Fallon had texted Ophelia while the she, Gina, and Ricky were on their way to Ashlyn's saying that they better hurry so they don't miss out on something Carlos had planned for them to do. Fallon said it was something involving 'High School Musical' but that's all she said so the three teens were intrigued and did their bet to hurry.
Ricky made it inside Ashlyn's house first and Ophelia opened the door for Gina since she had the tray of cupcakes. Gina sent her a thankful smile for opening the door for her and walked inside. Ophelia followed her, closing the door behind her.
Nini looks at the two girls with a bit of surprise, not expecting them both to be with Ricky. "Hi, Nini." Gina greeted wth a smile, moving to stand beside Ricky and Ophelia.
"Happy Thanksgiving, Nini." Ophelia smiled at Nini.
"Oh. Hey." Nini smiles. She points at the Turkey cupcakes Gina made. "Turkey cupcakes. Gobble-gobble."
"It's a gluten-free cupcake recipe I made from scratch." Gina explains. "From YouTube."
"Again?" Ricky asked, looking at her with a grin.
Ophelia nods, chuckling as she looks at Gina. "Yeah, what is it with you and YouTube?" Gina shrugged and shared a laugh with her and Ricky while Nini chuckled nervously.
Once everyone was there they all gathered in the living room where Carlos had set up a board game he had made called 'High School Musical; The Choosical'. He explained how to play the game and the drama club members split into two teams. The West High Knights and the East High Wildcats.
Ophelia was on the Knights team along with Luca while Fallon joined the Wildcats team. Knights won the coin toss which meant they got to pick the first challenge. The challenge they went with was 'Looking For Glee'. They had to sing the lyrics to 'What I've Been Looking For', but the catch was that they had to sing it in the rhythm of 'Getcha Head In The Game'. It was for sure an interesting scene to watch the Knights try to sing the lyrics to 'What I've Been Looking For' in the right rhythm. Ophelia didn't realize how hard it was trying to sing different lyrics to the rhythm of a different song until that moment.
The Knights got to move to four spaces closer to the center stage at East High. Some members of the Wildcats team complained, wondering how what they did got them that many spaces closer to winning. The Wildcats decided on going with the challenge 'Bop 'Till You Drop Dance Challenge'. Each team had to pick one member to participate in this challenge. You could cut the tension with a knife when the two team members stood up to face each other. No one planned for it to be EJ and Ricky. Ophelia only hoped that this wouldn't end in a fight.
"Your challenge is to stare at your partner and do the Sharpay and Ryan warm-up thing for 60 seconds straight without laughing." Carlos looks up from the card and when he saw who the two team members were he adds, "Or killing each other. Go!"
Laughter filled the room as EJ and Ricky did the Sharpay and Ryan warm-up thing. Ophelia was impressed and surprised that the two boys didn't laugh at all. The game continued until they all decided to take a break. Carlos suggested for them all to take a picture so everyone gathered either on the couch or behind the couch. Ophelia offered to take the picture but Carlos told her to stay in it and that he could take the picture. The fact that he wanted her in the picture made her happy.
Ophelia sat on the couch between Ricky, who sat on the arm of the couch on the left side of her, Ashlyn sat beside the right side of her. Luca stood behind the couch, standing between Seb and Kaden (who's one of the dancers). Fallon was behind the couch as well beside Rico (one of the dancers and the one playing Ryan) and slightly behind EJ. She had leaned forward on the couch, leaning her arms on the back of the couch and had her head leaned on EJ's shoulder which made him smile.
Nini came back from the kitchen, laying on the laps of the ones who sat on the couch which made some of them laugh and smile. "Adorable." Carlos comments, smiling at the group. "Gina, come on!" He encouraged the dark-skinned girl, gesturing her over to the living room upon noticing she was still in the kitchen.
After the picture was taken they all decided to finish the game. To do that they had to do a Lightening Round. First question Carlos read off was, "'Name both jersey numbers Troy wears in the movie'."
Big Red surprisingly knew the answer to that. "Oh, uh, fourteen and ten."
"Correct." Carlos nods and reads the next question. "'How does Gabriella describe herself when she's complaining to her mom?'"
