act one, chapter four
violent basketball
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"So then, Carlos started yelling at Aid because—" Andrea's story is cut off by a loud laugh, making her turn to her boyfriend in confusion to see that all his attention was set on his phone. "Joseph?"
"Oh, sorry, baby. What were you saying?"
"What were you watching?" The brunette plasters on a smile, acting as if his lack of interest wasn't bothering her. "It must've been hilarious."
"Oh, no it's nothing." Joseph says, tucking his phone away as soon as the girl walked over to join him on the couch. "Just the guys."
"The guys." Andrea forces out a soft chuckle, glancing down at the pocket he had slid his phone into. Feeling like she was getting too much into her head, she shakes herself out of the trance and beams at her boyfriend. "So, homecoming. When should we go shopping for our outfits?"
"I thought you'd be going with the other cheer girls this weekend?"
Andrea looks at her boyfriend suspiciously, "How did you know that the cheer girls were going to go shopping together? I didn't tell you—"
"Oh, I–uh–I just overheard when I was waiting for you after practice the other day." Joseph grabs the girl's hands, "I thought it was like a team bonding thing."
"Oh, yeah. I already told them that I couldn't make it. I don't think that I can stand hanging out with Kennedy outside of practice."
"Kennedy isn't that bad—"
"She literally made us run a mile because someone wore the same practice outfit as her." Andrea rolls her eyes, folding her arms over her chest. "That girl preys on our team's downfall."
"I guess, that is bad." Joseph shakes his head, "Well, I was just going to wear my tux from last year since i'm going to be too busy to shop for a new one. Sorry, babe."
"It's fine. I'll just ask one of the theater kids to come shopping with me."
"God, I just realized i'm dating a theater kid."
"Shut up."
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"Hey, G. What's up?"
"Hey, thanks for coming in early. Carlos should be here in a sec, but I just needed some help with some choreo that I want to propose to Miss Jenn."
Andrea sets her bag to the side and walks over to the girl. "Cool, I have like two hours before I need to head out for cheer practice, but i'm free to help out until then."
"Perfect, thank you so much, Andy."
"No problem, I also have a favor to ask you." Andrea asks, hesitantly, making Gina turn to her in curiosity. "So my best friend is going homecoming dress shopping with some of our student gov friends today and is leaving me to fend for myself with picking a dress. Would you want to come dress shopping with me tomorrow?"
"Wait, really?" Gina says, surprised. She was touched, no one has ever asked her to go dress shopping with them before. "Uh—yeah, sure. I'd love that!"
"Perfect, i'll text you a time and I can steal my cousin's car for the day."
"Yeah, that sounds good."
"Thanks so much, G. You're the best." Andrea takes off her jacket and tosses it aside before dropping her duffle bag and joining Gina in stretching.
"All right, ladies. Let's do what we do best and dance."
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"What the hell did you do, EJ?"
"I thought you weren't allowed to talk to me, what are you doing in my car?" The boy says, ignoring the girl's previous question.
"That's beside the point, idiot." Andrea rolls her eyes, turning to face him. "What happened during practice?"
"What? Wait, did Ashlyn tell you?" EJ says as the girl shuts the car door. "Damnit."
"Ash didn't tell me anything, pretty boy. You and your busted lip did. You get into a fight or something?" Andrea says, reaching over to move the boy's chin so she could get a better look at the cut. As much as she'd hate to admit it, she still cared about her old friend and was worried when she saw him storm out of the practice room with a blood on his shirt and lip. "Oh, it's not that deep, that'll heal quite quickly if you keep it clean. You're gonna need more ice for the swell though."
"Well, I've got your friend Ricky to thank for this."
"You fought Ricky?" Andrea says with wide eyes before chuckling slightly. "Oh god, you boys are so stupid."
"It wasn't a fight. We were..." EJ hesitates, looking away from his old friend, "tossing around a basketball."
"Wow, this just keeps getting better. Was it a scene?"
"Improv, Miss Jenn thought it would help our chemistry." EJ says, rolling his eyes. "And as you can probably tell, we still don't have much chemistry."
"I think the both of you just need to move on." Andrea says, pulling her phone out of her pocket. "You need to just leave Ricky alone and focus on the present with Nini. Ricky might still be getting over the break up, but they have the right to remain friends. And, before you say anything, I am not defending Ricky trying to steal his ex from you. It's stupid and immature, and just so wrong to you both, but he's just in denial. One step in the path to healing."
"Is that what you're telling yourself? That by you helping him, you're helping him heal?" EJ says, making Andrea look up from her phone. "You remember that I was your best friend once, right? You used to talk about him for hours on end because you had the biggest crush on him. Are you trying to tell me that you don't feel anything for him? Why are helping him try to get Nini back, Drea? Why don't you just take this opportunity?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, EJ." Andrea denies, her now sweaty palms gripping tightly to her phone, "I'm dating your friend, Joseph, remember? The super nice guy that literally looks like he could be a movie star. I'm just trying to help my friends move on so that my other friend can be happy with my other ex-friend. Is it so hard to believe that I just want people to be happy?"
"Right, then when will it be your turn?"
"At this point, who knows? My mom wants me to go to med school for god's sake."
