Chapter Text
Ricky had never felt so nervous in his life. Well, that wasn’t true, he had definitely felt nervous that time he had to present his project on humpback whales with Big Red in front of their entire fourth-grade class, and when Nini first told him she loved him, and when he auditioned for High School Musical last year. Scratch that, he had felt this nervous many times in his life, but he’d never felt this much pressure.
As he laid on stage, trying to be as motionless as possible, his mind was spinning. He couldn’t even pretend that he was in character, he was too busy going over the transformation in his head. What if he messed up the throw like he had done every time they rehearsed it? What if the mask landed on someone’s face again and caused another malfunction? They would lose the Menkies for sure, and it would all be because of him.
Ashlyn was finishing up her lines and it was almost time for him to “transform”. After a beautifully tragic performance from Ashlyn, Ricky slowly stood up and started to spin. The device Big Red had thought of was abandoned for the harness idea, so it was up to Ricky to make the transformation work.
He gradually spun faster and faster and reached up to his mask to undo the velcro that tied it together. His fingers fumbled to undo the tie, but it was kind of tangled and part of it had caught on the fur. It was taking longer than it was supposed to, so Ricky kept spinning faster and faster until it felt like he was going to be sick. He couldn’t get his fingers to move quickly enough until, aha! The velcro came loose and he whipped the mask from his head and tossed it into the wings without looking. He hoped that nobody got hurt in the process, but he didn’t hear any screams of anguish or loud crashing noises so he took that as a good sign.
Ashlyn shot him a relieved look which greatly reduced his speeding heart rate. So far, so good. They only had to finish up and then they were in the clear.
***
“Oh my god, y’all!” Kourtney hurried backstage with Ricky not far behind her. Everyone turned around, hoping to hear good news.
“Ricky’s transformation,” she started to say, but was interrupted by an eager castmate asking “how’d it look?”
“Honestly,” she took a deep breath and looked around in suspense, “it was passable!” The room erupted into cheers. Maybe winning the Menkies didn’t sound so far-fetched after all.
“Hey, here’s our star!” Nini called out as Ashlyn walked shyly into the room. More cheers broke out for the deserving lead who had dazzled the audience with her talent.
“Oh, you guys,” Ashlyn blushed and smiled at her good friends. “Has anyone seen my boyfriend? He’s been running around all night” She asked when they had calmed down.
“He’s probably throwing up,” Gina joked.
“Actually, I think he left a letter at your locker,” Ricky interjected.
“I think more than one letter,” EJ added and shared a look with Ricky.
“Okay…” Ashlyn’s smile faded a little bit, “I’m gonna check them out. I’ll see you all at Slices though.” She gave a small wave and walked out the other door.
Everyone resumed packing up and finishing what they needed to get done before they headed over to Slices for the after-party. Well, not everyone was getting ready to go to Slices. Gina was actually spending a little more time than usual putting on makeup for her “date” with EJ. She wasn’t exactly sure it was a date, maybe like seventy-five percent sure? It seemed like a date, but she still didn’t want to get her hopes up too high just in case things didn’t work out between them. She still hadn’t forgotten that EJ was heading to college in the fall. That could definitely complicate things between them.
***
Meanwhile, Kourtney was having boy issues of her own, the exact thing she said she wasn’t going to let herself have. She finished getting ready for Slices early so she could meet up with her mom and talk about her performance. When she walked out the door, however, she was greeted with Howie’s face instead.
“Hey, Kourtney, c-congrats,” Howie stuttered out.
“Thank you… Howard,” she awkwardly shot him finger guns, something she never did. She just didn’t know how to act around this weird, new Howie.
“Your welcome,” he smiled nervously. She had had enough of his odd behavior. Kourtney Greene deserved to be treated better than this and it was time she told him so.
“Can I just say something real quick? If I don’t measure up in some way tonight, then I would like to know that now, because after you hid your North High identity from me, I’m done with secrets and surprises. I deserve better, Howie, and if you can’t do that, then I’m sorry--”
“Kourtney, I didn’t mean… I…” Howie scratched the back of his neck, his face looking pained.
