𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐘 ― r. bowen ¹ ✓

024

Nini walked out onto the stage. "Wow. So this is your real stage."

However, she stopped in her tracks and a perplexed expression painted across her face once she noticed EJ standing there.

"I guess you could call it that," EJ replied as Troy. "Or just a smelly gym."

The girl covered her microphone to talk to EJ for a quick second. EJ merely handed her the basketball, and Nini shot it, missing the hoop completely. Athena cringed as EJ recited his lines but Nini kept messing up, obviously very confused. She then heard the sound of heels clicking against the floor. Athena looked over to see Miss Jenn rapidly approaching her.

Her eyes widened. "Miss Jenn—"

"Athena, where is Ricky?" Miss Jenn demanded in a whisper. "If anyone knows, it's for sure you."

"Ricky really isn't the right head space right now to perform Act Two," Athena admitted. She then peeked around Miss Jenn to see Ashlyn and the boy who played Coach Bolton get on stage. "I'm sorry, Miss Jenn, but I really have to play right now."

Miss Jenn sighed. "I'll find him."

She then walked off. The lights dimmed, and some cast members brought the set of Miss Darbus' office onto the stage. Athena placed her fingers on the piano keys and started to play Wondering. Just like every time she played the piano, the world seemed to fade away all around her. It was just her and the keys.

"Seems like a part of me will always have to lose, every single time I have to choose, swore that it felt right, but was I wrong? Is this where I'm supposed to be at all?" Ashlyn sang in her beautiful voice. "I don't have the answers, not today, it's like nothing makes the questions go away, what I'd give to see if the grass was greener on the other side of all I've had and lost, would it be enough? Or would I still be wondering? If I could go back and change the past, be a little braver than I had, and bet against the odds, would I still be lost? Even if I woke up in my dreams, would there still be something I'm missing? If I had everything, would it mean anything?"

Athena remembered the last time she had played this song. It was in the auditorium with Nini and Ashlyn, where her and Ricky had shared that weird moment with each other. Everything had changed so dramatically in the past three months. It had gone from Nini and Ricky dating to her and Ricky dating. She never thought her junior year would turn out like this, but in a way, it taught her a lot. It brought her and Ricky closer together, she had made a lot of new friends, and now she was performing in her first musical. Athena wouldn't change anything for the world.

"Maybe I should turn around and take the other road, or maybe I'm just looking for what I already know. I'm just wondering. Feels like I might have broke the best thing that I had, I said too much to ever take it back. Scared I'll never find something as good, and would I even know it if I could?If I could go back and change the past, be a little braver than I had, and bet against the odds, would I still be lost? Even if I woke up in my dreams, would there still be something I'm missing? If I had everything, would it mean anything . . . to me?"

The song ended, and Athena took her hands off the piano keys. Claps and cheers were heard from the crowd, making Athena smile softly to herself. Somehow, she knew, this musical was only the beginning. That feeling of peace she had felt playing the piano and acting up on stage told her that many more musicals for her at East High were to come. Athena Blake had finally found her niche, and she was ready to make it the best experience of her life.