Chapter 18: The All-Nighter
Welcome back to another monthly installment of 'Starburst'. In this chapter, the Wildcats are spending the evening in Big Red's attic for company.
Disclaimer: I do not own 'High School Musical: The Musical: The Series' or Ten from "Weightless". Ten, Vernon, Joshua and Jeonghan belong to my friend @zealous_light. I only own my original characters. Enjoy the chapter.
"EJ, where are we going? We're supposed to go home so we could do some revision." Ten grumbled. EJ had dragged him out of his room and into his car as they drove away to an unknown destination. His car pulled up in front of Ashlyn's place for her to carpool over.
"Big Red's house." EJ answered, looking up from the phone GPS coordinates, "Ashlyn said he wanted company so there we go."
"So I gave up a night of studying for whatever this is," Ten sighed as the car finally stopped in front of a house, "Great..."
On the bright side, he had managed to snatch some flashcards and notes for light revision before EJ had manhandled him out to the car.
"Wait, what about Cress?" Ashlyn asked, noticing Cress's absence.
"She'll cycle over later." Ten replied, going through the text messages his friend had sent a few minutes ago.
— — — — — —
Redonovich Residence
— — — — — —
"It's weird, not being at rehearsal." Ricky commented, lounging on a vacant couch in Big Red's room, "how stupid is that?"
"What if we just did the show without her?" Big Red suggested.
"We can't even take a picture without her." Ricky grumbled out loud, before casting his best friend a quick apology, "No offense"
"Nah, you're right dude." Big Red agreed in resignation.
Just then, they heard the doorbell ringing from upstairs.
"Down here Kaden!" Big Red called out.
"I hope it's cool, I invited Steph and Rico." Kaden walked into Big Red's house attic, gesturing to his friends behind him.
"I invited my brother because our parents couldn't hire a sitter last minute." Kennidee remarked, her younger brother Kitt refuted by flipping her off.
"What's up, guys?" Ricky greeted them with a curt wave.
"When you didn't text back, I reached out to some peeps. I wanted some company today." Big Red explained.
The doorbell rang once more.
"It's open?" Big Red responded, feeling confused by the amount of company he's somehow gained.
"Hey guys" Ashlyn was the next person to come downstairs.
"How many people are coming?" Ricky asked, glancing at the other guests.
"That should be about it…"
"Actually give it a minute…" Ashlyn eyed the door upstairs, a few minutes later more people started entering the attic.
Ricky casted a look that said 'You invited the whole theater kids??'
"You people wear your SHOES into your room?!" Ten stared in disbelief as his peers walked into Big Red's attic with their shoes on.
Lumi Song who sat beside Ten also had the same appalled look on her face. 85% of the theater kids apparently wore their shoes into the building, it was a staggering statistic.
A while later, most of everyone had arrived and were sitting on random pieces of furniture or on the floor in Big Red's attic room.
"This party is terrible, there's no pretzels." Natalie commented, popping a bland chip into her mouth.
"Guys, we might actually lose Miss Jenn! What do we do?" Andres tried not to panic at the realization.
"I brought emotional-support Ann's Melomakarona!" Cress barged into Big Red's house carrying two large containers.
"Thank goodness someone else other than me doesn't walk around a house with shoes on!" Ten internally sighed in relief.
"We don't have time for Ann's melon macarons!" Carlos exclaimed.
"Cress, we're in a crisis. How are you able to make this much?" Kaison asked.
"Stress-bake! Now the blue container is nut-free with gluten-free flour, and the red one's regular ingredients." Cress replied, sharing her baked treats with her peers.
"Thanks," Ten nodded slightly, accepting a treat.
"So nobody is even questioning if Miss Jenn's past is a little shady?" Ashlyn commented, still feeling rather bothered by Miss Jenn's questionable past.
"Well you Caswell's have an affinity for befriending chaotically shady Kormos family members." Cress deadpanned.
"Or the Leechaipornkul family. Or the Yoon family." Ten added, realizing there's a recurring factor for the Caswell friendship circles.
"My social circle is rather tiny when I look back at it…" EJ muttered quietly.
