"Thanks for the ride!" Dahlia said as Oliver pulls up to East High Middle School.
Oliver nods at her and smiles. "Yeah, no problem. Behave in school."
Dahlia chuckles lightly. "You know I will. And the same goes to you."
She looks at him with a teasing smile causing him to roll his eyes. "You know I'll be fine." He unlocked the door and leans over to playfully shove her.
Opening the door, Dahlia laughs a bit. "Okay, okay. I'm going."
Oliver leaves the middle school and heads over to the high school. After he parks his truck and gets his backpack, he meets up with his two best friends, Big Red and Ricky.
"Hey, guys." Oliver greets, putting his backpack over his shoulders. He walks beside them as they walk into the school. "What's up?"
"Ricky thinks this school year is when he starts over with Nini." Big Red replied and Oliver nods. "Oh, okay." He remembered seeing the video of Nini on Instagram where she basically confesses her love to Ricky in a song.
"So, like, did you communicate at all after what happened?" Oliver asked Ricky, walking down the steps and to a hallway.
Ricky shrugs. "We texted. She sounded neutral. Nothing about bad news or needing to have a big talk. Just, 'Hey'." He looks at Big Red and Oliver with a nervous expression. "That's good, right?"
"No idea." Oliver replied.
Big Red chuckles and looks at Ricky. "Summers are no man's land, Ricky. I don't know what 'Hey' means and clearly Ollie doesn't either. It's obvious you don't know as well."
"I think it's good." Ricky said, trying to reassure himself and Oliver chuckles a bit. Ricky nods. "Yeah."
"Yo, Nini," Ricky greets the brunette haired girl as he walks over to her with Big Red and Oliver following him. "What's good?"
Oliver cringes while shaking his head. He hated at how awkward this interaction was already. Nini closed her locker, turning to face the boys with a small smile.
"Hey." Ricky smiled.
Nini nods at him. "Hey. Um...Can we talk?"
"That doesn't sound good." Oliver muttered, sending a sheepish smile to Ricky when the boy looks back at him with a glare.
"I met somebody else at camp." Nini explains. "I didn't plan..."
Ricky looks at her with shock. "Wait. Wait, is this a joke?"
"Still talking here." Nini pointed out.
Kourtney looks at her with wide eyes and there was a small proud smile on her lips. "Ooh, snap!"
"I met someone at camp." Nini continues. "Uh, I didn't plan for it to happen, but it happened. He was the Music Man, I was Marian, the librarian. It's called a showmance."
"Wait," Big Red looks at Nini with confusion. "You went to librarian camp?" He looks at Oliver furrowed eyebrows. "I didn't know that was a thing."
Oliver groans. "The fact that you don't know anything about musicals physically hurts me."
Ricky looks at Nini with a hurt expression. "Please...Tell me you're joking."
"I'm not." Nini said at the same time Big Red said it. Big Red said it since he thought Ricky was talking to him. Ricky looks at him with an annoyed expression before looking back at Nini.
"Come on, Ricky! You know what you did!" Nini tells him. She shakes her head. "Or what you didn't do."
The two teens stared at each other and Oliver was so thankful for an announcement to come over the PA System right then so he didn't have to watch this anymore. The announcement for everyone to go to the gym for the back-to-school kick off didn't seem to matter to Ricky.
"I don't believe this." Ricky shakes his head. "You're blowing me off for some theater punk you met four weeks ago? At a lake?"
Nini nods. "You kinda dumped me!"
"It was a break." Ricky corrects her. "It wasn't a break-up."
"Okay, does this remind anyone else of that one episode of Friends where Ross says he and Rachel were on a break while Rachel thinks that they've broken up?" Oliver asked, remembering the episode since he thought it was similar to what was happening right now.
He lets out a huff when his comment is ignored and after motioning to Big Red that he was going to head to the gym, he heads over to the gym.
****
Everyone was now seated in the gym, listening to the principal tell them that this year seniors are allowed to wear baseball hats on Fridays. Big Red and Ricky had got to the gym just before the thing started and decided to sit beside Oliver. After asking why Ricky looked upset, Ricky informed him that he and Nini just broke up. Oliver wasn't really surprised at hearing that, but he just sent a sympathetic smile to Ricky since he didn't really know what else to say at that moment.
Oliver perks up at hearing that this year there's a new drama teacher. A blonde haired women walks over to the podium and Oliver glances at Ricky when he speaks. "Why, guys? Why do things have to change?"
