Archive of Our Own ^beta

Ricky didn’t see Gina coming.

Not when he stumbled into that HSM audition, not in the skatepark. Not in his car on the way home from homecoming and not when he showed up to Shallow Lake, guitar in hand.

Definitely didn’t tonight, not now, walking out of the barn during camp prom.

“Oh!”

“Ricky— I’m—“

“So, so, sorry—“

They both wobble on their feet a second after the collision, her bag tumbling to the floor in the process.

“No, not your fault, my mind is…” Gina’s sentence peters out as she shakes her head, regains her footing.

“Still, I should have been looking where I was going, I’m really sorry about your—“ he gestures to her spilled bag at their feet.

Gina tries to wave him off and crouches down, “I don’t even know why I’m carrying this. Not like I have a phone to keep with me!”

“Nah, everyone has to carry their all important…” Ricky bends down to meet her, picks up a… “Toothpaste?”

He bites his lip to keep from laughing, and she looks up from the floor to glare at him, grinning, “You never know.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You were thinking it.”

He shrugs, hands the small tube of toothpaste back to her, along with a few other random items that clearly were packed just to fill up the bag. He knows Gina well enough by now to know when she’s nervous, she likes to have something to do with her hands. Like carrying a bag. He hands over the mini flashlight and the plastic fork from the dining hall without another word.

“I’m thinking many things, Gi, and I promise you none have to do with toothpaste.”

She takes the hand he offers to help pull herself up back to standing, once her items are collected and bag secured under her arm once again, “Didn’t know you were capable of more than one thought at a time?”

“Very funny,” he attempts sarcasm, but is hit with the weight of how good it feels that it has actually made her laugh.

“Are you thinking about missing Carlos’s performance?” Gina gestures behind her, into the barn she just left and Ricky had been trying to walk back into, “Because I think there’ll be some more bitch slaps in your future if you do.”

Ricky gasps dramatically and throws a hand over Gina’s mouth, “You can’t say that when Channing isn’t around to bleep you out, Gi!”

She giggles behind his palm before removing his hand and swinging it back to him with a playful force, “Carlos is setting up something quite elaborate in there that I don’t know how you’re dodging, bro.”

Ricky rolls his eyes affectionately.

“Looks like you’re dodging it too, Anna,” he says pointedly.

“No, I’m not,” she crosses her arms over her chest.

“Really? Because it looks like you’ve come out here to ask me for a ride home from a dance…”

“Does your ugly orange car know the way to the Honeycomb?”

After a beat he shrugs, “Honestly no, this place is still a maze to me.”

“You did get lost on the way home from homecoming, even though I was giving clear directions—“

“I did not!”

“—So I guess history was bound to repeat itself eventually,” she shrugs.

Ricky’s laughter mellows out, and he says softly, “Seriously though, you wanna walk home?”

She smiles sweetly and shakes her head, “Nah, I’m okay, just needed some air. Some disco music-less air.”

“Understandable,” Ricky nods, takes a seat on the bench by the barn door, pats the spot beside him gesturing for Gina to join him.

She looks at him, head tilted, “Don’t you have to get back inside?”

“It can wait.”

She sighs heavily, and with a shy smile, sits down next to him, places her bag on the other side, “I have a really horrible track record with dances, huh?”

“Look who you’re talking to.”

“Don’t try to turn back into angry skater boy all of a sudden,” Gina hums, “You’re only out here because of me.”

“That’s not true,” Ricky says, slipping a hand into his pocket, “I actually had important business to attend to.” He holds his folded up bucket list between them.

She smiles widely, “Oh my gosh, what’d you do? The hot dogs?”

He shakes his head.

“The ghost of Susan Fine finally came for revenge on her Twizzlers?” she asks in a bellowing voice Ricky thinks is supposed to be scary. He nudges her shoulder out of the way.

“Try all of them,” he says emphatically, unfolding the list in front of them.

Gina turns to him stunned, “You finished?”

“Yeah, well I mean,” Ricky starts, “Mostly. Turns out you can’t play the lotto until you’re actually 18, so I gotta do that when I get home, but yeah. Besides that… and one other, everything else is completed. A day before I’m 18.”

“Okay, I’m seriously impressed, Ricky,” she says, squeezing his knee and looking over the list, “Congrats, birthday boy.”

“Thanks,” he smiles.

“Hold on, wait—so, does this mean—” she points to one item on the list, ‘say yes to something that scares you’, which is the only thing other than the lotto that hasn’t been crossed off, “You finally admit? Lily is scary?”

Ricky rolls his eyes at Gina’s bubbling laughter.

“We were all afraid, praying for your safe return from the jet skis!” she teases dramatically.

“You know, that joke doesn’t get funnier the more you repeat it!”

“Sorry, sorry,” she waves away her laughter, but a smile is still on her face as she turns to him, “You know I’m only joking right?”

He turns to face her too, before she continues.

“If she made you happy—“

“She didn’t.”

Gina goes silent at his sudden interjection. He expression contorts into something confused, “No?”

“Is that surprising?” Ricky shrugs, hoping to dissipate the sudden tension, “Do I look like someone who gets along with evil, lying, stealing people?”

“No, no,” she shakes her head, “It’s just— you looked really happy these past two weeks. That’s all.”

“Well, I didn’t spend these past two weeks with her,” he looks up at Gina gently. Her eyes meet his, wide, vulnerable, probing. He tries to laugh it off, “Yeah, don’t think too hard about that one.”

She looks back down at her lap, obviously thinking pretty hard about it.

After a beat she picks up, “So that’s the other one you’re waiting to still check off?”

He nods, “Although, I dunno, making reindeer voices for an internationally streaming documentary-series should probably count for something scary…”

“Nah, you can’t use that any more,” she bumps her shoulder into his, “You’re a theater kid now.”

“Right, remind me of that when I’m sweating bullets tomorrow in the wings.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re all gonna be sweating tomorrow, and it’ll have nothing to do with nerves and entirely to do with this heinous California summer drought.”

“I seriously need to know whose idea it was for us to do a show about snow in this kind of heat,” Ricky commiserates with a laugh.

“Channing, probably,” Gina says, “He’s got a dark past.”

“Loves torturing innocent children!”

“Hm, I think that’s Carlos,” Gina quirks, “Poor Alex and Emmy are still recovering.”

“So am I, honestly,” Ricky shakes his head, “Maybe we’ll get lucky and our show will bring in a blizzard tomorrow.”

Gina gapes at him, “I’m gonna suggest you a stick to theater, Ricky.”

“I’m serious! This kinda heat with not even a drop of rain in the whole two weeks?” Ricky gawks right back at her, “Has to be illegal.”

“You can take the boy out of Salt Lake…”

“You’re gonna tell me you wouldn’t kill for a little rainstorm right now?”

She seems to ponder it, “I could use some lightning.”

“That bad?”

She shrugs, swings her feet and the heels of her shoes click against the floorboards.

There isn’t a single thing Ricky wouldn’t do to make this raincloud above Gina’s head go away, no matter how badly he’s wishing for a little rain to cool off this heat wave. He means it, anything. Like, he’d even talk about EJ in a positive light if it’d cheer her up.

So he offers, “You wanna talk about it?”

She is quiet for a moment, before she switches gears, “I wanna know what’s making you wish for rain so badly. Is it on your list somewhere?”

She giggles as she leans over to try to grab his list away from him, like she had last week. And again, like last time, it makes his stomach swoop in such an embarrassing, distracting way that she gets hold of it too easily.

“Hey!”

“You make it way too easy!”

“Give it—“ he leans across her to try to grab the list back, and it’s even more dizzying this way, sitting next to each other, leaning into her space like it’s nothing, “There’s nothing about rain on there, I promise. I’m just hot!”

Her eyebrows jump up adorably before a giggle over takes her, and she leaves him and his bright red cheeks so she can scan the list again.

Yeah, Ricky’s never getting it back.

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say it, you did,” she giggles again, eyes on the list, “Oh, are you a secret romantic, Ricky Bowen?”

“What?”

“First kiss…” she drawls teasingly, “In the rain!”

“No, no, that’s not what it says—“

“It should say that, because it’s adorable and romantic.”

“I wrote this list when I was seven, Gina.”

“I don’t completely buy that your flair for the dramatic only started last fall.”

“It just says first kiss, and it’s crossed off, because I’ve had a first kiss,” he points, and isn’t sure why he adds, “So have you.”

Gina seems undeterred by it though, still pressed next to him shoulder to shoulder, and smiling down at the paper in her lap, “If I had a list, it would say first kiss in the rain.”

“Really? Miss I don’t do dates?”

“I’m full of surprises.”

“Also we’re completely getting off track, you’re supposed to be congratulating me on almost finishing—“

“Right, we have to come up with something scary!”

“That’s not—“

“Wanna go for a walk in the woods again?”

“And risk losing our leading lady to the shrine ghosts the day before we open? No thank you.”

“Oh I get it, you’re afraid of rainstorms! That’s why you wanted—“

“That’s completely false.”

“I don’t think it’s gonna rain for you tomorrow so we’ll have to settle,” Gina hums, thoughtful, “You wanna tell me a secret?”

“Tell you a secret?”

“Say yes to something that scares you,” she reads back, “What’s scarier than telling me something you’ve never told anyone else?”

“I mean, I guess, but it’s you,” Ricky shrugs, turning to face her, “The things it would be scary to say to most people wouldn’t be scary to say to you, you know?”

She nods.

“Besides, you have long since stopped scaring me.”

Gina looks at him, long and thoughtful.

Camp prom has been a wild experience, start to present, with plenty of their East High friends showing up and bursting the Shallow Lake bubble, in an exciting way. Big Red met Jet and Ricky was in a conga line with Maddox’s ex (?) girlfriend. They danced a lot and sang quirky disco music to be on theme and it had made the stress of the impending life changing TV musical tomorrow feel a little less… life changing?

But Gina spends a few more seconds looking at him like that and he thinks maybe the night of fun hasn’t had the same effect on her. Her mind has been somewhere else since the minute he bumped into her storming out of the barn, and he so desperately wants to fix it for her.

This is her big night. She should be in there celebrating, dancing with her best friends and singing along to songs they don’t know (with Carlos approved protected show voices) and laughing so hard you spill punch on your white shirt one too many times (okay, that last one could have just been a Ricky problem.)

Ricky would never complain about anything that gets Gina to be sitting beside him, but he knows this isn’t where she should be.

He can’t outright say that if EJ’s the problem, he’s slap him again.

But he can try something that’s always seemed to work for him.

“Again, we’re getting way off track, what happened to congratulating me on completing my bucket list?” Ricky points a finger at the list Gina is still holding, and it crinkles a little with the motion, snapping Gina out of her dazed and downtrodden reverie.

“You didn’t complete them all though…”

“With the exception of 2 things—I have! I actually came out here to check off one so those are the only two left,” Ricky starts, “But, I got out here and realized I have nothing to do that with.”

“Oh you mean you don’t carry a pen with your toothpaste?” Gina grins, as she pulls a pen out of her bag with a flourish.

Ricky makes a show of patting down the front of his jacket, “You know, I think all my pens are sitting in the yurt bathroom.”

“Did Miss Jenn teach you nothing about coming prepared?” She snickers.

“Well, since you’ve got both a minty fresh pen, and somehow still, my list,” Ricky smiles at her, “Would you like to do the honors?”

She kicks the side of his foot with her own, tucks her chin sheepishly, smiling at the list, “Which one am I checking off? Not the lotto, or the scary one…”

“Walk on the moon.”

Gina’s head snaps up abruptly, “I’m sorry, did I sleep through a rocket launch, tonight?”

“Seb taught me how to moonwalk just now,” Ricky nods proudly, “He says it counts.”

“Thats a stretch!”

“It’s the closest I’m gonna get!” Ricky swings his arms out dramatically, and she absently swats the one closets to her away, lets her hand rest on his wrist after returning it to his space.

Gina hums at the list in front of her, “I guess it’s clever…”

“So…” Ricky drawls, makes a check mark with his free hand in the air, not daring to move the other out of her mindless touch.

“Alright, let’s see.”

“Excuse me?”

“I don’t think I can, in good conscience, cross it off the list until I see with my own two eyes that you really can,” she states, “Moonwalk, that is.”

Ricky gapes at her.

Never one to back down from a challenge first, Gina pays no mind to his dumbfound look and simply gestures a hand across the open space of the barn porch in front of her.

