𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒𝐘 - 𝐡𝐬𝐦𝐭𝐦𝐭𝐬 | ✔

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀𝒊𝒊𝒊. 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞
━━ 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈

     The next day, Juliette woke up as if it were Christmas day. She could not remember the last time she felt so happy about working in decorations and props, but that year was different. That year they mattered.

     "Did you talk to Ricky?" Lisa asked her older sister with her mouth full of cereal.

     "I did, everything is okay," she explained, while preparing a bowl herself.

     "Gosh, who would have thought that they would break up? Honestly, you have to take this opportunity. We want him having dinner here, just imagine it."

     "You girls are creepy," she laughed. Juliette took her sisters' crush on Ricky as an anecdote now. At first, she had to constantly apologize to the boy because they did not stop gushing over him but now, he had grown accustomed to that and he actually did not mind. It amused him and he actually had a good laugh every time that the sisters approached him since he had grown fond of them.

     "Okay but what about Nini? First, she gets Ricky Bowen and now E.J. Caswell. Let me tell you, that girl has won in life already," Ava laughed from the other side of the table.

     "There is more to life than boys," Anna, the girls' mother, explained entering the kitchen and kissing all her daughters' temples.

     "Well yeah, but life is better if we have Ricky Bowen watching a movie in our living room."

     It was getting late already so Juliette finished her breakfast and, as she took her backpack, she yelled at her sisters from the main door, "that is not happening!"

—

     The day went by painfully slow and, as soon as the last bell rang, the entirety of the art club rushed to the auditorium, ready to start working already. Miss Jenn and Carlos were there when they arrived and, after greeting them, they left them to work on the sides of the stage while they rolled the auditions.

     While they worked, they could not help but take a look at the several people auditioning: the girl with the number 1 was clearly broadway material, E.J. had come dressed up as Troy (a bit tacky in Lydia's opinion but anyway), a boy they recognized as Seb had decided to go on for Sharpay instead of the predictable Ryan and then, the unexpected happened.

     "Am I too late!?" yelled someone, entering the auditorium in a rush. The scare made them nearly mess up a drawing and they soon turned around to see who had been the late boy.

     "We're all set on Troys, we're low on Chads," Miss Jenn informed, "you can read after the Gabriellas".

     "I've only studied the Troy scenes in the movie..." none other that Ricky Bowen admitted while lowering his head, ashamed. It was obvious that auditioning was a last-minute decision, maybe even a bet he had lost or a dare he could not back down from. Let's be honest, Ricky would never put a foot on an auditorium unless he was forced to. Let alone audition for a musical.

     "Troy would have arrived on time."

     He wouldn't have, actually. It was the only thought that came to Juliette's mind. If you had seen the movie (and all of them, except maybe Ricky, had), you would know that Troy was late to everything. It was a bad habit of his. In any case, it was Nini's turn to audition but E.J.'s supportive cheer scared Miss Jenn, who threw all her coffee on the technological devices in front of her, making the lights go out.

     Miss Jenn advised the girl to wait until the lights came back, just for the sake of her "not being thrown", but Nini was determined to audition for the leading role.

     "I'm not thrown," she assured before starting singing The start of something new. It was faint at first and, if you didn't know the girl was standing there, you would have thought that the sound came from another room. Then, Ricky took it upon himself to direct his phone's flashlight towards Nini so everyone could see her as she deserved, act that was soon imitated by E.J. This encouraged Nini, who started singing louder.

     Her beautiful voice filled the auditorium and, honestly, she left everyone amazed, making the art crew stop working in order to appreciate the beauty of the girl's voice. She had never played a big role in a school production, but that song went through her as if she herself had been the writer. She deserved the spotlight. As soon as the song was over, the lights came back again, illuminating the whole auditorium. It was almost as if someone wanted for everyone's attention to be on her.

     Ricky was next in the audition process. Big Red handed him his guitar, he read a couple of Chad's lines, improvised a scene and then he proceeded to sing what he claimed was an original song. But everyone there recognized it as soon as he played the first notes: it was the same song that Nini had posted in her Instagram, the one that (apparently) had something to do with their break-up, although he had changed some of the words to adapt it to his own situation. Neither Nini, E.J. or Kourtney seemed too happy about this, but Ricky finished his audition anyways, unable to take his eyes off the girl he liked.

     When he stopped singing, everyone (except for the aforementioned three) clapped for the boy and that concluded the auditions. Everyone was sent out so Miss Jenn and Carlos could debate the cast, so they did as told and stepped into the hallway.

     "And... that happened," Ricky told Big Red while carrying his guitar. However, before anyone could say anything to even congratulate the boy, Nini caught up to him and confronted him about auditioning for the musical when he hated them. From where Juliette was standing, she could see (and hear) Ricky's devastation, he was doing that for her and now she was yelling at him? It didn't seem fair for Ricky, he was making a great effort to be there and get her beloved back.

     "The old me had her heart broken," Nini continued speaking with her voice trembling, as if she was about to cry, "okay? And then she went away and she found herself. And you don't get to show up now, you're just trying to... confuse things."

     "You think that's why I'm here?" Ricky replied, "No. No, Nini. I've always believed in you. In us. Even if I sucked at showing it. That's why I'm here."

     Nini's face softened and she looked as if she was about to cry but, before anything else could happen, Carlos interrupted carrying the list of the final cast for the musical and Kourtney dragged Nini with her.

Nini Salazar-Roberts – Gabriella Montez

Ricky Bowen – Troy Bolton

Gina Porter – Taylor, Gabriella Montez understudy

E.J. Caswell – Chad Danforth, Troy Bolton understudy.

     "She thinks I'm a Chad?" E.J. asked, more to himself than to anyone else. If E.J. did not have the lead then...

     And the whole room fell silent. Juliette, out of pure curiosity, approached the cast list to take a look at what had surprised everyone so much. And then she understood it all. Ricky and E.J. were glaring at each other while Nini's eyes travelled between the two boys.