┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗬
chapter eighteen:
high school musical the choosical !
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛
ATHENA AND RICKY walked inside Ashlyn's house upon arriving (Gina had stayed outside to text her mom that she had arrived safely) to immediately be met with the whole theater gang gathered in Ashlyn's living room around a table. Athena could vaguely see that it was some sort of board game (which Violetta had informed her excitedly that Carlos brought a High School Musical game he had made when he was little.) She then spotted Nini sitting on the stairs, looking a little conflicted with a phone in her hand. Athena didn't want to press the girl, so she decided to just say hi.
"Hey, Nini," Athena greeted, shrugging off her jacket and smiling at the girl.
"Hi, 'Thena," Nini replied before her eyes trailed up to Ricky's head. "Nice hat."
"Thanks, it was a gift," Ricky told her before taking it off. "I didn't know if you'd make it."
"Oh, yeah, my moms are watching the dog competition and, uh, Kourtney's out of town at her grandma's, so I figured I'd come and check in on all my, uh . . . buddies."
"Well, Vi texted me a couple of minutes ago that Carlos brought a crazy board game, and none of us wanted to miss it," Athena announced.
She looked into the living room. Athena spotted Violetta sitting next to EJ on the couch, a bright smile on her face as they shared some laughs. She smiled softly. Never had she seen her best friend so happy with a boy. It warmed her heart.
Gina then entered the house. "Hi, Nini. Happy Thanksgiving."
"Oh, hey," Nini responded, chuckling awkwardly. "Turkey cupcakes. Gobble gobble."
"It's a gluten free cupcake recipe I made from scratch," Gina informed her proudly. "From YouTube."
"Again?" Ricky asked. "With you and YouTube."
"Hey, don't judge her for learning things from YouTube," Athena scolded playfully. "Whatever. Come on, I wanna see what this game's all about."
The four of them moved into living room. Carlos quickly told them to separate into two teams, the East High Wildcats and the West High Knights. So far, the Wildcats had EJ, Violetta, Seb, Nini, and some of the dancers while the Knights had Big Red, Ashlyn, and more dancers. Gina immediately sat down to Big Red to reserve her spot on the Knights.
"And you are on my team," Ricky stated, sitting down on the couch and tugging Athena to sit sideways on his lap.
Athena laughed slightly, putting an arm around his shoulder to stabilize herself. "Says who?"
"Says me."
"Why can't I be on the other team?" Athena questioned. "You know, Vi and I make a great pair."
Ricky scoffed. "You really want to be on a team with Violetta?"
"Uh, I can hear you," Violetta said from her place next to EJ, making everyone laugh.
Athena rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll stay on this team. But if we lose because Violetta and I weren't together, I'm going to be so mad at you."
"Okay guys," Carlos began, obviously very excited about this game. "There are four basic categories. The Get'cha Head in the Frame trivia challenge, the Bop Till You Drop dance challenge, Sync to the Status Quo lip sync challenge, and Looking for Glee, which I thought would be a fun name for the singing challenge because when I was a kid I was obsessed with the show."
"Hey, it still holds up," EJ replied.
"Oh, good. I thought you guys were gonna judge me."
Athena shook her head with a small smile on her face. "Never."
Carlos then turned to their team. "Okay, so Knights, you won the coin toss, so you guys get to pick the first challenge."
"Looking for Glee," Big Red suggested.
"We've gotta do Looking for Glee," Ricky agreed.
"You want to?" Ashlyn inquired.
"Come on," Ricky urged.
"Okay, we're gonna look for Glee."
"Excellent," Carlos responded before he picked a card, clearing his throat. "As fast as you can, please sing the lyrics of What I've Been Looking For to the rhythm of Get'cha Head in the Game. Go!"
Immediately, they all began to sing a terrible rendition of what the card was asking for. Athena didn't even contribute. She was too busy laughing at how completely awful it was. Her stomach began to hurt and she couldn't catch her breath at how hard she was laughing. Finally, the song ended with Ricky saying Get'cha Head in the Game as a finale.
"That was terrible," EJ commented.
"I'm so happy," Seb added.
"Congratulations, you get to move four spaces closer to center stage at East High," Carlos told them.
"Wait, they get four spaces for that?" EJ complained.
Carlos turned to the other team. "Okay, Wildcats, take a spin."
