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1: The sweatshirt
The first ray of sunshine that lights up the Caswell’s house every morning comes in from the living room window. And today it comes in right into Gina’s eyes.
The girl grunts and stretches her legs, rolling over on her back. The last thing she remembers is watching a movie on the couch with EJ after their ‘Duke talk’. She doesn’t remember ever finishing the movie. She must have fallen asleep.
She stretches her arms out and sits up, and that’s when something falls off of her upper body.
The light in the living room is very dim and her eyes are still groggy, so she can’t really make out what it is exactly, but then she smells a comforting scent. It smells like nutmeg and vanilla.
It’s EJ’s cologne. She adds up and realizes the thing draped over her is his Duke sweatshirt. Gina smiles.
She grabs the sweatshirt and gets up, grabbing her phone from the coffee table only to realize it ran out of charge overnight. She glances at the clock hanging on the living room walls: it reads 5:45. She has to be at school for the morning show by 7:30 and she usually sleeps in until 6:15, but it’s pointless to go back to sleep now.
She quickly runs up to her room, plugs her phone charger in and folds EJ’s sweatshirt, placing it on her bed. Then she slowly starts getting ready: she splashes her face with some water and brushes her teeth, then sits down to do some light makeup for school. She picks an outfit to wear and then throws her hair up in a bun.
All of this while being unable to stop thinking about the blue sweatshirt folded on her bed. She can still smell its comforting scent on her skin. Just some time ago she was talking to Ricky about sweet gestures. And if EJ covering her up with his sweatshirt and turning off the lights and the tv for her isn’t a sweet gesture, she doesn’t know how else to define it.
Once she’s finished fighting with the messy curls on her head, she picks up her phone to look at the time. It’s 6:50: EJ should be awake by now. She quickly types a message.
Good morning Eej :) Sorry I fell asleep last night, I promise we’ll finish that movie some other day.
And thanks for the sweatshirt, I’ll bring it back to you at school
The response arrives just a few seconds later.
I’m counting on it, Porter. Falling asleep during The Greatest Showman is an actual felony. You could get arrested.
And don’t worry about the sweatshirt. Keep it :)
The girl glances at the hoodie on her bed and smiles.
Alright, thanks <3 See you in a while, co-anchor
Later <3
2: The granola bar
She should have eaten a mid-afternoon snack. Gina knows it the moment she starts seeing black dots in her field of vision. She stops pirouetting and shuts her eyes, taking in a big breath.
“Gina, are you okay?” Miss Jenn asks.
The girl opens her eyes, hoping that the black dots will be gone. Of course they’re not. On the contrary, they’re intensifying. She waves her hand around, looking for something of someone to hold on to, to avoid dropping dead on the ground.
“No, not really” she admits.
She feels someone behind her, sustaining her, and she allows herself to sink into them a little bit. Then she smells the familiar nutmeg and vanilla cologne.
“I’ll take her to the nurse” EJ says. She can her his voice vibrate against her back.
She weakly shakes her head. “No need” she replies. “I’ll just need a minute outside. And something sugary” she explains.
“You sure?” EJ asks, his tone revealing a note of concern in his voice.
Gina nods. There are some seconds of silence before the teacher takes the decision to indulge the girl’s wish and allows EJ to accompany her out.
She spaces out during the time that takes EJ to literally drag her out of the rehearsal room. Once they’re in the hallway, the strong scent of detergent hits her nostrils like a wave. At least she’ll lie down on a clean floor, she thinks.
EJ keeps sustaining her as she lies on the ground, keeping her legs up against the wall. She hears the boy moving around and when she manages to focus her vision again she sees him open all the windows he could possibly reach to let some fresh air.
“Eej” she calls him. He stops and turns around to her right away. “Just come here” she says.
The boy stops what he’s doing, comes back to where Gina is lying and sits down on the ground next to her.
“I’m already feeling better” she reassures him. It’s the truth. She can feel the difference between the thin air in the rehearsal room and the fresh air she’s filling her lungs with right now.
He lightly places a hand on her hair, inviting her to lift her head and - as she does so - he slides closer, placing her head on his leg.
“You scared the crap out of me” he confesses. “What happened?”
“I forgot to eat a snack before rehearsal” she explains. “And between dance practice and the thin air in that room my blood sugar dropped. It happened to me before, I know how to handle it.”
