chapter eight
dylan and nini with advice and writing songs

Dylan sat on her bed, her notebook on a lap as she pondered over lyrics she was writing. She loved writing songs, it was her second favourite way of expressing emotions, her first being dance obviously. Dylan hadn't written in a while, her stopping a few years ago after her mum burned all her song books, successfully putting Dylan of song writing.

"Sometimes I think I'm falling down. I wanna cry, I'm callin' out. For one more try to feel alive." Dylan sang quietly, jotting down the lyric changes. She carried on humming the tune unaware of her father watching her from her doorway.

"It sounds good." Sebastian Valdez suddenly spoke, making Dylan jump slightly.

"God, give a girl a warning next time." Seb laughed, walking into the room and sitting at the end of Dylan's bed.

"I'm glad you're writing again." He smiled, Dylan shrugging in response.

"I had some inspiration." Dylan told him, "This whole high school musical thing is given me the motivation to write again."

"Yeah? Why's that?" Her father asked her, looking over the notebook she had scribbled on.

"I don't know, it's just made me feel..."

"Alive?" He suggested making Dylan nod.

"Yeah, I'm glad Nini forced me into it." Dylan laughed, "After mom I thought I'd never I step into a theatre again, dios no lo quiera. Let alone be part of a production but I'm glad I am because it's incredible."

Sebastian smiled warmly at his daughter, sitting up to pull her into a hug. Dylan grimaced, tensing up.

"Por el amor de dios. Odio los abrazos!" Sebastian laughed at her discomfort.

"You'll love hugs eventually."

"In your dreams." Dylan smiled sarcastically.

"Anyway I'm happy you like that production so much it's good for you." Sebastian informed the teen.

"Thank Nini, she made me do it. Said I should take the risk." Dylan explained, laughing at the memory of Nini dragging Dylan down the halls.

"Life's a risk you should take." Sebastian said wistfully before gliding out the door. Dylan stared at the air where he stood, her eyebrows furrowed and head tilted slightly before she shook her head and stared down at her notebook.

"Life is a risk but I will take it."

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

It was past eleven pm when Dylan's phone buzzed, her screen lighting up and blinding her as she sat by her window staring at the stars. She looked down at the notification from her group chat with Nini and Kourtney, Theatres angels.

Ninicompoop <3
911!! Is anyone awake?

Kokopuffs :)
What's up babe?

Ninicompoop <3
Need someone to talk to.
One of you wanna climb
through my window to chat?

Kokopuffs :)
Sorry I can't, Moms
watching me like a hawk

Ninicompoop <3
Dylan?

Kokopuffs :)
She's probably reading
wattpad. You know how
she is. The only time she
isn't reading on it is when
she's in school.

Dyldo ;)
bold of you I don't
read it in class

Kokopuffs :)
Do you?

Dyldo ;)
I'll guess we'll never know.
AnYwAy neen's I can sneak out.

Ninicompoop <3
Really?

Dyldo ;)
yep, dad's sleeping.
as long as I'm back by
morning he'll never know.

Ninicompoop <3
Awesome, I'll meet you
by my back door in ten
minutes so you don't have
to climb through my bedroom
window.

Dyldo ;)
brilliant! see you soon.

Dylan put her phone down, carefully opening her bedroom door to double check that her dad was asleep. When she heard complete silence, no tv or anything and saw her dad's bedroom light off she nodded. Walking back into her room, she put on a oversized grey jumper and threw on her trousers.

She was in her fluffy harry potter pyjama trousers but didn't care, she was only going to Nini's. She quickly placed pillows under her duvet to make it look like someone was in her bed, just in case her dad woke up and decided to check on her.

Picking up her phone, she opened her window and stared outside of it for a moment. Taking a breath she put her phone in the waistband of her trousers, praying it didn't fall out. Dylan put one foot on her window ledge, lifting herself up to perch there before turning sideways and carefully putting her foot on a thick branch of a tree that was next to her window. The Valdez's house had a bunch of trees next to it, which made it easy for Dylan to sneak out of her bedroom.

Manoeuvring herself onto the branch, she leant over to pull her window so it was ajar. She climbed down the tree, jumping to the ground when she got closer to the floor. Dylan sighed in relief, making her way towards the front of her house and in the direction of Nini's.

When she got to Nini's, Dylan walked around to the back, quietly opening her gate and sneaking into her back garden. Nini was stood by the back door waiting for her.

"Hey." Nini greeted.

