chapter ten
real housewife drama

The next day, Dylan begrudgingly got out of bed, putting on a blue demin skirt and a stripped black shirt, pairing it with a flannel over-sized jacket. She put her black converse on and felt like wearing some gold hooped earrings. Her, Gina and Kourtney finished getting ready, grabbing their bags and making their way in the barn as all those involved with the musical had been called in for an early meeting.

They walked into the barn, coming face to face with EJ, Val and Carlos standing in front of the stage, an easel with a board that said take a seat in the middle of them all. Not only that, but three rows of chairs were set up in the middle of the room. Dylan slowed her tracks, her eyes narrowing in confusion. She looked to the side, only to see Kourtney and Gina looking at her with a confused expression.

"Morning, guys," EJ began, a bright smile on his face. "Come on in. We don't have much time."

Val gestured to the board on the easel. "Take a seat."

"Did EJ tell you what this was about?" Kourtney asked, glancing over at Dylan.

"No." Dylan shook her head, just as confused as the rest of them.

"But we could ask Val." Gina laughed sarcastically, Dylan looking over at her, her eyebrows furrowing. "I'm kidding. Don't ask Val."

"What was that?" Dylan asked her.

"I'll tell you after rehearsal." Gina replied.

Dylan, Gina and Kourtney sat down in the front row of chairs, Ashlyn sat next to Dylan. Dylan crossed her arms over her chest with a small sigh. EJ caught her eye for a moment and his smile widened, Dylan returning the smile happily.

"Can we have everyone's attention, please?" Carlos called as everyone settled into their chairs.

"Thanks for coming in early guys." EJ voiced. "We've been up all night."

"Look, this better be good, because in here, it's still last night." Kourtney stated, pointing at the side of her head.

"What a mood." Dylan muttered, leaning against Gina.

"We've been working on a plan to save the show and give Corbin and that Channing guy the reality show style juice that they really want." EJ revealed.

"Sorry, save the show?" Gina repeated, stating aloud what everyone was thinking.

"He—he just wants a little more excitement from us, you know? Like, a little more..."

"He things we're boring!" Carlos interrupted loudly. Dylan's eyebrows raised. "He's actually missing our rehearsal today to scout out the kids at Deep Lake Camp in Temecula."

"That can't be a real place." Ricky stated, making Dylan sigh from where she sat in front of him.

"But not to worry because we have a plan." Carlos reassured them. "And it starts with five little letters."

"Allow me." Val offered.

She pulled the take a seat board off the easel to reveal another board. This board said R.C.O.S.L. Dylan stared at in in confusion.

Carlos pointed a finger at the board. "Watch what happens, fam."

"R.C.O.S.L." Gina read aloud.

"No." Carlos pointed at each of the letters. "It's the Real Campers of Shallow Lake. The franchise I was always destined to join. I mean, you were."

"Look, it's easy." EJ continued. "You know how normally we act like regular people, we pick up on social cues, we care about each other's feelings?"

Gina suddenly started laughing loudly, looking at Dylan before glancing at EJ with a pointed look, "Oh, do we?"

Dylan turned to the girl in confusion, elbowing her gently to stop laughing.

EJ turned, also confused. "Yes, we do. But now that's other."

"Because the key to any great reality show is the three B's." Carlos explained. "Bombshells, betrayals and bitch slaps."

"Can he say that?" Gina questioned, sharing the shock of his words with the rest of the group as they all gasped.

"Look, I love the housewives as much as anyone, but how are we gonna pull this off when we're real students who don't have millions to burn and kids to blame?" Kourtney inquired.

Jet raised his hand in the air. "Can I be Team Kourtney on this?"

"No." Carlos stated ."Here's what we're doing." Val pulled away another board. This one said R.C.O.S.L, but this one now had multiple rectangles with titles in them and question marks. "There's the judgy one, the jilted ex, the ones with the dark past, the crier, the one with the catchphrase, the one who's here for the wrong reasons, the sarcastic one, the shrink, the bad boy, and the instigator."