The thing is, Seb is just about the nicest person on the planet, Ricky is sure. He way overhyped Ricky’s dancing ability and then some, he knows. And it’s going to be tragic to have to do it in front of Gina.

But it will make her laugh.

He heaves a sigh with two hands on the bench beside him, then stands up dramatically, “Fine, fine, but be nice, please.”

“I thought you weren’t scared of me anymore?” Gina mocks, clapping her hands under her chin excitedly at the prospect of Ricky’s moonwalk.

“I’m not,” Ricky rolls his eyes, endeared to no end at the sight of Gina’s glowing smile, and he hasn’t even made fool of himself yet, “Promise to be nice.”

“I’ll try, but the integrity of the list is on the line here, Ricky!”

“You do recall it’s my list, right?”

She huffs, and gestures him on, “Go ahead.”

He shakes out one last deep breath, and turns to the side, then tries his best to replicate whatever Seb had just taught him. He’s not sure if he can use the word moon walk for the weird sliding thing he’s doing, but not even two seconds after he starts—

“Oh my god!”

Gina’s entire form bubbles over in a burst of laughter.

Mission accomplished.

He shimmies his shoulders with the motion of his attempt at moonwalking, and turns to come back the other way before he gets too far out of Gina’s line of sight, ”Pretty good, right?”

Gina manages to get a sentence out between laughs, “I really wish there were a camera around for this. This is the way the world needs see their Kristoff.”

“Okay, then let’s see what you’ve got, Anna.”

“No, no, no!” Gina’s frantic protests are no deterrent for Ricky, and he stops mid-moonwalk in front of Gina to grab one of her arms and pull her up to standing with him.

She wobbles on her heels for a second, tries to wave him off again, but he’s not letting her get anywhere. He loops one of his arms around hers, linking them together so she has to travel back with him while he butchers another moonwalk attempt.

“I think I’m gonna throw this into a scene tomorrow when you least expect it,” Ricky teases, as Gina’s laughter ripples over his shoulder and heats up his cheeks. She leans into his side and lets him swing and dance her around.

“And I would just have to moonwalk back to you, but better,” she quips, and lets go of his arm to demonstrate, of course, the most perfect moonwalk Ricky has ever seen.

“Get out of here.”

She starts to sing softly and cheekily, “What do you know about love?” And hip checks him when she passes him in her moonwalk.

The Gina that’s here right now, moonwalking to the tune of their Frozen duet, every other breath laced with laughter, is so far removed from the Gina that he bumped into coming out here. This is the Gina he had been desperate to see all night at prom, happy and carefree and silly and wonderful, exactly everything she deserved to be this summer, and all the time, really.

Ricky moonwalks back to her and marvels in the shine of Gina’s smile directed right at him when they pass each other.

“So…” Ricky says, “Check?”

“I don’t know…”

“Are you serious?” Ricky all but yells at her, playfully, “What do you call what we just did?”

“I just moonwalked,” Gina shrugs, “You slid around on the balls of your feet.”

“This is insane, give me that—“ Ricky tries to make along of the list Gina’s got in her hands, but she dodges him.

“I don’t think you earned it!” She giggles, hiding the list behind her back in one hand, the pen in another.

Ricky reaches behind her to try to grab it, gets a hold of her hand and ends up with his body pressed close to hers in the process. Gina giggles again and tries to spin to the side, but doesn’t move Ricky’s hand from hers, keeps them close together.

“Gina, I swear—“

“What?” She challenges, light and mischief in her eyes, “What are you gonna do?”

“I’m gonna…” and honestly, he’s coming up empty. It’s so hard to form coherent thoughts in his mind when they’re this close together. His arm resting on Gina’s waist and her free hand on his shoulder, having tried to push him away but not letting go when she was unsuccessful. His heartbeat could practically be vibrating against her own, their chests flush and his breath hitched an inch away from her face.

“I’m gonna give you five,” he falls back on the old reliable, hoping she’ll relieve him from this evil, horrible trap before he does something he shouldn’t.

“What are you gonna do, Ricky?”

“Five…”

She hums, leans up on her tip toes, tauntingly.

“Four…”

She moves the arm behind her back with the lost further away, pulling Ricky’s arm with it and their bodies closer together.

“Three…”

She seems to pick up on how close they are now, and her laughter turns into breathlessness, her eyes dart down, then up to his wide, blown pupils.

“Two…”

Ricky can barely get it out above a whisper, but they’re so close she’d hear it anyway. He feels himself look at her lips, pulls them up immediately, only to find her eyes are now on his.

Could they…

He hesitates to finish the count down, lets the moment drag on for what feels like hours.

It’s so subtle that he could have imagined it, but he knows he didn’t. Every inch of Gina right now is his, he takes it all in and he doesn’t miss a millisecond of it.

Not the way her lips curl up in a smile, not the way her head nods ever so slightly, not the way she’s up on her tip toes, the way her eyes dart around his face before its clear, she’s looking at his lips and leaning in—

“One…”

“Oh good! There you are!”

Ricky jumps back with the sharpest inhale of breath he’s ever taken at the sound of Ashlyn’s voice.

His lungs need quick resuscitation. He feels like he should bend over, hands on his knees  like he’d just run a marathon, breathe in all the oxygen in the world, and it still wouldn’t be enough.

“Maddox says it’s tradition to ditch the last bit of prom with all the girls in the Honeycomb for a pre-opening night sleepover,” Ashlyn explains, doesn’t seem at all affected by the inhuman speed with which Ricky and Gina jumped apart, and have yet to look at each other in the eyes since, “Face masks, truth or dare, tons of fun stuff!”

Ricky still doesn’t think his lungs can handle a look at Gina, but he notes her nod in his periphery. Glad this seems to be having the same effect on her.

“I’m also so glad you’re with Ricky,” Ashlyn seems to notice Ricky’s presence on the barn of the porch for the first time, “Partially because I didn’t wanna leave Biggie alone.”

Ashlyn gestures to Big Red behind her, who, unlike his girlfriend that’s lacking the ability to read the room at the moment, has his brows furrowed so deep in confusion Ricky is worried its starting to hurt. His eyes dart between Ricky and Gina so rapidly before settling on Ricky, his mouth slightly agape and his head shaking with a very readable, “what the hell is happening?”

But Ashlyn of course, does not read the room and continues, “But more importantly, I’m glad you took my advice and talked to him about it.”

Huh? Did Ashlyn send Gina out here to ask about his list?

Ricky finds a breath available to squeak out a, “Right, we talked about…” hoping she’ll fill in the pieces.

“Sorry, if it was weird, Ricky,” Ashlyn waves to him like she’s not really sorry but figures she should be, “I just thought, who else better to talk to about not being able to say ‘I love you’ back to the person you’re dating, right?”

Ricky swears you could hear his jaw hit the floor with a thud.

Gina didn’t say—

Gina wasn’t in love with EJ?

For the first time since Ashlyn and Big Red arrived, Ricky’s eyes find Gina’s. They are wide and vulnerable in a way not unlike they were before, when he had been desperate to make them brighter and happier. But there’s something different about them this time. He can’t place it.

Is it hope?

“I mean, look how good it worked out for you in the end, right?” Ashlyn says brightly, must’ve not heard the jaw drop.

“Nini and I are very, very broken up, for good reason,” Ricky feels the need to use his few, valuable breaths to clarify, eyes still on Gina’s, ”I have absolutely no feelings for her. None at all, just for—“

“Well, anyway, we have to go, before Maddox comes looking for us,” Ashlyn laughs, skips forward and loops an arm through Gina’s like Ricky had before when they were moonwalking.

Seconds before they almost…

His stomach lurches as he stares at Gina, getting pulled away. She doesn’t break eye contact either, until she absolutely has to, leaving Ricky and Red, and his list and her bag full of nonsense and toothpaste, and the breathless way Ricky had been sure she had been telling him to close the gap and kiss her. She leaves it all behind.

Once she and Ashlyn are too far away, running back to the Honeycomb, to see anymore, Ricky finally collapses. Literally, his knees buckle and he crouches down, hands pressed into his eyes and elbows resting on the tops of his knees.

“Dude?!”

“I know—“

“When Ashlyn said it was urgent I get here for camp prom,” Big Red yells, exasperated, and steps more fully out onto the porch with Ricky, “I thought she meant for her.”

“I think she did.”

“Dude!” He yells again, just as Ricky stands up to start pacing, a stressed hand carding through his curls.

“I know, I know—“

“You were not giving her EJ advice, were you?”

“Nope.”

“She was about to kiss you.”

“Yeah,” Ricky sighs heavily, the thought hitting him for the first time in real words.

He almost kissed Gina.

“Start explaining,” Big Red claps a hand around Ricky’s shoulder and starts them down the stairs, and Ricky hopes Big Red’s sense of direction is good enough to get them back to the Yurt Locker, because Ricky’s mind is nowhere to be found.

“Well, uh…” he starts, lamely, “I like Gina.”

“Yeah, okay, I’ve been there for months, glad you joined me,” Red shakes his head, and wait, he knew? “Can we fast forward to how we got here?”

Ricky throws his head back, looks up at the stars, and hopes, beyond Red getting them back to their bunk, that something in the universe knows how he got here, and where he’s supposed to go next with it all.

He settles for, “You know that bucket list I made when I was a kid?”

“So that’s where you were during my performance!”

“I just bared my soul to you about the most confusing moment in my short life for ten minutes and that’s your take away?!” Ricky sits up abruptly in bed, Carlos’s knees bumping his own across from him.

“Ricky, I don’t think you understand the severity of the situation. I will never be able to un-hear the backing vocals Crash lent me since I couldn’t find you,” Carlos says, like the clarification makes it better, “Vocals is generous, since he mainly just shattered decorations while break dancing.”

“I’m really sorry I missed it, like, more than you know,” Ricky apologizes, “If I had been there instead…”

“You wouldn’t be baring your soul to me well before the appropriate hours to be calling each other bro?”

“Exactly,” Ricky nods.

He barely slept a wink last night, and this time it had nothing to do with Big Red’s c-pap machine, which actually, isstill whirring where his best friend is sound asleep on the air mattress on the floor.

It’s not unlike Ricky to have knots in his stomach on opening night, but this has taken things to a whole other level.

“My stupid feelings are gonna ruin the show for everyone,” Ricky yelps, starts spiraling again like he had done the minute he woke up and Carlos climbed up to his bunk, “And Corbin and Channing are going to be thrilled about it.”

“That’s not true.”

“I’m gonna be the villain of this documentary!”

“No, no, I mean the part about the show,” Carlos waves off his panicking, “You’re really talented, Ricky. Nothing is gonna change that.”

“She had to have told EJ about it,” Ricky shakes his head, continues rambling, “She’s like, such a good girlfriend, she wouldn’t keep it from him. So he’s gonna know, and hate me more than he already does, and how are we supposed to play best friends Kristoff and Sven when the guy is going to be looking for any chance to give me a black eye?”

Carlos closes his mouth with a humph, rests his chin on his interlocked hands, then says softly, “I know this is like, definitely not the time, but can I just say how proud I am to hear you call Kristoff and Sven best friends when the last time we were sitting here, you thought you might be playing Gary?”

“I wish I was playing Gary!”

Carlos tries to console Ricky’s borderline wailing with a soothing hand up and down his arm, “You did nothing wrong. You can’t help the way you feel.”

“I almost kissed his girlfriend!”

“You didn’t though!” Carlos says brightly, “And all of us have been in way too close quarters for the past two weeks. If you had done a single thing to get in the way of that relationship, I would know. And you haven’t.”

Ricky sighs loudly, throwing his head back, “This documentary means so much to everyone here, I don’t know how I could be so stupid and let my feelings mess it up for everyone. For Gina, for Kourtney, for you, and for Ashlyn, and… EJ.”

Carlos eyes him funnily when he tacks on that last name.

Ricky continues, “If the documentary goes well, EJ gets to stay in Salt Lake. He gets to stay with Gina.”

Carlos tilts his head side to side like he’s toying with some ideas, “So you want me to spontaneously forget all the words to In Summer?”

“No, stop that,” Ricky hits Carlos on the shoulder, both of them laughing, “It needs to go well. I just want her to be happy.”

“And she is,” Carlos nods, “Last I checked she wanted to kiss you last night too.”

“You don’t know that.”

“My straight-dar is 99% accurate,” Carlos implores, then shrugs, “Hmm, 98%, for not knowing Jet and Maddox were siblings but also, thinking Big Red and Ashlyn were.”

