viii. she stands for truth, justice and songs in our key, jazz squares
THEY ALL STOOD IN THE THEATER taking the photos until it just wasn't working and they decided to wait for Miss Jenn.
EJ and Andy stood in the corner, talking to each other after finally finding their friendship again.
She laughed at some silly joke that he had made, his stomach doing flips at the sound of her laugh.
"Hey, um, can I talk to EJ for a moment. In private?" Gina asked as she walked over.
Andy nodded, "Of course," she said, walking off to stand with Big Red.
After randomly dissapearing, Carlos walked back in and they all sat around in the room.
"Okay people, lets start a stage number. I'm late," he said, laughing slightly.
"Is Miss Jenn coming?" Andy asked and Carlos sighed.
"Miss Jenn has a small personal matter to attend to and won't be her today," everyone went silent as he explained that, "Everythings fine," it didn't sound like it was fine
Carlos started staging everyone, putting all the boys on boxes, explaining his idea for Nini to wander through a forest of boys.
"I'm sorry, why?" Nini asked, looking around at the boys on the boxes.
Carlos sighed, "Because your heart has just been shattered and you can't stop thinking about how amazing Troy is," he explained.
Everyone seemed confused with the idea about the tree of boys, nobody quite understanding its purpose.
Seb started to play before Nini cut him off, "But at this point of the show, Troy just sold me out to his teammates," Nini said.
"Well she's got a point, what Troy did was kind of unforgivable " Ashlyn said and Andy nodded her head, agreeing with her.
"Respectfully Carlos, I think the last thing anyone wants in this moment is four more versions of him," Andy explained, backing Ashlyn up.
"Maybe she could chop down the trees," Natalie suggested, everyone nodded their heads.
"Or, what if she's surrounded by a forest of loving and supportive sisters," Kourtney said, the girls agreeing with her.
"This is not a democracy!" Carlos yelled out, silencing everyone.
"Carlos, are you okay? Because it's not that deep. We can all come back when Miss Jenn is here," Nini explained.
Carlos finally snapped, "Well she's not here and I don't know if she's ever coming back," he stated.
Everyone went silent. Nobody knew what to say and the shock was still going through the group.
"Is this a joke?" Andy asked, narrowing her eyes at Carlos in confusion.
"Shes in deep trouble you guys. They're saying that she lied on her job application and there's a school board meeting in less than 24 hours and she's probably going to lose her job," he explained.
Everyone started bickering, the whole show turning to shambles as people dissapeared left right and centre.
"I'm sorry Carlos," Andy said before turning away with Ashlyn, the two walking out of the rehearsal.
"Rehearsals are officially cancelled until further notice!" Carlos yelled out at the dissipating crowd.
They walked to their lockers, EJ dragging the two with him, "Where are we going right now?" Andy questioned.
"I wanna find Nini," he said, Andy kind of hoping he had already given up on her already.
"I don't think you're the person to comfort her right now,' Ashlyn agreed, "You're not her boyfriend anymore,"
Ashlyn knew about everything weird happening between EJ and Andy, the movie night, the bathroom, the dance, the strange drive home. Everything.
She already saw that he smiled more when he was with Andy then when he was with Nini and she didn't want him to throw it all away.
"Yeah I know," he stated before seeing her, "Nini! Can we talk?"
Nini rolled her eyes, not looking at him as she stood by her locker. "Uh right now?" She asked, trying to avoid talking to him.
Andy and Ashlyn stood at the back, almost like moral support for EJ who wasnt ready to get destroyed again by Nini.
"Yeah. Miss Jenn isn't the only one with secrets. I really need to get some stuff off my chest," he explained.
Andy and Ashlyn went to their lockers which was nearby, trying to look inconspicuous.
He sighed, "How much time do you have?" He questioned.
Ashlyn and Andy looked at each other, giving him a reassuring look before walking off to leave them alone.
They walked off, "My mums coming to pick us up, you think we should go ask Gina if she wants a ride home?" Andy asked.
"Yeah, maybe we could grab something to eat, have a mini girls afternoon," Ashlyn suggested and they agreed on it, walking to backstage.
When they got there, they saw Gina sitting on the call to her mum. They heard she wasn't going to be here for a while and Gina hung up with a frustrated sigh.
"Hey, uh, you want to come round mine this afternoon G?" Andy asked and she smiled at them.
"Really?" She asked, almost like it was some kind of practical joke.
