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𝗜𝗡 𝗧𝗢𝗢 𝗗𝗘𝗘𝗣

chapter fifteen:
who d'you think you're kidding,
he's the earth and heaven to you !

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EJ HAD SUDDENLY regressed into an actual six year old.

Instead of helping Violetta, Ashlyn, and Athena figuring out something to do to show North High that they were still in the competition, EJ had been milling around the house. He had disappeared upstairs, only to come back down with a box of toys that him and Ashlyn had used to play with when they were kids. Despite being the oldest one out of all of them, all of the toys were keeping him quite entertained.

Violetta was quite literally dating a golden retriever.

After about twenty minutes of just sitting on the couch while EJ moved random stuffed animals around, Violetta thought it would be beneficial to add another person to the group to help brainstorm. She knew the perfect person.

"Call Nini," Violetta suggested.

Ashlyn nodded in agreement. She leaned forwards on the couch and pressed Nini's contact, Facetiming her on her laptop. After only one ring, Nini answered the call.

"Hey, Ash!" Nini exclaimed. "Hey, 'Thena. Hey, Vi."

EJ then pulled a teddy bear out of the box and tossed it at Ashlyn.

"We are in the middle of a crisis, EJ," Ashlyn scolded him like she was his mother, throwing the teddy bear back at him. "Stop it."

"No, you stop it," EJ argued jokingly.

Ashlyn looked back at her laptop screen. "EJ found some old stuff we used to play with in the attic and he's turned into a six year-old."

Violetta shook her head. Suddenly, she felt a hard object hit the back of her head. It didn't hurt, but the sudden movement was enough to make her body slightly jerk forwards. Violetta looked to see a frisbee had landed next to her. Slowly, she turned around to face her boyfriend. EJ's eyes were wide and he instantly raised his hands in surrender. Violetta merely shook her head and looked back at Nini on the computer screen. Yep, golden retriever for sure.

"Aww, I'm obsessed with all of you," Nini said.

EJ then stuck his arm between Ashlyn and Athena, holding a doll in his hand and moving it side to side as he talked in a strange high-pitched voice. "Hi, Nini."

Ashlyn let out a sigh and pushed his hand back. "So, how are we dealing with North High? 'Cause we're spinning over here."

Violetta shrugged in response. "I mean, Athena did suggest she could punch Lily."

Nini pointed at them through the screen in agreement. "That, I would like to see."

"Oh, it'll become a reality one day," Athena stated. "But I don't wanna get disqualified. So, Neen, what've you got?"

"You heard Miss Jenn."

"We did," Ashlyn replied.

"So, I've been thinking about what we could do, and I thought—" Nini started to say.

"Okay, right, a song, obviously. Go on."

"Right. Uh, but I've been a little tongue-tied today, like, as a writer, so . . ."

"We write a song together," Athena announced. "I mean, you, me, and Ashlyn wrote Truth, Justice, and Songs in Our Key, so why not do it again?"

Nini smiled at them. "I was wondering if you two maybe had the bandwidth to collab?"

EJ's hand suddenly came back. This time, it was covered by a sock puppet, and he was making weird warbling sounds with his mouth.

Violetta blinked at him, a small smile on her face. "I worry about you sometimes, you know that?"

Ashlyn slowly looked from EJ's sock puppet back to Nini. "Yeah, I think we can find the time."

"Thank you," Nini responded. "Um, oh, and have either of you guys heard from Gina?"

"I can text her," Violetta voiced. "You want me and her to put together some choreography?"

"That would be lifesaving. Okay, let's get to work."

Violetta stood up from the couch and walked over to the next room. She took her phone opened it up, instantly FaceTiming Gina. While it was ringing, Violetta rested it on a bookshelf that showed her whole body so they could come up with choreography. Finally, Gina answered after a couple of moments.

"Hey," Violetta greeted with a small smile. "How's the airport?"

"Boring," Gina answered. "How's the house?"

"Fine. We've come up with an idea — well, almost all of us. EJ's too busy playing with some old toys he found and acting like he's six, so . . ."