It gets Ricky to laugh again, and he’s thankful. His mind has not stopped spinning since he walked home with Red last night, and even now that he’s talked it through in full with both of his closest friends, things still aren’t any clearer.

One second, he was trying his absolute hardest to get Gina to cheer up, since she looked sad for an unknown reason at prom. The next second, he was trying his absolute hardest to come up with every reason in the book why he shouldn’t give in to Gina’s gorgeous eyes and teasing smirk and kiss her.

She had nodded to him. She was telling him to do it. She was looking at his lips.

He couldn’t have imagined it. Anything he might have imagined wouldn’t have been nearly as good as what he experienced.

And he hadn’t even fully unpacked what Ashlyn had said yet, about Gina and EJ. She didn’t say she loved him back? Was she worried about it? Did she want to?

Or, like Carlos seemed to believe, did she just want to kiss Ricky back?

“Is there something I should do? To fix this?”

Carlos shrugs, “You could write a song. Big Red’s c-pap is providing quite a nice beat.”

Ricky laughs again.

“Oh, I got it!” Carlos leans in close to him and starts, says in a sing-song tone, “Gina?”

Ricky isn’t sure where this is going, but then his friend makes a light fist with one hand and knocks it rhythmically against the side of Ricky’s head, tap-tap-taptap-tap. Ricky recognizes that tune, it’s been stuck in his head for two weeks. Before he can protest any further, Carlos sings to that same tune, “Do you wanna dump your boyfriend?”

“Carlos!”

It’s so ridiculous and so endearing at the same time, Ricky isn’t sure how he survived anything without his theater friends before this. He continues, to the same tune of Do You Wanna Build a Snowman with the next line, “You could kiss Ricky instead…”

“Oh god,” Ricky’s head falls into his hands again, “I’m gonna get beat up by a reindeer!”

“Hey, my arms may be literal twigs, but they are twigs that will fight for you, bro.”

”I would never make you do that.”

“But I could, and I would,” Carlos nods.

Ricky throws the covers off, “We should get going, right?”

“Ugh, I almost forgot it was opening night,” Carlos shakes his head, and moves to climb down the bunk ladder, “I wish you had almost kissed Gina last semester too. I might not have been in a catatonic state for three hours before curtain if you had. I’ve never felt so relaxed.”

Ricky turns to look at him perplexed when he jumps to the ground.

“Drama soothes me,” Carlos rests a hand over his heart.

“Uh, you’re welcome, I guess?”

Ricky shuts the door behind them after they leave a note for Seb, still fast asleep in Carlos’s bed, and Big Red, letting them know they went to the cast morning meeting and would meet them for breakfast when they woke up before they had to start getting ready for opening night.

Carlos is just getting into the logistics on how his snowman branch arms could really take out reindeer EJ if it came to it, just a few steps from the entrance to the barn where the cast meeting’s supposed to be, when they bump into Ashlyn.

Ricky didn’t think any other horrible news  could be delivered worse than last night from the girl, but he’s wholly unprepared for what happens next.

“Good morning, my two favorite leading men,” Ashlyn sing-songs cheerily, running up beside Carlos as they continue to walk, “Don’t tell Jet.”

“I don’t think he was worried,” Ricky nods at her flat joke.

“From Kourtney though…” Carlos chimes in knowingly.

“I’m dying, yes,” Ashlyn laughs, “I can’t believe Corbin ever thought we were boring. The documentary literally writes itself. I’m so excited they’re giving us a sneak peek today.”

This piques both of the boys’ interest immediately. They almost comically stop dead in their tracks.

“I’m sorry, what?” Ricky questions Ashlyn, “They’re showing us the doc?”

“Ooh, sorry, that was supposed to be a surprise,” Ashlyn turns back, wincing when she realizes Ricky and Carlos have stopped, then laughs hollowly, “Caswells are terrible secret-keepers.”

“Are you?” Carlos eyes her, and Ricky is glad he said exactly what he was thinking.

“They’re gonna show a couple clips, that’s what the morning cast meeting is for,” Ashlyn explains, “Apparently Corbin and his crew are like, really, really excited with the footage they’ve gotten.”

Ricky is sure, in another timeline, he too would be as proud and thrilled as Ashlyn that they’re getting the Corbin seal of approval. But right now, it’s all white noise to him, because his mind is zero-ing in on one clip in particular.

“That sounds, so, so much like… a thing that is happening,” Carlos says slowly, processing, “We’ll uh, meet you inside. Save us seats?”

Ashlyn sends them a thumbs up agreeing, and runs inside, leaving Ricky and Carlos to turn to look at each other, eyes wide and mouths hung open in shock.

“They’re gonna show—“

“Yup.”

“Oh god.”

“I’m getting beat up,” Ricky wails into his hands, “I’m getting beat up today, and you’re gonna try to save me and break your precious little twig arms!”

“Okay, calm down, punching bag,” Carlos steadies a hand on one of Ricky’s shoulders, tries to snap him out of his spiral, “I did not consume a lifetime’s worth of reality television content for me to fail you in this moment.”

“What do I do?”

“You have to tell her.”

“Next option.”

“Ricky,” Carlos implores, “That clip of you saying you’re crushing on Gina is reality TV gold. There’s no way they’re not using it.”

“We don’t know that—“

“I know, and as your Real Campers of Shallow Lake instigator and publicist, I regret to inform you the seven step plan I had to get that footage out of Channing’s B-roll has been… severely impeded,” Carlos sighs, squaring his shoulders to face Ricky directly, then continues, “But as your friend, I think you should tell her.”

“No way—“

“It’s the kind of thing she’d wanna hear from you first.”

“I can’t— she has a boyfriend, Los.”

“And she still will, after you tell her,” he says, “Nothing changes by you simply giving her a heads up that this confession is coming. I think its the kind of thing she’d appreciate.”

Ricky knows Carlos is right. He knows Gina. He had always wanted to tell her about that line before she watched the documentary, just so she wasn’t blindsided. He figured he’d have a little more time though, to think of the perfect excuse, to make her believe it was part of the dramatic storyline Carlos and Val and EJ had made up, so it wouldn’t put her in an uncomfortable position with the latter.

But now he has approximately three minutes, before the meeting starts and they press play on that sneak peek doc screening, which, Carlos is right, will 100% contain the juiciest, real life drama Channing captured.

“Find her,” Carlos says, “I’ll stall as long as I can.”

“I owe you,” Ricky fist bumps Carlos’s shoulder before sprinting up the stairs and into the barn, on a frantic search for Gina.

The space in front of the stage is full of people, jittering and excited for opening night. Maddox is working to set up the projector on a big screen that’s been placed on the stage, and while Ricky can make out several of his cast members patiently waiting in front of that screen, he doesn’t see Gina anywhere.

He runs up the side of the barn interior, up the stairs to the stage, hoping maybe she’s backstage.

He’s not looking where he’s going at all, just looking for Gina, so its no wonder he bumps squarely into someone when passing into the backstage area.

“Sorry, sorry!”

“It’s— Ricky?”

Ricky had been planning on running straight past them after his rushed apology, his time was running out, but he’s so surprised by who it is, that he stops momentarily.

“Nini, what are you—“

“My moms agreed to make a pit stop on our way back,” Nini smiles, holding a box of prop snow in her hands, “I know how hectic it gets here, wanted to pitch in on opening night. Also, see Kourtney—“

“Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome, have you seen Gina?” He doesn’t mean for it to come out so rushed, so trivial, like he doesn’t care about the story she’s telling, but why Nini’s helping them set up props is so far at the bottom of his priorities list right now, its hard to hide it.

“No, uh, I actually wanted to talk to you—“

“You haven’t seen her anywhere? Like anywhere?” Ricky frantically looks around again, “Because I really need her.”

Nini looks taken aback by his urgency, and slowly adds, “Uh, they’re probably not there anymore, but I saw her and Kourt behind the stage ten minutes ago?”

“Thank you, so much,” Ricky taps her lightly on the shoulder as he darts off again, runs through the maze of walls and props.

She’s not where Nini had last seen her, but when he turns he finally spots her. She’s walking through the doorway with Kourtney, down the steps out to the front of the barn on stage left. He darts once again to try to catch up with her.

“Gina, Kourt, hey!” He yells, hoping to catch her. Both girls turn at the sound of his voice.

Kourtney beams, “Ricky! Are you excited?” She’s buzzing with palpable energy, and Ricky feels bad for how little he responds it. He knows what a big moment this is for Kourtney, and she’s handling it so well.

He makes a mental note to get back to her once the screening is over.

“I actually can’t believe it,” he shakes his head, turns to Gina, who is staring at him the same way she left him last night, “Gi, can we talk, really quick?”

She nods, “After the meeting?”

“It’s actually about the meeting, so uh, I kinda need to, right now.”

He bounces on the balls of his feet with busy, nervous energy, and Gina’s eyes dart around his face again, like last night.

“Uh, what—“

“Gina!” Ashlyn yells, one hand in the air, waving Gina over to join her and Kourtney in their seats.

Honestly, Ashlyn is the luckiest girl alive that his best friend is in love with her, because that is the only thing stopping Ricky from going for a 2-for-1 Caswell sucker punch.

Gina smiles awkwardly and turns to join Ashlyn, like she had been desperate for any way out of this conversation Ricky was suggesting.

Fantastic.

Ricky sighs so loudly he’s sure Channing is gonna capture it on camera, and turns to see Carlos is true to his word, trying to cause as much commotion he can in front of the screen.

“I just, really don’t think we have the choreography down for the In Summer dance break,” Carlos throws his arms up, yelling, “I think we need to practice it again, right now.”

“Let’s take a five, kid,” Corbin walks up on Carlos’s left and pats him condescendingly on the shoulder, signaling him to stop.

Ricky watches Carlos open his mouth to protest again, but he catches his friend’s eye and shakes his head, mumbles a “thank you” so he knows its okay to quit.

Carlos huffs, defeated, and walks quickly around and to meet Ricky in the back of the rows of chairs everyone is sitting in, waiting for the screening to start.

“I tried,” he offers.

“I know, seriously,” Ricky tries to make sure Carlos knows how much he means it, “Thank you.”

“No luck?”

Ricky sighs, finding a seat, “Get your branches ready.”

The lights dim in the barn for the screen to light up, as Corbin gives some intro, “Now remember, this is a very rough cut, with what footage we have to far. We’ve still got a long road ahead of us tonight, but you should be really proud of what you’ve got here. This show’s gonna be a hit.”

Everyone in the room applauds and cheers. Ricky feels like sinking into the floorboards.

The clips start off innocently enough. Theres some footage from the first night of camp, Ricky assumes, that he missed, where Corbin introduces himself to camp and announces the show. Then theres a cut to the first read through, some lines are read and that weird love triangle they tried to push between Gina, Kourtney and Carlos has mercifully been cut. There’s a clip about Jet missing and then it cuts immediately to Love is an Open Door. And Ricky knows what follows that performance.

He feels every nerve cell in his body stand on edge when he sees himself stutter over his words while everyone’s applauding Gina and EJ, and storm out of the canteen.

There’s a voiceover from Corbin here: “It seems the door to love has been slamming shut for more than just our Princess.”

Cut to Ricky and Carlos on the steps after their first run-through of What Do You Know About Love, the scene echoes through his mind. If he didn’t remember the feeling so clearly, the scene unfolding in front of him would have been enough to bring it all back.

“Ricky, that must have been awful for you, being Gina’s jilted ex and all.”

“Heart-wrenching, honestly.”

Heads of campers in the rows ahead of him start to slowly put the pieces together. No one says heart-wrenching like that if they don’t mean it. He feels eyes start to fall on him.

“If you ask me, I’d say he’s clearly genuinely heartsick,” Val’s voice is faintly caught by the camera before Ricky storms out again, pushing the camera out of his way with it.

Corbin voiceover: “Does life really imitate art? Has our leading ice man been left out in the cold by a long-lost flame, off stage as well as on?”

There’s a rapid fire set of clips of Ricky looking at Gina. He’d never been able to see what the look looks like from an outsider’s point of view before, but he knows exactly what’s coming. The way he looks at Gina in every scene, whether he’s supposed to be Kristoff or not, (maybe even more so when not) is so, so genuine.

God, he knows just about every pair of eyes in the room is on him right now.

Except for one.

“It’s possible I wasn’t completely acting today, when I was pretending crush on Gina.”

And there it is.

The last set of eyes on him.

