(nadia's auditions outfit)

The next day, after going home to face unwanted questions by her parents, Nadia was sat in computer lab. She had finished her work early, so she was mindlessly tapping away on her phone. She also had just so happened to come across a picture of  EJ and Nini with the words Troy and Gabriella next to their faces.

Her face scrunched up in disgust and she put her phone away and looked over to see Ricky watching High School Musical on his computer. She smirked to herself, hopeful and proud that her plan was coming together.

Since this was her "diabolical" plan, she didn't tell anyone about it, not even her brother who was also trying out for the musical. She didn't want him to accidentally slip her plan to his crush, EJ, since he seemed to be a blabbering idiot around the people he liked.

The bell then rang and Nadia slowing gathered her things, watching Ricky as she did so. "Ladies and gentlemen, a reminder that auditions for the musical will begin in the auditorium in five minutes," the principal said over the loudspeaker.

Nadia got up from her seat and watched as Ricky was banging the computer keyboard, trying to unfreeze the picture of Troy Bolton on his screen. She watched him in amusement.

"Is there a problem, Mr. Bowen?" Mr. Mazzara asked and Ricky just looked at him, speechless.

"There's no problem at all, Mr. Mazzara," Nadia cut him, causing both of the boys to look at her. "I'll help him with his computer." Mr. Mazzara nodded, walking over to his desk.

"Thanks?" Ricky said, but it sounded more like a question.

"Why do you sound so confused?" Nadia asked, arching her brow in amusement.

"Well, I've seen you around and I've heard people talk about you before so...I didn't think you would help me," he said slowly, probably trying to find the right thing to say to try not to offend the girl.

Nadia laughed, tapping a few buttons on his computer to try and restart it, but it didn't work for some reason. "Let me guess, they called me a she-devil?"

"Something along those lines," Ricky replied with a nervous laugh.

"I figured that," Nadia said, an amused smile on her face. "So, I saw that you were watching High School Musical. Are you planning on auditioning?" she inquired, trying to set her plan in motion.

"Uh...maybe. I don't know, I'm not the musical type," Ricky said, shrugging his shoulders as he looked at the computer warily.

"You seem very much musically inclined to me," she told him, which earned an odd look from him. "I'm good at reading people. But, you should try to audition. Nini will be there."

He nodded, looking down at the floor. "Yeah. Yeah, she will. But, she'll be with her new boyfriend," he said, his tone annoyed.

"Forget about him," she said even though she had to take her own advice first. "I can already tell that you were already a better boyfriend than he'll ever be to her," she said which made him look up at her.

"Uh...really?"

"Really," she said. "Anyway, I'm going to auditions, so maybe I'll see you there," she said before she looked at Mr. Mazzara. "I think it's broken. You might want to take a look at it," she said before she walked out of the classroom and towards the auditorium.

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

"Nadia? What are you doing here?" Marcus exclaimed as she walked into the dressing room, fiddling with the number that was put on her shirt. "Oh, my gosh, are you trying out?"

"Yes, I am. You sound shocked," she said, her eyes wide with an unamused expression. She carefully glanced around and noticed that EJ and Nini were looking over at her, their faces almost worried. She smirked slightly and looked back to her brother.

"Yeah, I am shocked. This morning you just got done telling me how stupid the musical was and how it was for losers," he said.

She shook her head. "People change. It's not that surprising."

"Well, yeah, people do change, but you're not 'people', Nadia," he replied and she shrugged. "I swear, if you're planning on—"

"I'm not planning on doing anything," she cut him off. "I legitimately want to audition. That way, Mom and Dad could see us on the stage at the same time," she lied to him before the boy from before, Carlos, came barging in.

"People! Make sure your audition number is clearly visible on your clothes. This isn't a game!" he yelled and Nadia rolled her eyes.

Marcus seemed to notice the eye roll because he said, "Oh, really? If you're not planning on doing anything, then why did you roll your eyes?"

