Aurora slowly took off her makeup. They had just wrapped up opening night of Grease and she knew she had bombed it. She got all her lines right and nailed her songs, but she messed up the choreography. She couldn't keep up with the rest of the cast; she bumped into them and tripped a couple of them. Aurora focused on carefully removing her makeup and didn't make eye contact with anyone.

"Aurora!" Wendy hurried over to Aurora. Andrina was closely behind her. "Aurora you looked great up there!"

"Really pretty," Andrina agreed.

Aurora looked at them. "What?"

"Mrs. Rabbit made the right choice with you," Andrina said. "You have the right look for Sandy."

"Mrs. Rabbit chose me for my talent; I was the best one for the part," Aurora told her.

"You have to have the look, too," Andrina said. "And you definitely have that."

"But, what about my performance?" Aurora asked. "I totally screwed up on the dancing."

Wendy looked confused, then smiled at Aurora. "Oh, Rory, with a face like that no one was paying attention to your dancing."

"Aurora," Aurora corrected. "And it's not about looks, girls. It's about the performance."

"In showbiz it's only about looks. And you're gorgeous," Andrina said.

Wendy nodded. "You should use that to your advantage. I'd kill to look like you."

Aurora stared at them; she had no idea how to respond to that. Luckily they spotted someone else they wanted to talk to and left. Aurora shook her head and turned back to the mirror. Naveen came up behind her. She looked at him through the mirror, waiting for him to say something. When he didn't, she faced him. He's probably waiting for you to tell him he did a good job tonight, Aurora told herself.

"Naveen, you did better tonight than I was expecting. Good job," Aurora said.

"Thanks. You looked good tonight." Naveen smiled at her, then walked away.

Aurora narrowed her eyes at him, then looked at her reflection again. She did look pretty, but she didn't look any different than she did every other day.

"There's my star!" Philip said, walking over to Aurora.

Aurora stood up and hugged him.

"You looked so good up there," Philip said.

Aurora sighed and sat back down. "Why does everyone keep saying that? I know how I look. What about my performance?"

"Honey, don't worry about your performance," Philip said.

"Because it's just about looks, right?" Aurora snapped. She didn't wait for Philip to say anything, she just stormed off.

XXX

Ariel stood and cheered as her older sister, Andrina, took her bow at the end of the play. When the curtains closed, she gathered her stuff and made her way to the exit. Ariel flung open the doors and walked out to the parking lot.

"Ariel!"

Ariel turned around to see Eric walking outside. He waved at her as he hurried over to her.

"Hi," Ariel greeted.

"Hey," Eric said. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Oh. Um, I don't know. Not much," Ariel stammered.

Eric smiled. "Do you want to get something to eat with me?"

Ariel nodded. "Sure."

Ariel and Eric walked down to Mickey's. The diner wasn't really crowded, but Ariel knew once the cast of the play had changed out of their costumes they would all make their way over.

"Hey, Ariel!"

Ariel waved at her manager, Kronk, who was standing behind the counter. Ariel led Eric to a table by the window, which she knew was in Tiana's section.

"Hey, girl," Tiana greeted Ariel. "How was the play?"

"Good. Andrina did a great job," Ariel said.

"Glad to hear it. Tell your sister I'm sorry I missed it," Tiana said.

Ariel nodded. "I will."

"So, what will you be having?" Tiana asked them.

"Cheeseburger and fries with a Coke," Eric said.

"Chicken Caesar salad and a lemonade, please," Ariel said.

Tiana jotted down their order and walked away.

Eric slouched down and nervously drummed his fingers on the table. Neither Eric nor Ariel said anything for a few minutes.

Eric sat up and cleared his throat. "So, I didn't know Andrina was your sister."

Ariel nodded. "She's my older sister."

"She's been to every game this season and usually hangs out with us afterwards," Eric said.

"Yeah, she comes with me now."

"You come to the games?" Eric asked.

"Yeah, I go to every game," Ariel said. "My best friend, Charlotte, is a cheerleader. I go to support her."

"Oh. I've never seen you. I'm sorry."

"It's ok."

Ariel was used to not being noticed. Charlotte and Andrina both loved to be the center of attention, and Ariel preferred to step out of the spotlight.

Kronk brought their food out and set it on the table. "Who is this?" he asked Ariel, nodding towards Eric.

"This is Eric."

