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𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘

chapter three:
changes !

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IN THE LIVING room of Athena's house, an episode of Criminal Minds played on the TV while Athena and Ricky were cuddled up on the couch. Athena's head rested comfortably on Ricky's shoulders while his arm was wound tightly around her waist, his thumb absentmindedly rubbing against the fabric of her shirt. They had both just said goodbye to Nini with Violetta and EJ since she was going off to Denver, and it was a pretty emotional goodbye. Of course they were happy for her, it would just be weird going to school without Nini.

"Not gonna lie, I would let Spencer Reid arrest me any day," Athena admitted. "That man is so fine."

Ricky scoffed. "I'm literally right here."

"Just thought I'd let you know."

"Thanks for the valuable information. I'll keep it in mind."

Athena rolled her eyes playfully and hit his chest gently, making him laugh. "Shut up."

Ricky kissed her forehead. "You feeling any better?"

She sighed and moved closer to him. "A little. School without Nini is just going to take a little while to get used to. There's no doubt in my mind she would be the perfect Belle for the musical."

"Hey, so are you."

"I don't know, Ric." Athena reached up and began to drag the R charm on her necklace back and forth on the chain. "It's a huge role. Like, huge."

The front door opening was then heard. Athena lifted up her head to see her mother entering the house. Her mother shrugged off her coat and hung it up by the door before walking farther into the house.

"Hi, mom," Athena greeted, standing up from the couch, which made Ricky frown because he had to let go of her. "Where's dad?"

Amanda set her keys down on the counter. "Work's keeping him late. He should probably be home in about an hour." She smiled at the boy still sitting on the couch. "Hey, Ricky."

Ricky waved at her. "Hi, Amanda."

"Are you staying for dinner? I can set an extra place for you."

He shook his head. "I promised my dad I'd try to help him cook. Cooking for him isn't . . . the best." Ricky looked down at his phone screen for a second. "Speaking of that, I should probably get home."

Athena held out her hand to him. "I'll walk you out."

Ricky took her hand and pulled himself up. The two of them walked to the front door. Ricky quickly put his shoes on before him and Athena left the house. Athena shut the door behind her and took Ricky's other hand to hold onto both of his as they stopped on the front porch.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You know, if your dad ever needs help with cooking, he can always call my mom."

"Oh, he has," Ricky responded. "He just hasn't made any progress."

Athena laughed slightly. "I see. Well . . . I guess you should probably get going."

"I'll miss you," Ricky said, taking a step closer to her.

"Oh really?" Athena asked, also taking another step forwards.

She pressed up onto her toes and kissed him gently. It lasted for a couple of moments before she pulled away. However, that apparently wasn't satisfactory enough for Ricky, because he dipped his head down and kissed her again. It was quick and short, but it got the point across. The two of them grinned at each other underneath Athena's front porch light in the cold air of Salt Lake City.

"Okay, okay, go home," Athena urged. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Ricky nodded, although there seemed to be a conflicted expression on his face. Athena smiled gently at him before turning around to face her door. However, once she placed her hand on the doorknob, Ricky said something that she definitely wasn't expecting at all.

"Athena, I'm moving," Ricky announced.

She stopped in her tracks and looked at him again, disbelief written across her face. "What?"

"I'm moving," he repeated.

Athena's heart fell to her stomach and she slowly dropped her hand from the doorknob. "Out . . . out of Salt Lake?"

Ricky shook his head, and Athena felt like she could breathe just a little better. "My dad told me we're moving into a smaller apartment."

Still, Athena couldn't help the way her heart felt like it was being squeezed. Her and Ricky had been neighbors their entire life. They had grown up playing together and had gone over to each other's houses with easy accessibility whenever one of them was sad or lonely. And now, especially as lovers, they wouldn't be neighbors anymore? So many memories had been made in that house . . . Athena didn't know how she was possibly going to let it go.

"Oh," she voiced quietly.

"I don't want to," Ricky admitted. "I really don't want anything else to change. My parents divorcing? Change. That whole weird period of us figuring out what we were? Change. Getting used to playing Troy Bolton only for us to be doing another musical? Change."

Athena frowned and she walked towards him again. "Is that why you didn't write a resolution on New Year's?"

He sighed. "Why write a resolution when you don't want anything else to change?"

She took his hand and laced their fingers together. "Hey, listen to me. Change is scary, I know it is. But you moving is not going to change anything between us. Yeah, it sucks we're not going to be neighbors anymore after living next to each other our entire lives, but as long as you're still in Salt Lake, we're still Ricky and Athena."

"Promise?" Ricky questioned.

"I promise," Athena confirmed, holding up their interlocked hands. "I love you."

