091: Face My Fears

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"Wow I haven't thought of this in so long

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"Wow I haven't thought of this in so long. It was the first day of school. Miss Jenn had just announced she was directing 'High School Musical'. I walked into a classroom during lunch and there Kourtney was, drawing the costumes of 'High School Musical'. I wasn't confident in auditioning and Kourtney wasn't confident in joining crew. So... We made a deal that if I auditioned, Kourt would join crew." Ashlyn says, as she remembers the day perfectly.
"I never knew that." Miss Jenn says.
"I guess a sort of forgot." Kourtney says, getting up and hugging Ashlyn.
"Shout out to Mr Mazzara who lost me miss the first day of robotics club to audition for the musical." Ashlyn says.
"Benjamin, your still here." Miss Jenn says, walking over to him.
"I was. And now I am not." Mr Mazzara says, going to leave.
"Wait. Your a six below zero fan?" Jet asks, noticing the sticker on Mr Mazzara's laptop.
"What? No, it's nothing." Mr Mazzara says, turning so no one could see the sticker anymore.
"You have a six below zero stick on your laptop, bro." Jet says.
"Your grimacing. You look like an emoji." Miss Jenn says. "Well, now, I'm sentimental about our first terrible meeting."
"Look. I was not exactly in a good place on the first day of school last year." Mr Mazzara admits. "Six below had broken up and well... I was apart of the band."
"You were in a boy band?" Carlos asks, shocked. "I'm shaking."
"I knew I recognised you." Jet says. "I went through this obscure boy band phase in middle school."
"He did. It was weird." Maddox says.
"You guys were really big in Warsaw." Jet says.
"It was the entire country of Poland." Mr Mazzara corrects. "But yes. I was briefly part of a male singing institution. They referred to me simple as 'Benny'. I was the funky one, until they kicked me out for pulling focus. They had one single one song called 'New Zealand' about how great of a time they had without me in New Zealand. Jennifer, I'm sorry for how I spoke to you that day. And ensuing days. You gave these universally strange children a space to be themselves. I wish there were more people like you in the world."
"I forgive you, Benny." Miss Jenn says.
I'm, so this has been really illuminating on so many levels, but we kind of have a musical to save." Summer says.
"I'm with Summer." Maddox says.
"Same. Love a good boy band sob story but come on, Mr Funky One." Ricky says. "Don't get us sidetracked."
"Sidetracked? This is the most shocking day of my life since..." Carlos starts, cutting himself off as he looks at Miss Jenn.
"Carlos, you have my blessing." Miss Jenn tells him.
"I thought sophomore year was gonna be boring and predictable. Like a straight persons TikTok feed." Carlos says.
"oh. Ooh, I literally just shuddered." Maddox says.
"Well, I got a note in my locker, first day of school last year, telling me to go to Miss Jenn's office, before I knew it was her office. I had an awful PE lesson, like normal, Miss Jenn saw and well... she wanted to check on me. I also confided to her about how I was physically bullied and online bullied. One thing lead to another and she asked me to be her choreographer and assistant." Carlos explains.
"And that was the day you named me." Miss Jenn says, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"And that was the day you saved me." Carlos says, before Miss Jenn hugs him.
"Wow." Stephanie says.
Seb then storms in.
"Seb!" Alice says.
"Oh, great. Are you here to kiss everyone?" Carlos asks.
"Carlos." Miss Jenn tells him.
"I can't take this any more. Sit down Carlos." Seb snaps, causing Carlos to slowly sit down. "For months. I've been channelling my guilt into latte art. I'm probably the one person who's drawn 400 cows on a cappuccino. But every time I stare at a cow, I think about you."
"Because I embody a cow?" Carlos asks. "You've interrupted an emotional climax here and we're done."
"No, when I showed up three hours late for homecoming after my cow passed away, you were there for me. And I know I haven't been there for you. But, look, when I was making one of my final lattes at Crafty, I over heard the most incredible duet between Lucas Grabeel as Ryan and Scott Huang as his partner, who weirdly never got a name according to the script. I want to sing the song to you today, to my Ryan. Miss Jenn is the one who encouraged me."
"You did what?" Carlos asks.
"Give him a chance, Carlos." Miss Jenn tells him.
"Maddox even tracked down the sheet music." Seb says.
"To be fair, Emmy and Ellie helped me." Maddox says.
"El..." Carlos says, looking at the youngest in the room.
"What can I say, I'm a huge Seblos shipper." Ellie says shrugging her shoulders. "It was mostly Emmy though."
"That girl scares me." Carlos says. "Seb, you have to move on."
"But, I can't you're the greatest person I've ever dated." Seb says.
"Seb, I'm the only person you've ever dated." Carlos reminds him.
"That's actually not true. I was once in a serious relationship." Seb says causing a few people to gasp. "With a women."
"Who?" Summer asks, shocked.
"Natalie, from crew." Seb announces.
"Hold on. You dated Natalie Bagley?" Ricky asks.
"We made out a lot, and spent the rest of our time together fantasy- casting the 'Wicked' movie." Seb says.
"Where is Natalie?" Kourtney asks.
"North High." She made it less evil." Seb tells the group.
"you left Natalie Bagley for me?" Carlos asks.
"I would leave anyone for you." Seb tells him. "And Now, I've said my piece."
"No, no." Ricky says, going over to Seb and Carlos. "You're playing the song. He's playing the goddamn song Carlos."
Seb sits down at the piano before starting to play and sing. Half way through Carlos joins.

After the song was finished everyone claps.
"There's so much I didn't know about you." Carlos says.
"Sometimes, people put my in a box." Seb says.
Gina then lets out a laugh, causing everyone to look at her.
"I'm sorry. Was that out loud?" Gina asks.
"It was." Alice tells her.
"I guess I also know what it's like to be put in a box." Gina says.
"Oh thank god. Take the spotlight off us for a second." Carlos says.
"Us?" Seb asks.
"I..." Carlos starts, not knowing the words to say.
"I love you to." Seb says, knowing what he was trying to say.
"Go on, Gina." Mr Mazzara tells her, knowing she wanted to say something.
"Okay, when I started at East High, I know I may have come off a little on edge." Gina says, causing Summer to laugh loudly.
"I'm sorry, was that out loud?" Summer asks, a little rudely.
"Sum..." Ricky warns her in a whisper.
"let's just say things were complicated. I was struggling with going to a new school. It was the first day of school and I ran into Ricky in the stairwell. He was playing the guitar and singing. He asked me if he should audition for the musical." Gina explains, before looking directly at Summer. "To get you back. And hearing that he was auditioning, made me want to audition so I did."
"So if Gina didn't tell Ricky to publicly sing to Summer, he wouldn't have gotten Troy." Kourtney says.
"But if Ricky hadn't mentioned he was auditioning, Gina wouldn't have shown up, period." Ashlyn adds.
"This is like 'Murder She Wrote'." Miss Jenn says.
"I don't really know what is going on. But this is incredible." Maddox says.
"Are you saying you tried out for the show because of me?" Ricky asks.
"You had a vibe. I had an instinct." Gina says.
"I need to sit down." Ricky says.
Summer couldn't get what Kourtney had said earlier out of her head. 'You won't get far in life if you keep being afraid'.
"I'm sorry. Guys, there's something I got to do." Summer says grabbing her bag.
"What is it?" Stephanie asks.
"I need to face my fears." Summer says.
Summer gives the group a small smile before leaving.

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