It was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Christine frowned. It wasn't supposed to be so silent you could hear a pin drop, that wasn't in the script. Where was Veronica and why wasn't she reading her line (technically it was just a stage cue, Veronica didn't have any lines... but Christine wanted to sound professional!)?!?

"It's... Veronica's line," Christine said, looking around. "Veronica! It's your line! Where is she?"

No one answered, and Christine looked around the assembled people until her eyes landed on JD, nearly asleep and holding the script in his hand.

"JD!" Christine called, loudly. JD jumped, startled to consciousness, and Christine tapped her foot, irritated. "Where's Veronica?"

JD comically looked to his left and then his right, and then shrugged. "Beats me," he replied. "Oh! Uh... she went to fistfight Sweeny Todd or something. I wouldn't worry about it."

"I'm not worried-," Christine started.

"She has Michael, Jared, and Jenna with her, so she's safe," JD continued. It sounded like he was speaking more to himself at this point. "And, uh... Jeremy was it? Yeah, he's there, too, or something."

Christine had to take a breath. "As I was GOING to say, I'm not worried, I'm confused. We're supposed to be in school right now, why's she running off?"

"To fist fight Sweeny Todd?" JD shrugged, looking off to the side.

Christine frowned. "Did she actually say that?"

"I may have paraphrased a little bit."

"What did she say, JD?!" Christine demanded. JD put up his hands in surrender.

"Fine," he snapped. "She's ghost hunting with her friends again, alright?"

"What?" Christine was still confused. "But this is rehearsal! We all need to be here to practice; we don't have a lot of time!"

Sighing, Christine gave Jeremy a look. "This is worse than you last year.

"What-?!"

"Maybe they just thought ghosts were more important than some play," JD suggested, shrugging.

Christine glared at him. "This is important! They can't just run away from theatre!"

JD gave an none committal shrug that made Christine's blood boil. She opened her mouth to yell at him more before realizing that, yes, they had a time limit. They couldn't afford to waste anymore seconds.

"Whatever," she huffed. "We need a person to fill those spots. Alana, can you get some people from tech?"

"I don't think they'll be very happy about that," Alana said. Christine stopped herself just in time from saying 'I don't think I care'.

"We don't have a choice, this is too important," Christine said. Alana didn't argue any more, just nodded and got up to go get them.

Christine sat back down with a huff. Veronica, Jared and Jenna would be getting a strong word later.

As the class waited, they started talking amongst themselves. They all gradually relaxed, and Christine turned to Evan, trying to think of literally anything other than musicals to talk about.

Luckily, Evan provided the perfect conversational topic.

"What's that?" Christine asked, pointing to Evan's phone. She really didn't need to ask, she could recognize that blue light anywhere. Still, she wanted to know what Evan would say.

He jumped, and Christine was sure that if he hadn't gotten a hold of himself he would have launched his phone across the room.

"I-It's..." Evan hesitated, and Christine waited eagerly. "It's an app. Called Write Right."

It was a lie. Christine was well aware that Write Right had a green screen, but Christine was too interested in the fact that Evan knew what it was to interrogate him.

"Write Right?" Christine repeated, growing excited. "You use it too?"

Evan froze. Did he realize that his lie had just been shot to pieces? Nevertheless, Christine continued.

"It's so good, right?" she asked. "And so underrated. It's so cool that you write it, do you like to write stories?"

Evan blinked. "Uh... yeah. Yeah, I like stories. To write them. Specifically."

"So do I!" Christine cried, and then looked at the script still sitting in JD's hands. "I mean, obviously."

Evan looked over too. "Yeah. I know."

"So what stories do you like to write?" Christine asked.

"Uh... I don't know, I guess I like to write-."

Christine would have to find out later. At that moment, Alana caught Christine's eye.

"Tell me later," Christine told him, and turned to Alana. "Alana! Who'd you get- Why is only Connor here?"

Alana looked to Connor, who didn't look very happy to be here. "They couldn't really spare anyone, because Michael's missing. Connor was the only one who could come."

"Unfortunately," Connor huffed. Christine shook her head.

"Ok, fine, come on," Christine said, waving him over. "You're going to be the Deadly Virus, and two of the Rebels. "

"Wait, all of that?" Connor asked, sneering. "But why-?"

"Come on, come on!" Christine glanced at the clock. "Hurry up already!"