"Oh!" Ashlyn speaks up. "As the school's freaky genius girl."
Carlos points at her. "Do people talk like that?"
Ashlyn shakes her head. "They do not."
"Correct!" Carlos exclaims and some laughter filled the room. He turns to the Wildcats. "Whose red tie does Ms. Darbus compliment at auditions?'"
Chatter is overlapped as the Wildcats try to remember who it was, none of them noticing that EJ was looking up the answer on his phone. "Allen?" EJ asked when he saw the rest of his team didn't know the answer.
Carlos points at him. "Yes!"
Fallon looks at EJ with surprise. "You seriously knew the answer to that? I didn't even know you were a fan of the series."
"I looked it up on my phone," EJ admits. He sent an apologetic smile to his team. "I can't stop cheating and I'm sorry!"
From her place sitting on the arm of the chair he's sitting on Fallon pats his shoulder. "At least you admitted that and apologized." She sends him a smile. "Good job."
The Knights team members chimed in, saying that EJ should be disqualified for doing that. "Well, the West High Knights have a chance to steal." Carlos announces. "'What is the girl who pops and locks?'"
Gina immediately stands up and does the pop, lock, jam, and break move while singing, "I love to pop, lock, jam, and break." She speaks the answer, her lips forming into a grin. "Martha Cox!"
"The West High Knights win!" Carlos exclaimed, throwing up some red confetti he got.
Ophelia cheered along with the rest of the knights. She turns to Luca, who sat beside her, and they high fived each other. Ophelia didn't fail to notice the wide smile that was on Luca's face when Gina helped their team won. Luca couldn't help the smile on his lips. Gina just looked so cute while she celebrated. Ophelia knew that he was falling and falling fast for Gina.
"You, my dear," Carlos speaks once the cheers died down. He walks over to Gina, holding a homemade pin. "Get this homemade Scholastic Decathlon pin. Careful, it's just a straight pin and was never sanitized."
"Wait, okay," Gina chuckles, taking out her phone for a selfie. "Everyone get in." Everyone squeezes into frame as she took the selfie. "Okay, hold on." She said to Carlos when he went to attach the homemade pin to her sweater she wore. "I need to share this honor with my loved ones."
"You gotta stop moving." Carlos tells her, doing his best to carefully attach the homemade pin to her sweater without hurting her. "This is the price you pay for beauty."
Gina gets her mom on the phone by the time Carlos was done. "Mom, mom, mom. Okay, two things. One, I was just crowned Queen of crazytown," Some of them chuckled at her comment. "And two, can I spend the night at Ashlyn's house?"
"Um," Carlos speaks up, leaning towards her. "It's actually the queen of East High...." He took a step back, saying 'ooh' and raised his eyebrows when Gina shushed him.
"Uh, mom, sorry, I can't hear you, okay." Gina puts her mom on speaker. "Okay, you're on speaker." She looks at everyone with a smile. "Say Happy Thanksgiving to my mom, everyone."
"Happy Thanksgiving!" Everyone chorused.
"Oh. Same to all of you." Gina's mom responds and everyone smiles. "Gina, honey, can you take me off of speaker?"
"Uh, yeah," Gina takes her mom off speaker, sending an apologetic look to everyone. "Sorry, guys." She then went over to the entry way to be in a more private area while she's on the phone with her mom.
Luca watched her walk away with a frown on his lips. He wondered if things were okay because things didn't sound like they were good. He didn't mean to, but he couldn't help to overhear some of Gina's conversation with her mom. Well, she did raise her voice when her mom told her that they had to move which got the attention of most of the drama club.
By the comment Gina said Luca guessed that she and her mom have to move again which made him sad. He didn't want her to leave and he had a feeling she didn't want to leave either. He was starting to get the courage to confess his feelings to her, but he can't do that if she moves. A few moments after he noticed Gina walk off he spoke up, saying that he was going to go check on her
Luca was leaning against the counter, holding the empty tray Gina had brought with her when Gina walked into the kitchen. She was a bit surprised to see him there and did her best to hide that by looking down and going to grab her backpack.
