there's not a star in heaven that we can't reach

chapter 1: i think he'd rather play sharpay

Carlos Rodriguez is headed to auditions for the school's musical when he hears a voice behind him. Granted, he doesn't hear it right away, as he's too wrapped up in his own thoughts about being choreographer ( !!! ) for the show, but he's able to snap out of it when he feels a hand on his shoulder.

"Carlos, hey." He turns, surprised to see Seb Matthew-Smith standing in front of him. He knows the boy, of course, they've been going to school together for years, but Carlos can't recall how many times they've interacted besides group projects and friendly waves in the hallway.

"What's up, Seb?"

Carlos swore Seb suddenly dropped a little bit of his happy tone as nerves crept into his voice. "I have a question for you," he starts, immediately causing Carlos' brain to swirl with possible scenarios.

"Okay, shoot," he says, still smiling at the boy.

"It's about the show," Seb starts, still clearly nervous about what he's going to ask. At least his statement shortens Carlos' list of guesses as to what Seb might ask.

"Oh! Are you thinking of auditioning this year?" He recalls Seb playing piano in the pit for the school musical the previous year, but he had an amazing voice that belonged onstage. "Because you would make a perfect Ryan! I mean, you already look the part and everything!"

Seb's face falls for a moment before he straightens his back. "That's the thing. I kind of was thinking of auditioning for Sharpay?" he asks hesitantly, and Carlos melts a little bit inside. His smile must reassure Seb because he proceeds to ask "Do you think Miss Jenn would be okay with that?"

"I'm sure she would be more than okay with it," he says, squeezing Seb's shoulder who immediately breaks into a big, yet soft smile.

"Okay! I'll see you soon then, I guess!" He says, before turning and walking away, the smile still wide across his face. Carlos watches him go for a moment, before remembering that he's supposed to get to auditions early to help set everything up. With that, he continues his exciting path to the auditorium.

Carlos arrived at rehearsal still jittering with nerves about his role in the show, Miss Jenn had been the first teacher to give him a shot at something he was really passionate about, and he could not let anyone down. It was crazy already considering he was only a sophomore, but somewhere he knew he had it in him to do this show.

He was pleasantly surprised by the turnout; there were some crazy good dancers in this school, apparently. They were all very quick to follow the tutorial dance he had given.

Gina, who he also recognized from their grade as the new transfer student, was killing the game. He had no doubt that she would end up playing Gabriella if she had the voice for it.

He glanced over at Seb, who was at the piano playing the warm-up tune. He was still filling in the role for pit piano as they wouldn't have the actual musician until tech week. Carlos was sad to not see him dance yet, but that didn't take away from the high hopes he had for who would land the role of Sharpay.

The music he had been playing came to an end as the round dancers finished, catching their breath and grabbing their water bottles. Carlos clapped his hands together, "Great! That's it for the warm-up!"

A murmur took over the crowd as everyone grouped back together. He heard one concerned voice asking "that was the warm-up?" and sighed, laughing just a little bit. Carlos wasn't evil, okay? He just liked to push people to do what he knows they're capable of.

Carlos turned back around as Miss Jenn had people pairing up. His eyes caught Seb's for a second, who happily waved at him as he paired himself with a curly-haired dancer that Carlos had noticed before. He smiled back at Seb, before turning his attention to Miss Jenn once more.