People Watching - EJ Caswell ¹

"Come on, let's go, let's go!"

Scarlett stood outside the bomb shelter, along with all the other theatre kids, and she was talking to Ashlyn, the pair gushing over the finished song they had perfected just a couple of days ago.

"Can we not do this right now?"

The two turned their heads to see EJ and Nini, in a rather tense situation. They shared a worried look with each other. The boy smiled at his girlfriend, not noticing her very annoyed tone.

"Do what right now? Are you mad at me?" His smile slowly began to fall after Nini looked back at everyone who watched with eager eyes. She sighed. "You're mad at me." He concluded. "Look, there was no fitting at lunch."

The girl took a step forward. "Fine. Wanna know where I was at lunch?" She continued to walk closer to him and the drama department's eyes were glued to the scene they were currently making. "I was at the computer lab, bribing some hacker to crack into my phone to recover a message you deleted when you stole it." She aggressively replied, and Scarlett shook her head.

"We should have just let him perform the stupid song." She muttered, realising that the boy hadn't actually apologised like he was meant to.

EJ played the dumb card, looking at the girl with a baffled expression. "Wait. Why do you think that I..."

"Oh, please! Gina's not the wonderstudy I need to worry about, is she?" Nini said, slightly louder than before.

EJ looked over at the people watching, stepping closer to the angry woman. "Can we talk about this over..." He reached for her shoulder, attempting to direct her over to the other side of the hallways and away from the peering eyes.

She pushed his hand away but still turned and walked to somewhere slightly more private. Scarlett watched as Nini practically dumped him in the middle of the hallway before she walked away from him, coming back over to the others and pointing at the door. "Hey, is the door locked or something?" She questioned nonchalantly as everyone looked at her in astonishment.

"Oh. Natalie Bagley's missing her emotional-support hamster. He got loose." Ashlyn explained, tension high. "Carlos and Gina are helping her find her... Him... It..."

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream caught everyone's attention and Scarlett laughed nervously, evidently uncomfortable. "I think they found it." She stated before EJ grabbed Nini's attention to continue the conversation they were just having. The brunette rolled her eyes. Could this not wait?

After a moment, Natalie walked out holding a cardboard shoe box as she stormed away, holding out her arm and saying that she needed a moment as she turned the corner.

"Is it dead?" Ashlyn asked quickly.

Carlos shook his head, "No. Now she thinks he's in her gym locker." He explained, both Scarlett and Ashlyn letting out small sighs of relief.

Scarlett furrowed her brows in confusion. "Then what was the screaming?"

"That was me. She stepped on my toe." He sighed, turning to the rest of the group. "We're ready to begin, people."

Scarlett sighed, walking up to the piano and sitting down. Unfortunately, as she played Kelsi, she was now going to be in the middle of the couple's spat as she played the piano for their duet. She was hoping that Ricky would magically show up like he usually did, but she knew that wouldn't be the case this time around.

She pulled out the sheets of paper she would need and EJ and Nini came inside and found their spots on stage with around 2 metres of distance in between them.

"Can you move a little closer?" Ms Jenn instructed, using her hands to mimic them closing the space between them. The pair stepped a space closer to each other before she repeated her question. "A little closer." EJ looked at the girl before walking closer toward her, much to her dismay.