𝙼𝚢 𝙼𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚊𝚛- HSMTMTS- E.J. Caswell

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑭𝒐𝒖𝒓

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍-𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑: 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚃𝚠𝚘

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" Willow, honey is that you?" I hear as I walk out of my room and down the stairs. I scrunch my eyebrows together, confused as to why my mom is still home, and not on her way to work. "What are you still doing here?" I ask when I find her in the kitchen, as she hands Brynn a bowl of cereal. " Autumn called me, she's sick, so I'm going to drop off Brynn at a coworker's house until you're done with school, so I need you to pick her up later and watch her until your dad gets home from work. I'm going to be taking a double-shift today." Mom explains. I roll my eyes at her. "For the last time, he's not my dad. And you can tell him to pick Brynn up, I have plans after school." She gives me a questioning look. " Ashlyn and I were supposed to go to her house to learn lines for the musical remember?" I lie, if I tell her I'm going to a boy's house, regardless if it's for school, she'd never let me go. Mom looks at me with desperation as she checks her watch while scrambling to get her things to leave the house. "Willow, I know I promised you watching Brynn wouldn't interfere with your personal life, but I just need you to keep an eye on her for a couple hours after school, please?" She pushes. Yup. That was her excuse last time. I sigh before caving in. "Sure, just text me the adress I need to get her from.  Can Ashlyn come home with me to rehearse?" I ask her. She nods quickly before checking her watch again. "Yea, that's fine. Now get to school before you're late." She says, ushering me out of the house.

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"Dating her doesn't mean you own her, EJ" Ashlyn says as I approach our lockers. I smile at them both as I start to get my books for my first period class. "I gotta go, but EJ don't do anything stupid, okay?" Ashlyn tells him. He nods. "I need you to borrow Nini's phone for me." He tells me when Ashlyn is out of ear-shot. My eyes bulge as I process what he just asked me to do. "Why on earth would I steal her phone?" I ask him. "Please, Willow. Ricky keeps texting her and I can tell she still has feelings for him. I don't want to lose her." He pleads. "Then tell her how it makes you feel EJ. The best thing for a relationship is communication. " I tell him. He sighs before mumbling. "Okay whatever." As he walks away I remember my conversation with my mom from earlier. "Oh, EJ!" I say, grabbing his arm before he can walk away. He gives me a hopeful glance. "I can't go to your house after school to help you with your paper. I have to watch my little sister." His shoulders sag as he nods his head at me. "Yea, okay. Um, can't we just do it at your house?" He asks. I nod at him as I close my locker. "Yea, we just have to pick up my sister  on the way. "  "Okay whatever, just meet me after rehearsals today." EJ says before the bell rings, both of us going to our respective classes. 

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"Great news!" EJ yells as I get into the passenger seat of his car. I look at him weirdly before asking him what he was talking about. "Nini said Ricky is thinking about quitting the show. Which means, I'll step in as Troy, and everything will be right in the universe." He says dramatically. I roll my eyes. "Have you ever thought that maybe you didn't get Troy for a reason? Like maybe you were meant to play Chad?" I question him as he pulls out of the school parking lot.  It's his turn to give me a weird look as he glances at me. "Where are we going again?" He asks me, trying to change the subject. "To pick up my little sister, she's at my mom's friend's house while she's at work." I sigh. "So..why didn't you do your assignments over the summer? Don't you care about college, like at all?" I ask him, curious as to why this is all happening in the first place. "Things got busy. I don't know." EJ says. "I had waterpolo, and camp, and...I met Nini." He explains. I sigh again. "EJ, all of those things probably won't matter after we graduate, you do realize that right?" I say gently. "Yea, I realize that Willow." EJ snaps as he tightens his grip on the steering wheel. He instantly shoots me an apolegtic look as I frown at him. "Sorry" I mutter. He starts to try to speak but stops himself, deciding against it.  I turn my body to face the window. We stay like that for the rest of the car ride, ocassionally telling EJ directions. As soon as we reach Sabrina's apartment complex, where Brynn was, I rush out of the passenger side, telling EJ I would only be a minute quickly before racing towards her apartment, eager to get away from the incredibly awkward car ride. I knock on the door, Sabrina opening it shortly after. "Willow!" Brynn shouts, as she sees me in the doorway. I smile brightly and bend down in just enough time for her body to collide with mine. "Hey, Brynnie!" She releases her grip on me as I grab her hand and shoot Sabrina a grateful smile before walking back to EJ's car. When we approach where I had left EJ, I see him leaning against the front of his car, dong something on his phone. "Who's that Wills?" Brynn asks me shyly. "A friend from school, he's going to be hanging out with us for a little bit." I explain to her. She nods understandingly. As I get her into the car and get in myself, EJ starts the car and begins driving to my house. "Hey, mister. What's your name?" Brynn asks EJ curiously. I hear EJ stammer, feeling slightly intimidated by the 3 year old. I snort at his expression as he manages to get out a response. "EJ." Brynn nods and then says before I have time to stop her. "Are you Willie's boyfriend?"  EJ snorts as I whip my head around to stop Brynn from saying anything else. "No Brynn he is not my boyfriend." I say with an eye roll. Brynn nods again before focusing her attention on her toy elephant my dad gave her when she was born." Oh, cause Willie's never had friends...or a boyfriend. All she does is hang out with Ashlyn and Autumn. Willie and Autumn were talking about you the other day, did you know that?" Brynn rambles as I shoot her multiple death glares. I smile fakely as I reply to her "Alright, that's enough Brynn". As I turn back around in my seat EJ looks at me jokingly. "Willie?". I groan at him. "Shut up, or I let you fail English." I threaten. He laughs at me before looking back at the road.

