HATEFUL LOVE | ej caswell

out of character

Nadia stood near the bulletin board that had the cast posted for the musical. She had no part in making it since Val wanted to make sure there was no bias whatsoever so she was just as surprised as all of her friends were about to be.

"The ensemble?" Dakota read aloud before he shrugged. "It's fine, I usually don't do these kinds of things."

"Really? What made you decide to try out?" Nadia asked him since she did think he had a pretty good voice for being a beginner.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Wanted to try something different, I guess," he answered. "I usually just skateboard and play soccer."

"Oh, I play soccer too. I'm thinking about doing it in college," Nadia told him since Duke had offered her a chance to try out, but she wasn't sure if she was actually going to Duke or not since she needed to speak with EJ first.

"No way! What college are you going to?" he questioned interestedly.

Nadia tensed up a bit. "I don't know yet," she replied since it technically wasn't a lie. She had gotten other offers elsewhere, but Duke had been the best one by far.

"Wait! You're Anna?" Kourtney asked excitedly as she and Gina made their way to the bulletin board, pushing through Nadia and Skate which made them laugh.

"Yes, I am!" Gina confirmed.

"Then that makes us sisters!" Kourtney realized before they both shrieked, making everyone there plug their ears since it was early in the morning.

"Wow! I didn't even know your voices could even reach that register," Ricky commented.

"Plug your ears, I'm about to join them," Carlos warned as he pushed through the two giddy girls. "I can't believe I'm playing—"

"Olaf!" Ricky said for him. "Congrats, bro. And I'm Kristoff. That's—"

"A person. Congratulations on being an actual species, Ricky," Carlos cut Ricky off bitterly. "What? First Lumiere and now Olaf. Am I destined to play an inanimate object for eternity?"

Marcus looked at the board, seeing that he had been cast as Weselton. "Ooh, I've never played a bad guy before. This should be fun," he said, making Nadia laugh out loud at him. "What?"

"Oh, nothing. Personally, I think you're a little too peppy to be a bad guy but that's just me," she told him with a shrug, making him shove her. "Hey!"

"Make way for Belle," Ashlyn drawled. "Make way for...The ensemble?" she read aloud, making everyone's smiles drop hesitantly. "I mean, hey, the ensemble. You can't do a show without the ensemble. There are no small parts, only small actors, right? Don't count your lines, make the lines count."

"All right, all right, everyone calm down. Let's just be professionals," EJ directed as he joined the crowd, giving Nadia a greeting grin.

"Professionally, mazel tov. Especially EJ. Personally, I will be backlogging photos of him in antlers for all future possible blackmail purposes," Ashlyn joked, making everyone laugh, even though EJ's was a confused one.

"What are you talkin' about?" he asked, starting to realize what his cousin had said.

"Your good friend Val cast you as Sven, the reindeer?" Carlos told him slowly.

"No, no. I'm not in the show. I'm directing in the show," EJ explained.

"Check the list. Looks like you'll be joining the ranks of character-actor-hyphen-directors," Carlos said as EJ moved closer to see the cast list.

"Oh, like Greta Gerwig," Gina compared.

"No, this has to be a mistake," EJ said, giving Nadia a look but she didn't know why Val had done that either.