"So what you're saying is that EJ asked you to help him ask out Sarah and then Ricky came to your house, accused you of being with EJ and your siblings overheard and so they ignored you because Sarah has a big crush on EJ." Gina questioned, causing Soul to nod as she was processing the information that she was just given, walking back and forth in front of her bed as Soul sat criss-crossed on it eating Mint Oreo ice cream as she watched her. "He is totally jealous."

"Wait, who Ricky?" Soul asked, choking on her ice cream, looking at Gina with wide eyes, causing her nod with a grin. "I mean yeah, he used to date the same girl as EJ, I would be jealous too."

"Not because of Nini," Gina said, jokingly rolling her eyes as she plopped down beside the girl. "Because he thinks you're dating EJ. He totally likes you."

"Of course, he doesn't," Soul said, letting out a fake chuckle as she placed a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. "He's still in love with Nini."

"No he isn't," Gina explained, grabbing the tub of ice cream and spoon from her, placing it on the bedside table behind her before turning back to the girl. "When I was spending a lot of time with Ricky, I thought he liked me after he took me home after the homecoming dance but all he ever did was talk about how much he messed up things with you and how great and talented you are."

"Really?" Soul asked, causing her to nod with a smile on her face. "I'm sure he meant it in like a friendly way."

"Soul!" Gina groaned, as she plopped backwards onto the bed. "I can't."

"What?" Soul asked, confused, causing her to shake her head, laughing. "Speaking of crushes I know someone who has a crush on Gina Porter."

"Who?" Gina asked, quickly shooting up with a giant smile.

"I don't know if I should tell you." Soul said, teasingly. "I don't think he would be happy with me."

"Well you have to tell me now." Gina said, sitting identical to Soul as she placed her hands on her shoulders as she shook it with a smile. "You can't lure me in and then pull back, you have to go all in."

"Fine, fine." Soul said, giggling as she stopped shaking her. "It's Sully."

"Sully... As in your brother Sully?" Gina asked, causing her to nod as a smile crept onto her face as her cheeks began to turn pink.

"Is someone blushing?" Soul asked, smiling as she started poking the girl's cheek, causing her smile to grow bigger. "Oh my gosh, you are! You like Sully!"

"I mean yeah, he's a great guy." Gina admitted, causing her smile to fall as she looked down to her lap. "But it probably won't happen."

"Come on you have what, 10 days left!" Soul told her, grabbing her hand as she looked up, causing Soul to smile. "Make the most of it! If you like him go for it!"

They both sat in silence as they looked up at the ceiling until Gina turned to her with a smile.

"Okay." Gina simply said, causing her to look over at her with a questioning look. "I'll go on a date with Sully... only if you talk to Ricky."

"Gina..." Soul groaned, turning onto her stomach as she pushed her face down into the pillow.

"Come on Soul," Gina said, rolling her back over, making the girl sit up as she smiled at her. "I'm sure he's sorry about everything. You can't be mad at him forever."

"I can try," Soul mumbled, causing Gina to give her, making her let out a loud sigh. "Fine, I'll talk to Ricky, when we go back to school."

"Yay!" Gina exclaimed, shaking her shoulders with a giant smile.

"Now, can I please have my ice cream back." Soul said, pouting while holding her hand out as she quickly grabbed the carton and gave it back to her.

"I'm so excited!" Gina exclaimed, grabbing her spoon as she stuck it into the ice cream, sitting it into her mouth.

"Yeah, that makes two of us." Soul said, sarcastically, shoving a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.

....

Monday morning rolled back around. Which meant school. Which also meant Musical rehearsal. It also meant she had to talk to Ricky.

It was the beginning of the day, which meant there was a musical meeting and we all met at the bunker and decided to walk to the auditorium together.

"Is it bad that I'm actually happy that we're back to rehearsing?" Wyatt asked, causing everyone to laugh but stopped when they saw the damage of the auditorium.

"Excuse me kids." Said a lady firefighter that looked familiar to Soul. pushing between the center of the group as everyone looked around in shock.

