Soaring [ej caswell]

Nine: The Tech Rehearsal

We all walk to the stage and there was a large hole in the room, with water everywhere and smoke in a couple places.

What the hell happened?

"Excuse me, kids!" A fireman says making their way through us.

"Oh, my gosh, what happened?" Nini speaking for the rest of us.

"It's okay. Nobody was hurt. There was a small fire in the theater over the holiday and the sprinklers did their job" Miss Jenn says.

"We're almost done in here, just have to finish up in the faculty room next. Some circuits blew in there over the break," The firewoman says,

"Unfortunately, the show cannot go on"

"What?"

"Fire ripped through half of your costumes and the sprinklers ruined a bunch of your sets. I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to red tag the entire backstage area for a month at least" she says.

"Uh..."

"Did she just say costumes?" Kourtney asks.

"Okay. Okay, listen up. Hug your neighbor, take a moment, and let's reconvene in the cafeteria after school to talk about options. Nini and Ricky, spread the word"

"Got it. Yeah, of course" Nini nods.

"Ricky? Ricky?"

"Huh? Sorry. After school in the cafeteria. Got it" Ricky says.

After school, we all sadly head to the cafeteria. I sit by EJ on the table and rest my head on his shoulder.

"Okay, guys! Wait, where's Gina?" Miss Jenn asks.

"I think she's going through a family thing right now" Ashlyn answers.

"Okay, prayers to our Gina. I'm really not sure what to say. You've all worked so hard. I've seen all of you grow so much. But if we don't have a theater, we don't have a show"

"Wait, what?"

"Come on, Miss Jenn, we've gotta do something" Carlos says.

"I think we... I don't know, I guess we could consider other venues?"

"Oh, oh, what about the old Kingston downtown?" I suggest.

"It's condemned"

"The Lucky Ducky Puppet Pavilion?" EJ throws out.

"It's a massive Starbucks now"

"How about the El Rey?" Carlos says.

"Yeah!"

"That's brilliant, dude"

"Any other ideas?" Miss Jenn asks, looking a little scared.

"Miss Jenn, I feel like you just had a really weird reaction to what I just said" Carlos says.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Miss Jenn asks.

"Carlos is asking if we can try and use the El Rey Theater"

"My Uncle Ruben is the listing agent, and the last thing they had in there was a fashion show, like, four years ago" Carlos says getting up to make a phone call.

"This place has 500 seats!" Seb says showing us his phone.

"Whoa!"

"Wait, that's actually pretty sweet"

"I can't imagine we'd be able to get in on such short notice" Miss Jenn says.

Carlos asks something in Spanish and we hear "Sí, Sí, Sí!"