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𝗕𝗜𝗚 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗦
chapter seven:
spend senior year together !
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SO, LAST NIGHT had been . . . weird.
Violetta couldn't shake all of her weird feelings off, even though she tried to convince herself that it had been an off day. Nevertheless, she got up the morning of the read-through, determined to make today better.
They had all planned to put on a production of Fabulous at the pool to impress Corbin Bleu when he came. Violetta felt like it was a little stupid, but she had agreed to dance, so she really couldn't back out now. Everything had to be pink, of course, so she had on a white bikini top with pink hearts, pink jean shorts, and pink Converse. Her hair was tied up into a ponytail with a pink ribbon.
"I think he's coming," Ricky revealed.
They all gasped and scrambled to get into their positions. Violetta sat casually on one of the lawn chairs, the choreography running through her mind. Ricky pressed play on the radio, and the music for Fabulous rang out of it.
"It's out with the old and in with the new, goodbye clouds of gray, hello skies of blue," Carlos sang.
However, when Violetta looked up, she saw her boyfriend sheepishly pushing his way through all of them. Violetta sighed and uncrossed her legs, staring at him in mild annoyance. She hadn't seen him all morning.
"And cut!" Ricky shouted, turning off the radio. "It's just EJ."
EJ raised his hands in surrender at all of their disappointed expressions from him ruining their performance. "Wow, sorry I'm not Corbin Bleu." He then pointed to Carlos' pants. "Hey, I don't remember Sharpay wearing chinos."
Carlos stood up from his towel. "Excuse you. Flawless skin and sunlight do not mix."
Violetta stood up, too, putting her hands on her hips — she really just wanted to get this over with. "Eej, come on. Where's Corbin?"
"Gee, I don't know," EJ replied. "Maybe your secret late-night hiking buddy Ricky knows, huh?"
She blinked in confusion at the . . . jealousy? in his voice. Like always, since she got to camp, Violetta really had no idea what was going on.
"What?" Violetta let out.
"You're funny and you never make things weird, EJ," Ricky said.
Athena then raised her hand, her eyebrows knit together. "Gina and I were there, too. Are you okay?"
EJ ignored her, and Athena frowned, which made Violetta frown. "Look, Corbin's helicopter had a maintenance issue. He'll be here any second. Are we totally sure about doing this?"
"We wanna impress Corbin Bleu," Carlos explained. "And how else does one impress a person except by performing elaborate musical numbers for them?" There was the sound of a helicopter approaching, and Carlos became panicked. "Places, everyone! Someone hand me my sunglasses!"
Violetta locked eyes with EJ momentarily. His eyes lit up at the sight of her, like they normally did, but they soon darkened. Violetta felt a pang of hurt go throughout her chest, and she raised an eyebrow at him for a second before falling back onto her chair. She watched as EJ walked away, wondering exactly how they ended up in such a weird situation when only a few days ago they were perfectly fine.
Honestly, Violetta just felt like she was going through the motions. The song began again, and Carlos and Kourtney sang to it. She did her choreography, dancing with partners, kicking, and twirling herself around. It was all kind of a blur, honestly. Like she said earlier, she just wanted it to be over with, so she danced like she was asked.
Finally, the song ended, meaning the dance ended. Violetta struck her last pose on the chair and watched as Kourtney hip-bumped Carlos, making him fall into the pool fully clothed. She raised her eyebrows in amusement as Kourtney giggled and fanned herself with the pink fan she had.
"Still no Corbin," Ashlyn voiced. "Just Dewey."
Dewey clapped. "Whoo! Now that is a catchy song. Is that Ariana Grand?"
And when Ricky picked up Athena and jumped into the pool with her, both of them still fully clothed and a mess of laughter and joy, Violetta couldn't help the way her heart sank. Those two were the golden standard, and it was all Violetta wanted. She had it, but EJ was pulling away from her, and she didn't know how to fix it.
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NOW DRESSED IN a light purple t-shirt with darker purple butterflies, with a pair of jean shorts and paired with her Converse again, Violetta stood in the barn for their first read-through of Frozen. She twirled one of her curls around her finger, all of her hair down. Violetta was never really one to get really nervous, but it was Corbin Bleu, and he was going to be there with a camera.
She stood by Athena and Ricky. All of them were in a circle, doing their usual exercises. Violetta stretched her arms above her head, feeling better as her back straightened all the way out.
"Okay, he really is coming this time," EJ announced, walking down the steps from the stage, holding his binder. "Everyone, act like you're taking this serious and warming up."
