A few minutes later the three of them arrive at Ashlyn's house and Ricky was the first to go inside. Ellie held the door open for Gina since she was carrying the cupcakes she brought.

" Hi, Nini." Gina greets as Ellie walks in and closes the door behind her. She looks over at Nini and sends her a smile.

Nini smiled back at her, but Ellie could tell that she was surprised for some reason she didn't understand.

" Happy Thanksgiving." Ellie and Gina both say to Nini.

Nini smiled and nodded. She chuckled nervously as she pointed at the cupcakes. " Turkey cupcakes. Gobble gobble."

" It's a gluten-free cupcake recipe I made from scratch." Gina told Nini with a smile.

" I assume with help from Youtube?" Ellie teases while Gina rolled her eyes and chuckles. " You are correct."

Ricky chuckled. " Again? With you and Youtube."

Ellie noticed that Nini looked awkward with this situation and it probably was awkward for her, she honestly felt bad for Nini.

Nini made eye contact with her and mouthed, " What are they talking about?"

" Nothing important." Ellie mouthed back to her and sent her a reassuring smile, hoping to calm Nini's nerves.

The four of them moved into the living room where everyone was sat on the floor at the coffee table. She noticed that Avalon an d Trevor weren't there and she knew it was because they were both spending time with their big families.

" What is this masterpiece?" Ellie asked with a smile as she pointed to the homemade game.

" The one and only board game The High School Musical; The Choosical." Carlos replied with a proud smile.

" That I made myself."

" Wow, it looks great." Ellie grinned and after being told what side each teams were, she joined the Knights team, sitting between Ashlyn and Ricky.

Carlos then began explaining the rules of the game and after they decided who was going first, Knights picked their first topic which was
' Looking for Glee'. 

It was tough at first, but they quickly got the hang of singing ' What I've been looking for' to the rythm of ' Get your head in the game' as quick as they could. Minutes past as alterations of the two teams happened with different topics.

Ellie had to admit so far that her favorite moment of the night was of Ricky and EJ having to do the Ryan and Sharpay warm ups without laughing. She couldn't help but laugh along with the rest of the cast and she had no idea how the boys didn't start laughing while doing the warm ups. At the end both teams got a point for not breaking. 

She needed a break from the laughing and decided to get something to drink, Gina wanted something as well so they walked into the kitchen together not expecting to run into Nini. Ellie moved around Nini and got herself a bottled water while Nini got herself and Gina a root beer.

" Crazy how many people made it to the party." Nini commented as she walked to the island table and Gina went to sit at the counter as Ellie closed the fridge.

" My mom and I had a really nice meal, but when you're new in town with no other family, there's only so much time you can sit around complimenting the green beans." Gina admitted and the girls shared a laugh.

" I guess you're, uh, new in town a lot?" Nini questioned as she opened her root beer.

Ellie frowned as Gina nodded. " Yeah, going on six straight years."

" That must be tough." Ellie chimed in.

Gina nodded once again. " Yeah, but I do have high hopes for junior year, East High.

" It's been nice sometimes, though, right? Getting a chance to start fresh?" Nini asked her.

" Is this, like, where I make a wish, or..." Gina started.

Nini shrugged her shoulders as she chuckled. " If you wanna swap bodies I'm down."

" I don't know about you two, but I like to keep my body." Ellie commented and the three of them laughed as they were called back into the living room since they said that the three of them were missing the game.

" We better get back in there before they come in here and drag us there." Ellie chuckled and the two nodded in agreement.

" You guys are staying the night, right?" Nini asked them before she walked into the living room.

Ellie and Gina shared a confused look before looking at Nini while Gina asked, " What do you mean?"

Nini gestured over her shoulder at Ashlyn. " Ashlyn's having the girls stay over for a sleepover. Apparently there's a Ouija Board in the attic."

" As long as Carlos didn't make it, yes." Gina said and Ellie nodded in agreement as she pointed at Gina. " I agree with that." she looked over at Nini as she added, " And also a yes from me."

Nini smiled at them. " Okay." she and Ellie walked back into the living room just as they were doing a group picture.

Ellie went around the couch, leaning her arms on it and EJ, who was sitting on the right arm of the couch, wrapped a friendly arm around her, not wanting her to feel left out. They shared a smile while laughter filled the room as Nini laid across everyone's laps.

" Gina, come on!" Carlos said, after realizing Gina wasn't with them and gestured for Gina to come over to them.

After the picture they got back to the game and Ellie was sitting on the floor besides the chair Ricky was sitting in.

" Okay, you guys," Carlos called out, making the chattering in the room quiet. " according to the High School Musical; the Choosical; the Rusical handbook..."

" Stop it." EJ said as he shook his head with a grin on his face and some of the cast laughed.

" The only way to resolve a tie at the end of the regulation play is with a lightening speed of  ' Getcha head in the frame' trivia questions." Carlos explained. " Are you ready? Because people have been known to cry during this."

" I thought you've actually never played this..." Seb said and Ellie pointed at him as she nodded. " That's exactly what I was thinking."

" Honey, not today of all days." Carlos said dramatically as some of the cast members chuckled. He looked at the cards in his hands. " Okay, here we go."

