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𝗜 𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗗𝗢

chapter six:
real teenager, real star !

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VIOLETTA PACED AROUND the hallway of East High outside of the room made to look like Miss Darbus' classroom, surrounded by screens and cameras. The script Emmy had gotten for her was clutched in her hands. There was no way she could mess this up. She had to at least try.

"When I came here as a sophomore, I didn't know anyone," Violetta recited to herself. "When I came here as a sophomore, I didn't know anyone."

"So you're not sure this Violetta girl has the chops?" a familiar voice asked from behind her.

Violetta turned. Standing in the hallway, wearing a robe and clutching a cup of coffee, was Alyson Reed. Next to her was Mack, also in his costume. Violetta quickly ducked behind the nearest wall, listening in on their conversation.

"Don't get me wrong, Miss Reed," Mack insisted. "I mean, sure, she can dance, but can she act? I don't wanna look dumb in this thing."

"Yeah, we wouldn't want that, would we?" Alyson commented sarcastically.

Violetta pressed her back up against the wall, her eyebrows knitting in thought. Sure, she had been worried about the whole acting thing working poorly in her favor, but hearing Mack doubt her sent a new fire ablaze. She picked her chin up.

Go get them, Vi.

She entered the classroom, which looked totally transformed and pretty much exactly like Miss Darbus' classroom from the original movies. Her eyes set on her friends, and suddenly, it was like she was back in the rehearsal room. It got way easier to breathe. Even though everybody was dressed as a different persona — Athena a dance team member, Ricky a math nerd, Ashlyn a goth, Kourtney an artist, Jet a football player, and Carlos a skater boy — she recognized them through and through.

A makeup artist instantly rushed up to her, clutching a brush in his hand. Violetta stood still, moving some of her hair off of her shoulder as he brushed across her face, making sure her makeup was picture perfect. While she did so, she started to listen in on the conversations of the others.

"Wow, Kourtney, you are very in character," Ricky said. "Do I need a notebook prop?"

Kourtney laughed in response. "Oh, no, Ricky. This is not a prop. I'm writing eight college recommendation letters that I'm asking East High faculty to sign, so . . ."

"Wow," Jet let out.

"Wait, that's a thing that people can do?" Ricky questioned.

Oh, right. Violetta should probably get started on that. College applications were soon. It had slipped her mind for a while after the whole movie and musical thing.

"All right, listen up," Maddox announced. "We're cross-shooting background reactions while first team gets their coverage. Hose it down."

"Jet, what language is she using?" Ashlyn inquired.

"How to Bark Like a PA: Thirty Weird Phrases to Shout Into a Walkie," Jet answered. "She memorized it on the plane ride."

"How commanding."

"All right, my featured extras, be big but not real," Maddox instructed. "Animated but not exciting, totally appealing but completely forgettable in every way. You get it. And whatever you do, remember there is no speaking at all."

"Aye-aye, Captain Gadget," Ashlyn agreed.

"Ew, girl," Carlos voiced.

"Okay. No, starting now, I got it."

"All right, hello, hello, hi," Quinn began, clapping to get their attention. Violetta turned to see her by Athena, and she crossed her arms across her chest as Mack stood next to her. "Now, I like to shoot the first rehearsal to see where the disasters might be, okay? So let's go. Let's go, people."

Ricky smiled. "Copy."

"Rolling, rolling," Maddox added.

Alyson then came into the room in her full Miss Darbus attire, and Violetta let out a deep breath — this was crazy. "Hey, guys. I'm Alyson, call me Aly. No nerves today, all right? We got this."

"Oh my Gods, it's Alyson fricking Reed!" Ashlyn exclaimed. "I'm dying, I'm deceased, yes."

A person working on the movie then stood in front of Alyson with a clapper. "Scene twenty-seven, take one. Mark."

Violetta smoothed down her skirt with her hands, her heart beating fast against her chest. It was normal for her to get nervous before things — opening nights, dance performances. This one seemed a little bit different because it was an actual movie. Violetta glanced up, only for her eyes to lock on Athena's.

Athena knew. Of course she did. She gave Violetta thumbs-up, a comforting grin on her face. Violetta smiled at the sight of her, some of the tension draining from her shoulders. She nodded once to her before mouthing you look great, because she truly did in her dance team outfit. Athena then shook her head, making Violetta laugh to herself.

"Okay, it is gritty, it is dangerous, it is High School Musical 4 but it might as well be Kill Bill 3," Quinn stated from the hallway. "Now, for the record, I'm used to shooting a lot of takes. We might do this fifty times today. Okay? Thank you. And action."

Violetta leaned against one of the desks. She stood still for a moment, a small smile on her face, waiting for Mack to make the first move.

Mack walked up to her, placing a hand on her arm. "Hey, Bailey, can I talk to you about something?"

Violetta let his hand run down her arm before holding it, giggling slightly like a lovestruck schoolgirl. "You know you can talk to me about anything, Sam."

