So.

Maybe Christine had overreacted yesterday. After all, maybe no one really did want to do this. Christine didn't exactly remember them jumping over themselves to preform a play. Maybe they were just going along with this because it was a school project.

And Christine had yelled at them for not wanting to do it, despite the fact that it was mandatory. Technically they REALLY hadn't signed up for this.

Half of Christine didn't want to go to school today, she was far too embarrassed and ashamed. Actually, that was incorrect. All of Christine didn't want to go.

And she was completely prepared not to, Christine was prepared to stay in bed all day today and hide from (read: wallow in) her shame. But then she remembered the fact that Class 1B had a big problem with students not showing up, so with considerable effort, Christine got up, got herself ready, and hurried to school, maybe she could hide in a closet or something during the whole day, and just avoid everyone.

Christine watched in what was practically slow motion as Chandler turned the corner and spotted her.

Christine sighed. Chandler sneered at her, looking slightly confused. Christine couldn't imagine that was people's usual reaction to her, especially not from Chandler.

With that in mind, Christine gave her a wave, trying to put as much cheerfulness as she could muster into it. She was pretty sure it came off like a funeral wave.

Chandler gave her an odd look, very accusatory, and started towards the school. Christine wondered how weird it would be if Christine waited for Chandler to walk a certain distance away before she started walking again.

Very weird, apparently, Christine realized when Chandler turned around to give her yet another look. What was that now, like, three in two minutes?"

Christine stared back. What exactly did Chandler expect? For them to walk to school together? They'd never done that when they met on the street before, and they were even worse friends than they started the year as.

Well, Christine doubted that Chandler was waiting for an autograph. Christine started walking, and, side by side, they started to the school. Let the bullying and snide comments commence, Christine guessed.

But, to Christine's surprise, they walked in complete silence for a bit, nearly all the way to the school. And when she did talk, Christine's surprise turned to just shock.

"They told me to distract you or something," Chandler told her. "But I'm not going to, because how dare they expect me to do any work. Hmph."

It took Christine several seconds to reply. "W-What?"

Chandler didn't turn to look at her. She was looking her usual grumpy self, and so Christine was more and more convinced ever passing second that Chandler was not the person to say those words.

"Who... Who was distracting me?" Christine asked, and then shook herself. "Er, I mean, who wanted me distracted?"

"You'll see."

Chandler didn't look like she wanted to say anymore, and Christine had so many questions that for a while, Christine didn't say anything either.

"Wait... but if you came to get me," then you must have already been at school," Christine said. "And, clearly, you weren't doing any work-."

"You're a modern day Sherlock," Chandler scoffed.

"So then, what were you doing at school so early?" Christine asked, ignoring Chandler's interruption. Chandler huffed.

"Why do you need to know?" she snapped.

"That's a fair point," Christine replied. Chandler looked like she expected Christine to say something else, but when she didn't, Chandler looked away. Silence overtook the two of them.

"I... Chandler, can I ask you something?" Christine eventually asked. Chandler frowned at her.

"What if I don't want you to?" she growled. Christine took that as a rhetorical question.

"Do you like acting?" Christine asked.

"No," Chandler told her, without hesitation.

"...Oh..." Christine said. "Okay."

"...Well, it's not all bad, I guess," Chandler said it so quietly that Christine didn't even hear it at first. But when she finally became aware of it, Christine snapped her head up to look up at Chandler.

"Wait, what?" Christine asked. "So... you DO like acting?!"

"Absolutely not," Chandler snapped. "Trying to memorize the lines and preform them right and moving around correcting is a chore and I hate it... but watching Heather completely screw up all her lines is kind of fun. I hate acting, but I like watching Heather be a screw, just to be clear. I'd hate for you to get the wrong idea..."

"Oh." Well, that wasn't exactly the experience Christine wanted everyone to experience, but she supposed at the end of the day that at least Chandler was taking something from this. And that it was something good. "Well. Okay."

"Don't expect me to join any clubs or whatever!" Chandler hissed at her.

Christine bit back her 'I doubted you would join them even if you DID like acting', and the two walked the rest of their way in silence.

"Hi, Veronica," Christine greeted, feeling considerably more joyful than when she woke up. Then she did another take. "Veronica? What are you doing here?"

Veronica gave her a strange look. "Well, I go to school here, you see. I should be asking you what YOU'RE going here, actually. Heather, you were supposed to distract her!"

Heather showed Veronica a rather rude gesture. Veronica rolled her eyes.

"Ugh," she said before turning to Christine. "Uh... ok, so, we were planning to memorize all our lines then surprise you at rehearsal, but, well, apparently memorizing lines is harder than we thought. That's why we sent out Heather. But Heather didn't do her job. So, Surprise? I guess?"

"I..." Christine didn't know what to say. "Wait, 'all of us'? You're all here?"

"Yeah!" Veronica said. "Me, Jenna, Michael, Jeremy and Jared! We're all here and practicing our lines and all that."

Christine blinked. "Wow."

"Yeah..." Veronica suddenly looked sheepish. "Sorry for skipping out on you before. Well, I mean, I'm not that sorry, there WAS a ghost out... but we're here to make it up to you! If we're still in the play that is."

"You are," Christine told her. "Well, thanks, I think. I'm glad you're practicing, at least. I just hope you'll be ready by, uh... tomorrow."

They wouldn't be.

