A/N: song sets the mood once AJ's first day with the cast comes:

déjà vu by Olivia Rodrigo

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AJ's POV

I sit outside the office building in the car mindlessly scrolling through Instagram as I wait for Sarah to come out. I like a photo that Melonie posted of the two of us today from the studio. I had already picked up the smoothies that Sarah usually needed after a long day. I look up to see her coming out of the building. Smiling, I get out of the car.

Stuffing my phone into my pocket, I make my way around the car to the passenger door for her. I groan as the rest of the Descendants cast walk out of the building and Cameron runs over towards Sarah picking her up and both laughing. "Onward peasant," she calls out towards the car. I lean my back against the car watching the two with a wide smile on my face.

He stops in front of me before sitting Sarah down. "Nice to see you again AJ," he says I stand up pulling him into a hug. "I missed you Cam," I say as I ruffle his hair. He shoves my hand away laughing. "I missed you too. I didn't have anybody to dance with," he says making me smile.

"Well, that might just change," I say nonchalantly. "What?" He asks looking at me and Sarah with a furrowed brow. We shrug our shoulders. "You'll see," she says, Cameron rolls his eyes and pushes us both softly before running towards the group near the door.

As Sarah and I watch Cameron run off, I notice the look on her face, "You missed it, didn't you?" I ask her softly, grabbing her attention before pulling her into a hug. "Yeah, I did. I missed them all and didn't even realize how much until I got in there," she mumbles into my chest as I kiss the top of her head before pulling away and opening the car door for her. "Smoothies are inside as requested, madam," I say with a slight bow. She laughs before pecking my lips and sliding into the car. "Thank you," she says as I close the door.

I start making my way around the car when I hear someone yell my name, "AJ!" I smile when I see China McClain running out of the building towards me. I met China during the filming of Black Lightning for the CW. She's an amazing actress that I was happy to work with. She was always positive and happy, so we became fast friends. China and Sarah are close, it's always a bonus knowing that my girlfriend has someone on her side. "Japannn!" I yell jokingly, opening my arms preparing for her hug. She stops a few feet away from me and narrows her eyes at the nickname. "Really?" She asks rolling her eyes. I smile innocently before pulling her into a hug. "Where have you been kid?" I ask as we pull apart. "I went and visited some family before I needed to be back for all of this to start up." "Babe, can I see your phone?" Sarah asks. I pull it out of my pocket and hand it to her through the window before turning back around to China. "We definitely need to catch up before things get busy. I don't mind seeing you every day, but I feel like we'll never get any work done," I say with a laugh not realizing I let it slip I'd be working on set. China's eyebrows shoot up in shock, and then gets a mischievous grin on her face. "Shhhh!" I try grabbing her before she can open her mouth. "China!" I groan loudly as she takes off and runs away. "You slipped, didn't you?" Sarah asks playfully as I walk around the car flipping her off.

Before I got into the car, I look up and notice a group of eyes on me. They just happened to belong to Dove, Booboo, and Sofia, all watching me carefully. I furrow my brows confused why I was being watched. "Kinda," I reply to Sarah's playful comment while she rolls her eyes. She had started the music on my phone while I was talking to China. The sounds of Maroon 5 fill the car. I turn the song up and pull out of the parking lot with my fingers intertwined with Sarah's in her lap.

~~

"How was the studio today?" Sarah asks as we carry our food into the kitchen. "It was really chill. Mel kept me company and helped find songs to fit into some of the scenes I was having a hard time with," I tell her as I set the bag of food on the counter. Sarah goes back and locks the front door, turning and seeing all the food on the counter. "Fuck babe, we should've just ordered food when we got home. We still need to shower, and the food will get cold," Sarah pouts and looks at me.

A smirk appears on my lips as I pull her into my arms and kiss the top of her head, "You stress too much. We'll eat now, and then order more food before we get in the shower. Once we get out the food will be here for us to eat during the movie marathon," I reassure her earning me a giggle. "We're going to get fat," she mumbles into my neck, tickling me. I laugh at her childlike comment. "We'll be fat and happy together though," I shrug. I feel her lips curl into a smile against my neck. Before I can pull away to start eating, she kisses along my jaw teasing me. I laugh and pull her away, "Babe, we need to eat." She huffs pulling away, and I just chuckle.

I start pulling food out of the bags and get situated at the counter to start eating. "How was your day today?" I ask as I put a fry in my mouth. I sneakily take a fry and hold it under the counter for my Blue Heeler, Axel. He might not beg for human food, but I still spoil him every now and then. I've had him since I moved back to California, and even though Sarah's been around since he was a puppy, he still hasn't warmed up to her fully. He just prefers my company more than hers.

