#hsmtmts writing

[lonelystarbuckslover13]

You know what’s a crazy butterfly effect we never talk about?? The musical film ‘Grease’ eventually leading to Olivia Rodrigo’s fame. Think about it:

The film ‘Grease’ was released in 1978, and its immense success led to the sequel ‘Grease 2’ (1982). In 1999 a script for ‘Grease 3’ was developed, but the project was shelved until 2004 when the script was adapted into ‘High School Musical’. ‘High School Musical’ was then released in 2006, becoming an instant hit and earning the film two sequels. The movie series had such lasting fame, that in 2017 a TV show inspired by the film series was developed titled ‘High School Musical: The Musical: The Series’ (‘HSMTMTS’ for short). Olivia Rodrigo was cast as one of the leading roles in the show, and was given the opportunity to write an original song for her character - the song she ended up writing titled ‘All I Want’. Upon the release of ‘HSMTMTS’ in 2019, ‘All I Want’ began gaining popularity and charted on the Billboard Hot 100. This gained Olivia interest from label executives, and she ended up signing a record deal with Interscope/Geffen. During Olivia’s time on ‘HSMTMTS’ she met and dated a fellow co-star, and their subsequent break up inspired her to write the song ‘driver’s license’. She then released ‘driver’s license’ as her debut single in 2021, and the song charted at number 1 and skyrocketed her to a whole new level of fame.

So without ‘Grease’, you wouldn’t have ‘High School Musical’, and without ‘High School Musical’ you wouldn’t have ‘HSMTMTS’, and without ‘HSMTMTS’ Olivia would not have written the song that got her a record deal or met the person who inspired ‘driver’s license’, and THAT is how Grease led to Olivia Rodrigo’s fame over 40 years after its release.

[polaris-likethestar]

okay here me out - was listening to all i want by olivia rodrigo and immediately thought of this: cherik hs au where charles and erik breakup and charles gets with logan as a rebound but he's only with charles for the money and then charles publicly breaks up with him and gets back with erik idk you guys would anyone read this lmao

[butchnavi]

multishipping is a superpower you neeeeeeeeeeed to have when you love getting into shitty gay media with found family because OF course they're going to make an incest map of all the characters and your otp will almost definitely not be endgame. of course they're going to pair the main guy and girl together as endgame just because. and I mean you COULD be a hater about it and curse the writers and throw a four year long fit but it's so much more fun when you just make your peace with the fact that this was always going to happen and pretend everyone is in a happy little polycule as they go through 18575879 different pairings you know aren't going to last because fandom and just the experience of being a fan is so much more fun that way!!!

[itsmarsss]

Mars' Masterlists

The masterlist of masterlists ....................................................

Cobra Kai

Dear Evan Hansen

Marvel

Julie and the Phantoms

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Moon Knight

The Bear (empty for now)

Helluva Boss

Batfam

Hazbin Hotel (empty for now)

The Umbrella Academy (empty for now)

Abbott Elementary (empty for now)

Community (empty for now)

.................................................... Mars! Who are requests open for? | Request away/let's chat! | My AO3

[blahblahblees]

yes, it's me again, boo.

I've decided to be your first request

(be prepared 👹/j)

basically, I was thinking this, as far as requests go:

ricky bowen x a fem! reader.

basically, the reader has been stressing out a bunch about whatever you'd be okay with them stressing about. stress and anxiety play a big part in appetite and all. so, when ricky notices that she hasn't been eating much lately cause of her stress, he basically does like a surprise dinner or restaurant date and basically kinda help her get rid of her stress and all, maybe by going out to the park or skating? I'm fine with anything, tbh.

Thanks! :))

ヽ｀、☁ヽ｀─── high school sweethearts ミ ricky bowen

✎ ·˚ ༘ ─── the stress of finals has been something that’s weighted heavy on your mind and body and your boyfriend has taken notice of that

wc: 1,019

ricky bowen x fem!reader (use of she/her and use of feminine terms)

tw: not eating properly, kissing (?)