"What are we all doing here? We all ended up in the same basement after one really bad day so someone should say something." Ashlyn answered.
"Fine, I'll start: I'm mad at Miss Jenn." Carlos spoke
"Why? Because she's got a couple of skeletons in her closet?" Gina asked out loud. Cress noticed Gina sitting close to Ricky.
"No, because she's giving up." Carlos explained, "She was the first teacher to not see me as a punchline. Now she's not even a real teacher."
"Define 'Real Teacher'." Ashlyn rolled her eyes.
"He's got a point."
"does she tho?"
"What are we all here?"
"Yeah, it's a waste of time." EJ grumpily rebutted.
"Honestly? Because she gave me a shot." Carlos admitted with a sad look on his face, "And it's been a long time since anyone's given me a shot."
Seb reaches a hand out to comfort Carlos.
"She gave me a voice," Nini spoke up.
"Yeah, and no nobody's ever gonna hear it because Miss Jenn screwed up," Kourtney grumbled under her breath.
Ok does anybody here actually care if her past is a little bit sketchy? Anyone?
"I do." Ricky raised a hand.
"Seriously, dude?" Big Red frowned slightly.
"What? Because you live some perfect life?" Kourtney snarked at her best friend's ex.
"Because she put our show in jeopardy. And now we're here maybe for the last time together." Ricky began, getting up from his chair and looking at everyone else, "And for some of us, we've become somewhat like a…"
"Family." Nini finished his sentence.
"What team?" Ricky asked.
"Wildcats!" Everyone finished the motto, feeling slightly better now.
"So what do we do?" Percy asked after a beat of silence.
EJ and Cress spoke up at the same time.
"Convince the school board not to fire Miss Jenn." EJ spoke up, using his knowledge from his parents' experience in law.
"Blackmail the principal." Cress nodded sagely.
"Cress, I love you, but blackmailing the authorities doesn't work," EJ face-palmed.
"Oh trust me, I got my dirt on him," Cress huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Well, if only one could just simply rely on a catchy tune to solve their problems," Ten muttered sarcastically, drumming his fingers on his knees until he noticed everyone looking at him, "What?"
"Ten, that's wonderful!" Ashlyn clapped her hands together gleefully and gave him a quick hug from the side. "Everyone, we have a plan!"
It took some planning (and very convincing persuading from Natalie's side who got the keys from the campus nightguard), but the Wildcats have managed to sneak into the auditorium to work on their 'Save Miss Jenn' plan.
"Midnight delivery!" Jeonghan declared, being the first one to get out of the car and made a beeline for his friends.
"What are you doing here?! It's 11pm and you guys have midterms this week!" Ten exclaimed when he saw the late night guests.
"My exact thoughts when Huey, Dewey and Louie here tried shoving themselves into the back of the car outside of my house." Zale deadpanned, looking equally tired of it all.
"What does it look like we're doing? We're your delivery men." Joshua replied, before handing EJ a container of tuna kimbap, "We brought kimbap!"
"You're a lifesaver, Shua." EJ sighed in relief.
"Your mom asked me to hand over some extra food to share for your late night rehearsals." Vernon took out a bag of Thai food.
"She's the best…" Ten hummed in content, feeling touched that his mom had whipped out a full course meal to make sure her son (and his peers) didn't starve.
"Alright Hannie, what do you have for me?" Cress asked Jeonghan in a teasing tone.
"My presence itself is a present." Jeonghan replied with an equally cheeky tone.
"No seriously, what do you have for me?"
"I brought you a pebble from Lakeshore's gardening club!" Jeonghan handed her a pebble.
"Oh I could kiss you." Cress feigned a swoony posture like the drama queen that she can be.
"I'll accept it." Jeonghan smiled back cheekily, leaning his face close.
Cress's left hand dug into her bag and took out a Hershey's Kiss and handed it to Jeonghan.
Zale checked his hair and saw another white hair, before promptly smacking his head against the steering wheel.
"Seriously, Z. Why are you here?" Cress looked at her older brother.