Huffing angrily, Connor did as he was told, grabbing the script from JD. With a passive aggressive flip of the page, Connor started. Or at least that's what Christine thought he did.

Connor said something, but he said it so quietly that he might as well have just been breathing. Suddenly, he stopped, and looked up, looking a little confused, and very grumpy.

"These are only stage cues," he said. "Why do you need me for this?"

"The play I wrote has only a couple speaking characters," Christine explained. "And they don't move a lot, so the other characters need to fill that role. That's why there are so many stage cues. And we need to know how our movements fit together, so that's why YOU'RE reading them out instead of one of us."

Despite this detailed explanation, Connor didn't look impressed. All he said was 'huh', before continuing to read, as again quiet as a mouse.

Christine let out an irritated sigh. "This is so irritating," she huffed, leaning closer to Evan. "If he's gonna be like this, then we might as well have not have called him in."

Evan shrugged. "Yeah... I think he's just grumpy."

Christine looked over at him, a smile crawling over her face. "Grumpy, huh? You make him sound like a little kid who didn't sleep enough."

Evan giggled. "With those bags under his eyes he's totally a little kid that doesn't sleep enough."

Christine giggled too. "Ha! Makes me wonder what he's like when he's happy."

"He's pretty funny, I think," Evan's answer was immediate, and it caught Christine off guard.

"Huh?" she asked. "How do you know? I thought you two weren't friends. Doesn't he hate you?"

Evan winced. "It's well deserved, and, yeah, we aren't friends," Evan shifted uncomfortably. "But, uh, when I was pretending to be his friend, I got the impression that he was pretty funny when he wasn't angry."

"So... never," Christine guessed.

Evan nodded. "Yeah."

"Hm," Christine said. "We should try and make him loosen up."

At that suggestion, Evan's face went white. "W-What? What are you talking abo-?"

"Hey, it's your line, take your script already!" Connor snapped, and Christine and Evan looked up from they're conversation. After a couple seconds, Christine stood up to take it, looking down at Connor.

"Actually, I have a different idea," Christine decided. "We're going to start from the beginning."

"What, why?!" Connor cried. "I don't have the time for this-?"

"We have to do this, Connor," Christine sighed. "We have to do this right. Please, put more energy and volume into it this time."

Connor looked ready to argue, and then grumbled and looked away. Christine smiled.

"Glad you understand," Christine grinned, then, to everyone else "From the top!"

The entire circle groaned, but that was almost immediately cut off. Christine almost laughed, it sounded exactly like a broken record.

Apparently, not everyone heard it, based on the complete silence. Christine cleared her throat, and read the line again, just like the first time.

Well, not exactly, she added a tiny bit more of a helium voice in it. She sounded like a chipmunk, almost, and she found it hilarious.

It seemed everyone else found it hilarious as well, because giggles broke out among the group. Yes! That was what Christine had been looking for.

Now, beaming with pride, Christine held out the script to Evan. He stared at it. He stared at it for far too long, for Christine's liking. She shook it.

That seemed to break Evan out of his trance, and he quickly grabbed the script.

He cleared his throat, like Christine did, and read his line. Well, tried to, at least.

"No, wait!" Christine interrupted quickly. "Evan, read it right!"

Evan stared at her. "Right?"

"Yeah," Christine said. "Like I did."

Evan visibly gulped. "O-Oh..." for a second, he didn't say anything. Christine waited. She wasn't going to back down on this.

Maybe Evan realized this, because he took a deep breath, and read his line. Christine grinned. HE READ IT IN THE SILLY VOICE!

"Yeah, good job, Evan!" Christine cheered, taking back the script for her line. "That's what I'm talking about!"

And so it continued. The beginning conversation went back and forth, with Evan seeming to get more and more into it. Their audience seemed to be having a great time. At least until the script was handed to Connor.

Connor's intention was immediately stated. "Yeah, so I'm not doing that."

"What?" Christine tried to put as much surprise into the question as she could. "But why?"

"Uh, cause it's dumb?" Connor sneered. "I don't even want to be doing this anyway."

"Well, this can make it fun," Christine explained. "Just do it."

"No."

"Connor."

"No."

"Connor."

"..."

Christine waited, and yet Connor still didn't start reading it. This was annoying at the beginning, but now it was just painful.

"Connor-."

"This is ridiculous."

