"𝙸 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙶𝚒𝚗𝚊 𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜, 𝚠𝚑𝚢 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚖𝚎?
6 | SOME WONDERSTUDIES
KINSELY RUSHED INTO THE BOMB SHELTER the next morning as she held her phone in her hands. She had just come from the lost and found where she found her phone after looking for it all day. Everyone was rehearsing the Stick to the Status Quo, but they all stopped when Miss Jenn called for them stop as they all noticed Kinsely coming in.
"Kinsely, where were you? We have been here for an hour." Miss Jenn said in slight worry.
"I am so sorry. I lost my phone last night living as a hunter-gatherer which, by the way did you know there are things that a re only on TV at a certain time? Okay, anyway, I finally picked it up in the lost and found..." Kinsely trailed off as she realized what Miss Jenn told her. "Wait, did you say an hour?"
"Gina sent you and me a text asking if we could come in early, so she could talk through a new idea, you did not get it?" Miss Jenn asked, gesturing to Gina who was sat in a splits on the floor with a smirk on her face.
"No, because my phone was missing." Kinsely said, holding up he newly found phone.
"Look, honey. You have got to keep better track of your stuff. A real triple threat means singing, acting, and being organized. Got it?" Miss Jenn said, and Kinsely nodded silently.
Kinsely however missed EJ's guilty look, and Ashlyn's look of anger towards EJ.
"Suddenly feeling hashtag complicit if you had been here you would know that Gina pitched a whole new dance break for Gabriella and Taylor in the middle of Status Quo, and she had Carlos work it out with her and it is just dazzling." Miss Jenn gushed, and Gina stood up with an excited smile.
"You and Carlos?" Kinsely questioned towards Gina, who nodded in response.
"Gina, why don't you hydrate and show Kinsely the new choreo?" Miss Jenn suggested, and Gina nodded as she walked away.
~~~
Junior, East high, Kinsely Williams
Okay. Is it just me, or is it possible that Gina stole my phone? She schedules an early rehearsal she knows I will miss and then shows up with a whole new dance number featuring her freakish gymnastics skills that she knows I do not have time to learn and now I am in a doghouse with Miss Jenn. Is any of this and accident? I mean. If she's willing to steal a spotlight, what else is she willing to steal?
~~~
Kinsely walked over to the piano bench and set her bag down quickly so she wouldn't be scolded anymore.
"Hey, Kinsely, how was your night?" Ricky asked, coming up from behind Kinsely, and she simply glanced at him.
"Um, not so hot actually, excuse me." Kinsely said, turning around and pushing past Ricky who glanced at her with a small amount of confusion.
Gina led Kinsely over to a more secluded part of the bomb shelter where no one can see them. Gina stood in front of Kinsely with a small mischievous smirk on her face that caused Kinsely to send her a confused look.
"This is a basic pirouette." Gina explained as she spun around. "This is a two count of krump and then we're into so Argentinian tango. Piece of cake if you ever spent a few months overseas." Gina said, and Kinsely nodded with slightly wide eyes. Gina then laid on the floor as Kinsely stood above her and observed. "Here's where you kick your face." Gina said as she kicked the side of her face with her knee.
"Hmm, can I kick yours?" Kinsely said truthfully in a mutter.
Gina chuckled.
"I love your humor, ok part two, ready?" Gina said as she stood up and looked at Kinsely, who nodded hesitantly.
"There's not a word for this last move per se, but I call it the Death Whack. Give a gander." Gina said as she did the made up move, and Kinsely moved out of the way, so she wouldn't get kicked. Gina turned to Kinsely with a smile. "Ta-da! So that, but you start on the left foot. Ready?"
Kinsely looked at Gina with an excited smile as her lips were slightly parted and eyes wide.
~~~
Junior, East High, Kinsely Williams
I can learn these moves, but I don't have the time. And I have seen the movie a few hundred times. Vanessa Hudgens walks in and stands there. What I do not remember is the part where she jumps into the splits and cracks her pelvis. It is on.
~~~
Kinsely walked around her bedroom that night in anger as her friends (Nini, Kourtney, Daniela, and Dawn) laid on her bed as the faced the TV.
"Ok, here's the deal." Kinsely said as she took her tablet and set it on the dresser as she faced her friends who all looked at her. "Are you sitting down? Excellent." Kinsely glanced at her TV and tablet. "So it seems like Gina really wants my part in the show, and she is basically willing to kill me to get it."
"We could have told you that days ago." Kourtney complained as she looked at her nails. "Wait, hang on, I did."
"But now she's stealing phones and inventing special ways for me to hurt myself. So, here's what I cam up with." Kinsely explained as she reach behind the TV and turned it on to reveal a slideshow that was mirrored from her tablet.
"What are we back in fifth grade?" Daniela asked as she rolled her eyes, and the others began giggling at her.
"Not the point." Kinsely told them with serious eyes, and the girls stopped giggling and became serious. "So the way I see it, I could do one of six things. One, talk to Miss Jenn." Daniela and Dawn scrunched their noses up as they were not sure about Miss Jenn yet. "Two, figure out time to learn the dance." Dawn tilted her head, and Kourtney looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Three, have my siblings or your moms yell at her mom. Four, quit the show." The girl's eyes went wide in shock. "Five, eat so much ice cream. Or six, steal something back."
