even if the whole world was watching

19. "This is so cool!"

They arrived in the theatre, Evie found it exhilarating whilst Aurora was creeped out. "This is so cool!" She exclaimed, as they walked along in the dark, one flashlight between the pair. "If your cool is weird, then by all means, its cool" Aurora mutters, focusing on not tripping over, but it didn't work. She lost her footing and fell, bumping into the person who was in front of her, who just so happened to be, you guessed it, Ej Caswell. 

"What is this, like the 50th time you've fell for me this year?" He teased as he helped her up. "I hate you" she rolled her eyes, though he couldn't fully see her in the dark. "No you don't" Evie singsongs. "I hate you aswell" Aurora repeated. "No you don't" Evie also repeat her words, in the same tone as before, and both girls knew the brunette was right.

Aurora was walking around, inspecting the place as everyone got themselves organised. As she looked, she caught sight of ej, with the red box in his hands. She marched up to him, a glare mixed with a disappointed look on her face. "You did not just look at that did you?" she hisses. "And if I did?" he shrugs, pushing past her. "Ej! Do you not learn from anything!?" she exclaimed "Rory, it doesn't matter" he rolls his eyes, walking away. "I swear" she sighed, following after him.

"okay! Let's have some real talk!" Miss Jenn caught everyones attention as they all stood on the stage. "Welcome to tech rehearsal, I don't know if you've noticed but most of the tech in this theatre is hand cranked. Natalie Bagley, my dear, my stage manager, this is your chance to be a hero!" Miss Jenn exclaims, unknowing of the people who were missing. Everyone begins muttering and whispering, no one wanting to break the bad news.. "What? What is is? What happening?" Miss Jenn asks, confused. "Natalie bagleys getting her wisdom teeth removed" seb puts Miss Jenn out of her misery, though it just added more to her stress. "Okay. Okay so i'm down a stage manager, my Marthas MIA" Miss Jenn frets. "Gina's okay. She's a fighter. She'll be back for opening night" Ricky says. Nini gave him a look, "Did she text you?" "No, you?" Ricky replies. Nini shook her head and they both sighed.

"Okay, we just need to nail down our lighting and our sound and ta-da we've got a show" Miss Jenn spoke to no one in particular, "I need some bodies for the rooftop scene." Ej grinned. "I can do troy" he told her, flicking to the page in his script. "Fine, Aurora stand in for Gabriella, thank you" She asked, and thanked her, even thought Aurora hadn't responded. Sighing, she picked up her script and walked over to where ej was standing. 

"Do we have a working light board?" Miss Jenn asked, then she sighed, "Do we have a working light switch?" Then big red turned one on, revealing the mannequins that must have been left over. Aurora screamed, not quite as loud and as girly as ej, but she jumped back, her head now pressing against his chest. "Sorry everyone, my uncle Ruben said that there was gonna be some left over stuff from the fashion show" Carlos apologised, "I guess the theme was 80s ?" "In a nuclear reactor?" Ashlyn added, making a few people laugh quietly. 

 "Big red, do we have anything more flattering?" Miss Jenn asked. "Working on it" Big red called, then switching the light to something much better. "Okay troy basketball stuff, Gabriella math stuff, nobody doesn't cry and we end up here centre stage, Gabriella give us your cue" Miss Jenn instructs.

"Remember in kindergarten when you'd meet a kid, know nothing about them, then ten seconds later you're best friends?" Aurora read, her eyes flickering to Evie as the line had always reminded her of her best friend. "Yeah" Ej replied, sounding strange but Aurora shrugged it off. "Singing with you felt like that" She continued. "I never thought about singing that's for sure, Until you, And now, I don't wanna stop, ever" Ej actually acted, just confusing and concerning Aurora. She moved back slightly, and gave Miss Jenn a look. "That's excellent and a little bit weird" Miss Jenn comments. "Big red, can we hit these two with a spotlight?" she asked. "Uh, i'll look for it" big red called back, clearly confuse but he was trying.

"What is happening right now?" Aurora asks, confused as to why Ej was acting strange. "Oh i'm emoting Rory, feel free to join me" he replied, looking into her eyes. "This is a tech rehearsal and i'm not actually playing Gabriella" She narrowed her eyes at him, trying to work out why he was 'emoting'. "Okay, let's not wait for the lights, Just stand on your marks and gimme your cue again" Miss Jenn told the pair. 

This was when Aurora grew very concerned. Ej began mock crying and she knew something was definitely up. "I never thought about singing that's for sure. Until you. And now, I don't wanna stop, ever" he then placed a hand on the side of her face. Aurora shot him a glare, he was being far too weird for her liking. Miss Jenn called Ej over, the same time as Carlos realised what was going on, and he felt bad that Aurora had to deal with it.

As Aurora looked out over all of the seats, her standing on the stage with Ej by her side, the memories came flooding back. She froze. "Rory are you okay?"