"Hey." Dylan replied as she walked into the Salazar Roberts household. The two girls snuck upstairs and into Nini's bedroom. Dylan flopped on the girl's bed. "It's quite tiring this sneaking out thing you know." She stated when Nini laughed.

"I gathered." Nini teased. The two girls laughed for a moment before Dylan looked at Nini seriously.

"What happened?" Dylan wondered. Nini sighed, sitting on the floor.

"Oh this a sitting on the floor situation, gosh this is serious." Dylan stated, sitting opposite Nini on the floor.

"Did you know?" Nini questioned her best friend. "About Ej stealing my phone?" Dylan looked down, disappointed in herself.

"I am so sorry." She apologised, "I knew he had it and I know I should've told you but I thought it was his place to tell you. And I tried to convince him to give it back, I knew how much you liked him and how much him going through your phone would hurt you. And I didn't know he listened to that message or delete it, okay? I had left by then."

"Would you have told me?" Nini asked.

"Of course, if he hadn't told you the next time he was with you, I would've told you straight away especially if I had known he had deleted that voicemail. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you, it was a stupid decision." Dylan continued to apologise. Nini stared at her for a moment, searching Dylan's expression for any hints that she was lying and when she didn't find any, Nini darted forward, wrapping her arms around the Valdez.

Dylan froze for a moment, shocked before hugging back. After a few seconds, a sob fell from Nini's lips causing Dylan to squeeze her tighter. Nini continued to cry onto Dylan's shoulder for another minute before pulling away.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be crying, it's stupid." Nini tried to wipe her tears but they kept falling.

"Hey, no." Dylan grabbed her hand, "Don't invalidate your feelings, you're allowed to be sad, you're allowed to cry. It shows your human."

"I-it's just, it's been a lot lately. Like with Ricky wanting a break after I said I love you and then him joining the play and not taking it seriously and t-then this whole thing with Ej like I really liked him." Nini cried.

Dylan shuffled so she was sat next to her, both of them now, now leaning against Nini's bed. Nini rested her head on Dylan's shoulder, Dylan wrapping an arm around the girl's waist to comfort her.

"And Ricky was here to night and it was like we had this heart to heart and I said we were friends and then he tried to kiss me and my head is messed up. Like why I can't I have a normal, healthy relationship." Nini sobbed.

"Because men are idiots." Dylan stated.

"Preach." Nini laughed, through her tears.

"You know Nini, you need to stay relationship free for a while, focus on yourself and your music. You have to hang out with Ej and Ricky, it's inevitable but just focus on you and become to best version of yourself. And then when you're ready the perfect guy is going to come along and sweep you off your feet. And he's going to be incredible and respect your music, your acting and not care about any of your exes." Dylan advised her.

"And until then, you have me and Kourtney and your moms. We will get through this together. Because you know girl power. We are girl bosses and it's about time we start acting like them." Nini laughed.

"Gaslight. Gatekeep. Girlboss." Nini whispered.

"Exactly!" The two laughed before Dylan sang a lyric from the song she was working on, "Rise through the night you and I. We will fight to shine together."

"What's that from?" Nini wondered, sitting up to look at Dylan.

"A new song I'm working on, wanna see?" Nini nodded and Dylan pulled the folded up piece of paper from her phone case. "It's so messy but you'll get the jist of it."

Nini read over the song lyrics she had written down, humming the tune of it. "This is so good."

"Wanna help me finish it?" Dylan suggested.

"Of course I do!" Nini exclaimed, jumping up to grab her notebook. She grabbed her keyboard before dropping down to the floor again. The two quickly go to work, bouncing ideas of each other and scribbling down lyrics.

And that's how they spent the rest of the night, laughing, trying not to wake Nini's mums, finishing the song, which they called bright, and just having a good time. When Dylan had to leave, the two walked to the front door. Dylan gave Nini another hug before she left, smiling to herself as she saw how happy Nini looked then compared to when Dylan arrived as she walked home.

( 💌 ) isobel's notes
So I realised that at the
beginning of this book I
portrayed Nini and Dylan
as these power besties
yet they have only had about
one conversation and Dylan
has been better friends with
Ricky so here is this. One I love
their groupchat but also I love
Dylan and Nini's friendship and
I cant wait to write more.

Also i'm not spanish i only do spanish as
a school subject so i mostly use
translate for when she's speaking
spanish so if i type something that
is wrong or doesn't mean what i
think it does please tell me! the
translations will be in the comments
if you don't understand