Author's Note: This is a continuation from "The Revelation". I don't own any of the characters or the universe, and I don't own the idea. I just wrote some words. I don't even own what could be seen as OCs, I took the Moms and twins from The Fosters.

Most of this story is already written, I just need to edit and alter some stuff. I am going to try my best to update once a week.
I hope you like it!

Chapter one: Back To Normal

It was two weeks after all of Chad's friends had thought he was a homophobic douchebag. Luckily after that incident, everything went back to normal.

His Moms, Lena and Stef, had laughed their asses off when he'd told them the story. Jaime had just smacked Troy's head with the back of her hand. After that they all told Troy to not keep shit like that from their friends anymore, but that was the end of it.

And now, at school, everything seemed to go smoothly. Gabriella let Ryan talk her into auditioning for the play. Sharpay didn't seem to hate Chad as vocally as before and spend proper time with Zeke, which made Zeke all the more excited to bake even more treats for everyone out of cheer happiness. Kelsi still refused to tell who the guy was she liked. And Taylor had properly apologized to Chad. So, all was well.

Everything had been great for the past two weeks. So Chad should have known that something was going to end all of that.

Ms. Darbus had given them all assignments that was going to take over his entire weekend, and Chad was seriously bummed out by it. Okay, fair enough, Chad should've started reading the two books she'd assigned them way earlier, but still, this was too much, and giving such a workload for over the weekend was just unfair.

It didn't help that Darbus had given everyone partners. The upside on that is that Chad was partnered up with Ryan.

"So," Chad said after class had ended. "When do you wanna meet up to fix this project?"

"Tonight?" Ryan replied as they walked down the hallway together towards Ryan's locker.

"I can't, euuuhm…"

Ryan smirked. "You still need to finish the books."

"Start, actually," Chad admitted. "But I'm a fast reader. Tomorrow morning? I'll have them finished by then."

Ryan seemed to think that over. "Afternoon okay? Sharpay and I have spa appointments and since she spends so much time with Zeke lately, I don't wanna miss that."

One good thing that had come out of that entire Chad-might-be-a-homophobe drama, was that Ryan was no longer scared to admit anything that could be remotely stereotypical to Chad. Two weeks ago, he just would've said he had plans.

Chad liked it much better this way.

"Only if that means that Princess will be relaxed enough to not yell at me, sure." Chad laughed at Ryan elbowing him in the side. "Okay okay, no jokes about Sharpay, got it. At your place?"

"Not if you want Sharpay not to yell at you," Ryan teased him. "I'll come to yours, just text me the address?"

"Will do! See you tomorrow!"

Friday evenings were days Chad and Troy hung out together. Well, if it wasn't date night for Troy and Gabriella, at least. When they were kids, they would've spend every Friday night together at each other's places, playing make belief or gaming or playing ball, or sometimes even just talking. As they've grown older, some things had changed, and some Friday evenings were spent on dates. But if neither of them had any other plans, they'd spent them together.

That Friday night, after a vicious game of one-on-one basketball, they climbed up to the treehouse.

"So," Troy asked them. "What's been on your mind?"

A downside of knowing each other for so long is that they know each other's minds too well. Damnit.

"Nothing," Chad tried, but he could see Troy didn't believe him. "Ugh, all right. It's just that, after all that shit two weeks ago. I don't know." Chad stared at the ceiling of the treehouse for a bit, laying on his back. "Do I really give that vibe?"

"No," Troy said immediately. "Taylor and Gabi were afraid, and it all was because of your theatre hatred. Hell, Ryan called bull on it before I could, but they talked some fear into him and, well… But really dude. You and Ryan seem closer than ever. Even more so than…" Troy trailed off.

"Than this summer when you abandoned me and all your friends in order to get into a college where you know you've had a scholarship waiting for you for the past two years anyways? Yeah. I know." Chad ignored the way Troy elbowed him and tried to steal the basketball out of his hands. Chad just put it down his side instead of keeping it in the air, arms stretched out in front of him. "It's just. I don't know. I don't like that they even thought it could be possible, you know?"

"I know," Troy replied. "But, dude, even your Moms told you to stop worrying."

"I know," Chad replied.

He was too worried about what people thought of him. He knew that. But still, it sucked.

"Troy!" Mrs. Bolton's voice ran through the garden. "Dinner's ready! Is Chad staying over?"

Troy looked at his best friend, who shook his head. "No thanks, Mrs. Bolton, I'll just be heading home."

