People Watching - EJ Caswell ¹

"Then what are all the muscles for?"

Scarlett was caught out of her daze by rushed, continuous knocks at her door. She paused, slightly confused but she picked up her pace when the knocking didn't stop, and once she opened the door to reveal Valentina she let out a breath of relief. "What are you doing?"

The girl barged inside, kicking off her shoes in a quick flash and falling onto the couch with a huff. "I messed up. I messed up bad." She replied, turning around to face the ceiling.

"What do you mean?" The brunette questioned, leaning against the wall as she looked down at her best friend.

Valentina shook her phone around in the air. "I messed everything up." She groaned in annoyance. "I told her I wanted to take a break. I don't want a break!"

Scarlett, who had finally realised what she was complaining about, sat down on one of the armchairs opposite the couch. "Why in the world would you do something as stupid as that?" She asked, receiving a glare from the girl.

"We were arguing and then all of a sudden, the words are spilling out of my mouth before I can stop and think about what the hell I was saying!" Val responded and Scarlett strode forward, dragging her up off her couch and back towards the front door. "What are you doing?" Her tone had changed to a more confused one as the girl guided her to the door, passing her the shoes she had previously thrown on the floor.

"You are going to go and apologise for being an idiot, and you are going to tell her that you don't want a break." She instructed, shoving her out of the door. "And don't come back until you've made it right!" She called out to the girl who was walking down the path and away from her house. "Idiot." She mumbled as she closed the door, going back to what she was doing before.

______

Scarlett hadn't heard from Valentina since yesterday when she came over and she couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not, but she had no time to worry about that situation as she sat in rehearsal, watching Gina perform an extremely complicated dance routine she had come up with for her and Nina.

The small brunette who played Gabriella finally made it to rehearsal, an hour later than everyone else.

"Everybody hold!" Ms Jenn called out, walking toward Nini. "Nini, where were you? We've been here for an hour."

The girl walked through the door and she started to apologise profusely. "I'm so sorry. I lost my phone and spent the whole of last night living as a hunter-gatherer, which, by the way, did you know that there are things only on TV at a certain time?" She explained, becoming slightly off-topic. "Okay, anyway, I finally picked it up at the lost and found..."

Nini paused for a moment and Scarlett turned her line of sight toward EJ, she knew he was going to go through with his plan but she hoped that maybe, just maybe, he'd have let it go. He must have noticed someone looking at him because he turned around looking back at the girl, guilt evident on his face. She shook her head as the girl continued to speak. "Wait, did you say an hour?"

The older woman nodded, "Gina sent you and me a text asking if we could come in early so she could talk through a new idea, You didn't get it?" She asked and the girl shook her head.

"No, because my phone was missing."

Ms Jenn didn't seem bothered by her excuse, "You've gotta keep better track of your stuff. A real-triple threat means singing, acting and being organised." She explained and Nini nodded in defeat. "Well, if you had been here, you'd know that Gina pitched a whole new dance break for Gabriella and Taylor in the middle of 'Status Quo' and she had Carlos work it out with her, and it is just dazzling." The blonde gushed and Gina walked up to the pair.