Tabitha was currently waiting in the cafeteria on one of the staircase's, waiting for her turn to sing in the music video the drama club members are making. They decided on making one for their Instagram page as a way to let everyone know that the auditorium will be restored to it's full glory by the end of the winter break and they all even wore ugly Christmas sweaters to get in the Christmas spirit.

Just because she acted like she was cool, calm, and collected she was freaking out on the inside. This was her first time singing in front of others and on camera with others plus it was her first time dancing and her dancing being filmed. She felt very nervous but she was excited she felt like she could finally get over her stage fright.

Soon Carlos and Seb made their way over to where EJ, Tabitha, and Gina are waiting for their part. When Seb points at EJ, EJ moves over to the staircase Tabitha and Gina are at while singing his part. "The end and the beginning of another year."

Gina moves over to stand between where two big gift boxes are set up for decoration as EJ twirls Tabitha after they got off the steps, and Tabitha looks at the camera with a smile, singing her lyric of the song. "Taking in the memories that we made right here."

While moving off to the side by the staircase, Tabitha points at Gina, smiling back at the dark-skinned girl when she smiled at her. Gina smiles at the camera, singing her lyric. "The tree is goin' up and my roots are going down."

Tabitha and EJ go back over to stand on each side of Gina, the three teens smiling at the camera, dancing and singing, "All around I'm feelin' it. Are you feelin' it? There's something in the..."

Tabitha and EJ move out of the way when the dance break of the video happens since the two weren't apart of that scene. They head out to the hallway where they were supposed to meet everyone else for the rest of the video. Ricky and Nini were singing their duet in front of the group that gathered behind them. Tabitha and EJ stood beside each other on each side of the hallway, smiling at each other as they made their way further into the hallway along with everyone else. 

"The memories we'll be makin'. Makin' a change. Make a new start." 

The group makes a path for Gina for her to stand in front of them. "I'm gonna make my mark."

"There's something in the air. About to go off right now." Each of them did the chorography Carlos taught them for the video, singing the chorus of the song. Ashlyn even added ad-libs on top which just made everything even better. "Lighten' up all around. I feel it coming. Something in the air."

"A time to look forward to. Get ready for something new." They each dance further down the hallway and get to where the doors to the auditorium are. "I feel it coming. Something in the air."

"We are excited to announce that behind these doors," Carlos speaks, moving to stand in front of the doors to the auditorium that were blocked off. "The theater is being restored to its full, resplendent, 1960s-era glory over the holiday break."

Ricky takes the phone from Miss Jenn, facing it back to all of them as they all danced, sang, and have fun in the hallway. "Somethin' in the air. I feel it coming, somethin' in the air." To close the video out Ricky blew a kiss to the camera and covered the screen with his hand. They all cheered after they were done, but their cheering was short because Mr. Mazzara had opened the door to his classroom and called out to them.

"Hey! School let out an hour ago." Everyone looks at each other nervously, but then they were relieved when Mr. Mazzara smiles. "Get out of here and enjoy the vacation."

Everyone lets out a sigh of relief since they thought they were going to get in trouble. "Happy holidays, Mr. Scrooge." Miss Jenn said to him. Mr. Mazzara only nodded at her and smiled a bit before he went back into his classroom, closing the door behind him.

"New Year's Eve party at Ashlyn's! Everyone's invited!" Carlos announced and everyone cheered.

"Gina and I are co-hosting!" Ashlyn added and everyone cheered again.

"You guys, wait," Miss Jenn speaks up, looking at her phone with a guilty expression on her face. "I don't think I was recording."

Everyone looks at her with either a disbelief expression or a shocked expression. "Miss Jenn..." Carlos quietly complained.

Miss Jenn apologetically smiles at everyone. "Go back to places?" Everyone groaned and started going back to their places. This time probably won't be as energetic as the first one since they were all ready to leave by now.

Tabitha groans, turning around to walk down the hallway along with EJ. "I just hope I don't mess up."

"Sweetheart, you're gonna be amazing just like you were the last time." EJ assures her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders while placing a kiss to her cheek which earned a smile from her. "I'm coming over later, right?"

