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hsmtmts-justsomewriting · 4 years ago

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Not to be your stereotypical second semester senior but EJ Caswell is a bit too busy to be thinking about sports metaphors...

(Alternative title- overcommitted..sounds like a Caswell)

Senior year was insanely busy. Being so overwhelmed EJ had been slowing down over the last couple weeks, but he was brushing it off just fine.

EJ has arrived late that day, which was unusual in itself, as he prides himself on being on time. Holding a half eaten packet of Oreos he shuffled into the rehearsal room slumping on the bleachers away from his chattering cast mates.

“EJ honey great you could join us, you’d think a senior couldn’t get lost in the halls!” Miss Jenn giggled at her own joke as the cast were suddenly alerted to the older boys presence. EJ absentmindedly nodded and grabbed out his script.

“Yeah...sorry..um...where are we at?”

“Page 63” “Cool... thanks”

Flipping to that part in the script, he looks up to take in the scene. Kourtney, Gina, Seb and Carlos are clearly half way through blocking a castle scene- Carlos complaining his arms are tired from ‘staying in character’, Kourtney and Seb working out where they are going to come in from and how to negotiate Sebs big box costume (although it’s proving very difficult considering the rehearsal room is about a quarter of the size of the stage) and Gina is animatedly discussing the scene choices with Miss Jenn.

Within an instant, EJ is startled from the scene as Natalie is beside him rambling something about ‘needing a fill in for cogworth’ ‘went home sick’. Sauntering up with his script, EJ’s vision goes spotted as he gets up from the bleachers. But as soon as it comes it’s gone.

He just needs to get through this rehearsal, then he can; go home, finish his debate speech, go over the plays for Friday’s waterpolo match, study for tomorrow’s maths assessment, start his exam notes, memorise his lines, work on his college applications, and maybe even get some sleep.

Joining the cast he tries to hide in the back corner. Following the basic blocking directions seemed harder than usual, his head had began to pound and fatigue hit him like a wave.

However he continued on, sluggish but present helping them to finish blocking the scene.

Walking back to his place on the bleachers EJ trips over his own feet. Catching himself before a big splat on the floor he is able to avoid the attention of his cast mates. Well mostly.

“EJ are you ok?”

EJ didn’t need to look up to know that his cousin had definitely seen his little trip.

“Yep fine”

“Ok try again but this time make it the truth”

Ashlyn was caring but firm, she definitely wasn’t going to brush it off. EJ could feel his facade fading under her concerned gaze. His voice drops low.

“I-i just don’t know... Ash, I’m trying-“

“ON TO THE NEXT SCENE Gaston and Le Fou, I need you boys to start down stage right”

EJ got up slowly, subtly steadying himself against a chair not to lose balance.

“Nevermind it’ll be fine”

EJ walks off, with that any vulnerablity on face vanishing, leaving Ashlyn’s stomach to churn in a pool of worry.

Being an after school rehearsal, most of the cast heads off after they start rehearsing the next scene as it only has Gaston and Le Fou. Leaving the rehearsal room with just Miss Jenn, Big Red, EJ, Ashlyn and Gina (the latter two who were waiting on the senior for a ride home).

EJ and Big Red slowly work through the dialogue, the scene is about as smooth as a clunky old railway track. After running it twice EJ feels like his words are melding into one. But pushing through, based off his poor entrenched habits, EJ made it through another run through of the scene.

“Um can we take a five?”

Miss Jenn looks at the senior perplexed, he’s never asked for a five. Ever.

“EJ honey is everything ok?”

“Hm, yeah just need a sec”

EJ’s exhausation catches up with him, the light seems to highlight the bags under his eyes. He drops onto the bleachers, resting his head in his hands he closes his eyes for a second.

“Miss Jenn, EJ doesn’t look so good maybe you guys should wrap this up for today-”

“Ash I’m-“

“No. You look exhausted! You barely have the energy to stand up for 10 minutes”

Ashlyn moves to grab him his drink bottle but runs into his iced coffee and Oreo packet first. She flinches. Her cousin never drinks coffee unless he purely needs the caffeine.

EJ freezes she moment he realises she’s seen it.

“When was the last time you slept?!”

All eyes are on him.

“James” His head snapped up. But he couldn’t look his cousin in the eye. Because then she’d see his eyes are glassy with unshed tears. His overwhelmed thoughts race through his mind.