After multiple questions were asked and answered. The question before the last one, EJ cheated on so the Wildcats didn't get a point. The last question was for the West High Knights.

" What is the name of the girl who pops and locks it?" Carlos asked. Almost immdiatley, Gina stood up and did the same move Martha Cox did in the movie as she sang, " I love to pop and lock and jam and break."

Most of the cast laughed as she did this, including Ellie. " That wasn't a name, that was singing." she teased.

Gina childishly stuck her tongue out at her and Ellie giggled. " Martha Cox!" she answered the question Carlos asked.

" The West High Knights win!" Carlos cheered as he threw red confetti in the air and the team cheered while the other team congratulated them. Carlos then picked up a red ribbon pin and carried it as if it was delicate while he walked to Gina.

" You, my dear, get this homemade Scholastic Decathlon Ribbon." Carlos smiled and Gina grinned. " Okay, wait, everybody get in." she stopped him before he put it on her shirt and got her phone out, getting ready to take a picture. Ellie stood up and stood besides Ashlyn in the back and smiled at how happy Gina was.

" Okay, hold on," Gina said after the picture was taken. " I need to share this with my loved ones." she grinned while Carlos was hooking the pin onto her shirt.

Carlos moved out of the way and everyone was quiet so Gina could call her mom. Ellie moved back to sit on the floor she was at earlier as Gina put her mom on speaker after not being able to hear her. " Okay, mom, you're on speaker."

" Say Happy Thanksgiving to my mom, everyone." Gina tells everyone.

" Happy Thanksgiving!" everyone yells and it was silent for a moment before they heard the laughter of Gina's mom.

" Same to all of you." gina's mom said and everyone smiled. " Gina, honey, can you take me off of speaker?"

" Um...yeah," gina took her mom off of speaker and looked at everyone apologetically. " sorry guys." she apolgozied before she went to stand near the front door so she could continue talking to her mom.

Things felt off as Gina was on the phone with her mom. Ellie was sure she wasn't the only one who heard Gina's voice raise slightly and as she glanced over, Gina was walking off to the kitchen and she looked upset.

" I'm gonna go check on her." Ellie spoke up as she stood up. She walked to the kitchen, not seeing  that Ricky was going into the kitchen as well.

Ellie was the first to walk into the kitchen seeing that Gina had all of her things packed. " Gina, are you okay?"

" Nope." Gina answered. " Hopefully I will be."

" Do you want to talk about it or..." Ricky got off of the counter he was sitting on as he looked at Gina.

" Not even a little." Gina replied back rather quickly.

" We will keep in touch." ellie said and Ricky nodded in agreement.

" You guys heard what happened." Gina sighed. " I don't think there's any point of keeping in touch anymore, do you?"

Ellie frowned at hearing this, tears threatening to escape her eyes as Gina walked out of Ashlyn's house. " Do you want me to take you home?" Ricky asked Ellie, frowning when he noticed the tears in her eyes. He hated it when people cried, he especially hated it when Ellie cried.

She nodded, wiping some of the tears from her eyes. " Yeah, that would be great."

- ˏˋ  I know it's probably dumb to be crying at the moment, but I don't want to lose Gina. She's one of my best friends. I mean, she even made me a gift for crying out loud. No one has ever done that for me and...I'm just gonna miss her a lot. ˎˊ-

The two got their jackets on and walked towards the door. " Hey, are you guys alright?" Nini asked as she walked over to them, furrowing her eyebrows together when she noticed it looked like Ellie was crying and in response Ellie looked down.

" Yeah, I guess so." she answered while Ricky rather harshly asked, " What?"

" Uh, that was pretty intense." Nini continued and the two nodded.

" Nini, we were there." Ellie reminded her.

" I know you've been going through a lot..." Nini started as she looked at Ricky, but he cut her off. " Nini, please don't do that."

She looked at him with hurt. " I'm just trying to help you."

" It's not just Gina, okay?" Ricky said. " It's parents, mom moving out and her new boyfriend. It's a lot happening, but I think I'm okay. I got Ellie to help me, you don't need to try." ellie was speechless as he told Nini this and she was sure her face was a shade of pink. She didn't think that he was going to add her into this conversation.

" So at least you talked about your mom-" Nini tried saying before Ricky cut her off once again.

" Yeah, thanks." Ricky rolled his eyes. I really don't need advice from a ' buddy' right now, like I said, I'm okay. If I need to talk to someone about it, I'll talk to Ellie."

Ellie stood there quietly, in shock of what was happening. Nini looked like she wanted to say something else as Ricky moved towards the door where Ellie was standing at. " Come on." he said, grabbing onto Ellie's hand and pulled her along with him as he quickly opened the door and the two walked out before Nini could say anything.

" Do you want to stay over at my place?" ellie asked him, figuring that he wouldn't want to go back to his house after he dropped her off.

Ricky was silent as they walked to his car, still holding hands. He felt bad for being rude to Nini, but he was just upset with everything going on, his emotions got the better of him.

" We can have a disney movie marathon." Ellie added which got Ricky's attention.

" Okay, I'm in." Ricky smiled at her as she grinned.

A/N so sorry if it took me awhile to update this book, but I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I honestly had fun writing it & I'm currently loving ellie & ricky!! also don't forget to check out some of my other books!