Mack took her other hand, leading her to the front of the room. "I know, babe, but this is really hard for me to say."

Violetta nervously laughed, looking down at him as he sat on the desk. "Babe, you're scaring me. What?"

"It's about Miss Darbus."

"Okay . . ." Violetta let her smile drop, making herself look conflicted. "Now I'm really scared."

"I just found out Miss Darbus doesn't have much longer." Mack paused, and Violetta's eyes widened. "At East High. She's retiring."

"Sam, please tell me you're kidding," Violetta pleaded, panic lacing her tone as she made herself look like she just got punched in the stomach. "I don't now how to be at East High without Miss Darbus. When I came here as a sophomore, I didn't know anyone. I was totally lost and Miss Darbus made me feel found." Her voice got all choked up, and tears sprung to her eyes — yeah, she was an actor or whatever. "She means so much to me."

"She means so much to all of us," Mack said. "We're gonna get through this." He stood up. "Together."

Mack then wrapped her arms around Violetta and held her tight. Violetta willed herself to keep crying, reaching up and holding onto his back.

"Crying?" Alyson interjected, now using her very theatrical Miss Darbus voice. "Why is there crying?"

Mack let Violetta go, but kept a hand on the bare skin of her bac. "I'm sorry, Miss Darbus, I just told Bailey that you're retiring. I couldn't hold it in any longer."

Alyson clapped, and all of them stood up. "Attention, everyone, please."

Violetta turned around, keeping herself close to Mack because Bailey needed comfort from Sam. She sat down on top of the desk, tears still rolling down her cheeks. Mack put his arms around her again, and Violetta held him close.

"What Sam just said is correct. I will be retiring at the end of this year, but what does retirement mean, really? I prefer to think of it as we are going to be graduating joyfully and going off onto our next great adventures together."

"I'm not ready to say goodbye," Violetta admitted, her voice shaking.

"In the theater, there is never goodbye," Alyson continued. "It's an exit stage right. It's a kiss, kiss at the stage door. It's making sure you don't fall in love with your costar, because what if you break up and then the next week, you find you're cast in a bare-bones production of Romeo and Juliet? Oh, the stories I could tell! Bailey, Sam, math nerd boy, skater boi, goth girl, all of you. I am as saddened as you are to be bidding adieu to my beloved East High. But a teacher, a true teacher, never really retires. She lives on, in you. In all of you. Wildcats forever."

"And, cut!" Quinn yelled.

Prove him wrong, Vi.

Violetta ignored Quinn's instruction and got up from the desk, now going off script, imagining what Miss Jenn told her to. "Can I hug you, Miss Darbus?" Alyson just stared at her, clearly shocked, but she continued anyways by letting out a sob. "I just . . . I don't know if I'll ever really be ready to say goodbye. Goodbyes aren't good."

Alyson recovered and got up from her chair. "Oh, of course, my darling. Oh, yes."

Violetta sunk into her arms, crying even harder. "Please, don't let me go until it makes sense."

"Wow," Ricky then said from behind them, making Violetta freeze.

"Cut!" Quinn shouted angrily.

Rule number one of background was that they shouldn't talk. Violetta stood up straighter, and Alyson let her go. She sniffled from all the crying. Instantly, the makeup artist rushed up to her again. He dabbed away the tears on her face with a tissue and used a Q-tip to clean up her undereye.

"Ricky!" Kourtney scolded.

Quinn came into the room. "All right, you, wow boy. God, you look like a photocopy of an American Eagle advertisement. So, you're not officially fired yet. But don't tempt me. You're eliminated from the scene. All right, let's turn it around. We got it in one take." She then walked up to Violetta, pointing at her with something resembling a smile. "Not bad."

"Sorry, Ricky, I'm gonna have to walk you off the set," Maddox told him.

Ricky got led out of the room. Violetta let out a breath that was a little shaky from the crying she had just done. She slightly looked at Athena, who had her mouth open in shock to show her impressment with the scene. Violetta shrugged, because one, she had no idea what just happened, and two, how she just did that. Maybe she was more in tune with her acting then she thought.

So they could fix some things, Quinn called for a quick break. Violetta twirled one of her curls around her finger absentmindedly, looking around the classroom some more.

"One more time," Quinn announced. "I just want an extreme close-up on Alyson."

"How extreme are we talking here?" Alyson asked.

"Handheld. Very jittery, in case I wanna play Miss Darbus as broken and afraid. We're thinking of adding a terminal illness into act three."

Alyson shut her eyes. "Oh, God. Kenny Ortega, where are you when I need you?"

"Okay, seriously, how did you do that?" Mack cut in.

Violetta turned to him. "Do what?"

"All right, we're going again in twenty seconds," Quinn instructed. "Tight on Alyson, stand by."

"Nail the scene in one take," Mack continued. "Look, I grew up running lines with my mom. What you did, that was real. Meanwhile, I feel naked without a laugh track, you know?"

