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"These two are for the pizza shop. This one's for the front door of my house. This one's for my bike lock. Oh? I haven't seen this one in a while," Big Red said as he sorted through his keys on their way to the stage room.
"You do have the key, right, babe?" Ashlyn asked, just to make sure.
"Yeah, I narrowed it down to this half of the chain," Big Red told them and Nadia gave him a look of disbelief. He then started to try all the keys out to make sure they would fit.
"Okay, you know what?" Nadia whispered to herself as she walked over and moved Big Red away from the door.
"Nadia, what are you doing?" Marcus questioned but she just ignored him.
"Wait, I'm not done," Big Res told her in confusion as he continued to sort through his many keys.
She shrugged and went to go try to kick the door open before Natalie opened it right when she lifted her leg up to kick it. "Oh, my God!" Nadia gasped, almost falling backwards, but she quickly steadied herself. "I could've kicked you!"
"You could've just knocked," Natalie said back and Nadia tilted her head in offense to the remark. The cast mates then rolled the machine, that the boys made in Big Red's basement, into the stage room quickly so that they could get started on making the new transformation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Wait. So, in the Broadway show, all they did was suspend the Beast in the air...and then he takes the mask off," Gina said as they all looked down at the Broadway blueprints on the floor.
"Wow," Nini said, letting out a short laugh. "Looks like today's theme is secrets." She then let out another laugh.
Nadia glanced over at her awkwardly before she looked over at Ashlyn, who had the same look on her face. "But combine this with the wire from 'Get'cha Head in the Game', and we're golden," Ashlyn said to focus the real subject again. "Do we still have Ricky's harness?"
"Ooh. It's in the costume shop...somewhere," Kourtney told her.
"Everyone, let's meet back in 15," Natalie told them all.
"Thank you, 15," they all said at the same time, apart from Ricky and Carlos, who were nowhere to be seen.
Gina went to go pick up the blueprints and put them on all the table, but Nadia went over to her and said, "Oh, don't worry, I got it."
"You sure?" Gina asked, holding the blueprints in her hands as she stood up.
"Yeah. I'm pretty sure Natalie wants to kick me in the face after I almost kicked her in the face, so it's probably best I give her some space," Nadia joked and Gina laughed, handing her the blueprints. "Hey, that rhymed," Nadia added, making Gina laugh even more. Nadia then gave her a smile before she walked over to the table separated from everyone else.
She put the blueprints on the table and spread it out so it would be clear to see if anyone needed to see them again. As she did so, EJ nervously came walking over. "Hey, Nads," he greeted with a slight shake in his voice. "How's the slumber party going?"
"It's pretty fun," she told him, feeling awkward that she had talked about him at the party now. She quickly looked back down at the blueprints, pretending to spread them out even more.
"Cool," EJ replied.
"Mhm," Nadia hummed. "You know...I should see if Big Red needs help with the ladder. He can be a little clumsy sometimes," Nadia told him awkwardly after a second, since she was starting to get nervous, before she turned around to walk away.
"Do you want to get pizza with me sometime?" EJ blurted out after a second, and Nadia stopped and slowly turned around to look at him. She felt butterflies flutter in her stomach as a small, shocked grin made its way up to her lips. "For real, this time."
Nadia looked back over at the group, who didn't seem to be paying attention to them at all, before she walked back over to EJ slowly. "Did Ashlyn put you up to this? Or — or Marcus?" she asked, not believing that he would actually be asking her on a date right now.
"Not that I know of," EJ told her, chuckling awkwardly.
Nadia could tell that he was being 100% serious and her smile widened even more as a blush made its way up to her cheeks. She could not believe that this was actually happening. EJ fricken Caswell was asking Nadia fricken Coleman out. Who would have thought?
She realized that she had been caught up in her own thoughts, so she let out a nervous laugh, making EJ get even more anxious. "Yes. No, yeah, pizza sounds perfect. And better yet, we can have it at Slices," she replied quickly, licking her lips nervously as she looked down and up at EJ again.
He stared at her for a moment, processing what she had just said. "Okay," he said breathlessly, feeling like a weight had just been lifted off of his shoulders. He nodded at her with a smile and a blush before he walked away from Nadia. She slowly blinked, feeling like she was in some sort of movie or dream, before she practically skipped back to the group in complete and utter happiness and shock.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After putting the harness onto Ricky, he got the Beast mask on and started acting out the transformation scene with Ashlyn. "I-I-I..."
"Please. I love you," Ashlyn said to him before Ricky started to choke and fall down. Ashlyn then looked towards Big Red and whisper-shouted, "Now!"
Big Red then started pulling the rope to make Ricky rise up into the air seamlessly. Nadia and EJ both looked at each other in shock since they were both next to each other once again.
"Y'all, this is some Broadway stuff!" Kourtney exclaimed.
"We're going to win. You guys, we're actually gonna win!" Natalie said, and it was the happiest that Nadia had actually seen her.
"We're going to make Ms. Jenn so proud!" Carlos said as Big Red continued to make Ricky rise into the air.
Nadia looked back over to EJ and leaned in towards him with an excited smile, making him laugh. Kourtney squealed, but then, all of a sudden, the rope began to snap. "Uh-oh," Ricky said before the rope fully snapped and he started to fall all the way down...on Ashlyn.
Nadia gasped, placing a hand over her mouth in shock. "Oh, my God."
AYYYY EJ FINALLY ASKED HER OUT WOOHOO!!! I've been waiting for this moment ever since I started the book. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the gif I made! Make sure to vote and comment !
