Given the recent setbacks in the musical, Noah pitched in wherever he could, just generally trying to be of assistance in whatever ways didn’t actually require him to be on stage. He moved equipment, helped set up and break down sets, and otherwise did the behind-the-scenes stuff that needed doing. Every so often, he’d sneak in a glance – and, whenever she wasn’t busy with something else – a smile and a wave at Marley.

And all this while graciously (and good-humoredly) dealing with Ron’s questionable observations: “Too bad Kenton didn’t get you in the eye. Can you imagine HOW COOL it would’ve been for you to have an EYEPATCH!? Oh well… I guess the scar’s still pretty cool…”

Cloud did his best to distract Ron from pestering Noah without distracting him from his backstage jobs. He wasn’t sure what to think of Noah anymore. He tried his best to always see other people’s point of view, and it was hard to wrap his mind around the emotion jumps he kept witnessing. He opted to keep his distance and make sure Ron did the same.

All the concern about what was happening shook him. He was off his game, concentrating on something as silly as a play felt pointless all over again.

Great. Skeptical of his classmates and hating on the show. He was back to square one and he knew it.

Though her nerves were still a bit shot from the shenanigans that happened earlier in the week, Marley was not about to let Kenton stop her from performing. In fact, she wanted this performance to be even better now without his punk ass around.

Simon had done a great job at memorizing the lines and she didn’t have to worry about him trying to slip her some tongue when they kissed. It was like a whole new atmosphere that she desperately wanted, needed.

It was as if the play had just started to become fun and she could relax again. It helped too that Noah was nearby and that she was able to count on her friends for the support she needed. They had all come when she needed help the most and that realization was the ‘highlight’ of being kidnapped.

Her mom had made her friends chocolate chip cookies and managed to talk her dad into letting her stay at the school. And for that, Marley was grateful.

She smiled to Simon, “Come on Prince Charming, let’s do this.”

Seeing Marley rebound so well from being kidnapped by that crazy kid gave Emmy the renewal of energy she needed to throw herself into the last week of rehearsals. “Hell week” they call it. But Emmy wasn’t getting down about the tough schedule. Simon wasn’t nearly as good a dancer as Kenton, but she’d take his slightly awkward humility over the other boy’s suave arrogance any day. He was teachable and a fast learner. A choreographer’s dream.

They’d spent the previous few hours going over the big dance number between Marley and Simon at the ball. And when the dress rehearsal actually did roll around, Emmaline was nervous. Kenton better not have ruined my show. I will seriously kill him.

The cast did well, all things considered. Still, Emmy couldn’t help biting her nails as the big number drew ever closer. Then it was upon them and she found herself gripping the back of the chair in front of her with white knuckles.

But the song came. And went. And the small group of directors and supporters in the seats sat with mouths agape. As the actors left the stage after the scene, you could have heard a pin drop.

It was… Beautiful. Marley looked stunning with her beautifully done dress and hair. Simon was great, and the two completely nailed the dance. Every step in place. And when all the pieces of Emmy’s routine came together perfectly, it looked like magic on the stage.

In fact, Marley seemed to have cast a spell over the gathered audience, and everyone sat in stunned silence for a moment or two before exploding into uproarious applause.

Kisha was basically wringing Emmy’s neck in her enthusiasm, while a few happy tears escaped her eyes. “It was amazing! Wasn’t she so beautiful?? Emmy I love it! I could kiss you!” Emmaline playfully fended off her suddenly gushing friend and tried to watch the next scene. But somewhere inside her, her heart was bursting with excitement. We did it.

Noah wasn’t exactly feeling it, so soon after the bloody skirmish with Kenton, but he nevertheless put on his best face and engaged the parents at the ticket booth, doing all he could to remain cheerful, courteous, and even a little bit entertaining. Kisha had been adamant that the audience’s experience of the show started at ticketing, and that would color how they received what happened on stage. He kept things moving smoothly and efficiently, until, at last, everyone had taken their seats, and he was able to slip away from the booth to grab a chair next to his mother – somewhere that he’d have a good view of the stage and from which he knew Marley would be able to see him smiling at her.

