Chapter Text
Ricky Bowen, Salt Lake High’s resident theater kid
Gina Porter, Salt Lake High’s newest transfer student.
Neither kid knew who noticed who first.
~
Gennive Porter spent her lunch period running Correo, not as she needed it; she had it down since Carlos sent out the video. But dancing kept her from crying and honestly, she could feel the tears bubbling up since she left the principal's office. One thing she had known since she was a little girl was, “Don’t let anyone see you cry, don’t show weakness” So, Gina Porter lived her life with walls up, she wasn’t a mean girl, she just thought it was easier for people to fear her than to for people to get close to her. She never knew when her mother would make her pack her tiny life in boxes and leave again.
So, Gina Porter lived with walls up.
Richard Bowen sat with Nini Salazar-Roberts under his arm, half listening to her talk about the audition processes. His mind wasn’t on that, instead his family was on the edge of destruction. His mom has been out since before school started. He knew they weren't going to last much longer, but he held onto hope, just like he did with his girlfriend. They had known each other since kindergarten, the two were destined to be together but Ricky was starting to highly doubt that fact, whether it be the pretty girl he kept catching eyes with, or, more importantly, the fact he couldn’t say he loved her back, he should have ended their relationship then and there; but he couldn’t stand to see Nini upset and he hated being the reason why.
Shit, his parents were getting divorced because of him.
“What do you know about Gina Porter” Her name brought him back to reality,
Gina Porter,
stupid, Beautiful, selfish, perfect,
Gina porter,
What’s there to know?
“Not much why” he glanced down at her, frantically pulling at her hair. He followed her line of sight and let them land on Gina who had walked into lunch at the very last moment, knowing she needed to eat something, glancing up from her she saw the stare of a boy she couldn’t help but notice in the three weeks she had been at this school. The daggers she shot back were poised, practiced, and perfected. They had worked so far, she had made no friends and she was not about to start with the pretty skater boy with the scared-looking girlfriend.
He looked away just as fast,
“I saw her name on the list, did a little digging” She looked at him “She’s differently gonna get Gabrellia” Ricky didn’t mean to ask to look and he didn’t mean to stare at her, her pretty hips and the way they moved,
What the fuck was she doing at a place like this.
He had no real reason to hate her, it was just her attitude, the way she carried herself like she was above everyone else. Like she was royalty, it was fake he could tell.
Well, that and the fact she won’t leave his mind.
~
Ricky Coasted through the audition, he had Tory in the bag. EJ, his biggest competitor, was going out for Chad, he had nothing to worry about.
Gina, on the other hand, did.
Precious Nini was much better than she expected, she had introduced herself to the brunette earlier she sounded scared, new to the harsh world of theater, but when she started to sing, she sang
And suddenly Gina was intimidated,
Which was why she worked extra hard on her audition, why she started right at her during her last high kick, and why she almost fell when she saw Ricky kiss her.
She had no real reason to hate him,
But everything about him got under her skin,
Especially how he made her feel.
And when he was cast as Troy
And she was cast as Gabrellia,
They both knew they had to put their hatred aside.