"Mmm-hmm." Val hummed in agreement. "It's a formula and the formula works."

"Each of you has a role to play today."

Val lifted up another board. This one said the campers, which had all of their polaroid pictures that Maddox had taken of them at auditions.

"I'm sorry. Carlos, did you cast this?" Maddox wondered.

Carlos giggled proudly and pointed at her. "I'm back, baby."

"Isn't this a little... towdry." Kourtney questioned.

"Was gonna say the same thing." Jet admitted.

"And that's why you, Kourt, get to be the judgy one." Carlos told her. Val put Kourtney's picture in one of the rectangles on the board.

All of them clapped. Dylan clapped slowly, her eyes narrowing slightly. She loved drama as much as everyone but she had a feeling that these roles would reflect their real feelings about each other. Dylan was good at hiding her feelings, but not this good.

"But do we want to look like villains on TV?" Ricky protested.

"I thought you'd want to go sympathetic, which is why you get to be the jilted ex." Carlos replied, Val putting his picture on the board.

"Oh, good."

"Ashlyn, you've got a dark past." Carlos announced.

"I'm dying, yes." Ashlyn said. "Guys, this is gonna be fun."

"Gadget, you're the crier." Carlos added. "And Gina—"

"Ooh, I think we've already established that I can't improvise." Gina interrupted.

Ashlyn pointed to her in agreement. "She's awful."

"I—I don't even have a comeback for that because I... I can't improvise."

"I got you, boo." Carlos told her. "You're the one with the catchphrase. Just say the same thing all the time in different ways."

"Okay, what's my phrase?" Gina wondered.

"Oh, what's the line she always says?" Dylan pointed towards EJ.

EJ thought about it for a moment. "Oh... don't get me started."

Gina looked over at him, malice in her eyes at gritted teeth. "And you shouldn't."

Dylan turned to face her, her eyes narrowing once more. The girl was beyond confused on what Gina's problem was with her boyfriend but she was determined to find out.

"EJ's here for the wrong reasons." Carlos continued, surprising Dylan as her head snapped back over to look at EJ. "Dylan is—"

"Can I stop you?" Dylan interrupted. "This is great and all but I don't like any of the options left. So can we turn this into a telenovela and I can be the dramatic Spanish aunt or something."

"No." Carlos shook his head. "We were gonna make you the judgy one but then Kourt said something so we changed our minds."

"Oh, how nice of you." Dylan spoke sarcastically.

"And that, darling Dylan, is why you are the sarcastic one." Carlos told her.

"Yippee." Dylan jazzed hands in a sarcastic manner once more.

"Val is the shrink, Jet's the bad boy and I will be the instigator." Carlos finished.

Kourtney scoffed. "I thought we were stretching for these parts."

"Good. I want a lot of that today. So, I, I know that was a lot, but had everyone got all that?" They all went to stand up. "Good, cause there's more." All of them sat back down. "We have four goals for the day." EJ then held up a whiteboard of a to-do list. "Someone needs to run out of here crying, someone needs to get slapped, someone needs to throw a drink at someone, and someone needs to get caught on a hot mic saying something scandalous. Any questions?"

"So many." Dylan admitted.

"Many questions." Gina agreed, raising her hand.

"This is gonna put our documentary on the map." Ashlyn encouraged. "Get into it, guys."

Val went up to Carlos, "Um, Channing's coming in fifteen."

"Thanks, Val. Always helpful to get your behind-the-scenes take." Gina leant forward, once again confusing Dylan.

"Start getting into character." Carlos ordered. "There's no time to lose, and many, many people Choice Awards to gain. Come on."

He instructed them to separate into teams of two to practice some fake slaps. Dylan stood next to Gina, the two running some lines between them. They decided not to do the fake-slapping stuff, mainly because if they needed to, they would just slapped each other with no hard feelings, but also partly because they really needed to learn some lines.

