I can't believe it's November already, and time for a monthly installment of 'Starburst'. We're now officially in Season 1 Episode 4 'Blocking' (which is something Cress wishes she could do to Ricky at their group chats)
Disclaimer: I do not own 'High School Musical: The Musical: The Series' or Ten from "Weightless". Ten and Jeonghan belong to my friend @zealous_light. I only own my original characters. Enjoy the chapter.
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Instead of spending the rest of the rehearsals dealing with the aftermath of EJ and Ricky's drama (and thanks to Ten's suggestion), Cress was making props with Big Red and helping Kourtney sort through the wardrobe. Probably a good thing too.
"What about this one?" Kourtney held out a green blouse.
"I think my sister Cali has one of those blouses, so yeah it fits the HSM1 aesthetic." Cress nodded. She has lots of siblings with tremendous age gaps, so she's the semi-reliable Y2K fashion consultant for the Junior.
"Did ANYBODY wear this in 2005?" Kourtney held out a pineapple costume with arm's reach.
"Unless Spongebob Squarepants and that weird Pineapple princess song from HSM2 had an ugly love child, no. Burn it over a bonfire, PLEASE AND THANK YOU!" Cress shook her head in disgust.
Big Red snorted a bit at Cress's witty remark, Kourtney held back an amused smile as well.
"Ok everyone, rehearsals for today are officially over. See you tomorrow!" Miss Jenn clapped her hands and announced.
"FREEDOM!" Cress roared happily as she charged out of the rehearsal room.
"Careful, you're gonna trip over your shoelaces again, Kormos." Kaison called out from her side.
"It's fine, Kais! I am great at landing on my feet." Cress retorted playfully, elbowing the taller Junior by the arm.
Ten didn't miss out the way Kaison seemed to blush at Cress's physical affection. Oh boy, looks like another poor soul has developed a crush on his friend.
"Cress, you still need to apologize to Ricky for hitting him with a ball." Ten nudged Cress forward to Ricky Bowen's direction.
"Fine." Cress folded her arms in front of her chest, incredibly reluctant to even apologize for 'accidentally' injuring Ricky.
"I apologize for my behavior earlier. I (will try to) promise to never do it again." Cress held back a curse as she reluctantly apologized to Ricky Bowen.
"Oh that's cool." Ricky blinked slowly (since this Senior was pissed at him an hour ago), but accepted the apology, nonetheless. He quickly proceeded to flee because it's probably for the best.
Here's the thing about Cress: if a Kormos truly and deeply loathes you with a passion, they hold onto that grudge forever and will only apologize ONCE. Nothing moves beyond that or you're practically dead to them.
Somehow, Ricky Bowen has earned himself a spot on her blacklist and it's only the SECOND WEEK OF SCHOOL!
"You did the right thing, Cress." Cress felt a familiar hand on her shoulder. Her nerves slowly faded. She unclenched her fists, letting out a frustrated sigh after Ricky was out of her sight.
"Here's to hoping EJ's doing the right thing too." Ten muttered under his breath, but Cress heard him nonetheless.
You know it's bad when the most Immoral person he knows (Cress, shockingly) could apologize for her wrongdoings while EJ refuses to do so.
"I'm in desperate need to blow off some steam today. Who's up for a jog around the neighborhood this evening?" Cress looked her friend in the eye.
"Why not?" Ten agreed, before casting a glance at EJ.
Meanwhile, EJ STILL hasn't apologized or admitted to Nini that he took her phone, or the fact that her ex had sent her a voicemail.
Hopefully this will not come back and bite him in the rear end.
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The Next Day...
While EJ and Nini were having their ugly confrontation in the hallways, Ten was just tuning out all the fighting with his headphones.
Meantime, Cress and a few others were helping Natalie Bagly find her missing emotional support pet hamster in the Rehearsals Room.
"So tell me again what your hamster looks like?" Gina asked.
"His name's Elliot with gold fur and a white underbelly," Natalie shakily explained what her hamster looks like, while searching through different places to find her pet.
"Elliot? Like Sebby's oldest brother, Elliott. The same Elio who's dating my sister Christine?" Cress mused. She's heard Natalie talk about her emotional support hamster before, but this is the first time she found out the hamster shares the same name as Seb's brother.
"You named your pet hamster after my brother?" Seb can't help but ask his friend (pseudo Secret Girlfriend) this important question.
"I was 12 and he was my first crush," Natalie sighed wistfully.
