Tabitha sat at the table in the cafeteria with the drama club members and Maeve when it was lunch. EJ switched from sitting with the drama club members and the water-polo team. 

Carlos stood up, announcing to the drama club members that this semester he will be auditioning for the play and the drama club members cheered him on. "Tabi and I are auditioning too!" Maeve chimed in, playfully elbowing Tabitha's side and Tabitha nervously smiled. The drama club members smiled at the two girls and cheered them on.

"Wait, really?" Tabitha glances over to her left in the direction she heard EJ. He looks at her with excitement as he sat down, taking the empty seat between her and Ricky. Smiling at him, Tabitha nods. "Yep." 

"Tabitha, I'm so proud of you!" EJ cheers, leaning towards her to kiss her cheek. She smiles but blushes a bit as he kissed her cheek. He pulls away, looking at her with a wide smile. "That's great!"

"Thanks, honey." Tabitha smiled at him, nervously fiddling with the end of her sleeve of the long sleeve shirt she wore.

"And I'm proud of you too, Maeve." Tabitha said, turning to Maeve with a smile. "You said you don't like musicals or plays."

"I might've been lying." Maeve shrugged with a sheepish smile.

"I knew it." Tabitha chuckled.

-ˏˋTabitha nervously smiles at the camera, standing in the hallway by the cafeteria. "Yeah, somehow Maeve talked me into auditioning." She takes a shaky breath, fiddling with the bracelet EJ got her. "It'll be good for me to overcome my stage fright. I mean, if I can sing and dance with the drama club members in a video, surely I can sing by myself in front of them." She bites her lower lip nervously. "With all of them staring at me." She forces a smile. "But I'm sure everything will be fine." ˎˊ-

"Big Red is also auditioning!" Ashlyn added, raising Big Red's hand and the drama club members cheered him on as well. 

"Yeah, he is." Ricky smiled.

"Big ups, Big Red." Gina smiles at the red-haired boy. "You gonna teach me some of those allegedly great tap moves?"

Big Red nervously smiles. "I'm so scared."

Ashlyn then reminded him he couldn't play Chip since it would be weird if he played the role of her son. When she that everyone looked at her. Ashlyn shrugs. "I mean, I'm obviously getting the role of Mrs. Potts. Not that we don't all have an equal shot."

Kourtney chimed in saying she was trying out for the musical this semester as well. EJ glances at Ricky who sat beside the right side of him. "You're welcome."

Ricky furrows his eyebrows. "Huh?"

"Uh, I've decided to take myself out of the running for the Beast." EJ told him. 

Tabitha turns to him with furrowed eyebrows. "Wait, so you're not auditioning?"

EJ shakes his head. "I'm just...I've got a lot on my plate. Which reminds me," He gets his phone out of his pocket as he speaks. "I should probably pick a meal plan for Duke."

"Wait," Ashlyn looks at him with a smile. "You officially got in?"

"Back up." Ricky looks at EJ with confusion. "You're not doing the musical either?"

"No." EJ responds. "I've only got the bandwidth for a supporting role." He furrows his eyebrows. "Wait, what do you mean 'either'?"

Tabitha looks over at Ricky, also confused by what Ricky meant by that. And by the looks on the rest of the faces of everyone at the table she guessed they were just as confused as she was. 

"Uh," Ricky chuckles, shaking his head. "I'm, uh, I'm not sure if I'm auditioning this year. You know, once a skate rat...Right?"

"Wait, for real?" Gina asked him.

Before Ricky could reply a blonde-haired girl walks up to the table. "Okay, I can't believe I'm standing in front of both Troy Boltons right now. Both of your performances last semester in HSM were incredible."

"Thanks." "Thank you. That means a lot to us." Ricky and EJ spoke at the same time. 

EJ smiles. "It honestly takes a village to get a show up on its feet. I've been blessed."

"No, no." The blonde-haired girl shakes her head. "I mean, thank you. Really. I mean, you both inspired me to wanna try out this semester. t's intimidating being basically, like, brand new to theater." She smiles at everyone at the table. "Hey, seriously, you all are so talented."

Everyone smiles at her. "Oh," Ashlyn chuckles softly. "Thank you."

