CHAPTER FOUR
·.¸¸.·♩♪♫ mr perfectly fine ♫♪♩·.¸¸.·

REECE WALKED INTO THE BOMBSHELL, along with the rest of the drama department. Reece always enjoyed the read-throughs, it helped her figure out which students played which characters and get to know them a little better.

"It's only 74 rehearsals until we can go back to ignoring each other's presence." The redhead explained to Josie.

"Yeah. You sure you'll be ok?" she gave her a small smile.

"Yup, 100%."

"I have to go meet Anne in the art room, she has newspaper questions. I'll see you later."

"See ya!" With that Josie left Reece to find her seat.

Reece made her way towards her seat when she noticed it was beside EJ's. Great, she said to herself. She placed her bag on the floor and took a seat ignoring EJ, that is until he switches Troy and Chad's name tags for him to sit beside Nini.

He looked around to see if anyone had noticed. "Put them back," she spoke, not taking her eyes off the book she had begun reading. "It's a read-through, not sitting beside your girlfriend for a few hours won't kill you." he rolled his eyes, but reluctantly switched them back and took a seat.

EJ turned back towards the girl, reading the cover of the book she was reading, The Inheritance Games, the book he had gotten her for her birthday last May.

"Could everyone take their assigned seats, please." Ms. Jenn called out. Reece placed her book back into her backpack, getting her script out of her bag. "Yoo-hoo, ginger boy. Can you read?"

"Uh, not really." Big Red replied.

"Well, you're reading now. Just the stage directions. Thank you, excuse me."

Everyone took their seats waiting for Ms. Jenn to begin. "I realize that you all walked in here as strangers."

"Actually, EJ's my cousin." Ashlyn pointed out. EJ gave a tight smile, clearly embarrassed.

Ms. Jenn continued, "but after today you're a family. One tribe committed to lifting this classic film to new heights." she was again interrupted, this time, it being Carlos taking a selfie with his choreographer name tag. Noticing the group staring he quickly put them both down, signaling for Ms. Jenn to continue. "Please take your neighbors' hands."

Reece gladly took Big Red's hand.

"Hands." Ms. Jenn said to Ricky and EJ, reluctantly they joined hands. Now, all that was left was for Reece and EJ to join hands, something neither wanted to do. Neither teenager moved. "Hands," she repeated. No one moved. She gave then a stern look, "Hands."

Reece rolled her eyes placing her hand into EJ's. She tried to ignore the familiar feeling of warmth she used to experience. She tried to forget the comfort it used to bring her. Unbeknownst to her, he was doing the exact same thing.

"Let the silence speak volumes. In a world full of no, this is a space full of yes."

"Nice," Carlos whispered, "Did you just come up with that?"

"I did." the drama teacher whispered back.

Ms. Jenn then began singing a slower version of We're All In This Together. EJ, unknowingly, began to rub his thumb against Reece's knuckles. She quickly released her hand from his grip, tucking her hair behind her ear. When she finished Ashlyn began to clap before quickly stopping as no one else was.

"Thanks." She mouthed

♪♫ ♫♪

"Sharpay heads for class. Hears singing, opens the door to the biology lab. She finds Gabriella and Taylor washing their hands." Big Red read in a monotone voice. Reece noticed how annoyed everyone was and she was with them. "They turn to find there are no paper towels in the dispenser. They..."

"Stop." Ms. Jenn interrupted

Oh thank you

"Don't run it all together. Read the punctuation."

That was terrible wording because the next thing they knew Big Red was literally reading the punctuations as he read.

Reece laid her head on her hand, this is going to be a long read-through.

Ms. Jenn hit her hand on the playbook that sat on her desk, "And that's Act One. Let's take a break."

The kids made their way around the classroom, talking to their friends. Reece however placed her headphones onto her head, drowning out the voices around her.

After a while, everyone got back to their seats, like she said before this would be a long read-through.

♪♫ ♫♪

"How was yesterday? The first day of school must have been exciting." Scarlett Hastings asked her daughters as they sat down to eat. Dinners were hardly ever spent together. Scarlett was busy at the hospital most of the time, and her fiancée, Victor Di Luca, taught at the university. Both their jobs required a lot of focus so it wasn't unusually for Reece and Annalise, and occasionally Josie, to have dinner either alone in their rooms or together watching a movie.

"Pretty uneventful." Reece lied, she noticed she had been doing that a lot. "I got Kelsi for the school musical, so that's cool." she picked at her tofu, her mom was a big vegetarian. She let her daughters eat meat but Scarlett wouldn't be caught dead eating meat, which is weird because she grew up on a farm.

"That's wonderful, Reece." Victor smiled. Scarlett and Victor started dating when Reece was in the 8th grade. Reece's father had left them two years prior, he hadn't tried to contact them since at least not that she knows of. They then got engaged the previous spring and planned to get married a year later. Reece had planned to go with EJ, he had RSVP and everything, but since they were no longer together she didn't expect him to come.

"What about you, Annalisa, any new boys you've been hanging around?" The youngest Hastings sister had yet to come out to her parents, she was going to but every chance she had an emergency came up with their work so she stuck to her sister, Josie, Ashlyn, and a few others.

She placed her knife and fork on her plate. Clearing her throat she began, "No but there is something else-" She was cut off by the sound of Scarlett's pager.

911

"Oh, I'm so sorry sweetheart. There's an emergency back at the hospital, but we can talk after, okay?" Anne nodded. She gave her family pecks on the cheek before quickly heading out the door.

"You can still tell me," Victor said making the girl shake her head.

"It was an art thing, nothing big." She lied, Reece gave her a small smile as they got back to their dinner. She knew how hard it was to come out to people, she had done it by accident. Scarlett and Victor were very supportive people but it was still hard for everyone.

INEZ SPEAKS

This chapter was absolute shit...but I will make it up to you!