SHE THOUGHT that finals would be easy for her and yet, here she sat with piles and piles of study notes and textbooks for the one final that was worth at least 50% of her final grade.

The final wouldn’t be for another week or two (at least she hoped it was for another week or two), but this grade meant life or death to her. This grade weighed on her heavily and could determine the college she could attend.

Would it be ivy leagues? Would it be a college that held a high regard for their students? Or would be a community college that would lead to a university?

All of that weighed heavy in her mind.

So much so that she’d found herself only snacking on Nature Valley bars, a cup of Lucky Charms, or the day old coffee that she kept in her room.

She’d been so focused on getting the best grade possible that she would eat, sleep, and breath Economics and Personal Finance rather than a meal that she could actually get full off of.

But that didn’t bother her at the moment, but it did bother her boyfriend, Ricky Bowen.

He himself, didn’t quite understand the topic as he wasn’t too fond of school itself, it could visibly been seen in his actions, the eye rolls, and the 1.4 GPA he currently had.

But he did see how much getting into a good school matter to her. It could help her find the career path she wanted. Getting into her top college could mean the absolute world to her and he’d supported her in the best ways he could.

But he would always catch her studying, scribbling down the same notes over and over again and eat the same two snacks repeatedly… especially gagging at the fact that she willingly sipped on two day old coffee just to “feel something”.

That wasn’t going to fly with him anymore. So, one night, he knocked softly on her window.

She turned around slowly and pushed her headphones off to stand up and open up the window to him.

Ricky smiled as she opened up the window, leaning in before the window had fully been opened and placed a gentle kiss onto her lips.

“What are you doing here?” She asked.

“I wanted to know if I could take you out tonight.”

She sighed, looking back at her table before looking back over at her boyfriend.

“Ricky, I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to study for-“

“It will only be for an hour.” Ricky softly smiled. “Just an hour of your time. It’s not gonna kill you is it?”

She sighed. “An hour.”

“Just an hour.”

She reluctantly ran her fingers through her hair as she turned and grabbed her jacket off of the back of her chair and spilling on a pair of shoes.

Ricky gently grabbed her hand as she followed him out of the window and onto the ground.

Once on their feet, Ricky made his way towards his orange beetle and held the door open for her, once she settled inside, Ricky rushed towards the drivers side and quickly sped off before she could change her mind.

“THE PARK?” She questioned. “You wanted to come to the park?”

Ricky turned in his seat, reaching in backseat to grab, what appeared to be a giant bag and his skateboard.

“Yes,” Ricky smiled. “I love the park and I love you and I wanted to take you to a place that I love.” He spoke. “Now, come on. It’s time to eat.”

She furrowed her brows and stepped out of the car as Ricky waited for her at the front of the car.

Ricky grabbed her hand and led the two of them towards the bench and sat the bag and his skateboard down and unzipped it, pulling out sandwiches, chips, sodas, and other small snacks out.

He sat his phone down, opening Spotify, and allowing music to play from a playlist he’d made for them.

Ricky then opened the sandwich bag, holding it out for her to grab. “Turkey and cheese, for you.”

She smiled, grabbing the sandwich from his hands and fully pulling the bag off as she took a big bite from it.

It was something so small, but a smile was place on her face as she let the taste of turkey and cheese dance across her tongue.

“God, this is good.” She moaned.

“It’s just turkey and cheese.” Ricky chuckled. “Nothing crazy.”

“I know,” she smiled, taking another huge bite of the sandwich. “I know, but I can’t tell you the last time I had a sandwich.”

Ricky didn’t want to mention it. He saw what she was doing and it was enough to take action into his own hands. And though it can backfire at times… if not all the time, he knew that this time, he’d done the right thing.

After scarfing down two or three more sandwiches, Ricky stood to his feet, kicking his skateboard up and reaching his hand out.

“Come on.” He smiled. “Let’s skate.”

She smiled once more, grabbing Ricky’s hand as she followed behind him as he led them to the street.

He placed the skateboard down and helped steady her on his skateboard. He placed his hands gently onto her waist as he stepped one foot on the skateboard and using his other foot to push the two of them down the street.