"Hey, um, do you mind..."

Her voice trailed off, gesturing to her phone, signaling to them that she was asking to take a selfie with all of them. Everyone agreed and she took two selfies after everyone squeezed together so they could all be in the picture.

After they were done, EJ points at her. "Hey, you can tag me in that. It's just EJWaterPoloTheaterGuy. Theater, E-R."

The blonde-haired girl looks up from her phone, smiling at him. "Just did."

Tabitha narrowed her eyes at her, feeling as if something was off about this girl. She linked her arm with EJ's, intertwining her hand with his that rested on the table. EJ looked over at her with a bit of surprise since he wasn't use to her being jealous but he still smiled at her and squeezed her hand as if reassuring her she had nothing to worry about. She was a little bit jealous with how friendly this girl was acting with her boyfriend. She knew she most likely had nothing to worry about but it was like alarms going off in her head when the blonde-haired girl approached the table yelling at her that the girl was bad news. 

****

The closer it got to auditioning the more nervous Tabitha got. For some reason it did help her to know she won't be the only one singing on stage for the first part of the audition. But the solo part of the audition is what really getting her heartbeat to speed up.

Her stomach felt twisted, brain fluttering. She was currently standing by the doors that led to the auditorium, not having the courage to walk in yet. She didn't even know that her best friend had walked up to her until she waved a hand in front of her face. "Hello? Is anyone home?"

Tabitha blinks, breaking out of her train of thoughts as she turns to face Maeve who now looks at her with concern. "Sorry." She apologizes. She takes a deep breath, glancing at the doors. "It just hit me this would be my first time preforming on stage since elementary school."

"Elementary school was forever ago." Maeve rolls her eyes, wrapping an arm around Tabitha's shoulders to pull her in for a side hug. "You're gonna do great, alright? Just relax. You rehearsed your song like a million times. If it helps, close your eyes when your on stage or focus on someone or something the whole time that will help you get through the audition."

Despite the nerves still bubbling in her stomach she looks at Maeve with a small smile. "You are seriously the best friend I could ever have." She leans her head on Maeve's shoulder. "What would I do without you?"

"Be stuck to the floor in fear." Maeve responds and Tabitha lifted her head off of Maeve's shoulder, sending her a look. Maeve chuckles, sheepishly smiling at her. "Sorry." She takes her arm off of Tabitha's shoulders and links their arms together, starting to walk towards the door as she gently pulled Tabitha with her. "Come on, we're doing this together."

The beauty of being scared is the fact that relief is right around the corner. That was the only thing keeping Tabitha from not fainting as she got on the stage with Maeve. Miss Jenn called for everyone onto the stage and stood in front of everyone. "As you all know, this year's audition will be a two-step process. One, a group vocal warm-up to the classic song 'Belle', and two, a song of your choice. Whatever shows off you the best."

Each of them circled up and took ahold of their neighbor's hand. Tabitha stood between EJ and Maeve in the circle. Miss Jenn started singing 'Beauty and the Beast' after a few moment of silence which reminded her of the time she sang 'We're All In This Together' at the read-throughs of 'High School Musical'. One of the doors to the auditorium opened, interrupting Miss Jenn who was getting done with singing. 

Everyone looks over to see Ricky standing there. "Guess he decided to come after all?" Miss Jenn said to Carlos.

"Is this Mamma Mia?" Carlos questions, rolling his eyes. "'Cause here we go again."

The ones who were trying out for the play sat on the stage on each side of the desk Miss Jenn sat at until it was their turn to sing. The band on stage played the familiar tune of 'Belle' with Carlos being the first one to sing.

The drama club members were surprised when the blonde-haired girl belted out her solo as if this wasn't her first time preforming which confused some of them since they thought she was brand new to theater. Tabitha sounded nervous when she sang at first but throughout the song she began to get more confident. Overall, everyone did great in the group warm-up. 

A/N ok but like maeve is such a good friend. i love her friendship with tabitha ! also focusing more on tabitha's stage fright which she might overcome in the near future thanks to being in the play :) it took me awhile to decide what role tabitha should get but thanks to some help from you guys i finally decided on a roll for her & i think you guys might like it