"Ah. I've heard about you, Eric," Kronk said. "The girls say you tip well."

Eric shrugged. "I'm just trying to help. Not everyone was lucky enough to be born into money, like me. These girls work hard and are still barely getting by."

Knonk patted Eric's shoulder. "You're all right, kid. You just take care of our Ariel, here."

Ariel smiled and shook her head as she watched Kronk walk away.

"Do you work here?" Eric asked just before taking a huge bite of his burger.

"Yeah, Kronk hired me about a year and a half, or so, ago," Ariel said.

Ariel awkwardly picked at her salad as the conversation dragged. She wanted to say something to him, but didn't know what. Ask him out on a real date. It was her thought, but the voice in her head sounded more like Charlotte than herself. Ariel took a bite of food to keep from actually asking Eric out. There was no way she'd be able to handle the humiliation if he said no. Although, he did ask her to go out with him tonight...

Ariel swallowed her food. "Wendy is throwing a big party Sunday night to celebrate the play. Would you like to, um... go with me?" Her hands were shaking and her heart was racing. She clasped her hands together and hoped Eric didn't notice.

Eric smiled. "Yeah, it'd be fun."

Ariel smiled back at him. "Great."

She had never asked anyone out, let alone of the most popular guys in school. Ariel couldn't believe how easy it had been ask a guy out. She suddenly had a lot more confidence.

XXX

"I'll meet you right here after the meet," Aladdin told Jasmine.

"All right. Good luck, baby," Jasmine said.

Aladdin tilted his head to the side and tapped his cheek with his index finger. Jasmine smiled and kissed his cheek. Aladdin was convinced her kissing his cheek was good luck, even though he was undefeated before she had even met him.

Jasmine took her seat. She always looked forward to Aladdin's MMA meets. Of course, they made her a little nervous; she didn't want him to get hurt. But, she still found them exciting. Jasmine watched as he beat every guy he was put up against. She could see he struggled with some of them, but in the end he always won. After she started going to Aladdin's meets, Jasmine could see why Esmeralda had thought watching Phoebus fight Facilier at the ball had been hot.

After the meet, Jasmine made her way to their meeting spot. Aladdin joined her about twenty minutes later.

"You were awesome, baby," Jasmine said.

"You bring me good luck."

Jasmine shook her head. "You were doing great before you had me."

"True. But, if I didn't have you anymore I wouldn't be doing so great," Aladdin said.

"Then you should probably keep me around for a while." Jasmine winked at him.

Aladdin put his arm around Jasmine. "Good idea."

One of the other guys from Aladdin's team walked over to them. "Hey, Aladdin, way to go! Still undefeated. I know how you do it, man."

"A lot of hard work," Aladdin said. "And, of course, my secret weapon."

The guy raised an eyebrow. "Secret weapon?"

Aladdin nodded. "Yup. Jasmine, here, is my lucky charm."

"You're Jasmine?"

Jasmine nodded. "Yeah, that's me, the lucky charm."

The guy stuck out his hand. "My name is Sean. It's nice to meet you."

Jasmine shook his hand. "You, as well."

"Aladdin talks about you all the time. He really likes you," Sean said.

Jasmine smiled at Aladdin. "I really like him, too."

"Well, I'd love to stick around and chat with you, man, but I gotta spend some time with my lady," Aladdin said.

Jasmine waved to Sean as she and Aladdin started walking away. Aladdin kept his arm Jasmine as they made their across the parking lot.

"You did great tonight," Jasmine said. "I'm so proud of you."

Aladdin smiled down at her. "Yeah?"

Jasmine nodded. "Yeah."

"Sadira hated that I was into MMA," Aladdin said.

Jasmine bit her lip as she got into his car. Aladdin talked about his ex-girlfriend, Sadira, a lot more than she'd like. She knew Aladdin was completely over her, but they still talked once in a while and Jasmine was uncomfortable with it. She had told Aladdin that, and he tried to talk to, and about, her less, but she still came up in conversation. Sadira had a way of getting under Aladdin's skin and frustrating him. Aladdin also compared Jasmine to Sadira all the time, but in a way where he was always saying how awesome Jasmine was compared to Sadira.

Aladdin didn't seem to notice he had mentioned Sadira, so Jasmine let it go. She knew he didn't mean anything by it. Jasmine just wished Aladdin would stop unnecessarily bringing up his ex.