"Act Two" - HSMTMTS One-Shot

"Act Two"

Nini sat there, completely unfocused and worried. She had been in that room off stage far to long and she knew that, it was just hard to bring herself to leave, it felt so safe compared to on stage, with everyone watching her, but she wasn't worried about everyone, just one person... one person in that crowd that could change her life.
Did she want her life to change? Things between her and Ricky were just now starting to become more normal, and now she may just have to leave. 'What if I never see Ricky again?' Kourtney walked in, cutting off Nini's thoughts temporarily. "Hey Niners... how you feeling?" Kourtney said knowing she was very nervous. "Just under alot of pressure... I don't want to mess up, but I feel like I will for some reason." Nini explained to her. Kourtney sat down next to her. "I messaged Carlos and Miss Jenn that I need a few minutes a long time ago, no answer though." Said Nini, as she went onto Instagram to try and relieve some anxiety, then she saw it... "You still haven't heard from them?" Kourtney asked, a little bit shocked. "....Oh my gosh...." Nini mumbled, reading the description of the video. 'I'm sorry for everything that happened between us, Nini. I wrote this for you, I've never wrote a song before... so I hope it's not trash 😅' The post read. Nini became completely confused, she couldn't belive her eyes. "What?" Kourtney asked in confusion. Nini turned up her volume and watched the video.

["Just For A Moment" is being sung by Ricky]

Nini had a shocked small smile on her face throughout the whole video. Once the song was finished, she could feel a tear stream down her eye. Kourtney's eyes were wide, neither of them said anything. Nini took just a second sitting there, thoughts swirling through her head, she then decided to go find Ricky. She walked out of the room and into the main hallway, walking down towards the gym, not bothering to wipe the tears from her face. She arrived at the gym and was greeted by Carlos. "Nini! There you are, we have 10 minutes left before we have to be back on---" Carlos tried to speak but was cut off. "Have you seen Ricky? I really need to find him..." Nini asked, with a bit of a voice crack from being emotional. "About that..." Carlos trailed off. Nini looked really concerned. "He left... EJ said he came to him and gave up the role." Carlos said. 'Why would he do that?? Its not like Ricky to suddenly leave like that, is he okay? Is he hurt?' Nini
thought. Nini left without saying anything. "Wait- where are you---?" Carlos said, but didn't finish since she had already walked away, he let out a sigh.

Nini walked into a hallway, pulling out her phone she texted Ricky, who was the first contact.

Nini: "Where are you?? Show is in 10 minutes."

(A minute goes by with no response)

Nini: "Ricky, what's going on? Are you okay??"

Ricky pulls out his phone, sitting in the schools cafeteria, he didn't want to go home right now... not after Todd decided to suddenly show up, he had so many feelings inside him, he hadn't even thought about the fact that he had previously posted that video to instagram. He opened Nini's message.

Ricky: "In cafeteria. Something happened and I really don't feel right. Will message later... go have a good show, i'm not meant to be in it, maybe i'm not a theatre kid after all. Theres no way I'm gonna let myself stand between you and your future"

That's all Nini needed to know. She took a sharp right and headed to the cafeteria.

"Everyone, Nini is still not back. We are going to need to take a longer intervention, tell everyone it will be 15 more until act two!" Carlos ordered. EJ sat back down in the chair, looking in the mirror. Ashlyn walked up to EJ, confused at why he was in the Troy costume. "What did you do to Ricky?!" She demanded. EJ was a little annoyed that was her first thought. "Nothing bad." He assured her. "I don't know what's up with him but he had to leave... something about Nini's future...?" He continued. Ashlyn gave him a weird look, not completely believing him.