"It'll be tight!" Veronica agreed. "But we're working on it. Actually, speaking of which..."

Veronica watched as she hurried away, probably back to the other people she was supposedly working with. Christine still could barely believe it.

And when Duke came out of the classroom, Christine was certain that she was dreaming.

Duke spotted them, and then hurried over (well, 'hurried' is kind of as strong work; Duke was walking eagerly, but trying very hard to seem cool and collected), a proud, almost arrogant smile on her face.

"I did it," Duke called out, proudly. "I told you I could do it."

Christine looked from both Duke to Chandler and back. "Wha-?"

Chandler scowled. "Hmph. Whatever. It was all probably Connor and Chloe anyway."

"WHA-?"

Duke huffed, now longer smiling. "Wasn't- well I suppose they did some. But I did most of it. You see, Chloe used to do none of it until Alana and Glinda forced her too, and hey, they've exchanged numbers now instead of working, and Connor fell asleep for a third, but I continued working no matter what."

"Right."

"Wait, so what's going on?!" Christine called. "Heather? Connor? Chloe? Were... Were you all working on the prop?"

"I wasn't," Chandler told her quickly.

"Yes, we were," Duke told her. Christine could practically hear her trying to hold back her excitement. "And we got it done. It works."

Christine stared. "When... were you all doing this?"

"Oh, you know, after school," Duke waved her hand, as if waving away any notion of arrogance. "And before school. Whatever."

"...Wow," Christine said. "Heather, that's amazing!"

"Huh?" Heather asked, finally dropping her calm demeanor. "Wait, really?"

"YES!" Christine cried, jumping up. Her brain had finally caught up to the shocking and sudden revelations. "Heather, that is SO COOL! I'm so happy that you care so much about this!"

"Oh, I don't," Duke told her quickly, then she looked away. "I mean... the only reason I'm doing this is because it's, uh... kind of entertaining. Just a bit."

Christine laughed. "Well, at the end of the day (you're another day older, sorry), I'm glad you're enjoying it."

Duke, looking slightly mystified at the reference, just shrugged, fixing her face right before she smiled. "Whatever. It's not like I'm doing it for you. Stop looking so proud."

Christine laughed. "I wouldn't have it any other way!"

Duke scowled as she turned around, probably heading back to the classroom where she had been working on the costume before. Christine was almost ready to follow her (Duke didn't look like she had gotten her reference. That could not stand), but she knew she had something different she needed to take care of first.

But before she could, she took the time to really revel in the face Chandler was making. Chandler had been mocking this idea from the start, saying it wouldn't work, and that it was dumb anyway.

The face that she made while it was coming together right before her eyes was music to Christine's ears.

Ms Wormwood looked at her curiously. "We want to... continue on with the show?"

The way she said it made Christine feel anxious. "Yeah... I didn't mean what I said yesterday, I think we can do this!"

Ms Wormwood blinked. "What you said? I don't... what'd you say?"

"Oh," Christine realized, and suddenly she felt a little ridiculous. "Right. You weren't there."

Ms Wormwood tilted her head at Christine. "Yes."

"So you didn't hear my monologue."

"Your monologue?"

"I think this would be a good time to leave," Christine said. "I mean, if the show's still on, there's really no need for me to be here..."

Christine and Ms Wormwood stared at each other for a second.

"Uh... goodbye," Christine said quickly, and she hurried out.

Well. That was a little embarrassing. Christine hurried to the gym, hoping to forget that experience as soon as possible. Luckily, the perfect distraction came out around the corner just in time.

"Oh, Evan!" Christine called. "Hey!....Hi JD."

JD glared at her as Evan waved. Christine hurried to them.

"I can't believe you all are so early!" Christine told them. "This is great!"

JD and Evan gave her strange looks.

"Early?" Evan repeated.

JD snorted. "If anything we're late."

"Huh?" Christine glanced at the wall and her eyes widened. It had apparently been fifteen minutes since the bell. Christine hadn't realized how distracted she had been. "Oh..."

"Uh, anyway, I was, uh... I just wanted to say..." Christine watched as Evan physically cringed, and started over. "I'm ready to do this. The play I mean."

Christine blinked. "I thought you were ready before."

"No, I was!" Evan told her hastily. "I didn't... What you said yesterday. It made me kind of rethink how I was looking at this. You're right, this is important. I think I should try harder."

"O-Oh..." Red hot embarrassment covered Christine's cheeks as she grimaced. "I wasn't talking about you, you know. I was referring to... others. And I completely regret everything I said, by the way."

"You do?" Evan asked, surprised, and then shook his head. "Uh, anyway, I... didn't really think much of this before, you know (sorry), I kind of just looked at it as an assignment, and because I was certain that I wasn't going to get a good grade anyway, I just didn't want to try. But, yeah.... This is important, so I'll try harder."

Christine blinked. "Huh. You don't have to do that, you know. I'm just... happy as long as you're having fun."

To Christine's surprise, Evan laughed. "Y-Yeah. It's funny that it took you yelling at us to remind me how much I like acting.... (Well, I don't like it too much (no offense) but it's fun as a one time thing I think)."

"...Huh," Christine said, and she smiled. "Everything's finally going right with this play! Let's do this, Evan!"

Evan nodded enthusiastically, and Christine tried not to be too disappointed that he didn't outright cheer.

It was time for them to get this show on the road.