Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Facts about this story:

Songfic to "Broken Angel" by Hanson.

My first try at writing since my…eh, depression, which is why I haven't been updating my other stories.

Each chapter will be a different year. I'm hoping to make it go through to the end of senior year. So there will be about 10 chapters.

Will eventually be Tryan, just because I love them together.

It's gonna sorta explain why Sharpay and Ryan are they way they are in the first High School Musical. I have too much of the plot worked out already to have to change it when the second movie comes out, so just pretend that never happened.

xoxoxoxo

Age 8

"Watch out for this one. She's a drama queen."

I recognized the small blonde twins immediately as they entered the room behind their father. The girl, Sharpay, wore a sparkly, silver tiara on top of her mane of golden-blonde hair, and a frilly pink party dress. Her smile seemed to illuminate my small, dark office. She looked like a genuinely happy eight year old girl. She wasn't. Underneath her 1,000-watt smile and sparkling brown eyes, I could sense her pain.

There was nothing to watch out for, in my opinion. Once I dug deeply enough, past the fake smiles, I could read this girl like a book.

Her twin, Ryan, however, didn't need to be dug into. He wore his heart on the sleeve of his silver, button-down shirt, it seemed. His face was three shades whiter than Sharpay's, and his blue eyes held more pain and sorrow than I had ever imagined possible for such a young child. I saw anxiousness in him, he would've rather been dead than anywhere with his father, and would stop at nothing to do so. He was the dangerous one. He was the one I needed to watch out for.

Their father, Andrew Evans, pulled each child aside separately to say his goodbyes. He spoke to Ryan first, who just nodded his head slowly and promised to behave. Sharpay, living up to expectations, exclaimed, "I thought we were going to a party! I'm wearing my best dress!"

"Honey," Andrew whispered softly, "I promise we'll go out to dinner after this. Just be good and talk to the nice lady?" Sharpay mumbled something nobody could understand. "Good." He kissed the top of her head, and walked out the door. Ryan turned around, looking both disgusted and rejected.

Once her father was safely out of the room, Sharpay spoke up. "I'm not allowed to talk to strangers. Neither is Ryan."

"Ah, but I'm not a stranger, am I? Your father thinks both of you and I will become very good friends."

"I don't need you. I have tons of friends." She sneered, tossing her blonde curls behind her head.

"Would you like to tell me about your friends?" I asked, thinking this was a good way to start our session.

"Ryan's my friend. He does whatever I tell him to!" She exclaimed excitedly. "Watch! Ryan, stand up!" He rolled his eyes and obeyed. "Oh, and there's this girl from school! What was her name again? Rebecca? No…Janet? No…um…." She paused, cocking her head to the side.

"Her name is Kelsi." Ryan said softly, his eyes never leaving the ground.

"Right, Kelsi! I felt bad for her, sitting alone during recess playing with her toy piano, so I told her to entertain me, and she did! She wrote a song about me, and I sang it! Since then she's done whatever I wanted her to do. And then there's…"

"Now Ryan," I interrupted, wanting to focus on the quieter of the two now, "what about you? Can you tell me about your friends?"

He flinched, as though the words hurt him. "Um, there's Sharpay, of course." I nodded. "Well, Kelsi's kind of my friend, when she isn't playing with Sharpay. And my mom was my best friend…" He trailed off, returning his gaze to the blue carpeting.

Sharpay laughed, "Doofus! You can't be best friends with your mom!" Reading into Sharpay though, I knew that was exactly how she felt, too.

"Of course you can, Sharpay. There's nothing wrong with that. My mom and I are best friends." I saw Ryan relax a little at this. "Now, Ryan, is there anyone else?"

"No." He shook his head, embarrassed.

"Is there anyone either of you would like to become friends with?" I asked.

Ryan and Sharpay answered in unison. "Troy Bolton." I knew Troy Bolton. He was the kid who everybody in the class loved. He was polite, funny, adorable, and most of all, friendly. He was best friends with my neighbor's son, Chad, so I saw a lot of him.

"That's your homework—"Sharpay groaned loudly. "—homework from me, okay? I want you both to make a new friend."

"You call that homework? I could do that in less than a day." Sharpay sneered.

3 months later

"I quit!" I heard Sharpay's high-pitched shriek from my office as she marched up the stairs. "Troy Bolton is a stupidhead!" I rolled my eyes. This was going to be a long session. Every week since I assigned the "make a new friend" homework assignment, she had come in, frustrated that the boy wouldn't stand for her bossing her around.

"Sharpay, honey, he's not a stupidhead. He's just a boy. At this age, boys don't like playing with girls." I repeated what I've been saying every week for nearly three months. "What happened?"

"He's so stupid!" She threw herself into one of the padded leather chairs, while Ryan sank into the other one, looking slightly amused. "He wouldn't play Barbies with me, even though I promised him he could be Ken, and he wouldn't listen to my song! He spends the whole recess playing with stupid Ryan!" She glared at her brother, who laughed.

"He thinks you're crazy, Shar," Sharpay glared at him again, blinking back tears.

"I want to audition for the spring play." She changed the subject quickly. "Kelsi says I would be a good actress, and I always wanted to be in a play." I nodded. The twins had always talked about how much their mother loved theater, and frequently took them to musicals. Fourth grade was when the plays started at East Elementary, so the topic of auditioning had come up many times during the three months since their mother died. Although it was mandatory for every student to have a speaking part, auditions were held for the leading roles.

"I'm auditioning too. Mommy said we'd have a better chance of making it if we auditioned together." Ryan nodded, forgetting the Troy Bolton thing for a second. "She said nobody would be able to resist our cuteness." He smiled, "She was right, wasn't she?"

"Yes, she was." I laughed. To see Ryan smiling for once was…great. It meant we were making progress. "You and Sharpay are going to be stars, no doubt about it."

A/N: So this was a little introduction. Tell me what you think, and I'll post chapter two by Sunday night, at latest.