"CAN EVERYONE TAKE their assigned seats please?" miss jenn shouted. june sat down next to ej caswell because he was chad and she was taylor. ricky sat in between ej and nini and ricky looked very uncomfortable. "yoo-hoo, ginger boy. can you read?" miss jenn asked.
"uh—not really."
"well, you're reading now. just the stage directions. thank you! excuse me." miss jenn said as she walked to her seat. "don't forget to silence your phones! i realize that you all walked in here as strangers."
"actually, ej is my cousin!" the girl sitting across from june said pointing to ej.
"but after today, you're a family. one tribe, committed to lifting this classic film to new heights." a click of a camera made miss jenn pause and looked over to carlos who was taking a selfie probably for instagram. "please take your neighbors' hands." she continued.
ej held his hand out to june and ricky who both didn't want to hold ej's hand. "hand." miss jenn said to the three as june sighed. she put her hand on top of ej's.
"feel each other's energy! let the silence speak volumes! in a world full of no, this is a space full of yes."
"nice. did you just come up with that?" carlos whispered.
"i did." she smiled "we're all in this together. once we know what that are, we're all stars and we see that." june pushed ej's hand off of hers when miss jenn was singing and while her eyes were closed. "we're all in this together and it shows when we stand hand-in-hand make our dreams come true." miss jenn sung and ashlyn was the only one to clap.
❝ look, i've been in many theater productions and things like this don't usually happen. i know miss jenn said that "theater is a community" and all, but it feel like i'm in some type of—cult ritual right now. ❞ - june frasier. east high junior.
"sharpay heads for class she hears singing opens the door to the biology lab. she finds gabriella and taylor washing their hands. they turn to find there are no paper towels in the dispenser." big red read with no emotion in his voice that he sounded like an actual robot. june sat slouched in her chair with holding her head in annoyance.
"stop. don't run it together. read the punctuation." miss jenn corrected big red.
"sharpay comma heads for class period."
"kill me now." june muttered under her breath.
"and they are hearing the songs in their head period."
"and that's act one. lets take a break." miss jenn slapped her script and pulled carlos aside. june got up from her seat and walked over to the boy she met yesterday "hey ricky bowen. uh—your friend over there is a great reader. i really love the enthusiasm." june said as ricky look up from his phone that he was smiling at.
"hey. i know you're being sarcastic."
"see i was trying to hold in my laughter when he started reading the punctuation and i—" she said as ricky was looking somewhere else. june turned around and saw him glancing at nini and june's smile disappeared. he looked back at him phone and chuckled. "and you aren't listening anymore." june nodded as she walked away. ricky looked up to see no one in front of him anymore.
"dude! june was trying to talk to you and you like ignored her!" big red told ricky.
"uh huh that's greaaaat." ricky said as big red rolled his eyes. he took ricky's phone hand and ricky groaned "dude! forget about nini! what about june?" big red asked.
"i've talked to her like once. i barely know her!"
"then get to know her. forget nini! she has ej right now."
"can i have my phone back?" ricky asked and big red scoffed handing it back to him.
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miss jenn asked all of the students to meet in the bomb shelter the next day. the cast all sat down as miss jenn rummaged through a cardboard box full of items covered in bubble wrap. "here it is people." miss jenn said holding it like it was the most precious thing in the entire world.
"is that a garage door opener?" seb asked.
"no, seb. this is gabriella's phone—from the film." miss jenn said as all the students exclaimed in excitement. "i plan on creating a time-capsule display in our lobby. if they can have forty sports ball trophies, we deserve a little movie museum. okay people enough dazzle! fetch your scripts, please."
june grabbed her script and got into place. while june was grabbing her script, she recognized nini's phone from the table read in ej's bag. he was stuffing it in his bag and heard gina telling him "you're welcome."
❝ do i mind my own business or do i say something? definitely mind my own business, right? ❞ - june frasier. east high junior.
after rehearsals, june spotted ej "you're not so slick you know that, right?" june said sitting on the opposite side of the bench from him. "excuse me?" ej asked turning to her.
june shrugged "oh i don't know. you know people don't usually steal girlfriends phones from them." she said looking down at her nails. ej looked at her and shushed her. "be quiet okay? nini can't know. i know she's texting ricky and i'm—"
"worried they're talking to each other."
"yeah, but please don't tell nini!" ej begged.
"you're lucky i'm not a snitch." june said getting up from the bench as she spotted her mom's car pull into the school's parking lot. "bye chad!" she said walking away from him.
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