I climbed into the passenger seat of Lin's car Wednesday morning, I was legit so done with crutches, I had to chuck them into the back seat, and they made my dresses ride up, my jeans got all wonky inside the boot, but, it was like, 50 degrees out and shorts were not socially acceptable in this weather, so I compromised, with a skirt. I wore a floral skirt with a white sweater, and a owl necklace.

"Ready to go?" Lin got in the drivers seat, which was odd, Vanessa always drove me in the mornings.

"Wait, why are you driving?" I asked, as he started the car.

"Oh, APUSH assembly." He replied nonchalantly.

"Wait, why did I not know about this?"

"I don't know, you missed two days of school, that might be it."

"Don't act like I had a say in that." I laughed a little, "you made me go to the White  House."

"That's true. That is true." He consented.

"What's the assembly about?" I asked, genuinely interested.

"I'm just going to talk for maybe an hour about the expectations of the students, what is going to happen, what not to do, give a rundown of the show, and do a mini meet and greet, if anyone wants to."

"Oh. Ok. When is this?" I asked, "because you have 2 shows today."

"I know! I'll be here from 9:00 - 11:00. And then I should be there at noon for call."

"Ok, that gives you like an hour margin for error."

"And I make the call times. So, I can be late."

"All high and mighty are we?" I asked, "I thought Tommy set the call."

"Well, not really, I don't know, I can be late. I don't need two hours. No one really cares, as long as I'm on when I'm supposed to be on I can show up anytime."

"Yeah, like Leslie. Who gets dressed 10 minutes prior to his first line"

"Idiot."

"Hey! Don't be rude." I laughed.

"I'm not being rude, I'm just saying, he has the first line!" Lin laughed, and I agree, Leslie gets dressed far too late in the game. We pulled up in front of the school and I managed to get myself together, backpack, crutches and all.

"So, I'm missing 1st and 2nd period?" I asked, as we made our way inside.

"Yeah, I guess, if you want to stay for the meet and greet."

"Yeah. I'm actually really excited to meet you. Maybe you can sign my notebook."

"'I'd love to!" He laughed, as we walked towards the auditorium, through the cafeteria.

"ROONIE!" William came running over to me! "You're back!" He hugged me, then pulled away and kissed me.

"I was only gone for 2 days." I giggled out.

"I know, it felt longer." He wrapped his arm around my waist, and kissed my forehead. "Oh, hi sir." He awkwardly waved to Lin who was standing next to me, and he took his arm off of my waist. "How was the trip?" He asked Lin, stepping a bit away from me.

"Well," Lin laughed, "you don't have to call me sir. Also, it was great."

"Well that's awesome." William replied nodding.

"Are you in APUSH?" Lin asked.

"Nope. I'm not that smart."

"Oh, well, alright. I should probably go and get set up," he turned to me, "meet me in there?" I nodded.

"I'll be in in just a second!" I called. "William." I began, changing the subject, "why are you terrified of Lin?"

"I don't know. I mean, it's just, like, what happened with Luke, I guess, I just really want him to like me." He fumbled a bit, and blushed a little.

"Ok, everyone in cast likes you, it's ok. You'll be fine, he likes you. Just, don't call him sir, I feel like that's going to make him like you less."

"Ok." He shrugged.

"I should go, I'll fill you in on BAM4HAM during lunch!" I made my way over to the auditorium, where Lin was getting set up with a mic, and giving my teacher a rundown of what he was going to cover. I walked down to the front row of seats and sat in the center.

"Oh! Hi Abigail!" Mrs. Cammack exclaimed, seeing me. Are you just going to wait there? I'm going to pick up the class."

"Can I?" I asked.

"Yeah, of course, I'm just going to tell them, like, etiquette, and what not to do, I think you have a good handle on all that."

"Thanks!" I said to Mrs. Cammack, as she walked out of the auditorium.

"Hey, would you be cool with helping me in the Q&A?" Lin asked.

"Yeah. I'll answer what I can."

"Yeah, one second." He ran backstage and grabbed a second chair and mic. "Just, at the Q&A section, come onstage and help out, I'll introduce you."

"Awesome!" I smiled. I love stages.

"I'll let everyone know that you're my niñita."

"Awe." I smiled, "although, I'm not exactly, little."

"Mi niñita. You're 5. You're a 5 year old cinnamon roll. Deal with it."

"Ok." I laughed a little.

Eventually my class and the 2 other APUSH classes filled the seats around me. I stiffened when Luke sat next to me, but tried to keep looking at Lin, not make eye contact, just sit there.

"Where were you for the past 2 days sweetheart?" Luke whispered in my ear.

"The White House." I responded honestly.

"Yeah." He scoffed, "and I'm the president."

"I was!" I tried to confirm.

"You look very pretty today." He changed the subject.

"Oh, thank you." I guess, a compliment's a compliment no matter who it comes from.

"Hello hello hello!" Lin walked onstage, to the collective cheering and excitement of the students, "ok, before I start, let's go over a couple of things, one, there will be a Q&A portion, after I go over expectations, and I'll sign crap for you guys if anyone wants it. Two, I ask that you remain quiet while I'm trying to go over the expectations for EduHam."

"Alright, now that that's finished, we can keep going, so, there will be 2 portions to the presentation process. The first part is a 90 minute allotted time for performances. There will be 3 schools there, so your school will have about 30 minutes, the performances that will be presented will be chosen by your teacher. You may do your performance alone or in a group, that's loosely organized on purpose, so you can be more creative. These first performances will be "Hamilton based" meaning that they will build off of the show, or be related to the show. After those performances we have a 10 minute allotted section for a student representative to talk about the impact my show has had on his or her life. There will be one representative from each school." He made eye contact with me, "the selection of this rep is up to your teacher, and should be the person that they decide has been most affected." He put his mic on his lap, signifying that he was done with his statement.

My teacher came up and started talking about her expectations for us while we were there, where we were going to eat, just the boring details. While she was talking Lin motioned for me to come up, so I left the auditorium and came backstage through the dressing room. I set my crutches down backstage, and limped over to my seat onstage.

"Thank you so much Ms. Cammack." Lin nodded to her, "so, we'd like to open it up to Q&A, so, this is mi hija Abigail, she's seen the show, knows the cast, should be able to help. So, yeah, any questions?" Right off the back a kid in the back, Colby's hand shot up.

"We're Hammie and Laurens gay for each other?" He asked, and I laughed.

"Of course dude!" Lin replied, "have you read their letters?"

"Wait!" I said cutting in, "seriously, like, he flirted way more with Laurens than he ever did with Eliza!"

"Oh she's right." Lin said, laughing.

"So, um, yeah. Lams is canon." I said.

"Is that a thing the kids say?" Lin asked me, without the mic, referring to 'canon'.

"Yeah." I responded.

"Oh." He brought the mic back up, "yeah, Lams is 'canon'"

The Q&A was kind of boring, a lot of the BAM4HAM kids asked the same questions. The Q&A finally ended and then Lin was going to sign crap for people. The students formed a huge line to the stage, and he groaned a little.

"I love them, but holy crap. That's a lot of stuff to sign, and people to talk to."

"I'm gonna go to choir now." I said, getting up to leave.

"Wait," he stood up too. "Be safe, Stewart's going to pick you up after school and bring you to the theater, for the second show. Niñita?" He asked, putting his hands on my shoulders, "Be. Safe." He kissed the top of my head, "see you after school!" He called after me as I walked away, off to second period.

Thanks for reading

- Abi