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𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞

chapter nineteen:
you'll be okay !

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NOW, LET'S GET one thing straight. Violetta always tended to believe Athena no matter what the situation was. However, when Athena ran up to her after Get'cha Head in the Game, saying that Ricky had seen his mom with her new boyfriend in the audience and got all freaked out to the point where he gave the role of Troy to EJ, Violetta was stunned.

She had to go see this for herself. Violetta wandered around the hallways for a moment until she found EJ, sitting in one of the dressing rooms. She slowly walked in to see him using a vocal steamer, reading his script. And, sure enough, he was wearing Troy's basketball jersey.

"Well, Athena wasn't lying," Violetta commented, making EJ look up at her. She shrugged. "Wasn't sure if I believed her when she said you were going on as Troy."

EJ raised an eyebrow. "Is it really that hard to believe?"

"Well, considering what you were like at the beginning of the show, you definitely could've done something to Ricky. But I know you, and you wouldn't do that." Violetta then sat on the table next to him. "Congratulations, Wildcat."

He shook his head. "I feel like I'm gonna be sick."

"You still want me to watch you?" Violetta offered. "I would be more than happy to."

"I kind of have a feeling this is going to somehow go wrong, and to be honest, I really don't want you to see me crash and burn."

"You're not going to crash and burn," Violetta insisted. "Besides, if we go down, then we go down together, right?"

He gave her a small smile. "Thanks, V. But you don't have to be there. I honestly think you should talk to Bowen, because he looked really distraught and Athena's busy with the piano."

She nodded. That was definitely on her list. Once again, she was no Athena, but she could at least try and make Ricky feel better.

"Hold on," Violetta insisted as EJ stood up. Her eyebrows knit in confusion. "If you're not Chad anymore, then who is?"

Carlos then walked in, wearing a basketball costume. "Buckle up, Wildcats! You ready, bro?"

He held his fist out. EJ shared one last look with Violetta before fist-bumping him and walking out of the room.

Carlos looked pleadingly at her. "Pray for me."

Violetta gave him two thumbs-up before pushing herself off the counter and walking out of the dressing room. She went back to the bomb shelter, only to see everyone scrambling to get ready for Act Two. The one person she was looking for was sitting at a mirror, her face in her hands. Violetta frowned and approached Athena, setting a hand on her back and rubbing it softly.

"He's going to be okay, Athena," Violetta voiced, knowing that Athena was thinking solely of Ricky.

Athena lifted up her face out of her hands and looked up at Violetta. "You didn't see him, Vi. The look on his face when he saw his mom with Todd . . . I've never seen him look so distraught. Not even this summer after his breakup with Nini. And the one time he might need me the most I'm not there for him."

"That's not your fault, you still have a part to play in this show," Violetta explained, EJ saying that she should go after him ringing through her mind. "I'm sure Ricky understands that."

"I don't know . . ." Athena trailed off before sighing. "Violetta, this whole girlfriend thing is new to me. And me letting him just deal with this alone . . . I don't think that's what a good girlfriend is supposed to do."

Violetta put her hands on Athena's shoulders and forced her to look at her. "Athena, listen to me. You are doing absolutely everything you can right now. Please don't beat yourself up. And you are an amazing girlfriend. I promise you can talk to him after the show is over, but right now, you have to be Kelsi."

Athena's phone screen then lit up. She looked away from Violetta and picked it up, displaying her phone screen to the two of them. It was a text from Ricky, which said I love you, good luck. Violetta watched with a small smirk as Athena got a small smile on her face. Athena sent I love you too with a red heart back, and Violetta shook her head. They were so cute it was getting to the point where it was gross.

"Okay, Athena," Natalie announced while peeking her head into the room, Athena looking up from her phone. It's time for Wondering. You have to get to the piano."

Violetta squeezed Athena's shoulder. "Go kill it out there."

Athena nodded once before leaving to go play the piano for Ashlyn. Violetta watched her leave for a moment before looking at herself in the mirror. She let out a sigh. God, everything was such a mess.

Violetta didn't really have any other scenes in the show besides the curtain call, so she just hung around. However, as it was reaching Breaking Free, she decided that she couldn't just sit around any longer. Ricky had to sing Breaking Free — not that EJ wouldn't do a good job, but EJ wasn't Ricky. This was his moment to shine.

She let out a deep breath and stood up. Violetta started to leave the bomb shelter, but somebody stopped her.

"Where are you going?" Gina asked.

Violetta turned to look at her. "To find Ricky. Hopefully knock some sense into him."

"Ooh, can I join? I would also love to knock some sense into him."

She let out a small laugh. "Sure. Come on."

The two then started to look into many different rooms to find the boy with the curly hair. Finally, they found him in the lobby, looking at one of the bulletin boards. His hair looked messy, which told Violetta that he was running his fingers through it, something that he always did when he was nervous. She slightly frowned.

"Oh, thank God," Violetta said, making Ricky look at them. "We've been looking everywhere for you."

"What happened to you?" Gina questioned.

Ricky leaned against the table. "It's a long story. I could ask you the same thing."

"Also a long story." Her eyes flickered to Violetta momentarily. "I got a last minute flight."

"Yeah? So did Todd."

Violetta crossed her arms and gave him a look. "I think you and I both know that Todd isn't the only reason you left." She slowly approached him and leaned against the table as well. "You wanna tell me what's really going on?"

Ricky sighed. "Honestly . . . this is Nini's big moment." That was true — the Dean from the performing arts school she was looking at had been in the audience. "The best thing I could do for her is just take a step back and watch."

"Well . . . your girlfriend is up on that stage, too," Violetta urged, noticing the way Ricky slightly smiled. "Let's go watch."

