Books: All of them, minus Adopted By BMC Two River and Adopted By The Prom! There is a brief Keira cameo!! (also, welcome Sunny!!)
Year: 2023
Catlynn's Age: 22
Matilda's Age: 21
Valerie's Age: 14
Josie's Age: 17
Keira's Age: 19
Penney's Age: 17
Clem's Age: 11
Sunny's Age: 17

(AN: this oneshot does contain brief spoilers for events in Sunny's book!) 

Josie's POV

"Welcome to the 3rd Annual Adopted By Broadway...and off-Broadway...dance showcase!" I said to my friends and their family members as we were crammed into an auditorium.

"I hate this." Brandon said under his breath.

"I agree with your dad." Penney Steingold said. "Why do I have to be here? And why do I have a solo this year?"

"And why are you saying 'third annual?' Our first and second ones went down the drain because of 'unforeseen circumstances.' Which, in simpler terms, was someone spraining their ankle." Clementine Mack said.

"My bad." Penney said sheepishly.

"Okay, can you three shut up?" I said. "I worked my ass off to plan this and I'm not gonna let my hard work go to waste."

"I thought Clem was the drill sergeant when it comes to performances." Catlynn McLemore said, her legs draped in her wife, Red Ashley's, lap.

"Oh my God. Okay! Here's how tonight's gonna go. We are gonna do our dances with no arguments, no complaints, no costume or prop mishaps, and no missed cues. We do not want a repeat of Nutcracker 2021." I said.

"Nutcracker 2021 wasn't even that bad." Matilda Henson said. "All that happened was Red dropping Josie on the ground and nearly breaking her back and Penney and Keira tripping on air."

"You wonder why Keira didn't do the recital this year and is only on tech." I said.

"What...is going on?" Sunny Wardell-Rohm said. I had completely forgotten that because of Sunny's health issues and family situation, this was her first year doing a recital or Nutcracker with us. We were grateful nonetheless, Sunny wasn't really a dancer but she was an amazing actor and performer, plus she was a good kid and we all knew we would have fun doing this with her and her parents and brother. "Should I be scared?"

"Yes, yes you should. All I can say is, keep your family in line for the love of God." I said.

"Yes ma'am." Sunny responded, saluting.

"Anyway! Each musical has a group dance. Parents have duets, we are lucky we have eight parents so it's an even number."

"Eight?" Catlynn said, confused. "There's seven musicals here?"

"Joint custody." Sunny said. "Kholby and Emily are both my legal parents so they're both represented as parents."

"OHHHHH!" Catlynn responded as I just sighed.

"ANYWAY! Kids have solos-"

"NOOOOOO!" Matilda complained.

"KIDS HAVE SOLOS- order of dances is posted on the mirror in the dressing room, there are signs on the wall for where you should put your costumes and regular clothes. If I see anyone's clothes just piled in the middle of the room, we're gonna have an issue. Break a leg, everyone, let's get this show on the road." I said, taking both of my girlfriends' hands and dragging them away.

"JOJO!" Brandon yelled.

"What do you want?"

"Am I in the first dance?"

"Were you ever in a musical and are over the age of 18?" I snapped.

"Yes?"

"Then yes. Rocketeer is all the adults, Matilda I know you're 18 but sit the hell down this does not include you." I said. "Anyway, break a leg, make me proud."

"Where's my shirt?" Andrew said, digging through everyone's clothes.

"I don't know! If you're looking for your Rocketeer shirt, it should be on your body?" I said. "Who's shirt are you wearing and why is it ridiculously short on-"

Andrew turned around and I mentally facepalmed. All of the adults had shirts with their last name on them for this dance, and the one Andrew was wearing said "Uranowitz" on the back.

"You have Brandon's shirt on." I said. "What, did you just take a random person's shirt?"

"Here we go, come with me, there's a world out there that we should see-"

"GO! THERE'S NO TIME TO CHANGE, GO!"

"What?" Andrew said.

"ANDREW RANNELLS DO YOU NOT HEAR THE- okay. ELLE MCLEMORE! EMILY ROHM! YOU'RE ON DECK! Okay wait, they're both on stage, it's the parent's little moment..." I said, talking to myself.

"Take my hand, close your eyes, with you right here I'm a rocketeer..."

"ANDREW! WHY ARE YOU STILL BACK HERE?" I said, shoving my uncle out on stage and watching from backstage.

"Thank God that got sorted." I said to Catlynn. "I swear to God, these adults are like giant toddlers."

"You need me to get Red?" Catlynn said. Red Ashley used to be a preschool teacher before getting laid off, and she always knows how to calm down a screaming child. Or in this case, a whiny Broadway actor.

"I think I'll be fine for now." I said as the Rocketeer dance ended and Valerie went out for her solo. All the adults ran past one by one, Elle throwing her sunglasses in Catlynn's face as she went to change for her duet.

"I'm gonna go remind my dad that he does in fact have another dance before the RTC one. Peace!" Sunny said, sliding off her stool.

"What dance?" Catlynn asked, confused.

