The next day at rehearsal, the cast gathered in a circle to begin. Carleigh was hiding behind Kaitlyn and Jessa, while Oak and Anthony stared daggers at her the entire time.

"Alright, here's the plan for today. We're going to do a fun little exercise called swapping tracks..." Daveed announced with a grin. "You've all gotten very comfortable with the current roles you play. As a result, I've decided to shake things up a bit to remind you all to pay attention to what's going on in the show. We can't get too comfortable, or we make mistakes."

"So, here are my assignments for today's rehearsal. Alexander Hamilton will be Thayne Jasperson, Eliza Hamilton will be Jessamine Bradley, Aaron Burr will be Hubble Lynch, Angelica Schuyler will be Ariana DeBose, George Washington is Daniel Montgomery. Lafayette/Jefferson is Erik Asis, Mulligan/Madison is Daniel Montgomery, Laurens/Philip is Wes Vernon, Peggy/Maria is Carleigh Bettiol. King George is Doyle Nash."

"Principles, you're just going to fill in whatever ensemble track you want, obviously girls on the girl tracks and guys on the guy tracks. Keep in mind that some tracks have specific features."

"I have purposefully selected ensemblists to play principal roles that they do not understudy, since they've already learned those roles."

Pippa mentally groaned. This was going to be awful. But it would be interesting to see if they could actually do it.

She knew she probably wasn't going to be great- first of all, she wasn't onstage to watch some of the choreography. Secondly, she hadn't danced that much in one show for a long time. It was going to be torture.

"Alright, guys, hop to it!"

Everyone scattered to their places, loudly discussing tips and reminders with the person they were switching with.

Anthony and Oak seemed to have forgotten Carleigh up until then, but when Carleigh was standing backstage waiting for actual rehearsal to begin, they stole her dance shoes and replaced them with fuzzy unicorn slippers.

"Anthony!" Carleigh screeched. Anthony just laughed.

The opening bars of 'Alexander Hamilton' sounded and everyone began to dance. Surprisingly, Pippa somewhat knew what they were doing. But most of it was spent looking at the ensemblists when their choreography lined up.

Of course, the ensemblists knew what they were doing because the principals had simpler blocking, mostly.

And Pippa had to admit, they were good. Thayne as Hamilton was something Pippa never would have pictured, but he nailed every single note of the first song.

Pippa was thinking so hard that the sounds seemed to whip by.

'Schuyler Sisters' was unique. Jessa's Eliza was amazing, Pippa realized. Jessa had such a nice voice. And Ariana as Angelica was pretty great, too. Carleigh as Peggy was hilarious, mostly because Carleigh nailed being a bratty younger sister. Pippa was not surprised about that.

The one principal actor that was actually good at doing an ensemble role was Brett, but that was because he was ensemble before becoming Hamilton. Pippa looked at him all the time to see what they were supposed to be doing.

Pippa was in Jessa's track, and Lana was doing Carleigh's. Pippa was so confused for most of the show. Towards the end she started to get better at recalling blocking that she'd seen the ensemblists rehearse over and over.

It was strange to hear the ensemblist's voices instead of their own for all the songs, but it was cool, in a way. And Pippa loved the ensemble vocal parts anyway.

Her favorite part of the rehearsal was all the Schuyler Sister songs. Jessa and Ariana's 'Take a Break' was so cute, and Jessa's 'Burn' was one of the most beautiful things Pippa had ever heard.

The thing that surprised Pippa, though, was Carleigh's 'Say No To This'. Prior to today, Pippa had only ever heard Carleigh sing Eliza, which she was good at. Carleigh had a very pure voice, which fit Eliza very well. It made sense that her voice would work with Peggy, since Peggy was young and pouty, then.

But Carleigh as Maria was surprising.

"Well, looks like Carleigh will be replacing me," Jazzy joked. "I can rest content knowing that we have someone who knows what they're doing."

"That's how I felt when Jessa sang 'Burn,'" Pippa laughed. "Why are they so freaking talented? We suck at their tracks."

"Right?!" Jazzy said. "I don't know how they do it. I couldn't even do 'Cabinet Battles' without screwing up, and all they do is just sit there."

"Me too, Jazzy, me too."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They all went out to dinner afterwards.

Pippa was so sore. She didn't think it was possible to be sore on her entire body, but now she knew it was a thing. A very real thing.

"This sucks," Pippa groaned, slumping on the table as they waited for their food. "I am so tired."

"Why did you make us do that?" Jazzy whined. "I want to die, Daveed."

"But you can appreciate your role now, and you have to think about what you're doing," Daveed reminded them.

"I won't appreciate it tomorrow when I have to do a show while being sore," Pippa complained. "I'll barely be able to move, much less dance 'Helpless' and 'Satisfied.'"

Araella bounded into the restaurant and plopped herself down next to Pippa. "That rehearsal was so much fun!" she squealed. "I got to dance Ariana's track! It was so cool!"

"Go away, Araella."

"I love how all the leads are dead, while all the ensemble people had a 'relaxing' rehearsal," Jessa laughed.

"Shut up," Jazzy said, flopping over so that she was sprawled across Jessa, Lana, and Carleigh in the booth. "I can't feel my legs."

"This probably was a bad idea," Lana commented. "Everyone's going to die tomorrow. We're going to walk around all stiff-legged during the show."

"Well, we can all sit in the hot tub tonight and have fun cast bonding activities," Daveed said cheerfully.

"If it involves exercise I will kill you, Daveed," Pippa snapped.

"You'll be fine," Lana said, rolling her eyes.

Jazzy sat up. "How are you so energized?" she demanded.

"I have a dance background, I did Lion King, remember?" Lana told them. "That wasn't that much worse than Hamilton."

"But that was ages agooo," Pippa whined.

"Rooming with Araella also means she forces you to go on five mile runs every other day," Lana added.

"YOU'RE CRAZY!" Jazzy exclaimed, sitting bolt upright, almost smacking Carleigh in the chin with her forehead.

"Calm yourself," Carleigh said, rolling her eyes.

"Settle down, settle down, children," Daveed told them.

"SHUT UP!" everyone, including Oak, Anthony, and Brett, chorused. Daveed sat back in his chair, smiling smugly.