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𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗢𝗢 𝗗𝗘𝗘𝗣

chapter three:
bold bold !

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PARTS OF VIOLETTA'S day were always up the air. Sometimes she would pay attention in math, other times she wouldn't. Sometimes she would actually try in gym, other times she would make an excuse that she had a dance injury. However, there were two things that stayed constant — EJ driving her to school in the morning, and meeting with Athena at her locker before lunch.

Violetta had always used to eat lunch with Athena, Ricky, and Big Red. However, ever since joining the musical, the whole theater group had decided to band together and sit together in the cafeteria. It was nice, honestly.

She walked down the hallway, weaving between the amount of people heading to lunch. Violetta approached Athena's locker, only to see the girl standing there in what seemed to be shock. Her eyebrows knit in confusion, and as she got closer, she could tell that Athena was clearly dumbfounded by something.

"What's up with you?" Violetta asked, stopping by 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 cut in, stopping Violetta from talking. She then pointed down the hallway. Violetta followed her gaze, only to just see crowds of people. "This girl just said to me that Ricky was cute."

Violetta raised an eyebrow at that. "To your face?"

"Yeah."

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

Athena sighed. "Come on, let's go to lunch. Apparently Carlos has some big announcement for us."

The two of them then walked to the cafeteria. They bought their lunch before going back out into the main area, only to find the theater kids sitting at two tables in the middle. The only one who was missing was EJ. Violetta's eyes roamed around the cafeteria and spotted him sitting with her senior friends. She had forgotten — he had sat with her yesterday. EJ would go on and off sitting with her and his senior friends during lunch. Violetta then approached the table, taking the empty seat next to Gina.

Ricky kissed Athena's cheek once the girl sat down, making Violetta roll her eyes despite the ghost of a smile on her face. "Hey, gorgeous." His eyes focused on her shirt. "Is that my shirt?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Athena argued.

Gina leaned her head closer to Violetta's, her tone teasing. "They're gross."

"Tell me about it," Violetta whispered back, the two of them smiling at each other in amusement.

"Fair point," Ricky replied. "Hey, Vi."

"Hi, lover boy," Violetta voiced, smirking at the way Ricky blushed. "Carlos, did you make your big announcement already?"

"Nope, I was waiting for you two to get here," Carlos answered. He then stood up. "Attention, thespians! I have a brief announcement."

"Speech!" Seb announced, cupping his hands around his mouth. All of the theater kids started to gather around. "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 in closer to Ashlyn. "MEGOT?"

"Menkie, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony," Ashlyn explained to him quietly.

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

Violetta grinned and clapped for him. Carlos could definitely play Lumière or Cogsworth. He would fit either of them.

Ashlyn then took Big Red's hand in hers and lifted it up. "Big Red's trying out too!"

"Yeah, he is!" Ricky exclaimed happily.

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

Big Red let out a nervous chuckle. "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 said. When the table went silent, she glanced around. "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 told her.

Ashlyn placed her elbows on the table and leaned in. "Who are you auditioning for, Vi?"

"One of the Silly Girls," Violetta responded. "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 suggested.

Violetta's head whirled over to her best friend in disbelief. "Um, no you will not."

Athena stared a her in shock. "Sorry, what?"

"If you don't audition for Belle, I'm going to smack you." Violetta noticed the way Athena slightly sunk into herself, and her eyes softened. "Athena, I'm serious. You have to!"

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

Athena took a deep breath. "Um, okay. I guess that'll be my main goal later today." She paused for a second. "I might throw up."

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

She gave her a hesitant nod. "Right."

Violetta suddenly felt arms drape around her shoulders and a kiss be pressed to her temple. Smiling slightly at the familiar feeling, she looked up to see EJ standing behind her. She also took to notice that he was wearing a blue Duke hat.

EJ tore his gaze away from her and looked at Ricky. "You're welcome."

"Huh?" Ricky questioned, clearly 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."

EJ removed his arm from Violetta to grab his phone. He then draped it over her again, holding his phone out in front of him. Violetta watched the screen, seeing as he navigated to Safari to look up Duke meal plans.

