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𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗬

chapter four:
the read through !

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ATHENA, STILL SHOCKED at the fact she got both Kelsi and Gabriella's Understudy, entered the bomb shelter with Violetta for the very first read through of High School Musical: The Musical. A circle of desks and chairs was in the center of the room with name tags for each of the characters. Athena spotted Ricky and Big Red leaning up against the piano. Ricky gave her a small wave once he noticed her, and she sent one back with a grin.

"What I don't get is how Troy and Gabriella got the leads when Sharpay and Ryan had been training in musical theater their entire lives," Violetta ranted, throwing her backpack on the floor, making Athena jump in surprise. "How is that fair?"

"Don't be so aggressive," Athena scolded, placing her backpack down on the floor next to Violetta's gently. "And I don't know, Vi. Why don't you call up Kenny Ortega and ask him yourself?"

"Gee, thanks," Violetta replied sarcastically. "I'll be sure to do that later."

The two of them walked up to the circle of desks. However, they spotted EJ trying to switch the Troy and Chad name cards so that he would be sitting next to Nini instead of Ricky. Athena raised an eyebrow at him and crossed her arms while Violetta narrowed her eyes at him. He sent them a charming smile back.

"Not today, Pretty Boy," Violetta told him, nodding her head at the cards. "Go on, put them back."

EJ sighed and reluctantly put them back. Athena sent him a fake sweet smile before turning around, sharing an exasperated look with Violetta.

"Ok, I may be his cousin, but I definitely admire the way you put him in his place," a redheaded girl next to them said. She stuck out her hand. "Hi, I'm Ashlyn. I play Ms. Darbus."

Violetta shook her hand. "Violetta. I play Martha. And this is my best friend Athena."

"Oh, you're Kelsi and Gabriella's Understudy, right?" Ashlyn asked.

Athena nodded. "Yeah, that's me."

"That song you auditioned with was so amazing," Ashlyn complimented. "And you said it was an original?"

"Yeah," Athena answered, all of the sudden feeling very comfortable around this girl. "I wrote it for—"

She was cut off by somebody slinging an arm around her shoulder. Athena went to smile at the familiar feeling of whose arm it was, but instead she sneezed from the strong smell radiating off them. She picked her head up to see Ricky staring at her with a confused expression.

Athena sneezed once more. "Ricky, what are you wearing?"

"Um, Throb," Ricky responded in a duh tone. "I'm gonna win over Nini with pheromones."

"I don't think you're winning over anybody smelling that strongly," Violetta voiced while rolling her eyes. "It's a little overkill."

"Could everyone take their assigned seats, please?" Miss Jenn announced.

Athena looked around for the Kelsi name card, finding it between Ashlyn and Violetta. Her face lit up in a bright smile and she ducked out from underneath Ricky's arm, making her way to her seat.

"Don't forget to silence your phones," Miss Jenn warned. "I realize that you all walked in here as strangers."

"Actually, EJ's my cousin," Ashlyn interjected.

"But after today, you're a family," Miss Jenn continued after a couple seconds of awkward silence. "One tribe, committed to lifting this classic film to new heights."

The sound of someone taking a picture rang throughout the room. Athena looked over to see Carlos taking a selfie with his Choreographer name card. Miss Jenn stared at him, and Carlos lowered his phone and name card.

"Please take your neighbors' hands," Miss Jenn instructed. She held hers out to Big Red, who was filling in for stage manager since Natalie Bagley's glands were swollen. "Hand."

Athena laughed slightly to herself at Big Red's confused face as she took both Violetta and Ashlyn's hands in hers. Miss Jenn kept instructing the reluctant people to take each other's hands. Athena locked eyes with Ricky across the table. She nodded her head subtly to Nini, and Ricky held out his hand to her. The girl glanced at it for a moment before gingerly taking it.

Miss Jenn looked to Ricky and EJ. "Hands."

Both of them took each other's hands uncomfortably. Athena looked to Violetta and tried her best not to burst out laughing at the looks on their faces.

"Feel each other's energy," Miss Jenn began. "Let the silence speak volumes. In a world full of no, this is a space full of yes."

"Nice," Carlos whispered. "Did you just come up with that?"

"I did," Miss Jenn answered.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Miss Jenn started singing a slow version of We're All in This Together in a higher octave than what it normally was. Finally, Miss Jenn ended in an extremely high note. Everyone in the circle shared concerned looks before she ended. Ashlyn, being the sweet girl that she was, clapped for Miss Jenn, but it died out as soon as she noticed no one else was clapping with her.

Everyone did a short group warm-up before it was finally time to begin the read though. Athena took out her highlighter and highlighted all of her lines so she wouldn't miss any, but she didn't understand why Big Red was chosen to read the stage directions. He always had trouble reading out loud in the first place and never pronounced any of the punctuation. Athena had her chin in the palm of her hand and was holding in her sigh. She met eyes with Ricky across the circle once more and they exchanged wide-eyed looks.

"Sharpay heads for class, she hears singing, opens the door to the biology lab," Big Red read out loud, his voice completely monotone. "She finds Gabriella and Taylor washing their hands. They turn to find there are no paper towels in the dispenser. They—"

"Stop," Miss Jenn cut in. "Don't run it all together. Read the punctuation."

"Sharpay, comma, heads for class, period."

Athena placed her head in her hands as Big Red kept reading like that. Finally, after a long, long, long read through of Act One, he reached the final line.

"And they are hearing the songs in their heads period."

Miss Jenn hit her hand on the desk once he finished. "And that's Act One. Let's take a break." She looked to Carlos. "Come here."

Everyone stood up. Athena followed in suit and stretched her arms above her head quickly. She looked to see Big Red and Ricky approaching her and Violetta. Ricky slung his arm around Athena's shoulder again, and just like before, she sneezed from his cologne.

