THE LOVE Club had been waiting for Mr. Mazzara to bring them several chairs for the club room, but he had been a no-show for the past twenty or so minutes.

"Where is he?" Madison questioned, shoving another french fry in her mouth.

Shiloh shrugged her shoulders as she drank her strawberry milkshake. She had been in the club room since her last period and had been waiting for Mr. Mazzara the longest. He had been back and forth helping her set up as the others sat in their classes.

"I think we've done a good job decorating so far." Jenna said.

"Yeah, I really love the banner." Ashley smiled.

"Graphic design is my passion." Evie said, eating one of Madison's fries.

"Is that your new saying?" Shiloh asked.

"Until I feel like my graphic design passion has dropped... then yes, it's my newest saying."

A sudden knock at the door had each member turn and face it like there was a monster on the other side.

Shiloh stood from her spot and headed towards the door, hoping it was Mr. Mazzara with the ten chairs they asked for earlier.

It was not Mr. Mazzara it was Ricky Bowen.

"Hi, welcome to the Love Club! How can I help you?"

"Are you Shiloh?"

He held the purple card in his hands, it was slightly bent. Definitely one of the ones that Evie had stuck in random lockers, bags, and pockets.

"I am and you are?"

"Ricky... Ricky Bowen." He answered, "Is this the Love Club?"

Shiloh smiled, "Yeah, I even said, "Welcome to the Love Club." Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Um, my... my girlfriend... my ex-girlfriend—"

Shiloh held a tight-lip. As much as she wanted to help Ricky at this moment, she couldn't. The club wasn't ready until tomorrow (or until they had enough chairs to reach the high point to put things on the walls).

"The Love Club isn't really helping people until tomorrow or until we get our chairs from Mr. Mazzara... which may be tomorrow." Shiloh trailed off, "We would love to help, but—"

"I'll help decorate!" Ricky rushed, "I'm clearly taller than you, so I can reach higher areas. I just need help. Please."

Shiloh let out a breath and looked back at the others. Evie shrugging their shoulders, Madison held a tight-lip, Jenna always being down to help no matter what, and Ashley focused on trying to get her orange milkshake through the straw.

"Fine." Shiloh agreed, "You help us decorate and we'll help you with whatever you need, but you can't tell anyone we helped early because it's not like the Love Club."

Shiloh held her hand out waiting for Ricky to shake it, as he did so Shiloh could tell he was nervous.

"Don't be nervous." She said.

"How do you know I'm nervous?"

"Your hands are sweaty."

"Sorry, I've never done anything like this before."

"Relax." Shiloh softly smiled, "We're people too. We just want to help."

She opened the door for Ricky to walk further into the club room. He gripped the straps of his backpack and looked around the room before his eyes fell on the four on the floor.

"Before we help you, we have to introduce ourselves in the Love Club, so take a seat and we'll go around in a circle introducing ourselves."

Ricky slowly sat down next to Shiloh and the first to stand with a huge smile on their face was Evie.

"I'm Evie Fernandez and I'm the co-founder, co-creator, and teacher in the Love Club. I teach you how to better love your partner. Romantic relationships are very fun but it's important to know that every relationship is different and everyone shows love differently."

"They've only ever had one partner." Shiloh added.

"And they were a good partner... until they moved." Evie pouted.

Evie quickly sat down on the floor and next up was Jenna.

"I'm Jenna Russet and I teach you how to love your friends. Yeah, romantic relationships are fun, but also having your friends around is also super important."

"Jenna has never settled for anyone." Shiloh smiled, "She's basically your hometown version of Spencer Shay."

Jenna held her smile as she sat down and Madison followed up.

"I'm Madison Gregg and I teach you all selfless love. Meaning you love someone regardless of your needs."

"She's honest, but with Madison, you may also need to talk Evie or Ashley."

Ashley held a smile on her face as she stood with her milkshake in her hands, "Hi, I'm Ashley Yang and I teach you how to better love yourself. Self-love is also very important. Self-love and selfish love are two very different things."

"And I'm Shiloh Molina, I'm the CEO, founder, creator of the Love Club and I know everything they know, but in more detail. If they can't help you, we work together, but we normally do that anyway."

Shiloh took her seat back on the floor and held her milkshake in her hands.

"Do I... have to introduce myself?" Ricky asked.

"Yeah, and then tell us why you're here." Shiloh answered.

"Okay." He sighed, "Um, I'm Ricky Bowen and I'm a junior and recently I think I broke up with my girlfriend and now, after a month, she's dating this senior, EJ Caswell. It was only a break and not a breakup. I just want my girlfriend back."