“Ok I think we’ll pick this up next rehearsal, please be safe getting home and get some rest”

The four students start to pack up their bags, Ashlyn asking her boyfriend to give them all a lift. Turning to her cousin, helps him finish packing his stuff.

“You can stay in the guest room, we’re having lasagna tonight”

EJ too tired to protest, walks past his Jeep in the parking lot to get in a smaller orange bug car. He’ll have to come back for it tomorrow because there’s no way he could drive safely in his tired state.

The car ride home was eerily quiet, Ashlyn day in the passenger seat next to Big Red. He drove to Ashlyn’s house like a routine he knew by heart. Gina keep flicking worried glances at EJ but the senior didn’t even notice, having closed his eyes and resting against the window the moment he entered the car.

“Thanks for the ride Biggie”

Gina gentley nudged EJ and his eyes were open in an instant.

“Thanks Red” He mumbled as he got out of the car.

“No worries, take care guys”

As the orange car was disappearing into the distance, Ashlyn unlocked the front door. Gina and EJ follow her into the house.

“James lets go the living room”

EJ follows Ashlyn to the couch, and Gina continues past to grab a drink of water from the kitchen.

“What’s going on?”

Ashlyn puts a hand on his shoulder and gently squeezes it, grounding him and reminding him that she’s here to listen. He looks at the faded colourful rug and his words begin to vomit out softly.

“I’m just trying to get it all done ...and um.. for weeks I just never seem to have enough time, and I still have to do my study notes and finish my assessment and college apps tonight... but I’m just so tired...”

His voice cracks and the wall behind his eyes begin to break.

“I have to stay up so late, to get everything I have to all done...and then polo practice at the crack of dawn... i don’t know.. I just can’t... let anyone down..”

Ashlyn pulls EJ in tightly. His body wracked with sobs, her heart breaks as she hasn’t seen him like this in a long time. Gina initially freezes entering the room just as the senior had begun to cry but soon shifts over beside them engulfing them both in a hug.

Grabbing some tissues and a sip of water he’s able to stop his crying but his tense shoulders give away his overwhelmed mind.

“it will be ok, we’ll work this out. Everyone else will understand if everything is not done right now. You’ve got to take better care of yourself, what matters is if you are ok”

Gina nods in agreeance with Ashlyn as she comforts EJ.

“But for now you need to take a break, just have a quick nap before dinner in the guest room-“

“But I have to-“

“No James you need a rest, all this stuff can come later”

He sluggishly gets up heading for the guest room mumbling a “thanks Ash” as he retreats to his long awaited rest.

After he closes the door, Ashlyn lets out the breath she had been holding. She was convinced they would have to put up more of a fight to get him to go to sleep, but the fact that they didn’t was almost more concerning.

“He did seem a little bit off earlier in the week but yeah I had no idea that this was under the surface”

Gina says to break the silence created by her and Ashlyn’s shocked worry.

“Yeah he’s always been pretty good at bottling this stuff up, definitely a Caswell skill”

Ashlyn starts to pick up the tissues heading to the bin in the kitchen. Both the girls enter the kitchen to finish heating up the leftover lasagna they made yesterday.

While cooking the veggies the girls trade stories of earlier in the day and discuss the spotting of Miss Jenn and Mr Mazzarra at Sliced on Valentine’s. Just as they’re plating up, EJ reappears. He looks somewhat disheveled, wearing sweats and his usually spiked hair is messy like a 2012 Bieber hairstyle. His contacts are long gone being traded for his wide framed glasses.

“Feeling any better?”

Bringing the plates to the table they all sit in their usual seats.

“Yeah a little...thanks guys this looks amazing”

As if on cue his stomach grumbles with excitement and they dig into the food. The three teens continue to tell stories of their day. Although exhausted, a goofy smile makes its way onto EJ’s face while telling the girls about his classmate in English that tried justify his argument quoting spark notes, instead of the actual book.

Once they’re finished, EJ stacks and clears away the plates. Grabbing her laptop, Ashlyn creates a new copy of one of her old timetables modified with all EJ’s stuff. After cleaning the dishes, EJ plops down beside her and together they start to work out.

Half an hour and a warm hot chocolate later, they manage to finish a schedule that looks like it fit a bit of time for everything while keeping a heathy amount of rest time.

“Thank you so much Ash... I really appreciate it”

Ashlyn smiles back at her cousin.

“Just promise me you’ll take care of yourself, or at least you’ll let me know if you need help”

EJ engulfs her in a hug.

