"What's that?"

Elphaba's voice was laced with disappointment, as much as she could muster without tipping Javert off. Javert looked over to her, a sneer on his face. Javert showed her a clipboard, with stacks of paper on it. Elphaba frowned at it.

"Oh," she said. "And those are for...?"

Javert sniffled. "Notes. I'm watching your class very carefully. I hope you all are on your best behaviour."

"That's ridiculous," Elphaba said before she could stop herself. She scowled as Javert scribbled something down on the sheet of paper.

"Right," Elphaba muttered, turning on her heel and quickly walking away.

Christine gave her biggest smile to Chandler and Duke. She knew they would need it.

"How's the debate going, you two?" she asked cheerfully. "You both are so full of passion that I'm sure it's going amazing!"

Well, if by passion Christine meant boiling rage, then it was going great.

But the two didn't answer her, instead Duke turned to her and said, in an accusatory tone: "Oh, THERE you are. I've been looking for you all over!"

Christine has never left the gym, but she made sure not to let her smile falter into confusion. "You... have?"

Duke nodded. "Yes, I-wipe that LOOK off your face, Heather- I've got an idea!"

"A what?" Christine winced. She really shouldn't have said that. "I mean, great! What is it?"

"It's-." Not for the first time, Duke glanced over at Chandler, who wasn't even trying to make it seem like she wasn't eavesdropping. Duke grabbed Christine's arm. "I'll tell you over here. Come on!"

"Uh... right!" Christine agreed. "Yeah! Wait, where are we going?"

"Uh, well, obviously, we need to go to the tech crew," Duke huffed. "After all, my idea is a prop."

"Oh, it is, huh?" Christine said, thinking. "But wait, I need to do stuff here!"

"Huh?" Duke huffed. "Fine. Hurry up, though, the idea I've got is really good!"

"I-." Christine had no clue how she was supposed to check on everyone's individual scenes quickly. Luckily, though, Elphaba had her back.

"Are you going somewhere?" Elphaba asked.

"Oh, yeah!" Christine nodded. "Duke has a thing she wants to tell me about."

"What?"

Christine looked over to Duke, who was looking down at her phone, impatiently tapping.

"Beats me," she said. "But, uh... I don't know how long this is going to take. Can you...?"

Christine held out the script.

"Oh, sure," Elphaba said. "I'll make sure everyone stays on task."

"Thanks!" Christine grinned, and then turned back to Duke. "Ok! Let's go!"

Duke looked up from her phone, looking, so some odd reason, even more annoyed. Or maybe it was nervousness...? It was an odd look on Duke.

"Finally!" she snapped. Christine blinked. That exchange couldn't have taken more than a minute... "Let's GO, already!"

"Uh, right!" But before they left, Christine turned to Elphaba one last time. As much as she wanted to give Elphaba a detailed hour long explanation of what to do and how to do it, Duke would probably kill her on the spot for trying. So instead, Christine made sure to say: "You got this, Elphaba. Thanks; you're the best!"

Elphaba managed to give her a quick wave before Duke was pulling Christine away, and through the halls.

"So... what is it?" Christine was getting anxious at this point. The longer she was away from the actors, the farther they got away from her vision. Duke hasn't even said anything for five minutes.

Christine was getting rather antsy at this point. "Uh, Duke?"

Duke glared at her. The tech crew was watching, Christine knew, but at the four minute mark, they'd mostly lost interest.

"Hrmph," Duke said, and to Christine's surprise, she turned around and started towards the door. "Whatever. It... Whatever."

"Are you leading me to another place?" Christine asked, cheerfully following. Duke gave her a look. One that Christine ignored.

Before Duke could completely make her escape, though, the door was opened by none other than Ms Wormwood. Ms Wormwood looked surprised to see them there, unsurprisingly.

"Oh... hello?" Ms Wormwood greeted, puzzled. "Aren't you both... actors...?"

