The next day was the day they were going to take the group picture for the play. Ellie was dressed up in the Gabriella clothes as she walked out on the stage. She even had a Gabriella wig on for the photo.

" You look fabulous, as always." Avalon tells her with a smile on her face as Ellie walks over to her and Trevor.

Ellie smiled. " Thanks." she looks at Trevor who was dressed up as Ryan. " You look pretty great as well, Ryan."

Trevor smirked and pretended to flip his hair. " Yeah, I know." he said and the girls laugh.

" Okay, people, let's do this."

The three of them look over to see Ricky walking out in Troy clothes and they all gasp as they see him wearing a Troy wig. 

" Oh my gosh." Ellie says with wide eyes.

Ricky looks at her, the hair moving as he turns. " What?"

Ellie chuckles and shakes her head. " I mean, well, all of this is just a lot." she said as she gestures to Ricky.

" You just gestured to all of me." Ricky said and Ellie nods with an amused smile on her face. 

" Exactly."

Ricky looks over as Trevor and Avalon start laughing. " What's funny?" he asked as he flipped the hair of his wig which just caused everyone to laugh. 

The laughter dies down while Gina walks out onto stage in the Taylor clothes that she was supposed to wear as she dramatically says, " Let's get some air, Wildcats."

Ellie looked over and she had to admit Gina looked good. " G, you're looking amazing."

Gina smiled at her. " Thanks, and so are you El."

" Good morning, Gina." Ricky chuckled.

Gina looked over at him and her eyes widened when she saw the wig and she laughed. Ricky grins as he flips the hair of his wig. " Pretty good, right?"

" Troy," Gina chuckles. " you look the best." she says as they high five each other.

" Thank you, I try." Ricky said.

" Okay, guys," Big Red says, getting everyone attention. " We're gonna get one in for practice. We're all gonna jump at the count of three."

Everyone stands where they're supposed to get in the line. The first time they did it everyone did it off beat and Kourtney was accidentally in the shot. She apologized and quickly walked off to the side.

The second time they tried, Ricky, EJ and Trevor jumped at the same time while everyone else jumped after them and when Trevor jumped he accidentally hit the l of Musical that was above them.

" Wait, what happened?" Big Red asked.

" Where to begin." Ricky sighed.

Seb turned to Ricky. " I think you went too early."

" Are we jumping on three or after three?" Gina asked.

Ellie nodded as she points at Gina. " Yeah, I would also like to know that."

Big Red nods. " Yeah, the count of three, ready?"

" Nah, man,"  Ricky shakes his head. " you need some new words."

Ellie looks over to her left to see that Seb was kneeling. " I think I broke a heal."

" Yeah, and I think I broke the sign." Trevor says as he looks above him. He looks back at everyone and quickly adds, " On accident of course." 

" You guys," Carlos sighs. " this isn't that hard. You smile, you leave the Earth, you land."

" It's a little hard to smile when we don't even know the plan." Ricky said.

" And I have to admit it's a little hard looking at Ricky without laughing. I think it's the wig." Ellie admits and Ricky playfully rolls his eyes as everyone else chuckles.

" Okay, let's take a five." Carlos tells them. 

" On five or after five?" Ricky sarcastically asked as he walked off and Ellie couldn't help the laughter that escaped her lips.

Seb chuckles. " I think he's mad at us."

****

Later that day at practice everyone is waiting for Carlos and Miss Jenn who appear to be late.

" Have you seen Carlos and Miss Jenn? They're never late." Natalie said.

Big Red walked over to where Ricky and Ellie were standing. " So what happened with you guys and Gina after you left Friday?"

" I think we made a new friend." Ellie said.

" Did you find out what happened with her and EJ?" he asked.

" We don't really know. It wasn't very clear." Ricky said as he shook his head.

" So the plan is to live vicariously through somebody else I assume." Big Red said after a laugh.

Natalie then said that they might as well start so everyone got ready.

" Are you sure we shouldn't wait until Miss Jenn gets here?" Ellie asks her just as Carlos runs into the room.

" Okay, people," Carlos said. " let's stage a number. I'm late."

" Is Miss Jenn coming?" Nini asked.

" Miss Jenn had a small personal matter to attend to and won't be here today." Carlos replied.

Nini frowns. " Is everything alright?"

" Good question."  Seb said.

" Everything's fine." Carlos chuckled, but Ellie wasn't convinced.

" Okay, Gabriella," Carlos grabs Ellie's hand and brings her over to the mark that was on the floor. " I want you downstage on this mark."

He lets go of her hands and points to his right. " Troy on right stage."

" Chad on left box. Uh, other boys, find a box." Carlos said.

" Isn't it a little weird that they're on stage when I'm singing?" Ellie asked, glancing back at the boys behind her and then looked back at Carlos.