He nods, then reaches for something next to him on the floor and only now does Gina realize that he grabbed his backpack before getting out of the rehearsal room. He hands her his bottle of water and helps her drink some of it. Then pours some water on his hand and tap his wet fingers on her wrists.
She shoots him a confused look.
“Don’t ask, okay? My mom says it help” he justifies himself.
She chuckles and nods. “Okay. Thanks.”
EJ reaches for his backpack once again and this time it takes him longer to find whatever he’s looking for, but he finds it in the end. He hands her a granola bar.
She angles her head to give him a surprised look.
“Why do you have a granola bar in your backpack?” she asks. “You don’t even like granola bars!”
He shrugs. “I might have packed some extra ones when I came to pick you up at the airport” he explains. “I never took them out of my backpack.” As he says so, he takes the bar back and unwraps it for her, cracks a small bite of it and hands it back to her. “Now eat” he orders.
“Okay, Mom” she jokes, then she takes the bite and eats it.
They continue like this for some time - EJ chopping up the bar in small bites and Gina eating what he hands her.
“Better now?” he asks.
She nods. “Sorry you’re missing rehearsal because of me” she adds.
He shrugs, brushing a curl out of her face. “I wasn’t doing much, anyways” he replies, lightly caressing her hair.
The rehearsal room door opens suddenly and EJ retracts his hand from her hair.
“Hey” someone says. It’s Nini, one hand resting on the half-open door as she leans out in the hallway. “Gina, you okay? Miss Jenn was getting worried” she asks.
Gina, her head still resting on EJ’s leg, angles herself so she can look at the other girl.
“I’m okay, thanks” she reassures her. “We’ll be a minute.”
Nini nods, gives them a last glance and then goes back inside.
“We’ll be a minute only if you can get up without fainting on me again” EJ warns her, as she’s already sliding her legs down from the wall.
She giggles. “Let’s try, but I’m pretty sure I’m okay” she replies.
Gina sits up and EJ jumps up on his feet, helping her up slowly and not letting go of her hands even when she’s standing steadily on her feet.
“What were you doing on scene, anyways?” she asks. She’s only now realizing that, when she started feeling not so well, they were rehearsing 'Be Our Guest', so Gaston wasn’t even on scene.
He shrugs. “I noticed something was wrong when you stopped mid-pirouette. Gina Porter never stops randomly in the middle of a choreography, let alone a pirouette” he explains, like it’s not a big deal.
But it is a big deal. If the sweatshirt was a sweet gesture, this is… she can’t even think about a way to define it. It’s like a romcom-level-sweet gesture.
He squeezes one of her hands, bringing her back to reality. “Ready to go back in?”
3: The band aid
“Please, be careful with those trees! We don’t want any more injuries!”
And in the exact moment Miss Jenn says these words, either Seb, EJ or Kourt loose their grip the giant wooden tree they’re moving together with Gina and the dancer finds herself having to balance much more weight than anticipated. The wooden structure slips from her hand and one of its side slides painfully on the girl’s finger.
“Ouch” she complains.
She feels the eyes of all the cast and crew turns her way. She raises her gaze from her hands to the rest of the crew and notices the panicked look on Miss Jenn’s face.
After the Ricky-Ashlyn incident a couple of weeks ago the teacher has been a little bit on edge, to say the least.
“No worries” Gina quickly reassures everyone. “Just a cut. I’ll run to the nurse to get the splinters out and I’ll be back in no time” she adds, walking to the doors.
She already has hand on the handle when she hears some steps running behind her.
“I’ll go with her. To make sure everything’s fine.”
It’s EJ. Of course. It’s not that she was full-on expecting him to follow her to the nurse to make sure that the two splinters in her finger don’t kill her, but she is definitely not surprised that he’s decided to do it.
The others start complaining about the boy leaving for no valid reason at all, but the two have already closed the theatre door.
“Here” EJ says, giving Gina a tissue paper to wrap around her bleeding finger.
“Thank you” she quietly says, taking it. “You didn’t have to tag along, you know that, right?”
EJ shrugs. “I know” he replies. “I just wanted to” he adds, giving her a smile.
She grins too. They remain silent until they arrive in front of the infirmary, which - on the contrary - is all but quiet.