Niki took Noah’s hand in hers and gave a little squeeze, as the pre-show audience chatter was starting to die down. She grinned mischievously at her son, “You’re absolutely sure you don’t want a singing part? I’m sure they could squeeze you in, last-minute…”

The Green Room was a bustle of activity the night of the show. Students milled around like ants around the colony. Make-up artists, costumers, stage-hands, and actors all hurried around trying to complete some last minute task or other. Emmy was no exception. True, she didn’t have a role in the musical, but she spent every available opportunity grabbing whoever wasn’t on stage at the moment to review the next dance number. She was especially watchful of the footwork. Good dancing starts from the feet, after all.

Thank God for Capezios. Luckily, she’d talked Kisha into carving out part of the budget for getting all of the dancers fitted dance shoes. It had paid off in spades. Comfortable, flexible shoes allowed them to move gracefully and naturally, even though most of the boys had grumbled about wearing “girl shoes”. She’d had to show them all a video of Gene Kelly dancing in “An American in Paris” before the more masculine among them finally accepted that they’d wear them. But she was so glad they did. The dancing actually turned out looking pretty good!

At some point during the evening, Trip had gone out of his way to catch her eye and give her one of his gorgeous smiles. Butterflies.

He’d been understandably wary of them being seen together with all the random people around campus, and she agreed. Something they’d have to put up with for now. But she knew that however silent he might be right now, she had his complete support. And it meant the world to her. It kept her floating all night throughout the performance, working tirelessly to perfect the cast’s moves.

She tried not to show it but suddenly Marley was nervous. There were more people in the crowd than she had anticipated. “This is all Ron’s fault,” she muttered to herself as she remembered him telling the other students what had happened. Marley sighed quietly to herself and closed the curtain, “No, this is Kenton’s fault.”

Kenton. Nobody had heard from him or had seen him since that day. She wondered where he was and hoped it was somewhere really cold and miserable. Antarctica would be best.

But she wasn’t going to let Kenton Davis ruin all the long hours of practice and extra practices that she and her classmates had spent preparing for this moment. She could hear Kisha announce the play and knew she had only moments before her turn on the stage.

Marley took a deep breath. She thought of Emmy, Cloud, Sorath, and Trip…and took another deep breath. And then she thought of Noah and smiled as she breathed. She was so fortunate to be surrounded by such outstanding friends.

She heard her cue and headed on stage. She sang like she had never sung before and danced like she had never danced before. She wasn’t just acting the part of Cinderella she had become Cinderella.

The students and family in the audience were mesmerized by the performance. And her enthusiasm had radiated to the rest of the cast. They all performed better tonight than they had at any practice.

Someone had said that working tech was long stretches of pure boredom broken only by 30 second bursts of absolute panic. It was true.

Cloud darted silently from place to place backstage, always on his mark for the next scene change or costuming assist. The only time he was late was when Ron had distracted him by mouthing the words along with the actors - something he’d been doing the last few weeks, but this time he got Cloud in on it. Before he knew it, Ron was a melodramatic Prince Charming, while he was over-dramatically lip syncing to Marley himself, instead of handing off a prop to an actor. Someone else covered for him with no problems, but it shook him into paying attention for the rest of the show.

Cloud was amazed by the rush of joy he felt as his hands rested on the curtain rope, shutting it before the final bow. Looking out to make sure all the actor were in place amid the applause he opened the curtains up again and stated clapping himself.

The final bow applause for Marley and her prince was perhaps only rivaled by the applause for Prophet, which had been topped off by a lot of cheering and words of praise.

They’d done it, it was finished, and it was glorious.

“The moon is not in the school budget, Ron,” Cloud argued via app.

“No, no, listen, listen,” Ron insisted, “We get somebody to write up a grant, right? And then we launch a crowdfund and– and do that whole donation matching thing! Think about it, people will total throw money at the first high school to go to the moon!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are there grants to send people to the moon?”