They both climbed down the ladder and they gave each other a quick hug before Chad started walking the three blocks home.

Chad could hear the loud voices even before he turned the key in the front door. He toed of his shoes, ignored Stef's and Jaime's voices, and as he walked in, he went straight to the kitchen, where Lena was cooking dinner. "Hey Mom," he said as he started setting the table. "What's up with Jaime?"

"She can't decide on an outfit for her big date tonight," Lena replied. "The dress she wanted to wear was still in the laundry basket, even though I told her last week to take it to the dry cleaners instead. And the other outfit doesn't work with any shoes."

"That explains Stef's yelling. Did she try to steal the Chanel heels again?"

"What else could it have been?"

Chad rolled his eyes. Jaime was never gonna learn.

"Mooooom," Jaime's whiny voice carried from upstairs. "You can't do this to me." Two pairs of footsteps were coming down the stairs. "I look like I just walked out of an industrial terrain! I need heels."

"Well, sweetie, you can take your own heels," Stef replied as they walked into the kitchen. "Hey Chad." She gave him a kiss on the check before heading to the fridge and take out some vegetables to start on the salad. "Just stay away of my Chanel pumps. Don't you have that pair of ankle boots?"

"Those are black, Mom! And I'm using the brown purse!"

"So?" Stef asked, knowing full well the response would be –

"You cannot wear black shoes with a brown purse, Mom! Ugh. I will just change. Yet. Again!"

Lena rolled her eyes while Stef turned to Chad. "Will you please go help your sister out?"

"Sure," Chad replied, and he followed Jaime up the stairs. He stood in the doorframe watching the blond tear through her dresses. "Hey, J, what's up."

Jaime barely dignified that with a response. "Shut up and help me. I need a dress that works with the black boots Mom mentioned, but I can't need a big purse." She turned to her brother in all seriousness. "Why don't they give women's clothing pockets? It's unfair. Hell, it's discrimination."

Chad rolled his eyes as he walked into the room. "Stop exaggerating Jaime. Here," he pulled out one of his stepsister's favourite dresses, a dark blue dress that had a tight fit without looking too slutty, otherwise Stef would never let her leave the house. "Try this on. I'll be back."

By the time Chad got back from his room, Jaime had the dress on. "Perfect," he said, "And now this." He draped his favourite leather jacket around her shoulders. It was a perfect fit for him, meaning it was a bit too wide for his sister. "The black will work with the boots and you won't need a purse because there are pockets."

Jaime looked at herself in the mirror, thinking. Then she ran downstairs without another word. Chad followed at an easier tempo, used to his sister's chaotic behaviour. By the time he was down, she had her boots on and was examining herself in the mirror downstairs in the hallway. "What do you think?"

Stefanie replied. "You look great, honey." At which Jaime rolled her eyes.

"You barely looked up and you have shit taste!" The 'language' Stefanie yelled went ignored. "Lena! What do you think?"

Chad's Mom looked up and thought for a second. "It works. Just make sure Chad gets his jacket back, last time you borrowed it, he looked for it for two weeks and he threw a fit."

"Hey!" both siblings whined, even though they both knew it was true.

"Either way," Jaime sang. "I need to redo my make up now. Be back in a bit!"

Chad rolled his eyes as he sat down on one of the kitchen chairs.

"She's worse with her accessories than Ryan is with hats," he complained. "And have you seen his hat collection? It's insane."

"I'll take your word for it," Stef replied as she took some onions and placed them in front of Chad, who sighed. He got up to grab a knife and a cutting board anyways.

"Hey, Ryan's coming over tomorrow for a school project," he said as he tried to keep his eyes from tearing up. "That's cool, right?"

"Sure," Lena replied as Stef nodded. "What time exactly?"

"We said two-ish," Chad replied. "I figured the twins would be at soccer practice and the house would be quiet enough to work."

"Just don't destroy the house," Stef warned.

Chad rolled his eyes, and immediately regretted it, the sting of the onion getting worse. "I will be good," he promised.

Not much later Jaime came storming down the stairs again, asking Lena – "Because you, Mom, don't have any taste whatsoever." – what she thought of it. Chad silently sided with Stef about how he couldn't see a damn difference, but he was smart enough to not say that out loud until Jaime left the house.

"See you tomorrow!" she said as she grabbed the keys of the car that she and Chad shared.

