how you get the girl

chapter two
( takes place in 1x01 'the auditions' )

"one condition though."
"what's that?"
"you have to promise you won't
fall in love with me."

- A WALK TO REMEMBER

None of the theatre kids had made an effort to speak to Izzy during auditions, and she didn't blame them. Most of them had been doing musicals together for years or went to theatre camp like E.J and Nini did. Izzy was the newcomer, she didn't expect them to welcome her with open arms. Which was why she was a bit surprised when the blond boy who had been playing the piano approached her when she was packing up her bag after auditions.

"Hey, um, I'm Seb," The blond boy said, his voice soft, and Izzy smiled softly when he looked down at his shoes, an action she was very familiar with.

"I'm Izzy," She replied and he nodded. It occurred to her that he probably already knew that, he had probably heard Miss Jenn call her name during the auditions, but she wasn't sure what else to say in response.

"I just wanted to tell you that you did really great today," Seb said and Izzy fought to bite back her smile. She hadn't been expecting any compliments for her singing and yet this was her second one today.

"Thank you, you did too. You're going to make a great Sharpay," Izzy said, referring to the role that Seb had tried out for, and his cheeks turned pink at the compliment.

"Oh, I don't know," Seb said, looking down at his shoes again.

"No, I'm sure of it, you killed your audition," Izzy said and he smiled gratefully at the compliment.

"Um, I heard that Miss Jenn is posting the cast list already. Do you wanna go and check it out together?" Seb asked shyly and Izzy smiled.

"I'd love to."

They exited the theatre together and began to walk down the hallway to where a small group had already formed around the bulletin board, and Izzy guessed that the cast list had already been posted. She tried to walk on her tip toes as they pulled up to the group, but she couldn't quite see over the heads of some of the taller people in front of her. Fortunately, Seb didn't share that struggle.

"Oh my god, I got Sharpay! And you get Kelsi!" He announced with a squeal, grasping her wrist in excitement, and even though the musical was simply a ploy to get E.J. to spend more time with her, she couldn't help but feel pleased at securing a part.

"And-oh my god," His change in tone made Izzy frown.

"What? What is it?" Izzy asked, resisting the urge to jump up and down so she could see over people's heads.

"Nini's playing Gabriella and...Ricky's playing Troy. E.J. is his understudy," Seb said and Izzy's mouth fell open slightly in shock. She tried to get a glimpse of their faces and finally caught sight of them at the front of the group, Nini in the middle with a boy on either side of her.

E.J. forehead vein was popping out like never before, Nini looked confused and a little unsure, and Ricky looked surprised yet satisfied. Izzy nearly laughed out loud at the sight. She hadn't even completed step one yet and her plan was already falling into place perfectly. Fate was a funny, funny thing.

.⋅ ✯ ⋅.

After an eventful afternoon, Izzy was feeling much better than she had that morning, and she was waiting for her mom to come pick her up so she could share her good mood with her. She wouldn't share her plan with her mom because although she loved her and knew that she would support her through anything, Izzy's plan was a level of unhinged that she knew nobody, not even Cara or her mom would understand.

She was standing on the sidewalk in front of the school entrance, humming her audition song, when she felt someone bump into her from behind. She turned to find Ricky Bowen.

"Crap, sorry, I wasn't looking," He mumbled and he began to turn away.

"You're Ricky, right?" Izzy asked, making him pause. Despite the fact that they had technically grown up together, their interactions had stopped after kindergarten. They were practically strangers. This was like their first meet. How ironic that they met up by quite literally bumping into each other, one of the oldest meet-cutes in the book.

"Congrats on Troy," She added and he smiled lightly at her, finally meeting her eyes. They were brown like hers, but a lighter brown. Where hers were dark and intense, his were soft and kind. They were eyes that were easy to fall in love with, like a puppy's. Izzy found she understood Nini a bit better now.

"Thanks. You're Izzy right? E.J.'s ex," Ricky said and her smile held a touch of bitterness.

"I'd like to think that I'm known for more than just that," Izzy said with a shrug, and Ricky flushed, realizing his mistake.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that, it's just- he's sorta dating my ex-girlfriend right now and I just...I don't know." Ricky said, shaking his head and looking down.

"Right. Nini. That was a nice song she wrote for you. Pretty," Izzy added and Ricky's head shot up in surprise.

"You recognized it?" He asked and she shrugged.

"I mean, that's what you're known for, right? Being Nini's ex?" She said and it took him a second to realize that she was teasing him for his comment earlier and he looked down again, but this time to hide his smile.

"I get it, you know. Still having feelings for an ex that dumped you. It sucks," Izzy said quietly and Ricky frowned.

"I didn't get-" He began, but he stopped himself when she gave him a knowing look. There was no use in being defensive when they both knew the truth.

"You got dumped over the summer too?" He asked, shoulders slumping slightly in defeat, and she nodded.

"Yeah. Through a voicemail, actually," She added and he let out a low whistle.

"Damn. That's brutal." Ricky said and Izzy nodded, looking down at the floor with a frown, playing the heart-broken ex-girlfriend for a second, instead of the conniving crazy ex that she actually was. She had him right where she wanted him now.

