Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Maddox barely knew Ricky Bowen, really – he had become much closer with Jet than with her – but there he was knocking at the door of the Honeycomb bunk, drenched apart from his shirt (she assumed from EJ’s picture thing) and clutching his Frozen guitar, asking her to pretty-please give him some advice on a song he wrote last night.

“Please, Gadget, I can’t ask anyone from East High and you seem like you know what you’re doing.”

“Debatable,” she said, cringing at the idea that her little kerfuffle with Madison today had involved any ‘knowing what she was doing.’ She stepped out of the door to meet him and shut it behind her. “But I’ll try my best. Let’s go somewhere out in the forest so we don’t wake the others.”

“Cool. Cool…”

Ricky didn’t say much else as they walked, so all Maddox could listen to were the sounds of earth and leaves crunching beneath their feet and the sounds of her own thoughts. He seemed nervous, based on how much he was swinging the guitar around, but Maddox’s arguments with Ashlyn over the last few weeks were more than enough to teach her a lesson; she kept her mouth shut and didn’t pry. After a few more minutes they found a clearing in the woods with some decent-looking rocks and sat down.

“It might be terrible, by the way,” Ricky said, getting out a whole mess of papers (lyrics, Maddox guessed) and laying them out in front of him. “So, like, sorry if–“

“It's totally fine, Ricky. If it sucks I’ll tell you after, but I’m not judging before I've even heard it.”

Ricky nodded and started to play, eyebrows furrowed harder than any Maddox had ever seen. Soon enough he started to sing, too, about… smoking…? She didn’t want to interrupt him, but made a mental note to ask him about that after, as any drugs were firmly against Camp Shallow Lake Policy.

“All that we are is all that we’ll ever be, ‘cause he’s the one waiting at home,” he sang, starting off the chorus. Maddox had to start fiddling with her rings at that line, hoping the shiny things might distract her from the hydraulic press Richard Bowen was taking to her chest. It did not work. He kept singing and her chest kept getting crushed.

His voice was really nice, at least. This wasn’t news, not after all the Frozen rehearsals, but that didn’t make it any less true. And he was a good songwriter too, apparently. And he knew how to play the guitar (also not news, also thanks to rehearsals). Trying to think of fun facts about Ricky Bowen became her new favorite pastime as he kept singing about… well, whatever issues he had going on in his personal life that made him bummed out like this. It was easier to think about that than Ashlyn. Ricky kept on singing.

“Addicted to illusions of a love that never was and never will be anyway.” God, did he write this fucking song about her? Well, obviously not, that would make no sense. She hadn’t even told Jet or EJ, let alone one of the new people. He must have something else of his own going on, but–

“Hey, uh, Gadget?” He asked, waving his hand in front of her face. He seemed worried and was, she realized, no longer holding his guitar. How long had she been zoned out? “Does you not talking mean it sucked? Or…”

“No, uh,” Maddox started, trying to buy herself time while she gathered her thoughts. “It was really good, actually, I liked it. You should put it on Spotify, teenagers everywhere will eat that shit up. Very relatable lyrics. And whatnot.” The words fell out of her mouth before she could double-check that they wouldn’t cause her any trouble. She tried to save it: “You know, relatable for the teenagers on Spotify.”

He chuckled a little. “Relatable, huh? Got anything you want to talk about?”

Shit, why did she say all that? “Only if you go first, you wrote it!” she blurted out, almost yelling. That should work to get her out of talking about her feelings, right?

“Nuh-uh, I am not going first. I already did a hard thing by playing it. Your turn now.”

Ugh. She couldn’t come up with a way to deflect again, though definitely not for lack of trying. The best she could do was sigh, and avoid any eye contact as she spoke.
“I’ve got a teeny-tiny crush on Ashlyn, if you absolutely must know. Not that it matters, since camp’s over tomorrow and I’ll probably never see you guys again anyway.” She decided to ignore the way her voice shook a little and turned back to face him, wondering whether he was going to ignore it too.

Ricky just stared at her for a few seconds, and Maddox started to become seriously concerned that he might like Ash too, or something. It didn’t really make sense to her – she remembered how weird he was during rehearsal in the scenes he had with Gina – but then again, the blank stare didn’t really make sense either. What if, and this seemed like it’d be even worse, he was about to ask her if she was doing okay?

“That’s awesome,” Ricky said, now smiling. “I mean, or not, because she’s still with Big Red, but I guess that’s why you thought it was relatable. But I didn’t write it about that.”

Of course he didn’t! Just as she had thought all along (one day Maddox would learn her lesson about not jumping to conclusions). “You wrote it about Gina?”