The room is full of whining cheerleaders. Three of them are lying on the cots, the others are either sitting on chairs or on the floor, or just standing against the wall. The poor nurse Campbell is racing between the girls, trying to keep up with all of them. When she sees Gina and EJ walking through the door, she pales and widens her eyes.
“We’re in the middle of a failed pyramid emergency” the nurse explains. “You have nothing bad going on right? Right?”
The thespians quickly shake their heads.
“I cut my finger while setting up the stage” Gina explains. “I just need to get some splinters out and put a band aid on it.”
EJ takes a step forwards. “If you give me what I need, I could take care of it” he offers.
Gina tries to tell him that he doesn’t need to, that she could probably do it in her own, but the nurse has already agreed to EJ’s proposal and has given him a small tray with a pair of tweezers, some gauzes and a bottle of disinfectant.
“You can go by that desk over there” the nurse instructs, pointing to a desk in the corner of the room. “The band aids are in that cabinet next to it” she adds, before going back to the cheerleaders.
EJ leads the way, placing the tray down on the desk leaving enough space for Gina to sit on the table. She unwraps the tissue paper from her finger, letting EJ take her hand and examine the small wound.
“Just two splinters, they’ll be out in no time” he states, but all Gina can think about is the overwhelming sensation of warmth that his skin touching hers makes her feel.
She stares at him while he takes the splinters out with the tweezers, mesmerized by the way he squints to see better, by the small creases that appear on his forehead as he frowns in concentration and by the light but steady way he hold her hand in his. And, adding up to all of this, all she can smell - even more than the sweat coming off of her clothes or odor of disinfectant that always pervades the infirmary - is his cologne.
“There you go” EJ says, holding up with the tweezers the last splinter he’s taken out of her finger.
He puts it down on the trey, together with the tweezers, and takes the bottle of disinfectant, opening and pouring some on the gauze. He goes back to holding her hand and lightly dabs the gauze on the wound, to clean it. Then he opens the cabinet and smiles at the wide range of band aids the school’s infirmary offers.
“Do you prefer the bland classic ones, the Marvel themed ones or the… HSM themed ones?” he asks, holding up the three boxes with an amused grin.
Gina bursts out laughing, barely even holding in a snort.
“Is that even a question, fellow Wonderstudy?”
EJ laughs too, taking an HSM band aid and then putting all three boxes back in the cabinet. He opens the band aid and places on her finger. Troy and Gabriella smile proudly on the plaster, reminding Gina of how she and the boy in front of her met.
“Thank you” Gina says as he slides his fingers on the band aid to secure it in her skin. “Now I’ll always expect you to swoop in and save me every time I need it” she jokes.
He raises his gaze from her hand to meet her eyes.
“I’ll gladly swoop in anytime” he replies, his voice lower and almost hoarse.
He doesn’t let go of her hand - on the contrary, he tightens his hold on it. As she gets lost in his green eyes, she absentmindedly brush her thumb on his skin.
“Hey, finger cut! All good?” the nurse asks from the other side of the room, shattering the atmosphere.
Their hands slip away from each other and EJ turns around, assuring the woman that they’re good and they’ll be out shortly. Then he turns back to Gina and smiles at her, inviting her to exit the room. As they do so, their hands brush against each other, making the flutter in Gina’s stomach more and more intense.
It wasn’t the appropriate time and place anyways to have a moment, Gina tells herself. After all, they’re going on a date in two days time, after opening night.
4: The spiky ball
The clock reads 7 minutes and 51 seconds and the scoreboard reads a 9-9 draw. The high school state championship standing speaks for itself: if the match ends in a draw, North High is new new state champion. If East High scores and wins, they’re the new state champions. 9 seconds to determine it.
Gina keeps her eyes on the swimming cap number 14. The captain of the East High water polo team is surrounded by four members of the opposing team, all aiming at stopping him from scoring the crucial point.
“C’mon, Eej! You got this!” Gina screams from her spot on the bleachers.
Almost as if he heard her, he catches the ball. The opposing number 5 grabs EJ’s shoulder in a way that - even Gina who knows nothing about water polo gets it - it should definitely be sanctioned by the referee, who remains silent to let East High finish their action.