"Oh my gosh, what happened?" Nini said, looking around the room as Miss. Jenn approached the group.

"It's okay. Nobody was hurt." Miss Jenn announced to the cast. "There was a small fire in the theater over the holiday and the sprinklers did their job."

"We're almost done in here, just have to finish up in the faculty room next." The firefighter explained, approaching Miss Jenn with a smoking basketball. "Some circuits blew in there over the break. Unfortunately, the show cannot go on."

"What?" Miss Jenn asked in disbelief, causing the cast to look around at each other.

"Fire ripped through half of your costumes and the sprinklers ruined a bunch of your sets." The fire fighter explained. "I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to red tag the entire backstage area for a month at least."

The firefighter handed over the smoking basketball before, smiling weakly athe the cast before her eyes focused on the Walker kids.

"Sorry dears, I know how much the theater meant to you and your dad." The firefighter said, causing Soul and Sarah to send a weak smile.

"Thanks, Joanie." Sarah said, causing her to send one more smile before turning around and heading back to her team.

"Did she just say costumes?" Kourtney asked, sadly.

"Okay. Okay, listen up." Miss Jenn said, turning around to face the cast. "Hug your neighbor, take a moment, and let's reconvene in the cafeteria after school to talk about options. Nini and Ricky, spread the word."

"Got it. Yeah, of course." Nini said, nodding.

"Ricky?" Miss. Jenn said, causing all heads to turn to the boy to find him looking at his phone. "Ricky?"

"Huh? Sorry. After school in the cafeteria. Got it." Ricky said, snapping out of it as he looked up.

...

Chatter was filled around the cafeteria as everyone was speaking, trying to comfort each other as Soul stood with EJ, Miss Jenn finally entering the cafeteria.

"Okay guys!" Miss. Jenn said, clapping getting everyone's attention. "Wait, where's Gina?"

"She's going through a family thing right now." Soul explained.

"Okay, prayers for our Gina." Miss. Jenn said as everyone started taking seats on tables, Soul sat in the middle of Sully and Carter while Georgie sat in front of Carter with Mara beside her then Wyatt and Zak next to her. They were sitting at the right next to the one beside EJ which was also the table Ricky was sitting at right in front of EJ. "I'm really not sure what to say. You've all worked so hard. I've seen all of you grow so much. But if we don't have a theater, we don't have a show."

That caused everyone to start panicking, causing them to look around each other as mumbling began to be heard throughout the cafeteria as Soul sat there and looked defeated, even Sully and his friends were chattering around the silent girl.

"Come on, Miss Jenn, we've gotta do something." Carlos exclaimed,

"I think we..." Miss Jenn started as she began thinking. "I don't know, I guess we could consider other venues?"

That caused everyone tp began chattering as they began brainstorming ideas of where the show could be held.

"Oh, oh, what about the old Kingston downtown?" Ashlyn suggested, catching everyone's attention.

"It's condemned." Miss Jenn. simply stated.

"The Lucky Ducky Puppet Pavilion?" EJ asked.

"It's a massive Starbucks now." Miss. Jenn, explained

"What about the place where you used to perform, Soul?" Sully asked, looking over at his sister as she looked down at her hands deep in thought, catching everyone's attention as they looked their way. "Soul?"

"I'm sorry what?" Soul asked, making her head shot up as she looked over at Miss Jenn, thinking she was the one who called her name.

"Are you okay, Soul?" Georgie asked, placing her hand on the girl's knee, causing her head to shoot towards her, sending her a weak smile.

"Yeah, totally fine." Soul said, sending a smile back as she looked back to Miss Jenn who sent a small smile. "What's going?"

"We were talking about venue ideas." Sully said, causing her head to snap towards him. "I was asking you about the place you used to perform."

"Are you talking about The Old Kingston. The Lucky Ducky Puppet Pavilion?" Soul questioned, causing him to shake his head at both then it clicked. "You must be talking about The El Rey."

Everyone started talking around happily as they started talking about performing the show at The El Rey.