Sarah takes a seat next to me and chuckles at me handing the pup a fry. "It was better than I thought it would be. I was the last one to arrive because we're never on time for anything," she says playfully. I shrug with a smile as I take a bite of my veggie burger. I watch her laugh softly shaking her head. "When I walked in Cameron was the first to spot me and of course he had to be extra dramatic and cause a scene. Soon Brenna and China came over before a few of the other cast came over and introduced themselves. Kenny came and talked to me about the movie, and it turns out I'm the villain in this one," she says that last part so nonchalantly that it causes me to almost choke on my food.

"You're the villain?" I ask her not understanding since I didn't watch the first two Descendants films. "Yes!" she screeches excitedly. If she's happy with her character's role in the movie, then I'm happy too. "Being the villain is so much better than being one of the good kids," I playfully shove her shoulder.

"Anyways," she says rolling her eyes, "Sofia and I didn't really talk today. Dove came over and started a conversation, but I think it was just to be nosy, but China came and saved me," Sarah says with an appreciative smile for her friend. I'm thankful Sarah has China in this group otherwise she'd be pestered by Dove the entire time they'd be filming.

"We went through the script to give our opinions then we were given our schedules for our recordings, rehearsals, costume fittings, and they gave us the date for when we're flying out to Canada," Sarah shows me the schedule she was given to get an idea of how busy I'll be.

~~

Friday came faster than I was anticipating and of course I was a few minutes late. It wasn't my fault this time. Sarah called asking me to grab her, Cameron, and China some Starbucks since they had been there for two hours and already needed a pick me up. Since I am the amazing girlfriend, I agreed. I walk into the building absolutely confused on where I was going. As stubborn as I am, I refuse to ask the front desk receptionist for directions thinking I'll just follow the voices, and eventually make it to where everyone was.

My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I groan as my hands are full. I balance the drink carrier in my other hand to answer my phone. "Hello?" I answer as I round the corner almost bumping into someone leaning against the wall. When I see blonde hair, I tense, knowing this is the last person I wanted to bump into alone. "What are you doing here?" She asks stepping in front of me. I don't want to do this right now, so I step around her and ignore her question. "Where are you?" Sarah asks through my phone. I look around lost seeing that there were no markings to even slightly give me a hint of where to say I am. "I'm here. I'm just a little lost," I say with a sigh. Sarah sighs with relief. "She's here, she's just lost," Sarah repeats to someone. I hang up knowing she'll send a search party to find me in this maze.

As I put my phone back in my pocket, I hear footsteps coming up to me rather quickly. I turn seeing Dove following me down the hallway. I keep walking, but feel a hand grab my forearm and stop me in my tracks. I turn to meet her eyes. "Don't EVER touch me," I warn, and she takes a step back before I see Sarah round the corner. "Baby?" Sarah asks slightly concerned. I give her a reassuring smile and move around the confused blonde. "Thank God," I say with relief in my voice as Sarah takes my hand to lead me away.

"Everything okay?" Sarah stops outside the door to a large room everyone is in. She gets up on her tiptoes to peck my lips and grabs the drink carrier. "It is now," I smirk noticing my comment makes her smile before she pulls me into the room with the cast all sitting around talking. "I'll take these to Cameron and China and remind them they owe you Starbucks next time. Go and talk to Kenny, he's been waiting for you," she gestures toward the older man sitting and reading over the script with a few of the producers. She pecks my lips one last time before heading towards China, Cameron, and some other new faces I haven't met yet.

~~

"I wasn't late," I said sheepishly catching the older man's attention. He looks up from what he was doing and came up to me pulling me into a hug. "It's fine you're here now and that's all that matters," he reassures me before pulling away.

He clears his throat to get everyone's attention in the room, and it suddenly becomes very quiet. "Alright everyone this is AJ Collins, and she will be our Sound Coordinator along with some other possible duties I might rope her into," Kenny chuckles. Oh no, what did I get myself into with him. Numerous hellos murmur throughout the room. "Nice to meet you all," I greet the crowd with a smile as Kenny pulls me away to show me the temporary recording studio on set.

"This is where the magic happens," I mumble to myself as Kenny laughs softly behind me. I turn around to face Kenny. "I missed you kid," he says coming further into the room. "I missed you all too," I say with a glum smile as I move around the room examining the space, I'd be working in.

As I put my backpack down near the soundboard, Kenny continues talking, "You know when you left, she was broken. We had to pause filming for a week because we couldn't get Sofia to focus or even come out of her hotel room." I close my eyes pushing any emotions that might creep up down into the pit of my stomach. "She wouldn't eat, she wouldn't talk, nobody could figure out what was wrong or what had happened. Nobody could find you. It was like you dropped off the face of the Earth." I shake my head, not wanting to hear any of this. "Kenny, I don't want to hear about it. Please," I say looking at him with sorrowful eyes.

