Soaring [ej caswell]

Eleven: Act Two

"EJ, why are you wearing Troy's jersey?" I ask.

"What did you do to Ricky?" Ashlyn steps in.

"I didn't do anything. He asked me to fill in" EJ answers.

"So it's true. You're actually going on as Troy" I say.

"Yep"

"I guess a certain part of me wants to say congratulations" Ashlyn reluctantly says.

"Yeah, and a certain part of me wants to throw up"

"Wait, if you're Troy, then who's playing Chad?"

Carlos comes in wearing the Chad jersey.

"Oh..."

"Oh heavens"

"Buckle up, Wildcats! You ready, bro?" Carlos asks, fist-bumping EJ. EJ walks out, trying not to let nerves get the best of him.

"Pray for me" Carlos says. I laugh and wrap my arm around him as we walk out towards the stage.

"Act Two, you ready?" I ask Nini.

"Sure!" She laughs nervously.

Nini aka Gabriella and I walk out to the lunch table and sit.

"Taylor, do you ever feel like there's this whole other person inside of you, just looking for a way to come out?" Gabriella asks looking off into the audience.

I look off to where she was looking.

"Not really. No" I say and the audience laughs.

"Oh. Come on. Let's go" I say grabbing our books and heading off stage.

"Wow, um, I think we kinda nailed it!" I say, walking backstage with Nini.

"Yeah..."

"Wait, what's wrong?"

"You've played a lot more leading roles than I have. What do you do when there's someone in the audience who could change your life?" She asks.

"Nini, listen. You're a great actor. I mean that. So just act like someone who knows what she's doing" I smile.

"Does that ever work?"

"Works for me every time. It's my greatest trick. Also, sort of my only trick"

"Oh, you have a ton of tricks"

"Aha, thanks Nini" I giggle.

She smiles at me and pulls me into tight hug.

"Now, let's go finish off strong"

*Later*

"Wow. So this is your real stage" Nini says her line, she turns around to see EJ and the look on her face just screams, "What are you doing here?"

"I guess you could call it that. Or just a smelly gym" EJ says.

Nini whispers to him but he hands her the ball instead. Nini shoots it but misses the hoop

"Whoa. Don't tell me you're good at hoops, too?" EJ asks.

"Um... I once scored 41 points at a league championship game"

"No way"

"Uh, yeah, in the same day I invented the space shuttle and microwave popcorn" Nini says, her voice shaking.

They start to whisper to each other again. Y'all, we're in the middle of a show...

"Miss, I'm sorry. This is a closed practice" Mr. Bolton says.