Scarlett lay on one of the pool loungers, wearing a dark green swimsuit with a book in her hands as she tried to ignore the chaos around her. They had all planned to try and practically sweep Corbin Bleu off of his feet with a theatrical number, and she had agreed, but they had been waiting for ages and she was bored out of her mind at this point: she'd much rather be anywhere else... or actually in the pool rather than just sitting and staring at it.
Carlos sat on the poolside, a boombox next to him as well as Ricky, who stood anxiously waiting for his moment to press play. After a moment, he began to jump in his place before he reached down to the music box. "I think he's coming!"
"Places everyone!" Kourtney instructed and Scarlett groaned, placing the bookmark in her book, of course, he had to show up when she was getting to the good part. She grabbed the sunglasses that were on the small table beside her, replacing them with her book and sliding them onto her nose.
"It's out with the old and in with the new. Goodbye, clouds of grey, hello, skies of blue..." Carlos sang as EJ walked across the poolside causing Ricky to stop the music.
He shook his head, "And cut! It's just EJ."
Carlos sighed and Scarlett let out a huff as she leaned further into the pool lounger, pulling off her sunglasses. This day could not have had a more boring start.
EJ stuck his hands up defensively. "Wow, sorry I'm not Corbin Bleu." He then pointed to Carlos, who was still on the floor. "Hey, I don't remember Sharpay wearing Chinos."
"Excuse you. Flawless skin and sunlight do not mix." He argued back, standing up.
Scarlett sat up on her lounger, using her foot to kick EJ's shin gently as he stood in front of the chair. "Eej, where's Corbin?"
He shrugged his shoulders a little, "Corbin's helicopter had a maintenance issue. He'll be here any second." Scarlett groaned at his comment, dramatically falling back into the chair, covering her eyes with her arm to stop the glare of the sun. "Are we totally sure about doing this?"
"We wanna impress Corbin Bleu," Carlos replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And how else does one impress a person except by performing elaborate musical numbers for them." Kourtney, who had joined the group along with Ashlyn, Val and Gina, pointed to Carlos with a nod of agreement. Carlos then noticed something up ahead and began wafting his arms around dramatically. "Places, everyone!" His voice seemed to get higher the louder he shouted. "Someone hand me my sunglasses!"
Scarlett placed her sunglasses back on her face, leaning back in the sunlounger as the music began. She didn't have to do much, just sit and look pretty, which she deemed easy enough for her. She watched the performance most of them had planned so perfectly, down to the smallest, minuscule detail, they really wanted to show Corbin Bleu what they were made of and if she was honest, she was actually quite impressed. Scarlett watched as people sang and swam, dived and spun. It was almost hypnotizing.
Scarlett then fought off a laugh as she saw Dewey walk closer to the pool. "Still no Corbin." She announced as Carlos poked his head out of the water. "Just Dewey."
"Whoo!" The camp counsellor clapped enthusiastically. "Now that is a catchy song. Is that Ariana Grand?"
______
They had finally given up on attempting to impress Corbin Bleu, which was a huge breath of relief for Scarlett who wanted nothing more than to begin working on the production. She stood off to the side, doing her own warm-up exercises as she attempted to calm the rapid beating of her heart.
"Okay, he's really coming this time. Everyone, act like you're taking this seriously and warming up." EJ instructed as he walked through the small circle some of the performers had made in the middle of the barn.
Val walked in between a couple of people, moving to walk in step with the boy. "That's literally what they're doing, EJ. Take it down to a three. You're at a seven out of ten." She told him, and he sighed before stopping in his tracks as Corbin Bleu and his cameraman came striding into the room.
"Corbin's on the clock. It's go-time."
Scarlett let out a nervous breath, shaking her hands a little as if to shake away the nerves before repeating the man's words quietly to herself. "Go-time." She walked over to one of the lines of people, placing herself next to Ashlyn who rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet, excitement radiating off of her despite her knock of confidence from before.
"Mr Bleu, sir. We have a killer first read-through for today." EJ started but was easily ignored and slightly brushed to the side.
"Right."
EJ nodded a little, a small frown finding its way onto his face. "Okay, yeah, you make the rounds, good."
Corbin wandered around the room, nodding as he passed people before stopping in front of Kourtney for a moment. "Dope outfit."
"Kourtney." She responded with a small nod.
Scarlett grinned excitedly as she bounced her way over to EJ who was standing, scanning through a script. He smiled once he saw her, "Hey, I've been looking for you all morning. I've been kicking myself for not going with you and the others last night. I know I've been distracted with the show..."