"We'll see you at midnight," Stef replied sternly.

Jaime sighed for dramatic effect but replied "Sure," and waved them out as she left the house for her big date.

"So," Stef asked as soon as the door was closed. "Do you know anything about this guy?"

Chad smirked. "Damn, you really don't trust your daughter, do you?"

Lena piped up immediately. "It's because she knows stupidity runs in the family, especially when it comes to men."

"Hey!" Stef protested.

The banter between Chad and his Moms continued for a bit until dinner was ready. While Lena and Stef were setting the table, Chad tried to drag the two nine-year-olds away from the videogame they were playing. After he'd convinced the twins to pause the game, he lifted Mariana in his neck while Jesus raced to the kitchen.

Chad smiled as he sat down at the table, taking in his crazy family. He enjoyed dinner while Jesus and Mariana chattered on about something that happened in class today. After dinner, he helped the twins set up camp in the office – after safely putting away Lena's papers in a drawer of the desk – before he retreated to his own room, desperate to finish Ms. Darbus' literature before he had to work on the assignments with Ryan the next day.

It was a bit past two in the afternoon when Ryan rang the doorbell. Chad opened the door and greeted Ryan with a full body hug. 'Hey!"

"Hey Chad… You okay?"

Chad let go and led the way to the kitchen table. "Yeah, sure, just glad you arrived. Jaime was driving me crazy and I needed an excuse to ban her. Is it cool if we work in the kitchen, by the way? It's the biggest, uncluttered space we have here."

"Sure, no problem," the blond replied. Chad was again so relieved that Ryan wasn't stuck up about money and those things. Or at least not as much and as vocally as Sharpay.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, but my room is kind of a mess and there's not enough desk room anyways, and the twins took over the office last night and camped out. So it still looks like a slumber party in there."

Chad didn't know why he felt the need to apologise. It's a decent enough table at a proper and clean kitchen, and Chad had no reason to feel bad. Sure, his home wasn't as big as the Evans mansion, but he still was well enough off.

"It's fine, Chad," Ryan said easily as he sat down and started taking out his laptop and notebooks off his messenger bag. "Unless you're just making conversation in order to distract me from the fact you didn't finish the books?"

"Dude, I totally finished those books way before midnight even!" Chad sounded offended, but he knew his eyes gave away that he was only teasing. He turned towards the cupboard. "What do you wanna drink?" he asked as he got out two glasses.

"Whatever you're having," Ryan replied. So Chad poured out two glasses of almond milk and sat down to start on the project.

Two hours later, they were nearly finished, some small disagreements on the content off the book still on the table. "Dude, it was totally an alias, anyways!" Chad said stubbornly.

"Whatever you say, dude," Ryan replied as he finished cleaning the layout and ran a spellcheck. "Either way, we're basically done."

Yeah. So." Chad leaned back as he watched Ryan close down his laptop and stuff everything away. "Do you need to go? Or can we hang out?"

Ryan looked at him oddly. "We can," he said

"What? Why are you looking so weird?"

Ryan shook his head. "Nothing. It's fine."

Chad decided it wasn't worth going further into it just as this novel just wasn't worth shit.

"So, what do you wanna do?" Chad asked happily. "Moms are out with the twins and Jaime is holed up in her room, so we basically got the house to ourselves."

"Get your mind out of the gutter Danforth, I'm not that type of gay," Ryan quipped.

"Dude!"

"Oh shut it, Chad, you know I was joking." And Chad did know. Ryan's eyes are so expressive and were sparkling. Still, Chad loved it when Ryan teased him. He'd only ever known Ryan to tease Kelsi, and aside from his sister she'd been his best friend since junior high. It made Chad feel special.

"How about video games? I got Bio shock!"

"Ugh no. How about I school your ass on Dance Dance revolution?"

"Dude, I can totally kick your ass on that game!"

Ryan smirked. "Is that a challenge?"

And that is why, when Jaime came out of her room for the first time that day, she saw two guys dancing in the middle of the living room, coffee table pushed aside, all whilst keeping a never-ending banter going. Chad ignored the fact that his sister was standing there with still red and swollen eyes from the crying.

"There's no way," Ryan said. "Lifts are very difficult technically. You might have the strength, but not the theory behind it."

"Dude, I can totally do a lift! Jaime, back me up here!"

Ryan turned around and saw Jaime. "He can do lifts," she said.