'Any other suggestions?" Miss Jenn quickly asked as Seb pulled out his phone probably to look up the El Rey.

"Miss Jenn, I feel like you just had a really weird reaction to what Soul just said." Sarah pointed out from her spot beside Seb on the table behind Carlos.

I guess you can say Soul and Sarah are on somewhat good terms. Conversations are still short and simple but it seems like she is coming around more ever since what happened at the end of the last rehearsal before Thanksgiving break.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Miss. Jenn asked as if she didn't hear what Soul had said the first time.

"Soul is asking if we can try and use the El Rey Theater." Nini pointed out, causing Carlos to stand up.

"My Uncle Ruben is the listing agent, and the last thing they had in there was a fashion show, like, four years ago." Carlos explained, getting people to start talking again as he walked behind Miss Jenn with his phone as he was contacting his Uncle.

"This place has 500 seats." Seb pointed out, looking at his phone causing everyone to gather around his phone as Soul stayed where she was because she knew the El Rey inside and out.

"Four hundred and ninety-eight to be exact." Soul pointed out, staring into space, causing everyone to turn to look at her, causing her to look over at them. "What, I spent most of my childhood in that theater, I had to entertain myself sometimes."

"Well, that's actually pretty sweet." EJ said, looking back over to Seb's phone along with everyone else.

"I can't imagine we'd be able to get in on such short notice." Miss Jenn explained, turning to look at the group of excited students, hearing Carlos speaking to his Uncle on the phone in spanish when he said yes in Spanish twice.

"Sounds like a yes to me!" Ashlyn exclaimed, happily as everyone began cheering.

"The El Rey Theater it is!" Miss Jenn announced, causing everyone to cheer happily once again that the musical is still on.

"Hey, aren't you excited?" EJ asked, taking the place where Sully once was as he and his friends were all around Seb.

"Yeah of course I am." Soul said, sending him a smile as she looked down to her hands that sat in her lap.

"But?" Ej asked, knowing that there was something wrong, causing the girl to let out a sigh,

"It's just what Joanie said to me and Sarah this morning, it's been running through my head all day." Soul explained, causing him to send her a questioning look at who she was talking about.

"The firefighter?" Ej asked, causing her to nod in response. "You're thinking about your dad aren't you?"

"Yeah, she was one of his partners and she was like an aunt to me." Soul explained, sending him a small smile before looking away from him again. "It's just growing up, theatre and music was everything to me and my dad, whether it was me performing and my dad directing or just us going to watch a show. He was the main reason I started acting and playing music and the El Rey was where we were every weekend because it was where I felt like I belonged, it was my second home ... Until my dad got sick. I haven't stepped foot in there in nearly 3 years."

"I'm so sorry Soul," EJ said, sending a small smile, pulling the girl into a side hug.

"Yeah, we all are." Nini said, causing Soul to look over to see the cast with smiles of support, even Miss Jenn.

"We know how much your dad meant to you." Ricky said as a few people nodded.

"We don't have to use The El Rey, I mean we could always try and find a different venue." Carlos explained, causing everyone to start mumbling in agreement.

"No, no of course not." Soul said, shaking her head, disagreeing causing everyone to stop speaking as they watched her. "This has been our dream of putting on this show since the first day of rehearsals and I'm not going to let my emotions be the reason that we don't do that. Besides I'm going to have to face it, but now more than never."

"What team!" Ricky asked, standing up, sticking his hand out causing everyone to follow his lead as they all smiled at each other.

"Wildcats!" Everyone exclaimed together, smiling ear to ear at each other as EJ wrapped his arm around Soul's shoulder in support.

"Okay Wildcats, let's grab all the props and costumes that didn't get damaged and let's load out." Miss Jenn said, causing everyone to cheer as the cast quickly made their way out of the cafeteria.

....

"Right this way, follow me." Miss, Jenn said, leading the cast through the dark theatre building. "Smell that smell, the theatre. Mold, it's a sign of life."