And that’s all they did and it was nice, in fact, it was all they did for the majority of the night.

They didn’t stay out for an hour as planned and that was fine by her.

By the way, she passed her final.

Maybe she just needed a break.

A plan Ricky Bowen could always come up with.

— lucy has something to say !!

thank you for requesting i appreciate it so so much !! i missed writing for ricky bowen. god i love that white boy 😋

my request are opened! you can check out who i write for here :) !!!!

[aesthetic-basicspam]

ej talking to ricky until he cries is so exes after a painful breakup. it’s like ricky knows he messed things up between them by being scared. he knows he can’t fix it with ej but now he has to fix it with someone else.

[joysmercer]

coda.

"Wait!" Ricky cries just as Gina's about to enter. She frowns quizzically.

In one swift movement, Ricky runs over and grabs the handle from her. "I wanna go first."

"Chivalrous." Gina rolls her eyes and watches her boyfriend clamber onto the seats and scoot all the way in.

"Okay, no spiders—or stray candy wrappers. You can come in!" He calls behind him.

post-4x08.

part 1. ao3

for @rinaweek day 2, "make out sessions" & day 4, "canon compliant"

[rosesradio]

cw: smut (with bottom!ej 👀)

College was for trying new things, right? No matter EJ’s conflicting feelings, he wanted to try this. Really, really badly.

EJ remembered how the guys on the water polo team would joke about this kind of stuff. “Mark likes it up the ass!”, amongst other things. EJ always told them to knock it off, and they tended to listen to him. Even so, their teasing stuck with him. Sure, he might have liked guys—might have really liked Ricky—but it wasn’t too gay as long as he didn’t bottom…right?

High school was ages ago. All he had was now, with Ricky, and he wanted the new experience.

“How does it feel?” Ricky asked breathily, the warm pad of his thumb pressed to EJ’s bottom lip. EJ allowed his lips to part, tasting the salt of Ricky’s skin as the finger dipped just slightly into the warm wetness of his mouth.

It was obscene, but not as obscene as the rest of what they were doing.

EJ was set to ride him—because he couldn’t really be bottoming if he was on top, right? He had prepped himself, Ricky watching with dark eyes and no shortage of filthy words. Ricky was so used to bottoming, EJ worried about asking to switch; luckily, he’d been so excited by the prospect, he nearly jumped on EJ.

EJ couldn’t get enough of that look in Ricky’s eyes as he bottomed out. Desire just short of flipping them over and having his way with him. Care in how he gripped EJ’s hips tight enough to leave fingerprint-sized bruises.

Love.

There was so much love in Ricky’s eyes, EJ wanted to cry. He never thought he would receive such care from anyone, much less someone like Ricky.

“It’s…mm,” EJ managed. His face flushed, eyes half-lidded, stomach writhing with pleasure. “Fuck, 'm so full…it’s so deep I wanna…just keep it there forever…”

EJ could feel Ricky’s cock twitch deep inside him at that, and he let out another shaky breath. EJ nuzzled into the crook of Ricky’s neck, pressing kisses to the marks he’d left as he started to move up and down.

Oh, god. He wouldn’t last long, that much he knew already. It was utterly unfair and completely justified, given how perfect it felt.

“Fuck, Eej,” Ricky whispered, tangling his fingers in EJ’s hair and tugging. “Wanna take care of you…want you to—mm—use me all you want…”

EJ whimpered, starting to move a little faster as he rose up to kiss Ricky. His lips were grounding, a tether to reality amongst all the new, foreign feelings.

He would use Ricky, going at just the right pace until they both couldn’t handle the building pleasure. Then, after Ricky would come deep inside him, and EJ on his stomach, they would unwind in the shower.

Perhaps, if EJ didn’t tire him out too much, Ricky would go for round two.

[rinaforreal]

The moment he knew they were soulmates. And he was going to love her forever.

She had always known he was her soulmate this was just the confirmation.

[madlyn5ever]

Stop I am being unfairly given the Madlyn ‘I wanna live like I have never even, heard the word regret’ Verse at 2 am thanks to Spotify. I was not prepared I can’t do this at 2 AM I am in no condition to sob.