"That's life." Oliver responds, shrugging his shoulders. "I mean, it would be pretty boring if things were the same all the time."
"Well, some things never change." Big Red chimes in. "I've been wearing the same socks for three days."
A look of disgust forms on Oliver's face and Ricky even scoots away from Big Red a bit at hearing what Big Red said. Oliver looks back at the new drama teacher as she says, "Please hold your applause."
Oliver furrows his eyebrows, watching her get out a t-shirt launcher from behind the podium. "Go Wildcats!" She cheered, shooting a t-shirt to the crowd of students.
Oliver watches the t-shirt hit a boy who was sitting on the row somewhat behind where Nini and Kourtney sat. Hearing the feedback of a microphone, Oliver looks back at the drama teacher seeing she had put away the t-shirt launcher and now held a microphone.
"My name is Miss Jenn," Miss Jenn introduces herself and murmurs fill the room the more she speaks. "And when I heard that the high school where High School Musical was shot had never staged a production of High School Musical, the musical, I was shocked as an actress, inspired as a director, and triggered as a millennial."
Ricky looks at his right where Oliver sat. "Millennial?" He whispered, looking at him with confusion and Oliver just shrugs his shoulders.
A smile tugs on Oliver's lips at what Miss Jenn says next. "Auditions are tomorrow after school. This show could change your lives, and I'm saying this as a background dancer from the original movie. Third from the left, back row, red headband, and those are my real teeth, so..."
The boy wearing a yellow jacket who stood behind her walks up to her and went to grab the microphone. Miss Jenn nods and smiles, gesturing to the boy. "And meet your new student choreographer, Carlos. You know him as captain of the color guard. I know him as a unpaid, rising star."
-ˏˋ " I love musicals." Oliver started, standing in the hallway near the gym as he looked at the camera with a smile. "My whole family does and they're actually the reason why I love musicals so much. And the High School Musical Series are like one of my favorite movie series that's a musical. I lost track at how many times I've watched the series. So it's just obvious at why I'm so excited for this. Part of me wants to try out for the play and part of me doesn't. I mean, if I do get casted in the play for whatever part, at least I'll get noticed by others," The camera zoomed in on him as he looked at it with a nervous smile and a a hopeful glint in his eyes. "Right? " ˎˊ
****
"Uh, guys, you seeing this?" Oliver questioned after noticing EJ Caswell had his arm wrapped around Nini. EJ Caswell is a senior and on the co-captain of the water polo team. He's a little surprised that EJ is the guy Nini met at the theater camp she went to. He didn't expect someone like EJ to be into theater.
"I'm seein' it, I'm hearin' it, and I'm hatin' it." Ricky answered.
"I can't believe it." Big Red stares at at the couple in disbelief. "She's dating EJ Caswell."
"Yes." Ricky said in an annoyed tone. "I have eyes."
"I mean, co-captain of the water polo team?" Big Red asked, taking one of Ricky's fries that were on his tray.
Ricky nods. "Yep."
"Don't forget senior class treasurer." Oliver added and then took a bite of his sandwich.
"I mean, what are the odds the guy she hooks up with at camp goes to East High?" Big Red inquired.
"Apparently, the odds are exceptionally good." Ricky responded in a harsh tone.
Big Red sends Ricky an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, dude. What are you gonna do now?"
Ricky shakes his head. "I don't know. No offense to either of you, but the one person I go to for advice is currently on her honeymoon in the cafeteria."
****
After school was over, Oliver found himself walking down the stairs to the hallway where the doors to outside are at the end of them. He guesses he wasn't paying attention because he accidentally bumped into someone when he reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh! I'm sorry!" Oliver apologizes. "I didn't mean to bump into you..." His voice trails off as he looks at the person he bumped into her. He found himself in a daze while he comes face to face with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen.
The dark-skinned girl smiles a bit and shrugs her shoulders. "No worries. It's fine. I wasn't really paying attention either." She chuckled lightly at seeing his dazed expression. She waved a hand in front of his face to bring him back to reality and he blinks, shaking his head.
"I'm Gina Porter." Gina introduces herself, looking at him with a smile. "You?"
He mentally scolding himself for forgetting his name at the moment, continuing to stare at her while his mouth opens and closes like a fish. Why was his heart beating so fast? Are other people staring at him? Does Gina think he's weird? Was he blushing? Oh, he hoped that he wasn't blushing. That would make things more embarrassing.
"I'm...I'm O-Oliver." Oliver introduces himself after remembering his name and finding the courage to speak. "O-Oliver Dalwood."