Through her phone screen, she saw the same red frisbee fly at her from before. Violetta quickly turned around and caught it. EJ was standing in the doorway of the room, giggling slightly. Violetta scoffed slightly at him and threw the frisbee back.

"Go drink a juice box and take a nap or something," Violetta told him with a small laugh. "My goodness."

EJ's eyes lit up. "Do we actually have juice boxes?"

"Dude, I don't know, I don't live here."

"I'm gonna go see." EJ then waved at the phone screen. "Hi, Gina!"

"Hi, EJ," Gina replied. EJ left the room, and Gina started to laugh at the way Violetta looked back at the phone screen with wide eyes. "Sorry, what were you saying about an idea?"

"You and I have been tasked with coming up with choreography to a song that Athena, Ashlyn, and Nini are writing. We're making a video to clap back at North High. You in?"

"Oh, absolutely."

"Cool," Violetta agreed. "Since it's a video, I was thinking more arm choreography . . ."

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SURPRISINGLY, EVERYONE DID pretty okay with learning a whole number in an hour. Violetta and Gina had come up with some arm choreography along with full-body choreography, and Athena, Ashlyn, and Nini had finished their song. There were some arguments here and there as they all worked on it together — which was actually just Seb and Carlos bickering — but they got through it.

All of them, minus Ricky who was still MIA, listened to the song together and learned the lyrics. Violetta and Gina matched their choreography with the tempo of the song and taught it to everyone. They then assigned parts of who would be singing when and who they would be singing with in some parts. All of them then filmed their separate videos singing to You Ain't Seen Nothin' and dancing along to it at whatever place they were in. Finally, they all sent their videos to Big Red, who edited the entire thing. Their final product was actually pretty good and they posted it on the East High drama club Instagram page so North High could see it.

It was night time once everything was finished. Violetta was sitting on the ground by the table across from EJ. EJ had brought out a deck of cards, but as it turned out, neither of them knew how to play any card game besides Go Fish. They were currently playing that despite how boring it was. Meanwhile, Athena and Ashlyn were sharing a bowl of popcorn on the couch.

"Got any two's?" Violetta asked, her tone completely bored.

"No, Go Fish," EJ replied, sounding just as bored as she did.

Ashlyn stared at the two of them. "You could've picked literally any other card game, and you went with Go Fish?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Violetta protested. "Now it's just boring."

EJ placed a hand on his heart, taking offense to that. "I was the one who suggested it. Are you calling me boring?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." She then sighed and placed her cards down on the table, her eyes vaguely catching that Athena had left the room with her phone. "I'm over it. Maybe we could do something else, like, I don't know . . ."

"Watch Scary Movie?"

"No."

EJ crossed his arms. "Fine."

Violetta rolled her eyes playfully at him before picking up her phone. She opened up Instagram and saw that Gina had put something new on her story. It was a picture of her suitcases and said that she was Ubering home because her flight was cancelled.

"Hey, Gina just posted on her story that her flight was cancelled and she's Ubering home," Violetta announced. She looked up at EJ. "Should we go get her? She shouldn't pay for an Uber if we're, like, twenty minutes away."

"Yeah, sure," EJ agreed, standing up. "I think my keys are in the kitchen, I'll be right back."

Violetta stood up as well. "You want to come, Ash?"

"No, I'll watch the house and wait for you guys to come back," Ashlyn replied. "I'll walk you to the door, though."

EJ came back, his keys in one hand and a granola bar in the other. "I brought her a snack in case she's hungry."

"Aw, that's sweet," Violetta commented. "I'm ready if you are."

The two of them followed Ashlyn out to the door. Violetta glanced up for a moment before grabbing her jacket to see Athena sitting on the steps staring down at her phone.

"Hey, we're going to pick up Gina from the airport—" Violetta began. However, she then noticed the tears that ran down her best friend's face and instantly frowned. "Athena, what's wrong?"

Athena's head snapped up. She wiped away her tears quickly and stood up, placing her phone in the back pocket of her jeans. Athena padded down the steps. Violetta stared at her, concern filling her insides. What had she seen on her phone that caused her to break so suddenly, especially after she seemed to be getting a little better?