Dylan wanted to find out what was wrong with Gina so bad but she could tell that Gina didn't want to tell her, which she found odd as it clearly had something to do with EJ.

"Gina, I can't do anything if you won't tell me what's wrong." Dylan stated, the two girls taking a break from learning lines to watch EJ and Ricky on the stage.

Gina let out a sigh. "I wish I could tell you."

"As an expert at keeping things inside, it doesn't help." Dylan told her.

"Look, talk to EJ, and if doesn't say anything to you, I will tell you after rehearsal, I promise." Gina stated.

"Okay." Dylan nodded. "Now let me get my sarcasm on."

An actual slap suddenly sounded nearby. Dylan looked over just in time to see Ricky's hand leave EJ's cheek. Dylan walked over to the boy, ignoring Gina's gaze on her.

"So much for fake-slapping huh?" EJ joked as he stood in front of her.

Dylan let out a small laugh. "I do not envy you, that is for sure."

"You know," EJ took a step towards her. "As the sarcastic one, you could randomly burst into Spanish. Then it would be like a telenovela."

"Ooh, you're so right." Dylan nodded, pressing a kiss to his lips.

Channing then entered the barn. The whole room went quiet, standing in stunned silence. Dylan moved back to stand with Gina as her eyes followed Channing, she so didn't like him.

"Okay." Channing began, setting his stuff down and looking at EJ. "Let's you and the rest of the Care Bears get this lovefest over with, huh?"

"I think you're gonna be pleasantly surprised today." EJ responded.

"I haven't been pleasantly surprised since Survivor: Nicaragua."

EJ looked back at all of them on the stage. "Everyone give a wall welcome for Channing!"

"Pretend I'm not here." Channing insisted.

"No welcome for Channing!" EJ talked with Val for a moment as Gina turned to her.

"Does that not bother you?" Gina wondered.

Dylan watched the two converse for a moment before glancing back at Gina. "Should I be? I mean I trust EJ and it's not like he's telling her things that he hasn't told me." Dylan noticed the change in Gina's expression making Dylan's eyes widen. "Is he?"

"Alex, Emmy, Carlos, places for A Little Bit of You, please. Kill the lights, please." EJ interrupted any reply Gina was going to give.

Gina and Dylan moved to the wings, watching as Emmy and Alex walked on stage with their buckets of fake snow. Everyone moved to shut the blinds in the barn and once it was dark, a single spotlight shone on Carlos in his olaf costume. Emmy and Alex began their song about Elsa and Anna making Olaf for the first time. They moved around the stage, tossing fake snow everywhere. The two opened up the chests on the stage and pulled out multiple accessories for a snowman.

Dylan couldn't help but laugh when Carlos began to get annoyed from how the girls were placing things on him. It only growing when they knocked the hat off of Carlos' head with a the scarf.

Carlos shook his head, trying to get all of the fake snow off of him. "Mmm-mmm. Okay. Stop, stop. Turn on the lights." Maddox turned the stage lights back on, and Carlos began to take all of the props off of him. "Um, I'm sorry but is this supposed to be fake snow."

""Uh... Olaf?" Alex questioned. "You can speak."

"Not to instigate anything here, but this looks like sea salt."

Emmy looked over at Alex. "Did I take the wrong prop?"

Maddox then let out a loud gasp, lifting a handkerchief up to face as she started to fake cry. "I tried by best, okay?"

"You guys, my head isn't a funnel." Carlos protested. "Can we at least try for my feet next ime?"

"Are we being punked?" Alex inquired.

"At this point, I'm legally a margarita."

Dylan had the sudden realisation that Emmy and Alex weren't there for the pre-rehearsal meeting, which meant they had no idea what was going on.

They moved on with the script, and it was now the scene of Anna and Elsa at Elsa's coronation. Gina and Dylan had come up with a plan beforehand to have Gina throw a cup of water at Dylan, successfully checking off another thing on their to-do list. They stood together on the stage.

