "Hey, so, Howie came by and brought some pizzas over, you ready to get something to eat?"
Ophelia didn't realize how hungry she was until he said that and she immediately nods, taking ahold of his outstretched hand so he can help her stand up. "Oh yeah. I'm always in the mood for pizza."
Ricky chuckles at her comment and the two best friends walk into the bomb shelter. "Ophelia, there you are!" Ophelia brings her gaze away from Ricky to where she saw Gina walking over to her. "I was worried about you when I saw you weren't with me and Carlos anymore." She stands in front of her, looking at her with concern. "Are you okay?"
Ophelia glances at Ricky, sharing a small smile with him before she looked back at Gina with a smile. "Yeah, I'm okay. I just needed some time to myself and then I went to find the others." She apologetically smiles. "Sorry about not telling you or Carlos where I was going."
"It's fine." Gina smiles, looking relieved Ophelia was okay. "I'm just glad you're okay."
"So, I hear that we got pizza?" Ophelia questioned after silence fell between the three teens.
"Yes! A miracle in the snow happened." Gina grins, linking her arm with Ophelia and she guides her over to where the others are. "Come on!" Ophelia grinned back at her and walked with her to where the others are gathered around the pizza boxes.
Ophelia and Gina were standing by each other, getting a slice of pizza when Ophelia glances at the door of the bomb shelter after she heard two sets of footsteps. Her face lit up upon finally seeing EJ walk in with Fallon beside him. "Lonnie, you found him!"
Fallon smiles at her. "Yep! He was tricky to find though. And the power being out didn't help."
"EJ, you're alive!" Ashlyn exclaimed, looking at her cousin with relief when she noticed him.
EJ shrugs, smiling slightly. "Technically."
A cow mooing is heard and Seb stands up, looking at his phone he held. "Everyone! That was an alert from my Farmer's Alman-app. It says that the roads are clear, and the sheep are in heat!"
Ophelia shares a disgusted expression with Gina about the last part of the sentence. "I should have read that last part in my head." Seb realized.
Luca nods in agreement with a disgusted expression on his face. "Yeah, you should've."
Everyone looks up when the lights turn on and everyone stands up, cheering about the lights finally being on. "Let's go!" Ricky cheered.
"Wow!" Ashlyn smiled.
"It's about time they came back on." Fallon grumbles. She crosses her arms, looking at EJ with a pout. "Do you know how hard it was to find you with only the flaslight on my phone?"
EJ chuckles lightly. "You could've got a real flashlight."
Fallon throws her arms up in frustration. "I didn't think it would be a problem!" EJ laughs, looking at her with an amused smiled. Fallon rolls her eyes and she huffs with annoyance. "Yeah, sure, whatever." She sarcastically said. "Laugh at something stupid I did." EJ chuckled and playfully bumped his shoulder against hers, trying to make her smile. He's successful because a smile tugged on her lips as she bumped her shoulder against his in response.
"Miss Jenn just dropped Nini off at the bus terminal." Ricky announces, looking at his phone he had got out of his pocket when it buzzed with a notification. He glances at Big Red, pointing at him with a smile on his face. "Big Red, can I borrow your car?"
Big Red picks up his keys and throws them to Ricky with a smile. "Thanks." Ricky smiles. He glances at everyone. "Later."
Everyone else eventually left the school after a while, all happy that the power was back on and that they were able to go home.
A/N poor ophelia feeling guilty for no reason sorry i made that happen but i just thought it would make sense for that to happen to her & be interesting. but on the plus side im planning to make her & gina be more close since i feel like they aren't that close of friends yet. no but ophelia & ricky are so cute & they arent even together yet omg!