Ryan shook his head in disbelieve. "Prove it," he replied. And Chad winked at Jaime, knowing she'd understand and know to do the one thing (well, one of the many things) that their moms had forbidden them to do. She ran across the room, jumped over the coffee table, and Chad caught her and lifted her in the air.

Ryan was struck with silence.

"You realise," Chad said as he put his sister back to the ground. "That this goof is a cheerleader? And the twins don't like it better than see people fly in the air."

Jaime sat down in the couch. "Well, they'd prefer it if they could do some flying themselves, but I think Mom and Lena might have our heads then."

"True," Chad replied. He paused the game and went to sit down as well, and Ryan just followed their lead.

"So, Mom called," Jaime said, explaining why she came out of hibernation. "They should be back in about an hour and they asked if we could start on dinner."

"Sure. Hey Ryan, you wanna stay for dinner?"

Ryan seemed surprised by the out of the blue invitation. "Euhm, I – I don't know."

Jaime got up, announcing that she'd start on the salad. A bit later loud music was blasting from the kitchen.

"Come on, what's up?"

Ryan bit his lip and was thinking his answer over. He didn't really wanna reply, but once Chad laid his hand on his shoulder, the safe feeling was hard to resist. "I don't wanna overstay my welcome," he said quietly. "I've been here nearly all afternoon, I should at least make an appearance at home."

"Sharpay's had you all morning, and I thought you said your parents were out on a business trip on the East coast?" Chad put on the puppy eyes.

"But it's six of you. And Jaime seems like she could use someone to listen to. And I know the twins are young and," his voice dropped a bit before rushing the next words. "I'm just not that great with kids and I don't wanna make you hate me."

"Dude, Ryan, come on!" Chad pulled him close and hugged him tightly. "I'd never hate you. Never, you hear me?" He leaned back to he could look Ryan in the eyes. "If you wanna go home, go, you shouldn't feel obligated to stay here. But there's no way in hell that I can hate you, okay."

Ryan showed a small smile, and got up. "Sure," he replied, and it sounded like he was trying to believe it. "Either way, I'll go now."

Chad showed the blond boy out and joined his sister in the kitchen. After turning down the volume of the radio by half, He grabbed some tomatoes of the counter and sat down where Jaime had laid out the extra knives and cutting board.

"Ryan's not staying over?" she asked, eyes on the cucumber.

"No, wanted to show his face at home," he replied. "Figured I should do the same."

Jaime nodded and continued peeling the vegetable. Chad noticed she'd been crying again.

"So," he asked after a few more minutes of silence, the hope that Jaime would start the conversation given up. "Do you wanna talk about what happened last night?"

"Not really." Silence. "Maybe. I don't know. It's so stupid, but." For the first time since they were in the kitchen, she looked at him. "I really liked him, and it was a great night."

"But?"

"But then, as we were walking back to his car, he –" Jaime took a deep breath, let it go in a sigh, took another one and continued. "He somehow made a racist joke at your expense and insulted Troy and Ryan and all your friends in the same breath."

Chad knew that Jaime would put herself in the crossfires if it meant protecting him or Troy. Troy was almost as much of a brother to Jaime as he was to Chad. And with him being dark mixed race, and the twins being Latino, any hint at racism would mean the guy was immediately off the table.

"So you won't be seeing him anymore," Chad concluded.

"Of course not," Jaime replied immediately. "But it sucked, you know."

Chad knew. He and their Moms all had joked at how crazy Jaime had been about this guy. He was new at the school and Jaime had been smitten since the first day, she'd been looking forwards to this date all week.

"And what sucks even more is that, during the entire meal, I couldn't help but thinking how much fun I had, how nice and attentive he was. And then he had to ruin a perfect night."

Chad spotted the tears in Jaime's eyes and had to get up. He sat down next to her and held her tight. "I'm sorry us teenage boys are such idiots," he whispered.

"Yeah you are," she agreed, but her voice showed she was smiling.

"Hey, how about we play Clue tonight and mock the twins before movie night?" Chad suggested. "That's always fun!"

"Sure," Jaime replied, a soft smile showing through her tear-filled eyes. She hugged her brother close. "Thanks, Chad."

They stayed like that for a bit before continuing to get dinner ready. When the rest of the family got home, and while Stef was putting the soccer gear away and Lena was putting the twins in bath, Chad and Jaime set the table. And the rest of the evening passed by as they had planned, a fully functional, if not a bit of a strange, family, all together.