"Actually, mold could kill a person because of its toxins, if exposed to too much," Wyatt explained, causing everyone to stop and turn all the flashlights at him. "I mean that's what I heard."

"Everyone, watch your step." Miss. Jenn said, turning away from the boy, causing everyone to continue following her. "And let me know if you haven't had a tetanus shot recently, okay?"

Everyone quickly filled onto the stage, flashlights filling the room as everyone pointed them every which way trying to get a good look at the theatre. Soul looked around, seeing everyone chattering amongst themselves as she looked around for a certain tall and brunette guy but he was nowhere in sight.

🎥

Soul , East High Junior

'We haven't even been here for 5 minutes and EJ seemed to have already disappeared... He was kind of off on the way over here. I hope everything is okay.'

🎥

Soon the lights finally flickered on as the sound of Sully and his friends cheered backstage, assuming that they were the ones who found the light switch. As Soul looked around the stage she finally found EJ but he didn't look too happy so she quickly made her way over to him.

"Hey, you kind of disappeared for a bit, everything okay?" Soul asked, before he even had the chance to answer Miss Jenn spoke up.

"Okay! Let's have some real talk." Miss Jenn says, causing everyone to stop talking as all focus was set on her as everyone quickly moved to center stage. "Welcome to Tech Rehearsal. I don't know if you've noticed, but most of the tech in this particular theater appears to be hand-cranked. You six, this is your chance to be the hero."

"Don't worry we're on it!" Zak said, all six quickly made their way back stage to look at the tech stuff.

"Carlos, let's set marks to light Status Quo." Miss. Jenn said, causing him to quickly nod as she looked over the cast. "Troy and Kelsi, find somewhere quiet and run the rooftop scene. It's been a while and I need Troy opening night ready by dinnertime, okay?"

"Don't you mean, Troy and Gabriella?" Soul quickly asked, confused since it was supposed to be Troy and Gabriella in the rooftop scene.

"Yes, but I need Nini here to go over the dance for Status Quo and since our Understudy seems to be MIA, you will have to do. You know the scene, right?" Miss Jenn questioned, causing her to slowly nod, causing Miss Jenn to smile. "Great!"

Before Soul had the chance to say anything else she quickly walked away, causing Soul to look over at Ricky as he turned to look at her, both quickly looking away from each other. Soul looked up at EJ who sent her a small smile as she quickly grabbed her bag, heading out of the theater with Ricky not to far behind.

Soul quickly turned on her flashlight, making her way down a dark hallway as she opened a door as it creaked very loudly.

"This place is definitely a lot more creepy than I remembered," Soul said, shining the light around the room.

"Right?" Ricky said, agreeing as he closed the door behind him, flipping the light switch up, causing the room to instantly be filled with light.

"Wow," Soul said, looking around the room as she clicked the flashlight off, making her way towards the piano.

"So, how you been?" Ricky asked from behind her as she felt his eyes watching her every move, causing her to let out a sigh.

"Yeah, I'm fine, and you?" Soul asked, looking at the boy out of her peripheral vision to see him nod.

"I'm okay," Ricky said. "Look, about everything that happened..."

"No, it's totally fine," Soul said, shaking her head. "I've actually talked to my siblings and I guess you could say we're back on good terms."

"T-That's great, Soul. I'm happy for you." Ricky said, nodding as she sent him a small smile. "I still feel extremely bad and want to apologize for the way I acted, I was totally out of line and it wasn't any of my business if you were dating EJ."

"I really do appreciate that, Ricky," Soul said, lifting the cover off the keys of the piano as she started pressing the keys. "Just so you know, me and EJ aren't dating and we never have."

"Oh. That's cool, I guess." Ricky said, nodding his head as they sat there in silence for a moment. "So, page 53?"

"Page 53," Soul confirmed, grabbing the script out of her backpack along with a pencil.

"Ready?" Ricky asked, causing her to nod.

"Remember in Kindergarten, you'd meet a kid, know nothing about them, then ten seconds later, you were best friends?" Soul said reading the first line of the script on page 53, the crazy thing is that her and Ricky actually did meet in Kindergarten and instantly became best friends.

