Chapter Text
Going through the five stages of grief was a familiar feeling to Gina. It was something she experienced quite often whenever her mom told her they had to move again. Denial and anger usually mixed together and while they felt intense, they passed quickly. Bargaining was often fruitless so she would never stay in that stage for very long jumping almost immediately to depression. It was only recently that she realized that depression wasn’t just feeling sad, it went deeper than that, so while she always thought she reached acceptance within a few days of being told they were moving, in reality she was just burying her depression and circling back to anger as well. Now though she was aware she was truly in depression and anger. As she sat in her bed, so sad she could barely move, she heard a knock on her bedroom door.
“Go away, mom,” Gina tried not to sound upset but her voice trembled with sadness, “I’m fine.”
“You don’t sound fine,” a voice sounding nothing like her mother’s said through door.
“Ricky?” Gina said through tears as she went to open her bedroom door.
Standing there with a plastic bag in his hand and his backpack slung over his shoulder, wearing a sympathetic smile, was Ricky Bowen. Without even thinking about it Gina found herself wrapping her arms around Ricky and burying her face in his chest. Ricky returned the hug, careful not to let the bag in his hand, hit Gina in the back as she silently sobbed.
“I heard what happened,” Ricky whispered as he comfortingly stroked her back, “How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay,” Gina lied as she pulled back from the embrace.
“No you’re not,” Ricky responded seeing right through her, “and it’s okay to not be okay. This sucks.”
Gina wipes away her tears with her sleeve as she tries to put on a brave face saying, “Who was I kidding anyway? Who really gets to go from being nobody to a movie star at 16?” Gina makes her way back to her bed and plops down, thinking about what had happened.
Gina had found out just a few hours ago. She’d arrived on set to begin filming Romeo & Juliet but was met with the crew packing up everything. Gina quickly tracked down Quinn and found out what was happening. Apparently Disney was not a fan of Quinn’s artistic vision for High School Musical 4 and decided it wasn’t worth it to try to edit down 300 minutes of content to their 90 minute standard. With HSM4 scrapped, taking Gina’s debut on the silver screen with it, combined with Mack’s departure from the movie before filming, and no suitable replacement being found yet, the movie studio had lost faith in Quinn’s vision and decided to cut their losses. In the blink of an eye Gina went from being a movie star to just an ordinary high school student.
“It’s gonna happen Gi,” Ricky says confidently as he moves toward Gina, “you are going to be a star.”
“What if it’s not what I want anymore?” Gina asks. The truth is, after everything that had happened the past several months, nearly losing Ricky and her friends and the musical, plus all the drama she was still dealing with from the documentary, it had started to occur to her maybe fame wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
“Gina,” Ricky lovingly sighs, “you’ll be a star no matter what you decide to do. Whether it’s being in movies, or dancing, or becoming an astronomer and discovering Planet Gina, you are amazing and no matter where you go everyone is going to see that.”
“How do you know?” Gina asks, her defenses falling like they always did around Ricky.
“Because you’re already my star,” Ricky answers. “Without you I’d be directionless, I’d have no clue where I was going or even who I am. In fact you’re more than just a star to me you’re the Sun. You brighten up everything around me, and warm me to my core.” Gina already feels the cracks in her heart start to mend hearing Ricky speak, “I know that’s probably not a worthwhile consolation prize compared to starring in two movies but-”
“Ricky Bowen you are no consolation prize,” Gina interrupts her boyfriend. “Sure I loved being a movie star, and I liked the fame, but if I ever had to choose between that life and you, I choose you, every time. Even when I was going to New Zealand, I wasn’t going to let you go. I was going to figure out how to have it all, even if it was just through video call dates, and good night texts. I love you and I wasn’t going to quit on us.”
Ricky smiles, as relief washes over him and he says, “Glad to hear it.”
As the the two of them beam at each other a sudden thought occurs to Gina, “wait how did you even hear about the movie being canceled? Quinn told me the official announcement wasn’t until tomorrow.”
“Yeah, and I’m a little hurt you didn’t tell me immediately,” Ricky lightly scolds. Gina had wanted to call Ricky as soon as she was told about the movies being cut, but in order to raise his GPA Ricky was working on several extra credit assignments that were due in a few days so Gina didn’t call. “Ashlyn told me,” Ricky answers Gina’s question, “she told me after Maddox told her and I decided to come.”
“But your projects!”
“Are pretty much done,” Ricky informs, “I just have to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. And even if I didn’t, you’re more important to me than anything, and you’re hurting, so where else was I gonna be?” Gina knows that she should be encouraging Ricky to focus on his future, but she can’t deny it feels good to have her boyfriend prioritize her. “Anyway,” Ricky continues, “I would have been here sooner, but I stopped at the store to pick up some supplies.” Ricky reaches into the bag in his hand and pulls out a pint of ice cream, “one pint of your favorite ice cream.”
