Dear Ocean Sky

Chapter 9 | Alex/Kata

Alex
The morning after callbacks Alex woke up to the ringing of her alarm, closely followed by the sound of a notification on her phone. She groggily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She had been awake a good deal of the night, much to her disliking. All she had wanted to do was to fall asleep, but her mind had other ideas, one example being, running through all the possible scenarios of what could be posted on the cast list and what Alex would say to each of them. Though she was thankful for the lack of nightmares that presented themselves.

Alex opened her text messages.

Carson the Best Theatre Buddy Ever: Will u wait for me once u get to school? Idk if I can go look at that list alone...

Alex's thumbs hovered over the keyboard for a second before typing out a response. As much as she wanted to see the cast list, and as soon as possible, she would also much rather do it with Carson. Even though she didn't know him that well, he was the closest thing she had to a friend at school, they had done a bunch of scenes together at callbacks and worked phenomenally well together. Alex had found out that Carson was just as much of a high school musical geek as she was, and she enjoyed his company. Having someone to celebrate with or having someone to be disappointed with after seeing the cast list was always better than doing it alone.

It wasn't that Alex didn't want to make friends, she was just afraid to get too close to people, and she was afraid if she made a friend she would want to get close to them. Therefore she resolved to keep her head down and just be her own friend. And worst enemy. Then when Carson started talking to her, she remembered how much she missed people. She needed friends.

She just wouldn't let herself get too close.

Alex the Future Gabriella: Ofc! Idk I could look at it alone either tbh

After hitting send Alex then proceeded to get ready for school at a much faster pace than usual. She wolfed down her cereal even though she wasn't hungry at all. She only ate it to make her mom happy, and the faster she ate, the faster she could get to school.

"Whoa slow down Mija!" Ms. Cairney laughed. She started raking her fingers through Alex's hair attempting to put it into a french braid, but Alex swatted her away.

"Mamá," she whined. "Not today! I have to get to school to meet Carson so we can look at the cast list together."

"Carson?" Ms. Cairney raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, he's a theatre friend. We read a bunch of Gabriella/Troy scenes together and we bonded over it I guess," said Alex, nonchalantly.

"Oh," smirked Ms. Cairney.

Alex knew where this conversation was going because her mom took on that voice she always had whenever the subject of dating was brought up. She didn't want to go there, not today. Actually not ever if that was an option because being teased by your mom about dating is not something you ever really want to do, especially if the person she was teasing you about was really just a friend.

"Mamá, not today, you are going to drive me to school so I can see the cast list before I internally combust." And with that, Alex grabbed her backpack and walked out the front door leading to the complex's stairs without looking back once. Her mom couldn't help but laugh as she followed her daughter to the car.

***

"Carson hurry up!" exclaimed Alex as she dragged her friend by the wrist, leading him towards the fine arts hall.

"Alex, wait," Carson laughed. "You know I'm just as eager as you are to see the list, but if you don't let me tie my shoe I will fall on my face on the way over there."