Ricky feels Gina’s eyes before he sees them. Every time she’s looked at him since last night gets harder and harder to read. But every time she does, he registers that unwavering, bit of hope. He wishes he knew what it meant.

He isn’t sure what they’re playing on the screen next, probably more footage of him looking so ridiculously in love, he should wake Big Red and get them on the road back to Salt Lake immediately, before EJ can find him. But it’s hard to think about anything else when your heart has just been spilled for you, and the girl behind all those very real feelings is looking at you, waiting for you to make a move.

Ricky has no idea what that move is supposed to be. So he takes a page out of documentary-Ricky’s book, and gets up. Storms out to the porch of the barn.

As much as Carlos assured him he wasn’t going to mess-up the musical for everyone, how was he supposed bounce back from this? A maybe-almost kiss was one thing, but his feelings for Gina have been spelled out clear as day now. There was no maybe-almost about this anymore.

It was terrifying.

He’s been pacing up and down the narrow porch of the barn for a good minute or so, and his back is to the door when he hears it open. There are only two people he wishes it’s not, coming to talk to him, so he figures his odds are good enough to chance a turn around.

Apparently not good enough though.

It’s Gina.

He figures he should start filling the space with profuse apologies before she can say anything else, “Gina, I am, so, so, sorry, about that. Like, you don’t even know, how incredibly, extremely sorry I am—“

“You don’t have to apologize,” she starts softly, making her way towards him, “I understand.”

Hold on—? She what?

“I mean, I know how persuasive Carlos can get,” she starts to explain, “He really wanted this storyline between us to work, and he doesn’t know the whole story. He probably put you in an awkward situation, made you feel like you had to say that, about me, without knowing that we…”

Ricky aches for her to finish that thought.

“Whatever, I just, didn’t want you to feel bad about it,” Gina shakes her head, shaking away that thought with it, “I understand.”

“You thought that was just a thing we did for the documentary?” Ricky says, barely above a whisper.

He didn’t know what was worse: that she had to see that on the screen without knowing it was coming, or that she still didn’t seem know how much he really cared about her?

“I mean, it had to be, right?”

He could say no.

Tell her all of it was real, that he’s been thinking about her and hasn’t been able to stop, since homecoming. That he never saw her coming but she was the best thing to ever come into his life. That when nothing else made sense, she always did. And that he was crazy and stupid to let her go, to make some of the choices he did that led them here. But he’s here now and he means it, it’s not fake, he loves her.

But the voice in his head that knows how important this show is to her, to Kourtney, and Carlos, and to keeping the guy Gina loves in Salt Lake for her, is just a little bit louder.

“Yeah, of course, I was uh, hoping you’d take it that way.”

“I would have known, right?” Gina seems to feel left out, having watched Ricky frantically pace, and starts pacing in her own space, “I mean I would have known if you… You would have told me.”

“I tried to— before they showed it—“

“No, I mean, last year I—“ she stumbles over her words, like she’s trying to manually piece everything back together in her mind, “I left, I left and I didn’t let you— I didn’t let you tell me.”

“That’s not—“

“I should have known, I should have known,” Gina whispers to herself.

“None of this is on you, Gi.”

“It couldn’t have been real, right?” She says in a sudden outburst, her arms waving wide with the motion, the creases on her forehead pronounced with fret, “I mean, there was no time for it to be real. No time to tell you, the plane was going down, Ricky.”

He has no idea what that means, but she looks so genuinely wrecked, he is searching every possible thought in his brain for how he can fix it immediately.

“I felt— it was real for me— so long ago— still— but you—“ she only seems to be able to get out these short bursts, half sentences, like the thoughts can’t form fully before she says them. Her eyes are wide and so worried and dammit, why can’t he figure out how to fix this for her?

“Gina, maybe we should—“

“You were so happy,” she looks at him, her eyes glassy, voice heavy with emotion. He doesn’t know who she’s trying to convince with the statement, ”You were so, so happy, Ricky. You were happy with her, right?”

It could be the most colossally stupid thing to say, but very softly, he does, “I wasn’t.”

“What?”

“I wasn’t happy with her, not in the right way. And not as much as I could have been.”

“Don’t—“ she starts, her voice dropping to a whisper too, to hide how its starting to shake, “Don’t say that if you don’t mean it.”

“I do,” he nods, feels himself start to tremble with the weight of it all too.

“So you weren’t happy with Nini,” Gina starts to reason, “And you weren’t happy with Lily?”

Ricky nods.

“But you’ve been so happy these past two weeks?”

He nods again.

“They haven’t been here.”

Ricky sighs, rubs his hands nervously on the sides of his legs, and calling back to their conversation last night, the same way she had, he says, “I told you not to think too hard about it.”

“I’m thinking very hard about it, Ricky.”

She looks terrified.

Ricky never meant for this to happen. He has tried everything in his power to keep her from ever feeling like this because of him. He knows he hasn’t always been successful in the past, but he knows now. She should be happy. He needs to make her happy.

There are so few ways he knows how to do that now, but he tries, “You caught me. I’m in love with Ashlyn.”

Gina looks up from where her eyes had been trained on the ground for the first time since she came out here, and after a long beat of silence, it’s like she can’t hold it in anymore: she laughs.

Ricky breathes his first sigh of relief all day.

“Thought I’d take my one and only chance while my best friend was removed from the picture,” Ricky continues, watches Gina’s laughter bring the light back into her eyes, like magic, “Didn’t know I’d be competing with like, three other people once I got here though.”

She tries to cover up her giggling with one hand, wipes a stray tear that falls from her eyes.

She’s okay.

“Would you mind not telling her though? We’re all in a fragile state and I really need her to nail our partner work in Fixer Upper,” Ricky shrugs, “Without the distraction of, what does Carlos call it? The lust?”

Gina sighs on the last bit of her laughter, before catching Ricky’s eye again.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Ricky offers, gently, stepping closer to her.

“Are we?”

“I promise,” he nods, “We’ve got the time.”

“You could tell me,” Gina whispers, “I’m not leaving.”

He knows what she’s implying.

He knows what he wants to answer.

But he also knows what she needs.

“Was it is real?”

She needs a guy who shows up and sticks around.

EJ showed up. This documentary going well? It would get him to stick around for her.

“No,” Ricky shakes his head clears his throat awkwardly and looks around at anything his eyes can find, other than her, ”I mean, you were right. We just got caught up in making the documentary, really wanted it to impress Corbin, you know?”

She manages to find his wandering gaze, catches it and holds it there. And for a moment, it looks like she doesn’t believe him, there’s that glimmer of hope for something there.

“This documentary really means a lot to you, huh?”

“Something like that.”

It’s gone as quickly as it came, replaced with brows knitted together and forehead creased in worry. Gina heaves a loud sigh and runs her hand over her face, “Okay, I think I need to, uh, go—“

“No yeah, of course.”

“This has been a lot,” she shakes her head, gathers her emotions up, re-wraps them up tight, close to her chest, “Not that you’ve been a lot, I just mean, in general, with—“

“No, I know,” Ricky nods, “Do you need a, uh, ride back to the Honeycomb?”

She smiles lightly, “I think I can find it—“

And of course, it couldn’t be the end of an emotionally charged moment for Ricky without someone else barging onto the scene. Ashlyn is spared for once though, as it is not her. But instead, possibly the only worse option on the entire campground at the moment.

Ricky and Gina come face to face with EJ and Nini.

All four of them sport matching blank stares.

Gina clears her throat, “Uh, how much did you guys—”

“Enough,” Nini nods.

“Awesome,” Ricky squeaks through a painfully awkward smile, then after a loud and long beat of silence, “Group hug?”

Ricky is sure he has lived three lifetimes on the day of opening night before actual opening night arrives.

But arrive it does.

The pure chaos of the backstage area on opening night can’t be explained so much as it is felt. For all the years he heard about theater, he never understood it until he was a part of it. He is whisked around different rooms, poked and prodded get his hat to sit just right, his snowsuit pinned just right, his stage makeup glistening under the lights just right. It’s a lot, but by show number three, Ricky’s feeling good.

Or, as good as he can be, about being on stage, when everything off of it seems to be blowing up in his face.

The fallout of the documentary screening has been both a huge issue and a non-issue all at once.

After enduring the most awkward, silent walk of his life back to the bunks with Nini, EJ, and Gina, Ricky was eager to step into someone else’s life for an hour or two. He was gonna play the heck out of Kristoff, if it meant for brief moment, he didn’t have to be wildly complicated and messier than ever Ricky.

Maddox has given him the costume seal of approval with 20 minutes to curtain, and he fishes his way through the swarms of nervous, busy campers to find where he’s supposed to get mic checked. Maddox’s directions we less than helpful, but she’s way overwhelmed and the backstage area isn’t that big, so Ricky tries not to bother her, figures with a little determination he can find it on his own.

When he sees Nini in a corner holding a mic pack though, he wishes maybe Maddox’s directions had been even less clear.

He swallows, resigns himself to bite the bullet and get this over with, smiles and waves half-heartedly at her, “You mic check girl?”

“The one and only,” Nini flourishes a hand over her basket of mic packs just as awkwardly as Ricky felt inside, which was as good a start as any for them.

“How’d you get stuck with this job?” He asks, already moving to untie his snowsuit jacket so she can tuck the mic pack in the inside pocket.

“I showed up yesterday,” she nods, looking for Ricky’s assigned mic, “Actually, I’m headed into the audience once the curtain’s up. Big Red and Seb are saving me a seat. We are about to become, somehow, the smallest and loudest cheering section this camp has ever seen.”

“Gotta get that Disney+ cameo somehow, right?” He jokes, “Or, actually, can you? Or does that Jamie Porter recording contract conflict with the Disney+ filming contract?”

“Oh, shut up, Richard.”

“Seriously, I don’t think I ever properly congratulated you,” Ricky says, genuinely, “It’s huge. I mean, I might skip out on streaming The Rose Song, when it officially comes out, but anything else…”

“You’re very funny you know, that?” She nods him forward, gestures for him to turn his coat to face her so she can clip the mic pack in, then peeks up at him, and says softly, “Thank you.”

He nods, “How was it, though? The big California trip?”

“Surprisingly, Jamie Porter was not the most surprising part,” she hums, gets to work untangling the mic wires, “I met my dad.”

Ricky’s jaw actually drops at that.

“What?”

“Yeah, er, sperm donor, I dunno what I’m supposed to call him,” Nini laughs, “My moms’ college friend, Marvin.”

“Wait, I remember that name,” Ricky says, the wheels turning in his head, “You brought one of his baseball cards in for show and tell  in the first grade.”

“Why do you remember that?”

“Dude, what?”

“I’m glad someone is having the intense reaction my moms were hoping I’d have.”

“Sorry, you just casually dropped meeting your sperm donor into conversation like it was the weather forecast,” Ricky teases, because it’s kind of blowing his mind, it’s something he remembers Nini wondering about as long as they’d been friends, which feels like forever, but he’s actually really glad she’s so cool about it all. That it didn’t throw her. He continues, “So, what’s he like?”

“Well, he… likes the color green, and baseball, which he seemed upset about not passing any of that athleticism on to me, but, he and my moms did write a pretty awesome song, in college, so I think I got a little of that,” she smiles stringing the mic into place, “Oh, also, he’s a redhead.”

Ricky’s eyes go comically wide again, making Nini laugh brightly, “Dude, you’re telling me you have ginger in your DNA, and that DNA lost?”

“See, I knew there was a reason you always liked Big Red better than me.”

“Guilty, maybe if you were a redhead, we would have worked out,” Ricky joins in on her laughter. He hadn’t felt this at ease around Nini in quite literally, over a year. It felt good, like the start of something big. Not their old ways, but a better version of the good, simple friendship they were founded on. It seems maybe Nini is having this revelation too, when she looks at him thoughtfully for an extra second, after his mic is secured, and suddenly self-conscious, Ricky has to ask, “What?”

“Nothing, nothing,” she waves him off, “I just… the Ricky I left in Salt Lake to come to this camp last summer would have never been able to have this super cool conversation with me. It’s really nice.”

Ricky nods, agreeing with a shrug, “Well you know what they say, you come to Shallow Lake one way…”

“Oh god, is EJ trying to make that slogan a thing again?”

“And he’s succeeding, because I just used it.”

“Nah, I wouldn’t give this pace that much credit,” Nini walks out from behind her small, makeshift mic assembly table and stands side to side with Ricky, leaning back against the table, “You’ve been changing, in a really good way, ever since you showed up to that audition last fall.”

