During first period today, we were taking the cast photo that would go on the playbill, and would be advertised around the school. My costume for Kelsi wasn't as bad as I'd thought it'd be, but the top I had to wear was a little too tight. I also had to wear a newsboy cap that had probably been used for a production of Newsies at one point. Other than that, Kourtney had made me look pretty good, so I was grateful for that.

Violet's Costume

And once Ricky walked out of the dressing room in his costume, I became 100% more appreciative of my costume. He had on a terrible wig that looked eerily similar to Zac Efron's hair in HSM.

"What the hell is that wig?", I asked him.

"Shut up! Hair and makeup did it to me. They said that I had to look completely accurate", he replied.

"Okay, but do you get to keep the wig?" I asked.

"Why? Do you want it?" He replied.

"Yes, actually. I love it", I said.

"I know, right", Gina said, coming up next to me.

"I love your costume, Gina! It looks so much like what she wore in the movie!", I said.

"Aww thanks. I'm glad that mine is movie-accurate in this way instead of the way that Ricky's is", she said.

"I agree. Mine isn't really movie accurate, but beside the newsboy cap, it's not that different than what I'd wear on a daily basis", I said.

"You look cute though. You look like how Kelsi would dress if she had any sense of style", she said.

"I'm just happy they didn't give me braids", I said.

"Seriously", she replied.

"Okay! Time to take the picture!", Carlos shouted.

We all lined up on stage.

"Where's Miss Jen?" Nini asked.

"She's not gonna make it, so I'm in charge", Carlos replied.

We then all lined up in our specific order, and tried to all jump at the same time, which really did not work out at all. It turns out, getting seven people to all jump at the exact same height, at the exact same time is virtually impossible. Who would've thought?

After all that was done, and Big Red swore that he'd gotten the perfect shot, we all returned to our dressing rooms to get back into our civilian clothes.

Violet's Outfit

The rest of the day went by kind of uneventfully until practice.

We were all sitting in the rehearsal room, scrolling through our phones. Miss Jen was almost twenty minutes late, which was highly freaking unusual considering that she always emphasized the importance of being on time.

"Okay! So Miss Jen isn't going to be here, so guess who's in charge again! Nini, boys, please get up here. We're gonna run through "When There Was Me And You"", Carlos said frantically.

"Okay, so why are there all these boys up here?", Gina asked.

"Exactly. What's the point of every dude in the cast being present in the scene? Isn't it just supposed to be Gabriella?", I asked.

"She's supposed to be wandering around a forest of boys, and talking about how she went wrong with Troy, according to Miss Jen", Carlos said.

"Wait, how she went wrong? Troy was the one who humiliated her in front of the entire team, and acted like a total dick. He should be talking about where he went wrong" I said.

"This song is actually really sexist if you think about it. It's all about Gabriella talking about how much she misses her relationship with Troy, when it was really kind of toxic the whole time", Gina said.

"I agree. This might have been okay in 2006, but now I don't think it's that appropriate", Ashlyn said.

"Couldn't she at least have a bunch of sisters surrounding her, having her back?", Kourtney asked.

"Or it could be a slowed down, acoustic version where the meaning of the song is kind of changed?", Ricky asked.

"I love that!", I said.

Then a bunch of people began talking at once, and Carlos lost it.

"Okay, wanna know why Miss Jen isn't here? She may be getting fired, because she lied on her job application. This may be how rehearsal is from now on, because tomorrow she's going up against the school board, and there's a really good chance that she's getting fired. Everyone can leave, practice is over for today", Carlos said.

Everyone left the room, except Ricky and I.

"You know, I'd really like to hear that acoustic version", I said.

"Really?", he asked.

"Of course!", I replied.

He began playing the guitar and singing, and he was really freaking good. It was way better than the dated original version of the song.

When he was done, I stood up and applauded.

"That was so freaking amazing!", I said.

"Thanks. I'm glad you liked it", he said.

"I loved it. I wish I could play guitar like that", I said.

"It's not that difficult once you get a hang of it. I could maybe teach you sometime", Ricky said.

"That'd be awesome! I gotta go now so I'm not too late for work, but that was really good!", I said.

And I did love it, honestly. I felt like he was singing to me, like the song meant something between us. And it was so good, and it just meant so much to me that he felt comfortable enough with me to sing for me.

Later on, after work, I'd gotten a bunch of texts from the HSM Cast groupchat talking about how we'd crash the board meeting tomorrow and sing a protest song of sorts, and that we'd meet at Big Red's tonight to plan it out.

I went, and we ended up making a pretty good song if I do say so myself.

The next day, I woke up early and put on an outfit that was cute, but was still something that I could dance in.

Violet's Outfit

Once we got to school, we all met in the cafeteria and stayed in different places as the room filled with board members and parents. My mom couldn't make it, but I did see Ricky's dad in the audience, which I thought was nice.

Once the opening remarks of the board meeting was over, we began our song.

I was super nervous at first, but by the time we got to the chorus, I felt brave.

During the second verse, it was just Ricky and I singing, which made me kind fo nervous, but we ended up doing pretty well.

We finished out the song very strongly, and almost all of the teachers and all of the parents were on their feet applauding for us.

And, Miss Jen would remain in her position! I was super happy, because she was a really good director, and just overall a genuinely nice person.

"We did it!" I said, turning to Ricky.

He hugged me, lifting me up and spinning me around.

Let's just say, it was very freaking difficult to not squeal during that.

"I'm so happy that it all worked out", he said.

"I am too", I replied.

At that moment, it felt like we were the only two in the room. A team of two going against the world.

Author's Note: Hi! This chapter kind of sucked, and was uneventful when it came to Ricky and Violet drama- however, I have something really cute planned for them in the future, and as long as it pertains to the next episode's narrative, it will be up this week! Expect that chapter up sometime this week!

💛Beth