ᴀᴄᴛ ᴛᴡᴏ: ꜱᴄᴇɴᴇ ɴɪɴᴇ

"Thank fuck you're here." I muttered as I dragged her into the other room. My sister raised an eyebrow at me. "Seriously, I'm gonna die."

"You know I'm not, like, sticking around, right? Just saying hi, and then... bye." My sister reminded me, sitting down in the seat even after she'd just said so.

"I know- and I'm gonna miss the shit out of you." I say, sitting down in the seat in front of a mirror before rubbing both of my eyes. "Gina sent me a message on Valentines day..." I murmured.

"What?" A gasp escaped her lips as I told her. Then, Nini decided to hit my arm.

"Ow-"

"CASEY." I looked over at her smiling face.

"Not like that." I muttered. "She thought I'd sent her a box of chocolates for V-Day... but, I didn't... and now it's super... awkward." I murmured the last bit and my sister's face was no longer a teasing smile but a small frown.

"She's being depressed again, isn't she?" Kourtney asked as she walked into the room, also. Groaning, I planted my face in my hands as she walked around.

"Look on the bright side, she thought you sent those chocolates, Case." Nini rubbed my arm a little, but I was looking on anything BUT the bright side.

"Yes, but I didn't and now I feel like a total fucking douche." I muttered.

"Hey, language." Kourtney told me, but I rolled my eyes. "Casey, seriously, we've both seen the way G looks at you-"

"Nini, sweetheart?" Miss Jenn appeared at the doorway. "We have to get going if you don't want to miss that bus." I glanced over at Nini giving me a sympathetic look before she gave my hand a tight squeeze.

⊱⊰

Miss Jenn left us in Mr Mazarra's company (yay). Which basically left nothing but chaos for the group of us. With Gina and Carlos still not seeing eye-to-eye, it would only take half an hour and it would feel as though we were in the Hunger Games.

Seb played the piano while I tried to recite some of the lines for the song I had.

"Wait no-" I began, shaking my head.

"No, that was right-" He insisted to me, but it didn't feel right, still.

"Has anyone seen EJ?" Ashlyn asked, making all of us glance over at her, and I shook my head, much like the rest of the group.

"Everybody, listen up." I then glanced over at Gina's words, of who was (most likely) reluctantly standing next to Carlos.

"Great news." The boy says. "Gina and I agreed to joint custody of you all." Custody? I get we're family but what.

"Oh... so who gets us on the weekends?" Kourtney let the remark slip and I smirked a little from the piano.

"We're gonna workshop our Be Our Guest visions on you guys separately before adding the dancers." Gina explained before gesturing at herself as she spoke on. "The winning version," The girl mouthed to the side me before continuing. "will then be decided in an anonymous vote." The tension grew in the room, and I was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable. "Fun and easy."

"Yay." Ricky broke the silence with the word, and I don't think I've ever related to him in my life.

⊱⊰

Carlos held a candle, much like the Lumiere looked like. Ashlyn sat pride and place at the table as he spoke to the rest of us. "This number was inspired by my second-oldest sister's quince." I heard Gina go through pages of a folder behind me, probably judging every bit of the dance to its fullest. "Theme," The boy did jazz hands as he revealed it. "sultry jazz." The boy then looked over at his boyfriend. "Sebastian, you may begin."

As Seb went to play at the piano, the electricity suddenly went out, with the light above him flickering as it cut off. Wow, his playing is THAT good the electricity died.

As I stood up to glance around, so did a few others. "OH- what was that?" Ashlyn asked, most likely scared. There was a few more sounds from the ceiling and I continued to glance around.

"Maybe a power line went down?" Gina asked, with Carlos running out of the room to look around.

Seb checked his phone and then spoke up. "Oh, no, you guys. I missed an alert from my Farmer's Alman-app." His what what now? Someone else's phone went off as he stood up. "Salt Lake just got half a foot in half an hour."

"Oh... that's not good, is it?" I murmured.

Ricky then scoffed. "My dad says the roads are completely closed."

"OH MY GOSH, YOU GUYS, GET OUT HERE!" Carlos called out from the hallway, making it sound like someone had just been brutally murdered outside.