The clock reads 7 minutes and 54 seconds. Everybody on the bleachers, Gina included, is now standing up. She’s incredibly hot in her - EJ’s - East High water polo jacket, but there’s now way she’s taking it off. She takes a deep breath, inhaling the familiar scent coming off of the fabric.
The clock reads 7 minutes and 56 seconds and EJ throws the ball. The goalkeeper denies his shot, but EJ somehow manages to catch the ball once again. Gina’s heart has never beaten this fast, not even when she and the water polo team captain left their table hand in hand after their first date a couple of days ago.
EJ looks for a spot where he can throw the ball. Then he shoots. The goalkeeper misses it. The ball hits the net.
The clock reads 8 minutes and 1 second and the scoreboard reads 10-9. The East High School water polo team is the new state champion. Gina jumps and screams and celebrates with her friends on the bleachers, then when the crowd calms down a little bit she glances at the pool. The teams are out of the water and the East High team is currently throwing its captain in the air. When they put him down, EJ immediately looks for someone in the crowd.
When his eyes meet Gina’s, his shoulders relax and a warm smile pervades his face. The rest of the room disappears, Gina can’t even hear the roar of the crowd, the cheers, the claps. It’s just the boy standing by the pool, smiling at her, a towel draped on his shoulders, hair wet and messy and eyes fixed on hers.
Then some of his teammates pat him on the shoulder and the dreamy look on his face turns into a grimace as he winces in pain. The girl frowns. Is he hurt? He quickly makes the grimace disappear, giving Gina a reassuring look, and nods with his hand, inviting her to come down.
She follows Ashlyn and Big Red down the bleachers as EJ leaves his team behind to greet his friends.
“Cuz!” Ashlyn squeals, hugging her cousin even if he’s very wet. “You are the absolute goat!”
Gina melts at the sight of her two favorite cousins hugging. But mostly - she has to admit it - at the sight of EJ radiating happiness. He exchanges a high five with Big Red, then before she can even think about what to say he’s wrapping his wet arms around her. She feels his muscles flex around her and she think she might just pass out. She hugs him too, already feeling the sleeves of her - his - jacket starting to get wet.
“Ash’s right, you’re incredible” she tells his as the pull apart.
EJ smiles. “Couldn’t have done it without the rest of the team” he downplays. “And the right support” he adds, staring right into her eyes.
Gina is lost so deep into his green eyes that she barely feels Ashlyn’s hand on her shoulder.
“Alright, we’re gonna leave you to your 'Now Or Never' moment, lovebirds. See you outside!” the redhead laughs, the she and her boyfriend walk away.
Another one of EJ’s teammates swings past them, giving him a pat on his shoulder, and he winces in pain once again.
“Hey, you did that earlier, too” Gina noticed. “Are you injured? I noticed one of the bad guys hit you pretty bad at the end of the game.”
He waves a hand. “Eh, I’m sure it’s nothing. It will go away with a hot shower” he minimizes. But Gina is not completely convinced. He reaches out and touches her arms with hand. “If it doesn’t go away I’ll have someone get a look at it, okay?” he assures.
Gina gives him a soft smile and nods. “Okay.”
EJ’s hand slides down from her arm to her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. She thinks he’s about to take leave to go shower, but that’s when the team captain of North High shows up. Same as EJ, he’s in his swimming costume, with a towel in his hands, and his hair is wet.
“Caswell!” he greets. He exchanges a high five with EJ. “Just wanted to compliment you, man. You were great in there.”
EJ smiles. “Thanks, Brooks. You guys were great, too” he replies.
“I would have scored the winning point too if I had a girlfriend like this cheering for me on the bleachers” the other adds, giving Gina a knowing look.
She and EJ exchange a look. Instead of letting go of her hand, he tightens his hold. They’ve fake dated before; they’ve always felt comfortable and thought of it mostly as a joke. But now it doesn’t feel like a joke. It doesn’t even feel fake at all. They smile, still staring at each other.
“Yeah” EJ quietly says.
Brooks says goodbyes and goes back to his teammates. Gina strokes the back of EJ’s hand with her thumb.
“Go have a shower. We’ll wait outside” she tells him. Then she reluctantly lets go of his hand and walks away.
“I’ll call it a night, guys” Ashlyn says.