Violetta resisted the urge to grin — God, what was it with this boy? "Well, all I did was imagine saying goodbye to someone that meant a lot to me." Her eyes flickered to Athena momentarily, who was talking with Jet. "And how much it would hurt."

"Like a dog?"

She stared at him for a moment before shaking her head. "Oh my God."

"What'd you say that for?" Mack questioned.

"Oh, no reason." Violetta cleared her throat. "Here, Mack, let's make a deal. I'll teach you to be a real teenager if you teach me how to navigate being a star. Oh, and I'm already ignoring the weird people in my comments, so you don't have to teach me that."

He smirked at her. "Tell me about it."

"All right, here we go," Quinn said.

Violetta tilted her head at Mack. See, at first, he was aggravating, but now, he seemed . . . intriguing. She didn't know how to feel about that switch up.

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THE LAST THING Violetta expected to see when she walked into her trailer was a bunch of streamers and balloons decorating it, along with a banner that said Congratulations Violetta.

She had just gotten off for the night, and after saying goodbye to all of the cast and crew, she had gone back to her trailer. However, now she stood in the doorway of her trailer, staring at everything in complete shock. Violetta slowly shut the door behind her, looking around at all of the purple and blue decorations — her favorite colors.

Her first thought was Athena, but it really couldn't have been her, because Violetta saw her leave with Ricky. Plus, she would've stayed to see Violetta's reaction. So then who could it have been?

Suddenly, her phone vibrated in her hand. Violetta glanced down to see it was an incoming FaceTime from EJ, and a smile spread across her face. She hadn't talked of him all day because of the movie stuff and his college stuff. Violetta answered the call, and EJ showed up on her screen with a grin.

"Hey, there's my superstar," EJ greeted, making Violetta roll her eyes, even though her face felt warm. "How'd your first day go?"

"It went surprisingly well," Violetta responded. "But, um, I just got back to my trailer, and it's, like, fully decorated. And—"

"V."

"Hmm?" She looked back to the screen, only to see him grinning knowingly at her. Her eyes widened. "Wait, you did this?"

"I may or may not have had Gina decorate your trailer for me. She did tell me that Emmy taught her how to go undercover. I would've done it myself, but I'm here, so."

Her mouth fell open in shock, and her heart raced against her chest. "EJ, oh my God." She let out a small laugh. "I cannot believe you." Her voice got a little quiet. "Thank you."

"Anything for you," EJ replied. "I wish I could've been there to see you on your first day."

"Yeah, well, you have big college things to do." Violetta sat down on the couch in her trailer. "It was surreal, though. I hugged Alyson Reed and went off script in a good way."

"That's good. I'm proud of you, V." EJ then glanced over when there were some conversations in the background. "I'm sorry to cut this short, but—"

"Acapella group?" Violetta guessed.

"Job, actually," EJ corrected. "I gotta run. I hope you enjoyed your trailer, and continue killing it. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Bye."

EJ hung up, and Violetta stared at her home screen for a moment before sighing. She wondered if they were wasting time talking on a broken line, but he wanted to talk to her, even if it was only for a few minutes. That had to count for something.

Violetta got changed back into regular clothes, which was pretty much just her pajamas from the morning. She had taken most of her makeup off and had taken her hair out, letting it be fully down and tossed carelessly to the side after being up all day. Violetta was in the midst of putting her cheerleading costume back on the hanger when she heard a knock at her door. Her eyebrows knit in confusion — who was that?

"Come in," Violetta said.

Mack then peeked his head through the door that had just opened. "Hey, cool if I . . ."

Violetta blinked at him — whoever she was expecting, it wasn't him. "Oh, sure. Come in."

Mack fully got into her trailer and shut the door behind him. "So, I thought about what you said."

She raised an eyebrow. "I said a lot of things, so you're going to have to be more specific."

"Well, you'll teach me how to be real, and I'll teach you how to navigate being a star. You know, handle the superfans, deal with the stress, coast on a set with three hours of sleep and a big smile."

"Oh, like I did today?" Violetta replied, smiling a little as he laughed. "Okay, sounds good. When do we start?"

"Star lesson number one," Mack began. "Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, J. Lo and Drake, Kendall Jenner and Harry Styles."

She stared at him for a moment. "You just gave me a list of couples who only pretended to be one for publicity."

"Exactly, think about it. Could give the movie some good press."

Violetta immediately got confused. "Weren't you dating Dani?"

Mack pulled out a pen from his pocket. "This is my real number." He grabbed her hand and wrote his number on his palm. "Tag, you're it. I just gave you your first star lesson, let me know when you're willing to teach me how to act. See ya."

Violetta stood there, basically frozen, staring at the place he once was before he left. Maybe it shouldn't have mattered so much because she was single, but . . . when her heart was still stuck on someone else, that was going to be hard.

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three chapters until something big happens who's excited