one time thing | ricky bowen ¹

five

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leighton barrios suddenly froze up. she had so many questions about her heart doing the little butterfly movements when seeing ricky smile. she had to distract herself. she cracked her knuckles and slowly started playing the piano to the song 'start of something new'.

her voice slowly finding a way to start. audition for gabriella and kelsi in one.

"living in my own world. didn't understand. that anything can happen. when you take a chance." she softly sang, cursing herself for looking up at ricky.

"i never believed in, what i couldn't see. i never opened my heart, oh. to all the possibilities. i know that something has changed. never felt this way and right here tonight" she kept looking at ricky who was staring right back at her and smiling at his best friend.

"this could be the start of something new. it feels so right. to be here with you, oh and now looking in your eyes, i feel in my heart... the start of something new." she slowly finished the short song, still looking at ricky. suddenly feeling very flustered and turned to look at carlos and miss jenn.

the two of them clapped and thanked her with big smiles on their faces.

next up was nini who looked fairly scared. ricky had side hugged leighton as he said "that was amazing leigh. you are amazing. i knew you could sing, but the piano? you always wow me."

the feelings appeared for what felt like the hundredth time in those few minutes. leighton did all she could to push it away.

nini was about to start, with the lights still off so ricky waved his phone and held it close to nini like he did for leighton. this probably triggered something in ej because he too was shining his flashlight.

right after the long performance by nini, the lights came back on. now it was ricky's turn.

the boy found his way to leighton who sat towards the back of the group to grab his guitar for his audition. ricky and leighton looked up to see big red enter the auditorium. this made leighton happy that he was once against this at first for ricky but still came anyways.

"break a leg wildcat" leighton said with a snort, hoping to lighten the nerves she read on ricky's face.

the boy shook his head as he fought back a smile. he then started, "hey there. i'm ricky bowen. i'm a junior. and uh, here it goes." clearing his throat, ricky began to read from the script as chad instead of troy. miss jenn's request.

the specific scene slowly started to turn into improv. ricky crumpled up the paper in his hand as he talked from his heart.

leighton had assumed it was about nini, really encouraging him to continue by a thumbs up as he gazed at her. ricky smiles and continued his talking.

the words ricky spoke like "the l-word" and "cause it's like not even a word your parents say to each other anymore. that doesn't mean that you don't." made leighton have a lightbulb go off in her head. she thought she connected the dots to the dilema of ricky and nini.

how he was scared to say those words to her because of what her mom had said about his parents. it started to click.

but really, ricky did fear the love word. he didn't know how he should exactly feel. although he is trying for nini again, he can't help but think that somehow he just "you know" someone else. who was close to him. always there. to ricky, it felt like a chore to win nini back after just a day of agreeing with his best friend. that was the plan.