"Yeah!" Christine told her. "But Heather-."

"It's nothing!" Duke snapped. "We'll... get back there..."

"Heather had an idea that she wanted to try out," Christine finished smoothly.

"Oh, come on!" Duke cried. "You bi-!"

"An idea?" Ms Wormwood mused, just in time. "No ideas are bad ideas, Heather. We'd love to hear it."

Christine and Ms Wormwood smiled encouragingly to Duke, which just served to enrage her further. It was hilarious.

"...Fine," Duke took a deep breath. "It's... a costume idea, but one that needs to be made-."

"Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me!" Rich cried. Ms Wormwood quickly shushed him.

"It's for JD," Duke was speaking quicker now. "I remember seeing a play once where someone ALSO played fire, and they had a CAPE and it was... I don't know, but it gets YOUR weird vision pretty well or whatever."

"...Wow," Christine said. "Despite your kinda insult there, I am on board!"

Duke frowned. "Really?"

"Yeah, sure."

Duke blinked, and then, through her best efforts to hide it, excitement started growing on her face. "Wait. So... we can do it?"

Now, this was where Christine faltered. She exchanged a look with Ms Wormwood, and realized that she had spotted the same problem.

Christine felt a little sick. This wasn't going to go over well. "...Well..."

The excitement vanished off Duke's face, leaving frustration, and (this was the one that hurt the most) disappointment.

"Oh, really?" Her question was monotone. "Well, whatever-."

"Uh..."

Duke paused, right in the middle of excusing herself to the gym. Christine looked up, and was surprised to see Connor, of all people, standing there.

He was awkwardly (not angrily. Ever since he spent time with the actors a few weeks ago, he's generally been looking a little better) standing a bit away from the group, looking nervous.

As soon as the group's attention was on him, he seemed to tense up. "Uh..."

"Do you need something, Connor?" Ms Wormwood asked, rather kindly, considering he was interrupting.

"Uh..." Connor said. Then, thankfully, he seemed to figure himself out. "I was just gonna offer, uh, to try out Heather's idea... I think? I think it could work?"

"Hm," Ms Wormwood frowned at him. "You don't sound very confident, Connor."

"I'm sorry, but we can't waste time," Christine added. "NOT THAT YOUR IDEA IS A WASTE, HEATHER!"

Duke tsked.

"We can do it."

A new voice joined the party, one that made Christine almost think she imagined it. But when she looked around, there was Chloe, ready to help.

Christine frowned. Chloe was into Connor? She must be... why else would she help out?

Christine shook herself out. If Chloe was willing to help, who really cares? Christine turned away from them, smiling.

"Good luck!" she called. "I should get back to the gym. You've got this, guys!"

Christine left before they could all cheer like in those movies. She's pretty sure they cheered.

"JD, I told you not to go that way, it says left!"

Elphaba nearly threw the script in exasperation. The least JD could do was at least look SOMEWHAT interested.

"Oops." No, the least JD could do was at least TRY to sound somewhat sorry. The jerk looked completely pleased with himself.

"Ugh!" Elphaba was tired with all this. How did Christine and Ms Wormwood stand this?

And , of COURSE, others have started following JD's horrible example. Now, no one was doing their work. Elphaba looked around nervously. She kind of hoped Christine would come back soon.

"Come on, we've been working hard for, like... FOREVER!" McNamara huffed. "Can't we take a little break?"

"Ask me again when you've memorized your lines," Elphaba told her. "The deadline is getting closer and closer... whether or not we've learned our lines, we're going onstage."

Elphaba stared down at McNamara, who was on the floor with her phone. "It's up to you if you know your lines or not. Stage cues. Whatever."

McNamara shrugged, and Elphaba huffed, walking away. She really doubted there was anything she could do to change McNamara's mind, and staying there to argue wouldn't get anything done.

Maybe Elphaba could start arguing with Chandler.

"How's it going?"

