We are finally in episode 1 of Secrets of Sulphur Springs, I'm so excited to let you all see what I have in store. This one's gonna be Family/Friendship focused we're gonna see a bit more of EJ's relationship with the Campbell family.
Song to listen to while reading this chapter: 'Pictures of You' by Our Last Goodbye (one of my favorite songs that I drew inspiration for the chapter title)
Disclaimer: I do not own Secrets of Sulphur Springs, High School Musical: The Musical Series or all the other offscreen mentioned fandoms. Ten and Jeonghan are from 'Weightless' and they belong to my friend @zealous_light, I only own my Original Characters. With that being said, enjoy!
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The weather was dark and gloomy with a storm on the horizon. Instead of staying indoors, 3 kids found themselves in front of the (allegedly) abandoned old hotel.
"Do you really think this place is haunted?" One boy spoke out, his voice a little shaky with uncertainty. The three preteens were standing on the front porch of the hotel.
"Only one way to find out." A taller boy (Nate) refuted.
"Unless you're too scared..." The girl (Quinn) mocked the first boy.
"I'm not." Topher scoffed, attempting to sound more confident.
"Go ahead, Topher. Come on, look inside..." Nate nudged his classmate closer to the porch.
"I dare you." Quinn taunted.
Topher edged closer to the window by the front porch. Slowly, he wiped the dust off the window and peered in.
Inside, he saw the silhouette of a young girl with a ponytail.
And then the girl lets out a piercing scream accompanied by loud thunder.
Topher stumbled back and away from the window. That was when he heard another scream from within the house.
"RUN! SAVANNAH'S ALREADY GOT A TARGET IN THERE!" Topher alerted his classmates. The three trespassers fled from the old hotel.
— — — —
Inside the Tremont Hotel
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Zoey reached for and switched on the table lamp to see who grabbed her foot.
"WYATT!!" Zoey yelled, realizing it was her brother under the table.
Zoey (and Topher who was outside) wasn't the only one who screamed. Apparently, Griffin and Wyatt forgot to give EJ the memo they were going to prank Zoey, because her screams (and the lack of lighting) also gave him a fright.
"Got you so good!" Wyatt laughed, running around holding a phone.
"Are you streaming this?!" Zoey demanded, chasing her twin brother around.
"Kids, slow down!" Sarah called out from the other room, trying to find her missing phone, "Has anyone seen my phone?"
"Didn't see it, Mrs C." Cress responded, cleaning the dining tables.
"Not upstairs either!" Ten announced, leaving the room he and his two friends will be bunking for the time being. He had just gotten off the phone with his parents and reassured them that he and his friends had reached Sulphur Springs safely.
Eventually the twins ran into their mother.
"Is that my phone?" the older woman frowned, taking her phone away from her son's hands.
"Why were you two screaming?" Sarah looked at her daughter and nephew.
"I heard Zoey's screams and I kinda got a fright." EJ admitted.
"What did you do?" Sarah crossed her arms at her youngest children.
"I barely touched her foot from under the table and she freaked!" Wyatt snickered with a proud grin. "It was awesome."
"You are such a child." Zoey rolled her eyes at her twin.
"What does that make you?" Wyatt scoffed.
"2 minutes older and lightyears more mature." Zoey retorted.
The twins heard another loud crash of thunder and moved closer to their mom.
"I heard screaming, what happened?" Ten rushed downstairs to check in on his friends.
"Wyatt scared Zoey, and Zoey scared EJ, and Griffin caught everything on camera." Cress explained, "And I think I heard additional screaming from outside, but I could be wrong."
"Why don't we go upstairs and finish unpacking your rooms?" Sarah suggested, "you wouldn't want to be late for your Cousins Sleepover?"
"Ok mom." The twins nodded.
— — — —
Griffin's Bedroom
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The preteen was busy editing footage of Zoey screaming from their prank earlier. He may or may not have also caught footage of EJ's screams.
"Oh, this is hilarious." Griffin chuckled to himself.
The bedroom door creaked open as his dad walked in.
"You paid 5 bucks for Wyatt to scare Zoey and EJ?" The father held up a 5 dollar bill.
"Technically we only meant to scare Zoey, EJ was a complete accident." Griffin explained, "But it was worth it. Come and look at this."
Griffin started playing an edited video of Zoey and EJ's screams overlapping and somehow creating a strange melody.
"Keep tormenting your sister and I'm holding onto all of your allowance." Ben told his son.
"It's not like there's anything else to do." Griffin grumbled under his tone.
"You know, when I was your age, I practically lived in the woods out back. We'd explore, play games, and breathe the fresh air." Ben spoke, almost reminiscing his younger years. "I couldn't wait to stay here every summer."
"At least one of us had a happy childhood." Griffin replied, not peeling his eyes away from his computer.
