𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄 ; ricky b.

0.5

𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙-𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝

⏤

"ricky, what is that smell?" angie questioned as she walked with ricky and big red to the theatre room, someplace she's never stepped foot in before.

"it's throb, nini loves it." he said, confidence ringing in his voice. 

"after what happened yesterday, you really wanna take another chance at getting her back?"

"well, i-"

"welcome, everyone! please sit at your assigned seats with your character's name on it!" miss jenn said as the trio entered the room. props and background pieces were stored and propped up by the white brick walls. desks with cards of each character's name were placed in a circle.

ricky and angie sat next to each other, due to them being the leads of the play. she couldn't help but feel a little nervous, knowing that they're playing each other's love interest. nini, who was playing taylor mckessie, sat on the other side of ricky,  and e.j, who was portraying chad, on the other side of angie.

e.j.'s ego was too big for him to realize that he shouldn't have been overconfident in getting to play the lead, troy bolton.

"that's our stage manager! i guess she's not coming." carlos told miss jenn. miss jenn's eyes landed on big red, and knew that he could assist the cast today.

"yoo-hoo! ginger boy, can you read?" the blonde questioned him.

"not really." he shrugged.

"well, you get to read today. it's just the stage directions." and with that, miss jenn left the conversation, causing big red to be even more confused than before.

"wait, angie, do you know what that means?"

"it's just the italicized words in the parenthesis." she briefly explained as he took his assigned seat as stage manager. even though she didn't take theatre arts and took journalism instead, she figured out what a few theatre terms meant on her own, like centerstage, etc.

"i'm aware that you guys are strangers, but after today, you'll be a family. you'll unite as one. so, now may everyone take your neighbor's hands. feel each other's energy." miss jenn said, grabbing ahold of carlos' and big red's hands.

ricky and angie held hands, and she swore she felt sparks fly. she didn't want to let go. e.j. held her left hand while nini held ricky's right hand. 

it was awkward from the get go, and nini eventually pulled her hand out of ricky's grasp as miss jenn started to sing 'we're all in this together' with her eyes closed acapella style, causing him to roll his eyes.

after that, the group started on some basic warm ups before the first read through of the script. 

act one introduced gabriella and troy and the other characters, so everyone got a chance to read out loud. angie didn't feel as intimidated as she felt the other day, which was nice.

big red read the stage directions all throughout act one, and it was very painful to hear. he skipped over the punctuation, causing all the words to be scrambled together as if it was one big run on sentence.

but yet, the kid hasn't read out loud since the fifth grade.

miss jenn corrected him, and told him to read the punctuation and not put it all together at once. big red took that literally, and read the name of each punctuation out loud when it occurred.

"alright, act one is over! let's take five!"

and with that everyone practically jumped out of their seats to interact with others. nini and e.j. instantly came over to each other as if they haven't seen one another in ages.

the trio was away from the circle, and ricky whipped out his phone, eyeing nini the whole time.

"ricky, what are you doing?" angie asked as he started typing away on his phone.

"texting nini, duh."

"i can't believe you." she muttered.

"i can't either. she's literally under ten feet away from you dude that's-"

"i know, but it's one step further into getting her back." ricky interrupted big red. 

angie shook her head disapprovingly as nini checked her phone to see who texted her. e.j. turned to see ricky on his phone eyeing his girlfriend and gave him the absolute dirtiest look when nini walked towards her seat, not paying attention.

rehearsals ended, and the trio walked out of the school. "see you guys, later." big red said as he put on his helmet and skated away on his skateboard.

"bye, red!" angie replied.

 big red lived in a different neighborhood than angie and ricky, so the three of them didn't walk home all together.

angie and ricky made their way to their neighborhood, and talked along the way. ricky didn't bother do ride his skateboard back home for some reason, so he walked along with his best friend.

"i feel like i'm doing something wrong, angie. maybe i should just quit, there's no point in going to seventy four rehearsals everyday for her just to ignore me or-"

"you can't back out now, bowen. you officially made a commitment to these people, we both did. you can't let them down for your own good. that's just not fair." she explained.

"i know, but-"

"no, you're not quitting. i'm not gonna let you, either. you dragged me into this too, even red."

"you're right," ricky sighed. "i'm sorry."

angie felt her expression soften. she couldn't help but have soft spots for him, especially when he would apologize.

"it's alright." she nudged him playfully, getting a bit close to him. she smelt the everlasting smell of the cologne on him, causing her to make a face.

"yuck, that cologne is never gonna get off you, is it?" she stuck a finger in her mouth and stuck her tongue out.

"nope. it's gonna stay like that for awhile anyways, so get used to it."

"never gonna happen."