"Hi, um, are you-are you okay?" Luca asked her. He mentally scolded himself for asking that, knowing that she obviously wasn't okay.
"I will be." Gina replied which surprised him a bit. He wasn't expecting her to reply with that and to be honest he wasn't really for sure what he expected her to reply with.
Luca nods, rubbing the back of his neck. "So, do you want to talk about it or-"
"Not even a little bit." Gina interrupted him, putting her backpack on.
Luca's lips form into a frown. He get it that she was upset and wanted to leave, but he just wanted to help her out or at least let her know that he was there for her if she needed someone. "Oh, okay. Uh, I'll call you?"
"Honestly," Gina takes a shaky breath, turning to face him after she picked up her purple color coat. "You heard what happened." Luca hands her the empty tray and her voice trembles as she speaks which breaks his heart. "I don't think there's any point in calling me anymore, do you?"
Luca opens his mouth to say something but no words come out. He didn't know what to say. He just knew he didn't want to lose her. He had a feeling that no matter what he would say it wouldn't stop her from leaving or get her to talk to him other than just short sentences. He didn't even realize his eyes were teary until he felt a tear run down his cheek while watching her walk out the door.
****
The girls had planned to have a sleepover at Ashlyn's and then the whole thing with Gina happened and they decided to cancel it since none of them were in the mood for that now. Ophelia was in her bedroom, dressed in pjs. She laid on her bed, watching one of her favorite shows 'Friends' on her laptop that rested on a pillow on her lap. She then decided to facetime Luca to check on him and facetimed him on her laptop. When he left a few minutes after Gina did he looked pretty upset which made her concerned about him.
"Hi, Luca!" Ophelia greeted, sending the boy a smile.
She could see that Luca was in his bedroom, laying on his bed as well. She knew he was on his bed because she could see part of the Marvel poster hanging above it. Yeah, Luca was a Marvel fan. He was actually the one who got Ophelia and Fallon into the Marvel fandom which was a good thing and bad thing because now Ophelia and Fallon won't stop gushing over which male character they think is cuter, but they always agreed to watch any Marvel movie with him.
"Hey, O." Luca sent her a smile except the smile didn't mean his eyes.
"Are you okay?" Ophelia looks at him with concern, tilting her head to the side. "What happened with Gina seemed intense."
"I'm not okay, but I will be." Luca answers. He sighs, leaning his head back against the headboard of his bed. "Gina's moving and I hate it."
Ophelia frowns, her shoulders dropping in defeat. "What? That's so sad."
"What's even more sad is the fact that it seems like she doesn't even want to talk to me anymore." Luca added.
"She's probably just upset with having to move and took that out on you. I'm sure she'll talk to you soon." Ophelia assured him.
Luca nods. "I really hope so 'cause I'm almost done with writing my first song and I wanted her to be the first one to hear it."
Ophelia looks at him with offense. "Why not me and/or Fallon?" A smirk tugs on her lips in realization. "Ohh, is this how you're gonna confess you're in love with her?"
Luca's face turns a bright red, his eyes growing wide. "I'm falling in love with her. There's a difference."
"Still it's a big deal." Ophelia grins. "I think she might feel the same about you."
"I don't think so." Luca shakes his head. "I know you said she was just upset about the fact she's moving, but I don't think she likes me back. I mean, why would she? When you look at her you wouldn't expect her to like someone like me. She's popular, confident, and insanely talented. I'm shy, somewhat a good musician, and did I mention shy?"
Ophelia chuckles lightly, shaking her head. "Luca, you're insanely talented too. You're also kind-hearted, a great friend, and many other good things. I just know it she feels the same way about you."
"Thank you," Luca smiles a bit. "And I hope she does. Maybe I can finish my song in time before she leaves so I can sing it to her. 'Cause then she'll at least know how I feel about her." His smile widens. He nods to himself as he sits up straighter. "Yeah, okay, that's what I'm gonna do. I'll talk to you later, O."
"Okay," Ophelia chuckles. "Good luck."
A/N this chapter kind of focused on luca's & gina's relationship & this chapter turned out a lot better than i thought it would :) there was a cute lil moment between ej & fallon as well though ! also i love ophelia's friendship with luca so much.