Chapter 7: Self Control, Where Are You?
Wow, it's August, time for another monthly update of 'Starburst'! Buckle up, Wildcats because from this point forth it's all about testing the Golden Trio's patience and self control. (more on Cress and EJ's case than Ten's)
Disclaimer: I do not own 'High School Musical: The Musical: The Series' or Ten from "Weightless". Ten and Jeonghan belong to my friend @zealous_light. I only own my original characters. Enjoy the chapter.
The morning after,
"Morning Ten and Ashlyn. Where's E?" Cress asked, approaching Ten and Ashlyn.
"He left early to drive Nini to school today." Ten answered.
"Up front." Ashlyn spotted her cousin leaning against Ten's locker sulking.
"Caswell, what are you doing here?" Ten stopped in front of his neighbor.
"Go away." EJ huffed in response.
"You're in front of my locker, you fool." Ten pointed out, as EJ stepped aside.
"What's wrong, bud?" Cress asked, concerned.
"Miss Jenn added a kiss scene between Troy and Gabriella." EJ grumbled out loud.
"Eww, why would anyone want to kiss Bowen?" Cress's face wrinkled into an expression of disgust. She's sure her lips would shrivel and fall off her face when put even a mere foot near Bowen's mouth.
"Nini apparently used to at some point." Ten mumbled softly, loud enough to be heard by Cress.
"As an ethical serial dater, even I draw the line at kissing an ex." She shook her head.
"You made out with your ex at prom last year. Twice." EJ drily rebuffed.
"The difference is Charlie from the Chess Team was hot and Bowen is not." Cress refuted by holding up a hand, "But this is not about me right now. It's about you, E."
Ten tried his best not to look disturbed by Cress's endless dating life (or uh at least whoever has been in her Kiss List) and focus on EJ's woes instead.
"She's trying to ignite the sparks!" EJ moped.
"How do you even ignite sparks? For a fire without any tools? In the middle of a rain? Right in the center of a flood? At the bottom of the ocean? On Neptune? Hurling towards the Black Hole?" Cress wondered out loud.
'Each line is getting more exaggerated than the last. She must REALLY dislike Ricky Bowen,' Ten decided. He's seen her dislike other people before, but Bowen by far takes the biggest cake.
"He's trying to break us up. It's ridiculous." EJ exclaimed, his worries are starting to get the worst in him.
"I know that, and he's a fool for doing so." Ten took his books out from his locker before shutting it, "I understand that you don't want to lose her."
"If he does, I will start breaking bones." Cress declared, raising a fist to emphasize her point, "I broke Bryce from the Bookstore's nose once, I would be THRILLED to do it again with Bowen."
"Cress, don't, we are better than that." Ten intervened. He loves his friends, he really does. But Cress is the type to 'Act First' and 'Consequences Later'.
"Back to my point, you have to trust that she'll stay with you." Ten slung his bag over his shoulder, "Isn't communication essential in relationships? You can always talk to her."
Despite her anger towards Bowen on EJ's behalf, Cress relaxes herself a little at Ten's words.
"I suppose you're right." EJ thought for a moment and nodded.
"He usually always is," Cress smiled faintly, bumping Ten by the hip. There's a reason why Ten holds the moral compass in this relationship.
"Do you think she'll make sense of it?" EJ asked quietly.
"You shouldn't worry about it too much," Ten tried to sound upbeat for his friend, "Come on, rehearsal's gonna start soon."
"In the least possible scenario where she doesn't, you'll always have us by your side." Cress added. EJ's dated girls who've used him in the past. Like Tatiana, or Sasha, or Phoebe, or Ella or Vivian.
Lovers (and exes) may come and go, but the friendship the three of them share? It's forever and true.
"You guys head to class first, I wanna talk to Ash for a bit." said EJ.
"See you around, Caswell." Ten nodded, walking off with Cress in tow.
"I don't exactly get it, why would Miss Jenn deliberately try to block a kiss scene between two exes who are no longer together?" Once EJ was out of earshot, Cress decided to vent to Ten.
"If Miss Jenn is projecting her failed relationships onto these exes, I'm gonna have a word with her." Cress decided.
"What brought you to that very specific conclusion?" Ten raised his eyebrows.
"I don't know, but I have a hunch. I just hope I'm wrong." Cress crossed her arms. She has a habit of following her instincts; sometimes she's right, sometimes she's not. It's all about trial and error.
Rehearsals
"Good afternoon, guys!" Cress greeted the rest of the theater department with a cheery smile. She greeted each of the Dance Crew with a fist-bump, hip-bump (with Steph and Natalie) and low-five.
"Good afternoon." came an obnoxious voice behind her that made Cress's eye twitch.
"Oh, it was." Cress quietly snarled, nearly crumpling the cardboard she was holding.
"Wow, you really don't like Ricky." Ten remarked, noticing how Cress was quick to pull out her stress ball.
"Can you blame me? Dude's hair looks like rats moved out of it in the middle of the night before and migrated into our school's air vents for the winter!" Cress rambled.