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After a brutal car ride of Brynn interogating EJ, we finally arrived at my house. As soon as we walked inside, Brynn rushes upstairs and into her room, rambling about how her stuffed animals were wondering where she was all day. "Your sister is...she's something alright." EJ says with a short laugh when I sit down on the couch with a huff. "Yup. She has quite the personality." I say, agreeing with him. EJ sets his bag down as he sits next to me. "Where are your parents?" EJ asks me, noticing no one else was here with us. "Well my mom is at work for a couple more hours." EJ nods before asking, "What about your dad?". I suck in a breath. "My, uh, my step-dad works too. All the time." EJ looks at me with sorrow in his eyes, regretting bringing up the topic. "Uh, why don't we start on your  English. We can start with studying for the test next week? We can make sure you're prepared for it?" I say, flipping through my book, desperately trying to change the subject. He nods quickly as he reaches for his book as well. I begin quizzing him on the questions our teacher said would be on the test. After I finish that I walk him through all the ones he missed, EJ picking up on the material fairly quickly.  We're interupted by Brynn racing down the stairs, eager to show EJ one of the many souvenirs she got from our summer in California. "Look, mommy got it for me because I was being such a good girl while we were waiting for Willow all day." Brynn says, emphasizing how long they had to wait for me each day to finish filming. She shows EJ the stuffed giraffe mom bought her that day. EJ stops the practice test he was doing and gives his full attention to the giddy girl in front of him. "Wow, that's really cool, Brynn." He says as she hands him the stuffed animal. "You should see how excited she was to see the beach for the first time while we were there." I butt in. Brynn's eyes widen in realization before her rambling began. "It was amazing! There was so much water and sand. Willow and I built the biggest sand castle ever! It was like this big!" She stretches her arms out as wide as she can. EJ laughs lightly before dramatically gasping. "Woah, that's huge!" he says. After listening to Brynn ramble on about California, I managed to coax her back into her room so we could continue studying. "She's adorable." EJ says as Brynn walks up the stairs. I nod, agreeing with him. "Yeah, I know. She's just like our dad," I say with a sad smile. "So, how was California. I wanna know what being on a real movie set is like." EJ says adorably excited. Stop it Willow. "It was unbelievably amazing. It...just doesn't feel right. I didn't feel like a belonged there, you know? I felt like a fraud." I start as EJ stares at me intently, urging me to continue. "All of those other actors, they're resumes were like, as long as your homework list." I say with a laugh, making him laugh too. "They were all those incredibly talented people, and there I was, a regular old high schooler from Utah. I couldn't compete with them." I finish.  EJ looks at me incredously. "Are you serious?" he asks. "You're like, the most talented person in all of East High. There's a reason you got the part, Willow." he continues. I blush at his words, but quickly turn my head so he doesn't see. "And that song you sang yesterday, it was beyond amazing. You have a gift Willow." EJ says, smiling at me. I wave him off. "That song was just something I did when I got bored one day." EJ shakes his head, exasperated. "No, no way. A song that amazing has to have a story behind it." He says, urging me to explain the song. "There's not really a story. I was sitting in my hotel room in Los Angeles, and I was feeling like I didn't deserve to be there. And the song was born." I tell him, exaggerating the last part. I glance at the clock hanging on the wall. 6:30. Crap. Jacob will be home any minute. The last thing I need is EJ running into step-jerk here.  "Hey, can we finish this later? My step-dad should be getting home soon." I ask EJ, closing my English textbook. EJ nods before doing the same. "Thanks for doing this Willow. I'm sure you have much better things to be doing instead of helping me study." I wave his comment off as I walk him to the front door. "It's no problem, really. If you have any questions on tonight's homework, call me, okay?" I say as he walks outside. He nods again with a smile. "See you tommorow, Wills." My heart skips a beat. Control yourself Willow.

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AN/: Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I've had a lack of motivation and didn't like anything I was writing. I think I've finally got out of my funk so hopefully I'll be able to get some chaps out for you :) I've also started writing another book about Once Upon A Time! I haven't posted any of it yet but if you're interested in it I'll be sure to tell you guys when it's up! have a good day everyone:) xoxo