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༺ All You Had To Do Was Stay ༻
We had to leave early, mom has an emergency meeting in the morning so we had to catch the last flight out. I am so sorry, sis.
Megara scrunched her nose a bit quickly as she read the text from her younger sister, feeling a rosy feeling rising in her nerves. She didn't think she would cry in front of so many people, but she'd also been going through a lot of unlikely things going on lately. In reality, she was dumb to expect her mom to stay for as long as she said she would. Then again, Megara usually liked to give people second chances.
It was also the worst time to get emotional over your mom.
"You guys, the orchestra hasn't vamped this much since Bop To The Top," Carlos rushed to the back room where most of the cast was hanging around. This was supposed to be the climax of the show, owned by beauty and the beast and no one else. It was finally time for the scene they were the most nervous about, the scene Ricky and Ashlyn had broken their wrists over. But now that it was finally time, something was wrong.
"I know it's here," Savannah insisted. "I preset it."
Megara's eyebrow twitched. "What's wrong?"
"My harness is missing," Ricky answered quickly, turning to face her. This was a different Ricky than the one she had moments ago, the look in his eyes alone was apparent. They were widened, and in them, he looked lost and confused. That look is how she gathered just how serious this was to him. "The new one for the transformation."
"What?" she asked in disbelief.
"No, no, this can't be happening," Carlos shook his head. "It was here."
"What else can I use?" Ricky asked.
"For heaven's sake, can't you just jump off something high?" Miss Jenn yelled out, immediately catching everyone's attention. "Nope. Forget I said that. I will be not here."
"I don't know how we can forget that," Megara side-eyed Miss Jenn before realizing Rita was standing next to her. The two of them watched as various kids ran circles around them, most of them searching for the harness, others unsure of what to do next as the final scene was up and they were already late for it. Everything had been going perfectly right up to this moment.
"I knew something would go wrong," Rita sighed. "We can't get through one show without something going wrong."
"You're right," Megara agreed as they watched their classmates yell and point fingers at each other, all while a frightened Ricky stood with eyes popping out of his head until Carlos shouted out something to make them pay attention to him.
"Richard, let's just spin you around without the harness, you can toss the mask into the wings," Carlos said. "Okay? Just like rehearsal."
"Right! Which I never got right once," Ricky said. "And now I'm supposed to do it with one hand." Everyone stared at him for a quiet moment as his gaze fell to the floor. "Sorry. Second acts haven't traditionally been my strong suit."
