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“She’s in love with EJ Caswell, and nothing has ever made quite as much sense to her as this does.”

— then somebody bends, unexpectedly. by @lovelyserpentines | fic link here

OKAY this story has been living in my head rent-free this past week!!!! i just love them so much they are so precious so i had to edit them so 100 pinterest pins later here we are dkdkdkdsjsjsj

this story is like a huge warm hug to me. slow burn. pining. my idiots in love. ej being the sweetest boyfriend ever (without actually being her boyfriend yet??). i also need 2 mention it’s literally the length of a published romance book like wow, just… canon. a gift to us portwells. thank u meg ❤️

just wanna take a second to appreciate dara renee and matt cornett for TWO incredibly accurate and raw depictions of anxiety this season.

dara displayed a beautiful performance of that paralyzing fear that completely kicks you down and stops you in your tracks. something that happens to me so often in big social spaces (just like what the climbing wall represented)

and matt! matt was just phenomenal at showing that underlying DREAD that comes with an anxiety of the inevitable. any time ej is in the background of a scene after his phone call you can just see how he’s never really comfortable, and just on edge the whole time. something i can REALLY relate to because that’s just my default state.

props to both of them for playing such a real feeling and problem so well and so carefully, beautiful performances from them <3

it's been a day and i'm still pissed at that finale

EJ did all of this to prove he could

Lost his gf bc he was so caught up in trying to impress his dad

and the man can’t even say i’m proud of you or even stay on the phone long enough

ej says to val "i'm only doing this right now because you're leaving early" when he calls his dad. he says "i need some moral support."

so you're telling me he had to make the call prematurely because he didn't feel there was a single other person who could morally support him through this? not his cousin who he's had these kind of conversations with before, not his ex girlfriend who was shown to be a source of strength and support for him, not a single one of his friends from school would be willing or able?

he had to squeeze such an important call in before she left because she was the only one really on his side.

tl;dr ej deserves so much better.

🫠

TEAM EJ DEFENSE SQUAD —

I had a deep conversation with the amazing @tay-words WHO BROUGHT UP THE BEST THEORY EVER:

What if the reason EJ was characterised in this horrible light is because everything he went through was filmed on camera without him knowing?!

It makes sense if Channing captured moments like:

• EJ talking to Miss Jenn about wanting Gina to shine

• EJ in the office breaking down

• EJ talking to Val and maybe verbalising (to himself!!) for the first time that he loves Gina??

• EJ on the phone trying to stand up to his dad (!!)

So when the documentary trailer premieres (or leaks maybe), everyone will realise how tough he’s had it (Ashlyn not reaching out to her cousin at all is insane to me?!) and Gina especially will have insight into why the summer turned out the way it did. Maybe her “wish” will come up again?!

IMAGINE 🫠

why . do they always do this to ej

Ok but like imagine portwell does break up this season, but than next season gina moves back in with her mom on ejs street, so there forced to be neighbors, and they have all of this amazingly awkward tension whenever they see eachother, like gina misses her bus and ej drives her to school or they're both bringing out the trash and see eachother, then they get back together at the end of the season...ngl I would eat that up😭

1x02 Gina | 3x04 EJ

perhaps all the atrocities of these three seasons can be forgiven singularly for ej and gina’s rendition of love is an open door

So you're just going to drop an entire three-act play on an 18-year-old's shoulders, make him direct it AND act in it, give him two weeks to put it together, reveal it's going to be on NATIONAL TV, and then try and position the narrative to make it seem like he's being unreasonable by getting stressed out???????

that's what we're doing????? we're really going with that???????? It's slander I tell you SLANDER

I don't want to hear people saying Ricky was the first one to really recognise Gina's accomplishment in getting the lead, and I definitely don't want to hear people saying EJ isn't being a good boyfriend or that he wasn't proud of her or any of the EJ slander I've been seeing.

EJ came to this camp wanting to enjoy one last summer of having fun and being a kid before going off to college and now he's being forced into directing an entire show in TWO WEEKS, a show that will be on Disney+ and therefore viewed by the entire world, and now he has to act in it, and he's been given no help. He doesn't even have directing experience. If he screws up it doesn't just reflect on him but all the people he cares about who are in the show with him. And it's IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE WORLD. Not only that, EJ as a character has a drive to succeed and excell and be liked so this already stressful situation is going to be even more stressful (if you know about the enneagram and/or you're a type 3 you KNOW). That's not even mentioning the amount of pressure we know his dad already puts on him.

EJ has all of this pressure on his mind and obviously wants to talk to his girlfriend about it, someone who would understand because part of why they connected is their similar ambition and drive and desire to perform well (they're both type 3s), but he waits because his first priority is giving her flowers and letting her know he believed in her and that's she's a star and she looks so happy, she says "you have no idea how much that means to me." As she talks about her feelings about everything, you can see EJ actively listening, and when she talks about being worried about not being enough you see him nodding because that's something they can both relate to, but then when she starts talking about how many lines she has and the play at large you can see him struggling to stay focused because of COURSE that's going to remind him of the pressure on his back at the moment. EJ didn't waltz into the cabin talking about his issues and ignoring Gina's accomplishment in getting the lead, he didn't even bring up his stress until Gina asks.

I don't know about you guys, but if I was told I had two weeks to direct a show that would stream on Disney+, with my zero directing experience, and then I would be acting in it on top of that, I would be stressed out of my freaking mind. Most normal humans would. And EJ is 18 YEARS OLD. He's just a kid and now he has all this weight on him and people are mad that he's stressed? He's trying his best please leave him alone. He's obviously still trying to be a good boyfriend to Gina on top of everything. He took the time to handpick flowers for her and tell her she deserves the lead and listen to her even though he's stressed out of his mind. When Gina comes to ask him to explore the woods he's apologetic about not being able to go and you can tell he's sad because he came to this camp wanting those kinds of experiences with her and now he can't and he doesn't want to hurt Gina and stars I feel for him.

Anyways if you can't empathise with EJ's situation then please keep his name out of your mouth.

1x1 | 3x1 

NINI SALAZAR-ROBERTS 1x01: The Auditions // 3x02: Into the Unknown

The Mugs Thats The Post 

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Interview with Matt Cornett and Sofia Wylie

HSMTMTS co-stars Matt Cornett and Sofia Wylie answer questions about each other!

ej caswell deserves better. that is all.

1x5| 2x7 | 3x1