"It's okay." She cut him off, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly, her arms loosely looped around his neck. "It would've been more fun with you. Buy, hey, it's not like we've only got camp or this summer, right?" Scarlett replied with a giddy smile and he nodded nervously. "We can go on adventures in Salt Lake all the time, too."
"Definitely. We definitely will be seeing each other all of the time, because of... Geography!" Scarlett chuckled, noticing his weary answer but just drawing it back to the show.
Ashlyn's voice then called out her name. "Scarlett! Come join the friendship circle!"
She nodded her head, pressing a quick kiss to EJ's cheek before making her way over to the redhead.
They warmed up for a little while longer before it was announced that they were rolling and EJ took that as his cue to start. "Welcome to the first Frozen read-through. Young Elsa and Anna are on a nature field trip and will catch up with us tomorrow." EJ said as he walked forward and closer to Corbin and the camera.
"Okay, I'll take it from here, RJ, thank you." Scarlett cringed but straightened up her posture Corbin walked past her. "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."
Scarlett sucked in a nervous breath, there was really no beating around the bush with this guy. Ricky then chuckled, throwing himself forward in his seat. "Ten days?! That's a reason to celebrate, bring it in!" He stood up and attempted to embrace Corbin who just shook his head as the others looked at him in confusion.
"Look, I understand that some of you know me as a name and not a person. But I'm just a regular guy who buys his groceries at Erewhon and has a personal trainer like anybody else. All right?" He began his speech and Scarlett looked around the room, everyone's eyes glued on the man in front of them all. "I'm just here to catch some behind-the-scenes footage, so think of me as a fly on the wall."
Easier said than done.
"Be yourself. Let's have some fun. Yeah?"
Ricky threw his arms into the air enthusiastically. "Yeah, baby! Let's hug it out! Bring it in, come on."
Corbin ignored him though and turned to look into the camera. "And there you have it, folks. The very first read-through of frozen. Let the show begin."
______
Scarlett read her line from her script, and Kourtney replied with her lines before the pair were stopped. "Pause. Sounds like you two really felt that moment." The camera was brought over to them, and she smiled nervously as she looked into the camera before back to Corbin who stood behind her and Kourtney. "Let's unpack what you're channelling."
"Let me guess. Real-life relationship troubles. You both like the same person causing tension." Scarlett could have burst out laughing right at that moment. "Maybe it's this guy." He panned the camera to Carlos and that's when Scarlett did burst out laughing before quickly covering her mouth, slightly embarrassed.
Carlos looked toward the cameraman in disbelief. "Yes, it's me. 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 stated and Scarlett, once again, could have burst out laughing. I mean, sure, they wouldn't purposefully hurt each other but drama did seem to attract the group quite well.
Valentina nodded, "We're all really good friends." She added on, with a small hint of sarcasm. What was happening there?
"Yeah, like, really good friends. We're basically a drama-free zone." EJ finished, huddling closer to Ricky and the cameraman rolled his eyes, or at least that's what Scarlett gathered since one of his eyes was stuck behind the camera.
"Great. All those Emmy-winning drama-free reality shows." He replied sarcastically.
They continued to read through the script again until they were stopped again, but this time it wasn't buy Corbin it was just because of a lack of a sort of important person. "Uh, that's Jet's line." Scarlett wasn't surprised to see him not show up, he didn't seem the most reliable, but who was she to judge?
Everyone looked around to see if he was anywhere in the room before EJ shook his head. "Wait, Jet's not here."
"Oh, god. I knew he wasn't real."
Corbin then stood up, loving the idea of something actually interesting finally being dragged into his documentary. "What's the deal with this Jet? Is he troubled?
Ricky slowly shook his head. "I wouldn't say troubled. We're slowly wearing his dark soul down." He replied and Scarlett watched as the two adults in the room shared a look which slightly worried her.
"Sounds like our protagonist. Everyone loves a misanthropic emo-boy to root for."
Maddox then stood, slightly frantically. "Jet's gonna be fine. He's probably just doing this for attention." She replied a little nervously, a small chuckle escaping her lips as.
"I'm sure Jet is fine. Maddie, Val, please track him down. As for the rest of us, let's take a ten!" Ej instructed, attempting to defuse the situation at hand before slowly losing his sense of control. "I will be in the canteen having a cool beverage because I am very cool. Everything is cool Mr Bleu."
Scarlett furrowed her brows. "Honey, you're shouting."
EJ sighed, walking out of the barn and Corbin smiled a little and turned to look into the camera as Scarlett dropped her head into her hands.
They'd be fine, ten days was definitely enough time to put this show together.
Definitely.