She, Gina and EJ have gone back to her house after the match, a quiet movie night just the three of them. The redhead gets up from the couch and waves goodnight to her cousin and her best friend before going upstairs.
From her spot at one end of the couch, Gina scoots to center of it, closer to EJ.
“You never told me if the hot shower helped with the shoulder pain” she reminds him.
EJ chuckles and shakes his head. “Sorry, Mom” he jokes. “It helped a little, but not that much. I had coach Norton give a look at it but he says it’s just a small contraction” he then explains, instinctively touching said shoulder with the opposite hand.
“Contraction, huh?” Gina asks. EJ nods. “Then I might have just the thing for it” she says, jumping to her feet.
Before he can even say anything, she bolts upstairs to her room and swings her closet open. It takes her a few minutes of digging in one of her boxes to find it, but eventually she does. She grabs her blue spiky ball and goes back downstairs.
She finds EJ in the same exact spot she’s left him, looking towards the stairs. She waves the ball at him to show it off.
“This thing has saved my dancing life countless times” she says, going to sit on the armrest next to EJ instead than on the couch. “You can use it to ease the tension in your muscles. I’m surprised coach Norton didn’t mention this. May I…?”
He nods and turns around, giving her his back. She lightly feels his right shoulder with her fingers and noticed that the muscles are indeed pretty contracted. She starts rolling his muscles with the spiky ball, not too hard but not too light either.
“Does it hurt?” she asks.
He tilts his head. “A little bit. But it’s a good hurt” he says. “I’m literally feeling the muscle relax” he adds.
Gina grins. She keeps on rolling the muscle until she can feel it loosen up. Then, when she asks EJ to move his shoulder around, he actually manages to do it almost pain-free. He scoots over on the couch, leaving enough space for Gina to slide down from the armrest and sit next to him. She doesn’t know if it’s because he miscalculated the space he wanted to leave her or because he did it on purpose, but they’re sitting much closer than they’ve ever done before. Their legs are completely pressed against each other, as are their shoulders. Either way, Gina doesn’t mind it. On the contrary, she loves it. And EJ doesn’t seem to mind it, either, since he doesn’t move away.
“Thanks” EJ says. “That thing is a miracle worker.”
Gina lets the spiky ball fall on his lap. “Keep it” she replies. “I have, like, a thousand of them.”
He grabs the ball, smiling as he looks at it. Gina feels like doing something bold, so she shifts on the couch so that her back is pressed against the armrest and she drapes one leg over EJ’s. He raises his eyes to look into hers, the smile now directed at her. The intoxicating scent of his cologne that she always loves smelling when she’s around him is now mixed with the stinging odor of chlorine that his skin has from spending more than an hour in the pool.
“So, the fake dating saga continues” he comments, smirking, while he fidgets with the spiky ball in his hands. Gina laughs. “By now, it seems like it’s unstoppable.”
She’s already done something bold, she reminds herself looking at her leg swinging over his. But she feels like doing more. Maybe it’s the adrenaline she accumulated during the game, or maybe it’s the constant flutter she feels in her stomach whenever EJ is around. Whatever it is, she speaks up.
“Maybe, at this point, we should just stop faking it” she says. And it’s the boldest thing she’s ever said in her life.
For a moment she thinks she’s exaggerated, because EJ doesn’t say anything right away. But then he raises his gaze from their joined legs and smirks.
“Does this mean that I can kiss you?” he asks.
Gina’s heart starts beating so fast that she fears the boy in front of her might be able to actually hear it thumping against her ribcage.
“Yes” she whispers.
He drops the ball behind him on the couch and takes her chin between his index and thumb, gently lifting her head up as he rests his other hand on her knee. She tugs him closer, clinging at the hems of his jacket and closing the distance between the two of them. When their lips crash together into the most delicate first kiss Gina could have ever imagined, she’s definitely sure he can hear her heart trying to escape from her chest. She prays with all her strengths that Ashlyn or her parents don’t randomly come down the stairs now, because if someone interrupts this moment, she could actually commit murder.
They pull apart after a few seconds, EJ sliding his fingers up from her chin to her cheek.
“So, it’s settled” he states, his voice low and soft. “No more faking.”
Gina smiles as she leans her cheek more on his warm and callous hand. “No more faking.”