IT WAS THE day that the cast was taking pictures for the program. june walked in with a pink blazer and headband on. everyone in the cast was dressed just like their characters in the movie. "okay guys! we're gonna get one in for a practice, okay?" big red said with a camera and tripod in his hands.
"we're all gonna jump on the count of three. ready? one, two, three!" some jumped before and some jumped after three. "sorry." june said after accidentally hit ricky. they tried again, but the 'l' in musical on the sign behind them tilted upside down.
"were we jumping on three or after three?"
"you went early!"
"yeah the count of three, ready?" big red asked. everyone was in a state of confusion. "nah, man. you need some new words." ricky said pointing to big red.
"guys! this isn't hard. you smile, you leave the earth, you land." carlos explained and ricky spoke up, "it's a little hard to smile when we don't even know the plan." he said.
"i can't look at ricky. is that a problem?" nini asked.
"okay! let's take a five."
"on five or after five?" ricky said walking away, making everyone chuckle. ej walked up to june, making her turn to face him. "so, when are we getting pizza?" ej asked june.
"i don't know. tomorrow night? at six?"
"sure."
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june walked into rehearsal late because she had to retake a test. when she walked into the room, everyone was standing in the middle looking at carlos. "what's going on?" june asked as everyone turned to her. they all looked at carlos.
"uh—miss jenn may have lied on her job application and may or may not get fired. we don't know yet, but there's gonna be a school board meeting soon." carlos explained. "hey carlos! what else's aren't you telling us?" ej asked, tilting his head to the side.
"hey, let's all breathe for a second." ashlyn suggested.
"do you wanna be in charge?"
"she didn't say that!"
"you know what i uhmm—i need a minute," nini said grabbing her bag and standing up from the piano bench. kourtney followed along and others started to leave. june and ej both followed the large group that was leaving. with no teacher of rehearsal, june had another's reason to leave east high.
when june got home and sat on her bed, she got a text that all the kids were meeting at big reds house to "hang out" but there was something else going on. she arrived at the house and a bunch of the kids were entering the house. they all went down to the basement. june saw ej and walked towards him and sat down. "hey, do you know what's going on?" she asked.
"no clue."
"this is a terrible party. there aren't even pretzels." natalie said breaking the long silence.
"what are we all doing here?"
"we all ended up in the same basement after a really bad day so someone should say something." ashlyn said as carlos spoke up "fine. i'll say something. i'm mad at miss jenn." he admitted.
"why?" gina scoffed "because she's got a couple of skeletons in her closet?"
"no because she's giving up." carlos said, "she was the first teacher not to see me as a punchline and now she's not even a real teacher?"
"define 'real teacher'"
"he's got a point."
"does he though?"
"tell me, why we are all here?" june asked and ej nodded. "yeah, good question. this is a waste of time." ej scoffed leaning back into big red's brown, leather couch.
"honestly, cause she gave me a shot." carlos said, "and it's been a long time since someone gave me a shot."
nini spoke up, sitting on big reds desk "she gave me a voice."
"yeah, and how nobody's gonna get to hear it because miss jenn screwed up," kourtney added. june sighed and leaned back with her arms crossed. "okay, does anyone here actually care if her past is a bit sketchy? anyone?" ashlyn asked and no one said anything.
"i do." ricky said.
"seriously?"
"what? because you live some perfect life?" kourtney asked and ricky shook his head "not at all. because she put our show in jeopardy and now we're all in here, maybe for the last time together." ricky said getting up from his seat "and for some of us, this has become—i don't know."
"family." nini softly.
"what team?"
"wildcats." everyone said together.
"okay, wildcats. so what are we doing about it?" ashlyn asked as everyone looked around the room. "i don't know, but i do know we're gonna be here all night, and we're going to need a lot of coffees." june said as they all got to work.
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