chapter ten
chaos at rehearsals

Since they needed to take pictures for the program for high school musical: the musical, the main cast gathered early before school that day. Dylan was going to be on the cover of the program, as they were recreating the iconic high school musical jumping shot, which Ryan was in. Dylan had arrived with Nini, the two heading into the dressing room to be put in their costumes. Kourtney had done incredibly well in making them look practically identical to the original.

Dylan put on her outfit, a pair of brown trousers paired with a light green – almost grey – shirt with white strips. She placed the Ryan hat on her head, turning to exit alongside Nini. The two girls left the dressing room, walking into the auditorium and onto the stage, which was set up with lights and the High school musical sign. Big Red had gotten his camera ready on a tripod opposite the sign.

"Oh my gosh, you two look perfect!" Kourtney exclaimed, admiring her costume work. "Yes!"

"You did amazing!" Dylan told the girl.

"Okay, people, let's do this!" Ricky's voice announced as he walked onto the stage.

Dylan turned. Once her eyes landed on Ricky, she immediately burst into laughter. Her hand went to cover her mouth in an attempt to stifle her laugh but it did not help. Ricky was wearing a ridiculous wig that was supposed to make him look more like Troy Bolton, but it only made him look ridiculous.

"Oh my god, Ricky." Nini commented.

"What?"

Dylan couldn't stop laughing, her doubling over to try and catch her breath. Nini simply pointed at Dylan, showing Ricky what his look had done to her best friend, making him decide that he probably did look... not great.

Gina then walked out in her Taylor costume, EJ behind her in his Chad costume. "Let's get some air, Wildcats."

"Okay guys," Big Red began after a few moments of mindless chatter. "We're gonna get one in for practice, okay? We're all gonna jump on the count of three. Ready? One, two, three."

However, as they all jumped and Big Red took a picture, Kourtney ran out of the shot. "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, y'all."

"Kourtney." Ricky complained softly.

"One, two, three." Big Red counted again.

They jumped again, but all at different times. The L of the musical on the sign also fell. Dylan's eyes widened as she looked back at it, pulling a face.

"Wait, what happened?" Big Red asked.

"Where to begin." Ricky sighed.

Seb looked at him. "I think you went early."

"Are we jumping on three or after three?" Gina wondered.

"Yeah, the count of three." Big Red answered. "Ready?"

"Nah, man, you need some new words." Ricky told him.

"I think I broke a heel." Seb added.

Carlos sighed. "You guys, this isn't that hard. You smile, you leave the Earth, you land."

"Land where? Back on Earth? The moon? Jupiter?" Dylan raised her eyebrows, with an amused smile.

"Yeah, it's a little hard to smile when we don't even know the plan." Ricky argued.

Nini jutted her thumb out at Ricky. "I can't look at Ricky. Is that a problem?"

Laughter erupted from everyone. Dylan shook her head, sharing an amused smile with Seb.

"Okay, ;let's take a five." Carlos said stiffly.

"On five or after five?" Ricky questioned, walking off.

"I think he's mad at us." Seb announced.

Another round of laughter sounded out across the room. Dylan wondered why the whole ordeal was so chaotic, it was like there was no adult supervision... wait where was Miss Jenn?

✿✼:*ﾟ:༅｡.｡༅:*･ﾟﾟ･⭑

Dylan walked into the bomb shelter for rehearsal in front of Gina and Ricky, the two unusually close. When Big Red walked off to talk to Ricky, Dylan thought it was a good time to pull Gina away from Kourtney for a chat.

"Okay what the hell is going on in that brain of yours G?" Dylan demanded almost immediately.

"What do you mean?" Gina feigned innocence.

"What do I mean? I mean what the hell is going on? You took EJ to homecoming then argued with him and then poured punch on his head and then went home with Ricky and now you two are like the best of friends. What is going on?" Dylan elaborated.

"I took EJ to homecoming hoping Nini would be there and get so jealous she would drop out of the show and I would become the lead. A-And as for the Ricky thing I don't know?" Gina explained.

"You don't know?"

"He gave me a ride home and we connected and we had this moment and I thought about kissing him but didn't and went for his cheek instead." She continued.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Before Dylan could properly reply, Carlos walked through the door. "Okay people. Let's stage a number, I'm late."

"Is Miss Jenn coming?" Nini inquired.

"Miss Jenn had a small personal matter to attend to and won't be here today." Carlos told the group.

"Oh is everything alright?"

"Good question." Seb added onto Nini reply.

"Everything's fine, why would you guys even ask that." Carlos smiled nervously before ordering people around. He made Nini stage in the middle of the room, Ricky, EJ and some other boys stood on boxes around her. Dylan sat down on one of the chairs, watching what was happening.

"Uh, are they on stage with me while I'm singing?" Nini wondered. They were trying to block when there was you and me but Nini didn't seem to like Carlos' idea already.

"Yes they will be frozen in various poses to come, as the ballad builds Nini you will be wandering through a forest of boys." Every stared at Carlos, slightly confused by the idea.

Everyone began to object to his idea. Kourtney affuested that she walked through a forest of supportive women, most of the other girls agreeing with her, especially Nini, while Ricky suggested she sang a solo acoustic version of the song. Dylan was more concerned with how stressed Carlos seemed as he tried to get everyone under control than agreeing with the cast.

"Okay you guys this is not a democracy!" Carlos exclaimed, everyone falling silent and turning to him with wide eyes.

"Carlos are you okay?" Dylan asked, standing up to walk closer to him.

"Yeah cause it's not that deep we can all just come back when Miss Jenn gets here." Nini added.

"Well she's not here and I don't know if she's ever coming back." Carlos stated, shocking the entire cast.

"Is this a joke?"

"She's in deep trouble you guys. They're saying that she lied on her job application and there's a school board meeting in less than 24 hours and she's probably going to lose her job. I wasn't supposed to tell any of you but I'm trying to do my best here." Carlos explained to them.

"I can't believe it," Nini breathed out.

"What are we even doing in rehearsal?" EJ inquired.

"Wait, how can we have a show if we don't have a teacher?" Ashlyn asked.

"You know you could have told me," Seb said gently to Carlos.

Carlos looked over at him. "Miss Jenn asked me not to."

"Wow, Carlos," EJ stated. "What else are you not telling us?"

"Caswell, none of this is Carlos' fault," Dylan scolded, turning to point at him. "Don't blame everything on him."

"Hey, let's all breathe for a second," Ashlyn commented.

Natalie looked up at her. "Do you wanna be in charge?"

"She didn't say that," Kourtney argued.

"Okay, let's all calm down for two seconds." Dylan told the all.

"You know what?" Nini announced, grabbing her backpack off of the floor. "I — um . . . I need a minute."

Kourtney pointed to her. "Right there with you."

Soon enough, everyone began leaving the room. Ashlyn made eye contact, the two having a silent agreement to hang out now they didn't have rehearsals. Dylan smiled, walking over to her, linking arms as they walked out the door.

"Rehearsals are officially cancelled until further notice!" Carlos shouted after them, letting out a huff.

( 💌 ) isobel's notes
not a cool chapter sorry
some ashlyn and dylan friendship
next chapter and a new song!!
ej and dylan will interact again
soon don't worry :)

also don't know if you guys care
but do you want a modern family fic
or a gilmore girls one, they both are
oc x oc