“Howie, what is it?” She asked softer.
He finally looked back into her eyes, ready to tell the truth, “I’ve just been feeling so much stress lately. The pressure from everyone at North High is crazy. They make me feel like you guys have to be our enemy, but I’m done with that, Kourtney. I choose you.”
“Oh, well… I,” she didn’t know what to say, but she didn’t have to say anything because Howie pulled her into a kiss. She melted into him. She believed him, and if that got her hurt in the future, that was future Kourtney’s problem. Right now, she knew that she could stick up for herself, and she knew that Howie’s intentions were true.
When they broke apart, Howie’s smile took up his whole face.
“I’m so sorry I ever made you feel like you weren’t good enough. In fact, it was the opposite. I was so enchanted by you tonight, I couldn’t take my eyes away from you the entire time. You have so much talent and I’m so lucky to know you,” he told her. That was it, she pulled him in for another kiss. Maybe relationship drama wasn’t so bad after all.
***
“Caswell!” EJ looked up from his phone to see Mr. Mazzara walking over to him cheerfully.
“What’s up?” He asked.
I got a call from the California Institute of the Arts, it seems you’ve applied there. They were asking about what I thought of you, and of course, I told them the truth… that you’re a good kid with a bright future ahead of them. They told me that they were interested in you for their theater program.” Mr. Mazzara finished.
“Really? That’s incredible!”
“Yes, it is. So, I’d expect a call or an email from them in the next couple of days if I were you.” Mr. Mazzara patted him on the back but noticed EJ’s grin slowly disappear.
“Is everything okay? I thought that would be good news.”
EJ nodded, “yeah it’s just… the idea of going to California, I don’t know.” All of a sudden, EJ felt like the last puzzle piece had finally slid into place, but it meant that another puzzle piece had to be removed.
“Yo Gaston!” Gina called from down the hall. EJ turned towards her and she gestured to her pink outfit, which was Mr. Mazzara’s cue to leave.
Gina did a little twirl and walked over to him, excited for their not-exactly-a-date date to begin.
“I am ready to head out when you are,” she said, unable to contain her smile.
EJ’s heart sank when he thought about what he’d have to do next, but he knew that he needed to.
“I actually think that maybe we should go to Slices. It’s Ashlyn’s big night and we should be there for her.”
“So, should we reschedule?” Gina asked quizzically.
EJ sighed and said, “maybe we should just put it on hold for now.”
“Oh, okay.” Gina’s face dawned with understanding. EJ hated that he was making her feel this way, that he had let her down, but he wanted to go to CalArts next year so if he didn’t end things now, he’d just be delaying the inevitable.
“I, uh, left something backstage. I’ll see you at Slices.” Gina told him and walked away before he could do anything, like apologize.
***
“Thanks for the card,” Ricky said, holding up the dainty folded piece of paper that had his name written elegantly on the side. The one he’d given to Nini on the other hand, had her name scribbled messily. Actually, the whole message had been scribbled messily.
“Can I open it later? I kinda like to read cards in private.” Nini told him and bit her lip.
“Yeah, sure, I’ll do the same.” He slipped the card into his pocket.
“You were great tonight, a real leading man.” She chuckled softly.
“I don’t know if it was as good as our opening night performance last semester though.”
“I don’t think anything could be like that.” Their situation seemed comfortingly familiar. It was hard to believe that only last semester, they had gotten back together in this very room right after opening night. It was funny how time worked.
As much as Nini was grateful to have the freedom to express herself, she missed Ricky. How could she not when he had always been there for her? Things were so different now and a part of her ached for it to go back to the way it used to be.
They looked into each other’s eyes and each caught a glance of longing in them that quickly passed. It could’ve easily been mistaken for a trick of the light, but just for a moment…
“I should go,” Nini said and walked away before she had a chance to do anything stupid.
“Ricky?” He heard a voice say his name softly from behind him and he spun around.
“Gina, what are you still doing here?” The glow she had worn so confidently the whole night was gone. She looked really sad and it hurt RIcky to see her like this.