“Yeah I will, thanks”

As they both move to join Gina in the lounge room, EJ grabs his laptop to start completing his speech. Flopping down onto the couch, the tv is turned onto a Brooklyn Nine Nine halloween heist episode.

Taking EJs laptop at 9:30, the older boy fell asleep within an instant. Keeping to his promise, he followed the schedule he made with Ashlyn (most of the time at least) and finally learnt how to ask for help when he realised he couldn’t do it alone. And when he asked for help, Ashlyn and Gina were always there with an extra mug of hot chocolate.

Thanks for reading! I’m open to write prompts or suggestions

(...Also if anyone can think of any better names for this please comment because all my thoughts were low key trash😂)

#high school musical the musical the series #hsmtmts #hsmtmts season 2 #hsm the series #ej caswell #ashlyn caswell #gina porter

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hsmtmts-justsomewriting · 5 years ago

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Caswell cousins

I thought of writing this ages ago but forgot to finish it- so here is a small story about Ej and Ashlyns childhood.

Sorry this is kinda a mess and jumps all over the place lol. Anyway enjoy!

@uglyballerina @beese-is-cheese-for-bees

“I’m proud to call you my sister”

“-close enough”

Both being the only child in their families, the Caswell cousins were quite close. Ej’s parents worked a lot. They were people of high profile jobs, taking any opportunity to just drop their son around the corner to Dennis and Debbie’s house. Ashlyn was happy to see her cousin, but she could see it was kinda hard on him that he never got to spend time with his parents. He spent a lot of time at her house as a child, to the point he could walk around blindfolded (which he did do once to prove a point).

She was always there for him, and he was always there for her. He would always wait for her clubs to be finished to walk home from school together and they always shared what happened that day. You’d expect such a popular guy to complete disown his cousin, but it was more the other way around... Ej was terrified that he would eventually do something so stupid that Ashlyn would disown him. Even after some of the things he had already done, it as a wonder to him that she still hung out with him.

Growing up Ej was the first person she went to for advice. He was an intense people pleaser, but once he got comfortable he had no problems being very blunt. It meant she could always rely on him for truthful advice, of which her shy jazz musician and quiet writer parents usually were too nice to give.

So when she wrote her first song- he was the first to hear it. His loud thunderous applause made Ashlyn feel like she had written the greatest song in the world. Along with his encouragement, he suggested it needed an instrumental solo, his idea was to add a harmonica solo (something that was joked about for years to come). In the end, she added a beautiful piano solo in the middle, all jokes aside Ej knew that Ashlyn really had a gift for songwriting.

Something that was really a great way for her to express herself. Ej never really found his own expression til much later.

They grew up on the edge of new technology, seeing the ipod and ipad come through but they were nothing compared to the very first gadget they both owned, the Nintendo DS. As their parents worked through the day, leaving the two to their own devices, the Caswell cousins would often play pictochat hide and seek. Though they could only draw and type to each other they would spend hours trying to find the best spot that would leave the seeker scrambling.

The overall winner was Ej (or so he claims) because he once had the ‘genius’ idea of hiding in his parents car. It was the only time that Ashlyn had to actually accept defeat as the sun had set and their dinner was ice cold on the table.

His competitive spirit was clear from childhood. Ash knew when he said he played to win he wasn’t kidding.

Ashlyn had just finished fourth grade when they officially banned Caswell game nights in the house, after a night that went down in history as the 2013 Monopoly disaster. Ej wouldn’t speak to Ashlyn for over a week due his bruised pride (and that was even after flipping the table just before landing on Parklane). After that Debbie, Dennis, Carolyn and Adam all decided that it was probably better (and safer) to just have family dinners on Thursday nights.

As they grew older Ej and Ashlyn’s hobbies started to grow apart. Ashlyn had her clubs, her songs and Ej had his team but musical theatre was something they still shared.

2014 just starting year 7, Ej started to play waterpolo, he was always quite a strong swimmer- never fast enough for the big leagues but had the perfect upper body strength from basketball. He loved it, although his competitive nature definitely got the better of him a lot.

Waterpolo has one major risk of injury, well whether you can call it injury is subjective, but one major risk of the water sport....sunburn. Ej’s play to win attitude always court him out in one way or another, Ashlyn knew this quite well.