He sighs, "The point I'm trying to make here is that you two are going to be working together and seeing one another a lot for the next couple months. You should know that it will be hard for the both of you. You'll have to talk to one another eventually," Kenny says frustratedly. His tone makes me turn around to face him, "We'll cross that bridge when we get there, but until then please don't mention it. Everything is going to be okay. This movie is going to be amazing, and nothing is going to mess it up," I give him a reassuring half smile and a small nod. It felt more like I was trying to reassure myself it would all be okay more than anything.

"I'm not worried about the movie. I could care less about the movie. You guys are family, and I don't want either of you hurting," Kenny says as he backs his way out the door. "Get ready, our writers will be in here shortly to show you the first couple of songs we've come up with. You'll be allowed to read over and edit them however you want. Create whatever beats you feel are best and pick whoever you think the song fits best with. Some songs are designated for certain characters already, but verses can be split however you'd like. I'll give you all two hours to do that while we are going over the first couple of scenes at the table read. I'll send the cast to you afterwards so you can get started with them," he says before closing the door.

~~

I groan as I make my way over to the soundboard and start getting set up. While I wait for the writers to come in, I get my notebook out to go over a song I was trying to write to surprise Sarah, but I couldn't find the right words. I usually didn't struggle with writer's block but maybe I was just stressed with the amount of work I knew this new job would bring. As I heard the door open, I threw my notebook into my bag as quick as I could. The first person that walked into the room was Tim James and three more people walked in behind him.

"Hey," I got up out of my seat and greet them with a handshake and a smile.

~~

After we all got acquainted, we took our seats, and I was handed the three lyric sheets for the songs they had already written. "Good To Be Bad," I read the title of the song on the first page. We sit around the recording studio reading over the pages. I lean back in my chair as I read over the lyrics. "Have you ever heard the song 'Poison' by Bell Biv DeVoe?" I ask as I place the paper on the small table in front of me. I grab my laptop to play the song. "It has this beat that plays throughout the whole song, and it never changes. I think since this song is our opening number that we make it use this beat as an attention grabber," I say as I play the beat through the room's speakers.

I start a completely new beat for the beginning of the song before singing the lyrics out loud nodding my head before I get to the part of the song where I wanted the original beat from 'Poison' to be placed. I watch the team lean back in their seats impressed giving me nods and thumbs up. I reach over and grab my song sheet with a pencil.

"We can split the first verse off into the four parts for our four main characters. Dove will start it off before switching to Cameron and Sofia would be great for this next part, then we'll give Booboo this last part," I look up from my scribbling to see everyone's reactions. "They'll start the song off almost chanting it together through then we'll split them off."

~~

We finished three songs before the cast walked into the recording studio. "We'll see you Monday?" Tom asks as he and Antonina stand up, I turn towards them confused. "We're only songwriters AJ. You're the head of this department kid," Tom reaches over to pat my back while he smirks at me. "I feel like you all are against me now," I say with a slight chuckle. They both snicker before handing me the stack of lyrics for the cast.

I turn to the cast sitting on the couches. They all turn to look at me, while I look at the three songs we had finalized. "Alright, the first song we're going to do is 'Good To Be Bad' so I need Cameron, Sofia, Dove, Booboo, Anna, and Jadah first," I say as everyone starts moving around. Thomas, China, and Dylan give each other fist bumps, as I turn, and notice Sarah has a small pout on her lips. I mimic the pout playfully, "I'm sorry babe. It's the opening song in the movie so they need it to get done so rehearsals can start on time." I notice Cameron stick his tongue out playfully at my girlfriend making me laugh at his childish antics.

"She's just upset that she owes me twenty," Cameron says while Sarah rolls her eyes before kissing my check and grabbing my water bottle from the table. I watch her take a seat on the couch with China. Noticing Thomas and Dylan had already left, I chuckle to myself before sitting back in my "captain's chair" in front of the soundboard.

I look at the six in front of me waiting for their lyric pages for the song. "Alright, who's Anna and who's Jadah?" I ask not having gotten to meet the new cast.

A redhead raises her hand and steps forward, "I'm Anna." Since I already know the other four from the original cast, I look at the other younger girl and ask, "Jadah?" She shakes her head confirming and gives me a little wave as she steps forward.

"It's nice to meet you both. I'm AJ, and if there's anything you need help with just let me know," I give them both a small grin, noticing that they couldn't be older than fourteen, and were both probably extremely nervous to be here. "I'm new to the group too, so don't worry. We're in this together," I wink at them hoping they'll loosen up a bit. I hand Anna and Jadah their lyrics sheets and tell them to sit on the couch to look over their parts that I highlighted for them.

"Alright you four," I hand them their designated lyrics sheet. "So, we're going to start the song with you all singing together. Based off the last movie's soundtrack, it is similar to how you did 'Ways to Be Wicked.' It's just a quick verse and it'll be more like you're calling out to everyone than singing," I look up at them to see if they understood my explanation.

