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𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘

chapter eleven:
bring it on !

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NORTH HIGH WAS seriously getting on Athena's nerves. Not only did they release a video over the weekend about how their school was also putting on a production of Beauty and the Beast (seriously, how petty and petty immature did they have to be to switch their musical at the last minute because they felt threatened?) with that blonde girl Lily co-directing while also using Miss Jenn's dog idea, oh no. They posted another video showing Lily (the one who had tried to debunk Athena as Ricky's girlfriend multiple times) was playing Belle, and Athena hated to admit how much she looked like a natural in Belle's gold dress. How infuriating.

Miss Jenn had called an emergency meeting at school over the weekend. They were all currently gathered in the bomb shelter, worrying about the video. Athena paced back and forth in front of the risers where they were all watching the video from Ricky's phone. Both nervousness and anger was flowing throughout her veins.

"Oh my gosh, that's what's-her-name," Seb announced. "Lily from our auditions. She isn't just co-directing their show, she's starring in it."

"And she's playing my part," Athena added. She scoffed. "Really. I could've lived without seeing her again."

"Attie," Ricky lightly scolded.

"Don't Attie me." She continued to pace, absentmindedly running the owl charm back and forth on her necklace chain, and began to mutter to herself. "She's insecure, you're confident. She's insecure, you're confident. She's insecure, you're confident."

"Athena, you're panicking." Ricky suddenly appeared in her path, placing his hands on either side of her face to get her to look at him. "Hey, breathe."

Miss Jenn then walked in with some bags from Target, Carlos trailing behind her. "Thank you all for coming so quickly on a Saturday." They all took a seat on the risers. Athena sat beside Ricky, who laced their fingers together to try and distract her from freaking out more. "Or most of you all. We're missing a teapot and a village idiot."

"Uh, I think Kourtney and Big Red are at the pizza place," Ricky voiced.

"Yeah, Kourtney texted in the group," Seb said. "They said they couldn't get anyone to cover their shifts." EJ quickly hit his shoulder. "Oh."

Everyone turned to Seb with wide eyes, including Athena. See, they had two group chats — one with Miss Jenn, and one without Miss Jenn. Kourtney had texted in the one without Miss Jenn that they couldn't make it, yet Miss Jenn didn't know about this other group chat. And here Seb was, almost blowing their secret.

Miss Jenn pulled her phone out of her pocket, Carlos frantically shaking his head behind her. "Oh, I didn't see that text."

"I meant the group chat with me and EJ," Seb corrected himself before giving an enthusiastic thumbs up to everyone.

Athena laughed slightly to herself. Seb was a horrible liar. It was quite endearing, actually. He was adorable.

"Well, back to the matter at hand," Miss Jenn continued. "I can tell from your solemn faces you've all seen . . . the video."

"It's incredible," Carlos admitted. "Even I have no notes. I can't believe they stole our show."

"I think their Lumière is, like, an actual French exchange student," Ricky revealed.

"Miss Jenn, how are we supposed to beat North at the Menkies if they're churning out this a second after changing their musical?" Ashlyn asked. "It's like . . ."

Everyone began to murmur in agreement. Athena kept her gaze focused on the ground as she continued to play with the charms on her necklace. North High was taking this to a whole new level of competition. Plus, if they lost at the Menkies, wouldn't it be kind of her fault? She was the lead, after all. This show focused on Belle, since it literally was half of the title of Beauty and the Beast. Athena couldn't help but feel like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"Wildcats!" Miss Jenn exclaimed, clapping her hands to get their attention. "Take heart. North High is clearly focusing on bells and whistles. Impressive, but distracting. All we need is . . ."

"Friendship?" Seb guessed.

"No, Seb. All we need is to get back to basics. Emotional performances that really connect with the audience can make all the difference with these judges. And I have a plan, which is why you've all been called in here today. And that plan is . . . a weekend acting intensive."

"Acting intensive, like . . ." EJ began.

"Improv," Miss Jenn finished. "Character work. Movement exercises." She swung her legs around while sitting on a stack of mats, but her gaze focused on somebody in the back row when she stood back up. "Hey, Gina." Athena turned to see Gina texting someone on her phone. "Gina." She finally looked up. "Are you here?"

"Mmm, yeah," Gina replied. "Yeah."

"We're going to really connect with our characters. And impressive performances, not fancy staging or actual killer wolves, will be our key to the gold. And, don't forget, we have something North High doesn't."

"Friendship?" Seb questioned again.

Miss Jenn spoke right over him. "A brand new original song for the Beast and the rose."