"Yeah." Tabitha nods, smiling and blushing because of the new pet name he used. "I'll be at my mom's tonight." 

They were planning to give each other their Christmas gifts they got for each other at Tabitha's house that night. Tabitha honestly had no clue as to what she should get EJ. She asked Ashlyn for advice and Ashlyn just said that EJ would like anything she gave him. Tabitha only hoped that Ashlyn is correct.

"Alright," EJ smiles. "I'll be there at eight." 

****

"Thanks for helping me clean up." Victoria said to her daughter who was putting away the dirty dishes into the dishwasher along with her.

"Yeah, no problem." Tabitha shakes her head, sending a reassuring smile to her mom. "Oh, EJ's coming by soon. I wasn't for sure if I told you that."

"You didn't, but that's fine." Victoria smiles, closing the dishwasher and turned it on when they put all the dirty dishes in. "I'll stay upstairs to be out of the way."

"Thank you, I love you." Tabitha smiled, pulling her mom in for a side hug. 

Victoria smiles. "I love you too."

Victoria went upstairs after kissing her daughter on the forehead. Tabitha went over to the living room, making sure her keyboard was there for her to use. She had started writing a song for EJ called 'Parachute' last semester and she recently finished it. She decided on watching 'Home Alone' while she waited for EJ to arrive. Whenever the doorbell rang she paused the movie and went over to the door, opening it as she smiled at EJ. 

EJ looks at her with a wide smile. "Hi."

"Hi." She greets. He then cups one side of her face and kisses her. Tabitha kisses him back, smiling into the kiss. "Couldn't have wait until we were inside to do that?" She asked him after they pulled away from the kiss.

He gently rubs his thumb over her cheek while shaking his head. "Nope." Shrugging his shoulders, he sheepishly smiles. "I mean, I could've, but I didn't want to wait any longer."

Tabitha felt her face heat up, the smile on her face growing at his words. He takes his hand off of her face, letting her open the door the rest of the way. She closed the door as he walked inside. They decided on making hot cocoa before they gave each other their gifts. After making hot cocoa they sat their mugs of hot cocoa on the coffee table and took a seat on the floor in front of each other. 

"Okay, you go first." Tabitha told him after she had taken a drink of her hot cocoa. "I'm a little nervous about giving you my gift."

"I'm sure I'm gonna love it." EJ reassured her. Tabitha smiles a bit and set her mug back on the coffee table. EJ got a small black colored box out of his pocket of the blue colored hoodie he was wearing.

A slightly panicked expression forms on Tabitha's face. "EJ." She said in a warning tone.

EJ laughs a bit, shaking his head. "I'm not proposing to you. Not yet anyway." 

Tabitha calmed down at hearing that and she couldn't help the smile that tugged on her lips when he said 'not yet'. He handed her the box and she opened it after she got it from him. Inside the box was a bracelet. It was simple yet cute. It was made out of a black colored rope, and it had a white bead on it between two smaller clear colored beads.

"I got us matching ones." EJ said and she looked at him, watching with a soft smile on her face as he showed her his right wrist that he was wearing a similar bracelet but the bead on his is black. "The card that it came with said that these bracelets are like promise rings. And it said 'I promise to wear this and remember how lucky I am to have you'." 

(this is what the bracelets look like)

Tabitha looks at him with nothing but love and adoration, thinking this was such a sweet thing for him to do. "And that's what I'll do." EJ continues, the smile on his face never leaving, it only grew. "Because I'm so lucky to have you in my life and I don't know what I would do without you." 

"EJ, I love yo-This." Tabitha quickly corrects herself, gesturing to the bracelet. She places a chaste kiss on his lips before sitting back in the position she sat in only seconds ago. "This is so sweet, thank you." 