"Elliot is a good name." Gina muttered, earning a nod from Carlos too.
"Eww, seriously. My brother." Seb jokingly wrinkled his nose in mild disgust.
"I know, but still, he's very easy on the eyes." Natalie half-shrugged, earning a horrified groan from the blond boy.
"Seriously, my brother!" Seb half-grumbled, looking at the Senior, "Cress, stop laughing!"
Cress was wheezing and laughing inelegantly.
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A Few Minutes Later
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"I need a moment." Natalie burst through the doors and walked past the rest of the students outside, clutching a shoebox in her hands.
"Is her hamster...?" Ashlyn asked cautiously, her gaze fixed on the shoebox.
"No, she thinks he's hiding in her locker." Carlos answered.
"Then who was screaming?" Kitt (the boy playing Coach Bolton) wondered.
"Carlos. Nattie stepped on his foot." Cress replied. "We thought we saw a hamster, but it turns out it's an old wig collecting far too much dust."
Cress held up a very dusty looking wig and grinned, "But hey, this wig is giving me great ideas for a Halloween prank!"
Carlos went up to brief EJ and Nini about their upcoming blocking.
"So what happened again?" Ten removed his headphones to talk to his friend. Anything is more interesting than watching EJ and Nini's relationship drama.
"Ok we lost track of Natalie's emotional support hamster Elliot. But we uncovered the fact Nattie had a crush on Sebby's brother who happens to be my sister's boyfriend. Which...fair, he is a charming guy." Cress explained.
"Ew, that's MY BROTHER!" Seb groaned out loud again.
"At least you never walked in on Elio making out with Christy!" Cress deadpanned.
"I did, I caught them kissing in the haystack when I was 8." the blond Sophomore shuddered.
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This rehearsal is utterly the most painfully awkward one Cress has been to.
Probably because of the fact that EJ and Nini just broke up with each other. Miss Jenn had the ex-lovebirds up for a chemistry read (or sing?). Also, the Rogue Rodent of the Male Lead had failed to show up, for some reason?
Cress primarily occupied herself by working on the props. From what Ten would inform her later: things were very tense with Nini and EJ's Troyella blocking scene.
And from what Ten would recall, it was ALMOST as painful as the time EJ tried confessing his crush to a (very intoxicated) Cress when they were 15 at a party.
After rehearsals were over, EJ apparently decided to go elsewhere to mope. (or strategize winning Nini back? Who knows)
"So Cress, are you gonna come over to comfort EJ tonight?" Ten glanced over at Cress carelessly dumping all her belongings into her bag.
"I would, but raincheck maybe." Cress smiled apologetically and turned down his offer.
"Don't prank Nini, she's a nice person." Ten's expression twisted into a disapproving frown. She's always been so protective of EJ after each of his (usually) terrible breakups. Casepoint: Tatiana Martinez!
"Oho, not her. I'm having a sleepover with the girls from the drama club tonight. We're gonna binge movies, and discuss plans for next week's Homecoming dance," Cress was walking ahead of him. "Almost all the girls are going except for Nini, Kourtney, Tonya and Gina."
"Ok I get it, you have a lot of friends." Ten quirked a tiny smile at her rambling. "Enjoy yourself though."
"What about you? Any afterschool plans today?" Cress turned to look at her friend.
"I think I might hit the dance studio. It's been a while since I went there." Ten replied, swinging a bag over his shoulder.
"Cool, tell your friends I said hi." Cress nudged his shoulder lightly.
She has met some of his dance studio friends (Vernon, Joshua, Taeyong, Mark to name a few) but the only one Ten is making sure she never meets is Jeonghan.
"You know, half the student body is convinced whenever you leave school, it's to go film an MV or something" The shorter teen teases him a bit, "I believe they called you Hannah Mon-Ten-ah behind our backs."
Ten struggled not to laugh (or groan) at her comment. He honestly couldn't tell if that's a joke or the truth. Hopefully a joke.
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The two teens kept walking until they spotted Nini sitting on a bench outside of school and tried to avoid her.
[ Ok, it's more on Ten's side that avoids Nini. Cress remained neutral with most of EJ's exes half the time, unless they're complete jerks then she's ok with burning bridges. ]
"Ten, Cress." Nini called out from behind them. "You don't have to avoid me."
"I'd rather leave, Nini. Being in the middle of everything can be very messy. And I don't wanna hurt EJ's feelings." Ten replied.