EJ spun the wheel, and it stopped after a couple seconds. "All right, we're gonna bop."
"Okay, pick one member from each team."
"Ricky," Gina said immediately.
He immediately shook his head. "Nope."
"Ricky," Athena said, dragging out his name and shaking his shoulder a little. "Come on, it's your time to shine!"
He narrowed his eyes at her. "Fine."
Athena got off of him and sat in his now-empty seat as he stood up. However, her eyes widened upon noticing who the other team had chosen to go. EJ. The whole room went silent. She shared a concerned look with Violetta. This could either end civil, or very, very badly.
"Oh boy," Seb muttered.
"Your challenge is to stare at your partner and do the Sharpay and Ryan warm-up thing for sixty seconds straight without laughing . . . or killing each other," Carlos instructed as Ricky and EJ sized up one another. "Okay . . . go!"
Instantly, the two boys began to do the Sharpay and Ryan voice warm-up. Athena instantly burst out laughing again and how perfectly they were doing it and how the ma's progressively got louder and more aggressive. Tears gathered in her eyes as she held onto Ashlyn's shoulder for support so she wouldn't fall off the couch.
Finally, the minute ended. Both teams got to move up spaces because neither Ricky nor EJ started laughing. Ricky walked back to his seat and squeezed next to Athena on the very little space that they had left.
"How'd I do?" Ricky asked to his girlfriend.
She let out the last of her giggles and wiped her eyes free of the tears. "You killed it."
Carlos announced that they could take a small break for a moment. Gina and Nini went up to go to the kitchen, but all of them decided that they should take a group picture. They called the two back in to the living room and Carlos took a picture of all of them.
They began to play the game again. After a couple more rounds of endless laughter and testing High School Musical knowledge, the Wildcats and Knights officially reached a tie. They all began to suggest they would do to try and break the tie until Carlos decided what to do (since it was his game, after all.)
"Okay, you guys according to the Musical Choosical Handbook of Rulesicals—" Carlos began.
"Stop it," EJ interrupted.
"The only way to resolve a tie at the end of regulation play is with a lightning speed round of Get'cha Head in the Frame trivia questions. Are you ready? Because people have been known to cry during this."
"I thought you had never actually played this," Seb voiced.
"Honey, not today of all days," Carlos responded, making Athena laugh slightly. "Okay, here we go. Name both jersey numbers Troy wears in the movie."
"Oh, uh, fourteen and ten," Big Red answered.
Ashlyn looked down at him. "How did you know that? I didn't even know that."
Athena snapped her fingers. "Go off, Red."
"Correct." Carlos moved that card to the back of the deck. "How does Gabriella describe herself when she's complaining to her mom?"
"Oh!" Ashlyn exclaimed. "As the school's freaky genius girl."
"And do people usually talk like that?"
"They do not."
"Correct!" Carlos picked another card from the pile. "Wildcats, whose red tie does Ms. Darbus compliment at auditions?"
They all began to discuss with each other on who it could be. Their guess was as good as Athena's. She had no idea who it was.
"Allen?" EJ guessed.
Violetta's eyes widened and she hit his shoulder gently. "Dude, how did you know that?"
He then raised his phone in the air. "I looked it up on my phone, you guys. I can't stop cheating, I'm sorry."
"EJ," Violetta groaned.
"Sorry, Vi."
"Well, the West High Knights have a chance to steal," Carlos announced. "What is the name of the girl who pops and locks?"
Gina immediately jumped up from the couch and began to dance. "I love to pop and lock and jam and break. Martha Cox!"
Carlos threw some red confetti in the air. "The West High Knights win!"
Their team cheered. Ricky snagged his arms around Athena's waist and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She chuckled lightly and felt her cheeks heat up and her stomach flutter with butterflies from the interaction.
Carlos walked up to Gina with a ribbon in his hand. "You, my dear, get this homemade Scholastic Decathlon ribbon. Careful, it's just a straight pin and was never sanitized."
"Wait, okay, everybody get in," Gina stated, pulling out her phone. Everyone squeezed in frame for the picture. "Ooh, I won. Okay, hold on, I need to share this honor with my loved ones."
"You gotta stop moving," Carlos told her as he attempted to pin the ribbon on her shirt. "This is the price you pay for beauty."