[goginaporter]

rina + iconic couples in media

this is my fun way of responding to the alternate universe prompt for @rinaweek <3. rina and their parents in every universe, finding each other and falling in love. alsooo this post was slightly inspired by this absolutely brilliant edit linked here (x) and if you want rinatroyella or rinajacey edits, please lmk and I'll send my favorite ones <3333

troyella

the essays that can and have been written about troyella and rina are extensive (and I'm happy to do a longer form one in a separate post). but from being the new girl x boy who's never moved, girl encouraging boy to audition for the musical and actually commit, kissing in the rain, starring in the school musical together, to making a huge commitment to the other person on a stage in front of a bunch of people, rina is quite literally troyella reincarnated. and yeah, lots of people can argue that troyella is perfect as is, that they didn't need another version. and on one hand, i agree. but the way in which rina takes core parts of troyella's story while standing on their own as a ship is beautiful and truly does justice to the original franchise by anchoring the story around these two, both individually and as a couple, just as was done with troyella in the original trilogy. my favorite troyella parallel moment from s4!

4x01 - ricky sneaking into gina's room just like troy would come into gabriella's room through her balcony

4x02 - the note ricky gives gina in the hallway to meet in their secret staircase is just like the note troy slips in gabriella's locker in hsm to meet on the rooftop. (honorable mention to them auditioning for and getting the roles of troy and gabriella in this ep as well <33)

4x03 - of course, it has to go to their rendition of can i have this dance. their voices sound gorgeous and though the choreo they do has similarities to the original, they've made it their own.

4x04 - this one is kinda reaching but I wanted something for each ep! in hsm2, sharpay forces troy to sing a song with her, one she prepared for the talent show, instead of allowing him to go on a date with gabriella. in a similar vein, though with considerably less scheming from dani's side, dani is selected to replace gina as gabriella because she is so busy with the movie, though this is done behind her back.

4x05 - has to go to the rain kiss obviously. although troy and gabriella only ever kiss under sprinklers, it's the same vibes. there's also a still (not included in the scene) of the rain kiss of ricky holding gina's waist as she throws her arms up that's so reminiscent of troyella in the rain during cihtd.

4x06 - ricky and gina running down the hallway at the beginning of the episode feels like a direct parallel to troy and gabriella running to auditions in hsm. also rina fighting to save the show is super similar to gabriella (and troy once gabriella convinces him) pushing for the theater department to put on a show about them for their spring musical.

4x07 - they're literally playing troyella in this ep so I could say so much. i'll just use this space to talk about how much I love them in a night to remember and how much it looked like they were dancing at their wedding. I will say that terri, gina's mom, telling ricky about gina's movie with a smile on her face, reminds me a lot of gabriella's fans setting troy up to talk shit about her on camera to convince her to focus on the decatholon. also reflects sharpay telling troy about stanford, again with a smile on her face.

4x08 - again, this ep is rife with toryella coding because they're literally playing troyella, but the show goes super meta in having them sing the right here, right now reprise as ricky has just found out that gina is potentially moving across the world to film her movie, just as troy finds out about stanford and struggles with gabriella not being there for the rest of their senior year. on a much less angsty note, ricky singing love you forever to gina has the same vibes as troy choosing gabriella and going to school close to her, not to mention that lines in the song directly reference the song "high school musical" (which you can read more about here <3). gina also deciding to move the movie to salt lake is very much her "I choose basketball but I also choose theater but more than all of that, I choose gabriella" her version is "I choose filming this movie but I also choose theater but more than all of that, I choose ricky" just a beautiful perfect scene all around.

these s4 moments only scratch the surface of the troyellarina tether but i'll stop ranting for now and move on to rina's teen drama parent sets.