"We're just sharing a bench." Nini stated.
"Nini," Ten began, "I'm not going to ask you to forgive EJ and take him back. What he did was awful, and you didn't deserve any of it."
"I thought you'd be asking me to forgive him as his best friend."
"Eh, we love him, but he does screw up sometimes." Cress shrugged.
"That's true," Ten tapped his fingers lightly on the bench, "But as his best friend, it also means I can see what's best for him."
"And what's best for him?" Nini echoed.
"EJ's the type to do dumb things for the ones he cares about," Cress remarked, typing on her phone.
"He needs to learn from his mistake and your ruthlessness will serve as a good lesson from him," Ten responded, turning to look at Nini, "It has to be done, and he needs to be broken down at least once and rise up from it."
Cress finds herself nodding sagely to Ten's advice. He really is the wisest guy she knows.
"Is that what you think?"
"I've known EJ since we were kids. If there's anyone who knows him best other than his family, it's me and Cress." Ten gently nudged Cress by the arm.
And Jeonghan too, but Ten's not risking the chances for the Gremlins to meet.
'Eh, except his dad, Cash sucks!' Cress chewed back her snark.
"You two really care about him, huh?" Nini spoke in a soft tone.
"E might be a dumbass, but he's one of the best people I know." Cress focused her attention on her nails.
"When you're friends with EJ, you have to look out for him and trust he'll do the same for you." Ten gave the girl a small smile, pushing his hands into his pockets.
Nini responded with a smile as well, it felt a bit forced or polite but at least they were able to have a decent conversation.
"I better go, it was nice talking to you." Nini spotted Mama D's car driving over and walked away.
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A Few Seconds After Nini has Left.
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"We're gonna need to stress bake again this weekend, aren't we?" Ten commented warily, letting out a tired sigh.
"Yup, Imma whip out a fresh batch of post-breakup Galatopita for our Dumbass!" Cress nodded.
"Nice, I miss custard milk pie." Ten grinned. Cress is without a doubt one of the best bakers he's ever met, and it's not out of favoritism.
"Speaking of which: My ride's here. HEY ZALE!" Cress broke into a big grin and waved at a car stopping in front of her.
"Why did I agree to do this?" A young man with platinum blond hair half-sighed.
"Because you love your dear baby sister and I bribe you with desserts." Cress countered.
Bribery with food. It somehow always works.
"Also your campus is a 5 minute drive from here." Cress added. "By the way, Ten's going to the dance studio later."
"Need a lift?" Zale glanced at Ten.
"I wouldn't want to impose-"
"It's fine, I need to hand my old notes over to the Ducklings." Zale held up a bag of old reference books. "You can just pass it to them on my behalf."
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Alternate summary of Cress's apology to Ricky Bowen:
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Next chapter's gonna be like a Filler/Original episode with Cress hanging out with the other girls from the theater department. Because as much as I like HSMTMTS and its plot, I want the characters to have a life outside of the Theater Club.
Chapter Talk: -
(1.) I like writing little friendship moments for Cress and the rest of the Wildcats (sans Ricky who will forever be her least favorite). She's very sociable and has a way of brightening people's moods. From her bestie's ex-girlfriend's bestie to her hated enemy's best friend, Cress has all the range in befriending (or flirting with) others. She's naturally charismatic like that.
(2.) EJ and Cress are 100% workout gym buddies. Ten usually follows to make sure their competitiveness doesn't end in disaster. I genuinely enjoy Cress and EJ's friendship because they can be extremely charismatic, competitive and also more than they appear.
(3.) In the show Seb was waiting outside with the rest of the Wildcats; in Starburst, he's involved in helping Natalie find her missing hamster. I like adding some friendship moments between Seb, Natalie and Cress. Plus with Season 4 context that Nat/Seb used to date, might as well throw in their friendship/past relationship in here.
(4.) Since the Kormos and Matthew-Smith family have been friends for a long time, Seb has a more expressive side here. Seb's closer friends with Cress' brother Phyrros, so hopefully I can touch on their friendship in later seasons.
(5.) Ten's conversation with Nini happens here (yes at this point I write Starburst while reading Weightless to reference the other fic's Canon Events). Cress thinks Ten's very wise and insightful. Also: Zale makes a cameo! He's one of Cress's siblings and is occasionally mentioned by Ten's dance studio buddies as their former Dorm Big Brother.
That's all for now, thanks for reading this chapter. Have a great day.