Gina sighed. "This is nice, Elsa. Us talking."

"Yeah it is." Dylan nodded.

"Maybe we could do it more often?"

"Ay dios mio." Dylan muttered in annoyance.

"Um..."

"I'm so sorry, can we cut?" Dylan turned to Gina. "Are you seriously gonna deliver your line like that? Like all offence given, my dead abuelita could do better."

"Oh, if you wanna talk line readings, don't get me started." Gina stated.

Dylan laughed, throwing her script to the side. "Or what?" She then leant forward, subtly. "Water." Gina ran off the side of the stage making Dylan laugh with an eye roll. "Actresses are just ball of fun, right? Can't take a little bit of—"

Gina came back, throwing the water from the glass she had set beside at Dylan. Dylan's mouth dropped in shock, scoffing as she looked back up at Gina. "You did not."

"Shouldn't have gotten me started." Gina shrugged, walking past and shoving Dylan's shoulder. "Oops."

"Woah, wait, you hold on one second!" Dylan shouted, following after Gina and past Carlos, who sent them a smug smile. The girl called up to Gina with a small laugh. "We slayed."

"Oh, so hard." Gina agreed.

The girls stayed backstage for a few moments, Gina helping Dylan dry her clothes as much as possible before casually making their way back to the wings, watching as Channing pointed the camera EJ, who was stood in front of the stage.

"So, I'll be playing Sven, the reindeer in this scene." EJ explained. "And as an actor-slash-director, I'm just proud to be flexing all of my muscles this summer."

To prove his point, EJ lifted his arm up, discreetly shoeing off the muscles on his arm by placing a hand on the back of his neck. Dylan stared at him, her heart beat increasing so much she had to look away.

"Of course he's confident." Kourtney commented to Channing. "A cis straight dude with a paper-thin resume?"

"You're right." Channing agreed. "Everyone loves confidence."

Kourtney blinked. "You missed almost all of the words I said."

"All right, let's do the Anna-Kristoff-Hans scene, page twenty-four." EJ instructed.

Him, Gina, Ricky and Jet all gathered on the stage. Maddox brought out the prop of Kristoff's wheelbarrow with ice. EJ and Ricky stood behind the prop with their scripts while Gina and Jet stood in the wings, waiting for their cues.

"And action."

Gina walked out of the wings and bumped into the prop with a laugh. "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"Oh no, are you okay?" Jet responded.

"I'm fine. How embarrassing. I..."

Jet shook his head and looked at EJ. "Director, I don't get Hans. He's kinda lame. Can we get him to be rougher or something?"

"Are you questioning me as an actor-director?" EJ argued.

"I think maybe that's something I would do."

"Let's keep going."

Ricky stepped up from the prop. "Hi. Can I ask you love birds something?"

"Lovebirds?" Gina repeated. "No, um, we've actually never met."

"But we're meeting now." Jet recited, but Dylan stared at him in confusion at how he had turned his voice extremely deep.

Gina stared at him in confusion. "Yeah... we are."

"Great." Ricky said. "Do you like cold drinks?"

"Very much." Jet replied in the same low voice.

Ricky leant in closer to him. "What are you doing with your voice dude?"

"I don't know, but it hurts."

Maddox suddenly started to fake cry loudly again from the wings. "It is just so hard to see my... man with another lady."

She took out her handkerchief and fake-cried into it, crossing over the entire stage for the camera.

"Ugh, what a baby." Kourtney commented.

Carlos turned to her. "Well that's a little judgy."

"Well, you're a little loud and excitable man."

"What are you gonna do about it?"

Kourtney then lifted her hand up and lightly slapped Carlos' face.

Carlos gasped dramatically and held onto his face. "Ow! My face! I've been slapped!"

Dylan closed her eyes at the shocking acting that was coming from this whole thing.

( 💌 ) isobel's notes
chaos.
downfall of gina and dylan next chapter