"Just because I actually want to audition, doesn't mean I can't get annoyed," she argued, crossing her arms.

Someone then knocked on the door and Nadia looked over to see that it was Ms. Jenn. "Okay, theater people," she said, clapping once. "Let's do this." Everyone then began to cheer which caused Nadia to cringe.

"Sometimes to be able to achieve things, you have to go through obstacles. In this case, being surrounded by a bunch of theater nerds and geeks is my obstacle," she said, crossing her arms.

All of the students then walked out of the dressing room and towards the stage where things seemed to immediately get going. Ms. Jenn started the music and a group of kids started to dance to it, and particularly well at that.

Nadia watched in shock, not sure that she could even be able to kick her leg up that high even though she was flexible herself. "You still want to audition?" Marcus whispered as his sister subtly looked around to see if she could spot Ricky.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she brushed off, hearing Ms. Jenn's whoops and cheers at the one girl in the front that was dancing the best.

"Nadia, the whole summer I've been dancing and singing and rehearsing warmup lines to get ready for this musical. You haven't been doing anything. I mean, do you know how to act?" he questioned.

"Well, I've got the singing part down and I can play piano," she said. Nadia wasn't a very good dancer, which was odd since she was very good at almost everything else. "And I'm pretty sure I can act. I mean, I am a good liar," she said with smirk, looking over at her brother, who was now shaking his head.

The music then ended and some people started to applaud. "Great! That's it for the warm-up," Carlos said and Nadia's eyes widened slightly. Warm-up? she thought, getting a little intimidated, but she quickly didn't let it show on her face.

"Everyone, pair up. Not with a friend. Theater is a community," Ms. Jenn said and Nadia sighed, taking a look around to see who she could pair up with.

"Hey, EJ!" Marcus called him over and Nadia looked over at her brother, giving him an exasperated look.

"Hey, Marcus, right?" EJ asked, coming over as he glanced at Nadia.

"Y-Yeah, that's me. Marcus. Marcus Coleman. So, I was—"

"I was wondering if you'd be my partner," Nadia cut her brother off, giving the best, fake smile she could at the boy she hated immensely.

"You...and me?" EJ asked slowly, lookin at Marcus in confusion.

"Yeah, you and me. Two peas in a pod," she said.

"Ooh, I like that spirit," Ms. Jenn said enthusiastically, coming over and pushing the two of them over to their own spots on the stage while she pushed Marcus with someone else.

"What do you think you're doing?" EJ asked under his breath, staring in front of him.

"Me? Just auditioning," Nadia replied, fighting off the smug smirk that was making its way up to her lips.

Ms. Jenn clapped. "And we're back. We'll be going through some partner exercises so we'll be able to see who fits who."

"Great. This is just going to be like science all over again," EJ sighed, shaking his head in annoyance as Ms. Jenn explained to everyone what they should be doing.

"Oh, don't be so pessimistic, Caswell. I'm sure we'll be able to work well together," Nadia said with a devilish smirk.

"Yeah? Tell that to the science table that had to be burned," EJ bit back but she just laughed to herself. "You are actually crazy."

"Aw, thanks, that means so much to me, Caswell," she said, smiling up until she said his last name. "Now, can you be professional, or is that to hard for you?"

"You're seriously asking if I can be professional? It's you that everyone needs to worry about. You're probably here with some elaborate plan to try and get the lead of the show and then ruin the whole thing, but then get away with it in the end with some sweet talk to Ms. Jenn and any other faculty member," he said.

He was right about having a plan part, but that was about the only thing he got right in that sentence. "Paranoid much?" she said, laughing slightly to throw him off.

"Why aren't you two in positions? Chop chop!" Ms. Jenn said before she walked away, causing EJ to glare at Nadia and blame her for distracting him.

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

After all the partner work, which almost ended up with EJ and Nadia strangling each other (which was what Nadia wanted anyway), Ms. Jenn started handing out the character's forms and scripts for the real auditions. She unfortunately gave EJ 'Troy', much to Nadia's dismay since she didn't want that to happen. She would have to wait to see if Ricky would come to save the day no matter how cliche that sounded.

