Title: sometimes we have to get lost in order to meet us again Fandom:High School Musical: The Musical: The Series Prompt: Leave Me Alone Character(s):Ricky Bowen Warnings:Bad Parenting,Gender Dysphoria, Gender Stereotypes and Misgendering (both accidental and not) Summary: R. always knew there was something about them that makes them different from the rest. But they could never indulge in it until now: “I don’t feel like a girl,” they breathed out all at once, and it was as if Atlas was taking the world off their shoulders.
“This character isn’t a lesbian” I DON’T CARE. You think whatever the hell you want, I’m sticking with my headcanons. Don’t like it? Then you can fuck off
what i would like to see in season 2 (and 3 tbh) of high school musical: the musical: the series
nini goes to YAC. she has to do it or all that she has been preaching about being her own person and not being so boy-dependent during season 1 will be even more in vain. she leaves but she and ricky decide to try long distance, because they just got back together and don’t want to lose each other again so soon. although he doesn’t say it to her or show it when they talk/facetime, he is devastated. he is lost. he needs someone to understand what it’s like and the only person who can do that is gina, who is so used to moving all the time and is now back at east high, staying at ashlyn’s. at first he is a little bit reluctant, as he was in the season finale, because he doesn’t trust people to come back in his life, he’s one of those “everyone always leave” kind of person. after a while though he lets her back in, because he needs her and because she doesn’t stop trying to be there for him, because she knows. and they bond over that like, a lot. they become closer and closer, they hang out all the time, and gina slowly starts to catch feelings for him (or better the feelings she already had but pushed back to make him happy at the end of the first season grow deeper). she doesn’t say a word until they perform in the musical and she realizes she can’t hold it anymore: she goes to find him and tell him how she feels but finds out that nini is back, like for good. so she gives up, this time for real, which leads to gina finding a boyfriend in season 3. seeing them together and being actually back with nini makes ricky realize that he doesn’t love her anymore and the girl he actually has feelings for is, in fact, gina.
meanwhile, kourtney and ej, who are the leads of their rendition of beauty and the beast, bond and find comfort in each other - and eventually fall in love - over nini’s departure. but when she comes back, she kinda bursts their bubble and angst between the two ensues, as well as a rocky relationship between nini and kourtney, which ends up in the latter finally standing up for herself. nini will have a little bit of a hard time between this and her relationship with ricky but it’ll be what she needs to finally find herself and be who she really is.
my thoughts on the rina/rini situation (not that anybody cares)
i ship rina and i don’t like nini. this had to be said.
regardless of either of these things, i truly believe that making rini endgame would be the wrong move. not only because it’s the easy and predictable route and frankly quite boring (and with what i’ve seen so far i trust the writers enough to do better, even though it’s a disney show), but because it would be so important to teach kids and teenagers, which are ofc the main demographics of the show, that:
a relationship can fail and it’s okay.
even though the heartbreak from said failed relationship seems unbearable and it feels like the end of the world, it is not and you will find love again.
it’s okay to move on.
and finally that exes can still care about each other and be friends.
although we might want to believe it, more often than not our first love doesn’t last. let’s not further fill kids’ heads with unrealistic expectations about love and give them something they can relate to and learn from.
nini salazar roberts, you cannot repeatedly tell someone you want to be just friends, and then get salty when they start to move on. girl at this point you have brought this on yourself.
did any of you guys realize that ricky knew nini’s song to him (i think i kinda you know) by heart? for his audition, he PERFORMED it. but nini archived the video??? which means he probably screen-recorded it or something before it was archived. and during their break over the summer he probably watched it so many times as he ended up learning all the lyrics AND how to play it on the guitar!!!
parallels between troy & gabriella and ricky & nini
troy/ricky auditioned for the musical in spite of gabriella/nini.
initially chad and big red (troy & ricky’s best friends) weren’t too keen on them auditioning, but later showed support.
both troy and ricky were LATE to their auditions. idk why carlos said troy would be on time LMAO.
troy and gabriella talk abt meeting a kid in kindergarten and becoming best friends. ricky and nini actually were best friends since kindergarten.
“can i have this dance” / “to the night that we danced” both lyrics talking abt dancing together
gabriella did church choir. nini was a chorus girl.
both troy and ricky’s dads were surprised with their sons’ decision to become a part of the musical, but later were happy for them.
gabriella moves away early for standford. nini might be considering moving away for yca.
when gabriella wanted to audition, troy volunteered to help her bc miss darbus said she needed to be in a pair. during nini’s performance in the dark, ricky turned on his phone light to help her out.
as ryan and gina got friendlier with gabriella and ricky, troy and nini got a little jealous, but never truly acted on it and were still neutral to ryan and gona
sharpay / gina usually get the leads so they wanted to jeopardize gabriella’s audition / nini’s spot in the play since it’s rare that they don’t get the leads
troy & gabriella constantly miss the kiss. this slowly had become a trend of ricky & nini too.
“plans change & people change,, gotta go my own way” -gabriella / “chill for a minute,, take a temporary pause.” -ricky. both couples experienced a significant sort of break.
gabriella asking troy about trust, and him saying he never wanted to hurt her. ricky telling nini he thought there was a little trust left between them and that he still meant something to her.
gabriella said troy was changing and basically broke up with him. nini said she changed in the summer after her break with ricky.
before gabriella moved out she kept a framed photo of her and troy in her bedroom. nini has a framed photo of her and ricky on her dresser.
troy left the final show to go after gabriella. ricky dropped out of the show bc he thought it would give her the best chance at the performing arts school.
miss darbus believed troy would be in good consideration for julliard, as did kourtney for nini towards yca.
troy got gabriella a “T” necklace, nini got a dog tag necklace for ricky.
sharpay/gina also worked with other characters (ryan, ej) to jeopardize troy & gabriella and ricky & nini
ryan helped troy and gabriella reunite in the song “everyday,” as did ej did for ricky and nini in “breaking free”
sharpay/gina eventually becomes friends with gabriella/nini
gabriella had stage-fright and froze before she sang breaking free. nini froze upon seeing ricky and gina before continuing the breaking free scene.
troy says to gabriella, “look at me, look at me. right at me.” nini repeats this line to ricky, “look at me, ricky. right at me.” although this was a scripted line (meant to be said by ricky playing troy), nini uses his name as she was speaking as herself to him to help him feel better- like troy trying to help out gabriella.
gabriella surprised troy by randomly singing to him in the song “everyday,” like how nini surprised ricky by leaving the stage to sing breaking free to him.
troy & gabriella kissed at the end of hsm2 and when they reunited in hsm3. ricky and nini finally got their kiss at the end of the season. (also all of these kisses were basically make-outs HAHAH)
gabriella seemed hesitant on telling troy about moving to standford early. when nini is given the yca position, she looks uneasy when ricky calls after her.
during “16” when troy got pushed to the ground and could barely breathe, he looked for gabriella in the audience to talk him through it. when ricky was thrown off by seeing his mom’s boyfriend, he could barely process anything and wanted to see nini so she could give him a pep talk.
gabriella couldn’t make it to prom because she made the choice to leave for standford. nini needed a break from the drama in her life and decided not come to homecoming.
troy says to gabriella, “you might be ready to say goodbye to east high, but east high isn’t ready to say goodbye to you.” / ricky confessing to nini, “i want this feeling to keep going. because this whole experience- im not ready for it to be over.”
during their graduation, troy spins gabriella around and nudges her forward as he applauds her. after nini bows at the end of the musical, ricky pushes her to step ahead and applauds her.
“right here right now” / “just for a moment” were both songs that talked abt time and being together