While they go over their lyrics, I pull up the beat on my laptop and start playing it over the speakers in the room. I notice Cameron smiling at me like I had just given him his favorite food. "Oh! this is going to be awesome," he says. "Oh! I can't wait to see how the scene plays out and the choreography they have you doing," I match his enthusiasm knowing this opening scene of the movie would be amazing. "Dance battle?" He asks with a mischievous smirk. "You'll get your ass handed to you, Boyce," I say acting like I was flipping my hair over my shoulder earning a chuckle from Booboo. "She might have you beat man," Booboo says looking at me. "Good to see you again," I nod at him with a small smile. "Alright, guys get in the booth and let's get started," I turn towards the soundboard still not having looked at Sofia.

"Alright D4, whenever you're ready," I speak into the mic noticing they have their headphones on. I watch Sofia smile softly looking down at her sheet. I didn't notice I had used the old nickname I called them when they started the first Descendants. I guess seeing them all together again made it slip out. They all talk to one another softly before giving me a thumbs up to start the beat.

From the North to the South
From the East to the West
Lost boys, lost girls
You all know you're the best
Hit the streets, it's your day
Turn it up, now's your chance
It's time to get up on your feet and dance
Whoo

They chant the first verse together and make a smile appear on my face as I look over at Tim, who slipped back in before I started the music up. "Get Cameron to come closer to the mic," he suggests. I pause the music and tell them the adjustments. Cameron kept adding the 'whoo' at the end of the chant, and it was too good to tell him to stop.

It didn't take long for them to get the hang of the beat and do the perfect chant. "Okay guys, we're going to go through it and when we get to Sofia's verse, I'll pause the music to get Anna in there with you and kick you three out real quick, okay?" I directed it more towards Sofia, which causes everyone to freeze in their spots. I don't even look up from the soundboard for an answer and just start the music.

After getting through most of the song, I got Jadah and Dove in the booth together. Jadah was visibly nervous. "Alright, Jadah try and get closer to the mic and remember to have fun with it. Dove mind helping her out please?" I ask getting a nod and thumbs up from Dove. When I go to grab my phone, Cameron had already swiped it and was taking selfies of him and Booboo.

"What's the password?" He asks me, leading me to shake my head no and chuckle. "I'm not giving you my password," I answer as Sofia walks behind me to grab a water bottle from the mini fridge that happens to be right next to me. "Sarah, what's AJ's password?" Cameron turns looking at my oblivious girlfriend who was deep in conversation with China. "Zero, Four, One, Zero, Nine, Three," she says without looking away from China. I close my eyes tightly holding the bridge of my nose, as I hear Sofia behind me choke a little on her water. No one else notice the significance of my password, but I knew it would bite me in the ass eventually. Cameron unlocks my phone with a grin. I turn my attention towards Sarah and see she her wide eyes looking back at me. "Really?" I ask making her smile back at me innocently. "I didn't realize what he was asking until I gave him the code babe," Sarah says while I huff and turn my seat back around to look at Dove and Jadah. Honestly, I'm forgetful and Sofia's birthday is the longest significant date I can remember other than my own. Again, hopefully no one mentions or notices the code is her birthday.

"Ready!" Jadah calls getting my attention. I smile softly and start the song. I feel someone moving my chair before I notice it was Sarah coming to sit in my lap.

"Are you going to talk to Sofia?" Sarah whispers into my ear as she snuggles into my side. I jerk my head back looking down at her. She shakes her head and pulls me down so her face could cuddle into my neck. This girl was stealing my body heat and using it as a way to also ask me about if I'd be talking to my ex-fiancée. Well played Ms. Jeffery well played.

"I don't want it to be a problem in the future and everyone is on edge. I think that once we're done recording everyone for this song you should take a break and talk to her. No pressure though," she whispers. Her words make me pull away turning towards Tim. "Do you mind if I step out for a minute?" I ask and see him nod his head 'okay' turning back towards Dove.

I go to stand up, pushing Sarah to stand up before me, "Let's go talk outside." I look at Cameron, holding my hand out for my phone. "Why can't I just keep it until you get back?" Cameron whines with a sheepish grin. "No," I say sternly shaking my head, making his smile drop. "But-"

"She's not playing around right now. Give her the phone back Cam," Sofia says from across the room. The first time she's spoken since we've been in the room, which catches everyone off guard, including Tim. Cameron places the phone in my hand before I make my way towards the door holding it open for Sarah. "You want to talk. Let's go talk," I say gesturing to the hallway. Sarah sighs and make her way out the door.

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Song mentioned: Good to Be Bad by Dove Cameron, Sofia Carson, Booboo Stewart, & Cameron Boyce