Marcus got handed the 'Ryan' form before him, and Nadia could practically hear his squeals even though he was further down the line.

Ms. Jenn then stepped over to Nini, who was standing next to Nadia. "And how about we have you read for...Kelsi?" she said.

Nini's mouth parted slightly and she looked over at EJ, who gave her an encouraging look that made Nadia want to vomit. "Um...Gabriella. I wanna audition for Gabriella," Nini said with a nod.

"Okay," Ms. Jenn said, handing Nini the form.

Ms. Jenn then stopped in front of Nadia, and the girl raised her eyebrows, waiting for her answer. "You're giving me strong Kelsi vibes," the blonde said.

Nadia furrowed her brows. "Seriously? I think Kelsi and I are two...completely different people," she said, glancing over at EJ who seemed to be holding back a laugh.

"That's why it's perfect. And I heard you saying you could play the piano and sing, so let's see what you can do," Ms. Jenn said, handing Nadia the form. Nadia begrudgingly took it, but she had to remind herself that she wasn't here for the lead and she here for one reason only: To ruin EJ's plans on getting the lead and to ruin his relationship. Yes, it would have been nice to get the lead to further inflate her ego, but then again, she wasn't really musical material.

"You're reading for Ryan, right?" Ms. Jenn asked the blonde boy with glasses next to Nadia.

"I think he'd rather play Sharpay," Carlos whispered to her.

Ms. Jenn looked back to the smiling boy. "I love that. That is so fresh," she said, handing him the form.

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

"Okay, our last Kelsi! Show us what you can do, Ms. Coleman," Ms. Jenn said as Nadia walked up to the stage.

"Got it," Nadia said rather very unenthusiastically. Marcus had already auditioned and he had done amazing, and Nadia wouldn't doubt that he would get the part of Ryan, even though she would never tell him that.

Nadia then walked over the piano on the stage and gave the blonde guy, who was named Seb, a quick, scary look for him to get up. He immediately got up and she pushed the piano forward more so that it was in the spotlight. She had looked over the notes to 'The Start of Something New' and knew that she had it memorized so that she would be able to play it.

She then sat down and opened the piano up, looking over the keys before placing her fingers down and playing the notes.

Living in my own world
Didn't understand
That anything can happen
When you take a chance

I never believed in What I couldn't see
I never opened my heart, oh
To all the possibilities
I know that something has changed
Never felt this way and right here tonight

This could be the start of something new
It feels so right to be here with you, oh
And now looking in your eyes
I feel in my heart
The start of something new

She then got up and took a quick bow before pushing the piano back over to Seb. "Thank you, Ms. Coleman!" Ms. Jenn said and Nadia nodded before she stepped off the stage and sat back down in the audience.

"Great job, actually," Marcus said, scooting over to her.

"Thanks," she said robotically, watching Ms. Jenn call the Troy's up now. She had to watch EJ audition and hearing his singing voice just made her want to rip her ears out.

"Well, excuse me, Armie Hammer just called. He wants his jawline back," Ms. Jenn said, laughing at her own joke. Nadia gave her an odd look. "We're moving onto the Gabriellas."

"Damn it," Nadia muttered under her breath, biting her nails when she realized Ricky didn't make it to the Troy auditions.

"What?" Marcus asked.

"Nothing. Nothing..."

A few moments later, it was Nini's turn to sing. She was about to start, but then someone burst through the door and yelled, "Am I too late? Am I too late?"

Nadia looked over her shoulder to see that it was Ricky, holding a guitar case and running down the aisle. She smiled devilishly to herself, causing Marcus to give her a weird look.

"My plan is about to unfold. Hopefully he doesn't mess this up," she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

Hehe I hoped you like this chapter! We got to see her and EJ talk a bit more, but don't worry, they'll be interacting a lot more down the road. Remember to vote and comment!