Ryan didn't understand why Sharpay wanted to go to basketball games until he saw the way she looked at Troy Bolton, standing at the sidelines, looking nervous as he waited to be called in to the game. Normally, his sister would laugh at his jokes, but today, she didn't seem to appreciate his comparisons of different players to different primates. If you really looked at him, Zeke did look like an overgrown capuchin, but Sharpay failed to see the comparison.
When he got to Chad, Ryan couldn't quite place what kind of monkey he would be. Actually, all he was seeing when he looked at Chad was his legs. Chad's voice was the first to change in their entire class, two whole years ago now. Ryan's was just about the last. He was jealous of Chad, Chad and his muscles and his strong legs and his smile and even his hair...
OK, maybe "jealous" wasn't the right word for it.
Ryan knew he liked boys. He'd liked boys for a long time. He didn't tell anyone. It didn't seem important, and it wouldn't be a good idea if he didn't want to be made fun of. But he'd never really had a crush before. This felt different. He wanted to touch Chad. And that scared him.
So he pushed away the thoughts and put them in the imaginary box he kept in his head, where the things he shouldn't think went, and he watched the game and tried to forget how nice Chad looked in those shorts.