Ten actually had to bite the inside of his cheek to hold back a laugh. He is very sure that EJ would have wheezed if he heard this. (Caswell was running late, he had to submit a report as the Senior Treasurer first)
"Cress! We need help fixing up that prop over there." Natalie called out from the side of the stage.
"No prob, Nattie." Cress saluted, hurrying over to help out.
It was nice that everyone else seemed to be enjoying and taking rehearsals seriously…unless you're that one guy.
"I'm kinda lost. If the show's over, why would we still be dancing?" Ricky asked out loud.
'Don't destroy the props out of anger. Don't destroy the props out of anger.' Cress resisted the urge to throw something at the male lead's direction.
She noticed Ten resisting the urge to sigh at the male lead's immense cluelessness and unprofessionalism.
At this rate, this play's gonna be doomed if Ricky can't get a grasp on this.
"It's a curtain call," Carlos explained, "You're the last two to come out. We want to bring the audience to their feet."
"Carlos, can we just wait for Miss Jenn?" Nini asked.
"Miss Jenn's busy trying to track down a prop. She's asked me to create a crescendo, so let's stop swirling and start twirling." Carlos responded.
"But why are we practicing the bows when we haven't practiced the play?" Ricky asked.
"Because you start with the hardest dance which takes the longest to learn," Ten interjected, "It's from the Big Book of Broadway"
"page 374." Gina chimed in at the same time as Ten, she quickly flashed a tiny smile and walked away.
She better not be trying to flirt with Tenny, most attempted flirts have been futile. Eh maybe she's just trying to show off that she's a pro at this?
Carlos gave the Thai-American a thankful look.
"A 5-6-7-8!"
Seb's fingers started playing the piano keys while the dancers glided across the dance floor in synchronicity. It's truly a splendid sight to see all the performers come together.
So far rehearsal has been going well, the props are coming along nicely. Cress and the other Basketball players managed to run some lines and shoot some hoops together. Even Ten managed to have a few pleasant (but short) conversations with the other Dancers going to him for advice.
But all that came to a halt when the male lead seemed to be half-heartedly running his lines (and dance moves) with Nini.
"I can't do this, I'm sorry." Ricky apologized.
"What is he doing?" Nini questioned Carlos.
"Now can we have EJ step in his place instead?" Cress muttered out loud, thankfully only loud enough to be heard by Ten.
"You're talking to him? I'm right here." Ricky pointed out.
"But you're not here, Ricky. Not for the right reasons." Nini responded.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
While the exes were quarreling, Cress listened in so she had some good tea to spill with Mr E after school. He's grown to enjoy hearing about the wild stuff that goes on at her school.
"And now you're wearing some weird cologne on your neck," Nini continued.
"Hey! You love Throb!" Ricky exclaimed defensively.
Throb? What kind of cologne name is that? It wreaks of Toxic Masculinity and Fragile Ego. Ah, must be the key ingredients.
"Ok, that's it!" Carlos declared, "Take a five! On break, people! Everybody, out! Get out!"
And the room cleared itself immediately after that. Not that Cress was complaining. As much as she likes to listen to the drama, she also enjoyed her personal space away from the male lead of the show.
EJ lingered around his lockers, so Cress went to talk to him.
"So much for rehearsals, huh?" Cress leaned against the lockers.
"No kidding." EJ huffed a little.
"I'm stress baking this weekend, and you're invited to my place if you need a place to chill or vent." Cress approached her tallest friend.
"Really? I thought you usually stress baking twice a month." EJ wondered.
"Times have changed." Cress snorted. "I'm going out to catch some air."
"Catch you around, C." EJ waved, giving her a fist-bump as his friend headed out.
Outside, Ten was sitting on a bench with Seb by his side
Ten took out a small tin of popcorn from his bag for a light snack.
"Popcorn?" He offered Cress and Seb.
"Sure, thanks." Seb accepted the popcorn.
"Heck yeah." Cress grinned, swinging her legs against the bench.
The three of them just sat in silence and enjoyed the cooling breeze, until Ten started to make conversation.
"What did you think of Ricky and Nini earlier?" Ten asked.
"It was messy." Seb admitted, "not a good atmosphere for rehearsal."
Cress nodded with Seb's opinion, chewing on her popcorn.
Moments later, the front doors swung open as Ricky Bowen stormed out with Carlos behind him.
"He's definitely thinking of quitting." Ten commented, watching the drama unravel in front of his eyes as the skater left.
"Boy, I hope so, that would be a Christmas dream come true." Cress nodded.
"You really dislike him, huh?" Seb noticed Cress's hostility at the skater.
"Something about him annoys me. I don't have a good feeling about him." Cress eyed Ricky skating further and further away from school.
A few minutes later, Seb had gone inside to check on the rest of the co-stars. Once Cress was sure Seb was out of her earshot, she talked to Ten.
"We are stress baking this weekend. I invited EJ too." Cress told Ten. "I've got a shocking amount of pent up anger today that I need to release via baking even though it's only Tuesday. You in?"