Ricky reached up and gently touched the Saturn charm on Athena's necklace. "To the moon and to Saturn."

She let go of his hand before wrapping her arms around him in a hug. Athena stood on her toes because of their height difference and Ricky leaned down, resting his chin on her shoulder. Moving was definitely another change, but just like Athena said, it wouldn't change anything between them. She would do everything in her power to go through with that promise.

--- ☆ • ♫ • ♪ • ♫ • ☆ ---

IT WAS OBVIOUSLY no secret that Athena liked to wear Ricky's clothes. Judging by the way she was so protective over that jean jacket of his, every item that he let her borrow — even before they were dating — she cherished. So nobody was really surprised when she showed up the next day at school wearing one of Ricky's t-shirts that she had tied a knot in the front of so it wouldn't be so big. Besides, wearing it was kind of an attempt to make her feel better. One, about him moving (she knew it wasn't his fault, but she was still kind of upset . . . yes, even two weeks after he told her the news), and two, about auditions for Beauty and the Beast being later that day.

The bell had just rung to let the students out for lunch. Athena walked up to her locker where her and Violetta would be meeting to walk to lunch together after collecting their books for their afternoon classes. She opened up her locker and placed the books she didn't need inside of it before grabbing the ones she did. Athena closed her locker and tucked her books into her chest.

"Hi," a new voice suddenly said.

Athena turned with her eyebrows knit in confusion, only to see a blonde girl she had never seen before standing by her locker. "Oh, um, hi."

"I just wanted to say how good you were singing Breaking Free in High School Musical," the girl continued. "I'm not sure why Kelsi would be singing the song instead of Gabriella, but it was certainly . . ." She looked Athena up and down. "Show stopping."

Athena shook her head. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

The girl stuck out her hand. "Lily."

Athena shook her hand slowly before letting go. "Athena. And, uh, thanks. I wasn't expecting to sing it either, but I guess it turned out okay."

Lily apparently decided to move past that and lifted her hand, touching the three charms hanging from the chain around Athena's neck. "This is so pretty. Where'd you get it?"

Athena looked down at her necklace and touched the charms herself, making Lily drop her hand. "Oh, my boyfriend Ricky gave it to me as an opening night gift."

"Ricky, as in the one who played Troy Bolton?" Lily inquired.

She nodded. "Uh, yeah, that's the one."

"Hmm, he's cute," Lily commented.

Athena blinked in surprise, but she quickly recovered herself, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Yeah, he is."

Lily tilted her head at her. "You scored a good one. See you later, Athena."

She walked off. Athena stood there in shock. Lily had just admitted that her boyfriend was cute . . . to her face? Okay, Athena gets it. Ricky's ridiculously attractive. But she didn't know how to feel about this blonde girl just blatantly saying right to her face, especially since she was his girlfriend, that he was.

"What's up with you?" Violetta asked, walking up to Athena's side. "You look like somebody just punched you in the stomach. Was it Big Red? Because I told him he's a lot stronger than he thinks—"

"No, no," Athena interrupted, pointing in the direction that Lily left. "This girl just said to me that Ricky was cute."

Violetta raised an eyebrow. "To your face?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, so she's bold bold?" Violetta questioned. "Hm. Okay. If she does it again, maybe just tell her to stay in her lane."

Athena shook off the uncomfortable feeling. "Come on, let's go to lunch. Apparently Carlos has some big announcement for us."

The two walked to the cafeteria. After buying their lunch, they noticed the theater kids sitting at two tables in the middle (well, except EJ — he was sitting with his senior friends, but he would go back and forth between them and sitting with Violetta.) Violetta and Athena sat down in the two empty seats in between Gina and Ricky, Athena sitting next to Ricky and Violetta sitting next to Gina.

Ricky kissed her cheek once she sat down next to him. "Hey, gorgeous." His eyes fixtured on the shirt she was wearing. "Is that my shirt?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Athena countered.

"Fair point. Hey, Vi."

"Hi, lover boy," Violetta teased, making Ricky's cheeks turn red. "Carlos, did you make your big announcement already?"

"Nope, I was waiting for you two to get here," Carlos replied before standing up. "Attention, thespians! I have a brief announcement."

Seb cupped his hands around his mouth while all of the theater kids gathered around. "Speech! Speech!"

"After spending the last couple of weeks Google-stalking the Menkie awards, I've discovered that there is no category for best choreography. And since the Menkies is step one to becoming the first ever winner of a MEGOT—"

Big Red leaned his head closer to Ashlyn's. "MEGOT?"

"Menkie, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony," Ashlyn explained.

"I've decided that I will be auditioning to be on stage this year," Carlos announced. "Thank you all."

