"On behalf of the New Jersey Police Department, this is our formal apology," the cop at the front of Ms Wormwood's classroom looked around at the nineteen assembled students. Neither her nor the students looked like they believed any word out of her mouth. She barely could muster up looking like she wanted to be there.

She had been speaking for five minutes already, but it was practically the same as what she had just said. And sometimes, it was practically nothing.

The cop paused for a second, and then nodded to the students before making a move to leave the classroom.

"Really?" Elphaba asked. "Is that really it?"

The cop paused, surveying the room again. When her eyes met Elphaba's, she frowned.

"I remember you...?" the cop started, but Elphaba continued before she could finish.

"You wasted almost a month of school for us, and all you can give us is that?" Elphaba snorted. "We can't get any of those mouths back, so-."

"I apologized for arresting you, but there's nothing we can do," the cop interrupted, glaring at Elphaba. "Besides. I know what this school teaches, you weren't learning anything anyway.

Elphaba stood up quickly and angrily. "That's not the-."

The cop shook her head and sighed, as if Elphaba just couldn't understand. "We all need to be careful in those times, and the result was that everyone was safe, right?"

Elphaba crinkled up her nose in disgust. "Everyone was absolutely not alright-."

The cop waved a hand. "Mass hysteria doesn't count, it's not real damage."

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "But-."

The cop waved a hand. "I'm not debating this," she announced. "I've got other classrooms to visit. Now if you'll excuse me..."

With a nod to Ms Wormwood, the cop was out the door. Elphaba shook her head, and sat down. Ms Wormwood regained her rightful place as the head of class.

"That really wasn't smart," Alana told Elphaba. "What if she figured out that you had escaped after you'd been arrested."

Elphaba shrugged. "I don't think she'd have cared," Elphaba told her. She bent down, grabbing a notebook from her backpack in preparation for the lesson as she snorted. "Mass hysteria. Right."

"Do you think Ms Wormwood is made at Elphaba's outburst?" McNamara whispered loudly to Brooke.

"Everyone can hear you, Heather," J.D called. McNamara went red.

"Yes, Heather, if you're going to whisper, I'd think it'd be better for it to be much quieter," Ms Wormwood cut in, chuckling. "Or you might as well say whatever you're whispering about. "And for the record, I'm not angry. If Elphaba has something to say, then I think she should say it. She's a smart girl. Besides, I can't say I was less quiet as a young girl."

At this, the classroom perked up.

"What does that mean, Ms Wormwood?" Glinda asked, her eyes bright.

"Were you some sort of teenage delinquent?!" Rich demanded eagerly.

"I wouldn't go that far..." Ms Wormwood shook her head. "But it's a story for another day. In the meantime, Christine has something to say."

The class went quiet as Christine stood up, starting the front of the class with tension in her hunched shoulders. It was clear to anyone that Christine looked nervous, but also incredibly excited. The class wondered what she was excited about.

Christine stopped at the front of the class, and Ms Wormwood gave her the stage. Christine took a deep breath.

"Okay, this year's been hard and stuff, I know, and it's been kind of scary with everything going on, so I thought that maybe..." Christine paused at this moment, unsure of herself. But when she saw she had everyone's attention, she barrelled on anyway. "I thought we could put on some kind of play!"

The words came out in a rush, and Christine told herself to slow down. "I've been writing a screenplay, mostly for fun, so it isn't great, and I thought it would be fun to act out...? You know... for the school?"

For a second, no one said anything.

"I mean... why not?" Veronica asked. "I like it. I could use a stress free day. And an excuse to get out of all the therapy my mom's been booking..."

"I, for one, love it!" Glinda called out. "I'm sure we could all do it if we tried."

"A...play?" JD asked.

Heather Duke snorted. "It sounds ridiculous," she sneered.

"I'll participate but only if I'm the star," Chandler spoke up. Jeremy titled his head at her, and she shrugged. "Or whatever. Not like I care."

"Okay, before we get into specific roles, and who's doing what, we should find out what is going on in the first place," Veronica spoke up. "Christine, what's this play about?"

"Oh!" Christine looked happy to get back on topic. "Well, it isn't completely my own story. I based it off of this ghost story I heard recently, where this girl, Carrie White..."

Veronica, Jared, Jenna, Michael and Jeremy froze, and then exchanged an uneasy look.

"Uh..." Veronica raised her hand, looking to interrupt Christine as kindly as possible. "Er... is there any chance we could... uh... do something else?"

"Huh?" Christine paused, looking confused for a second. Then it seemed to hit her. "Oh yeah! You're hysteria thing. PTSD. Right, sorry. I can write something else."

"Ah, thanks," Veronica grinned weakly at Christine.

"Yeah, no problem!" Christine assured her, tossing the script into the wastebasket. The wastebasket on the other side of the room. It hit the basket with a loud clang that made everyone in the room flinch as Christine skipped to her seat. Veronica wondered if this was a subtle hint of passive aggressiveness.

But there was no hint of malice as Christine sat down, in fact, she looked even happier than before. Veronica turned back to the front as Ms Wormwood resumed her place.

"Now, Christine has already decided that she will be an actor, but we need to fit the rest of you into roles as well," Ms Wormwood. "Now! Who wants to be in the stage crew, and who wants to act?"

The bell rang, and Christine groaned. She had expected them to at least finish the first act today. They had barely gotten through who was going to be actors and tech crew. But, at last, they managed to get through everyone, with a lot of minds changing and mockery ("Ha! You think you can act, Evan??" "Jared, do you think YOU can act?" "...I know I can act, Heather... Stop looking at me like that, Jeremy!"). The final list went as follows:

The actors were Evan (surprising enough, even despite Glinda goading him into it), Christine (no surprise there), all three Heathers, Glinda, Alana (Glinda also forced her into it), Elphaba (and her), Jeremy ("Jeremy, this is your last chance to redeem yourself after you ruined the last play you were in." "I mean... I was kind of fighting this evil supercomputer-" "NO EXCUSES!"), Veronica (for fun or something), Jenna (who basically just went where Veronica went), Jared (who also followed Veronica) and, finally JD (yeah, same reason).

The tech crew was basically everyone else who either actually wanted to do stage crew or who just didn't want to perform.

The roster didn't exactly inspire confidence in the class, but they could all admit that with Christine's script they might be able to do something.

The play of The Worst Year Ever was ready to hit the stage.