jacey

after s1, tim federle did an interview where they asked him about him about the ricky / nini / gina triangle, he directly mentioned dawson's creek in guiding his writing process, stating that at the center of his thought process was "how do I surprise audience members with who they're going to ship?" (x). for those who don't know the jacey lore, to make a long story short, their love triangle centered around joey, pacey, and dawson. joey and dawson were childhood best friends and joey has a crush on dawson. pacey and dawson are best friends and joey and pacey do not get along initially. after events of life, dawson asks pacey to "look after joey" at the beginning of s3, the two get super close and eventually catch feelings for each other and they secretly date as they figure out a way to break it to dawson (sound familiar?). they do break up but come back together at the end of the show and are endgame. the parallels between jacey and rina exist both on and off screen. dawson and joey were the initial endgame for the show, just like rini was the show's s1 endgame. however, electrifying chemistry between katie and joshua (jackson) & sofia & joshua (bassett) in their respective shows changed everything. rina is one of the strongest examples of continuing this legacy of disrupting the initial plans concocted in the writer's room to make way for insane chemistry. some of my fave jaceyrina parallels

rina and jacey having a formative, chemistry presenting moment in a car (rina in 1x05 during homecoming, joey and pacey in 1x during their science project)

the sheer parallels between them in 3x19 of dawson's creek and 3x08 of hsmtmts with their kiss scenes. just watch here (x) and here (x) to see. the "stop me" "wait" parallels actually make me go crazy

joey tutoring pacey in 3x09 and gina (presumably) becoming ricky's tutor after 4x06

i'm rewatching 3x09 in preparation for this and jacey has a scene where dawson catches them talking about pacey helping joey with a ballroom dance scholarship thing in exchange for tutoring and he asks them what no one can find out about and a) pacey sucksssss at improv just like gina it's like that 4x02 scene with rina and ashlyn and b) it also feels like rina with the chocolates, again with ashlyn LMAOOO in 2x04

ALSO in this ep (wow it's a goldmine), when dawson and jen catch joey and pacey ballroom dancing, they're forced to join the class and the instructor psychoanalyzes both couples. for jacey, she mentions that the tension and bickering between them suggests their underlying attraction for one another. this is literally what val (their choreographer!!) does after watching rina perform wdykal in 3x05

too much to explain for the final scene of this episode but i just encourage everyone to watch 3x09 to get the same sense of a major scene in a coat check and an ensuing apology

pacey telling joey he remembers everything in 3x22 and ricky telling gina he's never forgotten a thing she's said in 4x03

pacey telling joey that the simple act of loving her is enough for him and that she's "off the hook" and ricky telling gina that of course she has to go and be a star, as well as singing lyf not knowing that she was staying in slc, so he just wanted to let her know that he loved her for the sake of it, not to convince her of anything

pacey having to tell joey something but lying to protect her (and ricky having something to tell gina but lying to protect her (3x07)

naley

another paragon of teen drama royalty is naley. literally the best people ever and it makes sooo much sense that rina is similar to them because they're actually rina's grandparents. naley birthed troyella, who birthed rina. a beautiful family tree. anyways, naley doesn't seem to, on the surface at least, seem to have a lot of parallels to rina. a shy tutor girl and a cocky basketball player who get married after knowing each other for less than a year? (though I will go down with my headcanon that rina gets married super duper young, will not be taking any arguments). despite this, at their core, naley's love for each other is so reminiscent of rina's love for each other, not to mention some incredibly direct parallels that the two have, listed below:

nathan dropping haley home after a party & ricky dropping gina home after homecoming ("yeah, this is my house" & "so, this is where I live")

connecting over dubious circumstances (nathan requesting haley as a tutor/getting close to her to get back at lucas & gina convincing ricky to stay in the show so she could get gabriella, attending hoco with ej to psych nini out but instead connecting with ricky)

nathan putting haley's hand to his heart after telling her it's racing (it was because of drugs but still, it beats for haley) and ricky putting gina's hand on his heart after telling her that his heart's racing (i'm telling y'all this scene is the same, just with the characters and setting swapped)

alllllll of naley's s2 angst is like the intense and more painful version of rina's angst in s4

naley invented rain kisses (even if they existed before them, no they didn't) and rina obviously does justice with their own rain kiss in 4x05