"Yeah," Ricky read as she felt him look up at her as she was looking down at the script.

"Singing with you felt like that," Soul read, finally looking up only to meet eyes with Ricky as they both looked back down at their scripts.

"I never thought about singing, that's for sure. Until you, and now, I don't wanna stop. Ever." Ricky read, looking up from the script. "You know what, I know these lines. Should we just lose the scripts? I mean, that's if you know it."

"Yeah, for sure." Soul said, closing the script, sitting it down on the piano as he placed his on the table as she let out a shaky breath before facing Ricky.

"Remember in Kindergarten, you'd meet a kid, know nothing about them, then ten seconds later, you were best friends?" Soul recited the script from her memory.

"Yeah," Ricky recited.

"Singing with you felt like that," Soul recited, never breaking eye contact with him.

"I never thought about singing, that's..." Ricky started reciting but quickly stopped, breaking character. "Actually, do you remember, in kindergarten, when we first met?"

"Yeah, I had a red crayon and you had the yellow one and since it was my favorite color I asked to trade and we instantly became best friends after that." Soul remembered as Ricky took a seat on the chair, causing them both to laugh as she took a seat on the piano stool across from him.

"I remember you had such a hard time saying the name Richard and so you started calling me Ricky in first grade." Ricky said, quickly standing back up, causing them both to chuckle at the memories as the sound of laughter quickly faded. "That song you sung at Ashlyn's was pretty incredible."

"Oh, thanks, let's just say it's how I was feeling when I wrote it." Soul explained as Ricky took a seat beside her on the bench.

"You should play it." Ricky said, looking over at her.

"Yeah, okay." Soul said, placing her hands over the keys as she started playing the piano.

I'd barely seen you when you asked me if I hated you

Wasn't surprise but still had nothing I could say to you

I'm sorry if I ever made you feel the way you do

Yeah, I know I know you better than your parents

I heard about them you don't gotta be embarrassed

You go online 'cause it's where you can be the saddest

You've been acting careless

Know you put on a happy face

You need someone's who gonna stay

I know you're crushed under the weight

Wanna hold you up, wanna hold you up

You keep things bottled up inside

I wish you'd give someone a try

You feel apart a million times

Wanna hold you up, wanna hold you up

Before my heart gives out

You're losing track of all the friends I know you use to have

Don't know what happened but the old you wasn't half as bad

I'm sorry no one sees what's going on inside your head

Yeah, I know I know you better than your parents

I heard about them you don't gotta be embarrassed

You go online 'cause it's where you can be the saddest

You've been acting careless

Know you put on a happy face

You need someone's who gonna stay

I know you're crushed under the weight

Wanna hold you up, wanna hold you up

You keep things bottled up inside

I wish you'd give someone a try

You feel apart a million times

Wanna hold you up, wanna hold you up

Before my heart gives out

Soul felt Ricky's eyes on her the whole time. As she played the last note, turning and looked l at Ricky, causing them both to sit there staring at each other eyes as they both began leaning. Soul placed her hand on his cheek, next thing she knew she was kissing Ricky Bowen.

After a few seconds, they both pulled away and sat there looking each other in the eyes. Soul noticed Ricky leaning back in and before she had the chance to move the door swung open.

"Hey, guys." Big Red called out, causing them both to jump apart as he was looking down at his flashlight trying to get it off. "Uh... we're... we're ordering pizza while Miss Jenn is having some kind of real-time midlife crisis. You both good with pepperoni and soy cheese?"

"Yeah, that sounds great." Soul quickly answered, nodding as Ricky spoke at the same time.

"Yeah, that sounds good to me," Ricky said, looking over at Soul. "Is it good for you?"

"Yeah," Soul said, nodding her head as she bit her lip as Big Red watched the two.

"Cool," Big Red, simply said, smiling as he turned around, heading back out the door.

"Cool," Ricky muttered, looking back at Soul before following Big Red out the door with Soul
not to far behind, making their way back to the lobby of the theater.