All of them clapped for him. Athena smiled happily while popping a grape into her mouth. She could totally see Carlos as Lumière or Cogsworth.

Ashlyn lifted up Big Red's hand. "Big Red's trying out too!"

"Yeah, he is!" Ricky exclaimed.

"Big ups, Big Red," Gina voiced. "You gonna teach me some of those allegedly great tap moves?"

Big Red chuckled nervously. "I'm so scared."

"Oh, just remember, you cannot play Chip the teacup since it'd obviously be weird for you to be my son," Ashlyn told him. She glanced around the table that was encaptured in silence for a moment. "I mean, I'm probably getting Mrs. Potts. Not that we don't all have an equal shot."

"No way, I admire your confidence, Ash," Violetta stated.

Ashlyn leaned forward on her elbows. "Who are you auditioning for, Vi?"

"One of the Silly Girls," Violetta answered. "It gives me a minor role in the show, but I'll still get to be a dancer. That's all I want."

"Maybe I'll do that, too," Athena agreed.

"Um, no you will not."

Athena's eyebrows knit in confusion. "Sorry, what?"

"If you don't audition for Belle, I'm going to smack you," Violetta threatened. "Athena, I'm serious. You have to!"

"Nini was right when she said you'd look like a Goddess in that gold dress," Ashlyn said. "Belle is the perfect role for you, 'Thena."

Athena let out a deep breath. "Um, okay. I guess that'll be my main goal later today." She thought it over for a moment. "I might throw up."

Violetta shook her head. "No you won't. Oh wells instead of what ifs, right?"

She hesitantly nodded. "Right."

EJ then approached the table, hugging Violetta from the behind and kissing her temple quickly before looking right at Ricky. "You're welcome."

"Huh?" Ricky inquired, obviously not knowing what he was talking about.

"Uh, I've decided to take myself out of the running for the Beast. I'm just . . . I've got a lot on my plate. Which reminds me, I should probably pick a meal plan for Duke."

Once he pulled out his phone, Violetta stared straight at the screen because it was right in front of her. "Dude, did you officially get in or not? I'm confused."

"Back up," Ricky cut in. "You're not doing the musical either?"

Either? Athena lowered her hand that was holding a grape back onto the tray. Her head slowly turned to Ricky in concern. Surely he didn't mean . . .

"No," EJ replied. "I've only got the bandwidth for a supporting role. Wait, what do you mean either?"

"Uh . . ." Ricky trailed off, laughing weakly at everyone staring at him. "Uh . . . I'm, uh, I'm not sure if I'm auditioning this year. You know, once a skate rat . . . right?"

"Wait, for real?" Gina asked.

Athena frowned at him. "Ricky—"

"Okay, um, sorry, I've been trying to work up the courage to say this," the same blonde girl from earlier, Lily, began as she approached the table. Athena sighed quietly and looked down at her lunch tray. "Okay, I can't believe I'm standing in front of both Troy Boltons right now. Both your performances last semester in HSM were incredible."

Everyone was silent again. Athena absentmindedly traced her finger around the rim of her lunch tray. There was just something about this girl she didn't like, and it wasn't just because of her comment about Ricky.

"Thanks," Ricky responded after a moment of hesitation.

"Thank you," EJ said at the same time. "That means a lot to us. It honestly takes a village to get a show up on its feet. I've been very blessed."

"No, no, I mean, thank you, really," Lily corrected. "I mean, you both inspired me to wanna try out this semester. It's intimidating being basically, like, brand new to theater. Hey, honestly, you guys are all so talented."

Ashlyn laughed slightly. "Oh, thank you."

Lily pulled out her phone. "Hey, do you mind if we . . ."

Everyone agreed. Athena picked her head up and forced a smile on her face as Lily took two selfies of all of them. Once she was done, Athena's smile dropped and she crossed her arms across her chest, resting her elbows on the table.

EJ pointed at her. "Hey, you can tag me in that. It's just EJWaterPoloTheaterGuy. Theater, E-R."

"Just did," Lily confirmed. Her eyes then set on Athena. "Bye, Athena. Nice to see you again."

Athena, yet again, forced another smile. "You too."

Violetta watched Lily's figure walk away for a moment before turning to Athena. "You know her?"

"That's the girl who told me Ricky was cute," Athena answered.

Ricky raised his eyebrows. "She told you that I was cute?"

"Mhm," Athena hummed in response. She then looked at him, suddenly remembering what he had said earlier about not trying out for the musical. "Hey, come on. I want to talk to you."

She nodded her head to the doors, which led out into the hallway from the cafeteria. The two of them got up from the lunch table and walked out into the quiet hallway. Athena leaned her shoulder against the lockers and stared up at Ricky as he stopped in front of her.