“I wanted to ask you something before I lost the courage to do it.” She said, strength entering her tone with each passing word. “I wanted to ask you about the last time the two of us were in here alone. Opening night. Do you remember?”
Of course he did, but he never knew how to bring it up afterward. He had gotten back together with Nini right before Gina had walked in and left his head spinning.
“I’m sorry I never talked about it with you, I didn’t know what to say.” He gulped.
“It’s okay,” she laughed, “even though it was totally embarrassing for me and I regret it everyday…” Ricky took a step towards her, making her lose track of what she was going to say. Did she still have feelings for him? He had been so nice to her last semester, it had felt like they had really connected, but this semester…
“You cut me off. You stopped talking to me unless it was about Nini and when I told you that I didn’t want to hear about her, you shut off from me completely. Why?” She couldn’t believe she was actually telling this to him, but something about being this close to Ricky was making her feel more alive and confident than before.
“I didn’t want to upset you and I didn’t know what to do. I have a hard time when people tell me their feelings, I kind of just shut down. I never wanted to hurt you, I care about you.” Did Ricky get closer to her when he was speaking because it sure felt like it. It felt like he could hear her heart pounding. They were so close.
His phone started ringing in his pocket, scaring the both of them. They both jumped back because of the sound and Ricky pulled out his phone to see who it was. It was Lily, but he didn’t say anything to Gina. He tried to hide his screen from her and said, “I should take this, I’m sorry.” He didn’t know what he was doing, he just wanted to get out of there even if it was unfair to Gina. He needed to think and there was a lot to think about.
Gina nodded and once he left the room, she sat down in a chair and started to cry. Was she that repulsive that she pushed away EJ and now Ricky too? She never used to be like this, getting so close to people and confessing feelings. It was better to be like how she used to be, with all her walls up.
“Gina? Are you okay?” Nini had entered the room without her noticing. She half-heartedly wiped the tears from her eyes, but at this point she didn’t care who saw her.
“No,” she shook her head, “it just seems like I’m really bad at reading when someone’s interested or not.” She sniffed and Nini sat down beside her.
“I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I know that you are a force of nature--”
“Nini,” she tried interrupting her, but her friend was persistent
“--You have this energy about you that’s so…”
“Off-putting?” Gina suggested and Nini looked into her eyes seriously.
“Powerful,” she finished. “I feel so lucky to know you, and I know everyone else feels the same. There’s something about you that makes the person you’re with feel special.”
“You’re doing that thing again,” Gina half smiled in an adorable way.
“Doing what?” Nini asked, her heart fluttering.
“You’re always lifting people up. You’ve been doing it all year with everyone around you. I think you’re one of the most selfless people I know.” Nini didn’t know how to respond. She cherished the compliment, holding onto it so she could remember it later.
“I’m sorry about the chocolates thing,” Gina continued and wiped another tear from her cheek, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything.”
“It’s okay, really. It was more about me and you than it was about me and him. You’re important to me, Gina, and I just wanted you to be able to talk to me.”
“It can be kind of intimidating to talk to you sometimes. I just want you to like me so much.” Gina didn’t know that that was true until the words came out of her mouth.
“I do like you and I hope that you’ll come and talk to me in the future.” Nini pressed her lips together to stop from smiling too big.
Gina leaned over and grabbed her hand, “you’re a really solid person, Nini, and I like you too.”
Hearing those words from Gina made Nini feel warm and bubbly, like how she’d imagine drinking champagne felt like. She was surprised that Gina was having such an effect on her. For a moment they shared a smile and Nini glanced down at Gina’s lips, for a split second wondering what it would be like to press her own against them.
“Are you guys coming or what?” Carlos’ voice rang through the air and Gina pulled away and dropped Nini’s hand.
“Yeah, we are.” Gina smiled at Nini and looked over to Carlos and Seb swinging their clasped hands in the air. She grabbed her bag and pulled Nini out of her seat. Maybe this night wasn’t such a disaster after all.