Chapter Text
“Okay, so that’s a no on ‘Angels in America’.” Miss Jenn huffed, striking through the title with a sharp squeal of pen pushed a little too hard to whiteboard.
Ashlyn turned to E.J. and whispered, “Why was that even an option?”
He stifled a laugh, then raised his hand. Miss Jenn’s wide, frantic eyes fell on him and she pointed her pen at him without a word. “I’m also pretty sure there’s still no legal way to perform ‘Wicked’.” he said tentatively.
Somehow, her shoulders fell lower than they already were. “You’re kidding? Still?” After a moment to regain composure, she placed the smile back on her face and circled the two remaining titles on her board. “Well… I guess we have two choices. ‘Bare: A Pop Opera, a beautiful story about the blossoming love of two young men-“
“Before they die.” Seb interrupted with a clear edge of exasperation.
“Just one.” Miss Jenn pointed out a little too cheerily. “And if not that… High School Musical 3.”
General murmurs of agreement filled the room, until Ashlyn slowly raised her hand. Miss Jenn’s growing hope was suddenly hanging off a cliff. “There’s no stage version.” Ashlyn put bluntly, ripping the band aid off.
Miss Jenn blinked once, very slowly. Then twice. “Well.” She said monotonously, before perking up and clapping her hands into a tight grip. “The last choice is still a choice! Our next show, and for many of you, the last show, will be ‘Bare’!”
Aside from one “Woo!” from Carlos, the only noise was meagre applause that hung near the ground like a fog. E.J. felt pretty good about it, but with North High’s cease-and-desist on their highly anticipated production of ‘Grease’, it was always going to be a struggle to get morale up so quickly. “What’s with the sad faces?” Carlos posed, an expert in rolling with the punches.
“I don’t know, I just feel like I can’t… relate to this, you know?” Ricky said confidently, until he realised all the eyes in the room shifted accusingly to him. “What? We were all thinking it.”
Unlooping herself from his arm, Nini turned to him with a glare. “No, we all just wanted to do Grease.”
“So… Why aren’t we?”
Everyone sighed, but most of all Nini. “God, do you ever listen?” she bit. It was cold enough that whatever residual noise was in the room dropped dead. Not that Ricky was taken aback. The frost between them stopped being shocking a short while before last Summer.
“Wait, so you’re telling me you can relate to a hairy French monster who keeps a princess hostage, but a gay character is where you draw the line?” Seb questioned, an eyebrow quirked as Carlos rubbed his back soothingly.
Ricky sputtered defensively for a second as the room hummed in agreement. “No, no, I- come on! You guys know I’m not like that. I’ve never given you shi- crap, sorry Miss Jenn, I’ve never given you crap for… you know, it’s just not something I think I could act. I just feel like… I’m at a disadvantage, you know?”
“Well, if that’s the case, Carlos and I have been at a disadvantage for, what, five shows in a row now? Don’t we deserve a shot?” Seb pointed out. The way Ricky pursed his lips said he couldn’t deny Seb’s point.
“God, imagine not just being handed a part for a change.” Nini stabbed. The intake of breath was sharp and collective.
“Nini!” Miss Jenn scolded, all she could muster from the shock.
With a dark laugh, Ricky turned back to his girlfriend. “Uh, did you forget you literally got wrote in to Beauty and the Beast? And wrote your own song?”
She rolled her eyes when he started speaking, and had already stood up by the end of his sentence. “Okay, I came here to choose the show, and it’s been chosen. I’m gonna go. See you all at auditions.” Nini stated.
“Bye…” Kourtney sang awkwardly, not knowing exactly how to react. Not that anyone else had a better idea.
Taking a few quick steps forward, Miss Jenn called after her, “Nini, wait! The next hour is for audition practice! You don’t want to be unprepared!” The sound of footsteps disappearing into silence said Nini wasn’t concerned. Returning a little shell shocked, Miss Jenn put on a brave face and beamed, “Okay! Not the best start, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t get to work! Now…”
As she furiously flicked through the Wikipedia article for ‘Bare’, trying to work out what ones had ‘audition song energy’ from the titles, Miss Jenn gave one of her signature flighty pep talks, while the cast looked around in quiet discomfort.
