Alex
The morning after callbacks Alex woke up to the ringing of her alarm, closely followed by the sound of a notification on her phone. She groggily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She had been awake a good deal of the night, much to her disliking. All she had wanted to do was to fall asleep, but her mind had other ideas, one example being, running through all the possible scenarios of what could be posted on the cast list and what Alex would say to each of them. Though she was thankful for the lack of nightmares that presented themselves.

Alex opened her text messages.

Carson the Best Theatre Buddy Ever: Will u wait for me once u get to school? Idk if I can go look at that list alone...

Alex's thumbs hovered over the keyboard for a second before typing out a response. As much as she wanted to see the cast list, and as soon as possible, she would also much rather do it with Carson. Even though she didn't know him that well, he was the closest thing she had to a friend at school, they had done a bunch of scenes together at callbacks and worked phenomenally well together. Alex had found out that Carson was just as much of a high school musical geek as she was, and she enjoyed his company. Having someone to celebrate with or having someone to be disappointed with after seeing the cast list was always better than doing it alone.

It wasn't that Alex didn't want to make friends, she was just afraid to get too close to people, and she was afraid if she made a friend she would want to get close to them. Therefore she resolved to keep her head down and just be her own friend. And worst enemy. Then when Carson started talking to her, she remembered how much she missed people. She needed friends.

She just wouldn't let herself get too close.

Alex the Future Gabriella: Ofc! Idk I could look at it alone either tbh

After hitting send Alex then proceeded to get ready for school at a much faster pace than usual. She wolfed down her cereal even though she wasn't hungry at all. She only ate it to make her mom happy, and the faster she ate, the faster she could get to school.

"Whoa slow down Mija!" Ms. Cairney laughed. She started raking her fingers through Alex's hair attempting to put it into a french braid, but Alex swatted her away.

"Mamá," she whined. "Not today! I have to get to school to meet Carson so we can look at the cast list together."

"Carson?" Ms. Cairney raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, he's a theatre friend. We read a bunch of Gabriella/Troy scenes together and we bonded over it I guess," said Alex, nonchalantly.

"Oh," smirked Ms. Cairney.

Alex knew where this conversation was going because her mom took on that voice she always had whenever the subject of dating was brought up. She didn't want to go there, not today. Actually not ever if that was an option because being teased by your mom about dating is not something you ever really want to do, especially if the person she was teasing you about was really just a friend.

"Mamá, not today, you are going to drive me to school so I can see the cast list before I internally combust." And with that, Alex grabbed her backpack and walked out the front door leading to the complex's stairs without looking back once. Her mom couldn't help but laugh as she followed her daughter to the car.

***

"Carson hurry up!" exclaimed Alex as she dragged her friend by the wrist, leading him towards the fine arts hall.

"Alex, wait," Carson laughed. "You know I'm just as eager as you are to see the list, but if you don't let me tie my shoe I will fall on my face on the way over there."

"Fine," sighed Alex giving in. She impatiently tapped her fingers on the side of her leg as she waited for what felt like forever but in reality was under a minute.

Finally, the two started running towards the fine arts hall. They came to a slow as they opened the doors. Alex felt her pulse quicken as they rounded the corner to the bulletin board.

There, in the middle of the giant board, in place of the callbacks sheet was the cast and crew list. Alex almost didn't dare get close enough to read the list. She was nervous as hell, but her excitement got the best of her and won over.

Alex took several steps toward the paper sitting in the middle of everything and nearly screamed when she saw what was on it.

"I got Gabriella!" she squealed, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "I'm going to play Gabriella!" Alex started bouncing excitedly on her toes.

"And I'm going to be Troy!" said Carson with excitement easily matching Alex's. The two of them bounced around in a circle, looking like idiots but they didn't care. They had too much energy to contain despite their lack of sleep the previous night. They soon proceeded to walk to the cafe as calmly as they could, but they still felt like bouncing off the walls. They found a place to sit and started talking about the production and how eager they were to get started. Alex suddenly gasped.

"What?" Carson asked.

"I need to tell my mom!" Alex started digging through her backpack when a slightly mischievous look passed over her face.

"Oh no, I don't trust that look," said Carson trying to hold back a smile.

Alex jammed her earbuds into the phone and handed Carson one side. "Here put it in," she giggled. Carson hesitated. "I'm going to try and trick her, come on, it'll be funny!" Carson still looked unconvinced. "It's fine Carson, I do stuff like this to her all the time..." Alex trailed off realizing she and her mom hadn't actually pranked each other at all in the past few months. "Or at least I did, and she did it back," she recovered quickly becoming excited again, "it's just the relationship we have, now put the darn earbud in!"

"Language Alex!" Carson gasped sarcastically, seemingly unphased by Alex's weird pause in the middle of her sentence. However he had never heard the girl say anything remotely related to a bad word, he might as well tease her for it. Alex rolled her eyes and playfully punched him in the shoulder. She then called her mom, and the phone only rang twice before someone picked up on the other end.

"Alex?" they heard her mom say.

"Mamá," Alex said, mustering up the best "near tears" voice she could. "I saw the cast list."

"Oh Mija..."

"I'm going to be playing Gabriella!" Alex squealed, dropping her act.

"Alex! I thought you were actually upset! ¡Debería darte vergüenza!" her mom scolded. Even though Carson had no clue what Ms. Cairney said, he let out a laugh because it was clear Alex did and was completely ignoring it.

"Alex, who's on the phone with you?"

"It's just Carson, Mamá," Alex said through giggles.

"Hi Ms. Cairney, nice to meet you," said Carson who was also still laughing.

"Oh hola Carson," Ms. Cairney said sweetly, "You should come over sometime so I can meet you in person."

"I'd love to, thank you." Alex looked at Carson. Since when was he so polite and good with adults?

"Okay Mamá, we have to go school is going to start soon," Alex finally said.

"Alright, have a great day, I'm so proud of you!"

"Thanks, Mamá."

"¡Te quiero!"

With that, Alex hung up the phone just to find Carson looking at her. As soon as she met his eyes the two burst out laughing again. They couldn't help it, the whole phone call itself hadn't been all that funny, but they were still full of happiness and they needed somewhere for it to all go. They were like two balloons, filled with so much air that they were going to burst if they didn't somehow release it. Alex hadn't felt like that in a long time. She really really liked it.

***

Kata
10/5/16
Dear Sky,
Ahhhhhhh! That is literally the only semi-coherent thought my brain can process right now. I just saw the crew list!! I'm going to be the stage manager!!!!!! Finally! All my hard work has paid off- I'm just so happy!! I'm going to be a stage manager. For a production. The position I have most wanted to be in since my first production. I'm still kind of trying to wrap my head around it if I'm being honest. I know to some people it's probably not a big deal, but to me, it's a chance to finally prove myself. To Mr. Benj. To my peers. To my mother. And also to me. I can show that I deserve this, that I have something that I can do really really well. Something I love. I really didn't think I would get this chance and I'm just so happy that I do. It means so much to me.

Welp, now we're going back to incoherent thoughts. Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

***

A/N: Hi guys! Thank you so much for reading!!! Please consider leaving a vote or comment if you liked this chapter!

Tell me who your favorite character is so far!!!

-Sunny <3 <3 <3