Elphaba cringed. She'd been wrong earlier. She definitely did NOT want Christine here.

"Uh..." Elphaba wondered how to put this lightly. "Well, basically, everyone in the class simultaneously went on strike."

"What?" Christine cried. "But-strike-huh? Why?"

Elphaba shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "You should ask them."

"It's not anything against you!" Evan said, quickly inserting himself into the conversation. "I promise! It's just... we've been practicing a while... we're kind of tired... or something..."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think we have the time-," Elphaba started.

"I guess you're right," Christine interrupted calmly.

"Huh?" Elphaba gasped.

"Really?" Evan asked hopefully.

"I mean, yeah," Christine nodded. "It's been a week, right? We've got a lot down. I say we've earned a break!"

Elphaba and Evan stared at Christine with matching looks of confusion and surprise.

"Oh... great!" Evan finally said. "Thanks, Christine."

"Yeah, sure," Christine grinned as Evan walked off.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Elphaba asked her when Evan was out of earshot.

"Huh?" Christine asked. "Yeah, why not?"

"I mean, there isn't a lot of time left," Elphaba pointed out. "Only a week and a half. We should be practicing, right?"

"I mean, practice IS important," Christine agreed. "But making sure you don't get burnt out is also very important, right?"

"Burnt out?"

"Yeah, like when you do something too much, and then you start getting tired from it," Christine told her. "Even I get it sometimes, and I LOVE musical theatre."

Elphaba nodded, agreeing with Christine's last statement, but Christine seemed to take it as an agreement with everything. Christine smiled at her.

"So, you know, rest up!" Christine encouraged. "We'll get back at it tomorrow. It'll be fine!"

Christine walked off, but Elphaba didn't believe for a moment that Christine was going to 'take a break'. And, of course, Elphaba wasn't going to either.

Elphaba turned to Glinda and Alana. Surely they wouldn't be using this rest excuse either, right?

Elphaba called out to them.

Christine checked the clock again. It seemed that it was the same time that it had been the last thousand times. Still only twenty minutes until the bell. How rude would it be to just jump into the classroom to check on the tech crew.

Oh! Nineteen minutes now. Christine was done with waiting, it was now an acceptable time to check on the tech crew, even if it was.

"Elphaba, can you watch everyone, please?" Christine asked cheerfully, and she left before Elphaba could complain. But she couldn't leave fast enough to escape Elphaba's groan.

Christine hurried down the halls. Of course, NOW the clock had to start ticking. When Christine found a clock, she was surprised to find it had gone down to seven minutes left.

Maybe the clock in the gym just wasn't working.

Christine threw open the door to the classroom dramatically (just as planned) and made her entrance.

"How's it going?!"

"Watch it!" Duke snapped, narrowly avoiding the swinging door. "And horrible! It's all going AWFUL!"

Christine stopped, right in the action of stepping into the classroom. "It... is?"

Chloe was tapping a table, looking troubled. It was a bit odd on her face, which, in Christine's memory has only looked either smug or annoyed. "It's just... taking far longer than we expected. I mean, none of us really know how to sew."

"Not to mention the fabric we got wasn't great," Connor grumbled, now sounding more like his usual grumpy self.

"Oh... so that means it won't be finished by the show?" Christine asked, disappointed.

Connor and Chloe exchanged a look. "I don't think so, no-."

"Of course not!" Duke cried, standing up. "Of COURSE not. It was a stupid idea, and now we've wasted a whole day!"

"Not a whole day," Christine tried to counter, but just as she said it, the bell rang.

Duke glowered at her before hurrying out of the classroom.

"Hey, Heather, wait-!" Christine cried, but Duke was long gone.

Chloe, Christine and Connor exchanged a look. The barely started cape laid between the three of them, looking more like an ugly quilt than anything. Christine's brow furrowed. Were Duke and Elphaba right?

Had they wasted a whole day?