Gina smiles at him, offering a hand for him to shake. "Well, it's nice to meet you Oliver Dalwood."
Oliver stares at her hand for a few seconds before finally bringing himself to shake her hand, wondering why he felt a spark when their hands touched. He was quick to pull his hand away, nervously smiling at her. "Yeah, um, it's nice to meet you too."
He then realizes that he doesn't remember seeing her and he knows for a fact he would remember someone like Gina. "Are you new here? I don't remember ever seeing you around."
Gina nods. "Yeah. I'm a transfer student. Sophomore."
"Oh, um, cool." Oliver nods and swallows nervously. He hated how awkward he was. At the moment wished the floor would open up and swallow him. "So...I'm gonna go now."
"Hey, you're not going to try out for the play are you?" Gina curiously asked.
"Uh, yeah, I was thinking about it." Oliver admitted, wondering why she was asking him that.
"Maybe I'll see you at the auditions?" Gina asked, looking at him with a hopeful glint in her eye which made him a bit confused at why someone like her would want him to be there.
"Yeah, maybe you will." Oliver replied, looking at her with a smile. After he sees a smile on her face he was quick to continue walking down the steps, wondering where he suddenly got that boost of confidence.
****
"Why did you have a dreamy look on your face when you picked me up from school?" Dahlia questioned while he drove them home. He picked Dahlia up from school since their parents were still at work.
Oliver looks at her with wide eyes, beginning to panic. "What? I-I didn't."
Dahlia narrows her eyes at him. "Denial." Her eyes grew wide and a grin tugs on her lips when she realizes something. "You were thinking about a girl!"
"Okay, so maybe I was! Maybe I haven't stopped thinking about her ever since I met her today." Oliver admitted, knowing he couldn't lie about this to Dahlia. Dahlia was great lie detector and no one could keep a secret from her too long because she would eventually find it out somehow.
He did wonder why he told Dahlia he was thinking about Gina, but he just shakes his head. "Why does it matter?"
"Because it does!" Dahlia replied.
Oliver scoffs. "Oh, yeah. Great argument." He sarcastically commented, pulling up their driveway. Once the truck was parked and turned off, they got out while grabbing their backpacks from the backseat.
"Listen, you wanna know how long I have seen you go on and on about a girl?" Dahlia questioned after Oliver locked his truck and they began walking to the front door.
Oliver huffs, wishing this conversation would stop. "No, I don't."
"Never!" Dahlia answers her own question, ignoring Oliver's comment. She grins. "Oh, I'm so happy. I thought you would never get a girlfriend and write sad songs about how being single sucks."
While unlocking the door, Oliver looks at her with a look of hurt in his eyes while a pout forms on his lips. "Okay, you know what? Words hurt, Lia."
Dahlia apologetically smiles at him. "Sorry. You just don't know how happy I am that this mystery girl might end up as your girlfriend! I'm calling that it happens eventually right now."
Oliver rolls his eyes at her, opening the door, and lets her go in first. He had to admit he wouldn't mind Gina being his girlfriend, but he literally just met her and he doesn't know anything about her. Other than the fact that she's beautiful and that he's starting to think about joining the play because of her.
****
The next morning he told his family that he was going to audition for the school play and they were a bit surprised, but they were happy for him and supported him which he was grateful for. At school Ricky even told him that he was auditioning for the play which surprised Oliver. Ricky didn't know anything about musicals and never acted interested in them. Oliver then realized he must be auditioning because of Nini auditioning.
Oliver didn't realize how fast the day went by until he realized he was now in the bomb shelter where all of the musical stuff was getting ready to audition. He didn't have a part to audition in mind. He was just fine with being a side character or someone who only has one line. There's just one thing that's making him very worried.
He can't dance. At all. He tried to a lot when he was in middle school since he thought it was cool and he failed each time. He thinks he's just too clumsy for dancing, but that's gonna be a problem since there's a lot of dancing in High School Musical.
Soon Miss Jenn walked into the bomb shelter, letting everyone know it was time for auditions. Once everyone was in the gym, the auditions started with EJ who came dressed as Troy Bolton which didn't surprise Oliver, but it did make him like the guy less.
After EJ finished singing some lines of the song The Start of Something New from the first High School Musical, Oliver hated he had to admit EJ has a nice voice. "Okay," Miss Jenn speaks, looking at the list in front of her on the table while EJ sits back on the floor beside Nini and his cousin Ashlyn. "Next, is Oliver Dalwood."