All but E.J. His eyes rested on Ricky without him realising, and refused to tear away. The nervous shake of his leg was sending tremors through his body, and even from a few rows back, E.J. could tell every muscle in his body was as tight as it had ever been. It was odd. Usually when he looked at Ricky, he felt bemusement, maybe a lingering frustration from their sophomore feud over Troy. But right now, he couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy. He’d just pissed off the entire Drama club, because he was frankly too dim to not do so every few weeks, and recently he couldn’t stop pissing off Nini either. It bugged E.J. how sad he looked most of the time now. He couldn’t even remember the last time he saw him goofing off with Big Red. He was all sad eyes and girlfriend troubles now.
The quick succession of claps that said Miss Jenn was done speaking brought his eyes back to the front. He looked around him to see people already moving, either to partner up, or to gather around phones and look up what the hell this play was even about. “What was that part you said I’d be good for?” Ashlyn asked, plugging in her earphones.
E.J. smiled at her. “Nadia. You go in there with ‘Plain Jane Fatass’, you’re a shoo-in.” he said, before noting her hesitation. “It’s just a song.” He promised.
“Well, thanks.” She laughed, putting her earbuds in. “Guess I better get learning.” Immediately, her lips started moving along with the song a few words behind. Looking back in front of him, E.J. noticed that Ricky still hadn’t moved, but Miss Jenn was having a quiet word with him. Her face was stern, but the gentle hand on his arm said it wasn’t a strict reprimand. When she moved away, Ricky’s head dropped again. For some reason, it tugged something inside E.J.’s chest.
Without thinking much, he took a few steps down and sat next to Ricky. He hesitated a little when he realised he was so close their thighs were pressed together, but Ricky didn’t move. Just looked up at him with quiet confusion. So he stayed where he was. “Look, I get it, okay? It came out all wrong, I-“ Ricky hissed, trying to sound assertive, but the shake in his voice betrayed him.
Luckily, E.J. found it in him to spare the embarrassment and interrupt. “I’m not here to yell at you.” That seemed to calm him enough that he shut up for a minute. “I… Kind of want to help you.”
Ricky looked as confused by E.J.’s words as he felt saying them. “Okay. That’s… Why, exactly?”
Figuring it out as he went, E.J. just decided to talk until he found a reason that made sense, hoping he could explain it to himself as well. “Look, I’m not stupid. Obviously, things have been kind of tough the past few months. I know we didn’t get off to the best start, but you seem like you could use a friend. And no offence, being sad kind of makes you an asshole.”
The other man’s face was a picture of offence, with a dash of hurt. E.J. found it kind of funny, but he regretted it as soon as he said it. “Okay, if it's being sad that makes me an asshole, what's your excuse? And what do you mean I need a friend? I have Big Red, I have…” he thought for a moment, then quickly trailed off.
“Exactly.” E.J. replied, to a roll of Ricky’s eyes.
“Well, who says I need you?”
“No one. But you do need to start winning this club back over, or your last show at this school is gonna suck.” E.J. reasoned.
The way Ricky’s head swayed side to side slightly as he chewed his bottom lip said the truth of E.J.’s words were setting in. Finally, he sighed. “Fine. What’s your plan?”
“Well…” E.J. hummed, trying to figure it out himself, before a light went off on his head. “Let’s work backwards. Your newest problem is you look like kind of a homophobe.”
Ricky threw his hands into his lap. “But I’m not-“
“I believe you.” E.J. calmed assertively. “But Seb and Carlos? They’ve gotten shit for being gay since before any of us even knew what that was. You start sounding like all the other assholes they’ve had to deal with, that’s a hard thing to come back from.”
“Is the solution coming any time soon?” Ricky hurried, blinking a little too hard. E.J. narrowed his eyes. Was Ricky seriously tearing up?