"Dude, did you officially get in or not?" Violetta inquired, honestly tired of his cryptic messages. "I'm confused."

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

Either? What was that supposed to mean?

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

"Uh . . ." Ricky trailed off, letting out a weak laugh as everyone's gazes went to 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. "Ricky—"

"Okay, um, sorry, I've been trying to work up the courage to say this," a new voice said. Violetta looked to see it was some blonde girl with her hair in a ponytail. "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."

Violetta's eyes slightly narrowed at the girl. If she was being quite honest, she didn't like the way this blonde girl was staring at EJ, or at Ricky. She subconsciously leaned back further into EJ's chest, staring at her suspiciously. Huh.

"Thanks," Ricky said after hesitating for a second.

"Thank you," EJ spoke over him. "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," the blonde girl insisted. "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 gave out a small laugh. "Oh, thank you."

The girl took her phone out. "Hey, do you mind if we . . ."

They all agreed. Violetta placed a small smile on her face as the blonde girl snapped two selfies of all of them. When she was finished, Violetta's smile instantly dropped off her face. Something about this girl seemed . . . off.

And like always, Violetta Chase always had a good read on people.

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

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

Athena forced a smile onto her face. "You too."

Violetta stared after the blonde girl as she walked away, her eyes still narrowed, before looking at Athena. "You know her?"

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

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

"Mhm. Hey, come on. I want to talk to you."

As Ricky and Athena left the cafeteria, Violetta looked back down at EJ's phone screen. He was scrolling on Duke's website, reading up about the different meal plans that they had. She pushed away her sinking heart at the thought of EJ leaving.

Violetta looked up at him. "Did you really get in?"

"I mean, basically," EJ answered.

"Basically isn't an answer."

"Okay, okay, fine. Acceptance letters haven't come back yet, but I'm pretty much already in. It's a guarantee."

Violetta gave him a forced smile and nodded once. This EJ so sure he was getting into Duke was reminding her of the way he was at the beginning of the year, so sure that him and Nini were going to get the roles of Troy and Gabriella. And she didn't know if she liked that or not.

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VIOLETTA GOT A wild sense of déjà vu as she stood on the stage of East High's restored auditorium.

It was after school, and auditions for Beauty and the Beast were being held. Violetta was cool, calm, and collected, confident enough to know that she would at least get a dancing part. Athena, on the other hand, was extremely nervous. Her arms crossed across her chest, Violetta watched as Athena walked aimlessly across the stage while other people warmed up or talked to her friend.

The scene was so familiar it almost gave her a headache. She suddenly got transported back into the dressing room before the High School Musical auditions, where Violetta was trying to get Athena to calm down.

She started to get dizzy watching Athena pace back and forth. "Athena, it's going to be okay."

Athena shook her head in response, clearly not believing her. "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 her pacing and stared at Violetta. "And now I have to audition with Fallin' All In You?"

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

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

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

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

Miss Jenn clapped her hands to gather everyone's attention, and Violetta and Athena moved to stand with everyone as they grouped around. "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."

Violetta instantly held onto Athena's hand, hoping it would at least calm her down a little. She then reached out and took Steph's outstretched hand. Violetta then internally laughed. This was reminding her of the mess of a table read they had with High School Musical.

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

Violetta sighed and closed her eyes. It was silent for only a moment before Miss Jenn started to sing the main line of Beauty and the Beast in a much higher octave, like she had done with We're All in This Together. Violetta tried her best not to laugh out loud.

However, before Miss Jenn could finish the song, all of them were startled by the sound of the auditorium door swinging open. Violetta's eyes shot open and she looked, only to see Ricky standing there awkwardly. Huh, it was also like High School Musical, when he came in when Athena had done her audition.

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

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

Athena immediately rushed off the stage to go meet up with Ricky. Violetta smiled and shook her head.

"Typical, isn't it?" EJ's voice commented.

Violetta looked up to see him right behind her. "We should've expected it at this point."

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another week and no season three trailer . . . tim federle WHERE THE FUCK IS IT