"Tonight was one for the record books," Ashlyn said as she raised her glass at the Slices after-party. Nadia decided that it would be a good idea to go and support Ashlyn, and she didn't want her feelings to get in the way of that. She just sat as far away from EJ as she could do that she didn't have to look at him...even though she did sneak a couple of glances.

"Yes!" they all agreed, clinking their glasses together.

"I literally don't even remember being on stage," Carlos admitted, holding his hand up.

"The rest of us will never forget it," Seb assured him, placing a hand on his arm.

"Oh, thank you," Carlos replied.

The door of the pizza place then opened and Lily and Antoine walked in, making them all boo at their arrival. "Okay, easy, easy, easy, easy, Wildcats," Lily said, putting her hands up. "We just came to congratulate you all."

"It is true. Your show has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It was wonderful," Antoine complimented and Nadia blinked in confusion, glancing over at Nini, who was also confused. "And Big Red, you were also in it," he added, pointing at Big Red, which made Big Red furrow his brows.

"Okay," Ricky said after a moment, "well, thank you guys for dropping by, but this is kind of a private party." Ricky stood up from his seat to walk them out. So if you could, uh—"

"Bye," some of them said, waving them away.

"Thank you."

"We'll miss you."

"Out you go. I said it. Come on," Ricky said, almost pushing them out the door.

"Finally. I thought they were never gonna leave," Nadia commented and they all nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, like, the audacity," Natalie said before Ricky came back.

"Can you guys imagine if they actually win at the Menkies?" Big Red asked.

Kourtney scoffed. "Honestly, and don't sue me, but I kind of don't care anymore if we win or lose to the competition," Kourtney admitted.

"I actually feel the same," Gina agreed. Nadia realized, for once, that she didn't care if she won or lost something. She just liked to be surrounded by her friends and the ones she loved.

"Yeah, it seemed more like we wanted it than needed it, you know?" Marcus pointed out.

"Okay, I thought it was just me," Carlos said, scratching his ear.

"I-I mean, we did it, right? We already got everything we wanted," Big Red said, smiling down at Ashlyn.

Ashlyn laughed gently. "But just let...the whole competition go, after all this work?" she asked.

EJ stood up from his seat, making Nadia look over at him. "If I can have, a, uh...senior moment here," he started, making some of them laugh. "I've won a bunch of trophies over the years, you guys. But I'd trade it all for this group right here tonight," he told them with tears his in eyes. Nadia fought back the sad smile that was making its way up to her lips at his words.

"Aw, EJ," Ashlyn said.

"Aww," they said.

"That's so nice," Carlos said.

"I love you," Kourtney said sweetly.

"Yeah," EJ said, wiping his eyes.

"So...what are we gonna tell Ms. Jenn?" Natalie asked hesitantly.

Before any of them could answer, Ms. Jenn came walking into the room l, waving the Menkies envelope in the air. Mr. Mazzara followed behind her. "The envelope, please! Wildcats! I have in my hands the nominations for the Alan Menken Awards for Excellence in High School Musical Theater," she told them and they all just kind of stared at her blankly. "I haven't opened it yet. But who's ready for the biggest moment of the year?" she asked and everyone just glanced at each other awkwardly. "Am I muted?" she asked Mr. Mazzara, who didn't know what to say.

"Uh...Ms. Jenn," Ricky said, clearing his throat, "we were kinda thinking, you know, maybe we won already."

"Yeah. Maybe we don't need or...want to see what's in the envelope?" Nini said slowly.

Ms. Jenn stared at them for a second before she breathed out, "Oh, thank God." She lowered the envelope down. "I had to stop four times on the way here because I was physically ill," she admitted, making the all laugh.

"It was five," Mr. Mazzara corrected her.

"Hey, I get it," Big Red said, lifting up his Pepto Bismol, making them laugh even more.

"So, it's settled. We're dropping out of the competition," Ms. Jenn said.

"Yeah," Nini said slowly and Nadia nodded.

"But what am I gonna do with this?" Ms. Jenn asked, holding the envelope up.

