𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐎𝐑 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 ― r. bowen ³ ✓

006

Athena placed her hands on her hips. "Wow, we did that."

"We should've never doubted ourselves," Violetta stated. "We're unstoppable."

Athena held up her hand for a high-five, and Violetta obliged.

When the sun dipped down below the horizon and the stars appeared in the sky, the campfire got lit. Athena stepped out of her and Violetta's tent, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. They had been setting up their little space in there for the night. And to be honest, it was pretty cute, decorated with some string lights that the camp had.

She started to walk over to the logs, looking for one specific person in mind. Athena found him walking out of the woods with Jet. She reached up and squeezed Violetta's shoulder, telling her she would be there in a minute. Athena then approached the two.

"Oh, hey," Ricky said, grinning. "Attie, you're never going to believe what I just found in the woods."

"Please don't tell me it's a bear," Athena stated.

"No, it's way cooler than a bear. And Jet knows about it too."

"Oh, does he?" Athena turned to Jet. gave him a small smile in greeting. "I know I just started randomly playing the piano with you at auditions, but I never actually told you my name. I'm Athena."

"Oh, I know your name," Jet responded. "Ricky talks about you all the time."

"Okay—" Ricky started to protest, his cheeks flushing a vibrant shade of red.

"Does he?" Athena cut in, looking up at Ricky with a smirk. "What does he say?"

"Something about my girl's what it's all about. Also, he was talking about an Athena one night and kept mentioning her pink hair, so I kind of assumed that was you."

"Huh," Athena commented, but she felt her heart soar — Ricky talked about her! "Interesting. Also, the High School Musical 2 quote is incredibly cheesy."

"Dude," Ricky complained to Jet. "I'm never going to live this down."

"Sounds a lot like a you problem," Jet responded.

"Welcome, folks, to your very first Newbie Initiation Campout Night!" Maddox exclaimed, cutting their conversation short.

Athena sat down next to Ricky on one of the logs as the others clapped and cheered. She took the blanket off of her shoulders and instead spread it over both of their legs.

"Now, to kick off the night, let's give it up for our very own Rocket Man!"

EJ came out of his tent, a guitar slung over his shoulder. "All right, everyone, pay attention, 'cause I don't have much time to waste tonight."

Athena didn't miss the way Violetta's face so visibly fell.

EJ placed the guitar on his leg. "I'm gonna need a little help singing parts of this, 'kay?"

"Shake your money maker, Caswell!" Carlos shouted, shimmying his shoulders a bit.

"Not helpful, Carlos. All right, here we go. This one is called the Ballad of Shallow Lake, and every word is true."