The auditorium at East High was practically buzzing. It felt so different to be in here than it did the previous opening night. Last semester they had taken the stage in the high school's very own basketball court. Now, it was all real. So real that the Menkies judge was seated in the very front row.
It's not like Ms. Jenn told them that but the judge looked like he didn't care very much for being discreet.
To Ricky, it looked like he'd wanted to be found. The highbrow expression worn and the notebook on his lap being the primary identifying factor. The junior gulps as he closes the red curtain in front of him, his hands slightly shaking in anticipation. They were at the halfway mark, it was intermission the second act then it was over, he breathes.
"Ricky" A sharp voice calls to him. Ms.Jenn's searing blue eyes are now fixated on his figure along with the rest of the theater club, " Yeah sorry" He says trying to breathe out the opening night jitters. Nini looks over at him and tries for a sympathetic smile but it just comes out awkward and forced, Ricky feels his lips form a straight line in response. The air between them hadn't quite tense but it wasn't exactly friendly yet either. It was that weird post-relationship bubble they'd been in before only this time it felt different; it felt final. Ricky figures this might be a bit what growing up is like.
Ms. Jenn pulls the group back into the moment, "Let's get our heads in the game wildcats! We cannot afford to make the same wrongs we did the first time around okay? We are better, we have prepared more and we are rea-"
"Where is Gina?" Ms. Jenn interrupts her own impromptu pep talk with inquiries as to where their resident dancing feather duster had disappeared to.
Carlos clears his throat, "She had to say hi to an unexpected guest."
"Well in the interest of not sounding completely cryptic, her brother is here." Ashlyn adds, pointedly looking to Carlos who shrugs in his defense. Excuse him for wanting to protect his friend's privacy instead of being the primary source of gossip for once.
"She just went to see him, it's been a long time." Carlos tells a now quickly reassured Ms.Jenn who nods in understanding and fiddles with the clipboard in her hands.
"Wait her older brother's here too?" Ricky says curiously, Ashlyn's eyes narrow at his question. Too? The red-headed sophomore thinks to herself adjusting her non-injured arm on the makeup chair behind her.
"You knew she had a brother? How did I just find this out tonight?" Carlos incredulously asks moving his questioning eyes from Ricky to the rest of the groups' despondent faces and shrugs. "Yeah me too." Ashlyn's gaze on Ricky becomes suspicious, the junior finds himself slightly cowering under it.
"She has a brother?" EJ asks completely dumbfounded at the news. Granted the two hand been going on a few dates for a short matter of time, two weeks to be exact but Gina having a brother definitely seemed like something he should know about it. The senior can't help but cast Ricky a sideways glance at the fact that he knew, just like that all those insecurities that he'd had with Nini came running right back. He thinks about how he asked Gina if she cared about Ricky last semester, how close they'd gotten, how tense things seemed for some time before they stopped taking completely. EJ can't help but think about how he might've been right back then, there was more than meets the eye when it came to them.
Ricky can't shake the feeling that somethings wrong. Well maybe not wrong but something isn't right either, just sort of off since he'd heard the news of the elder Porter sibling making an appearance.
"Has anybody actually seen her since the beginning of intermission?" Ricky proses the question to the group, after giving them a once over his eyes drift to find a lone feather duster set on the mirror opposite him.