Oliver gets up and walks over to grab his guitar out of his guitar case he brought with him that he had set off to the side. He lets out a shaky breath as he walked to the middle of the stage, facing the others. He puts his guitar strap over his shoulder while looking out at the students, ending up locking eyes with Gina. She sent him an encouraging smile which made his nerves melt away.
"I'm Oliver Dalwood. A junior." He smiles back at her before looking at Ms. Jenn and Carlos. "And I honestly don't prefer what part I get. I'd be happy with whatever part."
Miss Jenn smiles. "Okay, that's good to know."
Seb went to start playing the piano, but Oliver stops him. "I actually have a different song than the one from the movie I wanna play."
He glances at Miss Jenn and Carlos with a nervous expression when the room stayed quiet. "I-I mean, don't get me wrong, those songs are great. But I just prepared to audition with another song."
Miss Jenn nods, looking at him curiously and smiles. "Yeah, that's fine. Go ahead."
A relieved smile tugs on Oliver's lips and he nods. "Okay. Um, I'll be singing the ending of the song Like I'm Gonna Lose You by Meghan Trainor."
(start the video at 3:10 & play it 'till the end)
After taking a deep breath, he starts strumming his acoustic guitar. "So I'm gonna love you, like I'm gonna lose you. And I'm gonna hold you like I'm saying goodbye."
He never knows why, but whenever he sings and plays guitar he just feels more confident than he ever is. Because normally he wouldn't be smiling at everyone who was staring at him. His smile grew wider when he saw Gina give him a thumbs up and was looking at him with a smile on her face.
"Wherever we're standing I won't take you for granted 'cause we'll never know when, when we'll run out of time. So I'm gonna love you like I'm gonna lose you. And I'm gonna love you like I'm gonna lose you."
When he strums the last chord and sings the last line, everyone cheers for him. He looks at them with a shy smile on his face while shrugging his shoulders. "Wow, Oliver. That was just...Wow." Miss Jenn complimented, looking at him with a wide smile.
"Thank you, Miss Jenn." Oliver grinned and went to put his guitar away. He just got done locking his guitar case when Miss Jenn announced that it was time for the Gabriela's to audition.
"Dude, that was awesome." Big Red tells him after he sits beside Big Red on the floor and fists bumps him.
Oliver smiles. "Thanks."
Gina was up first and saying Oliver was impressed and blown away by her angelic voice was an understatement. He had no idea she had so much talent. He knew she could dance amazingly since he saw her dance with some of the others before the auditions. He was surprised she could move that way and not break a bone. But he didn't know that Gina could sing as well.
"I know that something has changed. Never felt this way and right here tonight this could be the start of something new. It feels so right to be here with you." Gina sang her heart out, looking out at everyone with a smile on her face and locks eyes with Oliver.
She grins when he gave her two thumbs up. "Oh, and now looking in your eyes I feel in my heart the start of something new."
After Ms. Jenn compliments Gina's singing skills, Gina goes to sit back down on the floor while Nini walks over to the middle of the stage. "Okay, Nini! Whenever you're ready." Miss Jenn said to the brunette haired girl, looking at her with a smile.
Before Nini could start, one of the doors were opened and someone rushed into the auditorium. Oliver looks over along with everyone else, not surprised to see Ricky running up the aisle with his guitar case in hand. "Am I too late? Am I too late?"
"We're all set on Troys." Miss Jenn replies. "We're low on Chads. You can read after the Gabriellas."
"I-I only studied the Troy scenes in the movie." Ricky admitted.
"Troy would've arrived on time." Carlos told him.
"Uh, that's not true." Oliver speaks up, sheepishly smiling at Carlos when he narrows his eyes at him. "In the first movie Troy and Gabriela were late for the auditions of the Musical.
"Yeah, that's true." Gina said, smiling over at Oliver when he looks at her with surprise. Gina looks at Carlos, tilting her head to the side while looking at him with furrowed eyebrows. "Did you miss that part of the movie?"
"I-I didn't." Carlos stutters. "I guess I just forgot about it."
"Okay, Nini," Miss. Jenn speaks up, looking at Nini with a smile. "Let's try this again."
"You got this, babe!" EJ cheers Nini on. "Whoo!"
His cheering distracted Miss Jenn which made her accidentally spill some of her coffee over the small machine on the table that was for turning on and off the lights and other stuff like that. Since the coffee was spilt on it that caused the lights to flicker until they shut off completely.
Murmurs fill the room and Miss Jenn quickly says, "Nobody panic!" She looks at Nini. "Nini, let's wait for the lights to come back on. I don't want this to throw you."