"Yeah, girls afternoon, grab some fast food, it'll be fun," Ashlyn said and Gina stood up.
"Yeah, okay, that sounds great,' Gina said with a grin on her face as the three walked out.
☆☆☆
THAT NIGHT, BIG RED, RICKY AND
Andy sat in Big Reds basement, not knowing what to do with themselves.
It was strange to not be spending all their time at rehearsals. They'd been spending less time at the skate park and in all honesty, less time together.
Ever since Ricky had begun obsessing over getting Nini back, he had stopped spending as much time with the two of them.
"Its weird, not being at rehearsal," Ricky said, "How stupid is that,"
"What if we just did the show without her," Big Red suggested.
"We can't even take a picture without her," Andy said, leaning back on the chair in defeat.
She had always been a theatre kid, it wad part of her DNA and now to be without the show, it just felt wrong.
Someone rang the doorbell, the three looking at the stairs, "Down here Kaden!" Big Red called out.
"Kaden? Andy questioned, wondering why someone from their drama club was here.
"Hope its cool, I invited Steph and Rico," Kaden said, walking down Rickys stairs.
"Whats up guys?" Ricky asked, confused as to why they were here but still trying to be polite.
"I reached out to some peeps, I wanted some company tonight," Big Red explained, Andy nodding her head.
Ashlyn walked downstairs, "Okay, how many people are coming?" Ricky asked.
Andy walked over to Ashlyn. It was weird, having two separate halves of her lives in one place.
More people came down, Gina, EJ, Nini, Seb, until the whole drama club was awkwardly sitting in Rickys basement.
"This is a terrible party, there aren't even pretzels," Natalie said as the silence became more awkward.
Nobody knew what to say. Miss Jenn was the glue of the group and they couldn't figure out how to do this without her.
Ashlyn sat on the couch between EJ and Andy, watching the scene unfold, "We all ended up here after a really bad day so someone should say something," she said.
"Fine, I'll say something," Carlos said, standing up, "I'm mad at Miss Jenn because she's giving up. She was the first teacher to see me as me and now she's not even a real teacher?"
"Define real teacher," Andy said, everyone starting to bicker.
"So why are we all here then?" Natalie asked, everyone nodding in agreement.
"Yeah, good question. This is a waste of time," EJ said, everyone staying silent.
"Honestly? Because she gave me a shot, and its been a long time since someone gave me a shot," Carlos explained.
"Well nobodys going to see anything before Miss Jenn screwed up," Kourtney said, Ashlyn scoffing at the suggestion.
"Okay, but does anyone here actually care if her past is a little bit sketchy?" Ashlyn asked, everyone staying silent.
"I do. Because she put our show in jeopardy and now we're all here, maybe for the last time, together. And for some of us, this had become-" he got so chocked up, Nini finished his sentence for him, "-family"
"What team?" Ricky asked, his voice breaking from being so emotional.
"Wildcats," everyone said at the same time, Andy smiling to herself about it.
"Okay then wildcats. What are we doing about it?" Ashlyn asked and Carlos suggested a plan.
A plan that consisted of staying up all night and choreographing a dance to prove why Miss Jenn shouldn't leave.
☆☆☆
THEY SAT IN THE BOARD MEETING, waiting for the music to start. Everyone turned and watched as the drama club stood up.
Miss Jenn turned around, looking at them confused as they performed the song.
The board members seemed to like the dance, the drama club singing along to the music.
As they finished, they bring Miss Jenn to the middle of the room, tears in her eyes from realising the students cared so much.
A bunch of parents stood up, Andy catching her Uncle James cheering from the crowd.
He was always very vocal and he knew how much this show meant to his niece so he wasn't going to ruin it for them.
"Settle people!" Their principle yelled out, "Do we have any further questions?"
"Just one," a teacher asked, standing up, "How do I snag two tickets to opening might?"
They all hugged each other, proud that they had done this. "That was great," EJ said to Andy as he pulled her into a hug.
"It really was," she replied, a huge grin on both of their faces as they looked at each other.
For some reason, EJ couldn't take his eyes off of her, his heart pounding. Andy felt the same but she pulled away when she saw Nini staring at them.
She walked away but turned back to look at EJ again. His gaze darted away from hers.
"This meeting is adjourned!" Gutierrez called out as everyone applauded their work.
The two teenagers walked their separate ways, knowing that whatever had nearly happened shouldn't have.
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