“Man, it was that obvious? But yeah, pretending to be her ‘jilted ex’ all summer wasn’t exactly hard for me. Channing actually caught me telling Carlos about it on camera, so I’m going to have to tell her before the doc comes out, I guess. I wrote the song to try to de-stress before I started thinking about what to say to her.”

“You were really obvious, yeah. Sorry to have to break it to you.”

“Hey! As long as it isn’t obvious to her it doesn’t matter. Anyway, between you and me, Ashlyn was yelling at you all summer, too, not just Val. Not to like, get your hopes up too much or anything. Big Red’s my best friend and I probably shouldn’t root against him like that.”

“Insane thing to say, but go off, I guess,” Maddox said, trying to hide any signs of excitement. “For what it’s worth, Gina and Rocketman broke up earlier, right after prom ended. Don’t tell her I told you, though.”

The news seemed to unsettle him, but Maddox chose not to say anything, hoping he might explain if left to his own devices. “I see. Well, thanks for hearing me out, Gadget. And I don’t smoke, for the record. I just needed something other than being bummed out to talk about in the song. Plus it made the rhyming work better.”

She laughed at that, having totally forgotten about the whole thing. “No problem, Ricky. Thanks for following the camp rules. And good luck asking Gina out – which you HAVE to do, by the way. That and put your song on Spotify so I can loop it when I get really depressed about missing you guys in two weeks.”

“Okay, okay! I will, just not while we’re still here. If they just called things off, might not be cool of me to swoop in before it’s even been like 2 hours. I will text you to let you know how it goes when I do it though. Ugh, and I can’t even make you ask out Ashlyn to get you back, that’s illegal. What a nightmare. Anyway, good night, dude. Thanks.”

“Good night, Ricky.”

As Ricky picked up his many papers and guitar, Maddox drew her knees in close to her chest. What a nightmare indeed.

Two hours after the Frozen documentary premiere, her phone buzzes.

Hey. It’s ricky
She asked me first(!!!) so I guess anything can happen
You doing ok? i didn’t think channing was going to get you too

Maddox smiles at that – as much as she usually hates people asking if she’s okay, it’s almost nice knowing Ricky’s so worried.

I didn’t either
Kind of just hoping she thinks it’s the editing
please don’t tell her

I wont

Chapter Text

One day Maddox was going to get used to that loud alarm, she was sure of it. When she woke up, her phone was still on, still in her hand, still open to her text conversation with Ash, and singing so loud. She managed to shut it off after probably twenty seconds of smacking it around, and then spent another twenty seconds making sure she hadn’t accidentally texted anything problematic in her fervor (because, obviously, it’s possible to type “hey by the way I’m in love with you. Break up with your boyfriend and run away to New York with me?” by accident while trying to turn an alarm off). Then, she checked the actual conversation, and found it wasn’t how she left it before bed.

Ash, 4:49 AM
morning Maddie!!!
auditions today!!!
kinda terrified

Maddie, 7:00 AM
Holy shit you were up early
I know there’s a time zone difference but don’t you usually get up at 7
Anyway good morning :)
When are they?
And obviously you shouldn’t be terrified you’ll do great

Ash, 7:01 AM
haha! thanks!!
just up early cause im nervous
its at 2pm

Maddie, 7:02 AM
Right... And what time is it now?

Ash, 7:02 AM
lmfao it’s 8.

Maddie, 7:03 AM
Gotcha. So hard to remember…

Ash, 7:03 AM
1 hour?????
wait didn’t you literally know it earlier

Maddie, 7:03 AM
Yeah :(
Unfortunately I’m stupid :(
Anyway good luck later!!
I have to go get ready for school so bye bye

Ash, 7:04 AM
</3 might kms but ok

Maddie, 7:04 AM
????????????????????????????????????

Ash, 7:04 AM
lol fine i wont.
just for you!
bye bye:)
and youre not stupid

Maddie, 7:05 AM
Whatever you say.
Bye!!

Maddox shut her phone off and laid back down, still smiling (her face was starting to hurt). The day went by slowly; she got ready, she went to school, Jet got in trouble, the usual. She kept checking her phone, she kept being disappointed by the blank notification center, and she kept reminding herself that Ash was just busy with auditions and the movie and it didn’t mean she was mad or anything. None of it stopped her from sending updates on the boring goings-on of her day, though. She kept hoping Ashlyn didn’t mind the texts.

