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THE PARTNER warmups weren't difficult, and they were over sooner than Cam had anticipated. It was then that he, and everyone else, got situated into a straight line across the stage. He felt a pit in the bottom of his stomach as EJ stood beside him with Nini not far behind.
"You okay?" whispered EJ as Miss Jenn went down the line of students, handing out lines for them to sign. "You seem a little... off."
"Fine." replied Cam, a little harsher than intended. "What do you mean off?"
"You've been avoiding me all day, I'm just wondering if I did something-"
"You didn't do anything, EJ, just leave it there."
EJ leaned away from his cousin, shaking his head. Cam felt bad; EJ really didn't do anything wrong. He didn't know Cam liked Nini.
"Gabriella." said Miss Jenn, stopping at Gina. Cam looked over at her, grinning.
"You got it." she laughed gently. As Carlos tried to hand her a line book, she rejected it. "I'm off-book."
Miss Jenn moved over to Cam, looking him up and down for a second. "I think Troy will fit you."
Cam beamed at her happily, taking the lines from her as she moved onto his cousin, turning to Carlos. "Give him the Troy stuff, who are we kidding?" EJ put a celebratory fist in the air as he took the lines from Carlos.
Then it was Nini's turn, and Miss Jenn stopped at her, hardly hesitating as she turned down to her list of names. "And how about we have you read for Kelsi?"
Cam felt somewhat bad for her as he saw Nini's face drop in disappointment. Even being as mad at Nini as he was, Cam knew that Nini was the perfect Gabriella. Gina was a good singer and dancer, sure, but Nini practically was Gabriella. She didn't need any experience being a leading lady to acquire the role, that Cam was sure of.
However, Gina smirked to herself from beside Cam. Nini, in her profound opinion, was nothing like the Gabriella that Gina thought she, herself, was.
"Gabriella." Nini finally stammered out, causing Cam's head to snap back up from the ground. She'd never been this confident, although the fact that she was wearing her lucky sweatshirt could be part of the equation to her newfound boldness. "I wanna audition for Gabriella."
Gina's smirk was replaced with a look of disgust as Miss Jenn shrugged and handed Nini the lines for Gabriella. Miss Jenn moved onto Seb, a boy Cam had never knew that well except from the hallways.
"You're reading for Ryan, right?"
Carlos leaned closer to Miss Jenn. "I think he'd rather be Sharpay."
Miss Jenn turned back to Seb, a wild, yet excited, look maintained her eyes. "I love that. That is so fresh." Seb smiled at her.