" Yeah, why do we have a forest of boys if Troy basically screwed her over?" Avalon spoke up. " Wouldn't it be better if we just tried something different?"

Other girls from the audience started suggesting what they should do. They also mostly just talked about loving and supporting sisters and just chopped down the trees.

" Is it better if she just sings a solo acoustic version?" Ricky butted in.

" I vote for that." Gina said, looking over at Ellie for backup. Ellie nodded. " Yeah, me too. Acoustic versions are almost always better."

" Okay, guys, this is not a democracy!" Carlos shouted over everyone's talking and everyone grew quiet.

" Carlos, are you okay?" Nini asked with a worried look on her face.

" We can just wait until Miss Jenn gets back and wait for her opinion." Ellie suggested.

" Well, she's not here and I don't know if she's ever coming back." Carlos admitted as he looked down. Ellie stared at him with wide eyes, not really knowing what to say now.

" Wait, what?" Ricky asked as he stepped forward.

" She's in deep trouble, you guys." Carlos looks at everyone. " They're saying she lied on her job application and there's a school board meeting in less than twenty four hours. She's probably going to lose her job." he said and by now everyone had stood up, looking at Carlos with worry and concern.

Carlos sighed and admitted, " I wasn't supposed to tell any of you but I'm trying to do my best here."

" How can we have a show if we don't have a teacher?" Ashlyn asked.

" You know you could have told me." Seb spoke up and Carlos shook his head. " Miss Jenn asked me not to."

EJ looked over at Carlos. " Wow, Carlos, what else are you not telling us?"

" EJ, relax." Ellie spoke up. " We all just need to calm down before we go into panic mode. He said that Miss Jenn told him not to say anything and we should respect that."

Natalie then snarked a question if she wanted to be in charge. " She didn't say that! She said to relax." Kourtney backed her up and Ellie was surprise that she did.

Nini was the first to say she needed a minute and everyone agreed with her. Avalon, Trevor and Ellie tried stopping them but it was no use. " Rehearsals are officially canceled until further notice." Carlos shouted.

Soon it was just Ellie, Gina and Ricky left in the room. " Well, that went down hill fast." Ellie said as she sat down next to Gina. " Yeah, I couldn't agree more with you." Gina nodded.

" Nothing fell apart." Ricky looked at them. " Everything's going to be okay."

Ellie and Gina share a look. " Do you know something that we don't know?" Ellie asked as she looked back at Ricky.

Ricky shrugged his shoulders. " She's Miss Jenn. She's unstoppable. The whole show's unstoppable."

" But what if it does stop?" Gina asked.

Ricky shakes his head. " Let's not go there."

Ellie looked at him with a sympathetic smile. " I'm sure everything will work out. In the mean time, uh, how about you play the acoustic version of when there was you and me? You told me you have been working on it, but I haven't got to hear it yet." she suggested, hoping it would bring the mood up in the room.

Ricky looked at her with surprise. " You serious?"

Ellie nodded and smiled. " Yeah."

The two girls watched as Ricky got his guitar out and after tuning it he then started playing and singing the song when there was me and you.

Ellie couldn't help but me mesmerized as she listened to Ricky sing and watch him play the guitar. Sure she was good at playing the guitar, but Ricky was no doubt much better at it than she was. Their eyes met half way through the song and she smiled at him, it was her own way of telling him that he was doing great.

Even after the song finished the three of them didn't see Nini watching them before leaving after she realized that there was something going on between Ellie and Ricky.

" So yeah, that was it." Ricky said.

Ellie smiled. " That was fantastic, Ricky."

" Oh my gosh, it was great. And you two were so cute, staring at each other with heart eyes the whole time." Gina smiled at them and the both of them blushed while looking away from each other.

" I don't know what you're talking about." Ellie said as she chuckled nervously.

Gina rolled her eyes, knowing that there was something going on between them, but she just smiled. " I would love to be able to play guitar like that."

" You're good like at everything else." Ellie looked over at her.

" Yeah, we don't wanna hear it." Ricky said with a small laugh.

Gina looked at them with a raised brow. " What's everything else?"

Ellie and Ricky then started to list things off. " Acting is one of them, G." she started off the list. " Dancing." " Throwing drinks on people." " And being nice, at least to us."

" Wow," Gina said. " I was really hoping you guys would forget that."

" Well, you can't really forget anything great that happened that night." Ellie said as she smiled at Ricky. Ricky looked over at her with a smile and agreed with her.

" On a serious note, should we be doing something?" Ricky asked.

" To help Miss Jenn?" Ellie asked as she tilted her head to the side.

Ricky nodded. " Maybe like a letter writing campaign?"

" In one night?" Gina asked.

Ricky sighed and Ellie realized how much he was worried about this. " Yeah, I don't know..."

A/N yay I'm happy I got another chapter up! I hope you guys enjoyed it & don't forge to check out some of my other books!