"There's a way you could get her back you know," Izzy said casually, but she knew that he had taken the bait when he looked up quickly, nearly snapping his neck off in the process.

"What?" He asked, looking at her in disbelief, and she met his eyes, trying to make her gaze as sincere as his, but she couldn't help but feeling a bit evil, using his feelings for her benefit like that.

"We both want the same thing, okay? We both want our exes back. And I know a way we can do that if we work together," Izzy said and Ricky's gaze went from surprised to suspicious.

"What are you talking about?" Ricky asked and Izzy took a deep breath in preparation. This was it. This was the moment that would either make or break her whole plan.

"I have this...idea on how we can get our exes back. Think of it as a ruse, or as acting pratice for the musical." Izzy began and Ricky stared at her, clearly confused. "I think that if me and you pretend to date for a little bit, maybe a few months, then we can get our exes back." Izzy said and it took a second for her words to sink in before Ricky was rolling his eyes and turning away from her.

"That's insane. You are insane." Ricky said as he began to walk away, but she hurried after him, catching his arm and making him stop to turn and look at her.

"Look, I know, okay? I know it sounds crazy and insane and like it would never ever work, but trust me, it will. Our actions today, both mine and yours, was proof enough that E.J. and Nini's relationship is fragile. If we can cause that much damage in a day separately, imagine how much we could accomplish together," Izzy said, tugging on the sleeve of his hoodie to get him to look at her again because he was shaking his head.

"It won't work," Ricky protested, meeting her eyes again and she tried to hold his gaze so he would see her sincerity, her actual sincerity this time.

"I promise it will. As long as we work together, it will work. We can be a team, hell, we can even have a team name. We can be like team...team bitter exes, or something," Izzy said and Ricky frowned at the nickname, but didn't pull his sleeve out of her grasp which Izzy took note of. If he really didn't believe in her at all then he would've walked away when she first proposed the plan, it wasn't exactly like she had the strength to stop him. But he had chosen to stay.

"I'm not bitter," He argued and she gave him a disbelieving look.

"Don't even try to deny it, it's written all over your face," Izzy said and Ricky sighed, looking down at where her fingers were latched onto his hoodie, and she looked down too. "Come on, what do you have to lose?"

"I don't know, maybe my dignity?" Ricky offered and Izzy couldn't help but scoff.

"Oh please, you lost that the second you performed that song at auditions," Izzy said and Ricky rolled his eyes before looking down at her hand again. He was silent for a second.

"It's never going to work, okay? They've moved on, we should too," He said quietly and Izzy could tell that he was trying to convince himself just as much as he was trying to convince her. She nearly had him, she just needed one last thing, the last nail in the coffin, so to speak.

"She's still in love with you, you know," Izzy said quietly, and he looked up at her in surprise. "I could see it on her face when you were singing that song. She's not over you and I bet she'd be willing to get back together with you. All she needs is a little push. That's all they both need."

There was silence for ten agonizing seconds (Izzy counted them), before Ricky finally sighed.

"What are the conditions?" He asked and she bit back her smile.

"I only have two, at the moment at least." Izzy said, letting go of his sleeve to reach into her pocket, and she pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper. It was a different one than the one she had been working on at lunch, this one was titled "Ricky and Izzy's Fake Dating Pact", and below it were two bullet points.

"Number one," Izzy read aloud, clearing her throat slightly, and Ricky watched her amusedly. "We can never ever telling anybody about this, ever. Not our families or our friends. It would be too embarrassing," Izzy read and Ricky scoffed.

"Yeah, obviously, that's a given," Ricky said and Izzy nodded.

"And number two, and I know this might be a difficult one for you, but try not to fall in love with me," Izzy teased and Ricky gave her a mocking smile as he clutched his heart sarcastically.

"I'll do my best," He said dryly and she rolled her eyes.

"So, do we have a deal?" She asked, holding out her hands, and this time it was him who rolled his eyes.

"Deal," He said, and they shook on it. "Would you like me to sign the pact?" He asked sarcastically and she rolled her eyes again. She could already tell that she was going to be doing a lot of that around him.

"Yeah, that would be great actually," Izzy said, just to spite him, and he gave her a look but she just smiled sweetly at him, making him sigh and a dig a pen out of his bag, producing a red one with a badly bent cap. They walked over to a bench and set the paper against it so that they would have a hard surface and Izzy pulled out a pen of her own, a blue one, and they both signed their names at the bottom of the page.

"Great. Welcome to Team Bitter Exes, Ricky Bowen," Izzy said with a grin and Ricky sighed.

"I still don't like that team name, Izzy Cortez,"

.⋅ ✯ ⋅.

author's note!

first episode is completed! i'm sorry there was such a long wait between the first half of the episode and the second half, but i wanted to plan out the rest of the season a little more before publishing this chapter.

i'm already in love with ricky and izzy and i'm so excited to write more of their 온라인카지노게임 and i hope you guys are excited too!

thank you all so much for reading and i hope to see you soon in the next chapter! stay safe!

- maya 💗