Hearing that from Nini last year, when she was leaving for this camp, would have sent him absolutely reeling. But to hear it now, is just about the best feeling in the world.

He is exactly where he’s supposed to be.

They’re standing in this pocket of peace, letting the chaos happen around them for the first time ever instead of between them, and Nini’s right, it’s really nice.

Plus, they’ve got a perfect view of the wings across the stage, when Gina and Kourtney walk out in their costumes for the first time.

Ricky feels his breath come to a screeching halt.

Gina’s soft green coronation dress makes her look like an actual dream. Her hair is perfectly braided, swings behind her shoulders as she does a twirl for Ashlyn, and he can practically hear that perfect laugh of hers that goes with it, that he’s committed to memory. She claps her hands under her chin and tilts her head adorably, her skirt still floating at her ankles from the momentum of her twirl.

She is ethereal. And he is so done for.

He has to have been staring for a good 40 seconds before Nini elbows him in the side, “FYI, we would have never worked out, Marvin’s DNA or not.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I’m not Gina.”

Ricky sighs loudly. Was he that obvious?

“Don’t make that face at me, I’ve known you since you were six, you couldn’t get this past me,” she teases him, surely delights in the inhuman speed at which a blush crowds his cheeks.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he shakes his head, voicing the same concern that’s been running through his head since last night, “I screwed everything up last year, I have to get it right this time.”

“And you will,” she says, “I know it.”

“How?” Ricky huffs, “And don’t say childhood friend intuition, because that only goes so far.”

“Because, I may have been the reason you joined the show,” Nini says softly, “But I wasn’t the reason you stayed.”

Ricky turns to look at her.

“Gina is the reason, right?” Nini asks, even though she knew the answer before she even asked it, “She’s the reason we’re able to stand here and joke about breaking up and my sperm donor’s hair color all at once without feeling the need to be at each others throats for the first time months.”

Ricky laughs softly.

“And she’s the reason you’re gonna get it all right this time.”

“You know, that fortune cookie wisdom is 100% your moms.”

“Oh, absolutely, I got three motivational quote Facebook posts today alone,” Nini agrees, “And that’s not counting all the messages surely lost to the terrible wifi here.”

Ricky gets started re-tying his costume jacket closed, as Nini smiles and takes a step away. She points to the other side of the wings, “Okay, I need to go hug Kourtney for at least a solid 60 seconds before I go happy cry for 2 hours straight in the audience.”

“Understandable,” Ricky nods, “See you out there.”

Nini takes two steps away, then pauses, turns back to look at Ricky with a determined point.

“You forget something?” Ricky asks, “Like maybe, I dunno, break a leg?”

“Actually yeah, I forgot,” Nini hums, “To tell you how ridiculous you look in that snowsuit.”

“Okay, you know what? I was actually counting the minutes it took you before you made fun of me for this.”

“How could I not?”

“Maybe you’d like to have a little sympathy for the guy wearing a full snowsuit in the middle of a heatwave.”

“Yeah, someone’s definitely got it out for you,” she snickers, laughing at her own teasing along with Ricky’s exasperation.

“The prop snow is seriously not gonna cut it.”

“I heard it might actually rain tonight,” Nini shrugs, “Hey, there you go. Weather forecast in the conversation!”

Kourtney spots them from across the stage just then, and waves excitedly to Ricky, and then even more so to Nini, who is gesturing that she’s on her way around to see her.

And she is, quickly off and running to smother her best friend in pre-show love and hugs, but not before one last quick glance at Ricky, and a soft smile to say, “Break a leg, Ricky.”

His gaze turns quickly away from hers and finds, inevitably, Gina’s, who has waved a little smaller to Nini too, before catching sight of Ricky. She drops her hands and grabs them behind her back, swings back on her heels, and then she smiles. Smiles right at him, at Ricky, so wide her eyes crinkle around the edges in his favorite way.

He’s gonna get this all right.

Ricky’s pretty glad Kristoff doesn’t make his first reappearance until the later half of Act 1. He feels like he needs three full acts to recover after watching Gina do For the First Time In Forever.

Since that’s not an option though, he’ll take what he can get, and enjoys every precious minute he gets to keep his cool, no pun intended, from the wings until he is needed.

The same can’t be said for most other cast members though. Everyone’s a flurry of quick costume changes and make-up retouches in every corner of the deceptively small backstage area. The ensemble is truly working overtime in this show, like Ricky has never seen before, Jet is about to make his big debut, Gina surely hasn’t been offstage for more than thirty seconds since Do You Wanna Build A Snowman, and it looks like their leading lady Kourtney is about to get her very first five minute break of the night, as she comes running off the stage after her coronation.

She looks frazzled, walking into the mess of the backstage area for the first time since curtains went up, she really has been on stage straight through, and its clear she’s looking for a place to take a breath. Ricky waves her over to his bit of solitude, Nini’s mic pack table she had abandoned. Kourtney heaves the loudest and most satisfying sigh of relief when she makes her way over to him, rests most of her weight leaning on the table behind them.

“Dude, you’re killing it out there.”

“Really?” Kourtney’s voice is up an octave with nerves, and Ricky is gonna try his hardest to convey how unnecessary those nerves are.

“Channing literally couldn’t take his camera off you the entire coronation,” Ricky explains, “Plus, I can hear Nini sniffling from here.”

“Okay good, because I was just realizing we don’t have understudies? So I couldn’t pull a you right now.”

“Even if you could, I’d never let you,” Ricky nods, “You’re too good to give this night to… I dunno, EJ?”

Kourtney laughs, and Ricky can literally feel the tension leave her body with it.

“Seriously though, do you need anything?” Ricky asks, “Water? That weird steam thing Carlos always uses? A hug?”

“Nah, this is helping,” Kourtney nods, resting a hand on the table behind them, “This is actually a really nice spot you found back here. Quiet, good view.”

“Yeah, it’s— I don’t know how to explain it, but sometimes…” Ricky trails off, searching for the right words, “It’s like, okay, I know I belong here. It’s been great for me, I love being part of this.”

Kourtney nods him on.

“But sometimes, I don’t know if this makes sense, but I get this random feeling that I’m still like, outside of it all? Like—“

“Like we were supposed to be in the audience, imposters.”

“Exactly,” Ricky says, amazed at how perfectly Kourtney got that feeling, “Like, I’m sure, unfortunately, I’m totally a theater kid now. But I guess it’s nice sometimes, to still take it all in from here.”

“A sideline deep breath,” Kourtney says, “Yeah, I get that.”

“I thought you might,” Ricky smiles, “Not like these two. Look at them. Never heard of a sideline a day in their lives!”

Ricky gestures proudly to Gina and Jet, who are performing the most show-stopping rendition of Love is an Open Door that he’s ever seen. He’d say this is totally unbiased, but no sense hiding it when Kourtney smiles at the stage like she’s a little biased too.

“I mean, Gina doesn’t surprise me at all, I always knew she was going to be incredible, but Jet?” Kourtney says, stunned, as they watch their cast mates.

“Feel free to share our secret spot here with him once I head onstage.”

“Not if you’re using it with your princess out there,” she teases him right back.

“I think she only leaves that stage when you sing Let It Go, and I’m not watching that from the sidelines,” Ricky shakes his head, points up to the front of the wings, “I need to be front row.”

She tucks her head, embarrassed at the compliment.

“Also, it’s complicated, with Gina and me, right now,” Ricky shrugs, “But I guess, same with you and Jet, right?”

Kourtney quirks her head to one side, “Maybe not as complicated as you think.”

Ricky turns to her, eyes wide.

“Alright, sidelines secret pact initiated,” she sucks in a deep breath, then says quietly, “Howie broke up with me before he left for college.”

“What? Kourt, I’m so sorry.”

She waves him off with one hand, shaking her head, “I didn’t wanna mention it, because I didn’t want it to become this big thing all summer. I knew everyone would have so much else going on, and I was already worried about so much.”

“It can be a small thing,” Ricky offers gently, “You okay?”

She nods, “It made sense, I guess. Big, new start for him and everything.”

“Big, new start for you too!” Ricky nudges his shoulder lightly into hers, “He is going to watch this documentary and rue the day he ever let you go.”

Kourtney smiles brightly out at the stage where their two complicated-not complicated friends are crushing the last few bars of their performance.

“Is now a good time to say I think he was a terrible Beast?” Ricky chimes in, and Kourtney tries her hardest to stifle her laugh.

“He wasn’t, though,” she squeaks out through giggles, seconds before Ricky bursts and joins her.

“No yeah, he was incredible,” his lie to try to make her feel better dissolves quickly, but it seems to have done the job anyway, the joy radiating around their giggling forms on the sidelines, “I’m actually so glad we burned those Menkies results. He was gonna smoke me, in every category.”

“Ice prince suits you much better than hairy prince.”

“Take that, Howie!”

“Can you believe we’re here?” Kourtney shakes her head, “The two of us?”

“Nope,” Ricky has to agree, “I’m really proud of us, though.”

And she agrees too, “I always liked you, Ricky.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“No yeah, not even a little, at first,” she sends them into another round of stress-relieving laughter, “I could barely look at you when we were in the audience together for Nini’s first show.”

“And now we’re headlining a Disney+ documentary together.”

Kourtney stands up and starts fixing the back of her long cape, and the crown on her head, as applause fills in from the audience they are no longer a part of, “I guess I should get back to headlining.”

“I’ll hold down the sidelines,” Ricky shrugs, happily.

She picks up her train to start to walk back to the wings, but pauses and turns to him to stop and say, “You know, I don’t think its as complicated as you think between you and Gina, either.”

“I appreciate it, but you don’t know half the mess I’ve made of this whole thing,” Ricky tries to shrug her off.

“Believe me, big sisters know everything,” she counters.

“Could you maybe let her other big sister Ashlyn know that then?” Ricky cries, exasperated, “Because she has interrupted me every time I’ve tried to tell her how I feel.”

“They didn’t give me ice powers for no reason,” Kourtney flourishes a hand like her Elsa ice is about to shoot out of it, directly at Ashlyn who is a few wings behind them. Her tone gets serious for a moment as she looks at him, and echoes his earlier question to her, “You okay?”

And really, if she had asked him this morning, his answer would have been completely different. But he is surrounded by people who mean so much more to him than a year ago, who care about him so deeply, enough to ask in the middle of the biggest night of their theater life, how’s he’s doing. Even as an outsider, he’s no longer alone.

It’s a new feeling, but a welcome one. And it leaves him feeling more okay than he ever thought he could be, even with things still messy and complicated wherever he turns.

So he smiles at Kourtney, and nods her on her way, “It’s a problem for another night. All I care about right now is belting so good, we make Howie cry.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she says, through one last bout of laughter, before a grounding deep breath and getting back on stage.

Maddox scurries past him before he can even blink, and pulls her stage manager headset away for a second to whisper him, “You busy?”

“I’ve got like four more scenes until I’m on,” Ricky nods, “You need something?”

“Someone knocked over your ice cart,” she says, seething, “The back wheel popped off. Think you can attempt to fix it with me?”

“Uh, yeah?” Ricky says, “If you’re busy though, I can find someone else to help me—“

“I’ve got like six Red Bulls coursing through my veins tonight,” Maddox jumps on the balls of her feet, readjusts her headset, “I got this. Give me two minutes to move another prop, then meet me there. We’re gonna super glue the heck out of that thing.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ricky watches her disappear as quickly as she arrived. She is a whirlwind that girl, but an excellent one, because as far as Ricky knows this is the first and only catastrophe of the night, and its pretty minor (or, maybe East High has just never heard of that concept, a show with no catastrophes.)

He leaves the comfort of his sidelines to make his way to the backstage prop area, and get a jump start on fixing his ice cart, but as luck will have it, Gina walks off stage at the exact moment he steps closer to it.

An entire night where she’s on stage most of the time, and she has to take her one break when Ricky is walking by.

They haven’t spoken since the conversation on the barn porch, after the documentary screening. They haven’t even interacted beyond the smile they shared between wings before curtains went up.

So he’s not exactly sure how he’s supposed to play this.

He tries what worked with Kourtney, “Gina, hey! You look amazing out there.”

“Thanks, Ricky,” she nods, awkward air quickly filling in the space between them as they seem to be stuck deciding on either hugging or high-fiving again.

He winces audibly, and not wanting to make her feel any more weird about this, he extending his hand further. She nods curtly, and high-fives him quickly.

“I gotta go—“

“Yeah, me too!” Ricky nods to the prop area, “See you out there, Anna?”

