Nadia watched as Ashlyn made her way outside where EJ was waiting for all of them in his car. Them being Nadia herself, Marcus, Ashlyn, Carlos, Gina, and Kourtney since they had all planned the road trip to Camp Shallow Lake together.

Nadia then looked back in the mirror, fixing up her hair a bit even though they would be sitting in the car for a few hours. She just felt the need to look good in front of her boyfriend, EJ, even though he told her countless times that she always looked beautiful no matter what.

Her eyes then traveled down onto the dresser below the mirror, staring at the letter from the college that she had applied to...Duke. She had applied all over to whatever school she had been somewhat interested it and she assumed that she hadn't gotten into Duke since she never received a letter. Until, it came in the mail with a note attached to it that said the original one had gotten lost in the mail.

And she had gotten in.

She had gotten in the school that EJ originally didn't get into.

She didn't know what to say to him so...she didn't tell him yet. She didn't want to ruin the summer for him.

She then took the letter and shoved it in her bag, promising herself to try and find a way to tell her boyfriend before the summer came to an end.

She then looked over at her brother, who was busy staring at his phone and sulking on the couch. She sighed. "How many times are you gonna be reading that text, Marcus?" she questioned, raising her eyebrows. His boyfriend had recently broke up with him since he would be moving across the country for college and he didn't want to do long distance, so Marcus had been a bit...sad to say the least.

Marcus didn't answer her as he just kept reading the breakup text, trying to read in between the lines to see if his boyfriend had meant something else by it, but he was having no luck. Nadia sighed again. "Okay, well, I'm heading out to the car. Don't be too long," she told her twin and she grabbed her bag, moving towards the door.

She walked outside, seeing EJ's car parked in front of Ashlyn's house since Nadia and Marcus had stayed the night to make it easier for him to pick them up.

"Nadia, come on," EJ urged sweetly as he watched his girlfriend walk over.

"There she is!" Kourtney said from the back-back seat next to Carlos. Ashlyn and Gina were sitting in the back, with an open space for Marcus to fit in.

"Yesss, that's my bestie!" Ashlyn squealed before Nadia hopped in the front seat next to EJ.

"Ash, I love you, but never say that again," Nadia told the girl, even though she was partly joking.

"Noted."

"Oh, and before Marcus comes, I just want to tell you all not to mention his ex boyfriend at all. Even though they broke up three weeks ago, he's still been weird about it, so I just want to warn you all not to,
or we're gonna have a car ride full of tears," Nadia warned them all.

They all gave each other a glance before they replied, "Got it."

Marcus then came walking out, a frown on his face as he reached the car and plopped himself in the back seat next to Ashlyn. "Hey," he whispered and they all greeted him kindly, not wanting to upset him. "Jesus, Nadia, what did you say to them?"

"What?! Nothing!" Nadia quickly denied, quickly shaking her head as EJ let out a laugh. "Oh, shut up," she shoved him playfully.

"Hey! Never touch the driver!" EJ responded, although he had a bright grin spread across his face.

"Well, that'll be hard, won't it?" she said cheekily, making his cheeks burn red.

"You two are gross, let's just go," Marcus huffed, making them all chuckle.

"Whoo!" all the girls in the back exclaimed excitedly.

Gina then connected her phone to the car's Bluetooth and went to High School Music 2's, "What Time Is It". EJ then started the car as Gina played the song, all of them singing and dancing to the music.

Since Nadia had spent the time before going to the summer camp watching all the High School Musical related things, she was caught up on everything. And she couldn't be happier singing one of its songs with all her closest friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Camp Shallow Lake, y'all. My second home," EJ told them all with a large smile and Nadia excitedly gripped his arm.

"Don't you have a second home?" Gina pointed out.

"No, my second-second home," EJ corrected like it was obvious.

"No need to brag, Mr. Caswell," Nadia told him before she leaned in and whispered in his ear, "Although I would like to see your second home after this."

EJ grinned. "I can make that happen," he assured her.

"Okay, yeah, I don't even want to know what she just said to you," Marcus whined, his face scrunched up in disgust.

Nadia and EJ both laughed before the latter said, "Come on. Seriously, I came to this camp an athlete and — and became an athlete-actor. You come to Shallow Lake one way and you just become something else. It happens to everyone, though."

"Wow. And I thought this was a vacation," Ashlyn commented.

"That better not mean I'm gonna turn straight because..." Marcus trailed off, holding his hands up in defense as the others laughed at his joke.

"Oh God, I hope not," Carlos agreed, shaking his head.

"Are those Wildcats I see?" a girl called out to the group, pulling a wagon behind her. They all looked over at her, giving her a smile even though they didn't know her. She then looked at EJ and greeted, "What's up, Rocket Man?"

"Hey, how you doing, Gadget?" EJ said as he pulled her into one of those bro hugs.

"What language are they using?" Gina asked Ashlyn and Nadia.

"I don't know," Ashlyn answered.

"No idea," Nadia said at the same time.

"Ready for a good summer?" EJ asked the girl, who's name was supposedly Gadget.

"Oh, yeah, dude," she playfully punched his arm and EJ nodded.

"All right, it's five minutes in and I already miss Seb," Carlos spoke up.

"Oh, and I miss Biggie," Ashlyn pouted as she gave Carlos a side hug. "Remember how we said we weren't gonna do that? This is our Wildcat summer adventure and we're going angst-less."

"I just feel naked without my angst," Carlos responded.

"You guys are lucky you still have your boyfriends," Marcus rolled his eyes. Carlos and Ashlyn looked at Nadia for help, and she just shook her head at them to tell them "don't worry about it."

"All right. I'm just gonna need to collect your phones, snacks, and all electronic devices," Gadget voiced as she held up a bucket. "Basically, anything that brings you joy." They all gave her an incredulous look since EJ hadn't told them they weren't allowed to have phones. "I'm only half kidding. But, you know, it's actually pretty great once you get past the, uh, the withdrawal! You'll have so much fun, you won't miss your phone."

Gina reluctantly placed her phone into the bucket and next was Ashlyn before Gadget scooted over towards Nadia. "I'm just saying, if this comes back cracked or broken in any way, you're paying for it," Nadia told her and Gadget just gave her a grin, holding the bucket out. Nadia sighed and placed her phone inside, followed by the others.

Kourtney then shuddered, trying not to cry. "Hey, it's only for two weeks," Carlos consoled her.

"But Sasha doesn't know that," Kourtney shakily said, kissing her fingers before placing them on her phone.

"Sasha is your phone," Carlos realized.

"I just got her, Carlos. She's too young to understand what any of this means," Kourtney ranted before she took a selfie, earning a snort from Nadia. She then kissed her phone again and placed it in the bucket.

"Don't look back," Carlos told her.

"Mama loves you!" Kourtney shouted through her sobs.

"Oh, don't do that."

authors note
welcome to season 3 everyonee
this definitely took longer than it
should have and it's bc of school
and sports and all that. so i offer
you a billion sorrys for the wait (see
what did i there?) anyway I hope
you all are excited!!! (updates may
be slow so keep that in mind, i also
have other books i an working on updating
too)