𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞 || 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐫-𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝟮𝟲 - 𝘇𝗼𝗼𝗺

a/n - please vote! updates are slow bc i have exams, sorry :(

1 week later
i tap to join the zoom meeting, sitting at my desk at my mom's place in chicago. "sorry i'm late i..." my eyes go to nini's screen who was looking at her laptop. her necklace was still on. "i was eating." i look away, to miss jenn. "okay, i'm sure you're wondering why i've gathered you all here. opening night is only three weeks away, folks. that means we need to stay focused..." i tune out miss jenn, going to the cool backgrounds.

i tap on the desert one. then the next one, which was a space one. i move the cursor to the next one, which was literally grass. "y/n!" miss jenn calls out. "huh?!" i snap out of it. "your background's nice," seb compliments. "thanks! i guess i'm really capturing what it's like... being an ant," i shrug. from the corner of my eye, i see nini smiling softly.

i smile too, before miss jenn talks. "pay attention, i literally just said that! anyway, you know i can't... won't make you work over the break. but, i needed to remind you, face-to-face, stakes are high! please, for the love of theater, do not take the word 'break' literally." i pick up my half-eaten burger, slightly moving out of the frame so i don't get scolded by miss jenn. i take a bite, holding the burger as i eat it. "okay, well, have fun! stay in touch! and now you have this lunk, so hop on any time, i'm basically the queen of modern technology, so..." miss jenn says. "it doesn't work like that," i whisper to myself, taking another bite. "what, y/n?" miss jenn asks. "nothing!" i try to hum as my mouth was full. "bye, guys!" ashlyn says, waving, "not it!" she disconnects. everyone says not it, leaving quickly. i widen my eyes, quickly chewing my burger.

i place my burger down on the plate, looking back at the screen. nini and miss jenn were still on. "oh! um, bye... you... two..." i say slowly, nini and i both smiling at the same time. i chuckle, leaving the zoom.

the next day
"wildcats, quiet!" miss jenn speaks over the loud chatter over zoom, "i've called you all here for a very serious reason. it seems zack roy has yet another trick up his sleeve." "miss jenn, they just dropped the video on their instagram," nini speaks up. "kids, nini is going to share her screen, so we can all watch together." "alright, three, two, one," nini counts down. the layout of zoom changes, nini's phone being the bigger portion of my screen.

"meanwhile, east high has been slacking off in style," lily's voice over speaks as photos of carlos, seb and ashlyn, gina, and me show up. "hey! how'd they get that photo?" i ask, looking at the photo of me in grant park. "probably because you posted it on your instagram story," nini chuckles. "probably," i smile, watching the video again. "okay, okay! we've seen enough." nini pauses the video, swiping out. we all go silent as nini's lockscreen was still a selfie she took in one of the first week of dating or nini and i.

nini gasps, stopping her screen share. "no one saw that," carlos mumbles. "actually, i think everyone saw it. i mean, we all went quiet," seb says, shrugging with an innocent smile. "but did you just watch what i watched? that was insane!" carlos changes the subject. "yeah, everyone calm down," miss jenn says, "we just need a plan. if we wanna beat them at their own game, we need to play by their rules. but add a twist, of course. let's do something subtle, but public. to show them that we're still in this to win it." "i don't really do subtle," carlos adds. "but you sure do public," seb adds shade. "we're on it, miss jenn," nini says. "godspeed." i leave the zoom.

i smile as i start to edit the dance video. i crop nini's camera, moving it to the top right.

______________________

8:34pm

theater group

hey y'all