The group of us didn't hang about, running after where we'd heard the boy, finding him staring out the window at the snowstorm. It was hell outside, and my ears got cold just looking at it myself.

"This is insane." Ricky said, a small smile on his face.

Brits don't love snow unless they're under the age of eleven, due to the fact that the school may be closed. But the secondary schools? They couldn't give less of a fuck if it's 100 miles an hour.

"Wait..." I murmured, glancing around the hallways. "Are we the only ones in school? Where's the rest of them?"

"Looks like every other club went home." Kourtney said.

"Sensible..." I muttered, glancing everywhere down the hallway.

"Should I check on Nini?" Before I could even answer Kourt's question she already had her phone out. "I'm checking on Nini."

"Please, check on Nini." I murmured, taking my beanie out of my pocket and putting it on. The hallways were too cold for me.

"I don't mind the idea of being stuck together all night." I heard Big Read say to Ashlyn beside him.

"Maybe we should hold each other for warmth?" I glanced over at the couple with a just as traumatised face that Kourtney had.

Single and proud over here...

"Okay, you guys-" Ricky turns at the couple, probably trying to not continue their traumatising ways.

Then, Gina stepped in front of us all, sighing. "Listen up, folks. We need to act fast and gather supplies in case this gets worse." She said, taking charge of the situation.

Carlos scoffed, breaking our silence. "Love the commitment, Gina, but I don't think it's that serious."

"Rehearsal can wait. Follow my lead." The girl said, ignoring the boy. "Contact your parents every half hour but conserve your phone batteries." We all stood there silent for a moment. "WATERS, FLASHLIGHTS. LET'S MOVE, PEOPLE."

And with that, we were off, running around to look where we may find supplies. I really had no clue, though.

⊱⊰

Walking down the corridor with a pack of batteries, I found myself walking towards an arguing Big Red and Ricky.

"OH- CASEY- PERFECT-" Then, Gina also appeared from the stairwell. Big Red seemed to be even happier, for some reason. "Good- some girl's point of view." As I walked towards the two boys, Big Red and Ricky bickered.

"Dude, don't-"

"Ricky wants to text something so dumb to Nini, and I'm telling him not to." Big Red said to the two of us while we stood there.

"Dude it's not-"

"What's the text?" Gina asks, not paying attention to Ricky's insisting.

Ricky then turned back to his best friend. "BIG RED-"

"He wants to tell her that he's happy she's following her dreams, but also he wishes that he was her dream, and wants her to turn around right now and come back here." Big Red said it all and I looked at Ricky with a raised, teasing eyebrow, but Gina was silent. "I believe the word he used was 'forever'."

"Um..." I looked over at Ricky, confused. Was he serious?

"Mmm, yeah, don't ever text that. Or say it out loud, for that matter. Ever." Gina chuckled a little, but something was off. I could feel it.

"Thanks.... And sorry." Ricky says. "We didn't mean to suck you into a whole thing."

"Nah, it's all good." There was something awkward going on and I hated being there suddenly. "I'm honestly glad I ran into you guys. I found part of a Twix bar near my locker, and I can only assume it's one of your latest Valentine gifts to me." She said, glancing between me and Ricky.

I smiled. "Really? Come on, you know I'd give you a full Twix bar." I said with a scoff. "It's obviously Ricky's gift."

"Yeah, you know me." The boy says. "I go big at Valentines."

"Biggie, there you are." Ashlyn then suddenly also appeared. "Way to abandon the fam in a crisis."

Big Red chuckled. "We're coming now." He said, giving Ricky an awkward look before following after his girlfriend with Ricky. "Told you it was a bad idea."

"Whatever, shut up." Gina turned and Ashlyn stood looking at us both, waiting a little.

"What did I miss?" She asks us, but Gina wasn't as okay as it seemed.

"Not now, please." I heard her voice crack a little before walking away. Ashlyn watched her walk away before glancing back at me.

"What happened?" I glanced back at where I'd seen Gina last before she turned the corner.

"Honestly, Ash, I wish I knew..." I murmured. And there was only so many thoughts in my head that it could be. None that I liked.