"Just do it, Connor."

"Fine!"

Shaking out of the paper, Connor read the stage cue in the most mocking-like voice that he could muster.

Christine cheered. "Yeah!" she cried. "Good job!"

Connor blinked. "What-"

"Keep going!" Christine encouraged. "Read the next one!"

After a second, Connor did so, in the same goofy voice.

And it continued. After Connor, the rest of the crowd seemed to get into it, too, even JD, Duke and Chandler, even though they were sure to tell everyone that it was ridiculous first.

Unsurprisingly, it was fun, and nearly every line left everyone in uncontrollable giggles. It took longer than Christine would have thought to reach the end, but it was worth it. The fact that everyone was enjoying the show was more important to her on any day.

But they probably should start practicing.

So, ten minutes after the finale had finished up, Christine stood up, and ordered her classmates to start moving with their stage cues.

Christine jumped at the sudden disappointed groan that came from her class.

There was only ten minutes until the end of the day, but if Ms Wormwood hurried, perhaps the students would show her what they've got done today...

"Excuse me? Ms Wormwood. We've need to talk."

Ms Wormwood slowed to a stop, breathing heavily through her nose. After counting down her anger, Ms Wormwood turned to Javert with her usual smile.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I need to talk to you about something," Javert told her. Ms Wormwood bit back the 'But we ARE talking' comment and waved for him to continue.

Javert wasted no time. "I overheard that some of your students are missing," he said. "Actually, quite a few of them."

Ms Wormwood hummed. "When did you hear about this?" she asked. "When I was taking attendance earlier?"

"They said that your students were out hunting ghosts," Javert spat.

'Of course they are,' Ms Wormwood sighed internally. "I see."

"This is very irresponsible behaviour," Javert scolded her. "From what I've seen, your students are all like this. You need to discipline them more, they can't be running off like this all the time!"

"...And what are your suggestions?" Ms Wormwood asked, certain she wouldn't want to hear it.

"You're too soft on them," Javert sneered. "Be more stern. And give them the punishments they deserve."

"Ms Wormwood?"

Ms Wormwood turned around, and once again sighed internally when she saw Elphaba standing there. Elphaba and Javert in the same room only meant disaster.

"Just a second, Elphaba," Ms Wormwood said kindly. "Can you please wait in the gym?"

"I'm sorry, but I can't," Elphaba told her. "The bell rang a little bit ago. Class 1A's basketball team wants us out."

"Hm," Ms Wormwood said. "Alright."

Well, if that wouldn't work... Ms Wormwood turned to Javert. "Well, then. If you'll excuse me... Over here, Elphaba."

Ms Wormwood led Elphaba down the hall, far away from Javert. Luckily, he didn't follow, only looking mildly annoyed.

"What did you need, Elphaba?" Ms Wormwood asked. It took a minute for Elphaba to respond.

"Oh!" Elphaba finally seemed to realize she was being spoken to. "Uh... I was just going to warn you about 1A. That was it. Sorry."

"...Oh," Ms Wormwood chuckled. "Right. Well, then. Thank you, Elphaba."

"Yeah..." Elphaba paused for a second. "Ms Wormwood, we step out of line a lot. Why don't you punish us?"

"Because none of you have done anything to deserve punishment yet," Ms Wormwood answered, surprised at the question. Elphaba looked surprised.

"Wha-Really?" Elphaba asked. "But... Even when Rich and Jared are being dic-morons?"

Ms Wormwood laughed. "Well, yes. Rich and Jared are loud people, but they quiet down when I talk to them, right?"

"Sometimes," Elphaba grumbled. "But isn't it annoying?"

"Hm..." Ms Wormwood shrugged. "I guess I just find them entertaining."

"You do?" Elphaba sighed. "I don't know. I think we deserve to be punished sometimes."

"Well, if something's annoying, just tell me," Ms Wormwood said. "I'll see to it."

That didn't seem to be the answer Elphaba wanted, but she didn't argue. Elphaba just sighed.

"Okay," Elphaba said. "I'll see you later, Ms Wormwood.

"Alright, Elphaba," Ms Wormwood said.

But before Elphaba could leave, Ms Wormwood called out to her. "Oh, and Elphaba?"

Elphaba looked back at her, and Ms Wormwood smiled at her. "I don't think you need to worry. Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

Elphaba didn't seem to believe her.