“I might need more than a pint,” Gina remarks as Ricky hands her the frozen confection with a spoon he clearly picked up from her kitchen.
“I thought you might, so there’s a half gallon chilling in your freezer,” Ricky states before continuing, “I also brought hot chocolate and root beer to drink, plus some popcorn to go with the movies.”
“Movies?”
“I went through all of our streaming services and picked out a selection of movies,” Ricky explains, “I’ve got movies for if you want a good laugh, movies for a good cry, movies that will make you laugh until you cry, and movies that are basically background noise so you can cry as much or as loud as you want. Whatever you need. And if none of those interest you,” Ricky swings his back pack around and opens it pulling out a box set of some kind, “I was saving this for your birthday, but you might need it now.”
Gina gasps as Ricky holds out her present, “the Mark and Spark Go To movie series?!” Mark and Spark had made a few tv movies during its run where Mark and Spark would go to a new place and have a wild misadventure. The series included a trip to Washington DC where they met the President and saved him from a bunch of cat assassins, a trip to Hollywood where they almost got made into tv show about themselves, and a trip to Hawaii where they entered and won a surfing competition against a merman. There was also a fourth movie that was so critically and fan reviled it had only aired once and then was only available on a limited Blu-Ray release set that was nearly impossible to find or afford. “Does that include…?”
“Yep, Mark and Spark Go To Halloweentown, the crossover between Mark and Spark and the Halloweentown movies,” Ricky confirmed, “A movie so bad that I found out that Mack is actually contractually obligated to deny its existence.”
“Ricky this must have cost a fortune.”
“No,” Ricky shakes his head unconvincingly, “unrelated though, our dates for the next couple of months will be in walking distance for no particular reason and I’m going on an all water diet for that same amount of time.”
Gina laughs as she says, “you didn’t have to go to all this trouble. This was way too much for my birthday, which is still weeks away.”
“Does it make you happy?” Ricky asks and Gina nods, a huge smile on her face, “then it was worth every penny just to see you smile.” Ricky leans down and kisses her and Gina’s bad day was exponentially improved. “I just hope you’re okay with your new present for your birthday? Spoiler alert: It’s a song.”
“Sounds perfect,” Gina says as she leans up to kiss Ricky again. Each time their lips touch Gina can feel her sour mood improving. As she drops down back into her mattress Gina notices something else in Ricky’s backpack. “What else have you got in there?”
“I almost forgot, I brought my pajamas so we can cuddle,” Ricky says as he pulls out the aforementioned pajamas, “this way I can stay as long as you want me to.”
“What if I want you to stay forever?” Gina playfully asks.
Ricky chuckles, “hey, I’m on board as long as you tell your mom I’m gonna be your new roommate.” At the mention of her mother, Gina groaned. “You haven’t told her yet about the movies, have you?”
“No,” Gina sheepishly answers, “the worst part is I don’t know how she’s going to react.” Gina used to be able to predict her mom’s reactions to everything, they usually ranged from disinterested to disappointed, but her mom was trying to be more supportive but also would spiral back into old habits, so how Gina’s mom would react was anyone’s guess.
“I’m sure she’ll be loving and supportive,” Ricky suggests as Gina shrugs her shoulders in defeat, “no matter how she handles the news, I promise I’ll be here to hold your hand through everything.” Ricky takes Gina’s hand and gives her a comforting squeeze to seal his point.
“Thank you, but I don’t want to think about that right now,” Gina declares, “right now I want to snuggle my boyfriend, watch a movie, and eat ice cream.”
“I better go changed then while you pick what to watch.”
Ricky goes to turn but is stopped by Gina saying, “Ricky wait.” Ricky faces Gina and she pulls on the front of his shirt as she strains her self upward from her seated position to get one last kiss from him before she whispers, “thank you for this. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Ricky whispers back as he gently kisses her one more time before she releases his shirt and falls back to the bed. Ricky smiles at Gina as she opens up her pint of ice cream and Ricky says, “save me a few bites.”
Gina giggles as she facetiously replies, “if you want some you better hurry back.”
Like a shot Ricky was out of her room, rushing to get changed to cuddle. It had been a bad day, but since Ricky had arrived it hadn’t been so terrible, and just as Gina heard Ricky struggling with the bathroom door for him to change into his pajamas, for the briefest of moments she forgot what had made her sad in the first place. Maybe this time, with a little help Gina would finally be able to reach acceptance.