Lights Up

It's The Start Of Something New

Hello hello hello beautiful people. Author here. July 18th. On this day in history, a group of New York newsboys put down their papers in protest of unfair prices and poor work conditions. They continued this protest for the next two weeks, until August 2nd. Happy Strike Day, folks!
Anyways, here's the chapter.

Dia's POV

Today is the day. It feels like I've been waiting forever, though it's only been three days. The LONGEST three days of my life.
The cast list is being posted outside the auditorium this morning, and I don't think I've ever been this excited to get to school.  I'm running all morning, down the stairs, out the door. To the salon, to the subway, out of the subway, to the school. Through the parking lot and—
WHAM!
I run straight into Phillip as he's getting out of a car. A woman who must be his mother looks on in concern as her son and a random, overly excited girl (yours truly) go crashing into the concrete.

" Oh, wow, I'm sorry! I probably wasn't looking where I was going cause I was running and I was in a hurry cause—-"

My insane rambling is interrupted by Phillip bursting out laughing. Oh.

"The cast list, Dia. I know. I'm excited too. We should probably go, or Damien might explode cause we're late. See you after school, Mom!"

He waves at his mom, who looks like she's trying not to laugh also. She pulls off, and Phillip turns to me and grins. Don't blush don't blush don't blush.

"Race you?"

"You're on."

Hopefully I can disguise my red face as being from running here. Because I'm definitely blushing. Mierda.

********************************************

After sprinting through the school, getting yelled at by Mr. Lee, and almost knocking over some oblivious freshmen, we make it to the small crowd of people gathered outside the auditorium. I push my way through, and the name at the top of the list catches my eye.

Troy Bolton: Phillip Hamilton

I turn to congratulate him, but he stops me and smiles.

"Yeah, Dia, I know. But look at the next one on the list!"

I turn to do exactly that, and almost fall over in surprise.

Gabriella Montez: Claudia de la Vega

I got the part. I. Got. The. Part. I GOT THE PART.

Dia.exe has stopped working

After taking a moment to internally scream my face off in celebration. I scan the rest of the cast list, looking for familiar names.

Drama Club presents: High School Musical: The Musical

Cast List

Troy Bolton: Phillip Hamilton

Gabriella Montez: Claudia de la Vega

Sharpay Evans: Damien Hubbard

Ryan Evans: Grace Novitski (OC)

Chad Danforth: Mitchell Campbell (OC)

Kelsi Nielsen: Alison Jackson (OC)

Ms. Darbus: Dylan Maitland (OC)

Taylor McKessie: Cara Jackson (OC)

Most of the names I don't know, and before I can read the last few I'm being grabbed and spun around in celebration by Phillip. Like he picked me up and spun me around. Like we're in some cheesy romantic comedy. How is my brain not exploding?

"WE GOT THE LEADS. Wow, we got the leads. Hey! You're my love interest! Wait, you're my love interest. That's kind of awkward."

Wow, that is kind of awkward. Especially because I have the BIGGEST FREAKING CRUSH ON HIM EVER THAT HE CAN NEVER KNOW ABOUT EVER. But wait, I'm his love interest. He's my love interest. I'm going to have to kiss Phillip Hamilton on stage. I GET to kiss Phillip Hamilton on stage. I don't know if I should be celebrating or crying. I'll figure that out later. For now, I have a feeling that this day is going to go super slow, because this afternoon is the first rehearsal.

❤️~❤️~❤️this is a time skip❤️~❤️~❤️

It's rehearsal time. We're all gathered in the auditorium, waiting for Miss Medda to call everyone to attention. Today we're just going to be running lines for act one, but now me, Phillip, Jack, Crutchie, Damien, and Frances are sitting in a circle playing Exploding Kittens. At least, we were until a blond kid with what looked like a lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth plopped down next to Jack and started ranting.

"Ok ok so. I'm on my way to lunch, right? And I'm with Spot, right? And he's complainin' about some stuck up chick that just moved up from pom squad to the competitive team, and is trying to talk bad about him, and she's like "you know people will think you're gay cause you're on the dance team" and Spot's like "we'll I am gay so that wouldn't be a bad assumption, and I'm not just on the dance team, I'm the captain, so shut it and sit down" which isn't actually word for word what he said cause I don't remember exactly what he said cause we were holding hands and that kinda makes my brain feel all fuzzy sometimes cause he's REALLY cute but then Pulitzer was walking by and he saw us holding hands and he gave us detention for PDA even though Shane Oman was making out with a girl like three feet away from us in plain sight and Pulitzer didn't say anything because he's a homophobic jerk, and the detention was supposed to be today after school and I had to negotiate with Mr. Raydel to let me off cause I need to be here cause I joined drama club for the extra credit otherwise I'm gonna fail this semester and I thought it just be an easy ride, right? But Miss Medda cast me as the "I play the cello" dude in Status Quo, which is just offensive because I'm the first chair trombone in the band, I'm not in orchestra! But now I have detention for the rest of the week after school cause I missed today cause I needed to be here for the credit, but I only had the detention because Pulitzer is a homophobic jerk. Thank you for coming to my TED talk."

Everyone sat in silence for a minute, as it seemed impossible that a person could talk for that long without stopping to take a breath. This kid seemed to talk in run-on sentences. Finally Jack said something.

"Uh, Race? Aren't TED talks supposed to be educational? Cause I feel like I lost a few brain cells during that."

Damien laughed. "Oh no! You didn't have any to lose in the first place."

Which prompted Jack to hit Damien with his hat.

"Um, can someone introduce me? I don't know who this is."

That made everyone laugh, and lollipop kid stuck his hand out for me to shake.

"Antonio Higgins, though most people call me Race, or Racer, or Racetrack, unless you're one of my teachers, then it's probably SIT DOWN or STOP EATING CANDY IN THE BAND HALL."

"Nice to meet you, Race. Just watch your words about orchestra kids. You're talking to the first chair violin of the school's orchestra."

Race went white, then relaxed a bit. He propped his backpack up like a pillow, and returned his lollipop to his mouth.

"Deal me in."

For the next fifteen minutes before rehearsal, I played a card game involving exploding space cats, unicorn enchiladas, and magical goats with the first real friends I've ever had. I have a feeling that being in this show is going to end up being one of the best decisions I have ever made.

"Ok, everyone, it's time to read through Act One. Chop chop!"

Alright. So they got the parts! Of course they did, this is a cliche fanfic. Anyways, all the cast members marked with (OC) are made-up, and most won't be mentioned ever again. However, Dylan Maitland and Grace Novitski are the OCs of two of my friends who are not on Wattpad, and I promised them they would be in here. So Grace is Donny and Julia from Bandstand's kid, and Dylan is related to the Maitland's from Beetlejuice. There will be no references to Beetlejuice, as I have not listened to it. Thank you for your time, and don't forget to keep on smiling and keep on surviving everyone. Peace out. ✌️

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