Violetta frowned. But they were.
"That is literally what they're doing, EJ," Val argued. "Take it down to a three. You're at a seven out of ten."
Corbin Bleu then suddenly entered the barn, his cameraman Channing trailing after him. Violetta turned to look at him, wiping her palms down on her skirt. Oh, God. Okay. It was real. It was happening.
"Corbin's on the clock," Corbin began. "It's go-time."
"Mr. Bleu, sir, we have a killer first read-through plan for today," EJ stated.
He walked right past EJ. "Right."
"Okay, yeah, you make the rounds, good."
Corbin stopped at their circle and looked right at Kourtney. "Dope outfit."
"Kourtney," Kourtney told him.
He focused his attention to the other side of the circle, and his eyes immediately slid to Athena's dyed hair. "Your hair's pink."
Athena nodded, looking very confused. "It is."
"Huh."
This was weird.
"Keep warming up, gang," Corbin instructed. "We're gonna check some sound levels."
Violetta broke away from the circle for a moment, her gaze set on EJ. He was standing by the piano with Maddox, who was probably the most calm out of all of them.
"Hey," she greeted.
EJ looked over at her and immediately smiled, and just like that, Violetta's heart pounded against her chest. "Hi, V. You okay?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm good." She really wasn't, but like she had done her whole life, she pushed it away. "Uh, I just wanted to talk to you about something really quick." Her eyes went to Maddox momentarily. "If that's okay?"
EJ glanced back at Maddox. Maddox smiled at them before walking off. EJ looked back at Violetta expectantly.
"So, you're taking a gap year," Violetta said, and EJ nodded in agreement. "And I still have one year left at East High. It made me realize that we can, like, really be together in Salt Lake for another year before things start to shift again." She glanced up at him hopefully. "More dates, more spending time together . . . ?"
"Yeah," EJ immediately agreed, a grin spreading across his face. Violetta, however, didn't detect the panic on his face. "Yeah, definitely."
He then took her face in his hands and pressed a kiss to her forehead. It meant two different things for the two of them — for Violetta, a confirmation, and for EJ, an apology for something he had to fix. Violetta reached up and put her arms around his neck, staring up at him adoringly as his hands slid down to rest on her hips.
"I've been beating myself up over not going exploring with you, Athena, Ricky, and Gina last night," EJ admitted. "And I know that I've been so busy with the show—"
"EJ, seriously, it's fine," Violetta reassured him. "It would've been a lot more fun with you, but we'll go on a ton more adventures in Salt Lake, yeah?"
"For sure," EJ agreed. "We will definitely be seeing each other all of the time because of the amount of time we have with each other."
Violetta blinked at him. "You're acting weird."
"Weird? No, I'm not acting weird."
"Hey, Vi, come join the friendship circle," Ashlyn called.
She looked back at EJ and laughed a little before letting him go, walking back into the circle where they were all lightly chopping each other's backs.
"We're rolling!" Channing then exclaimed, and all of them moved out of the friendship circle to sit in their seats.
EJ stood at the front of them all. "Welcome to the first Frozen read-through." He walked up to Corbin. "Uh, young Elsa and young Anna are on a nature field trip and will catch up with us tomorrow."
"I'll take it from here, RJ, thank you," Corbin responded, and Violetta let out a small laugh, quickly covering it with her hand. "All right! Camp Shallow Lake! I am pumped to be back for this full day of rehearsal, figured with opening night only ten days away."
Oh, God. Ten days was not a long time for a play to happen. EJ then sat in the seat next to Violetta, and she had to resist the urge to reach out and take his hand in hers.
"Ten days away?" Ricky repeated. "That — that's a reason to celebrate." He got up from his chair and extended his arms out. "Bring it in."
Violetta tilted her head at him. It wasn't unlike Ricky to act weird, but trying to hug Corbin Bleu was on a whole other level. Corbin, unsurprisingly, turned down in his hug. Athena, the ever-saving girlfriend, took Ricky's shirt in her hands and tugged him back to sit down. Violetta shook her head and shared a weirded-out glance with EJ.
"Look, I understand that some of you know me as a name and not a person," Corbin explained. "But I'm just a regular guy who buys his groceries at Erewhon and has a personal trainer like anybody else, all right? I'm just here to capture some behind-the-scenes footage, so think of me as a fly on the wall. Be yourselves. Let's have some fun, yeah?"
"Yeah, baby!" Ricky yelled. "Let's hug it out!" He stood up again and opened up his arms. "Bring it in, come on."