Ricky finally met her eyes. "What?"

"What's going on?" Athena questioned worryingly. "You told me you couldn't wait to do another musical. What made you suddenly change your mind?"

He grabbed one of her hands. "Last time, I only got the role of Troy because Miss Jenn saw Nini and I had a connection. That was literally the only reason. Anything else about me . . . I'm not theater material."

"Ricky, that's not true," Athena reassured him. "I saw you up on that stage, and you had never looked more alive. Sure, you might've still had chemistry with Nini at the time, but your talent? That's what made you Troy."

"I just don't know if I want to do it, Attie," Ricky revealed, his thumb gently tracing over her knuckles.

Athena nodded in understanding. "Okay. I'm not going to push you to do it if you don't want to. Whatever decision you make, just know I've got your back."

Ricky shook his head in amazement. "How on Earth did I get so lucky to have a girlfriend as amazing as you?"

"It was written in the stars," Athena replied, making him chuckle. "All right. Now, come on. I'm afraid if EJ doesn't give Violetta a direct answer about Duke she's going to strangle him."

--- ☆ • ♫ • ♪ • ♫ • ☆ ---

WITH NERVES BUBBLING in her stomach, Athena stood on the stage of East High's restored auditorium with Violetta by her side. It was finally time for auditions for Beauty and the Beast. Athena had never tried out for a lead role of a musical ever in her life, and she was basically a nervous wreck. She walked aimlessly across the stage while everyone else warmed up or talked with their friends.

"Athena, it's going to be okay," Violetta told her sincerely, watching her pace back and forth.

She shook her head. "I don't have an original song this time. I was thinking about Edge of Great, but it isn't finished yet, and Wake Up was already done last audition." She stopped and stared at her best friend. "And now I have to audition with Fallin' All In You?"

"You're going to kill the song, 'Thena."

"The power of Shawn Mendes can only get me so far."

Violetta rolled her eyes and placed her hands on Athena's shoulders. "Athena, I will be right here with you this entire time. So is everyone else. You got this."

She nodded. "I got this. Yeah, okay."

Miss Jenn clapped her hands to get everyone's attention, and Athena and Violetta moved to gather around with everybody else. "Ahem, all right. As you all know, this year's auditions will be a two-step process. One, a group vocal warm-up to the classic song Belle, and two, a song of your choice. Whatever shows off you the best. Okay, circle up. Take your neighbor's hand."

Athena clutched onto Violetta's hand. They moved to form a circle with everyone else. Athena took Big Red's outstretched hand while Violetta held hands with another girl who was auditioning. It reminded her of that mess of a table read they had last semester.

"For a moment of silent reflection," Miss Jenn announced.

Everyone shut their eyes. Athena took a deep breath before closing hers, trying to calm herself down. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Miss Jenn began singing the main line of Beauty and the Beast in a higher octave, just like she had done with We're All in This Together. Athena let out a quiet laugh. How typical.

However, before she could finish the song, the door to the auditorium swung open. Athena snapped her eyes open and looked to see Ricky standing there. A smile made its way onto her face. He was really doing it.

"Guess he decided to come after all?" Miss Jenn inquired to Carlos.

"Is this Mamma Mia 2?" Carlos responded. "'Cause here we go again."

Athena let go of Violetta and Big Red's hands before rushing off stage. She bounded down the steps and met Ricky in the middle of the aisle.

"You're here," she noted, reaching out to hold both of his hands while still smiling widely. "What changed your mind?"

He squeezed her hands. "You did. I never felt more alive than I did up on that stage as Troy, so  . . . I'm gonna do this musical for me this time."

"I'm proud of you," Athena replied. "Seriously, you're gonna do great."

Ricky let go of one of her hands to begin walking up to the stage. "With you here, anything's possible."

With butterflies, both from Ricky and from nerves, fluttering around her stomach, Athena focused on her audition at hand. It was time to prove to herself that she was good enough to try out for a lead role. And with all of her friends beside her, she knew she wouldn't fall under.

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Y'ALL GOT THIS STORY TO 1K READS IN 3 DAYS I FUCKING LOVE YOU THANK YOU <333

so . . . athena wearing ricky's clothes is just perfection rathena makes my heart go WHOOSH

sour has also destroyed me I will need 1-3 more business days to recover. traitor is my favorite but the way she says "god, it's brutal out here" in brutal is *chef's kiss*

guys wtf ashlyn is belle (as she should be go off queen) and I don't wanna make athena take that from her but I want athena to be belle. might just do it anyways for funsies but give me some suggestions if you want athena to be another character :)