𝐎𝐍 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐄 - 𝐡𝐬𝐦𝐭𝐦𝐭𝐬 (𝐢𝐢) | ✔

twenty-five

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twenty-five: boys versus girls
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     That afternoon, Carlos spammed all their phones and virtually forced them all to meet at the pizza place. He had not said why but said that it was important and that should be enough for all of them to meet him there. That gave Juliette a funky feeling. I mean, all of them getting together in short notice and without Miss Jenn? Talk about deja vu.

     "You guys, Mother is freaking out," he announced as he walked into the establishment. "It's about the Menkies. We can't win."

     "What?" Ahslyn half-whispered, looking at Carlos. Juliette let her sight travel to E.J. and Gina, who were together in front of her. Both of them returned her look, equally confused as she was.

     "Listen, there's math involved."

     "Oh, then we're fucked," the redhead breathed out, not even wanting to know what Carlos had to say. If they had no chance of winning whatsoever, what were they doing there in the first place? She heard a soft laugh that pulled her out of her thoughts and, upon looking for the source of the sound, her eyes connected with Ricky's brown ones. For a second, neither of them dared to look away.

     "If we don't sweep the technical achievement awards, we don't have a chance. And, no offense, Ricky, but..."

     "Oh, is this about the transformation?" he exclaimed when he saw that everyone had fallen silent and turned around to look at him. "'Cause Juliette and I nearly had it perfect."

     The redhead did not reply and instead turned to look at Carlos once again, wishing for disappearance at that moment.

     "I hate to say this, you guys. I mean, I know we all had a good time over spring break. Honestly," the boy continued after a snarky remark from Seb, "we need to rally behind Miss Jenn. I mean, our sets are made of plywood and Elmer's Glue. We're humble and humble does not win awards."

     "I think our sets are fantastic," Juliette intervened, somewhat offended for Carlos's comment about the sets that the art crew had worked so hard on. "We work with what we have, we are not a professional company."

     "Look, Juliette, I know your sentimental attatchment to the art club but let's be honest. With those sets, they are going to laugh in our faces."

     The argument didn't go any further because, thanks to Kourtney, it was decided that they should get together to invent something that would make the Beast transformation... at least acceptable. 

     "Ashlyn, you have the biggest house," Nini observed, "what if I invite myself and the girls over after school, continue the collab thing?"

     "I mean, square footage-wise, my house is slightly larger..." E.J. began, but soon received a nudge from Gina, who until then had been looking at the boy with a smile of pure adoration. "Okay, uh, I'm going to shut up."

     "Boys versus girls," Nini stated once Ashlyn had accepted her proposal; soon Big Red offered his basement for the boys. Needless to say, the girls were eager to get together with the prospect of spending a whole afternoon laughing and taking photos and Instagram stories of each other. And, of course, beating the boys and creating the best Beast transformation any higschool production had ever seen.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

     The next day, Ricky Bowen came down Big Red's basement steps, ready to start working on the transformation. Honestly, he would be in favour of skipping that step and just closing the courtain for a split second but, apparently, that was not good enough.