"I — I have to go," Athena revealed.

"Go?" Violetta repeated incredulously, watching as Athena quickly put on her jacket and shoes like she was in an immediate rush. "Go where? Athena—"

"I'm going home."

"You can't walk alone at this time of night," EJ insisted. "Let me drive you."

Athena shook her head at him. "No. Go pick up Gina from the airport."

"At least let me come with you," Violetta voiced, because EJ was right — Athena being alone at this time of night wasn't good.

"I really just need to be alone right now."

Ashlyn nodded in understanding. "Yeah, okay. Text us when you're home."

Athena gave Ashlyn a watery smile before leaving the house, entering the chilly air of Salt Lake City. Violetta stared at the door as it shut, a frown on her lips. She didn't really want to leave her alone although Violetta knew that alone time was good sometimes.

"I'll have her number on speed-dial," Ashlyn reassured her. "And she doesn't live that far away. I will save Athena if need be, just like you're saving Gina right now."

Violetta swallowed nervously. "Okay. But if she says anything—"

"You'll be the first to know, Vi."

Violetta put on her jacket and her shoes. She waved to Ashlyn and got into EJ's Jeep. He turned it on, and Violetta instantly stared out the window, her mind racing with concern.

"Hey," EJ said quietly. He reached over and took her hand in his, lacing their fingers together as he drove down the street. "She's going to be okay."

"I just wish she would've let us driven her home," Violetta admitted. "It would've taken, like, two minutes."

"I know." EJ squeezed her hand. "But she's smart. Maybe she just needed to clear her head."

"Yeah," Violetta said quietly. "Maybe."

The drive to Salt Lake International Airport was quiet, besides for the sounds of soft music in the back. Violetta felt a weight lift off her shoulders about halfway through the drive when Athena had texted saying that she had gotten back home. At least she wouldn't be out on the streets in the dark.

EJ parked his car at the airport when they arrived. The two of them entered the busy building, their hands still tightly interlocked so they wouldn't lose each other. They looked around for a moment to try and find Gina. Suddenly, Violetta looked up and found her. Gina was riding down the escalator with her luggage. She didn't notice them until she got all the way to the bottom of the escalator.

"Funny seeing you here," Violetta voiced, laughing slightly at Gina's shocked face.

"What are you doing at the airport?" Gina inquired.

"It was all V's idea . . . again," EJ explained. "We're picking you up. Gotta show up for your peeps, you know?"

Violetta looked up at him. "Please never say peeps again."

EJ nudged her shoulder, making Violetta let out a small laugh, before he looked back at Gina. "Bring you back in the morning? Oh, uh, also I brought you a granola bar in case you were hungry." He pulled the granola bar out of his pocket with his free hand. "If you don't want that, there's also packages of Goldfish in my car that I leave there for V that you can have."

Violetta blinked up at him. "Huh?"

"They're in case of emergencies for when you get hungry. I know they're your favorite snack, so I bought a couple of packages."

EJ kissed the top of her head before letting go of her hand. He then took Gina's two suitcases and started to roll them away. Violetta watched him go, her eyes sparkling and her heart racing. It was something so little, but meant so much. He had thought of her enough to leave her favorite snack in his car for her.

"You love him."

Violetta instantly froze, and she turned to Gina, her eyes wide. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You love him," Gina repeated simply. "Come on, Vi. Everyone can see it."

She shook her head, although her mind was screaming she's right she's right she's right! "You're delusional."

Gina laughed slightly. "You can try to deny it. But who d'you think you're kidding? He's the Earth and heaven to you."

"There's no way you just quoted Hercules right now," Violetta responded as Gina began to leave. "Hey, no, don't you dare walk away after that. Gina — Gina!"

∘ ₊ ✧ ──── ✧ ₊ ∘

WHY DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPEN IN THE SPRING BREAK EPISODE I'M SCREAMING SO LOUD

anyways they may be cute now but book three is NOT going to be kind to them just prepare besties