Shiloh looked over at Evie who sat with wide eyes, picking at the french fries as Ricky spoke.

Shiloh stood back up and grabbed the other strawberry milkshake, and handing it to Ricky.

"This was Mr. Mazzara's but he never showed and if does show he's out of luck." Shiloh said, "First, you have to tell us why you and Nini broke up and why you saw it as a break and she saw it as a breakup."

Ricky took the milkshake and joined Shiloh back on the floor.

"It was just a small break and we were going to get back together yesterday."

"Did you ever talk to Nini about getting back together?" Evie asked.

"Didn't think I had to. It was a break."

"Yeah, but just because you told her that doesn't mean she saw it as that." Jenna added.

"You told Nini you wanted a break just because?" Shiloh asked.

"No, it's... a little deeper than that."

Shiloh kept her gaze on Ricky; waiting on him to continue his sentence. The whole Love Club waiting for Ricky to just speak up.

"I couldn't really tell her that... you know."

"Look, Ricky, we can't read minds." Evie huffed, "You couldn't tell her what?"

"She wrote me this song and it was a lot at the moment. I just couldn't tell her I think I kinda, you know also."

"You couldn't tell Nini that you... love her?" Madison questioned.

"That."

"So you decide to take a break?" Shiloh questioned, "Do you think you could possibly tell her how you feel now?"

"Maybe." Ricky answered.

"Well, the next thing is why do you want Nini back?" Shiloh said.

"I just think I deserve a second chance. Do you guys not think that?"

"It really just depends." Shiloh answered, "How do you think you can get Nini back?"

"What if I had a fake girlfriend?"

"Do you want her back or do you want to lose her, idiot?" Evie asked.

Shiloh sighed, "What Evie means is that if you're only going to fake a relationship with someone else, that's selfish love and you're only doing it to get Nini and to make her jealous. Which won't work because she thinks you've moved on."

"Okay... I was thinking about auditioning for the musical."

"For you or Nini?"

"Just to show her that I can do different things."

"Okay, that's good." Madison smiled, "That's not selfish."

"When are auditions?" Ashley asked.

Ricky checked his watch, his eyes widen as he looked back up at the others.

"In five minutes."

"We'll go with you." Shiloh said, grabbing her milkshake from the floor.

"Why?"

"It helps us see how you'd work on this situation by yourself." Shiloh answered, "We'll sit in the far back and you'll go and audition."

"Fine, but we have to go now."

"We might have to run. We're on the other side of the school."

Jenna sighed, "Run?"

The others quickly glanced her way before gathering their belongings and completely booking it to the auditorium.

"Why did your club have to be so far from the auditorium?" Ricky asked.

The five other girls were not really athletic. Their legs burning and could barely get an answer out for Ricky's question.

"Because we could never imagine the five of us running to auditions that had nothing to do with Jenna." Shiloh puffed out.

They finally made it towards the auditorium doors and as Ricky's hand went to pull the door open, Shiloh abruptly stopped in her place.

"Wait, wait, wait." She huffed, "If we all run in there at the same time they'll probably think we're all auditioning."

"So what do we do?" Ricky asked.

"You go in there, we'll wait a few seconds, and follow in. I'll hold the door so we can enter with no noise." Shiloh answered.

Ricky looked over at the five people in front of him and quickly nodded before running into the auditorium.

Once they felt like no eyes would be on them, the five teens walked carefully into the auditorium and sat in the middle section. Close enough to see Ricky and far enough to not be caught by Miss. Jenn.

"Okay, Nini, let's try this again." Miss. Jenn smiled.

"You got this, babe! Whoo!" EJ cheered.

"Did you have any idea he was auditioning?" Evie whispered.

"Doesn't shock me." Shiloh answered, "He went to theater camp."

Evie laced their hand with Shiloh squeezing it softly. Jenna gently pushed Shiloh's glasses up before resting her head on her shoulder.

Though they didn't date long. Shiloh was slightly hurt by the basic pet name he had called Nini. They had been talking for months about how they would get together, the dates they would go on, and everything across the board. They even went on a couple of these "dates". He asked her out and boom, just like that relationship over.

Shiloh pulled herself out of her thoughts as the lights in the auditorium quickly shut off.

"Nobody panic!" Miss. Jenn shouted, "Nini, let's wait for the lights to come back on. I don't want this to throw you."

"I'm not thrown."

The Love Club sat in the dark auditorium as Nini began to sing The Start of Something New.