Maddie, 9:07 AM
Gun to my head you could not convince me there’s a point to this class

Maddie, 9:32 AM
Ok don’t be mad at me lol
But Ive just been watching campsite setup videos
I’ll focus next class I promise

Maddie, 10:25 AM
I was right that one was way better
No more camp setups

Maddie, 12:43 PM
Jet back on the grind :/

Maddie, 1:50 PM
Good luck again, for auditions! :):)
Let me know how it goes!!

Maddie, 3:15 PM
I hope the movie’s going well too
I assume that’s why you’re still busy?
Have fun!!!

It wasn’t until school had already been out for hours in both time zones that a reply from Ashlyn came in, and Maddox narrowly escaped a severe concussion jumping up to read it. She decided that it might be better for her health to sit on her bed to check her phone.

Ash, 4:36 PM
man that took for fucking ever!! but im back!!
ok hold on
[Voice message, 1:34]
Hey Maddie!!! Quinn ended up scheduling the HSM4 rehearsal wrong and it went over, so, I was caught up doing that for a really long time. She kept complaining about not having something called a “Student PA”? I don’t really know what that means though and honestly I was afraid to ask, she's kind of terrifying. Auditions ended up happening at the same time, like, we were sneaking out of rehearsal with Quinn one at a time to audition for Miss Jenn. I think I did okay? I don’t know. We sang ‘Now or Never’, which obviously I know already anyway, HSM3 is iconic, and anyway hopefully that helped. I don’t know. You have to stop watching YouTube in class Maddie, I know you love those campsite videos but what if you miss something important? And hopefully Jet will start having an easier time soon. Hopefully you will too. Okay bye!!

After three listens Maddox was pretty sure she had everything committed to memory (about the content of the message! Not about how she could practically hear Ash’s smile through the phone, or about the way her occasional giggles interrupted what she was talking about, or… alright, well, what about it?? She could think about Ash’s pretty laugh if she wanted). Fucked-up HSM4 schedule, auditions were to “Now or Never” and probably went well, Maddox was apparently supposed to stop watching YouTube in class (what was Ash, her mom? No!!!! That would be weird), and hopefully Jet got his act together. She listened one more time to double check and then got to replying with a voice memo of her own.

Maddie, 4:45 PM
[Voice message, 0:39]
Ash, hi!! I’m glad it went well. Quinn’s unbelievable, as always. PA means production assistant, it’s someone who basically just runs random errands as-needed for the film. I don’t know why she’d need a student specifically, maybe just ‘cause she wouldn’t have to pay? But basically she’s looking for errand boys. Anyway, it might be hard to stop watching campsite videos in class unless the teacher gets a lot more interesting all of a sudden… but maybe, just because you asked so nicely, I’ll think about it. I’ll talk to you later, bye!

She laid the rest of the way down on the bed, as dramatic as can be, practically begging her heart to slow down. How many voice messages would they have to send each other before Maddox got used to it? Her phone chimed again not long after.

Ash, 4:47 PM
too bad you can’t pull up to salt lake to do that PA thing
i bet you’d kick ass at it
plus then we could hang out! thatd be cool
i could make you play mario party finally!!

Maddie, 4:48 PM
Oh, man. I wish I could but I have to stick with Jet
But that sounds so fun I would love to see you again
Like, all of you guys, obviously

Ash, 4:49 PM
i'd love to see you again too!!

Maddox was sort of surprised to find herself still alive at that point, but she soldiered on; dinner with her family was fine (she zoned out and thought about the voice memo again), homework was fine (unfortunately Ashlyn had been right about missing something important in class, but that’s what the textbook was for), and the next episode of Dancing With The Stars actually managed to be good instead of just fine. Then something even better happened – she heard the text tone she’d set for Ashlyn.

Ash, 7:52 PM
we’re off to Gina’s to get the cast list!!

Almost an hour later, Maddox called her, and Ashlyn answered before the first ring finished.

“Oh my gosh, Maddie, hi! I’m sorry for the delay, we just found out our parts for the musical. So, I got Kelsi. Which, honestly, duh! Queer-coded icon.”

”No way! Tha- Ash? Hello?” She pulled her phone away from her ear. Ashlyn hung up? Why?

Ash, 8:47 PM
ok my bad we actually weren’t done
but here’s the list!!
[1 image]
Kelsi!! i'm honestly so hype i love her

Maddie, 8:48 PM
DON’T FORGET ME WHEN YOU’RE FAMOUS!!!

Ash, 8:48 PM
i'll make sure to feature you in all my award speeches:)
couldn't have done it without my dear friend maddox
weirdly we have no chad. idk how that happened
maybe they’re still asking around?

Maddie, 8:49 PM
Huh. That’s weird, Chad’s pretty important
Hope you guys figure that out! And I’m still so proud of you omg

Richard, 8:55 PM
Hey, I already texted your brother, but where are you at on the “moving to Salt Lake” front?