"C'mon, give it a few days and give this place a chance. Sulphur Springs has a way of surprising you." Ben spoke, hoping to persuade his son to give this place another chance.
"Not to mention, your cousin is staying over for a while, and I'm sure he and his friends are more than happy to spend time with you." Ben added. "C'mon, I'm sure your brother and sister are waiting for you at EJ's room."
— — — —
The Golden Trio's Room
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The three older teens have finished unpacking their luggages. EJ and Ten noticed a smooth pebble on the nightstand placed by Cress.
"Please don't tell me you fished that pebble from the camp lake?" Ten's dark brown eyes narrowed at the rock. He held back a sigh when she nodded in confirmation.
"This is Callisto/Chaewon, one half of me and Jeonghan's mutual custody pet rocks. He's holding the other one: Jungwon/Jason." Cress cheerfully introduced the pebble to her best friends.
"Callisto," She spoke to the pebble as if it were a real person, "Meet your uncles EJ and Ten."
"You gave them 2 sets of names?" EJ wondered out loud.
"We wanted to give them names that nod to our respective heritages. For me, I picked Greek names: Jason and Callisto. Jeonghan picked Jungwon and Chaewon." Cress explained.
"Those are nice names." admitted EJ.
Cress always comes up with all the cool names for her D&D campaigns or random pet rocks she's adopted to put up an elaborate soap opera.
"I blame Val for casting you both as Elsa and Anna's parents." Ten grumbled under his breath in a half-joking manner.
Ever since Val casted those two to play as an onscreen couple, Jeonghan and Cress have apparently decided it's the Universe's calling that they are Platonic Soulmates.
"Say what you will about this predicament, but I for one am happy he's my Soulmate." Cress stuck out her tongue at them.
"We're happy for you though." Ten sighed with content.
A few seconds later, the Campbell Twins barged into their rooms.
"Cousins Sleepover! Cousins Sleepover!" Wyatt and Zoey practically charged into the guest room holding their pillows and stuffed animals.
"Welcome to my humble abode, Hansel and Gretel." EJ caught the twins and started spinning them around.
"Be careful, Caswell." Ten frowned in mild concern.
Sure, EJ's experienced at childcare in some ways, but Ten still has some worries.
"Sure, because I didn't kick my cousin in the face while cartwheeling." EJ quipped back, dodging a pillow Ten threw in his direction.
"Who cartwheeled their cousin in the face?" Griffin stood by the doorstep, looking extremely confused by whatever he just overheard.
— — — — — — — — — — —
Overall, the Campbell Siblings and Golden Trio were enjoying this sleepover.
Cress was braiding Zoey's hair and sharing secrets about the hilarious stuff EJ often got into back in high school. Wyatt was showing off his action figures to Ten who listened attentively. Griffin and EJ started jamming together with their guitars.
EJ eventually told them about his recent Summer Camp experience (but a very watered down version to prevent Aunt Sarah from fussing over).
"Uncle Cash has no idea you're here, huh?" Griffin voiced out, his expression grimacing.
"Yup, he's under the impression I'm being shipped off to St Louis for his success school right after the doc premier was over." EJ nodded. "Mom, Ashlyn, and Aunt Sarah are doing their best to cover for me."
"He is a buzzkill." Zoey huffed out. It was unfair of their uncle Cash to be so dismissive like that.
"Hold still, I'm ALMOST done braiding your hair." Cress muttered, attempting to braid Zoey's hair with her shuffling around.
"Totally! EJ is the best cousin ever." Wyatt exclaimed, clinging onto EJ's free arm.
"See? They get it!" Griffin gleefully agreed with his siblings.
"The worst part is my dad couldn't even say he was proud of me..." EJ's voice cracked a little, hugging his knees a little closer to his chest. "He just hung up on me."
"I stand by what I said: Uncle Cash sucks." Wyatt huffed his chest. His twin sister nodded along.
'You should have heard all the things Cress' mom said about him...' Ten thought, observing the Campbell siblings.
"I like this kid." Cress beamed and declared.
Zoey wrapped her arms around EJ for a comforting hug.
"Thanks, Zo-Zo." EJ sighed with content.
"Cuddle pile, now." Zoey mouthed over as her brothers all went forward to give their older cousin a group hug.
"This is so cute." Ten chuckled to himself. The sight of EJ's younger cousins clabbering over him was heartwarming and sweet. Caswell deserves that amount of kindness after 3 weeks of summer camp (and the 1 month between camp and the trailer premier) have put him through.
Things have been...tense at EJ's home. He's spent most of the time at Ten's house or with one of his friends. His dad would be conveniently away for business trips. His mom wasn't all that involved either, sure she loves and supports EJ but she was...emotionally distant.
— — — —
A Few Seconds Later...
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"Hey kids, how's the sleepover going?" Ben knocked on the door, before peeking his head to check on the kids and teens.
