𝐈 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐃𝐎 ― e. caswell ⁴ ✓

004

"Yes."

Violetta stared at the screen, her face feeling warm at the sincerity in his voice — she was suddenly very glad it was dark so he couldn't see. "Thanks, I appreciate it, but nope. I'm a dancer, and that's all I want. I would love to be Martha again."

EJ nodded, resting his head on his pillows. "You killed it last time."

"I know, thanks." Violetta smiled to herself at the way he scoffed. "You auditioned for that acapella group, right?"

"Yeah, I'm in. First practice is tomorrow."

"Wow, okay. So school, four jobs, a ping-pong team, and an acapella group. Do you have time to breathe?"

"I guess we'll find out," EJ responded. "And you forgot to add talking to V as a part of that list."

Violetta rolled her eyes playfully, but they caught on a new notification. It was from their theater group chat, and it read Emergency cast meeting to announce the HSM3 cast list. There was another notification under it from Gina, saying to meet at her house.

"Hey, I've got to go," Violetta said. "Cast list is being announced."

"Good luck," EJ told her. "You've got it . . . Martha."

She scrunched her nose slightly at him. "Thanks. Have a good day tomorrow. I—"

Violetta quickly cut herself off.

"Goodnight, EJ."

EJ smiled at her. "Night, V."

He hung up, and it went back to her home screen, which was a picture of her, Ricky, Athena, and Big Red. Violetta stared at her phone in horror. God, how did she almost slip up like that?

After a quick drive — yes, she had finally gotten her driver's license so she didn't need to rely on anyone to drive her around anymore — she made it to Gina's house. Violetta parked her car outside and entered the house without knocking, knowing that the others were most definitely inside already.

Violetta climbed the stairs, smiling happily at all the theater kids who were in Gina's attic bedroom, which was very cute. "Hey, guys."

"Vi!" Gina exclaimed. "Hey, I didn't get the chance to tell you earlier, but your dancing earlier was incredible. You looked great with Mack."

"Really great," Kourtney added, smirking a little.

Violetta blinked at them. "Huh?"

"Sparks were flying. We all saw it."

She immediately rolled her eyes — the thought of being anything with Mack, even though they had bantered a little bit, was just absolutely sickening. "There were no sparks. Besides, he's dating Dani. I wouldn't go after somebody who has a girlfriend."

Kourtney gave her a look. "You could at least try."

"Kourt, I love you, but there will be no trying involved."

Ashlyn raised an eyebrow at her. "Vi, I've heard that you've been talking a lot with EJ recently."

Violetta crossed her arms defensively across her chest. "Yeah? I only see him as a friend, though." Lie — but they didn't have to know. "We're just . . . it doesn't mean anything."