Chapter Text

Maddox reminded herself to strangle Ricky when she next got the chance.

When she retraced her steps, everything made sense. Ricky asked Jet to come to this party, Jet said he wouldn’t go unless she came along too, Ricky assured her that there would be people she knew there even though she didn’t know this Jackson kid whose house it was, and she agreed so Jet could have a fun night out.

And yet, none of that cold, hard logic stopped her from wondering how the hell Ricky had convinced her to come to this party. She was happy Jet finally made some friends, but was it worth wading through a sea of teenage boys, cup of ambiguously flavored punch in hand? Ricky and Jet had run off somewhere as soon as they got there, and Maddox was left to fend for herself without anyone she knew in sight.

Ricky, when I catch you…

“Maddox!” someone yelled. She didn’t have a chance to wonder where the voice came from before was before she was tackled in a hug – oh, okay, it was Kourtney. “I didn’t know you were coming!”

“Hey, Kourtney!” Maddox said, hugging back now that she knew who it was. “Jet said he wouldn’t come unless I went with him.”

Kourtney laughed. “That sounds like something he’d do. Adorable. Well I’m glad you’re here! Carlos and I were actually just thinking of finding a corner somewhere and playing Uno. Want to come with?” Carlos popped out from behind her and waved.

“Oh, hi Carlos! Yeah, that sounds great – this crowd is kind of getting to me, honestly.” Hopefully she didn’t sound too lame, but she figured it didn’t really matter if it meant she could go hide in a corner with friends instead of alone.

Carlos nodded. “Me too. That’s why the Finer Things Club is having an emergency Uno meeting. I seriously need these guys to learn what deodorant is by the time homecoming comes around or else I’m going freak out on a level never seen before at this school. Zac Efron in HSM3 included in that, by the way.” He chuckled, and Maddox joined him (unfortunately he was very right about the deodorant thing).

Luckily, Carlos seemed to know where he was going, and he led the way to a card table in the basement. “I swear, there’s a party at this house every other week,” he said, seemingly offering up an explanation for why he knew his way around. “Kourtney?”

“Got it right here,” said Kourtney, producing an Uno deck from out of what seemed to Maddox like nowhere. “Let’s play.”

The ensuing game of Uno was the most intense one Maddox had ever played. She was no stranger to aggressive trash talking during games, thanks to her brother, but Carlos and Kourtney blew her out of the water with their rapid-fire insults.

“Go kill yourself.”

“Fine, but I’m doing it in your room and I’m going to make it extra gross so you have to clean it up.”

“I’d literally rather clean up your blood and guts from my bed than deal with your draw-two stacking bullshit, Uno literally tweeted and said that’s not a real rule.”

“Oh yeah? Well I’m pretty sure we’re in a house so house rules apply!”

After what felt like hours but was actually only thirty minutes or so, the game was nearly over: Kourtney and Carlos combined had close to half the deck, and Maddox was left with only one card after her turn. “Uno,” she said, calmly. Her friends looked at each other.

Carlos was the first to speak. “Maddox, I want you to know that I will start screaming if that last card is a wild card or something.”

“Only one way to find out,” she replied, smiling. “I’m sure you have wild cards of yourselves, right guys? Or at least any yellow cards? You can still get out of this!” They both groaned. It turned out they really, truly, had nothing they could play – Carlos drew until he got a yellow 7, and Kourtney played a green 7 of her own overtop of it. Maddox laughed and put down her wild draw 4. She really should’ve expected Carlos to make good on his threat, but his reaction took her by surprise all the same.

“Girl, you have got to be fucking kidding me! First you subject me to a month of Ashlyn being weird about texting you 24/7, and now you laugh on my fucking grave?”

”I don’t think you were supposed to say that first part out loud,” said Kourtney, interrupting his tirade.

“Oh my god. No, I wasn’t.” Carlos’s eyes widened. “Look, whatever you and Ashlyn have going on is none of my business. Unless you want to make it my business?”

Maddox tilted her head. “We don’t have anything going on, what do you mean? That was just the documentary.” And Ashlyn had a boyfriend, anyway, but she figured Carlos must have already known that.

Carlos sighed and rolled his eyes – Maddox thought he might have been a little melodramatic about it, but then again, he was a little melodramatic about everything, wasn’t he? “Fine, whatever. If you say nothing’s happening then nothing’s happening.” He took a deep breath. “But you can at least admit that—“

”Carlos,” Kourtney started sternly, “you don’t need to interrogate her about this right now. Especially not without checking to see if the people you’re talking about are, say, at this party and walking over to us right now.” Her expression shifted to a much more excited one, and she waved across the room. “ASHLYN! Wanna play Uno? Maddox just destroyed us, but maybe you’ll be able to stand up to her tyranny next round!”

