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“Spill the tea”
Ashlyn grinned into her phone, swerving out of Courtney’s way.
“Andi, it’s CHAOS”
“When is it not”, her cousin smirks. “That’s the arts baby.”
“You got that right.”
“But seriously,'' Andi shifts her phone, “tell me everything. Especially about that Big Red.”
“Oh stop”
“How could I,” she grins, “this is your first crush since that girl in third grade.”
“Please, please don’t bring that up every again,” she rolls her eyes, “and I do not have a crush on Big Red-”
“-she so does-”, Carlos interjects, popping in front of her camera phone.
“-CARLOS!”, she glares, elbowing him out of her way. “Do you have no sense of privacy?”
“No,” Seb adds, interlocking his arm. “Can I steal him for a sec?”
“You can have him as long as you want”
Carlos gasps. “Wow Ash, love you too.” Seb drags him away, grinning at his boyfriend’s idiocy. Ashlyn shakes her head with a smile.
“God they’re so in love, it’s insufferable.”
“You think that’s bad,” Andi chuckles, “Buffy has been texting me non stop how annoying and sappy TJ and Cyrus are now.”
“To be fair though, they are adorable.”
“Yeah… so what else has gone recently?”
Ashlyn groans, sidestepping into the closest closet for a bit of privacy. Huh, how ironic.
“Everything! The costumes, the sets, the lighting, Ginas gone AWOL, and Nini and Ricky have enough tension to cut with a knife. Oh yeah, and our drama teacher is having a mental breakdown while EJ is just...being EJ.”
“I mean, what can you expect from a load of drama kids,” Andi Mack grins. “I’ve been telling you for years, painting is a much more relaxing (and cough cough better) art form.”
“Well 1, you’re wrong, 2, you’re wrong, and 3, how’s art school anyway?”
Andi’s face immediately brightens. Ashlyn notices an array of handmade bracelets covering her arms and even a hint of makeup blended onto her face.
“It’s Amaaaaazing,” she sighs with contempt. “I obviously miss Cyrus and Buffy and Jonah to pieces but here it’s just so...so me? Does that make sense?”
“Totally.”
“And I’ve already met so many amazing people, people like you and me who just love art. I mean when you moved, I had no one else to paint with.”
“You mean throw paint at?,” Ashlyn glares as she giggles. “Oh god those were the days. EVen though Thanksgiving was a bust, we still got Christmas to wreak chaos.”
“Oh hell yeah,” Andi grins. “Speaking of which, is EJ still an ass?”
“At the moment, I don’t even know what he is,” she giggled. “I don’t have time to deal with him anymore.”
“Whoever has time for EJ,” Andi sighs.
“HEy!”
“EJ stop eavesdropping!”, she yells, kicking the door. “Don’t you have a corner that needs crying in.”
“It’s called acting Ash, look it up and you’ll find a picture of me.” She could almost hear his boastful smirk.
“I don’t think you should be lecturing me on acting, Mr. ‘I’m emoting’.” She doesn’t wait for a response before slamming the door open, narrowly hitting EJ in the face. “Out of my way, I’m gonna look for some PRIVACY, something that seems impossible around here.”
“We’re drama kids and you expect us not to be nosy?,” Courtney yells over her shoulder.
Sighing, Ashlyn ducks under the schofolding, nearly tripping over the discarded sandbag.
“So back to art school..” Ashlyn trails as she searches for a more hidden spot.
“Oh no missy, you aren’t changing the topic, I need to know EXACTLY how EJ was ‘emoting’ and how much I can make fun of him for it.”
Chuckling, she slips into the lights corner, noticing it’s empty.
“Very dramatically and very much so. Carlos looked so close to murdering him I died.”
“Wish I’d been there,” Andi sighs wistfully. “Someone better have caught it on film.”
“Oh god I hope so,” she giggles. “Things have been so messy recently, I mean half our theatre burned down. We could all use a little EJ to poke fun at.”
“-what do you mean you mean lights have modes- oh hey Ashlyn!”
She practically drops her phone. “Oh shit-” Ash rushes to pick it up, rubbing off any collected dirt and searching for cracks.
“Oh my-oh shoot sorry, is it okay?”, Big Red’s eyes widen.
“It’s alright,'' she sighs in relief. “Andi, you still on?”
“That’s an over!”
Big Red jumps back in surprise, inspecting the phone.
“Oh Big Red, this is my cousin Andi,” Ashlyn smiles softly as he happily takes the phone from her. Andi has a sneaky glint in her eye.
“Hello!”
Andi’s eyes scanned his face, raising an eyebrow before smirking.
“I approve.”
Big Red sends her a questioning look as Ash glares down over his shoulder.
“Ashlyn’s told me a lot about you,” Andi explains, “just wanted to see if it was all true. He’s definitely cuter than you said…”
“Andi…”, she warns.
“Nothing, nothing,'' she waves her hand away, “it’s nice to meet you, Mr. Red.”
“Oh, thanks”, he smiles, his stupid adorable smile and Ashlyn forgots how to breathe for a second.
“Well Ash, I gotta go, the hustle never stops. Give EJ a kiss for me, see ya guys at christmas!”
The screen turns black.
“She seems nice”, Big Red says, smiling warmly.
“Yeah”, Ash rolls her eyes with a grin, “she is. A bit of a handful too.”