She gestured to Ricky and Nini, who smiled at everyone. It was true. Miss Jenn had finally told them her secret plan. She wanted Nini to play the role of the rose in the show.

"Um, and, uh, how's that coming along, you guys?" Miss Jenn inquired.

Neither of them answered. Athena glanced over to see both of them with awkward expressions on their faces. That told her that they hadn't gotten much writing done . . . at all. But, hey, it was Ricky and Nini. If anyone was going to write a killer song for the musical, it was them.

Miss Jenn sighed. "Ricky, you stay here with me for deep-dive Beast character work. Nini, take the weekend, skip the workshop, and get a first draft of the duet down for the Beast and the rose." She clapped her hands together twice. "Okay!"

They all stood up. Ricky dragged Athena over to Nini, who was getting her backpack so she could leave. Athena didn't really understand why she had to come, but Ricky hadn't let go of her hand.

"Text me periodically, okay?" Ricky told Nini. "I'll have my phone on me, so if you've got something or you need my help, I'll answer."

Nini nodded. "Have fun, you guys."

Athena gave her a tight smile. "Good luck."

Nini then left the bomb shelter. Athena let out a deep breath and looked up at Ricky. He had a conflicted expression on his face and his mind seemed to be in another dimension.

She squeezed his hand. "Hey, you all right?"

"Hmm?" he hummed in response, meeting her eyes. "Oh, uh, yeah." He glanced back towards the group. "Just a little antsy right now. Tonight's the big night."

Athena's eyes widened realization and lowered her voice. "Oh, I forgot that tonight was Miss Jenn's first date with your dad."

"Shh," Ricky replied, making Athena blink. She wasn't even that loud. Ricky noticed this and sighed. "I — I'm sorry. It's just . . . it's one thing to see them flirting with each other on the sidelines, but it's a whole other thing for there to be an official dinner."

"Ricky! Athena!" Miss Jenn's voice called, making them look at her. "We're circling up in thirty seconds."

"Hey, if it ever gets too much, swing by my place," Athena voiced quietly to him. "My door's always open. You know that."

He kissed the top of her head. "Yeah, I know. Thanks, Attie."

They left to go join the circle. All of them grabbed hula hoops (why? Athena didn't know) and stood on some gym mats with their shoes off. Athena stood next to Violetta, holding her hula hoop around her neck. Violetta and EJ were quietly bickering over who could hula hoop better while Athena shook her head in amusement.

"Today is all about warm-up games," Miss Jenn explained. "The important thing is that we all—"

She was cut off by a rattling noise. All of them turned to see Seb completely ignoring Miss Jenn and hula hooping. He stopped and let his hula hoop drop onto the ground once he noticed everyone staring at him.

"Focus," Miss Jenn finished. "Strong start. Here we go, my young thespians."

They all did warm-ups with their hula hoops. It involved a lot of moving the hula hoops in a circle for some odd reason, but nevertheless, Miss Jenn deemed it time to go onto the next warm-up.

This one included pool noodles. Miss Jenn instructed them to be as creative as possible and do whatever they wanted with their noodles. She must've been out of her mind, because once they got handed them, everyone started to act like they were five.

Athena stood next to Ricky while trying to twist her pool noodle into a cool shape. Meanwhile, Ricky next to her was swinging his around like he was about to attack somebody with a sword. Athena laughed loudly at him and moved out of the way to try and avoid being hit.

"Oh my God, where did you learn that?" Athena questioned.

He stood up straight and winked at her. "You'd be surprised of the tutorials you can find online. Impressive, huh?"

"You wish, Bowen."

Ricky took both ends of his noodle in his hands and put it Athena through the U shape it created, tugging her in closer with it. "Is this more your style?"

Athena raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so you've got moves now?"

"You know it, pretty girl."

Miss Jenn clapped her hands to get their attention. "Okay. Now, everybody, drop your noodle and pair up for a mirroring exercise." Athena and Violetta shared a quick glance, but Miss Jenn was fast to stop them. "And no, Athena and Violetta, you two are not allowed to be partners for this."

Violetta groaned and gestured to EJ. "You're gonna make me be partners with him?"

EJ stared at her incredulously. "I'm literally your boyfriend."

Athena pointed to Ricky while placing her pool noodle on the ground. "Okay. You, me. Let's go."

The two stood on the platform with everyone else. They began to mirror each other. Surprisingly, they were doing pretty well. It was pretty funny because they were making each other do the most ridiculous things. Once, Athena even glanced over to see Violetta making EJ mirror her in doing the splits.