"Pompeii." I said. Valerie went off stage and I poked my head backstage and screamed "ELLE AND EMILY!"

"We're right here!"

"Thank fucking God." I sighed as the two went on stage, Sunny and Catlynn giggling at their parents. "Psst, Sunny, you might wanna change into your solo costume. Where the fuck's Matilda?"

"Stage left." Catlynn said.

"Okay." I said as Elle and Emily ran backstage- Emily throwing her socks in Sunny's lap and running to change for Pompeii.

"I'm so scared." Penney said. "But yet so excited!"

"For what?"

"Pompeii. Who taught Kholby how to do a pirouette and why? Who choreographed this thing?" Penney said.

"First of all, he's not doing a pirouette, he's doing like 8 pique turns. There's a difference."

"I was left to my own devices, many days fell away with nothing to show..."

Catlynn giggled as Elle got knocked over from how tightly Grey hugged her.

"WOOO!" Penney cheered as Clem started to giggle, and then the parents went into that cool pose that all the kids loved.

"Pique turn time." I whispered.

"MY DAD'S GLASSES JUST FLEW OFF HIS FACE." Sunny said, laughing her ass off as some of the other parents ran backstage to quickly put dust on themselves. "Hi Mama. Great job."

The Pompeii dance was over, Kholby reached down to grab his glasses, and everything was fine while Sunny did her solo. For her not being a dancer, having severe stage fright, and having to relearn how to walk when she was eleven, Sunny actually did an amazing job.

"SUNNY!" Catlynn yelled when Sunny was done, hugging the younger girl. "You did amazing, kiddo!"

"Falsettos' turn." I said, looking around. The only people that were...ready were me, Steph, Christian, Betsy, Anthony and Tracie.

Where the fuck were my uncle and dad?

I sighed. The show must go on, right?

I ran onstage and started doing my dance, making sure we didn't mess up anything. But then halfway through, Brandon ran in and crashed right into Steph.

"OW!" my mama whispered.

"Sorry! My bad, carry on..." Brandon whispered.

Andrew ran in soon after that, crashing into me and making me fall out of my turn. I internally cursed as the music ended and I dragged Andrew off stage.

"What the fuck was that?" I said.

"We did it!" Brandon said enthusiastically.

"GUYS! YOU NEED TO CHANGE! PAPA, STOP WHINING." I heard a familiar British accent yell from backstage as Clem and her family went to do their dance.

"Sunny." I said.

"Jo, you gotta help me. They're all on their phones or just...not doing anything. Lillian and Emily are the only ones who listened to me! God, they're like the 5 year olds at summer camp sometimes!" Sunny said. Clementine barged in from backstage and whistled with her fingers.

"LISTEN UP, LADIES AND GERMS. Hi, my name is Clementine London Mack. I got that Brazilian swag, and my illness is chronic but my-"

"Can it."

"...Ass is iconic." Clem finished, giggling and adjusting her feeding tube. "ANYWAY! I find it kinda weird how you listened to a ten year old over your own seventeen year old daughter, niece, whatever you consider her. Get off your goddamn phones and change!"

One by one, the Ride the Cyclone people put their things down and changed as the Six dance ended and the Mean Girls people went up.

"Clem?" Sunny said. "How the hell did you do that?"

"Stage manager shit." Clem said. "Scares the hell out of most adults. I'm sweet as candy, according to Mamae, but I'm also the kickass stage manager of Eisenhower High School."

Penney giggled as Steph and Dana ran offstage from doing their duet and the BMC people went on.

"RIDE THE CYCLONE!" Sunny yelled as they all were dilly dallying. "YOU GUYS ARE ON DECK! GET BACKSTAGE OR I WILL DRAG YOU THERE"

"Okay, blondie." Sunny's brother, Chaz, said while getting up.

"Never call me that." Sunny said, sighing. "Let's go."

The Ride the Cyclone people went out on stage, and I was just watching their dance, praying for no serious messups.

Until the middle of the dance when Kholby pushed the prop stairs backstage...with so much force that it stubbed my toe.

"OW!" I screamed, grabbing my foot. "THAT HURT!"

"Okay, miss 'Don't Yell Backstage.'" Penney smirked.

"Shut up." I responded as the RTC dance ended. Honestly, props to Sunny for choreographing a dance that cool.

Next was the significant others' dance. All of us kids were hoping that our partners wouldn't mess this up- because none of them are known for being dancers. We have Red, the teacher. Eliana, the musician. Reed, the actor. Harper, the techie. Lacey and Asia, the chaos people. Cedar, the reader. And Cherry Ann, the horse girl. None of them can actually dance, and they know this.

Surprisingly, they did a better job than the adults, who were professional actors. Once their dance ended, I gave Harper a hug and a kiss as the final dance of Act 1 started.

Our dance. The kids.

Our dance went relatively smoothly, and we had a lot of fun doing it. Except for that one moment where Penney tried to do a fan kick and split her pants...luckily this show was a one-night-only thing and she didn't have to wear those pants again.

"15 minute intermission, y'all! Get ready for Act 2!"