"Awesome, Cress braided my hair." Zoey cheerfully shared, pointing at her hair.
"Look what I found?" Sarah knocked on the door, holding a photo album in her hands.
"Are those your old pictures?" Griffin recognized the albums. They had packed quite a few albums with them when they moved.
"Yup from our family albums and more." the redheaded woman nodded.
"Can we see them?" Zoey asked.
"Is EJ in some of the pictures?" Cress asked nonchalantly, trying to conceal her curiosity.
"Yup, I used to babysit him a lot before these three came along." Sarah nodded.
"We got mistaken as his parents when we looked after him." Ben chuckled at the old memories.
'I wouldn't have minded if they were my parents instead.' EJ chewed back a thought.
"Oh come on, I thought I was finally away from my aunts or mom showing my friends all of my baby pictures!" EJ's face turned beet red in embarrassment. He was covering his face with both his hands. Ten was giving his friend a pat on the back.
It was too late for EJ to run away because he's now stuck with his friends and relatives looking at his childhood pictures.
"Here's a picture of Elton as a ring bearer at my wedding." Sarah showed a picture of EJ maybe 4 years old in a cute little tux. The little boy had a big happy grin on his face, seated between the bride and groom.
"You looked so pretty, mom." Zoey gushed.
"You were so tiny!" Wyatt teased his older cousin.
"Not as tiny as Ashlyn." EJ huffed, motioning to another picture where little EJ and Ashlyn were seated next to each other.
"I remembered this one." Ben peered over his wife's shoulder. "Remember when Elton here sang his tiny heart out at our wedding reception?"
EJ's whole face flushed red in embarrassment, he started hiding his face under his hands.
"What song did he sing?" Griffin asked with interest.
"What's that song again? 'The Start of Something New' from that High School Musical movie." Sarah remembered.
"Wow, Troy has been your favorite character since day one." Ten laughed, lightly nudging EJ by the arm. How is he not even surprised?
"Do you have that moment video taped?" Cress turned to look at Sarah.
"Troy was my comfort character growing up, ok?" EJ half-whined.
"Oh we can tell." His friends nodded, watching the Campbell family flip through the family albums.
"Here's one with EJ (aged 6) and Ashlyn (aged 4) first meeting Griffin." Ben found another picture and showed it.
"Griffin was so tiny!" Wyatt can't help but tease his older brother.
"He looks a lot happier with baby Griffin than he did with baby Ashlyn." Ten made a remark.
"I think my logic at the time was that I'm glad to finally get a new cousin that's not a girl at the time." EJ stated, before Ten smacked him on the shoulder.
"I'm swatting at you on Ashlyn's behalf." Ten explained with a cheeky smirk.
"What? I'm an only child, and Griff's the closest I have to a baby brother at the time." EJ defended himself.
"And you did." Griffin smiled.
"I swear, Caswell, you're collecting siblings like Pokemon!" Ten teased.
"Honestly, the way E seems to spoil all the ladies in his life makes me think if he ever has kids, he will spoil them rotten." Cress hummed in agreement. He's sweet like that.
Looks like coming over to Sulphur Springs might not be such a bad idea after all? EJ's more relaxed around his younger cousins. And Cress is laughing at new never-seen-before baby pictures of her tallest friend.
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We are officially entering Episode 1 of Secrets of Sulphur Springs! The next chapter will be focusing on Griffin's first day of school.
Chapter Talk: -
(1.) I kept the intro scene for Topher (plus Quinn and Nate), the difference between Canon and Summer Wind is that we have more people running around in this AU. Therefore, Topher mistook EJ's scream as 'an unfortunate victim of Savannah's'. It's just screaming everywhere as a means to communicate.
(2.) You can pry Wholesome Big Brotherly EJ headcanons away from my cold dead hands. I can see him as a very doting and sweet Cool Big Brother to the Campbell Kids (and extending to the Dunn siblings later on) and at summer camp (something we rarely see in season 3). He can be cool half the time but he's still sometimes prone to be pranked by them.
(3.) JT and Callis' name origins revealed! They're Jeonghan and Cress's future children (for my Next Gen AU fanfic 'Legacies of Tremont'), so I thought it'd be fun to bring future references.
JT and Callis from LoT Timeline/2047: You named us after your pet rocks?!
Cress and Jeonghan: Yes.
(4.) Troy Bolton has always been EJ's comfort character. EJ would have been a preschooler when HSM1 aired and I can see him singing 'The Start of Something New' at his aunt's wedding reception. I love Childhood! Era for the Golden Gremlins, imagining them as little kids makes me smile.
And that's all for this month. I hope you've enjoyed this update. Feel free to leave a comment down below and let me know your thoughts for the Golden Trio and Campbell Siblings relationship. Thank you so much for reading and have a great day.