Nini shakes her head. "I'm not thrown."
She takes a deep breath before she starts singing the beginning of the Start of Something New. In the middle of singing the first verse, Seb starts playing the piano and Ricky even walks over to her, shining the light on his phone he turned on to her. A few seconds later, EJ gets up and does the same thing Ricky is doing.
After Nini finishes singing the lights come back up and EJ and Ricky put their phones away. The two boys go sit down while Miss Jenn talks to Nini. "Okay. Well, thank you, Nini. I only needed 32 bars, but I appreciate your commitment."
She looks at Ricky. "You, late boy." Ricky looks at her and she gestures him over to the middle of the stage. "Let's do the Chad sides."
Nini sits back down as Ricky gets up and after getting the paper he would read off of, he walks over to the middle of the stage and faces everyone. He glances over at Big Red and Oliver with a nervous expression, smiling a bit when they both give him a thumbs up.
Ricky looks back at Miss Jenn and Carlos. "Hey, there. I'm Ricky Bowen. I'm a junior. And, uh...Here goes."
Ricky starts reading some of the lines as Chad, but stops after reading the first line. He shakes his head, crumpling up the paper he was given to read off of. Ricky then continues speaking without looking at what he was given to say while looking at Nini.
"Maybe it's the way Gabriella had your back. And maybe you can't stop beating yourself up for totally blowing it with her. And look, Troy. Even if you never said the L-word to Gabriella, 'cause that's like not even a word your parents say to each other anymore...That doesn't mean that you don't. Maybe it just means you were waiting for the right time to say it..."
Ricky gestures to everyone. "So that everyone could hear it. No. So that she could."
Oliver glances over at Nini, noticing that she had tears in her eyes as she looked at Ricky. "Okay, kiddo," Miss Jenn breaks the awkward silence that filled the room. She looks at Ricky. "Time to sing."
Ricky then explains he prepared his own song to sing and once Miss Jenn allowed him to sing, he went over to Big Red who had gotten his guitar ready for him. He gets his guitar from Big Red, and puts it on while walking back to the middle of the stage. Oliver's eyes grow wide at hearing the familiar song. It was the exact song Nini sang on her Instagram post.
****
"That happened." Ricky said as he, Big Red, and Oliver walked down the hallway.
"Yes, yes it did." Oliver nods, holding his guitar case with one hand like what Ricky was doing with his. "It was good though."
Ricky nods in agreement and smiles slightly. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
"Hey!"
The three of them stop and turn around when they hear the familiar voice belonging to Nini. Oliver noticed that Nini didn't look happy either. "What are you doing here?" Nini questioned Ricky.
Ricky glances at Big Red and Oliver before looking at Nini. "I'm auditioning."
Nini shakes her head. "You hate musicals."
Ricky furrows his eyebrows. "That's a little harsh."
As their conversation continued, Big Red and Oliver decided to start walk down the hallway, not wanting to listen to it. They stopped at the end of the hallway and Oliver did his best not to listen in on the conversation between Nini and Ricky, only looking over when he heard Carlos yell, "Clear!"
He watched Carlos and the rest of the kids who auditioned walk out into the hallway. Oliver then realized he must be putting up the casting list. Carlos walks around the corner and tapes the casting list on wall. He moves out of the way, letting everyone else see it.
Oliver gets to the front of the crowd to see the list, surprised to see his name beside understudy for Troy and for the role of Zeke. He had to admit Zeke was one of his favorite side characters in the movie series. But he was even more surprised to see Ricky's name beside Troy and EJ's name beside Chad. Oliver looks at the two, noticing how upset EJ was and how surprised Ricky and Nini were.
He glances at Gina, noticing she didn't look that happy either, and he looks back at the list, seeing her name beside the understudy for Gabriella. He guesses that she wanted to be Gabriella. But he also saw that she got the role of Taylor.
-ˏˋ Oliver stood in one of the corridors of the high school, looking at the camera with pursed lips as he nods. " This took an interesting turn." He shrugs, shaking his head. "I have no idea what's going to happen next, but I know that it can either turn out good or bad." He's quiet for a moment before he speaks again, looking at the camera with a nervous smile. "...I hope it turns out good." ˎˊ-
A/N here's the first chapter! i hope you guys are loving oliver already as much as i am! also just a heads up whenever there are these -ˏˋˎˊ-symbols that will be oliver talking to the camera like how they do it in the show. don't forget to vote & comment <3