"Seriously, tone it down with that stuff," Athena complained, sniffling slightly. "I think I'm having an allergic reaction."

"Come on, you secretly love it," Ricky urged in a teasing manner.

"No, it's actually quite the opposite."

Violetta sighed. "I can't wait to get to the dance rehearsals. That's what Martha's all about. Right now, I've only said, like, one word."

"At least you don't have to read the stage directions," Big Red stated. "I haven't read since the fifth grade science fair. And that's for a reason."

"Okay people, we're back," Miss Jenn announced.

Athena raised an eyebrow up at Ricky. "You ready to dominate Act Two, Troy?"

She didn't give him a chance to respond. Athena walked away from them, sitting down in her seat and opening her script to Act Two. Ricky watched her for a moment, a small smile on his face before he shook his head. No, he had to focus on the plan to get Nini back, not Athena.

But as he soon comes to learn, that would be easier said than done.

--- ☆ • ♫ • ♪ • ♫ • ☆ ---

IT WAS THE next day, and this time, they were doing dance rehearsals. Violetta was practically jumping up and down in excitement. They were learning choreography from Carlos for the curtain call, but Athena was sat by the piano since she had to play the music (part of her duty as Kelsi was playing the piano at rehearsals, but Seb and her would sometimes switch, depending on the scene.)

Speaking of Seb, he was walking up to her at the piano with a bright smile on his face. Athena's mood immediately brightened just at the sight of him.

"Hi Seb," Athena greeted.

He sat next to her on the piano bench. "Hi, 'Thena. Are you ready for some piano playing?"

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," she replied. "You ready to switch out if need be?"

"Always."

"Okay, people," Carlos voiced. "Let's take it from, um, three counts of eight, right before Troy and Gabriella's entrance for the bows."

Seb squeezed Athena's shoulder. "You got this."

Athena smiled at him before placing her fingers on the keys. She looked over at Carlos to wait for his instruction as all of the dancers (including Violetta) got into place.

"A five, six, seven, eight," Carlos counted.

Athena immediately began to play the notes of the song from the sheet music in front of her. However, when it became time for Nini and Ricky's dance part, Ricky completely messed up the coreography. Nini, an exasperated look on her face, looked at Carlos. Athena stopped playing the piano and shared a concerned look with Violetta from across the room. This wasn't going to end well, she could feel it.

"I'm sorry," Ricky apologized.

Nini pointed to him. "What is he doing?"

"Why are you talking to him? I'm here."

"'Cause you're not here. At least not for the right reasons."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ricky questioned.

"It's exactly what I said, Ricky," Nini answered. "You hate musicals. You're only doing this so we'd be in each other's grills. Or maybe it's because you wanted to be closer with Athena."

Athena stood up from the piano. "Why am I always dragged into things?"

"Back to the dance, please," Carlos pleaded, obviously not wanting to start a fight.

"Now you're rubbing some weird cologne on your neck," Nini continued.

"Hey, you love Throb!" Ricky insisted.

"And wasting everybody's time by making fun of something that the rest of us take seriously."

"Okay, that's a five!" Carlos interjected in a panicked tone. "On a break, people! Everybody out! Get out!"

Everyone else began trickling out of the room. Athena walked around the piano slowly and waited for Violetta to join her side.

"No, come on," Ricky protested while following after Nini. "Hey, I take this seriously."

"No!" Nini said loudly. "No, you don't. You don't take anything seriously. "You just . . . you coast. And the second someone asks you to make a commitment—"

Athena's blood boiled, suddenly feeling very protective over Ricky. "Nini, stop it."

"—you make a joke or you sink into some imaginary hole in the floor."

"I didn't sink, Nini," Ricky argued. Violetta took Athena's elbow in her hand to pull her away, but Athena shook it off, stepping off of the platform the piano was on. "I just wasn't ready to say it then. But I went to that audition to show—"

"Because I had met someone else!" Nini exclaimed. "You wanted to drag me back into tenth grade like my summer had never happened. But if you really cared about me, Ricky, you'd let somebody who wants to play this part play it. And you would listen to my advice about Athena."

"Stop always bringing Athena into this, this has nothing to do with her," Ricky told her.

Nini whirled around. "This has everything to do with her!"

Carlos sighed. "Can we at least try the dip?" Ricky shook his head and picked up his backpack. "What just happened? Why aren't we dipping?"

"Mission accomplished!" Miss Jenn announced as she walked into the room. "A precious piece of the original HSM is on its way. Where are you going, Troy?"

"It's Ricky," he corrected before walking out of the room.

Miss Jenn looked to Carlos. "Get him back. Now."

Carlos ran out of the room. Athena was never good with confrontation, but this time, she needed to be.

Athena took a step forwards. "Are you kidding me, Nini?"

Nini turned and looked at her. "What?"

"'Thena," Violetta said quietly.

"Don't talk to him like that," Athena scolded, ignoring Violetta. "He's really trying, and you're just shutting him down without giving him a chance."

"He's not here for the right reasons, and you know that," Nini argued.

"Ricky is here because this musical is good for him," Athena shot back. "He's trying with everything that he's got, and you just made him think that he's not good enough. But let me tell you something. He is good enough, you just won't see it."

Nini was quiet. Athena scoffed and went to walk out of the room for their break, but she turned and faced Nini again.

"Oh, and one more thing," Athena commented. "Stop bringing me into yours and Ricky's arguments. My name has no place being there."

With that, her and Violetta left the room, leaving a silent Nini and a confused Miss Jenn behind.

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violetta has such a fiery personality I love it. stan violetta for clear skin

ok but y'all what the FUCK is going on w the hsmtmts cast like this drama has me worried bc I never want them to break apart or hate each other :(((