“Can’t wait,” she hums, indicting anything but.

When she’s out of sight, Ricky drops his head into the hand Gina had just high-fived and groans.

He really hopes Kourtney is right, because from where he’s standing, sidelines or not, this is going to be a very long, very complicated night indeed.

“You sure you can’t tell?”

“Positive,” Carlos nods, “Every time you’re on stage you look sickeningly in love. Which I guess, isn’t too much of a stretch.”

Ricky throws his head back and groans.

“I saw Seb during intermission and he said everyone is talking about you two.”

“Is that supposed to be making me feel better?”

“The documentary’s going to be a hit!” Carlos squeals, “Like, a keep EJ in Salt Lake kind of hit.”

Ricky sighs, relieved, that was the goal, “Okay, okay then. A few more scenes and then I can cry about this.”

“Not on my watch, we’re celebrating!” Carlos hugs Ricky around his shoulder and shakes him with excitement. It works for a minute and Ricky smiles, before Carlos continues, “Did you forget it’s your birthday?”

“I think so, actually.”

“I had to bribe three different staff members to have the kitchen bake a cake, so no tears until the candles are blown out!”

They’re thirty seconds away from starting the last big stretch of scenes they’re in before the finale, and honestly, he’s not lying. His birthday has been so far in the back of his mind he truly might have forgotten about it if Carlos hadn’t just brought it up.

Ricky felt slightly reassured by the fact that his feelings for Gina were only, apparently, making his performance better, and getting the documentary the praise it needed to impress EJ’s dad enough to keep him around for Gina this year. Ricky knows his acting has been teetering on a fine line between reality, but Gina’s acting has been stellar. He almost believed she wasn’t pretending the same way he wasn’t. He thinks he might actually pull this off, make her happy.

He tries to remind himself to make the most of Carlos’s birthday shenanigans after the show, and not dwell on this too much. It was one of the most thoughtful things anyone had ever done for him, and he wasn’t going to let decisions he made knowingly to help Gina and EJ get in the way of that. (But he also reminds himself to pack tissues for the ride home from camp tomorrow.)

“You guys ready?” Gina runs up between them in the wings, the seconds counting down before they head on for Fixer Upper.

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Carlos shrugs, “Though I did need to revisit hair and makeup after the way yours and Kourtney’s duet made me cry.”

Gina giggles softly, “Sorry.”

“And Ricky’s about to do it again, with his lullaby, so I don’t even know why I bothered!”

Yeah, Kristoff’s Lullaby. Ricky was trying o bury that one deep and far away with the reminder of his birthday. It was a solo he was about to sing that was going to hit way too close to home, and if he didn’t play it right, could probably undo all the hard work he had been doing today to keep Gina and EJ together.

He smiles tightly, trying to focus in on the mark he’s supposed to find on stage in a second, “No more tears tonight. Just birthday cake.”

“Oh, Gina! You’re coming to the cast party later, right?” Carlos turns to look at her, “Cast party/Ricky’s birthday?”

Ricky glares at him so hard he thinks some of Kourtney’s ice powers are transferring over to him.

“Of course,” Gina replies simply, also choosing to focus in on her mark on stage, “Wouldn’t miss the unveiling of the completed bucket list for the world.”

EJ meets them just then, in the wings, the four of them ready to take on their next scene.

They could do this. He could do this. For Gina.

“Let’s go have a troll wedding that would make Say Yes to the Dress proud, yeah?” Carlos cheers them on, then pulls Gina with him, leaving EJ and Ricky to make their way on stage behind them.

For as much unspoken drama lives between the group of them, the scene goes off without a hitch.

Olaf gets reassembled after tumbling out of Elsa’s palace, they notice the growing white streaks in Anna’s hair, and then Kristoff suggests they go see the love experts.

As Ashlyn leads the ensemble on stage, head to toe in mossy green garb, Ricky wishes they really were love experts. Looking between his princess and his reindeer across from him on stage right now, he could use any advice he could get.

“He’s brought a girl!”

The entire ensemble starts to cheer at the prospect of Ricky—er, Kristoff—bringing Anna home to them, and it’s not a stretch for either of them to squirm in awkwardness at the assumption. He feels Channing’s camera pointed right at him.

“Kristoff, I never pegged you for picking a royal!” Ashlyn shouts excitedly, spinning Gina around with it. “I like her!”

Gina blushes, “I like you too!”

But Ricky walks forward to interrupt, “We’re not a couple!” Nice reality check. “I’m just helping her!”

The other leading ensemble member steps up to Ricky, acting confused, “Not a couple?Are you absolutely sure about that?”

God, Ricky never realized how real this scene felt.

“Definitely not a couple,” Gina laughs awkwardly.

“Well, why not?” Ashlyn yells back, like the idea of Ricky and Gina not being together is so perplexing to her. If only she had felt this way the three other times in the past 24 hours when she had been busy interrupting them from being together. She runs across the stage and towards Ricky now, squeezes his cheeks lovingly, “What is wrong with my Kristoff?”

Ricky thinks Gina pauses a second longer than she ever had in rehearsals.

But then she shakes her head and continues, “Nothing—“

“Then, what’s the issue dear, why are you holding back from such a man?”

It’d be lovely to get a straight answer about that.

The ensemble starts singing adorably about all the quirky things that may be keeping Anna away from Kristoff. It’s a great number, and Ricky has always had fun during it. He laughs with some of the dancers as they show him off around stage, try to embarrass him, gets a tiny bear hug from Alex when she accuses him of “tinkling in the woods” that sends Gina over the edge in giggles too.

Before he knows it, several of the ensemble members are crowded around him and Gina, and push them together while they sing, “The way to fix up this fixer upper is to fix him up with you!”

Ricky and Gina have a choreographed collision, bumping into each other and Gina catching her balance with two hands on Ricky’s chest. They haven’t been this close since last night, at the camp prom, and even though the moment only lasts a second, every feeling comes flooding back. He can see it in Gina’s eyes that this song is getting a little too real for her too. Ricky nods in character, like an apology, and lets the hand on her waist drop with a sheepish smile.

They’re pulled apart by the trolls as quickly as they were pushed together, and the moment moves on.

Ashlyn sings to Gina, “We’re only saying that love’s a force that’s powerful and strange.”

Of course, Ricky was already looking at Gina. It’s hard for him to ever not be, and it helps that its in character for him to do so in this show for once. But as Ashlyn sings, Gina’s gaze falls on his again, and she smiles. It’s subtle, not a show smile, not a practiced grin that’s meant to reach the back rows. It feels like it’s just for him.

Ashlyn continues, “Humans make bad choices if they’re mad, or scared, or stressed!”

They walk back across the stage and pass each other with matching grins as the trolls continue sing, “But throw a little love their way! And you’ll bring out their best! True love brings out the best!”

Ricky thinks about Carlos telling him this show is going well. Maybe the song was right. Ricky had known so much heartbreak. But did being in love, true love, really bring out the best?

The ensemble continues with the chorus of the song and Crash comes up, tries to get Ricky/Kristoff to dance with him, even though he protests. He joins in eventually, like they practiced, and Ricky may have become a theater kid but he was still working the dance part of that. He doesn’t look great, but Gina is hiding giggles behind a hand as she watches him, and one look into the crowd and it’s clear Seb wasn’t exaggerating either: the audience is eating it up. Ricky turns up the charm another degree or two and revels in Gina’s twinkling smile as they head into their choreographed parter section.

You would never know Ashlyn was public enemy number 1 to Ricky all day with the way they twirl around each other for their dance, and he chances a glance at Gina and her partner for a second. She looks so beautiful he swears he loses his balance, and almost drops Ashlyn. A worthy casualty though, for the way Gina looks.

He could watch her for hours. Everything else ceases to exist.

Ricky hears the familiar melody of Carlos’s line that leads into the big dance break, and Gina is swooped away to the side so Ricky can make an absolute fool of himself and lead the ensemble in a huge dance number.

“True love!”

Ricky had worked on this section with Val for an insane amount of hours, considering how few they had in total. He did not wanna mess up. But with the way Gina is looking at him from stage right, he doesn’t think he could mess anything up if he tried.

He’s suddenly reminded of watching Gina the same way, during her Status Quo dance break. The mix of unnamed emotions swirling around inside him at her surprise appearance.

He remembers what she said this morning though, that makes this moment so different.

I’m not leaving.

He sports the most genuine smile as he dances around the stage, and is sure he hears that small yet mighty cheering section of three in the audience going crazy as he does. He doesn’t even know where Channing and Corbin’s cameras are. All he feels is the bright joy of performing this number for the handful of people who matter to him.

Ricky’s on such a high as he reaches the last couple of eight counts his dance break that he decides to make a potentially terrible decision. Maybe if he had remembered EJ in a reindeer costume was standing dejected the back corner of the stage, he would have stopped himself. But all he sees is Gina, and her perfect smile and her perfect laughter and the magical light in her eyes when they’re together like this.

So as Gina gets ushered into the dance circle, Ricky breaks from Val’s choreo, and links an arm through Gina’s.

She stares at him, wide-eyed and flustered, but knowing, as he presses their shoulders together and moonwalks them down the center of the stage.

Ensemble members start to cheer and its all chaos, but a beautiful, wonderful chaos. Everyone starts throwing in their own favorite moves, laughing around the lines of the song, “Love, true love!”

Ricky is hit once again, with how in love he feels with the life he is living now. As Ashlyn smiles at him, as he hears Nini cheer from her seat, as Carlos swings him around giddy with laughter, no tears.

As Gina looks at him across the stage, and its unmistakable this time.

Hope.

The ensemble pulls Ricky aside and starts dressing him up in the wedding garments, and he’s sure Gina is breaking character as much as he is when they catch a glimpse of each other, crowns of leaves on their heads and long, leafy capes to match, and start laughing hysterically at the sight. They stumble their way to center stage, remembering to protest what’s about to happen, like they’re supposed to, but being too giddy to give it any real bite.

The cast hits their last “True love!” as Gina grabs Ricky’s hands between them and squeezes, rolling her eyes at the ridiculousness of it all, both in character and out. They’re gonna be okay.

Ricky loves performing, but the one part he’s never gotten around is being suddenly shy when the applause for his performance starts up. He never knows where to look or what to do, how to handle the attention of people thinking he did a good job with something.

But for the first time since last fall, Ricky knows exactly where to look. He watches Gina’s eyes dart excitedly around the stage, feels the solid, grounding weight of her hands in his, and if he can stay like this? They could applaud for hours, for all he cared.

It eventually comets a halt, and their acting resumes. Gina stumbles and falls, having Ricky catch her to regain her footing.

“Anna!”

She clutches her hands to her heart and Ricky holds her shoulders to help her up, while Ashlyn rushes over, “Another magic strike! Why didn’t you tell us?!”

“I tried!” Ricky yelps, and nods to Gina, asking if she’s okay.

“Your life is in danger, ice is in your heart, put there by your sister,” Ashlyn explains, solemnly, “If not removed, to solid ice will you freeze forever.”

“But you can remove it readily, I’ve seen you do it before!” Ricky begs, “Go ahead, Pabbie, draw the magic out.”

Ashlyn pulls Gina away from Ricky, and he knows they’re acting, but he cannot help but feel small and powerless, seeing her look as frightened now as she had on the porch this morning. All he ever wanted was to help her.

Ricky watches from the side as the ensemble member playing Pabbie lays Gina down gently, and says, “If it were her head, I could. But the heart is not so easily let go.”

Ricky looks between Gina and Ashlyn, and a weird sense of deja vu passes over him.

What is your heart telling you?

“Please, Pabbie, just try,” Ricky’s voice shakes as he pleads again, “Please.”

He pats Ricky’s shoulder reassuringly before heading back to Gina, “I’ll do all I can.”

Ricky nods, lets him know he trusts him, and drapes Anna’s cloak over Gina for comfort before stepping back. The ensemble starts their choreography for the magic spell, and Ricky waits, takes a few deep breaths.

The dance was a walk in the park compared to what Ricky has to steel himself to do now.

A lighter melody starts to interject, and his solo begins.

“What is this hollow kind of helplessness I’m feeling? This type of terror is new,” Ricky starts to sing, one hand clutched close to his heart, kneeling a few steps away from where Gina lays.

“And, the fact that I can hardly breathe is now revealing, how much I’ve changed cause of you.”

Gina’s eyes are closed, but the weight of looking at her while he sings this is not lost on him. He feels it in every part of his body.