The car goes silent as the two come down from the tension of their conversation. "It was nice talking to you again." EJ finally admits, looking away from the girl. "Even under these circumstances when you've come to lecture me."
"What are old friends for?" Andrea says, sarcastically, her single defense against the comfort she felt around the boy. "Things didn't have to be this way."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"Me too."
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"You like... Lani? Aid, I swear to god."
"What?" The boy says, taking a seat on the girl's beanbag.
"Didn't you just break up with Val? For good this time after years of being off and on?"
"Yeah, well we both knew our time together was up. She's went off to college and i'm still in high school. It was for the best. She's cool. But Elana, she's been here for me through it all and she's just...she's just great."
"Well, you know what's going to make this situation worse?" Andrea says, hanging her clothes on her closet.
"What could be worse than me liking my cousin's best friend?"
"She likes EJ." The girl says, making Aid groan loud and dramatically in annoyance. "I know, I know. She didn't want to say anything before, but she and him were talking last school year for like months before he left for break and met Nini. She's still hung up on him though."
"But he's with Nini now—"
"Oh, they broke up. Get this, EJ stole Nini's phone because he thought she was cheating on him with Ricky or something." Andrea says, chuckling harshly. "Kourtney just called me to tell me about it. No wonder EJ was so on edge when I spoke to him yesterday."
"You spoke to EJ?"
Crap. "Uh-Yeah, I saw him walk out of the practice room with a busted lip and went to see what that was about." Andrea shrugs, "No biggie, he and Ricky just got into a ball fight or some crap. It was barely a conversation."
"You know, you can talk to him if you want to, Andy." Aiden shakes his head at the girl. "I never told you that you had to stop talking to him too. You made that decision for yourself when you realized that you liked hi—"
"Hey, can we talk about something else? I've had enough drama talk for today."
"Would you rather us talk about the APUSH project due tomorrow?"
"Are you going to ask me if you can copy my work? Is this why you chose to take this class because I—"
"Jokes on you, I already finished it." Aiden says, making the girl look at him in disbelief. "Yeah, um - what's her name? - Kennedy. She helped me with a part of it."
"You do realize that Kennedy barely passed this class last year, right?"
"All i'm hearing is that she passed." Aiden says, grabbing a chip from the bag on the girl's bed. "It's just a stupid project anyways, I've aced every quiz she's given us so far and that stuff is 80% of our grade."
"And yet, you haven't turned in a single piece of homework for the class." Andrea says, tossing a chip into her mouth. "You are lucky you're smart."
"It's part of my charm. People underestimate me and when I blast them with my knowledge, they are too stunned to ever talk crap about me again."
"Did you just say 'blast them with my knowledge'? Aid, what—"
Aiden's phone chimes, making him groan as he reaches to check the notification. "Carlos wants me to come in early tomorrow to go over the Status Quo dance with Seb."
"You're going to third wheel, yikes."
"Suspension is sounding pretty good right now."
"Dinner's ready!"
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"Dresses, shoes, bag... I feel like we are forgetting something."
"Pretzels?" Gina suggests, gesturing to the pretzel shop in front of them. "I feel like we've earned a snack."
"I agree." Andrea chuckles, reaching for her wallet.
"It's on me. I owe you for the smoothie you bought me on the ride over." Gina offers and before Andrea could say 'no', the girl rushes away to get into the line.
The brunette chuckles before wandering a bit to find a place to sit and put all of her things. Why is the mall so crowded on a week night?
"Joseph, stop! That tickles!" The girl hears someone giggle nearby.
"Sh, quiet, baby. People are starting to look." Andrea's eyes widen at the very familiar voice. She peeks over at the opposite side of the pillar to see her boyfriend making out with one of the other cheerleaders.
"What the hell?"
The two pull away from each other with wide eyes, knowing that they have been caught. "Andy? What are you doing here? Th-this isn't—"
"Let me guess, 'this isn't what it looks like'." Andrea scoffs, folding her arms over chest as she stares the two down. "Well, it looks like my boyfriend is making out with one of my fellow cheerleaders. Are you going to try and tell me that i'm wrong cause I'd love to hear the lies you are going to make up to cover this up."
"I-I'm sorry, it just happened. You are so busy and—"
"I can't deal with this right now." Andrea puts a hand up, feeling a bit of sadness and anger build up in her chest. A very familiar feeling. Giving the two one last glare, she walks away, trying her best to blink away the tears.
"Andy, look, the pretzels come in this really cute packaging—" Gina immediately shuts up when she sees the look on her friend's face, "Woah, what happened?"
"Can-can we just go please? I'd rather not breakdown in front of all these people." Andrea's voice cracks in a whisper, making Gina nod and lead the girl back to the car.
There, Andrea completes unloads, trying her best not to start crying in front of her new friend. Gina comforts the girl as best as she could, though she didn't have much experience in that department.
"No way, you put so much work into this dance, you are going without him." Gina says after Andrea starts talking about how she'd do anything else than think about going to the dance. "Look, i'll go with you and we are going to dance all night long and forget about all the drama going on right now. You can't let one guy ruin homecoming for you."
"Right, yeah -uh- I'm not gonna let him ruin it."
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