A little exasperated, but already committed to being nice, E.J. placed a hand on Ricky’s shoulder. He shied away from it a little, but not enough that E.J. got a signal to move it. “Look. All you have to do is prove you’re not scared of boy cooties. You do a convincing audition as one of the leads, they see you’re not some macho douche faking nice for the sake of theatre, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll buy an apology.”
As he spoke it into existence, E.J. commended himself. It wasn’t the worst plan hatched in that rehearsal room. Ricky, however, looked less than convinced. “Seriously? Why is singing the solution to every problem here?”
E.J. found himself laughing slightly at that. Ricky took a moment to laugh back, as if only just now figuring out he made a joke. “Maybe it’s not.” E.J. admitted. “But it’s worked before, and do you really have much of a choice?”
Turning to him, Ricky gave a sly smile that E.J. couldn’t help but find sweet. Which concerned him, slightly. “You know, if you just wanted an audition partner, this was a real manipulative way to go about it.” He joked.
Once he breathed a quick laugh, mostly for Ricky’s benefit, E.J. removed his hand from the other boy’s shoulder. He thought he saw Ricky’s fingers lift towards his, but they dropped hastily, and E.J. wrote it off as instinct. “Hey, it’s a win-win. Especially for you, because I know this musical pretty well.” E.J. bragged, unsure why he felt a need to impress him.
“Who should I go for then?” Ricky asked, whatever tears he was fighting earlier now firmly gone. He even turned towards him, sitting a little straighter, like the muscles were slowly coming unwound in his back.
E.J. thought for a moment, then nodded with certainty. “Jason. He’s the popular one, stuck in the closet, dating a girl for show, but the whole time he’s in love with Peter. Of course, with my height and- well, I’ll be kind, equally good looks, I’d be good at Jason, but I think I’m ready for the challenge of a character like Peter…” The words fell away when E.J. climbed out from his thought bubble to see Ricky back to staring at the ground, falling into himself. “No, I’m- come on, man. You’ll be a great Jason. It fits you perfectly.”
“No, it-“ he snapped suddenly. E.J. recoiled a little, but calmed when he saw the surprise in Ricky’s eyes at his outburst. “I’m sorry, I- thank you. Sounds good. What song should we do?”
That was something E.J. barely had to think about. “Bare. Title track, great duet, very intense. Perfect for getting really close and showing everyone that Ricky Bowen is an ally.” he answered succinctly. “You want to start practicing now, or-“
There was no time to finish his sentence before Ricky stood and slung his backpack onto his shoulders. “Actually, I gotta go. My dad’s working late tonight, so I’m making dinner, and I have to talk with Miss Jenn before I go, and… Whoa, can she talk.” He laughed, but it was a nervous laugh. It intrigued E.J., though he was nowhere near close enough to Ricky to ask about it. “Start rehearsing tomorrow?” he offered, already stepping away.
“Uh… yeah, make sure-“
“Sweet, thanks! See you later man.”
“Make sure you learn the harmonies!” E.J. called as Ricky gave a little salute in response, then paced over to Miss Jenn and sat down.
Just like before, E.J. had a hard time prying his eyes from Ricky. He didn’t look at his phone as he plugged in his earbuds, or as he typed the song into Spotify. He stared straight at Ricky. Nowhere in particular, not his eyes, his nose, his hair. Just him. All of him. He was having trouble figuring out why, but it seemed almost like Ricky was struggling not to look back. The way his eyes always threatened to look in his direction while his bottom lip disappeared between his teeth said he was fighting the urge to meet his stare.
Which meant he was controlling himself better than E.J.
He couldn’t have that.
Actively jutting his head down to the screen, E.J. made the choice to ignore whatever was drawing his focus into Ricky today, and looked at the Spotify search bar. Where he’d just realised he typed total gibberish.
He erased it, punched in the right letters, and turned his focus to the music. Yes, he was committed to helping Ricky, maybe for good karma, maybe because he knew they’d be an attractive onstage couple, but it was also his last show. For Ricky, this audition was a show of good faith, and a step back onto a good path. For him, it was his last chance to play a lead in High School, his last hurrah, and it was a show he knew well. He had to focus just as hard on himself, or he knew he'd regret it.
Why waste time focusing on Ricky anyway?