A WORK OF ART! ricky bowen

CHAPTER FIVE

The next day is the read-throughs for the musical and Ellie is very nervous. She knows she shouldn't be nervous, but she just couldn't help it. She always got nervous when she was in front of people. She walked into the room and immediately felt left out of place.

" Hey, you're Ellie, right?"

She looks over to see Gina smiling at her. Ellie wasn't for sure if that smile was real or fake. She hoped it was real.

Ellie nodded. " Yeah, that's me."

" I'm Gina, I'm playing Taylor. It's nice to officially meet you." Gina introduced herself.

Ellie sent her a genuine smile. " You too."

They walked to their respective chairs and soon everyone sat down.

" Please take your neighbor's hand." Miss Jenn said, taking the hands of the people that were on either side of her as everyone else does the same.

Ellie looks over to her right to see Ricky offering his hand to her with a small smile on his face. She smiles nervously smiles back at him and places her hand in his.

She looks over to her left at Gina who sent her a friendly smile as she offered her own hand. Ellie placed her hand in Gina's as she looks across from her, smiling as she sees that Trevor and Avalon were holding hands. Her smile grew when she noticed Avalon was blushing. The two were sat next to each other because Trevor is Ryan and Avalon is Kelsi.

" Feel each other's energy. Let the silence speak volumes. In a world full of no, this is a world full of yes." Miss Jenn smiles.

Carlos whispers to her. " Nice. Did you just come up with that?"

Miss Jenn nods and smiles proudly. " I did."

Ellie raises an eyebrow when Miss Jenn suddenly starts singing 'We're all in this together'. She was confused at why Miss Jenn was singing, but she didn't want to interrupt. She felt something against the back of her hand and looked down, realizing that Ricky was rubbing his thumb gently over the back of her hand and her heart fluttered.

She looked over at him to see he was already looking at her and he sent her a smile. She sent a shy smile back at him and then quickly looked away, hoping that she wasn't blushing, but she was pretty sure she was.

Ellie looked over at Miss Jenn whenever she cringes when Miss Jenn tried hitting that high note. Ashlyn clapped when Miss Jenn finished and Miss Jenn smiled. She looked over at the redhead. " Thanks."

Soon the read-through begins and even though only minutes has happened it felt like hours with Big Red reading the stage lines. Ellie had her head rested on her arm that was propped up against the desk while she listened, wishing it would go over faster.

" Stop." Miss Jenn suddenly says and Big Red goes quiet. " Don't run it all together. Read the punctuation."

Big Red nods and says what he just said a few moments ago, but this time he actually says the punctuation as well and Ellie groans as she lays her head on the desk.

She looks up when she hears the sound of the script closing. " And that's act one. Let's take a break." Miss Jenn said.

Everyone stands up and goes do their own thing until the break is over. Ellie walks over to Trevor and Avalon who both smile at her.

Ellie stares at them weirdly. " What? Why are you smiling creepily at me like that? Stop it."

" You were blushing when you were holding hands with Ricky." Avalon smiled.

Ellie scoffs and shakes her head. " No, I wasn't."

Trevor nods. " Yeah, you were. It was so obvious."