Violetta continued to stare at him, but she leaned her head closer to Athena, who was sitting next to her. "Why are you dating him again?"
Athena put her face in her hands. "I was roped in."
Corbin ignored his hug. "And here you have it, folks. The very first camp read-through of Frozen. Let the show begin."
The read-through then began. All of them recited their lines while Val read stage directions — and let Violetta say that Val was doing an astronomically better job than Big Red had for the High School Musical read-through. That was literally painful.
"Elsa?" Athena recited.
"Anna takes a step towards Elsa," Val read.
"Don't come near me," Kourtney responded.
"Pause," Corbin ordered. He stood up from the table he was at and walked behind Athena and Kourtney, Channing following him with the camera. "Sounds like you two really felt that moment. Let's unpack what you're channeling."
"Let me guess," Channing interjected. "Real-life relationship troubles. You both like the same person and it's causing tension. Maybe it's this guy."
Channing turned and pointed the camera at Carlos. Violetta pursed her lips together, trying her very hardest not to laugh. He was way off. Athena and Kourtney for sure didn't like the same person, considering Athena was dating Ricky and Kourtney was dating Howie. And even if they did, it definitely wouldn't have been Carlos, who was openly gay and had a boyfriend.
"Yes, it's me," Carlos commented in a monotone voice. "The notorious womanizer of the group."
"Uh, Mr. Bleu, if you're looking for dirt or, like, jealous in-fighting, that's just not us," Ricky revealed.
"We're all good friends," Gina added.
"Yeah, like, really good friends," EJ said. "We're basically a drama-free zone."
Just to prove their point, they started a chain of hugs. Ricky put an arm around Athena, who put an arm around Violetta, who put an arm around EJ. They all tugged each other in closer for the camera.
"Great," Channing responded. "All those Emmy-winning drama-free reality shows."
"Okay, let's just . . . let's move on," Corbin suggested.
"Hey, my . . ." Ricky started to say, pausing to turn the page of his script. "Ice."
"Kristoff picks up his bag of ice," Val continued. "Anna and Hans are oblivious."
"I'm sorry, so sorry," Athena voiced.
Nobody said anything. Violetta's eyebrows knit in confusion as she looked up from her script.
"Uh . . . that's Jet's line," Ricky announced.
Sure enough, Jet was nowhere to be found. Violetta felt herself get slightly disappointed. Jet had gotten a main character, and he just hadn't shown up.
"Wait, Jet's not here," EJ noticed.
"Oh, God, I knew he wasn't real," Carlos admitted.
"What's the deal with this Jet kid?" Corbin asked. "Is he troubled?"
"I — I wouldn't say troubled," Ricky insisted. "We're slowly wearing his dark soul down."
"Sounds like our protagonist," Channing said. "Everyone loves a misanthropic emo-boy to root for."
Maddox put down her script. "Jet's gonna be fine. He's probably just doing this for attention."
EJ got up from his chair. "I'm sure Jet is fine. Maddie, Val, please track him down. As for the rest of us, let's take a ten." His voice then raised, and Violetta started to frown, her head slowly tilting in confusion. "I will be in the canteen having a cool beverage because I am very cool. Everything is cool, Mr. Bleu."
"Hey, EJ?" Violetta questioned gently.
"Yes, V?"
"You're yelling, sweetheart."
EJ let out a sigh and walked out of the barn. Violetta took a deep breath and stood up as well, trailing after him. The rest weren't far behind. All of them gathered in the canteen, which was a building at camp with multi-colored windows, games, and snacks. Violetta and Athena had immediately started up a game of foosball, which quickly got very intense. They were always competitive with each other when it came to games, unless it was a team thing, because then they wanted to be on the same team.
The door then opened, and Violetta looked up from the game, seeing Val walk in. She frowned in concern. Val looked very upset, and honestly, a little out of it.
"So?" EJ inquired.
"Guys, we lost Jet," Val answered, and Violetta's eyes widened in shock — lost?
Maddox shot up from her chair with a dramatic gasp. "What?"
"Oh, uh, sorry. Let me clarify. Um, I talked to Dewey and it looks like Jet checked out of camp and went home."
"He disappeared onto the open road," Channing stated. "A lone minor. Thumb in the wind. Hair in the wind. For either fate or foe, to take him away."
"Uh, yeah, not quite," Val replied. "An off-duty cop found him at a bus stop and his parents came and picked him up in a Buick."