"We can scratch out number six because that's an act of war." Kourtney said, and the other nodded with her.
Kinsely had a worried and concerned look on her face as she bent down to her back pack that sat at her feet. Kinsely pulled out Gina's sparkly shoes with a sheepish smile.
"Too late." Kinsely simply said.
"Ken!" Nini and Dawn exclaimed in shock.
"I thought you would veto the ice cream." Kinsely complained as she held the shoes up, and her friends sent her disapproving looks.
"Look, this is right, Ken. This isn't you, and you know that you're better than this." Daniela said as she stood up and put her hands on Kinsely's shoulders.
Kinsely looked down in slight disappointment. Nini hesitantly raised her hand.
"I would like to say that I kinda agree with Ken." Nini said slowly, and Dawn and Kourtney sent her pointed looks. "I mean she is honestly following the Golden Rule. Treat others how you want to be treated. If Gina stole something, then she wants to have something stolen from her, like her weirdly sparkling shoes."
"Thank you!" Kinsely said, throwing her hand out to Nini, and Daniela's hands fell from her shoulders.
~~~
Kinsely and Nini stood in front of EJ in an aisle in the library. It was before classes start, and Kinsely had asked EJ to meet up with them. Kinsely unzipped her backpack and placed it on the ground in between their feet.
"You stole Gina's shoes." EJ whisper-yelled to her as he quickly picked up her bag and gave it to her.
"Wasn't that hard." Kinsely simply said as she zipped up her bag and threw it over her shoulder.
"What if she retaliates?" EJ asked.
"Then we will come back at her twice as hard. We will rain down hellfire you understand?" Nini asked, and Kinsely smiled at her friend.
Daniela, Dawn, and Kourtney were still unsure about this, but Nini was by Kinsely's side the entire time.
"I am the night." Nini finished.
"Nini, Ken, I got to be honest, this doesn't feel like you." EJ said as he looked at his best friend and girlfriend with a slightly guilty look.
"I know, it did not feel like me. But I have stepped into the light. Remember that I play to win." Kinsely said, punching EJ's shoulder lightly. "I thought you would be proud."
"Yes, but stealing just seems a little low. You are better than that. You are better than..." EJ trailed off as he looked between the girls. "You are Nini." EJ said, looking at Nini before switching his line of sight to Kinsely. "And you are Kinsely."
Hmm, alright maybe you are right." Kinsely admitted quietly.
"And I do like that you see me that way." Nini said, and her cheeks heated up.
EJ focused on her and smiled.
"I always have." EJ said with a small shrug.
"You are a good person. And I do not know if it is because you are a senior or somebody raised you right, but I wish I had whatever you have got inside of you. It is like confidence mixed with morals, and about a dozen abs." Nini said with a small smirk, and she whispered the last part with pink on her cheeks.
"Thanks for being you." Kinsely said with a small smile.
She and Nini smiled at each other, and they turned and hooked arms as they glanced back at EJ one more time before walking towards the exit of the library.
~~~
Junior, East High, Kinsely
So I have thought about what EJ and the girls said, and I decided that sometimes you just have to stand up and do what's right. I am returning Gina's shoes. When she isn't looking.
~~~
Kinsely walked towards the dressing rooms nervously as she knew that was where Gina had her bag, but she stopped when she heard Gina and Natalie Bagley's voices coming from the room. Kinsely hid in the doorway as she watched the two talk and walk around the room.
"Are these for the new dance break in Status Quo?" Gina asked Natalie, who nodded. "High-key love them, whose is whose?"
"Taylor, Gabriella." Natalie said, pointing to the two outfits.
"Okay, mine is everything. But for Gabriella you may want to put her in a color that pops more. She's already kind of bland. Not as a person sweetest girl in the world, but as an actress. I do not want her to get lost in the crowd." Gina told Natalie, who nodded in response.
Kinsely let out a silent scoff before glancing to Gina's bag that sat on the table nearby the doorframe. Gina's waterbottle sat a little closer to Kinsely. Kinsely glanced back to Gina and Natalie, but she directed her line of sight back to the water bottle.
~~~
Later that day, Kinsely sat with her friends on Nini's bed at Nini's house. Kinsely had a small worried look on her face.
"Did you return the shoes?" Kourtney asked Kinsely.
"I may have stole her water bottle." Kinsely said sheepishly, and she pulled out Gina's water bottle.
"No!" Daniela and Kourtney exclaimed, and Kinsely quickly stopped them.
"You do not have to say it." Kinsely muttered.
"No, I stole three scarves and some jewelry." Kourtney said, dumping her bag out onto Nini's bed.
"And I stole her laptop." Daniela said, pulling out Gina's laptop from her backpack.
Nini grabbed Dawn's backpack and set it in front of Kinsely. Kinsely looked at her in confusion.
"The front pocket is full of stuff." Nini explained, and Dawn nodded in agreement.
"Oh, my God! You guys!" Kinsely exclaimed in shock and with a small smile.
"There is more in my front pocket too." Kourtney explained.
"Yes, we are going to jail." Daniela stated with a small laugh, and the others joined in on her laughter.