Maddox, almost involuntarily, whipped her head around to look for Ash, and found her on the opposite side of the room. She was wearing a much darker outfit than usual – not quite goth, but certainly goth-adjacent, with a lacy black top and about a hundred million necklaces (conservative estimate). Ugh. Goth looked really good on her. Maddox was starting to feel like her green flannel wasn’t cutting it. And, since Kourtney called her over, Ash was on her way to the card table, and for some other unknown reason, she was looking straight at Maddox while she walked.

Be normal. Be normal. Be normal.

It took a few seconds of (admittedly intense) eye contact before Maddox remembered how to speak. “Ash, hi! If you ever wanted me to beat you mercilessly, now’s your chance!”

That could not have been less normal!!!

By some miracle, Ashlyn didn’t seem too alarmed by the absurd challenge. “Worse things have definitely happened. I’m in!”

Carlos looked back and forth between the two of them, before issuing a warning. “Ash, it was bad. She beat us mercilessly. My whole bloodline is cursed forever, it went so bad.”

Ashlyn smiled. ”Okay, so she’s a girlboss? What’s the problem?”

Maddox felt her face get hot. “It’s just Uno… it’s literally luck based…”

She felt her face flush even more as Ash leaned in to whisper to her. “You know I’m trying to help you here, right?” The words came out crystal-clear, but Maddox didn’t hear them; she was too worried about oh my god she’s like two inches away from me what is happening what are we to really process full sentences. Ash jumped back, though not before a couple seconds of even more tense eye contact than earlier. “Well, anyway, it’d be an honor to be beaten mercilessly by the greatest student PA this side of the Mississippi has to offer.”

This is torture, Maddox thought. She’s trying to kill me. Surely everyone could see how red she was now, if it hadn’t been obvious already. She hardly noticed the shuffling and re-dealing of the Uno deck. She felt a hand on her knee, shaking her slightly to get her attention.

”Maddie, you do have to actually play the game, it’s your turn.” More shaking. “Are you okay? Earth to Maddox?” Ash asked, without moving her hand an inch.

I want to kiss her so bad it makes me look stupid, she thought. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said instead of voicing her thoughts aloud, hyper-aware of the hand that was, for some fucking reason, still on her leg, and not moving. Apparently, she would just have to get used to that somehow. Unbelievable. How was anyone supposed to match colors and numbers in these conditions?

The second round of Uno wasn’t nearly as aggressive or fast-paced as the first – maybe Carlos and Kourtney were running out of steam, or something. Not that Maddox’s heart rate was any lower than it was for the first – if anything, she was more afraid for her life with Ashlyn nearby than she had been with the incessant threats. Luckily, Ashlyn took her hand back once she figured out she’d need one to hold the cards and one to actually play a card each turn. She went on to win the game with the help of that second hand, as foretold.

“Well, there you go, Kourt. Took care of that tyranny for you!” she said cheerfully, placing her last card with a little flourish. She turned to look at Maddox. “How’s it feel now that your dark reign has come to an end, Maddie?”

”Terrible,” she replied, not dishonestly – she was starting to feel dizzy from all the eye contact with Ashlyn. “Yeah, no coming back from this, honestly.”

”Well, as fun as it truly was to defeat you, I do have to go home now – it’s past 1 AM now, and I have a lot of studying to get done tomorrow.”

Maddox checked her phone, horrified. It was past 1 AM – just past 1:30, even – and to make matters worse, she had six unread messages from Jet. All from an hour ago asking to leave, except the last one, which said he had gotten a ride with Ricky and not to worry about him. “Ugh, yeah. I should probably head out too and make sure Jet got home okay. Thanks for letting me play, though, guys, this was really fun!”

After saying all their goodbyes, Kourtney and Carlos went back to Uno – apparently they had no particular plans to go anywhere.

”I parked next to you,” said Ashlyn, as she started to move to leave. “Walk out with me?”

Maddox blinked. “Yeah, sure. Of course. I’d love that.”

”I would too. Let’s go!” She led the way back out through the house, occasionally waving goodbye to people Maddox had never seen before.

Outside, they stopped by their cars to chat. “I seriously still can’t believe you’re here,” Ashlyn said, tilting her head up to get a better look at the sky.

”I can’t either,” Maddox replied. “It’s cool, though. I like it.”

”Yeah, me too.”