"Wait, why would Jet just leave without telling anybody?" Ashlyn asked.
"So, our most interesting story's happening off-camera," Corbin voiced. "Guys, we really need to make this sing, 'kay? Something active?"
"In Summer?" Carlos suggested.
"Love Is an Open Door?" EJ offered, his eyes catching on Violetta's for a moment.
Corbin pointed at him in agreement. "Love Is an Open Door. That's the Anna and Hans song, right? Where's the pink-haired girl?"
Athena stepped forwards with a frown, clearly upset that he hadn't used her real name. "I'm here."
"We have Anna, and we're missing the Hans part of it."
"I know—"
"Yeah, weirdly that's the one song I know," Ricky interjected. "It's the one thing I actually paid attention to when Athena and I watched Frozen, but I'm happy to jump in and, you know—"
"Thanks, kid," Corbin cut in. "Just take a soft five."
"Ooh, lover boy got shot down," Violetta teased, crossing her arms across her chest and leaning against the foosball table.
Corbin pointed at EJ again. "Uh . . . you. You look like a 1980s villain."
Ricky suddenly let out a loud laugh but quickly tried to hide it by pretending to clear his throat. He brushed past Athena, not even sparing a glance at her. Violetta raised an eyebrow at him. Oh, God.
"Thank you?" EJ questioned.
"You're welcome," Corbin said. "Villains equal viewers. Kenny Ortega taught me that when I turned down The Descendants. You, sing the song with pink-haired girl."
"Athena," she reminded him.
"That's right."
"Sing the song here?" EJ inquired. "In — in the canteen?"
"Big Brother has been on the air for twenty-three seasons," Channing added. "They haven't even left the house yet."
"Guys, let's shoot somethin'," Corbin instructed.
Athena and EJ glanced at each other before walking up to the piano. Violetta pushed herself off of the foosball table, watching them attentively.
Ashlyn raised her hand in the air. "I can jump in on piano."
Val walked up, holding a speaker. "Oh, no worries. We already got the backing track, so . . ."
Ashlyn sat down on the piano bench and looked right at the camera. "Not worried. But here I am, at the piano, ready to play."
Oh my God, why was everyone acting so weird?
"I like the piano," Corbin revealed, biting into a Twix bar. "That's humble. Let the needy girl play."
Violetta saw EJ lean closer to Athena, saying something quiet to her. They exchanged elbow jabs and laughs, like they always did. Just like Violetta and Ricky were siblings, Athena and EJ were siblings, too, just a little less close than Violetta and Ricky. However, Violetta felt a strange sensation churn in her stomach, one that she couldn't quite pinpoint.
Ashlyn pressed her fingers onto the keys, playing the familiar song. Athena and EJ started to sing along, and as they progressed into the song, they got more and more comfortable with each other. Violetta watched them, her fingers absentmindedly tapping against her arm.
She suddenly realized what the strange sensation was. Envy. Violetta immediately scolded herself, because what did she have to envy? Athena and EJ were literally so far from being a possibility, and the thought of that made Violetta kind of want to throw up.
It was just weird seeing her best friend and her boyfriend acting as love interests playing a love song. However, she kept reminding herself that it was just for the documentary.
Violetta turned her head, only to be met with someone that was just as — or arguably more — envious than her. Ricky stood there with a clenched jaw, a fury in his eyes that Violetta hadn't really seen before.
Oh no.
The song finally ended, making Violetta snap out of her thoughts. She lifted her hands up and clapped for them along with everyone else, placing a fake smile on her face. Athena and EJ shared a quick high-five, and the sound of their hands hitting against each other ricocheted throughout her mind.
She was off the hook. However, Ricky wasn't as good as concealing things as she was. Corbin noticed his jealous state, and snapped his fingers to point at Ricky. Channing instantly pointed the camera at Ricky.
"They're pretty good, huh?" Corbin asked him.
"Yeah, she's amazing," Ricky replied. "And — And EJ is amazing, right? Everyone's amazing. Best cast ever. I mean . . ."
Ricky didn't even bother to finish his sentence and turned around, walking right out of the canteen. Violetta sighed, rubbing her hand against her temple. This was all such a mess.
"Folks, I'm gonna need some B-roll of people acting anxious and confused, all right?" Channing demanded. "We're rolling."
Violetta stared at the door of the canteen. She knew exactly why Ricky was acting the way she was. And how did she know that? Because she felt what he felt, too.
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THIS IS CHANNING HATE CLUB I DESPISE THAT MF