Wake Up | E. Caswell [SLOW UPDATES]

eighteen | tech week pt. 1

"Okay... okay, listen up. Hug your neighbor, take a moment, and let's all reconnect in the cafeteria after school to talk about our options," Miss Jenn instructed. "Nini and Ricky, spread the word."

"Got it, yeah, of course," Nini agreed immediately.

"Ricky?" Miss Jenn asked softly. The boy had his eyes glued to his phone, so Miss Jenn raised her voice slightly. "Ricky?"

"Huh? Sorry. After school in the cafeteria. Got it," Ricky agreed.

After school that day, Lucy was still in a slump, Ej holding her hand to keep her comforted, although she was pretty silent the whole time. Miss Jenn clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "Okay, guys! Wait... where's Gina?"

"I think she's going through a family thing right now," Ashlyn explained as she took a seat on one of the tables. Lucy and Ej took a seat on the other table, his arm wrapped around her shoulders and her head resting on his closest shoulder to her.

"Okay, prayers to our Gina. I'm not really sure what to say. You've all worked so hard. I've seen all of you grow so much, but if we don't have a theater we don't have a show," Miss Jenn admitted. Everyone all began to chatter over one another and Lucy quickly threw her hand up in the air.

"Don't make me break out High School Musical Two again!" she warned, Ej pushed her hand down.

"We're not doing that again, it only made you sadder afterwards because nobody listened," Ej reminded her.

"It was a good song," she grumbled.

"I know, Lulu. I know," he rubbed her shoulder comfortingly.

"Okay, Lucy's HSM2 dreams aside— Miss Jenn, we've gotta do something," Carlos spoke up over everyone.

"I think we... I don't know. I guess we could consider other venues?" Miss Jenn suggested, everyone began to brainstorm ideas.

"What about the old Kingston downtown?" Adam suggested.

"It's condemned," Miss Jenn told him apologetically.

"The Lucky Ducky Puppet Pavilion," Ej suggested.

"Actually that's where I get my Starbucks from now," Lucy admitted sheepishly. Ej chuckled at her and patted her leg gently.

"How about the El Ray?" Carlos suggested. Everyone began to tell him how good of an idea that was.

"Any other ideas?" Miss Jenn blurted, hoping there was somewhere else they could go.

"Miss Jenn, I feel like you just had a really weird reaction to what I just said," Carlos admitted.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Miss Jenn tried to move on.

"Carlos is asking if we can try and use the El Ray Theater," Nini repeated for the boy.

"My uncle is the listing agent, and the last thing they had in there was a fashion show, like, four years ago," Carlos explained, standing up and walking away to call his uncle.

"This place has 500 seats," Seb said, everyone gathered around him to look at his phone over his shoulder.

"Wait, that's actually pretty sweet," Ej pointed out.