God did Nini have a voice on her. It seemed so natural for her to be singing the song right now.

The Love Club watched as Ricky pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned his flashlight to give Nini some sort of spotlight.

"Oh wow." Madison whispered.

Jenna stared in awe as Ricky took closer steps towards Nini.

Soon, EJ quickly hopped onto his feet following Ricky's lead.

Shiloh sighed and pushing her glasses up and rubbing one side of her face.

No matter how you saw it, EJ did not want Ricky anywhere near Nini especially since he knew that they had dated previously.

Shiloh kept steady eyes between the three of them. It seemed that the two guys had been silently competing against each other.

Regardless, Nini was definitely not thrown whatsoever. Singing as if she was the only one in the room.

The lights soon came back on and not much sound could be heard after Nini's performance. Whether they were stunned, speechless, or whatever; no one said anything after.

"Okay. Well, thank you, Nini." Miss. Jenn spoke, "I only needed thirty-two bars, but I appreciate your commitment. You, late boy. Let's do the Chad sides."

Ricky quickly looked back at the Love Club. Everyone single one of them giving him a thumbs up before he made his way towards the middle of the stage.

"Hey, there. I'm Ricky Bowen. I'm a junior. And, uh... Here goes."

Everyone could tell he was nervous. You could see it from a mile away.

"I don't get it, Troy. What kinda spell has this elevated IQ temptess-girl cast that suddenly makes you wanna be in a musical?" He read aloud.

He looked back over towards the club. Shiloh slightly nodding towards him. She couldn't read him. She couldn't read anyone, but she knew that he was nervous.

He scoffed before balling the single-page script up.

"I don't know. Maybe it's the way Gabriella always had your back."

"Is he going off script?" Ashley asked.

"Seems like it." Evie answered, "I don't remember this in the movie at all."

"And maybe you can't stop beating yourself up for totally blowing it with her." Ricky paused, "And look, Troy. Even if you never said the L-word to Gabriella, 'cause that's, like, not even a word your parents say to each other anymore..."

Each member of the Love Club held a tight lip. They wanted to help Ricky, but now, they really had deeper things to work on with how Ricky was now speaking on stage.

"That doesn't mean that you don't. Maybe it just means you were waiting for the right time to say it... So that everyone could hear it. No. So that she could."

"Imagine if this was actually in the movie." Jenna whispered.

"We're definitely going to help Ricky if it's the last thing we do." Shiloh said.

His speech definitely had some type of impact on Nini, but definitely could be seen in many, many different ways by everyone around, but very obvious that he was speaking directly to Nini.

"Okay, kiddo, time to sing." Miss. Jenn sighed.

"Oh, no, actually if you don't mind, I kinda prepared my own song?"

"Sure."

Ricky grabbed his guitar from Big Red and took a glance at the group sitting in the back; ushering him to keep doing what he was doing. They couldn't really help him until he got off that stage.

He began strumming the familiar tune. Madison pulling out her phone and scrolling to find a video.

"Look, he's singing that song Nini wrote for him."

The group made a small huddle (in the best way they could as they were still sitting in a row).

Shiloh was the first to pull back and sighed. This could only go one way and it wasn't good.

Almost everyone had seen that video Nini posted and when that video was taken down that same night, people obviously knew something was up.

Now, how did Madison have the video? That was something no one questioned.

Ricky made sure to keep eye contact with Nini as he finished the song. Everyone applauding (except for Nini, Kourtney, and EJ) even Jenna.

Miss. Jenn noticed the applause from behind her and took notice of the five in the back. Shiloh holding Jenna's hands together telling her now was not the time to be encouraging.

Shiloh looked over and made direct eye contact with Miss. Jenn and Carlos.

"We gotta go. We've been spotted."

The four others also looked over and saw Miss. Jenn and quickly gathered their stuff and exited the auditorium.

As they waited Ricky approached the five of them.

"That happened."

"It did." Shiloh said, "Several things. One, off-script, good. You told Nini kinda how you felt. Two, singing the song that she showed and then calling a break, not good."

"Not good?" He questioned, "Not good why?"

"You probably scared her." Evie answered.

"Or made her angry." Madison added.

"Why would she be angry?"

"Because that the same song she showed you when you asked for a break." Shiloh said, "Any person in any position like that would probably be angry."

"But, now we have a better understanding on why you possibly didn't tell Nini you L-word her now." Jenna smiled.

"Hey!"

The five of them quickly dispersed as Nini's voice rang towards them.