" Gladly." Ten responded with a smile.
"Good! Because I found this amazing recipe online that I wanna try out." Cress grinned.
"We are gonna be stress-baking more than we intended this semester, aren't we?" Ten asked after a moment of silence.
"Yup, it's a good thing EJ's rich!" Cress nodded, before making another remark, "I'm like your platonic Sugar Baby."
That shouldn't have set Ten off more than it had.
Next day…
Unfortunately for both Ten and Cress, Ricky Bowen had decided to pull through with the rehearsals
'Looks like the prince hasn't given up after all…' Ten thought, quietly observing Ricky.
'Looks like the cockroach came back to life.' Cress silently grumbled. While she is (the very slightest bit) mildly impressed by his determination, why must it come at the cost of stealing her best friend's current girlfriend? He reeks of bad news, and it's not because he still smells of 'Throb' cologne residue.
Miss Jenn burst through the doors, practically glowing with excitement. She was holding a large parcel, and motioned everyone to gather around while she unwrapped it.
"Here it is, people!" Miss Jenn held up a small (outdated) cellphone.
"Is that a garage door opener?" Seb asked in a confused tone. Marissa who sat beside him gave the Sophomore a confused look.
"I had the same thoughts, Seb!" Marisol nodded sagely at his logic. Her two sisters face-palmed at their dumb jock triplet.
"No Seb," Miss Jenn shook her head, and calmly explained, "This is Gabriella's phone from the film."
"I plan on creating a time capsule display in our lobby," Miss Jenn continued, "If there can be 40 sports trophies, I think we deserve a little movie museum."
All the other students seemed thrilled by her ideas!
While Miss Jenn shared her ideas, Ten noticed that Gina had snuck off to the back of the auditorium. Maybe she just went for a drink?
The rest of the rehearsals proceeded as per usual, with slightly better progress today than yesterday.
After rehearsals, Ten's gone off to carpool with EJ. Cress decided to stay back to chat with her friends.
"Hey Cress, Ashlyn" Kaison nudged her elbow, "Are we still up for D next week?"
"Totally! Kais. I can't wait for us to get to the Tower of Glowsfield for the next quest." Cress nodded eagerly. Cress is their Dungeon Master, and their Guild consists of Kaison, Lumi, Ashlyn, Marisol, Natalie, Andres and Percy. And Cress's younger brother Phyrros.
"I hope we can find the Oracle of Sirione in time, I've got questions I need to get off my chest." Another student, Lumi Song (playing Kelsi) exclaimed.
"I'm just hoping I get to use my new spells!" Natalie mumbled out loud. Her character is a Half-Orc Paladin named Gatori.
"We'll just have to wait and see what I have in store." Cress hummed mysteriously.
"Can't next weekend come soon enough?" Marisol half-whined. She plays as Neridia, a Water Genasi Ranger.
"Hey, I thought you were gonna carpool with EJ?" Cress remembered.
"I decided to walk instead." Ashlyn responded. It seemed like she was hiding something, but it wasn't Cress's place to pry.
"Ok, cool! So I'm stress-baking this weekend and I've invited EJ and Ten. You're welcome to join in if you like. I know my brother's been dying to talk to you more about the upcoming Ren Faire schedule." Cress started to ramble to Ashlyn, as they both walked back.
So I guess today wasn't that bad of a day after all?
Alternate Summary of this chapter
Cress: I prevented Ricky from being injured today
EJ: Really? How?
Cress: (eyes twitching uncontrollably) Self. Control.
Ten: (drags Cress out to prevent her going Gremlin mode) Oookay! Let's go shopping for baking supplies! You can use EJ's wallet!
And just like that, we are done with Episode 2 of season 1 (and a bit of Episode 3's beginning). Next episode is gonna be fun and spliced into 2 parts/chapters. Cress and Ten, be mentally prepared for A Billion Sorries! Ten got firsthand horror of witnessing the song, it's your turn now~
Chapter Talk: -
(1.) Cress is a strong opinionated person, and she's got lots of feelings about Miss Jenn's "Troyella kiss scene". She's someone who follows her gut, if she has a bad vibe about someone, she's usually almost always right. And her disdain towards Ricky Bowen is a constant, she's gonna roast him non-stop.
(2.) Seb is adorable, he's one of my favorite characters. He's such a lovable character he has a way of melting anyone's hearts. Ten and Seb are an iconic duo in "Weightless" with Ten treating the blond as a little brother. Cress dubs Seb as a little brother too. And Seb and Marisol both share the same brain cell (much to their peers' annoyance/fondness) at times.
(3.) I like to think that Ashlyn totally plays D (she is a High Priestess at the Ren Faire), she and Cress are part of the same guild along with their friends/peers. Starburst will make passing mentions of their campaigns every now and then when they're not too busy rehearsing for the school play.
Anyways, that's all for this chapter. Feel free to leave a review down below and let me know your thoughts. See you next month, and have an amazing day.