They all tried to think about what to do with it before Kourtney said, "Oh! Give me that. We got a pizza oven." They started to laugh again as Ms. Jenn handed Kourtney the envelope for her to burn.

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

"My brother is expecting your call tonight," Gina told Nini. Nadia, Nini, and Gina decided to sit sit together to support each other that night.

Nini let out a sigh. "Why am I nervous?"

Nadia and Gina chuckled. "Because it might change your life," Gina told her, placing a hand on her arm.

"Oh, great," Nini groaned, getting up from her seat to walk away.

"You'll be fine!" Nadia called after her, leaving Gina and Nadia to laugh.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom. I'll be right back," Gina told her and Nadia nodded. Gina then got up and left to go to the bathroom, leaving Nadia by herself. Ashlyn then took the chance to talk to Nadia alone.

"Hey, Nads," Ashlyn greeted Nadia, sitting down in front of her. "Listen, uh, I just had a chance to talk to EJ before he snuck out and...I don't know what to say. I really didn't think that you were still going after to him to try and ruin his life, and that you only befriended him to make it easier for you. I hope this means we can still be friends, though. I just thought you guys seemed really happy," Ashlyn said.

Nadia's smile dropped. "Wait, what?" she said.

"What?"

"Wait. Why would EJ think that?" Nadia asked and Ashlyn's mouth parted. "Ashlyn? Why would he think that?"

"Well, he told me that he talked to your parents and they said you were still carrying out your plan to ruin his life from last semester since you still hated him so much," Ashlyn told her and Nadia's eyes widened. "Is that...not true?"

"No, no, it's not," Nadia said in shock. "Oh, my God. When did he leave?" she quickly asked, wanting to make this right.

"Like, a minute ago," Ashlyn said and Nadia quickly got up from her seat and rushed out the door to catch EJ before he left Slices for good.

"EJ!" Nadia called out when she saw him and turned around to look at her, his head dropping. She quickly rushed over to him so he couldn't walk away to leave.

"What do you want, Nadia?" he asked once she got closer to him, about a foot apart.

"My parents were wrong," she told him.

"What?" he said in confusion.

"Look, I haven't talked to them about you recently because I didn't want them to ruin what we had going on. They still think I hate you and that I'm carrying how that stupid, diabolical plan I made months ago, but — but I'm not. And I don't hate you anymore," Nadia told him. "I actually really like you. Like, like-like you and you probably don't even believe me now, but I just had to tell you the truth because I promised you no more lies. And I really want you to be...my real first kiss," she told him quickly without even realizing what she was saying to him unlike after.

His blank expression turned into a shocked smile as he looked down at her. "You've never had your first kiss?" he asked her, taking a step closer so that they were only inches apart.

She shook her head. "Sounds crazy, right? I mean, it doesn't have to be now. For all that I know, you could still hate me and—" she was cut off by EJ wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling him closer to him, pressing his lips against hers. At first, Nadia was surprised, but then she melted into the kiss by wrapping her arms around his neck.

They then finally pulled away after what felt like hours before they heard people clapping and whooping excitedly behind them. Nadia immediately looked over her shoulder with with her arms still wrapped around EJ's neck to see that everyone was there cheering them on.

Nadia brought a hand up to her mouth, smothering her surprised laugh. "That's my sister!" Marcus yelled.

"That's my cousin!" Ashlyn shouted.

"Yes!" they all shouted and Nadia turned back to EJ, who still had his arms wrapped around her waist, and they both burst out laughing.

"Took you two long enough!" Kourtney shouted out as the two walked over to the group with their hands intertwined.

"Well, we both got our second chance, right, Eej?" Nadia asked, slightly shoving him playfully with her shoulder.

"Yeah. Yeah, we did," he said with a happy smile before the group all cheered again.

I hate to say this but this is the end of the book 😭 I might add some extra fluff chapters  for Nadia and EJ, but as right now, the story is completed. I hope there is a season 3 so that I can either make a new book for the two of them or just continue writing in this one but thank you all so much for the support, it's been amazing! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this happy ending after the last two sad chapters!