"Someone has to be their reluctant driver." Zale explained, taking out a bundle of drinks from the trunk. "We brought drinks from the Smith Family Cafe."
"Here's your cup of babyccino, Sebby." Zale passed a cup to him. "Ash, yours is a pumpkin spiced latte."
"Who are they?" Carlos asked, taking note of this attractive group of young men.
"Cress's older brother Zale, and those three are EJ and Ten's friends." Ashlyn replied, taking a sip of the pumpkin spiced latte Zale had given her.
"Why does her brother look like Chase Davenport from Lab Rats with longer platinum hair?"
"I never seen them around before."
"That's because they go to another school." EJ replied. "They attend Salt Lakeshore Academy."
"That fancy well-behaved boarding school across town?"
"It's only well-behaved when you're not a student there," Zale muttered under his breath, getting traumatic vietnam flashbacks.
Ricky had an 'Oh Crap' expression on his face when he realized his false assumption of Ten being a friendless loser was apparently wrong.
"Are you sure Ten isn't a K-pop star and has Seventeen on speed dial?" Gina asked out loud. The resemblance between the new strangers and the infamous Kpop boy band members were uncanny.
"Anyways, we only have 10 minutes, no pun intended, before our visitation pass expires." Zale pointed out, checking his watch, "So we're just gonna hand in the food and supplies and leave."
"Are you Joshua from Seventeen??" Kitt asked loudly.
"No, his hair is styled on the other side." Joshua answered swiftly.
"Is that a Zuko reference?" EJ mouthed to himself, passing a cup of drink to Cress.
"Hold up, I'm missing a coffee." Ten counted and realized there was a missing cup of coffee meant for himself. The only drink left is a cup of honey lemon tea which Cress loves.
"Caswell…" Ten snapped his head up to look at EJ with a stare so cold it could re-freeze the Antarctic. "Did you just give Cress my coffee?"
…
"Ah f_ck!" EJ drawled, he got cut off by the loud thud of Cress speed-running and crashing into the door.
"YEE-HAW!!!"
The Martinez Triplets had managed to grab the camel prop away in time before Cress could break it.
"Why is Cress running around like Sonic the Hedgehog?" Big Red questioned.
"Oh goodness, she's gone back to her Australian French-speaking Cowgirl phase again." Ten mouthed in silent horror. He's only ever seen old family videos of that phase.
"Ça passe ou ça casse! (Go big or go home)" Cress cheered.
"Όχι το σχολείο μου, όχι το πρόβλημά μου (Not my school, not my problem)" Zale had already dipped out, driving off with his Ducklings before anything could worsen.
This is going to be a very long night…
And that is all for July's update, I hope that you've enjoyed reading about the Golden Gremlins latest endeavor.
Chapter Talk: -
(1.) Ten has lived in the USA for 10 years by now and he is still aghast whenever he sees people walk with shoes on in their house. Cress thankfully isn't one of those people.
(2.) EJ's parents were successful corporate attorneys (established in the earliest released character notes), so I like to think EJ has his own ideas on how they could save Miss Jenn's job. It's albeit a group effort for everyone to be honest.
(3.) Zale and his Ducklings appear yet again. I like to think since the Wildcats pulled an all-nighter to save Miss Jenn, they had to have informed their parents/guardians that they were staying out late. I like the idea of the parents (and the little community) all giving a hand.
(4.) There's this running gag in Starburst where people mistake Ten for a Kpop star or if his Lakeshore friends are secretly Kpop boy band members. Albeit of an Adaptational Early Appearance for the Lakeshore gang (who'd only officially meet the Wildcats at the end of Season 1 in Weightless') who'd briefly met some of the Wildcats while on a late night errand.
(5.) Jeonghan and Cress set unrealistic high standards despite them not even being romantically attracted to each other. It's enough for Zale to silently get grey hair.
(5.) As a nod to Cress's face-claim (Sophie Wilde who is Australian in real life), Cress can do a very convincing Australian accent. Cress also had a bit of a cowgirl phase when she was younger. Also, coffee is apparently enough to make her hyperactive.
That's all for now, feel free to leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. Thank you so much for reading and have an awesome day.