Gina then raised her phone to her ear. "Mom, mom, mom, okay, two things. One, I was just crowned the queen of crazytown, and two, can I spend the night at Ashlyn's house?"
"Um, it's actually the queen of East High—" Carlos started to correct before he was shushed.
"Uh, mom, sorry, I can't hear you, okay." Gina pulled her phone away from her ear and put it on speaker. "Okay, you're on speaker. Say Happy Thanksgiving to my mom, everyone."
"Happy Thanksgiving!" everyone chorused.
"Oh, same to all of you," Gina's mom replied. "Gina, honey, can you take me off speaker?"
Athena frowned in concern, watching as the smile fell off of Gina's face. The girl walked off to go speak to her mom more privately. She felt Ricky grip onto her hand nervously. Athena laced their fingers together as the whole group sat in silence, hearing Gina yell at her mom that they just moved her and couldn't let them do this to them again. It wasn't hard to figure out what she meant — Gina was moving again.
"I'm gonna go talk to her," Ricky said quietly.
Athena nodded. "Okay. I'll be here."
He kissed the top of her head before wandering into the kitchen to wait for her. Athena sighed and stood up, walking over to Violetta on the other side of the room who was still sharing a seat with EJ. She sat on the arm of the chair and looked down at the two of them.
"How does it feel to lose?" Athena questioned, trying to move past Gina's situation.
Violetta rolled her eyes. "I'm sure if both of us were on the same team we would've won. But since Ricky took away my partner in crime, I was stuck with this loser."
"Hey!" EJ protested. "I won us those points with the Sharpay and Ryan warm-up, thank you very much."
"And you also used your phone to look up one of the answers, idiot. If we ever play this game again, you are not going to be on my team."
EJ shook his head and glanced up at Athena. "Is she always this harsh?"
She shrugged. "You get used to it."
"Athena," Ricky suddenly called out, stopping their conversation. "I'm going home if you want to come."
The girl looked over to him. Her small smile fell off her face as she stared at him. The way his hand was clenching the doorknob so tightly told her that something was definitely wrong. Not to mention, she could see his eyes were sad even from so far away. She frowned slightly and stood up.
"Uh, yeah," Athena agreed. "Just let me grab my jacket." She looked down at Violetta. "You have a ride home?"
Violetta nodded. "Yeah, I'll make Mr. Cheater over here drive me back."
EJ blinked. "Sometimes I wonder why I voluntarily hang out with you."
"I'll text you later," Athena said to Violetta. She then walked over to Ashlyn. "I'm really sorry for running off on the sleepover, Ash, but I think he needs me right now. Things are a little . . . rough at the moment."
Ashlyn shook her head. "Don't worry about it, 'Thena. I'm probably gonna cancel the whole thing anyways."
Athena squeezed the girl's shoulder and rounded the couch. She picked up her jacket from its place on the staircase and put it on. Athena walked over to Ricky, and he immediately slipped his hand into hers. She allowed him to lead him out the door, leaving behind all of their friends and a night that was supposed to be fun yet ended on a bad note.
--- ☆ • ♫ • ♪ • ♫ • ☆ ---
THE COUPLE SAT next to each other on Ricky's staircase, not saying a word to each other. They didn't really need to. That was one of the best qualities about Athena and Ricky's relationship — they were already so connected after being friends for years that communication didn't change when they became boyfriend and girlfriend.
"Try again," Athena suddenly voiced quietly.
Ricky looked over to her. "What?"
"I think you should try calling your mom again," Athena continued. "She might answer this time, and as I said earlier, she would love to hear from you."
He took a deep breath. "Will you stay?"
She smiled softly at him. "When did I ever say I was going anywhere?"
Ricky pulled out his phone, and his finger hovered over his mom's contact. Athena gave his hand an encouraging squeeze. Ricky then pressed his mom's name and raised the phone up to his ear.
"Hey, mom?" Ricky began. "It's me. I miss you so much."
And the two sat there on that staircase, Athena being by Ricky's side and Ricky having a conversation with his mom. She leaned her head against his shoulder and absentmindedly rubbed her thumb back and forth over his knuckles. They both knew that this had never felt so right, but both of them were completely unaware to the fact that their relationship could crumble so easily as it would.
═ • ° • ✧ • ° • ═
everyone when gina talks to her mom:
ASKENEKFNFKF CHARLIE LOOKS LIKE A LOST KID IS HE OKAY