when nathan proposes to haley (their first proposal), he tells her that "I could love you forever." audience, what's the title of ricky's love song for gina? i rest my case

haley being nathan's tutor and gina being ricky's tutor <3333

nathan sneaking into haley's bedroom to study and makeout and ricky sneaking into gina's bedroom to sing and makeout

nathan and ricky being haley and gina's biggest fans when it comes to their careers, putting their success over their personal feelings (nathan collecting clippings of haley's tour, paying chris to let her record music & ricky decorating gina'ss trailer, encouraging her to go to nz to be a star)

rina served cheerleader x basketball player (though at different times and both were fictional but wtv) just like naley

this was super nonexhaustive as rina also has parallels to jam, mondler, sethmer, romeo & juliet, and so many other ships. however, I'm lazy and didn't want to write all of those out. maybe I'll return to them another time, but for now, pls enjoy this <3333

[imjustavenuxwithaboomerang]

no yeah i really love how every core 4 member got a real happy ending....except for ej

nini is happily pursuing music in la with her moms' full support

ricky is dating gina, a girl he calls "home". he's finally becoming more at peace with love and how to show it. he's learned how to not run from his problems. his parents are getting back together (???) and his drama teacher wrote such a good letter of recommendation that he was accepted into a community college

gina becomes a literal movie star and was able to change the filming location of her second movie, without any consequences, to salt lake so she can physically be with ricky, the boy she finally got to date after crushing on him since the day they met. she has a permanent home to call her own now. her mom finally showed up to an opening night and she was finally able to portray gabriella

and then ej...is alone (in a wildcat sense) at college, financially cut off from his family, working multiple jobs to afford it. he spends most of his season 4 screentime guiding and helping others (ricky, gina, miss jenn, madlyn) instead of an actual storyline and a lot of his lines were about how he's made mistakes and has to live with them

[mydairpercabeth]

FAMILY PORTRAIT

[haught-ish]

is this a safe place to admit i've been obsessing over madlyn for the past two years?

[haven-of-dusk]

More EJ stuff incoming (with a surprisingly related image)

It's a very concerning phenomenon that the show doesn't treat EJ's privacy the way it demands he treat Nini's privacy. And this isn't a post saying "actually, EJ was 100% justified in snooping in Nini's phone because of insecurity," because no, he wasn't. Breaking your partner's trust like that isn't okay, and it isn't surprising that it was a major contributor to his and Nini's break-up.

So...why is it okay when Gina does it? She saw something sticking out of his binder, opened said binder, saw it was a letter, and took it out and read it. She went into his personal stuff, saw something private, and then got upset at him about it...why is that so radically different from EJ going into Nini's phone, seeing something private, and then getting upset with her (and Ricky) about it? Is he somehow entitled to less privacy because it's a physical letter and not something digital?

And it would already be weird if the show never had Gina apologize or acknowledge that she shouldn't have done that (which to my knowledge she never does). But that weirdness is compounded because then HE needs to apologize to HER for "hiding things" (aka not running to immediately tell her information within 24 hours of getting it).

Why does the show present EJ as in the wrong when he's both victimizer and victim of the same type of action? It'd be one thing if the show had her acknowledge that her method of getting the information was wrong, but she still needed to talk about why he didn't tell her right away, but instead her dubious actions are presented uncritically and all the blame goes to EJ. Again.

It's a perfect encapsulation of the gaping flaw with S3 that only EJ's faults can be discussed, not anyone else's, which creates a false perception that he's a lot worse than he is. The dark side of Gina 1.0 DID come to camp, but the show never wants to talk about it, which hurts EJ, but it also hurts Gina! When a character's flaws aren't explored, acknowledged, or made up for within the narrative, it makes them seem WORSE. Neither character wins here.

Gods, S3 was a mess.

[joysmercer]

Today should be the happiest day of Gina's life.

That's what her mom said when she woke her up this morning (bright and early, for the dress fitting); Quinn and Miss Jenn had repeated some version of the phrase over the course of the day. Even just now, Maddox pulled her away from the dressing room with an air of excitement Gina has yet to feel herself.

