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𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗬

chapter seven:
athena puts ej in his place !

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THE NEXT DAY at rehearsal, Athena sat in between Ricky and Ashlyn in the bomb shelter. A wide smile was on her face as she watched the dancers, especially Violetta, kill it with their routine of Stick to the Status Quo. Athena could just tell that her best friend's heart was completely encaptured in the dance number from the pure joy in her expression.

However, as she sat next to Ricky, she couldn't help but feel a sort of tension in the air between them. What happened yesterday was . . . really weird. They had literally just stared at each other for a couple long moments without saying a word. Something different was between them now, but Athena couldn't figure out what.

Finally, Gina came in with her big solo. It was actually supposed to be a duet between her and Nini, but Nini was nowhere to be found. Athena stared at the girl in amazement as she struck her final pose.

"Everybody hold!" Miss Jenn announced. She walked over towards the door, and Athena turned to see Nini come in the room. "Nini, where were you? We've been here for an hour."

"I'm so sorry," Nini apologized as she rushed into the room. "I — I lost my phone and basically spent last night living as a hunter-gatherer. Which, by the way, did you know there are things that are only on TV at a certain time? Okay, anyway, I finally picked it up in the lost and found and — wait, did you say an hour?"

"Gina sent you and me a text asking if we could come in early so she could talk through a new idea. You didn't get it?"

"No, because my phone was missing."

Miss Jenn sighed. "Well, honey, you've gotta keep better track of your stuff. A real triple threat means singing, acting, and being organized."

Nini nodded. "Got it."

"Well, if you had been here, you'd know that Gina pitched a whole new dance break for Gabriella and Taylor in the middle of Status Quo, and she had Carlos work it all out with her, and it is just dazzling."

"You and Carlos," Nini commented to Gina, while Gina held out a bedazzled lunch tray to her.

"Gina, why don't you hydrate and show Nini the new choreo, would you?" Miss Jenn suggested.

Athena locked eyes with Violetta from across the room. Violetta nodded her head quickly, beckoning her to come over. She got up from her seat and walked over to the girl who was stretching on the floor. Violetta pulled her down to sit next to her.

"What's going on with you?" Athena questioned. "You're acting paranoid."

Violetta leaned closer to her. "This whole situation seems sketchy. Think about it. Nini loses her phone, and miraculously, Gina decides to schedule a whole new dance number out of the blue."

Athena's eyes widened. "You think Gina stole Nini's phone?"

"You saw her at the audition. She wanted Gabriella, and bad. That look of disappointment on her face after she saw the cast list made me realize that she would probably do anything to get what she wanted."

"But she's not Gabriella's Understudy," Athena replied in confusion. "I am."

"Exactly," Violetta whispered urgently. "If this plan is going where I think it is, she'll knock out Nini and then knock out you. And if she thinks she's getting away with that, she's horribly mistaken."

Athena shook her head. "I don't think she'd do that . . . would she?"

"That girl is incredibly ambitious," Violetta explained. "This could just be one big master plan, and I don't want you to get caught up in the middle of it."

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over the two of them. Athena looked up to see Ricky standing there.

"Hey," Athena greeted, pretending like everything was normal. "What's up, Ricky?"

"Attie, can I — um, can I talk to you for a moment?" Ricky asked.

"Oh," she voiced. "Yeah, sure. I'll be right back, Vi."

Athena stood back up from the ground. Ricky walked over to the counters in the room, where no one was around. Athena leaned her hip against the counter and stared up at Ricky.

She could tell that he was nervous. Of course she could. When Ricky was nervous, he would always fidget with the ends of his sleeves or run his fingers through his hair. In this case, he was doing both.

"Ricky," Athena said gently. "What's got you so anxious?"

"Uh . . ." Ricky trailed off. "Did you get my voicemail yesterday?"

Athena's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What voicemail?"

Ricky chuckled nervously. "What do you mean? I called you yesterday."

She frowned, almost positive that he never called her yesterday. Athena took her phone out of her back pocket and unlocked it. She checked to see if there were any voicemails from him, but there was absolutely nothing.

Athena held up her phone screen for him to see. "I don't have any voicemails from you. If I did, I would've answered."

Ricky's eyes widened. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and scrambled to unlock it. Athena watched him both in confusion and concern as he did so. Ricky stared at his phone for a moment before squeezing his eyes shut.

"Oh my God, I called Nini," Ricky voiced. "I swear, Attie, I meant to call you yesterday."

She gave him a reassuring smile. "It's okay, Ricky. You accidentally called her instead of me. Mistakes are made. It's not a big deal."

"No, Athena, you don't understand. The voicemail I left . . . it was extremely personal and was meant for you only."

"Um, all right. What did you say on it?"

Ricky seemed at a loss for words. Athena blinked at him. Never in her life had she seen Ricky so choked up. Athena guessed whatever he said on that voicemail was making him nervous to say straight to her face. But they told each other everything . . . what changed?

(Well, not everything. Their feelings for each other were hidden deep underneath the surface.)

"You don't have to tell me," Athena finally told him at last. "I'll talk to Nini later and tell her what happened."

She smiled gently at him. Athena pushed her hip off the counter and turned to walk back to Violetta.

"Athena," Ricky interjected, making her look back at him. "If you ever listen to that voicemail, please just know . . . everything I said on there is true."

She nodded. "Got it."

Athena walked back to Violetta, completely confused. She had no idea what he was talking about, but whatever it was had to be important. Athena sat down next to Violetta and stared ahead of her.