"Uh, I don't know. Seeing that dude in my costume—"

"Nightmare fuel for sure," Gina finished.

"Forget about EJ," Violetta said.

Gina looked at her incredulously. "Girl, that's rich coming from you."

"There was no need for that," Violetta protested, her face feeling warm. "Think about Athena. She's been worried about you, you know. I'm sure she would feel a little better if she saw you."

Ricky stared at her for a moment before nodding. Together, the three of them opened the door. Violetta slightly winced at how loud it was. She looked up on stage, grinning slightly at Athena, EJ, and Nini up on the stage. All three of them glanced over. Violetta caught EJ's eye, and she tilted her head slightly as if to say what?

EJ looked back at Nini. "Like kindergarten, remember?"

Nini didn't say her next line and instead kept nervously glancing around the gym. Her eyes then settled on Violetta, Ricky, and Gina by the doors. EJ looked back at them again. His gaze lingered on Violetta's for just a little longer before he went back to Nini.

"Remember kindergarten?" EJ continued. "There's nothing like the friends you made back then. And they never really leave, do they?"

"What are you doing?" Nini inquired.

"Something right, I hope. I'm gonna play to lose. I'm not the Troy that should be up here right now."

Violetta's eyes widened as she watched EJ leave the stage. Well, she certainly wasn't expecting that. Talk about a plot twist. It seemed like everyone else was just as confused, because the audience started to murmur in confusion, Athena just sat at the piano, and Nini was staring at the place where EJ once was.

"And I'm not the Gabriella that should be up here right now," Nini added before walking up to Athena at the piano.

The two of them shared a conversation Violetta couldn't quite hear. Seb then came on stage and took Athena's place at the piano. Athena then finally took the outstretched microphone from Nini and stood up from the piano bench while Nini walked into the wings. Violetta watched in pride as Athena took off of Kelsi's hat and released the bun she had it in, her brown waves cascading down her back.

Athena looked over at their group — more specifically Ricky — and approached him, starting to sing into the microphone. "You know the world can see us in a way that's different than who we are. Creating space between us, till we're separate hearts."

"Attie, what . . ." Ricky stated, taking one of her hands in his as she stopped in front of them. "What's happening?"

"Nini asked me to sing," Athena revealed. "And I want you to sing with me."

Ricky shook his head in response. "No, Athena, I — I can't do this right now."

"Yes you can. Listen, I know you're not at one-hundred percent right now, but Ricky, you belong out there. There's also an entire audience of people out there who believe in you. Big Red believes in you, Vi believes in you, your parents believe in you . . ." She paused for a moment and smiled up at him. "I believe in you."

He allowed himself to grin as well. "And that's all I really need."

Athena let out a small laugh. "Then come on. Show us what you've got, Wildcat."

Violetta tapped Ricky on the back, because they had to get the show moving. "All right, you two, enough with the cuteness. Go out there and kill it."

Athena gave her microphone to Violetta. Violetta graciously took it and switched it to off, holding it close to her. Athena then nodded to the band and Seb on the piano.

"But your faith, it gives me strength," Athena began.

"Strength to believe," Ricky added

Athena only smiled wider. "We're breaking free!"

Ricky held onto Athena's hand tighter as they stared to walk down the aisle of seats, the crowd cheering loudly for them, Violetta included. "We're soaring."

"Flying."

"There's not a star in heaven that we can't reach," they harmonized.

"If we're trying," Athena sang, looking up at Ricky once they reached center stage.

"Yeah we're breaking free."

"Oh, we're breaking free."

"Ooh, woah," Ricky stated.

Violetta then felt a presence next to her. She looked up to see that it was EJ. Violetta looked back out at the stage, watching as Ricky and Athena poured their hearts and souls into the song.

"Pretty cool what you did out there," Violetta told him.

"Yeah?" EJ replied.

"Yeah," Gina agreed. "Thank you. For buying me that plane ticket."

"It was all V's idea," EJ insisted.

Violetta shrugged. "I just didn't want you to miss this. Plus, EJ supplied the funds, which was definitely a major part of it."

She raised her hand for a high-five. EJ obliged, making Violetta grin as she tuned back into the performance.

Athena let one of Ricky's hands go and faced the audience when the key changed. "Soaring."

"Flying," Ricky voiced.

The two of them moved closer to each other, Athena placing her hands on either side of Ricky's face and him putting his on her waist. "There's not a star in heaven that we can't reach. If we're trying."

Ricky stared down at Athena with nothing less than adoration. "Yeah we're breaking free."

Athena stared back at him with the same look. "Breaking free. We're running."

"Ooh, climbing."

They then held hands. "To get to the place to be all that we can . . ."

Athena and Ricky started to spin each other around on the stage. Violetta grinned at them wildly. There was nothing quite like watching two of her best friends being in such carefree love, but it also made her start to frown a little. She hoped that one day she would reach that.

Violetta snuck a quick glance up at EJ. She still had to talk to him after the show. Hopefully, it would go somewhere. She didn't know what she would do if it didn't.

"Be," Athena finished alone.

"Be," Ricky voiced higher.

They stopped spinning and faced the audience, still holding hands. "Now's the time."

"Now's the time," Ricky repeated.

"So we're breaking free," Athena stated.

"Oh, we're breaking free."

"Ooh, oh."

"You know the world can see us," Ricky and Athena sang together softly, the two of them grabbing onto each other's other hand and staring up at each other lovingly. "In a way that's different than who we are."

Violetta started to cheer loudly for the two of them. She clapped as the two of them walked off stage in opposite directions. And right then and there, Violetta knew that up on that stage is where all of them truly belonged.

∘ ₊ ✧ ──── ✧ ₊ ∘

THERE'S ONE MORE CHAPTER OF THIS BOOK I'M EMO