Jenna, Shiloh, and Evie on one side of the hall. Madison and Ashley on the other. The five of them still in an earshot of Ricky and Nini.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm auditioning."

"You hate musicals."

"That's a little harsh."

"We got kicked out of The Greatest Showman because you kept yelling "That's not realistic!" at the screen."

"Thought it was based on a true story." Jenna whispered.

"I thought it was too." Shiloh replied.

"That was the old me. The new me thinks musicals... are awesome."

"Hmm. Okay. Well, let me tell you something about the old me." Nini started, "All right? The old me had her heart broken. Okay? And then she went away, and she found herself. And you don't get to show up now, just to try and... confuse things."

"You think that's why I'm here?" Ricky asked, "No, no, Nini. I always believed in you. In us. Even if I sucked at showing it. That's why I'm here."

"He still cares about her." Evie said.

"That's good." Shiloh agreed, "We have some playing field to work with, but we can't overwork this, or else he'll never get her back in a positive way."

"We can't just break Nini and EJ up."

"We aren't Jenna. The Love Club doesn't stand by that."

"Clear!" Carlos shouted.

"Carlos is posting the cast list!" Kourtney smiled, pulling Nini away from Ricky.

He turned and faced the others.

"I thought this would work."

"You're giving up already?" Madison asked.

"Well, this was no help."

"Ricky, we aren't miracle workers." Shiloh said, "We're five people who want to help others. Getting Nini back isn't an overnight thing. That's not realistic. If you want our help, you'll be patient, take our advice, and let things play out. Or you can go off-script. You saw where that got you."

EJ along with plenty of others walked past The Love Club and Ricky.

"What Shiloh means, is that if you want help, you have to actually want to it." Ashley said, "We can't do everything for you, but you can listen."

"We're people. We make mistakes, but we listen when we want help." Evie said.

"Do you our help?" Shiloh asked.

Ricky looked between each of them. He knew by now all their strength and he most likely needed help with everything they knew. He felt like getting Nini back was going to be easy, but by how their conversation just went. He needed all the help he could get.

"Yes. I would love help."

Shiloh smiled, "Good. First things first, go see who you're playing in the musical. Secondly..." She glanced over at Evie, "Do you anything with our numbers on it?"

Evie held a wide, toothy smile at Shiloh, "I was going to show everyone today, but then Ricky came along. I worked on this last night."

Evie dug around their backpack and pulled out a huge stack of multi-colored cards.

"I made one with all of our numbers one. Some with only a specific person's number on it and it's color-coded. I thought it would be—" Evie paused, looking at the others as they quickly let out a row of chuckles, "I'm very passionate about graphic design."

Evie handed Shiloh a card. Every one of the members' phone numbers sprawled against it.

"Take this. It has our numbers on it and you can contact us whenever you need. Whether you need a friend or some advice." Shiloh said, "I talked to Mr. Mazzara about helping me set up some type of hotline for us, so everyone is not blowing up our phones all the time, but you're lucky Evie has this ready."

"You're very passionate about the Love Club." Ricky said, letting out a breathing laugh as he took the card from her.

"Everyone deserves a chance or two." She smiled, "Now go and seeing who you're playing."

Ricky held his smile and began walking away from the others. Swiftly turning back around to see them not following.

"Aren't you guys coming?"

Jenna was the first to leave the group's side and followed Ricky down the hall.

The rest of them sighed and followed closely behind.

As they approached the others, it fell silent.

Ricky made his way towards the green sheet of paper attached to the glass shelving.

"Holy crap, dude." Red smiled.

Ricky had gotten the lead. He faced the Love Club with a huge smile on his face.

They could only determine it as good news and sent him a thumbs up. Jenna cheering a little louder than the others.

EJ, Nini, Kourtney, Ricky, and Big Red kept their gaze on the five, who quickly glanced in any direction they could.

"You don't have to make a noise every time something good happens, Jenna." Shiloh muttered.

"Sorry, I'm just really excited."

Shiloh made eye contact with Ricky before switching over towards EJ. He was clearly pissed off.

But, hey, like Shiloh said, the Love Club gives people that second chance they deserve.

"How easy do you think this will be?" Evie asked.

"Not easy at all." Shiloh answered.

The Love Club definitely had a big task at hand, but no denying that couldn't handle it.

Hopefully.

— lucy has something to say

it took me a day to write this why can't i be this motivated with other things 😔

anyways i'm just in a silly goofy mood 🤪

evie uses she/her/hers and they/them/theirs pronouns so either is okay :)

rip nini's family gone but not forgotten 😔🙏

bye :))))