“There’s gotta be! If you get the right grant writer, anything is possible! We would be making history! We could bounce around in the anti-gravity and we could eat astronaut ice cream and–”

“Seriously, what do you know about grants?”

“I know that’s where science gets its money! This’s science, Cloud!”

Cloud shook his head and looked to his phone again. “Don’t you think Disneyland or a beach or something would be easier?”

There was a moment where Ron’s eyes sparked as he suddenly found himself in a serious debate; the moon or Disneyland?

Sorath hugged Sandy as they heard they had won
“Sandy your costumes where amazing! They looked so wonderful” she blushed at the compliment.
“T-thanks Sorath” She kissed him before they both went over to the others that was celebrating.

Ron was rambling about something ridiculous again and this time it was the moon. “Ron…I don’t think going to the moon is possible for us. Anyways I agree with cloud something more easy like a beach would be nice.” He held Sandy’s hand and smiled. “Besides I think we all need to relax after all that have happened.”

Marley and Kisha looked like they were having a pretty involved conversation, so Noah figured he’d give them their space and catch up with Marley when whatever that was got resolved. Instead, he grabbed a soda and a seat, quietly contemplating recent events. After a moment, though, Ellory plopped herself down in a chair opposite him and observed, “What’s the matter with you?”

He glanced up, “Nothing. Just thinking, really.”

“Well,” Ellory replied, smirking, “it’s a party and everyone’s happy, so stop thinking so much.”

“Kenton, though…”

“Yeah,” Ellory answered, shrugging. “He’s still out there, somewhere. If he comes back, just do that thing to him you did to the concrete barrier, first day of powers training. Or fling him off the planet. Problem solved. Now,” she stood up, put a hand on Noah’s back, and pushed, so that he also stood, “get over there with everyone else and do what you can to convince Ron that the moon is not a valid travel destination.” She grinned. “Maybe put a bug in his ear that New Orleans is a great idea…”

As always, the end of a production was like a huge weight lifted off Emmy’s shoulders. It was sad, to be sure; every show offers new friendships and fun that you can’t really recapture in daily life. But on the other hand, not fretting over every single one of Ron’s potentially fatal missteps during the final number was sure to tack years back onto Emmy’s life. Not to mention the social life she’d be getting back.

She was glad to have her parents in town, especially during the aftermath of the whole Kenton craziness. They had decided to stay until the end of the semester and vacation in Colorado together, rather than going back home for Christmas. It would be fun! But… There was still Trip.

Emmaline looked over at him across the table. He was lost in deep thought. He’d been like that more often lately. Seemed like the holidays were hard for him. But he had still been her rock through all of this, so she’d stand by him, especially if things weren’t great in his life. But just when they’d start having more free time to spend together after the musical, it was the end of the semester.

Then and there she resolved to make her lack of attention up to him next semester. Excellent Girlfriend Mode: Activated!

She only dwelled on that a moment though before she caught the tail end of Ron trying to legitimize the moon as a viable vacation destination. She grinned despite herself. That kid was a complete lunatic. The kind you couldn’t help but love like a brother.

The more she thought about it, a Mediterranean cruise sounded awesome. Or maybe Maui.

With a sigh, “Nobody could have known that Kenton was such a psychopath. And I know that it wasn’t easy for you to come over and apologize. Thanks for that Kisha.”

“I uhm, I’m going to go see what Noah and the others are suggesting to keep Ron out of space. See you later.” It wasn’t that she was mad at Kisha but she was disappointed that she hadn’t believed her in the first place.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw Noah was sitting with Ellory. Marley wondered if anyone had been able to change Ron’s mind. Then she heard Ron shout, “That’s two votes for the moon! Come on people!”

A giggle escaped her and she walked over to Noah and sat down next to him. “You guys seriously haven’t talked him out of the moon for the vacation? What about Athens? It has the best of all worlds and really good food too.”