even if the whole world was watching

17. "we miss you so much"

As they got out, ej pressed something on his phone. 'Whatcha doing?" Aurora asked, as he opened the car door for her. "Oh, just calling a girl from camp for Nini to talk to" Ej shrugs. "Reason?" Aurora asked. "I may have given her mild food poisoning" Ej shrugs, sheepishly. "Ej!" Aurora scolded. "It's fine, she's cool with it" He tells her. "Sure she is"

"Hello hello" Ej called as they walked into Ashlyns house. "Hey!" Ashlyn grinned, walking over and hugging them both. "Oo whatcha playing?" Aurora asks, as she wanders into the front room, leaving Ej with Ash and the girl on the phone. "This is my pride and joy, High school musical, the choosical!" Carlos announced, in a dramatic tone. "Cool! What are the teams?" Aurora found this intriguing. "East high-" Carlos didnt even get to finish before Aurora called "That team!" Before rushing over to where evie was gesturing as being that team.

"So you came here with?" Evie whispers, as they play the game. "Ej" Aurora replies, sighing as she already knew what Evies reaction was going to be. "Ahh, so are you two, like together?" Evie asks, her voice as hushed as she could make it. "What? No, just friends" Aurora replied, glaring slightly. "Sure, sure"

"Okay you guys, according to the high school musical the choosical handbook of rulesicals" Carlos tells them all, making Aurora light, she loved this game. "Stop it" ej shakes his head slightly, making Aurora roll her eyes playfully at him. "The only way to resolve a tie at the end of regulation play is with a lightening speed round of getcha head in the game trivia questions" Carlos says dramatically. "Are you ready? because people have been known to cry over this" Carlos asks. "I thought you have never actually played this before?" Seb asked, smiling innocently. "Honey, not today of all days" Carlos answers him, making everyone laugh.

After a few questions, Carlos turned to the West High knights team for the final question. "What is the name of the girl who pops and locks?" He asks. Gina jumps up, demonstrating, as she should considering the many times she had performed this in rehearsal. "Martha Cox!" she exclaims, laughing slightly. "The west high knights win!" Carlos exclaims, throwing some confetti into the air, dramatically as always. They all cheered, Aurora grinning whilst Evie pouted, she had never ever liked loosing.

"you my dear get this homemade scholastic decathlon ribbon" Carlos walked over to gina holing something in his hand. "Careful its just a straight pin and was never sanitised" he says, trying to pin it onto her jumper. "Wait okay, everybody get in" she smiled, taking a photo of them all. Evie and Aurora jumped up, they loved taking photos, evidence being shown by the many photos they had taken on the cameras Ash had placed around the room. "okay hold on I need to share this honour with my loved ones" she laughed, calling her mom. "You gotta stop moving, this is the prince we pay for beauty" Carlos says, struggling to pin it on. Aurora jumped up, taking it from Carlos and pinning it on with ease. 

"Mom mom mom, okay two things" gina says into her phone. "one I was just crowned the queen of crazy town and two can I spend the night at ashlyns house?" she asked, smiling. "Um it's actually the queen of east high" Aurora and Carlos correct, but Gina shushes them both. "Uh mom sorry I can't hear you, okay you're on speaker" she says, holding her phone horizontally, so she could be heard. "Happy thanksgiving!" They all chorused. "Same to all of you" Gina mom laughed, before turning serious. "Gina honey, could you take me off speaker?" she asked. Gina did so and walked out. Everyone shared a concerned glance.

Auror heard it, and her heart broke for gina. She noticed Ricky had walked out, so she went to find him. She caught him sliding his coat on and about to leave. "Ricky? Are you okay?" she called after him. "What do you think Aurora? Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, clearly annoyed. "W..what?" she stuttered. "About Todd, I know you knew" Ricky answered bluntly. "Ricky, i'm sorry I just-" she started to apologise but he cut her off. "Save it" then he left.

Aurora sighed, walking to grab her coat, bumbling into ej. "You going?" he asked. "Yeah" she sighed. "Figured" Ej smiled sadly, handing her some photos. "What are these?" She smiled, looking down at them. "Photos" Ej replied simply. "I have eyes" she replied sarcastically. "Ash told me to give you them" Ej shrugged. When Aurora properly looked at them she knew what they were. She had asked Ash if she could print them for her, and she did. "Tell her thanks" Aurora smiled as she pulled her coat on. "I will" Ej smiled, turning around to go back to everyone. But Aurora called his name. "Yeah?" he asked. "Thank you" she smiled. "For what?" Ej asked. "Everything"

When Aurora arrived home, both Bowen twins were ready to apologise. They never argued for long, it never took much to settle one. "Rory i'm sorry-" Ricky said immediately as she came through the door. "It's fine Ricky, I should have told you" Aurora sighed, putting her bag and coat down. "so were good?" he asked. "We are, but we need to call mom back"

They sat on the stairs, Ricky rang their mom, and they waited. "hey mom?" Ricky asked, as she answered. "We miss you so much" Aurora sighs, it was the honest truth, they missed her regardless of what happened tonight.

Aurora looked over her photos and smiled, they were photos of her best memories recently. The photoshoot, them saving Miss Jenn, photos from tonight, random photos from rehearsal, they all made her smile. She found spots for them, grinning in achievement as she looked over at them. She was finally back to her loving acting self, and Ej was someone she had to thank for that.