Heather {RICKY BOWEN}

{two}

"the read-through"

The bomb shelter is quiet as Mia enters. It's still early for rehearsal, but that's exactly why she was there. 

Mrs. Jonar had put Mia in charge of creating the artistic designs for the sets, but in order to do that, she needed to talk to Ms. Jenn about what she expected. 

"Ms. Jenn? Are you in here?" 

"Uh- no, it's just me." 

Mia jumps as Ricky pokes his head out of the room, his curly hair flopping messily as he shakes his head. 

"Oh, uh, sorry. Do you know where she is?" Mia can feel her cheeks heating up, not enjoying the way Ricky was staring at her. 

"She said she would be here, so no, sorry." Ricky shuffled on his feet, his eyes focusing on Mia as she set her bags on the counter. "I didn't see you at auditions yesterday, are you in the show?"

Mia laughs, "No. I've never been able to sing for my parents, I could never sing in front of a crowd." She pauses, grimacing as she realizes she had overshared. 

Ricky doesn't seem to notice how uncomfortable Mia is, as he continues staring at her like he is trying to see into her soul. 

"Then what are you doing here?" Ricky coughs, " Sorry that was kind of rude. I mean- since you aren't in the play and all, why are you looking for Ms. Jenn?" 

"Oh, um, I'm helping create the sets." 

The door opens, startling both teens. 

"Oh, Ricky, why are you so early?" Ms. Jenn glances at Mia, " You must be Mia! I just went to talk to Mrs. Josnar about when I could finally meet the student she's been raving about and she told me you came here to find me." 

Mia blushes, "Yea, I thought I could catch you before rehearsal starts." 

"Well, lets get started then." 

Mia glances at Ricky as he grabs his bags, the boy looking as though he wanted to say something. 

"I'll, uh, be back in time for rehearsal." He looks at Mia again, noticing she was already staring at him,  and turns to leave. 

The room was beginning to fill with excited students by the time Mia and Ms. Jenn finished talking. Carlos had joined halfway through, giving ideas of how to make the sets work with his choreography. 

Mia was beginning to get excited as she sat listening to Ms. Jenn tell her all the ideas she had, it has been a while since she focused on a large project. 

"I'm so excited to get started on these. It shouldn't take more than two days to design and work out the details and then we can order supplies and get started on building. The art club is really excited that you are leaving most of this to us. I can't believe you trust a group of students this much!" 

Carlos laughs, "That was absolutely adorable. Can we be friends? Oh my god, I cannot wait to tell Ashlyn about you!" 

Mia's cheeks get red again as she realizes she had just spilled all her thoughts out to the two sitting in front of her. She meekly nods at Carlos, not fully understanding what the boy was talking about as he was speaking so fast. 

"Ashlyn! come over here. I want you to meet Mia." 

Mia jumps as Carlos yells across the room to a red-head chatting with another group of students. She doesn't say anything as Ms. Jenn sneaks off, beginning to set the room up for the read-through.

"Mia, this is Ashlyn. She's playing Ms. Darbus. I think you guys would get along really well." Carlos grabs Mia's hands, practically lifting the short girl out of her seat. "Ashlyn, this is Mia, Creative genius who is practically building the sets on her own." 

"Hi! I like your hair! The whole blonde with bleach blonde strands look really makes you stand out."

Mia brushes her longer bangs behind her ear, blushing at the compliment. "It's actually from a birthmark, but thank you. That's like the first time someone has complimented it." 

"That's honestly so much cooler!"

Ms. Jenn calls for the group to take their assigned seats, making Mia glance around the room. She notices Ricky, Nini, and EJ all glaring at each other from across the room. 

"Hey, did something happen between Nini and Ricky? They've been really weird around each other." 

"Oh my gosh, you don't know?" Carlos drags Mia to where his assigned 'choreographer' seat is, pushing her into the seat marked 'set design' between him and Ashlyn. "They broke up. She's with EJ now." 

"Wait, what? Nini is dating EJ?" Mia stutters, glancing back to where Nini was now holding EJ's arm, laughing at something he had said. 

"Yea. Wait, oh my god! you totally like him." Ashlyn's voice carries across the room, making everyone's heads turn towards the trio. 

Mia cringes, her face getting red again. "No!"

Carlos looks at her, obviously not believing her. 

"Is it that obvious?" Mia fidgets with the sleeves of her sweater, wanting the ground to swallow her whole. 

Ashlyn laughs as everyone returns to their conversations, no longer interested. 

"Only a little."

Mia lets out a sigh of relief as Ms. Jenn begins the rehearsal. 

She's only half-listening to the group, too busy in her own thoughts. How had she gone from outwardly disliking the idea of starting something new to having two new friends and being excited for the play in only a few hours? 

As Ms. Jenn dramatically sings "we're all in this together" Mia glances around the circle of desks, locking eyes with EJ.

He smiles at her, making her duck her head as she blushes. She glances back up, only to lock eyes with a pair of honey-brown ones instead. Ricky looks between her and EJ before a look of understanding passes across his face. 

Mia grimaces as she looks down at her desk. She just let another person find out about her stupid crush, but this one she wasn't sure how to feel about.