He turns to look at the audience after that line, and catches the briefest glimpse of Nini, smiling at him.

You’ve been changing, in a really good way, ever since you showed up to that audition last fall.

Gina is the reason, right?

“I thought that I was strong, ’til I bumped into you.”

Ricky didn’t see Gina coming.

“What do I know about love?” Ricky sings gently, eyes wide and heavy with emotion at the audience, before turning and looking at Gina to repeat, “What do I know about love?”

“Everything I thought I did, you’ve gone and changed it kid.”

Understatement of the century. Last year, he thought the best thing to do to make a show better was to run away from it. Today, he has taken every opportunity to show up for it. He feels his heart physically crumbling in his chest right now in the process. And he would do it all over again, in a heartbeat, the minute he thought she needed him to.

Slowly, Ricky walks back over to Gina, and bends to her level to finish, “You’re what I know about love.”

The ensemble resumes their magic spell, and Ricky closes the small gap left between him and Gina to run a hand comfortingly over her arm. She turns slightly to peek at him, and she looks as breathless as she did last night, eyes searching for something in his.

“It’s no use, only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart,” Ashlyn says softly, interrupting their moment her true forte, “A true love’s kiss, perhaps?”

“True love’s kiss?” Ricky repeats softly, taking one last long look at Gina, before jumping back, a familiar determination in his voice. And he and Kristoff make their choice, the right one for their girl, “We gotta get you back to Hans.”

“Hans,” Gina repeats softly, as Ricky rushes to pick up the hands of his ice cart that has turned to a makeshift carrier for icy cold Anna.

“Olaf, Sven, c’mon!”

They rush off the stage while the other half of the ensemble and Kourtney rush on for Monster, and the audience’s applause fills in while they do.

Ricky drops the handles of his cart gently, and takes his first full breath since they walked on stage, feels the weight of the last ten minutes finally release. He shakes his head as Gina gets up from the cart, and he smiles at her proudly, “We did it!”

She’s a few steps away from him now, and he holds up a hand to high-five her again.

Gina looks at his hand, then up at his face, and rolls her eyes endeared, before shoving his hand away.

“Enough of that!”

And then she throws her arms around his neck and hugs him.

Obviously, Ricky takes a second to be shocked by the sudden action, but only a second, before his arms find their way around her waist and he squeezes her even tighter back.

The hug is so strong and reassuring, familiar even, and Ricky hasn’t felt like this in ages. The strength of his squeeze actually lifts Gina’s feet off the ground, and she giggles into his ears. It is the sweetest sound he’s ever heard.

Ricky forgets where he is and gives into it all, spins her around while they hug even tighter and earns himself even more of that magical, bubbling laughter from his favorite girl.

“Ricky, you were…” Gina holds his face in her hands for a brief moment when they return to standing, her face shining in the brightest smile. She lets her hands fall to his chest, not unlike their previous position on stage, “You were amazing.”

“You were amazing-er.”

“That’s not a word.”

“Sure it is!”

She laughs again, dipping her chin to look down and find his hand. She holds one of his in both of hers, runs her thumb across his wrist soothingly, before her eyes return to his, “I’m really glad it’s you. My Kristoff.”

How is he supposed to breathe after a comment like that?

She saves him from having to try to figure out how to respond to that by taking a step back, pointing to the backstage area,”I should go, get some more white streaks in my hair.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” Ricky nods her on, but she still hasn’t dropped her grip on his hand with one of hers, their arms almost fully outstretched between them.

“Thanks for the moonwalk,” she smiles.

“Anytime,” he smiles back, and they finally let go.

Ricky didn’t see Gina coming.

Not when he stumbled into that HSM audition, not in the skatepark. Not in his car on the way home from homecoming and not when he showed up to Shallow Lake, guitar in hand.

Definitely didn’t tonight, not now, walking towards the barn during the opening night cast party.

“Ricky, hey!”

“Oh!” Ricky stumbles back, avoiding most of the collision with Gina, as it appears she’s walking out.

“Sorry!”

“We have to stop meeting like this,” he jokes, settling one hand nervously into his pocket, “You okay?”

“Yes, just… tired I guess,” she shrugs, “Long day, was thinking of calling it an early night.”

“And avoid Carlos’s performance? Two nights in a row?” He shakes his head at her in mock disdain, and she chuckles.

“Have you heard Carlos’s version of Happy Birthday before? You might wanna make a run for it with me.”

“On second thought…” He plays along, points to the path to the bunks behind them, “A ride to the Yurts and we’ll call it even?”

She nods him on, “Get in there and eat your birthday cake, Kristoff.”

“Can you call me that anymore?”

She laughs.

“No, I’m serious, legally, does Corbin own us now?”

“You’ll always be my Kristoff,” she says softly.

“I did okay?”

“Better,” she smiles, “I was talking to Kourt and Nini, after the show.”

Gulp.

“I mean, I was pretty much piecing it together myself, but it was nice to hear them say it,” she explains, “I know how hard you worked on this for me.”

He tries to be nonchalant about it, suddenly shy about being caught in the act, “Nah, I mean, I didn’t wanna let you down, anyone down, you know? I’ve done it often.”

“Maybe, maybe some people see you that way,” she says thoughtfully, “But I never have.”

“I’m sure at least once—“

“Never,” she shakes her head, certain, ”You’ve always shown up for me, without me ever having to ask you to. It means more than you know.”

“I think I kinda do, know how much that means.”

“You always know,” and she says it like she means it in a lot more ways than just this moment, “And I heard the documentary went really well, so this wasn’t for nothing, you know?”

“That’s amazing, yeah?”

Did she hear something? Did she work things out with EJ? Is he staying? Did it work?

“Yeah,” she nods, “Anyway, enough about me. You’re not actually looking for an escape are you, guest of honor?”

If Ricky’s being honest, he did come out here for a very specific reason.

All his conversations today, with each of his friends, felt like it was leading him to this moment. He owed this documentary working out to Gina, but maybe he owed it to himself to say yes for once.

He had the whole thing worked out in his mind. He ran back to his bunk to grab Gina’s bag she had left behind last night to give back to her, complete with a surprise inside, to tell her how he felt.

It had seemed like exactly the right thing to do in the moment, going back to his cabin to grab it, high on the adrenaline of opening night, the way she hugged him in the wings, the knowing looks from his friends and the encouraging ones too.

But he wonders if it really is the right thing?

She smiles, talking about the success of the documentary, and it feels like his answer.

She was happy. She was happy this way.

“You forgot your bag last night,” Ricky says simply, holding it out to her.

“Knew my breath smelled bad all day for a reason,” she jokes, taking it from him, “You were holding my toothpaste hostage.”

“Guilty,” he shrugs, letting the last bit of hope he had go with the bag fully out of his hands now.

“How’d you know I’d be making a quick escape, and you had to get this to me now?”

“Don’t I always know?” Ricky tries to ask lightheartedly, but there’s a lingering sadness on his voice, “Plus, this is our thing. Leaving dances early together.”

“Seems like it,” she laughs, but it feels sad too, “Should we skip Homecoming altogether this year?”

“Maybe,” he says, pointedly.

“Was that it?” She asks.

Last chance.

She’s happy this way.

“Yeah, yeah, just wanted you to have that back,” he nods. He feels like he could start crying any second, and he promised Carlos no tears, so he thinks its probably wisest to run back to his bunk real quick to get it out before returning to blow out the candles, so he starts to head for the stairs, “You know, I actually think I left something else, in the yurt.”

“Oh, yeah,” Gina steps to the side, lets him go, “I also am realizing I should probably tell Ash where I’m going, before she sends out a search party for me again.”

“Smart,” he quips, hands in his pocket, skips off the last stair, “Well, goodnight, Gi.”

“Goodnight, Ricky.”

He counts down, tries to steady his breathing with each number as he starts to walk off, keep his tears in so she can’t hear them, his back turned to her now, five… four…

“Ricky, wait!”

He pauses.

The urgency to her voice turns him around.

She’s on the last step to the barn, just under the awning of the porch, with her bag open in her hands, holding his bucket list.

“You left your list in here!”

Shit.

He was hoping he’d make it more than three steps away before she found that, what was supposed to be his ticket to a really sweet, romantic confession. To saying yes. He figured once she found it, when he was gone, it’d be easier to play off.

But Gina always catches him when he least expects it.

“Oh, my bad, sorry,” he tries to wave her off, but her eyes are already scanning all over the page.

“It’s crossed off.”

“Hmm?”

“Say yes to something that scares me,” she reads, and holds the paper to face him, like he can see it, “It’s crossed off.”

Think fast, Ricky, think.

“Right, turns out, I actually am scared of heights!” He says, through a strained laugh, his hand motions exaggerated, “I went up the rock wall after the show—“

His lie is a terrible one, but she would have never bought it anyway, because the next thing she pulls out of her bag is the second part of his romantic plan.

How could he have been so stupid and forgotten about that? He had meant to take it out.

He watches her eyes dart all over it. It’s a polaroid Maddox had snapped of the two of them during dress rehearsal a few days ago.   It’s Ricky’s favorite picture, because he can practically hear Gina’s giggle coming right through it. She’s leaning on his shoulder, eyes looking up at him, as he makes a ridiculous face at the camera, trying to make the best of his truly ridiculous costume (and really, as always, doing anything to hear his favorite sound in the world.)

When he had been hopeful that maybe he was reading it all wrong, that she didn’t need him to help keep EJ in Salt Lake, Ricky had scribbled a little ‘yes’ on the bottom of the polaroid. Because admitting his feelings was probably the scariest thing he could think of. He crossed it off the list. He thought she’d love the grand gesture.

But now they’re looking at each other again, breathless and confused and… hopeful. Theres a few feet between them that feels like miles. He wishes he had a script to stick to, some way to know what’s supposed to happen next.

“Ricky,” she starts softly, “This is…”

“We can forget that—“

“I don’t want to,” she insists, “What does this mean?”

He isn’t sure how to answer.

She looks at him intently and repeats, “I’m not leaving. I’m not quitting, and I want you to say it.”

Everything he’s done this summer has been to make Gina happy. And it’s gotten him this far. He figures he should take the leap, and do it again. Maybe it could make him happy too.

“Was it real?”

She wants him to say it.

“Say it, Ricky,” Gina says, barely above a whisper, so faint he just hears it, the space between them, “Say yes.”

For the first time in months, he takes a step towards her.

“Was it real?” she repeats.

“Yes.”

Her breath comes out like an ocean wave, loud and strong, the second he says it. His are shallow, nervous, hopeful.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted to,” he starts timidly, then thinks better of it, feels like he owes her the whole truth, “You know what? No. I didn’t want to.”

“What?”

“I didn’t want to tell you, because I knew what it would do to you. I knew it would confuse you, and hurt you, to know we had gotten the timing wrong so many times. To know that maybe you quit, but I let you,” Ricky’s voice grows more intense with each word, “I didn’t want you feeling any of that. I just wanted you to be happy.”

“Since when do you get to decide what makes me happy?” Gina matches his energy beat for beat, “You didn’t seem to know it last spring!”

It’s a low blow, but she’s right. He continues, “Were you happy, this summer, Gi? The end of the school year, with him?”

“Yeah—“

“So—“

“Let me finish,” she warns, “But not as happy as I could have been.”

“You said it yourself, Gina, I hurt you last semester,” Ricky tries to explain, “And when I showed up here, you were smiling. I was not going to be responsible for losing that for you, just because I had feelings—“

“Don’t you get it, Ricky?” She cries, “It’s been real for me since Homecoming! My feelings for you have invaded every part of my life.”

“I didn’t want that for you.”

“That’s what you’re missing, I did!” Gina yells back, “I wanted you in my head all the time, when I woke up, when I got a good piece of news, when my costumes looked ridiculous, when I was missing my mom. I wanted you to be there, for all of it.”

Ricky can feel his heart hammering in his chest.

“My life is a million times happier with you in it, in every part of it, even at our most complicated and messy, than it is with someone else there, being perfect.”

“Gina, I—“

“I spent all last year thinking I made things up, imagined the way you looked at me, the things you said to me, the way you made me feel,” Gina continues, “And hearing maybe I was wrong? That maybe I didn’t imagine it all, when I heard what you said in the documentary this morning?”

“Yeah?”

“Ricky, I have never been happier in my entire life.”

“I thought you moved on.”

She shakes her head, “I moved away. I could never really move on.”

“It was real,” he echoes, just so she can hear it again, “It was real.”

