chapter fourteen
ashlyn's party
Dylan walked into Ashlyn's house later that night, her father having just dropped her off. She had put on a pair of blue ripped straight leg jeans with a black cropped tee and brown zip up hoodies. She had her white air forces on her feet as she greeted everyone. She stepped into the living room after giving Ashlyn a hug to see everyone gathered around a table. Carlos had apparently brought a game with him that he had made as a kid for everyone to play.
EJ came into the house a few minutes after her, confessing things to people as he greeted them. Dylan watched him from the sofa in confusion, wondering what the hell he was doing. She shook her head and took a sit from her drink as EJ walked into the living room with his own drink from the kitchen.
"Hey." EJ greeted her with a small smile.
"Are you okay?" Dylan asked EJ as he sat next to her.
"Yeah." EJ nodded. "Why?"
"Are you sure? You haven't got a fever or anything, you're acting... weird." Dylan told him.
"No I'm fine. Just decided to be a new man." EJ told her.
"And what made you come to this revelation that you wanted to become a 'new man'?" Dylan questioned, the Caswell boy smiling at her.
"I just wanted to be a better person." He stated softly, staring at the girl next to him.
"Well I hope it works out for you." Dylan smiled back at him before standing up. "I think I heard G coming in, I'm going to say hi."
The Valdez went to walk away but tripped and accidently knocked EJ's drink out of his hand and all over his trousers. Dylan gasped before bursting out in laughter as everyone stared at them.
"I'm so... I'm so sorry." Dylan laughed. "A billion sorrys, Caswell."
"Go away." The boy scowled, pushing her laughing figure gently in the direction of where Gina stood.
✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑
Carlos quickly told them to separate into two teams, the East High Wildcats and the West High Knights. So far, the Wildcats had EJ, 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.
"You are on our team," Gina stated, tugging Dylan to sit with her.
"Why can't I be on the other team?" Dylan questioned. "You know, Nini and I make a great pair."
"It's true." Nini nodded.
"You really want to be on a team with Nini?" Gina asked jokingly, making everyone laugh.
Dylan rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll stay on this team. But if we lose because Nini 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."
Dylan 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. Dylan 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.
"Don't be a sore loser now EJ." Dylan told him, smirking.
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," Dylan 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."
Dylan's eyes widened upon noticing who the other team had chosen to go. EJ. The whole room went silent. She shared a concerned look with Nini. 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. Dylan 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.
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 Dylan 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."
Dylan 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. Dylan had watched this movie enough to memorise every line so after a moment of thinking she could easily answer most questions about the musical and yet this one had stumped her. She had a slight idea who it was but before she could even think about answering, EJ spoke up.
"Allen?" EJ guessed.
"Dude, how did you know that?" Dylan questioned, narrowing her eyes slightly.
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."
"Well, the West High Knights have a chance to steal," Carlos announced. "What is the name of the girl who pops and locks?"
Gina and Dylan 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. Gina and Dylan laughed before hugging. Carlos walked up to Gina and Dylan with a ribbon in his hand.
"Give it to Gina." Dylan stated, knowing what Carlos was going to say.
Carlos turned to Gina, "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?"
Dylan 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. 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. Dylan sighed, thinking about going after her when she saw Ricky leave the room.
Dylan stood up, walking over to Nini on the other side of the room who was still sat near EJ. She sat on the arm of the chair and looked between the two.
"How does it feel to lose?" Dylan questioned smugly, trying to move past Gina's situation.
Nini rolled her eyes. "I'm sure if both of us were on the same team we would've won. But since Gina 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 a game together again, you are not going to be on my team." Dylan stated.
EJ shook his head and glanced up at Nini. "Is she always this harsh?"
She shrugged. "You get used to it."
Hearing the door slam, Nini and Dylan got up, running over to it. Gina was walking out, Nini tried to speak to her but failed. Dylan smiled at Nini, who nodded before she ran after Gina.
"Gina!" Dylan shouted. "G!"
"What?" Gina spun around, her eyes glistening with tears.
"I'm sorry." Dylan smiled weakly.
"It doesn't matter." Gina shrugged.
"It does, okay? It does because you finally feel like you belong and I know that because I saw how happy you were today and now you feel as if that's being ripped away from you." Dylan explained. "And I'm sorry."
Tears began to stream down Gina's cheeks as she began to break down, her walls coming down once and for all. Dylan quickly stepped forward, engulfing Gina in a hug.
"I'm going to miss you most." Gina sobbed into her shoulder.
"We'll figure something out G, I promise. You're not getting rid of us that easily." Dylan reassured, her arms tightening around Gina.
"Bye D."
"Bye G." The two waved at each other before walking in opposite directions. Dylan went back to Ashlyn's house, Dylan being the only one who wanted to still stay for the red head's sleepover. Dylan had already messaged her father when Ashlyn first brought the idea up early that evening. Her father hadn't responded to the message, which Dylan found slightly weird seeing as he was usually always on his first but she assumed he had at least read the notification on his home screen and took that as a yes.
"Dylan I thought you left." Ashlyn admitted.
"I promised I would stay so here I am." Dylan smiled making Ashlyn smile. "Now tell me all about you and Big Red, don't think I don't see the glances."
Ashlyn smiled, leading Dylan up to her bedroom, where the duo had spent a few nights together now since Dylan joined the musical, spending the night gossiping and trying to not think about what would happen tomorrow at rehearsals.
( 💌 ) isobel's notes
i actually love this chapter
and the thanksgiving episode
is one of my favourites because
everyone's just happy ... well
until the end but we ignore that!
i love gina and dylan's friendships and
dylans and nini's and i love ej and
dylan's friendship (not that dylan would ever admit they're friends)!