-ˏˋTabitha looks at the camera with a sheepish smile. "Yeah, we haven't said the 'l' word to each other yet. I mean, he means the world to me and I really do love him. I'm not for sure if we're ready to say it yet. It might be too early in our relationship to say it...I just don't want it to be too late to say it to him. If he says it to me soon then of course I'm gonna say it back. I guess we'll just see how things goes with us."ˎˊ-

EJ smiles at her. "I'm really glad you like it 'cause I didn't know what to get you."

Tabitha smiles back at him. "Okay, so for the gift I got you, it's not a gift that you can return so you better like it."

EJ chuckles. "Like I keep telling you, I'm sure I'll love it."

"Okay," Tabitha takes a deep breath while nodding. "Yeah, okay." She stands up and went over to the dining room where she had put her keyboard. She carefully picked the keyboard off the table and brought it into the room.

EJ grins. "Wait, you wrote me a song? Even better, I get to hear you sing? Best gift ever."

Tabitha blushes, setting the keyboard on the floor carefully, and then sat down in the place she sat at before. "This is a song I wrote called 'Parachute.'"

She picks up her keyboard and sat it on her lap. After turning it on, she glances at EJ who sent her an encouraging smile. She nervously smiled back at him before looking at her keyboard. She toko a deep breath and began playing her keyboard.

(here's the song if you wanna listen to it)

https://youtu.be/Jtp9O3dIhvw

"I remember life before far away dreams and locking doors. But then you came, then you came." She glances at EJ with a small smile, feeling some of her nerves begin to melt away when she saw the wide smile on his face. She looks back down at her keyboard as she continues. "Afraid to fall, to be free. Always my own worst enemy. It isn't what, what you see. I took time to realize that I couldn't do it by myself, myself."

"There's no gravity when you're next to me." While singing the chorus of the song, she poured her heart out. This song was special to her because it was her first ever song she wrote and actually preformed it in front of someone. "You always break my fall like a parachute. When you're holding me so weightless, I can barely breath. You always break my fall, my fall like a parachute. You're my parachute."

"With you it all begins, feeling okay in my own skin. So alive. I'm so alive. I know, this life isn't gonna be perfect. The ups and downs are gonna be worth it as long as I'm, I'm with you. Woah, woah." 

"There's no gravity when you're next to me. You always break my fall like a parachute. When you're holding me so weightless, I can barely breath. You always break my fall, my fall like a parachute. You're my parachute." Tabitha was so shy with showing her talent to others and just shy in general. But recently he noticed Tabitha has been becoming less shy and EJ's sure that it's because of the drama club. He was proud of far she come. When he first met her she was just a shy and awkward girl that wouldn't even step up on stage. But now she's got confident enough to sing and dance in a music video for the drama club and sing a song about a special someone to that special someone. 

"When I'm standing at the edge it's such a long way down. And I second guess myself, you better catch me now. Woah, woah. Woah, woah. Woah, woah. Woah, woah, oh. Then I touch the ground. There's no gravity when you're next to me. You always break my fall like a parachute. When you're holding me so weightless, I can barely breath. You always break my fall, my fall like a parachute. You're my parachute."

After she finished playing, she set her keyboard on the coffee table so it was out of the way, and looks at EJ with a nervous smile. "So...What'd you think?"

EJ had a look of awe on his face and it felt like he was quiet for a long time when in reality it was only a few seconds. "W-Wow, Tabs." EJ finally was able to find words to say, looking at her with a wide smile and he was sure that his face was bright red. He knew that he meant a lot to her, but he didn't know that's how she thought about him and it made him really really happy to know that how she thought about him. "I'm speechless. Like, I don't know how to describe how amazing that was."

Tabitha lets out a sigh of relief and her shoulders drop with relief. "Oh, good. 'Cause I was really nervous. My hands were shaking the whole time. Look." She raised her right hand, showing him that it was still shaking because of her nerves. 

EJ chuckles lightly, taking ahold of her hand and kisses the back of her hand. "Babe, I loved it. Seriously the best gift I've ever gotten."

Tabitha feels her face heat up, her lips forming into a shy smile. "Good."

A/N ah this chapter was so cute to write! just letting y'all know im in love with nelswell & yes there will be drama this season for nelswell so get ready for that :)