"What was that all about?" Violetta inquired. "You all right?"

Athena snapped out of her trance and put a fake smile on her face. "Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

Oh, what a lie that was.

--- ☆ • ♫ • ♪ • ♫ • ☆ ---

ATHENA WALKED DOWN the hallway, on a break from rehearsal right now since Ricky was blocking a scene with EJ (that definitely wasn't going to end well.) The rest of the cast was dispersed around the bomb shelter, but Athena was feeling slightly off that day, so she decided to take a walk throughout the school.

To be honest, she had been slightly off ever since her conversation with Ricky yesterday. Athena had talked to Nini and it turned out that there was no voicemail from Ricky whatsoever. That just added to Athena's confusion more. He had seemed so frantic yesterday and didn't respond to any of her texts last night.

Something was going on, and Athena had no clue what it was. Everything about it made her head spin.

She turned the corner, only to see Ricky standing in the middle of the hallway by the boys' bathroom. Athena frowned at his nervous state. Once again, he was fidgeting with his shirt sleeves and running his fingers through his hair. Despite this completely confusing situation, concern settled into her heart.

"Ricky," she called, walking up to him. "Hey, what happened? I thought you were supposed to be blocking that Troy and Chad scene with EJ."

"Yeah, about that," Ricky responded, averting his gaze from her. "I — uh, I may or may not have assaulted EJ Caswell with a basketball?"

Athena blinked. She was not expecting that. "I'm sorry, you did what?"

"We were practicing a scene where we were throwing a basketball back and forth while talking, and things began to get a little too real. The next thing I know, I throw the basketball a little too hard at his face and busted his lip open."

Athena placed her hand to her forehead. "Oh my God, Ricky, you can't just go around hitting people with basketballs. That's not how we solve our problems."

"I didn't mean to!" he exclaimed.

She sighed, lowering her hand and nodding her head to the door of the bathroom. "Go apologize to him."

"Do I have to?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Ricky."

Ricky threw his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'm going."

He then entered the bathroom. Athena leaned against the wall next to the door with crossed arms and waited for one of them to come out. Maybe being the mediator between them would create at least some peace. After a couple of minutes, EJ Caswell came out of the bathroom with a busted lip and an angry expression painted across his face.

"Hey, you okay, EJ?" Athena questioned, pushing herself off the wall.

EJ rolled his eyes and roughly bumped her shoulder with his own when walking past her. "Why would you care? All you care about is Ricky apparently, so go talk to him instead."

"Hey," Athena stated loudly, turning to face the boy. First she gets into a fight with Nini, and now she's entering a fight with EJ. What was going on with her? "Just because you're frustrated at Ricky does not mean you get to take your anger out on me."

He whirled around. "Just, please, Athena, stay away from me. I don't need to hear a lecture from you right now. In fact, I have bigger problems to focus on. Like that voicemail—"

EJ suddenly stopped. Athena slowly straightened up and lowered her arms to her sides.

"Voicemail," she repeated. "What voicemail?"

"Uh, nothing," EJ rushed out.

Athena began piecing all of the pieces together. "You listened to that voicemail Ricky meant to send to me, which means . . . you were the one to steal Nini's phone, not Gina."

EJ winced. "She was actually the one who initiated it."

Athena scoffed incredulously. "Oh my God, Violetta was right. She really would do anything to get what she wants."

"Listen to me, Athena, you cannot tell Nini," EJ voiced sternly. "If you do, she will never forgive me."

"Keeping it a secret from her instead of coming clean about it will make her hate you even more," Athena argued. "This won't end well either way for you, but it's better to be honest than to lie."

EJ sighed and looked down at her. "Did you know that Nini told Ricky she loved him?"

Athena nodded slowly. "Uh, yeah. That's kind of why they're in this whole situation . . . where have you been?"

"I've been trying to keep Nini as my girlfriend, thank you very much."

She rolled her eyes. "Listen, EJ. I know we're not friends or anything, but coming from a girl's perspective, you have to give Nini her phone back  and tell her you're the one who stole it. And I'm not telling this to benefit you, I'm telling you this to benefit Nini. Her and I have been friends for, like, two days, but I can already tell that she's the sweetest girl and deserves the world. If you can't give it to her and just keep feeding her lies, then I don't know why you're still her boyfriend."

EJ went silent after that. Athena tilted her head and looked up at him, waiting for him to say something, anything. Ricky came out of the bathroom after that and looked between him and Athena in confusion.

"Everything okay out here?" Ricky questioned through the tense silence.

EJ glared at him and then looked down at the brunette. "I'll see you later, Blake."

"Bye, Caswell," Athena replied. "Remember what I said."

He nodded sadly and turned around. As he walked away, Athena let out a deep breath and looked down at the floor. She found a sudden interest in the way her white sneakers were incredibly dirty compared to the linoleum floors of the hallway. Basically, anything to keep her focus off of Ricky.

"What was that about?" Ricky inquired, his stomach bubbling with jealousy.

"Hmm?" Athena hummed and looked up. "Oh, nothing."

Ricky raised his eyebrows. "Are you sure?"

Athena had to look away in order to not drown in his brown eyes that could make her confess anything. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

She didn't give him a chance to respond. Athena sped-walked down the hallway, leaving a very confused Ricky behind. She had to find Violetta, and fast. Things were really spiraling out of control now.

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the way I could not figure out how to end this chapter

also can someone try and talk me out of making a barry allen fic bc I might act up and do it. like no joke I might have a plot in mind BUT I DO NOT HAVE THE TIME