However it had never been so evident until he rocked up for Friday night family dinner with every visible area of skin a rich red lobster colour that could made him hiss every time he had to move. After finishing dinner the two went to the living room, as their parents started an in depth discussion about whatever drama or crisis they were facing. Both Caswell kids were quite oblivious to this at the time, but EJ knew the looks that his parents would give each other meant there was something going on. Anyway, the two went on the night playing some version of ‘New Super Mario Bros’ on the Wii. They had done this for years- it was a constant they could always count on. As Ej got older and stopped openly talking about what he was going through, Ashlyn knew a couple rounds of the Mario/ Luigi power team would help him settle down and let it out.

Due to his parents lack of attention, Ashlyn knew that her cousin had always craved positive praise and interest from other people. He used his insta ‘fame’ to try and fill the void but she knew empty likes and followers would never fix something like that. After a disappointing Waterpolo game, he lost the game, his parents didn’t come and the team had a go at him, the cousins started their trek back home down Pakington Road. Ash suggested that they have a look at the Pet Shelter and she knew cuddling all the animals could get anyone out of a bad, self deprecating mood.

After spending a little while playing with all the tiny kittens Ashlyn looked up to see Ej in the corner slumped against the wall patting a small Labrador puppy. The lop sided grin Ej made as the puppy wagged his tail, Ashlyn knew that the little dog had captured his heart already. Preceding a long argument with his parents, he finally convinced them to let him adopt the puppy.

Practically prancing down to the shelter, Ej adopted Remy, and made sure that the little puppy would never feel rejected again.

Having Remy around had confirmed one thing for Ash, although she loved the dog, she was definitely a cat person.

Since Ej got Remy, and managed to look after him by himself, it was a lot easier to convince her parents that she could have a pet. If Ej could do it�� she could definitely do it.

Ash knew the moment she saw her curled up in the shelter that she couldn’t leave without her. Soft spoken meows, cautious, it was such a contrast to the brash energy that Remy had. Scarlett was the smallest of the litter, she was a gorgeous little Burmese cat.

Scarlett was always there for Ash, listening to her practice lines, watching her bake cakes, looking unimpressed when Ej would tell Ashlyn all the dumb things he managed to get up to, and being the very first fan of all her songs (as she would always make a little meow at the end).

Unfortunately, Ashlyn is the only person Ej trusts to look after Remy when he’s not home. Safe to say, Scarlett is not impressed. Remy and Scarlett tried, well at least Remy did, bouncing around the small cat wanting to play a game. Scarlett was very displeased with the notion of having to entertain the dog, so she found a loving sunny spot near the windowsill and decided to have a siesta for the arvo.

They have been there for each other through thick and thin, including discovering and having a rough lesson in heartbreak.

The very first girl Ej Caswell ever really liked was Anna Madden. It was freshman year and Ashlyn had seen the way his eyes would light up every time she was mentioned or how whenever she would call he couldn’t help but smile. But the problem with Ejs love life is he would fall hard, and fast. Saying ‘I love you’ way too early or something just as scary to a freshman who doesn’t understand commitment. After Anna dumped him for Justin, the captain of the Basketball team, Ej shut down for a while. He didn’t express his emotions as openly as his former self, he felt the rejection of his childhood once again.

Ej didn’t know why he was such an a**hole after that. He always tried to do the right thing, but at the end of the day, his lack of regard for the consequences of his actions would always come back to bite him. He really did want to have a relationship, be a good boyfriend but he was terrified of reliving the rejection, so he just had causal flings. Winked at all the girls, hanging out but at a far enough distance so that he didn't get too involved.

So when Ashlyn heard that he told Nini that he loved her- Ashlyn knew that she was different. She knew her cousin had messed up, and so did he, but she tried to plead with Nini... knowing that the girl had unlocked a part of Ej that Ashlyn thought was long gone.

Their personalities were really quite different.

Although somewhat quiet at school, Ashlyn was quite a loud person a home. She was a chatterbox that would spend every dinner retelling the details of her day with great dramatic hand gestures. Like the time she was in fifth grade, and people started a riot outside the canteen because raised the price of cookies from 50 cents to a dollar. She never really had this confidence at school but Ej knew the bright dramatic personality that hid in the shy school girl.

Ej however was rather the opposite. It was almost like his outside life he was constantly trying to entertain everyone and make them happy, while painting himself as a cool, smart and all around good guy. His constant façade was rather tiring for a guy that liked to go home and spend an hour reading the works of William Shakespeare every night.

But through all their differences (and all of Ejs stupid choices) the Caswell cousins were always there for each other. Advice, a laugh, a dangerously competitive game- they would always have each other’s backs.

#hsmtmts season 2 #hsmtmts #high school musical the musical the series

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