This moment should be the happiest of Gina's life. She knows she should be soaking it all in, paying attention to every step, every swish of this designer gown around her ankles, committing the scene to memory.

The world is your oyster, now.

So why does she feel like her world is ending, instead?

The hallway fades into a dizzying blur around Gina. She vaguely recognizes the presence of two other PAs on either side of her, like guards (though, right now, they feel more warden-like than protective). Maddie's hand slips from hers, moments away from grasping the handle of the stage entrance, and—

"Wait," Gina rasps. It's just one word, but she has to force it out like she's trying to cough up peanut butter.

It's not like there's much of a choice, when you're choking.

"Porter, you're already late. The reporters are getting—"

"No, just—" she spots a blob of white in the periphery. Her vision swimming, she turns to it, pleading, "Mommy, please, just a minute?"

The blob says something, but her hearing's gone, now, too, and all Gina can do is lean against the wall, squeezing her eyes shut.

The blobs disappear, the ringing in hear ears fades, and she tries desperately to catch her breath. Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know, her mind starts to sing, out of nowhere. An absurd song for an equally absurd moment.

Put on a show!

But then again, she was never much of an Elsa, was she.

Make one wrong move and everyone will know.

And, suddenly, someone's touching, then gripping, her shoulders. Gina stiffens, not trusting herself to open her eyes just yet.

If this is how it ends, getting kidnapped by someone because she insisted on a moment alone, then—

"Gi, Gi, can you hear me?"

Ricky.

Gina opens her eyes.

"Sorry, did I startle you? I called your name, like, three times, and you were just—"

His brows are furrowed, those brown eyes staring right into the depths of her soul. She takes one look at him and knows.

Knows she loves him.

Knows, with every fiber of her being, that he loves her.

And she can't bear the thought of leaving here without him knowing.

"I love you," she whispers.

But the voice she hears is stronger, deeper, and…decidedly not hers.

"Wait, what?" she splutters.

"I love you." Ricky smirks. "I love you," he says again, cupping her cheek. "I love you." He brushes their lips together, soft and sweet. "I—"

"I love you too, Ricky Bowen," Gina interrupts, wanting to make sure he hears her properly. "God, I love you too." She kisses him once more.

"Ok, now that that's established," Ricky says, when they finally break apart. "What do you say we head inside? The whole world awaits!"

Oh, yeah. That. Gina's knees start to wobble again, Ricky's arms draped over her shoulders being the only thing steadying her. "I, um. I can't?"

Ricky frowns. "What do you mean?"

"I can't," Gina repeats. "I don't want to." The minute the words leave her mouth, a weight lifts off her shoulders, and an angel gains their wings. Or whatever the phrase is. "Yeah, I don't want to."

"But—"

"Ricky," Gina says, slowly. "I haven't signed a contract yet."

It takes a moment for the implication of her words to dawn on him. "Wait, you're—"

"Let's get out of here, please?" she asks, extra sweetly.

He doesn't need to be asked a second time. He grabs her hand and runs, their giggles intermingling as they sprint halfway down the hallway, together.

"Wait!" a voice calls. They turn to find Maddox jogging up to them. "I'm coming too."

"Maddie—"

"A job is a job. You're my friend," she shrugs. "Besides, I don't wanna be the one to have to clean up that mess."

Ricky loops his free arm through hers. "The more the merrier!"

Gina laughs and they take off once again. Just as they turn the corner, they find…

…the rest of the Drama Club. "Where are you guys going?" Miss Jenn asks.

Before Gina can come up with an explanation, Ricky jumps in, saving the day for the umpteenth time. "I dunno, where do theater kids go after opening night?" he asks cheekily.

Their friends immediately start cheering. They leave Jenn to explain to a bemused Mazzara and run out the door.

A man in a tuxedo and a gold-plated nametag gets out of the limousine waiting for them out front. "Gina Porter?" the chauffeur asks, hurrying to open the passenger door.

Gina turns to her friends and shrugs. It's not technically stealing if the guy offers.

"Hell yeah!" Ash squeals. Gina takes that as her cue and climbs in, everyone else clambering after.