That exercise was soon over and all of them sat on the platform of gym mats with some balls. Athena tucked her knee into her chest and rested her chin on top of it to watch Miss Jenn. Ricky was next to her, texting Nini to see if she had any updates.

"So, what is acting, really?" Miss Jenn inquired. "Acting . . ." she looked over to Carlos, who stole a glance at Seb, and threw the ball right at his head. "Is reacting."

"Ow!" Carlos commented.

"In character, Lumière."

Carlos held up his arms to pretend to be a candelabra. "Ow."

Miss Jenn then looked over to Ricky, who was responding to one of Nini's texts. "Ricky, could you please put your phone down and join the family?"

She threw the ball at him, and he threw his phone to the side to catch it.

"Mmm-hmm," he hummed in response.

Ricky threw the ball back to her. All of them moved into a circle and played catch with each other with multiple balls to keep their senses heightened. It went fine at first, but then people started to get hit with the balls (including Miss Jenn once . . . whoops.)

Finally, their last exercise was improv. Miss Jenn told Athena and Gina that they would be going first, so they stood at the front of the room before everyone. She offered a smile to Gina, but Gina kept her gaze away, just like at Carlos' quinceañero. Her eyebrows knit in confusion. Had she done something wrong . . . ?

"Okay, Athena will start us off, and Gina, agree with what Athena says and then add on," Miss Jenn instructed. "It's yes, and, people. Remember, improv works best when you are all in. If you've got one foot out the door, it does not work, and the audience will smell your fear."

"Real comforting," Athena muttered to herself.

"Fun! Let's get a suggestion from the group on a location."

"The Louvre?" EJ suggested.

"Sure, the Louvre, okay," Miss Jenn agreed. "Go ahead. You ready? Okay."

Athena squinted her eyes at EJ. "I knew I shouldn't have shown you my terrible French accent. Watch your back, Caswell."

"Athena, start."

"Right, sorry." She cleared her throat and shook out her shoulders a little before beginning, talking in a French accent. "Okay, mademoiselle, you said you wanted to purchase some . . ." She paused for a second and looked at a painting on the wall. "Some art, correct?"

"From the Louvre?" Gina asked.

Athena mentally cursed herself, but she rolled with it. "Well, Madame, if one's as rich as you, they could purchase nearly any piece of art they wanted." She gestured to an imaginary painting. "What about this piece? Do you like it?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure."

"We can look around. See what your heart tells you."

"I really don't know."

"Yes, and . . ." Miss Jenn encouraged.

Athena froze for a second. "Oh. Uh . . ." She stepped out of character. "I'm sorry, Miss Jenn, I really don't know how to respond to that."

"It's okay. We're learning. We're learning. There are no rules here. Except that I will need you to do it correctly. Okay, let's try a new pair as an example. Um . . . Carlos and Seb, you boys wanna try?"

They got up to stand in the space. Athena went to walk back over to Ricky, but a hand grasped her wrist gently. She turned to see Gina standing there with a guilty expression on her face.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I totally ruined your scene," Gina apologized.

Athena shook her head with a comforting smile. "Don't worry about it, G. It's fine."

She left Gina and sat back down next to Ricky. He put an arm around her and Athena placed her head on his shoulder, sighing in content. It had been a long day. She could only imagine how the next intensive was going to go.

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I graduate high school tomorrow . . . the fuck

anyways

so, uh . . . let's talk about this episode

THE FLASHBACK ?????? AFTER THE ICONIC AND MY BELOVED RINI I LOVE YOU SCENE ?????? TIM FEDERLE, RESPECTFULLY, WHAT THE FUCK

I WAS NOT EXPECTING IT AT ALL AND RICKY LOOKED LIKE A LIL PUPPY I ALSO WANTED TO HUG HIM. AND SOFIA'S ACTING WAS IMPECCABLE SOMEBODY GIVE THIS GIRL ALL THE AWARDS

YET HOMEBOY RICKY KNEW HOW SHE FELT THIS ENTIRE TIME??? BOY YOU ARE BEING PUT ON PROBATION FOR LONGER NOW

and apparently I'm the only one who sees how much ricky is struggling. like my heart breaks for him bc poor baby doesn't know how to process his emotions and he has a lot of abandonment issues so that's why he's so clingy with nini

but like, ricky . . . you know what color we haven't tried yet??? therapy

bc stringing gina along like that isn't fair to her either, although I would say she needs to forget him bc she could do better. pls don't get me wrong I ADORE gina but I just don't see it happening between them

this show makes me lose my sanity. I'm very upset

um btw next chapter might be a lil angsty bc of ricky so be prepared teehee