“But you told me it wasn’t,” she reminds him, “And that was real too. It really hurt.”

“I’m sorry, Gi—“

“It really messed with my head,” she says, “What am I supposed to think, if I made it clear you could tell me, and you still didn’t?”

“You should think that I was just trying to do what I thought would make you happy. I was trying to make things less awkward between us, so the show would go well tonight and EJ’s dad would be impressed, and he could stay with you.”

“That’s—“ she lets the sentence fall, paces on the step she’s standing on, “I didn’t ask you to do that.”

“I know,” he nods, “And you never would have. But you deserved to have everything you wanted. You mom, the lead role, EJ—“

“I wanted you!”

“Gina, I know I messed up, believe me, I have been replaying all the things I did wrong over and over again, studying them like I could learn how to do better,” Ricky takes another step forward, “But the past isn’t going to help me. Not with you. Everything that’s amazing about you is that you’re nothing familiar, nothing the same.”

He watches her chest rise and fall heavily, once, twice.

“You’re all future for me, Gi.”

“Ricky—“

“Saying yes, admitting that was real, to you, tonight, might have been the scariest thing I’ve ever had to face,” he says, “But while we’re here you might as well cross off play the lotto, because I think I won the jackpot the night you stormed out of Homecoming and needed a ride home.”

She looks up from her feet and finds his eyes.

“How many people are lucky enough to say that? That they met their person, the one person in the world who gets them, at just seventeen?” Ricky’s voice isn’t shaking, like this morning. He has never felt so assured in every word, “Tonight was scary, because I thought there was a possibility that saying yes would mean losing you, my favorite person in the world. But I meant what I said. You have never been scary to me, Gina.”

“Ricky, please don’t say anything you don’t mean,” Gina shakes her head, “We’re all emotional, the night of opening. I know, I said things to you last year—“

“You wouldn’t quit on us,” he remembers every word she said that night, remembers the feel of her hot tears, the threat of his own behind his eyes, “We had the time.”

“We had the time,” she repeats, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.

“I would have done anything in the world this summer, to make you happy, Gi.”

“Were you happy?”

“You thought about it?”

“Nini and Lily—“

“They’re not you.”

“EJ—“

“I’m not saying all of this to you right now, so you feel like you have to pick me,” Ricky shakes his head, “There’s no choice. This isn’t like, some game. It’s not me or him and it never has been. It’s you, Gi.”

“Ricky—“

“And I don’t want to put you in any kind of uncomfortable situation, so pretend the plane crashed after this, I don’t know, and this whole thing went up in smoke and got erased forever,” Ricky rambles, “And you get to be happy, with EJ, in Salt Lake. And that will make me happier than you know.”

“If you ever let me finish a sentence—“

“I love you,” he says, never more sure of anything in his life, “I don’t know, that’s it. I had something planned, but loving you is so simple, Gi, I feel like thats it. I love you.”

The hope in her eyes switches to assuredness.

“I just, I wanted you to know.”

She nods.

And like magic, the skies open up.

The first drop of California rain in two weeks hits Ricky square on the nose.

With the magic of the rain fall coming, its no wonder the sound of Gina’s laughter, Ricky’s favorite magic in the world, follows suit.

Gina lets her bag spill on the floor of the barn porch, throws it away without paying it any mind, and runs the distance between them, until her nose almost touches his.

She breathes heavily for a beat, and another, as the rain takes over them, and she looks at the sky, laughing.

When her gaze finds his again, she whispers, “You have to kiss me.”

“What?”

“You have to kiss me now,” she says, through the brightest smile in the middle of a nighttime rainstorm, “It’s raining.”

“I can’t—“

“I’ll do it if you won’t.”

The mischievous glint in her eyes is one of Ricky’s favorites, second only to the way that she looks when she laughs. Cross off play the lotto again, because how lucky he got to see both, this close, within the span of a minute.

Ricky grabs her face and gives Gina her first kiss in the rain.

Gina responds with lighting speed, wraps her arms around him and pulls him closer than humanly possible, find this lips again and again in the rain. Its messy and imperfect and everything.

Ricky thought the way she almost kissed him last night was better than imagined. Actually kissing her? Like he’s walking on the moon.

She giggles on his nose when they pull apart for a breath, and who is he to let that beautiful sound go to waste? He kisses her again.

“It’s real,” she whispers, sounds like she can’t believe it, “You’re real.”

“I think so?” He laughs, his hands settling around her waist as she holds his face in hers.

“Let me check,” she quips, kisses his left cheek, “Real.”

He smiles wider than he thought he could, as she continues her bit, kissing his right cheek and his nose, “Also real.”

She kisses his forehead, “Real,” and his temple, “Real.” Kisses his nose again, because she loves the way it tickles him, “Double checking,” and kisses one of a million raindrops his face, his chin, his lips, “You’re real.”

“Glad we sorted that out.”

“I’ve been meaning to think of the right way to wish you a happy birthday.”

“Go ahead,” he nods her on, their noses bumping adorably.

“Oh, that was it,” she hums, “That was the happy birthday.”

Ricky tosses his head back in the brightest, silliest laughter.

He’d say it was magic, but it was all real.

“This has been the longest two weeks of my life.”

“Sweetie, you’ve been here two days.”

Carlos and Seb are bickering pleasantly as they throw their stuff in Ricky’s trunk the next morning, ready to head home.

“I feel like I lived the whole thing with you in those two days,” Seb’s eyes are wide and worried, and Ricky thinks he’s probably not wrong. These two days have been the longest for him too.

“The emotional weight of what we’ve had to witness here is sitting like a pit in my stomach as if I ate three whole pizzas,” Big Red explains, tossing his bag into the trunk too, “Without a lactose pill.”

“So I take it we haven’t convinced you to join us next year?” Carlos laughs, using most of his body weight to try to close the trunk. Ricky uses one hands to help him just it with ease.

“Depending on how the next few days go, I might have to sit next year out with them,” Ricky says, and Carlos rolls his eyes.

“You know, you guys really don’t have to ride home with me,” Ricky drops his voice almost to a whisper, leans into Carlos to say, “I know you came here with EJ. I don’t want you to have to feel like picking a side, or anything—“

“Um, I’m totally picking a side,” Carlos says, almost sounds offended, “And I’m kinda hurt you ever thought I wouldn’t be picking you.”

“I didn’t mean—“

“I actually finally got your birthday gift,” Carlos holds a hand up to him, halting his protest, and turns to pull something out of the tote bag on his shoulder.

Ricky can’t help the gasping laughter when Carlos sets it in his hand, “Your twig arms!”

“I’m ready to fight for you, bro.“

“I’ll admit, I was a little dramatic yesterday, but today?” Rickys brows kit with worry, “Feels like these twigs are really gonna have to get used, Los.”

“And I’m prepared for that.”

“Do you think he knows?”

“It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out something was up between the two of you when you finally reappeared for birthday cake,” Carlos explains, “You might have been standing on opposite sides of the room, not speaking to each other, but you and Gina were the only two drenched in rain.”

“He could assume we just bumped into each other outside!” Ricky tries to reason, “Which, is true.”

“You were giggling, Ricky,” Carlos drawls, “And it was easy to assume why. Unless of course, you’re suggesting my heartfelt performance for you was funny…”

“Never!”

“Look, lets go over the facts before we spiral again,” Carlos says, “You had unresolved feelings for Gina.”

“Correct.”

“You almost kissed her at camp prom but didn’t.”

“Yes.”

“You tried to spare her feelings and lied about said feelings.”

Ricky nods.

“You were, and still are, unaware of the status of her relationship with EJ.”

“Very much so.”

“And not knowing this information, you told her you loved her.”

“Yup.”

“Kissed her in the rain.”

“Several times.”

“And haven’t talked to her about it since?”

Ricky nods, watching Carlos do the math on the events in his head, “So? What’s the verdict.”

“Yeah, you should keep those twig arms available.”

“Carlos!” Ricky groans, and slams his head onto the top of the car, dejectedly.

“Do you think EJ knows the West Side Story rumble choreography?”

Seb pulls Carlos away, a worried smile, “Maybe we should hit the road before Los starts snapping to Sondheim.”

“Excellent idea, Seb!” Ricky agrees, running around the front of the car and getting swiftly into the drivers seat. Carlos and Seb file into the back seat, and Big Red is tucking into the passenger side.

“Alright, everyone in? Got all our belongings? All our feelings? All our arms?” Ricky turns and asks each of his passengers, shifting his car into gear so they can exit fast.

“Yes! Nothing missing!”

“Normally, I’d ask to play some show tunes, but I need a detox,” Carlos says, as Ricky starts to slowly pull away and towards the camp exit, “I think I’ll sleep half the way home—“

“Wait!”

Big Red’s sudden outburst brings Ricky to a screeching halt, foot quickly on the brakes.

“What—“

“Sleep,” Big Red sighs, “I left a piece of my c-pap machine in the bunk.”

“You serious?”

“I’m gonna run and get it—“

“As fast as you can!” Carlos yells out his window, Big Red already flinging his door open to run, “This could very well decide if Ricky walks out of here with a black eye or not.”

“Can we maybe not put that energy into the universe?”

“You know, cows have a lot of really good self-defense mechanisms,” Seb leans forward to try to offer.

“Really?”

“Strong hooves.”

“Ugh,” Ricky drops his head onto the wheel, the horn beeping loudly, “Why do the yurts have to be so far?”

His heart rate is picking up, and he’s so worried his director is gonna find him before Big Red gets back. He’s only been gone a minute, at most, but it’s felt like an hour.

Ricky starts to count, to try to calm his nerves.

Five… four… three… two…

“Do you guys have room for one more?”

Ricky opens his eyes and turns sharply to the voice outside the passenger seat window.

Gina shrugs her shoulders up, a bag in each hand, a smile on her face.

“Gina, what—“

“I wanna say yes too,” she nods.

What the hell is going on? He has to be still asleep, right?

“But EJ—“

“We broke up,” Gina fills in the gaps for him quickly, “On the day of camp prom, actually.”

The day of camp prom… that means… the past two days he’s been agonizing over this… they haven’t been together…

“I thought—“

“You never let me finish my sentences last night, so I’m not letting you today,” Gina says emphatically, “I love you, Ricky.”

Not the first time in the past 24 hours Ricky has forgotten how to breathe.

“I love you so much, it’s the first thing to scare me in years. And moving around so much, I learned to not be scared of anything. But my feelings for you were so new and different, and have somehow made me, even when I was upset, the happiest girl in the world,” she continues, “EJ tried to say he loved me the other night, to keep me from breaking up with him, but I couldn’t. Saying it to him felt hard, like a chore.”

Ricky swallows thickly.

“But the thought of getting to say it to you felt like coming up for air,” Gina smiles, “Like rain after the longest two-week drought.”

He has to be dreaming, right?

“You’re right, it was never a choice,” she nods, “It was always you.”

Always. Ricky thinks that’s the most beautiful word in the world, suddenly.

“I’m sorry,” Ricky says, “For not letting you finish your sentences last night.”

“Give me a ride and we’ll call it even?”

The silence between them as they look into each others eyes now is different than it ever has been. Everything out in the open. Everything real, everything right.

“Would you open the door for her, please, Ricky? This is getting exhausting!” Carlos yelps from the back seat, and who is Ricky not to oblige?

He leans over, and pulls the handle, lets the door swing open to her, ushers his future in with the most beautiful laughter in the world on it.

Everything feels so right with her sitting there, like the night of homecoming, when he had no idea how his life would change from that moment.

Big Red runs back into view just as Gina is getting comfortable in her seat, and she immediately starts to apologize, offers to move.

“You know, maybe if I had left six months ago, we would have gotten here sooner!” Big Red yelps, opening the side door to the back seat and squeezing in beside Carlos.

The car is loud and full of life, as Ricky tries once again, to shift into gear to drive them out of here. But for the first time in a while, he’s in no rush to get anywhere, to figure it out.

He smiles at the way Carlos yells that he’s reinvigorated and fights Gina for aux, how Seb laughs at Big Red and offers to hold the piece of his c-pap machine in his lap. He sees his new friends outside the car, Maddox and Jet waving him away, huddled closer together than ever. He sees Nini laughing with Kourt as they lug her things into her moms’ car for the trip home. He could get lost in this moment for hours, and have nothing to complain about.

He is so, so happy.

For real, this time.

Ricky feels Gina’s hand on his, and it snaps him out of his daze.

“You ready to go?”

Gina smiles at him.

“Yes.”