home ➝ ricky bowen

3- table read

On Tuesday afternoon when Alexis arrived home from school, she was feeling really down.

Sure, she had gotten the lead role, but it seemed like everyone was really pissed off at her for it. She didn't even plan to audition for Gabriella, how could they be so angry with her? It's all Carlos' fault. She couldn't even be happy about getting the lead. Even Gina seemed annoyed with her; Alexis had asked if she wanted to hang out and the other girl had declined in sort of a rude way. But Alexis understood. Gina had done amazing at auditions, and honestly? Alexis thought she deserved the role more than her.

As she stepped onto her porch, Alexis was happy to see that the last of her new skateboard parts had arrived. Her old one was really beat up and honestly on the verge of snapping completely so she decided to start fresh with a new board.

This time, however, she decided not to get a complete. It would feel more special to put it all together herself.

She quickly ran inside and grabbed the parts that had came in before, dropped her bag on the floor, and jogged back outside.

She brought all the parts down to the edge of the sidewalk and opened the new package.

There it was, the board itself. It was beautiful.

Alexis smiled and ran her hand overtop of the wood. This would be perfect.

First she picked up the grip tape and smoothed it over the top carefully to not get any air bubbles. Then she grabbed the grip cutter but before she could do any damage, a voice called out to her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Alexis looked up to see none other than Ricky Bowen looking down at her.

He was on his skateboard that she saw him ride to school. She had driven today in fear of her old board breaking from under her, so she hadn't seen him on the way home. This was his first time realizing the girl lived right across the street.

He stopped his board in the grass and plopped down next to her on the sidewalk. "So, what you wanna do is..." he grabbed the truck from her pile of parts and scraped it along the side. "It helps give you a better outline of where you need to cut," he explained, and handed it back to her.

She nodded. "Thanks," and continued to scrape it along the edge while he stared at her trying to figure out what to say.

"That's a really sick board, by the way," Ricky said trying to make conversation.

Alexis just shrugged in response.

Ricky sighed. "Hey, I'm really sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to like... sound like I didn't want you to get the lead. You really do deserve it, you did awesome today. It's just that..."

"I know" Alexis cut him off, "you wanted that Nini girl to have it so you guys could have a showmance, or whatever. I heard all about it. Crazy how fast word can get around, yeah?"

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to be rude to you."

"Nah, it's okay, I understand. I wasn't really mad about it anyway... I kind of can't be, we'll be spending so much time together soon. And I'm not one to hold a grudge." She replied.

The boy smiled in response. "I guess so."

After a minute of quiet, Ricky said, "hey, once you get that all set up, there's this really cool indoor skate park I go to. I can show you if you want and you could break in your new board?"

Alexis took a second to respond. She was having difficulty looking Ricky in the eye. She wasn't used to people being so nice to her; first Gina, and now Ricky?

Maybe that's just how everyone at East High was, so she'd better get used to it.

"Okay," she said.

So Ricky helped her set up the rest, and after testing to see if it was good, they both clipped their helmets on and Alexis followed him down the street.

The skatepark was nice. When the two teens arrived they mainly just skated around and showed each other a few tricks they knew. Ricky knew a lot, Alexis not so much.

On the way home they stopped at a gas station and got slushees. They sat down on the curb outside in silence. The two hadn't really talked very much at all, but it wasn't an awkward silence. It was comfortable, to both of them.

******

After school the next day, the theater kids had their first table read in the schools bomb shelter. Alexis and the others thought it was a little bit of a strange location, but once they saw how it was set up, their jaws dropped.

Miss Jen and Carlos had completely converted it into a perfect stage set up.

"I know, I know!" Carlos said, beaming. "We did so well, you don't have to tell us. Now, take your seats!"

Alexis stared at all the cards until she found the one with 'Gabriella' written on it. She sat down and everyone else followed suit. Ricky plopped down in the chair next to her. When he caught her staring he grinned at her.

She smiled back and turned away blushing.

"Who is Natalie Badgley and why do I care her glands are swelling?" Miss Jen demanded when Carlos showed her something on his phone.

"She's our stage manager and she can't make it today," Carlos replied.

"Um..." she looked around and her eyes landed on Big Red, "you. Can you read?"

"Not really," the ginger replied in confusion.

Miss Jen slapped a script into his hand. "Well you are today. Stage directions."

Let's just say, the boy was not lying when he said he couldn't read.

"Okay!" Miss Jen interjected as soon as he read the last line of Act 1. "That's that... let's take a 5."

During the break, Miss Jen and Carlos noted the behavior of the cast. Ricky was staring at Nini who was talking to EJ, and Alexis was staring at her phone.

"Oh my god," Miss Jen muttered to Carlos. "This is ridiculous. Our Troy is too interested in Kelsi and Gabriella won't even look at anyone! Where's that chemistry we saw between Alexis and Ricky at auditions?"

"Well," said Carlos, "that Alexis girl is new to the school. And Rickys new to theater. And a lot of these kids really don't know each other."

Miss Jen nodded in response, deep in her thoughts.

"Should we recast?" Carlos asked uneasily. "I mean, it can't be too late."

"No, no," Miss Jen said dismissively, "we know our instincts. We have to trust them. And I think I know what can fix this issue. We need to have some sort of... some sort of team bonding! Wouldn't that be great!"

"What, you mean like a dinner or something?" Carlos replied.

Miss Jen shook her head. "No, no. Think... think bigger. Something that will really bring them all together."

Carlos went quiet, his thoughts coming up empty.

Miss Jen sighed. "Keep thinking, I will too. We need to come up with something soon."