secrets ➪ ricky bowen {1} ✔︎

Sᴇᴠᴇɴᴛᴇᴇɴ:

"Nothing...it's just you haven't been this happy for a long time."

"Who's the boy?" My dad asked. I gaped at him.

"Boy?" Mom questioned excitedly.

"What's a boy?" My sister asked.

We stared at her blankly, and she gave us a toothy grin.

I chuckled and turned to Mom. "There's no boy!" I lied.

Then the doorbell rang.

Ricky.

"Your red cheeks say otherwise..." Dad muttered, and sipped his coffee.

The doorbell rang again and I was getting restless now.

Mom gasped teasingly. "Is it Ricky? Is that him at the door?"

"Mom!"

"Who's Ricky?" Dad asked.

I groaned indignantly. "Ugh, no one! Just a boy from school. I'm going before this conversation can continue. Bye!" I said.

"Have a good day!" Mom yelled. "Say hi to Ricky for me!"

I picked up my skateboard and helmet off the ground, then opened the door. Ricky smiled at me, and I smiled back.

"Hey." He said.

"Hey." I closed the door and put my helmet on. We walked down my front steps and skated to school.

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"Oh my gosh, what happened?"

My mouth hung open in shock at what I saw in front of me. Ricky and I looked at each other in disbelief.

Our theatre was dripping wet, there was yellow crime tape and scaffolding, firefighters walking around the place and charred pieces everywhere. It had been burnt so bad and all I wanted to do was cry.

"It's okay. Nobody was hurt." Miss Jen announced. "There was a small fire in the theatre over the holiday and the sprinklers did there job." She sighed.

"We're almost done in here, just have to finish up in the faculty room next." A woman firefighter said. She was holding a burnt basketball, that was still smoking. "Some circuits blew in there over the break."

Circuits? How did this happen?

"Unfortunately the show cannot go on."

Hearing that nearly made me faint.

"What?" Miss Jen asked.

"Fire ripped through half of your costumes and the sprinklers ruined a bunch of your sets. I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to red tag the entire backstage area for a month at least."

I think I'm gonna be sick.

"Did she just say costumes?" Kourtney asked sadly.

"The sets..." I muttered in disbelief.

All of our hard work just...gone.

Miss Jen turned round, now holding the smoking basketball. "Okay listen up. Hug your neighbour, take a moment and let's reconvene in the cafeteria after school to talk about options." She said. "Nini and Ricky, spread the word."

"Got it. Yeah, of course." Nini nodded.

"Ricky?" Miss Jen said.

We all looked at Ricky who was busy texting on his phone. I saw it was Gina he was texting and I sighed, nudging him in the arm.

"Huh? Sorry. After school in the cafeteria. Got it." He said.

Miss Jen dismissed us, but I stayed behind to take a moment to process it all. I had to pinch myself to make sure this wasn't just a bad dream.

It's not.

Every show I've ever been apart of has been in this theatre, and so many memories have come from it. I know it will eventually get fixed, but we'll have to rebuild our sets and redesign costumes...

As the stage manager – and a theatre kid – this is the thing we fear most. Losing all of our hard work and dedication. I never imagined it would be lost to a fire, but it happened and I guess all we can do now is think of what comes next.

With a sigh, I made my way out of the theatre to class and quickly texted Paige the news.

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