in every universe (one shot-s) | JENLISA

start of something new

THE high school musical au

A New Year's party. Of all things, Jennie is spending New Year's Eve at a New Year's Party for kids under eighteen at some ski resort in the middle of nowhere.

She'd tried to tell her dad she wanted to stay in her room – at least she had her own room here, thank god, because if she'd had to share with her dad and the stepmonster she would have flipped – but of course he'd just threatened to confiscate all her equipment for the rest of the trip. Which is really only two days – she has to report at her new school on the third – but she doesn't trust her dad with the equipment, like, at all.

So here she is, sitting in a solitary armchair to the side of the room, flipping through her chemistry textbook and filling in the answers to the blanks in the practice section without too much thought. Her dad had made her come to this party, yeah, but that doesn't mean she has to actually partake in it. And since she couldn't exactly carry her equipment around, she'd settled for chemistry. Sure, it wasn't something she particularly liked, but it was something she was good at, so it made for a non-frustrating distraction when she needed one.

The thing about parties, though, is that there's no guarantee everyone will leave you alone. Jennie is reminded of this when a spotlight suddenly shines down on her and she looks up, squinting, to see that the guy running the karaoke has apparently decided making her sing would be a good thing. She shakes her head violently, because one, ew, she doesn't do karaoke, and two, rude much? Is her clearly-uninterested image not clear enough?

Evidently not, because the crowd starts cheering and someone actually gives her a shove, which is all kinds of not acceptable, really, and she only gets up from the armchair because she doesn't want anyone else touching her. The faster she gets this over with, the faster she can slip away, and she'll make sure it's to somewhere no one will disturb her this time. Throwing her chemistry textbook down on the seat, she makes her way over to the stage in the middle, where a girl with blonde hair stands.

She can't help but notice how gorgeous she looks – her hair is sleek and shiny and damn, but she's smoking hot. The blue dress she's wearing really makes her eyes pop, which is totally unnecessary because those eyes are the brownest things she's ever seen as it is. And then the girl gives her a giant smile, and oh, shit, she has a really nice smile too. Jennie pretends her heartbeat hasn't sped up and just raises an eyebrow at her, which for some reason only makes the girl's smile grow bigger.

The other person on the stage gestures for Jennie to take her place behind the second microphone. "Someday, you guys might thank me for this," he says. "Or not."

She shakes her head. She's inclined to go with or not, because what does he really expect to come out of this? But the blonde just laughs a little, and Jennie doesn't really have much time to think about it anymore because the music has started and okay, it's a song she vaguely knows, at least, so she's not going to make a complete fool of herself. The other girl starts them off, and – oh. Apparently, on top of being smoking hot, she has an amazing voice.

"Living in my own world, didn't understand that anything can happen when you take a chance."

Jennie didn't really have any intention of properly singing when she walked up to the stage, but the other girl is looking at her with those hazel blues and an expectant smile, and somehow she finds herself taking the next verse without really thinking about it.

"I never believed in," she sings, quietly, "what I couldn't see."

The other girl looks absolutely delighted, and gamely provides a little background vocals. It's such a dorky thing to do, taking karaoke this seriously, and normally Jennie might find it off putting. With this girl, though, it's just cute. Encouraged, she sings the next line a little louder, and when they come together for the build up to the chorus she decides, to hell with it, and throws herself into the song.