𝐈 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐃𝐎 ― e. caswell ⁴ ✓

003

"So, here we go," Krystal instructed, clapping. "A five, six, seven, eight." She then started to dance the moves to the combination. "Step, step, jump, clap, kick, cross, again. Step, step, jump, clap, kick, cross. That connects with left grapevine and a back turn and hip."

Violetta watched her carefully, but the steps were so simple that they practically imprinted in her mind. She had been trained in dance her whole life, and Miss Jenn had done a beautiful job of teaching the rest. They definitely had this.

"Now, I know I taught that fast—"

"Ready, guys?" Violetta asked, and when she glanced back, they all nodded. "A five, six, seven, eight." She started to follow all the steps. "Step, step, jump, clap, kick, and turn. Step, step, jump, clap, kick back and into a left grapevine, back turn, and hip."

Violetta looked back at them, a small smile on her face. Now this — this is what she wanted. All of them had moved through the steps fluidly without messing up whatsoever. Violetta then raised her hand for a high-five, and Athena obliged.

Krystal stared at them all in shock. "Um, okay. Where did you guys come from?"

"Miss Jenn's drama class," Ricky replied.

A new person then walked into the auditorium from backstage. "If I may, I'm Quinn Robbins. I'm the director of this film. Some of you may know me from my Sundance runner-up movie about the global recession of 2007 entitled Where Has All The Money Gone?"

Ashlyn clapped loudly for that. "Wonderful film."

"Thank you. To the featured background boy who just spoke, I don't know what a Miss Jenn is, but I do know what a Miss Darbus is because I spent all of last night in Salt Lake City corporate housing drinking thirteen dollar water bottles and watching the High School Musical trilogy."

"Had you not seen them before?" Emmy questioned.

"I wanted to be fresh when pitching the High School Musical 4 movie, so no, I hadn't technically seen the original films," Quinn answered.

"So she hadn't seen them?" Carlos inquired, completely lost.

"Quinn, these kids are unbelievably quick," Krystal said to Quinn. "I'm gonna be done teaching them the combination in, like, five minutes."

"Okay, great," Quinn responded. "Uh, well, let's just see if we can get Mack and Dani on set early. Where are the PAs? Do we have enough PAs?"

Mack then showed up out of absolutely nowhere, running to the stage. "Hey, um, I'm actually here early."

Violetta liked to hold grudges — it was kind of her thing. So she definitely didn't forget the way Mack spoke to her and Athena yesterday. Especially Athena — after all, nobody messed with Athena Blake in front of her. Violetta was good with confrontation. Although she had been getting better, Athena wasn't. Violetta shared a completely annoyed look with Athena before putting her hands on her hips, watching him with a deadpan expression.

"You weren't called for another two hours," Krystal stated.

"Yeah, but whenever I'm first on the call sheet, I always like to hang out on set, just in case somebody needs me," Mack explained. "A pretty famous actor taught me that. It was Neil Patrick Harris."