NEW YEAR'S EVE ━━ 𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐖𝐄𝐍

𝟎𝟑𝟎 ━━ then it's crashing down

"Where have you been?" asked Big Red.

"Do you know what happened to the musical director?" Gina questioned.

"What did you and Rocketman do in the treehouse?" was what Marcus wanted to know.

Ricky's cheeks started heating up when Marcus looked him up and down, smirking━and Ricky was confident that he already had a very good idea of what happened in the treehouse.

"I...well━it's none of your business," Ricky snapped at Marcus. He huffed, turning to his other friends. "I was waiting outside the camp director's office, EJ went in, and then...I don't know anything about the musical director, but...have any of you seen EJ?"

"EJ's here, what do you mean? What happened?" Ashlyn asked.

"Why were you at the camp director's office?" Marcus asked, still smirking.

"Uh..." Ricky cheeks got redder. "EJ's here?

"Yeah," Ashlyn answered. "He got here way before you did━you're late."

"It's tradition at this point..." Carlos remarked, joining the group.

Carlos's biting comment would've bothered him a little more if he didn't see EJ gliding across the room, helping Maddox move a table, and then picking up a stage lamp. Ricky smiled, sneaking up to him, and grabbing his shoulders.

"Man! Am I psyched for these auditions...maybe we'll get to play the male leads together again, huh?" Ricky punched EJ in the shoulder, and he looked a little shaken. But he was probably just nervous. "They're...friends? Enemies? Lovers?" He leaned in, smiling, then he laughed. "Everyone's wondering what this mystery musical is gonna be! D'you know?" EJ shook his head. "Eh, maybe we'll find out when the director gets here, right?━you know where he is? Everyone's waiting. Oh! And is everything good? I was waiting for you outside the camp director's office, I thought it was my turn to go in, but Dewey walked right past me━where'd you go?"

EJ's mouth hung open.

"Are...sorry, I was trying to lighten the mood, I thought━is everything okay? Did you...sort it out with Dewey? Did we get away with it?"

"Um, yes. Yeah, but there's just one━"

"EJ!" Someone called his name from the other end of the room, and he turned. A smile was on his face, as he rushed up to a girl, barely turning back. He looked just as excited to see her as she was to see him.

It was a girl with had blonde curls, holding a clipboard, and they hugged each other with massive smiles on their faces. Ricky looked up, tilting his head past everyone in the room to get a good look at them.

Marcus's voice came out of nowhere. "That's Freud."

Ricky jumped, "Dude━you've got to stop doing that..."

"Sorry..." Marcus patted his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. He's excited to play the lead with you too...he's probably just stressing out because you're here. He thinks this is the first time he's had some real competition. He's an egotistical dick. Besides, don't think about her. Her real name's Val. She's come here just as long as we have. But, they're like brother and sister."

Ricky crossed his brows. He doubted that brothers and sisters hugged like that. But, then again, he'd had similar doubts about Marcus and EJ at one point.

Honestly, he did feel differently about it now it was a girl. And, he felt bad about that. He didn't want it to bug him. But it did. He had a visceral reaction to seeing him laugh with her, and it was like suddenly he was seeing Nini in her place. And seeing them...together.