Disclaimer: I don't own Disney (Dangit), HSM, or any of their characters. It's just an insane passion of mine, that doesn't seem to be going away any time soon.In fact the only thing I own, other than this plot line is my truck and my school debt. You can't have my truck, you don't want my debt, and don't steal the plot line, it is more fun to make your own.

Warning: This story is SLASH, meaning that two of my main characters are both MALE. TroyxRyan. If you don't like it, don't read it. Simple as that. If you flame me, in an attempt to make me mad, it won't work. I never get mad, it's a waste of energy. So don't waste my time and yours.

Author's Note: Hey guys! So this is the first story I've written in like five years, so go easy on me for now. It will get better I promise. I just have special shout out to FallingWithGrace, who was my guinea pig with this story and did an amazing job editing it and giving me some much needed suggestions. She is a talented writer and I recommend her story, Tainted Promise to everyone!


Chapter 1: Seeing the Past

I took a deep breath as the door opened to my classroom and turned my entire life upside down. A person I'd never thought I see was about to step foot in this room. Why, I wasn't too sure. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This needs to start at the very beginning, which would be high school.

Now in high school, I was, well what you would say as popular. I was the captain of the basketball team, the playmaker. That was all that I was until one girl turned that around, and allowed me show off my other talents, some of which I didn't know I had. That girl was Gabriella Montez, and she changed East High forever. We ended up starring in our schools musical, and in turn bringing all our friends together. From the jocks, to the nerds, to our schools own drama duo, we began to hang out after school and have fun. You would think after all of that everything would be fine, and it was. On the outside that is, but things are never what they seem.

After the musical I started dating Gabriella, I mean lets face it, she was beautiful. Long, dark brown hair, brown eyes that would show her every emotion and intelligent beyond compare. She was amazing, and so was our relationship. In fact, all of our friends were as happy as Gabi and I were.

My best friend and fellow teammate Chad Danforth was dating Taylor McKessie, Gabi's Scholastic Decathlon captain. Now he was supportive of my dramatic endeavors, so long as it didn't hurt our team, and he enjoyed the musicals, but as he stated at the final bow of Twinkle Towne, he would never ever try out. This, if I'm being honest with you, is a good thing because I've heard him in the shower and it isn't pretty. But I'm getting side tracked.

My other teammate Jason, started dating Sharpay, yes I know an odd pairing but after the musical Sharpay was nice. The rest of my group was Sharpay's twin brother Ryan and our other 'playmaker' Kelsi. Now I'd like to say that those two were dating as well, but that's the start of my problem.

Everything started changing in our final year. Gabi was so worried about getting into a good college that she wanted to spend every waking moment studying. This didn't leave her with much time for me, so we called it off, but we were really close friends. I wasn't too upset about it. Taylor was the same way as Gabi, but somehow she and Chad worked out some bizarre scheduling system that had them always checking their watches, which was a funny sight to see really, but it worked. Sharpay and Jason were going strong, even though Sharpay went to more auditions than she used to. She was determined to get into showbiz, and Jason was supportive about it, even when it meant that she canceled a date every now and then.

With everything going on, I really didn't have much time to worry about my ended relationship, especially thanks to my dad. Now you think he was tough during the State Championship, you should have seen him with the college scouts. He had me practicing twice as hard, always stating "Get your head in the game, Troy!" You would think after four years he would have a new saying, but he didn't.

We were all really busy, each with our own thing going on, be it basketball, school, or Kelsi writing her final musical of her high school career. Poor girl had Darbus breathing down her neck. Everyone was busy, except for one person, Ryan Evans. Now normally I wouldn't really pay much attention to the blonde haired boy. He was quiet, and when I tried to teach him how basketball worked, he got bored. But when everyone else was busy doing their own thing, Ryan did his, which sent my world spinning. What did he do?

He came out.

That's right, Ryan Evans was gay. When he came out, we were all supportive of him, including Chad. Which I think shocked Ryan the most, but they had an arrangement of sorts. Chad would joke around with him about it, especially his hats, but if anyone in school were to do that to Ryan, Chad would freak out on them. It wasn't really a big deal to most people, considering we had suspected it for a long time. I mean did you see that guy's wardrobe? That's what I thought. You guys aren't shocked either. So why would that make my world spin you ask? I'm getting there.

It was their 18th birthday, and Sharpay and Ryan had a huge party at their home, while their parents were off on some golf thing, I think. Ryan didn't really explain it. The entire gang was coming over to watch movies, listen to music, you know, the usual. We were also going to sleep over. Now, I know what you're thinking and no, we guys did not have a problem with it. We all had fun; at least I thought we did. I wouldn't actually find out until much later in the night how wrong I was.

I had woken up because it had been raining outside and as I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water, I noticed someone's silhouette in the window. It was Ryan. I walked up slowly to him, so as not to scare him, and that's when I saw it. Just like there was water running down the window from the rain, there was water running down his face from tears.

Seeing him sitting there made me see that even with his sister and all of us, he still felt alone. I guess I should have noticed that even in our group, he never really spoke much. Maybe he didn't feel he could talk to us about things. Then again, who ever offered to ask him if he was okay? I knew I hadn't paid much attention to him. Seeing him now, I wish I had. The sight of his tears, him being that vulnerable, they broke my heart.

I cleared my throat, and he looked my way completely embarrassed. He began to wipe away his tears frantically, so I wouldn't think he had been crying. Even though I think he knew I had already seen his tears. I asked him why he'd been crying and at first he played dumb, blaming it on a stubbed toe, but he knew I wasn't buying it.

My persistency eventually got him to open up to me. Someone at school had pretty much singled him out during one of his classes, and the teacher hadn't really done anything, except tell the guy to quiet down, and continued teaching. He hadn't said anything to anyone (including Sharpay) because he had been embarrassed. He also confessed that he was petrified at leaving high school in a month, to start his university career. Not for any of the reasons the rest of us had, but for the sheer fact that there would be no one there to fight off the bad guys for him like Chad or someone to distract him and make him laugh like I did. He was scared that he would be alone, and not be able to protect himself, physically.

He began to cry again after confessing this to me, and all I could do was surround him in my arms and hold him, almost instinctively, and let him cry on my shoulder. I could feel his every shudder and ragged breath he took. I never realized how small he was until he was curled up in my arms. He fit so perfectly. The odd thing was; it almost felt right too.

He continued to cry as I thought about what he went through today. The ridicule and the looks he must get everyday must destroy him on the inside, and yet he never said a word about it to any of us. I wish he had. I wish I could protect him in some way so he wouldn't have to deal with it. He doesn't deserve that; no one does, but Ryan? The poor boy wouldn't hurt a fly.

Before we went back to bed, he smiled at me, and said "thanks for listening". I wiped my thumbs on his cheeks to rid his face of the tears, and replied "anytime". It was then, as I looked him in the eyes, when I realized how gorgeous he was. I stared at him for a solid minute. Ryan never broke eye contact with me. I whispered to him as if it was a secret, "You're beautiful." Then I kissed him. Ryan had kissed me back, and when I broke the kiss I said nothing to him but nod my head. Ryan had nodded his head back in silent agreement. This kiss was to be never spoken of, and that we were to act as if it never happened.

That was the biggest mistake I have ever made.

Eventually graduation had come, and we all had to go into our different directions. Gabi and Taylor both went to their dream school, Princeton, on scholarships. Chad and I both got scholarships to attend Duke and play on their basketball team, which made my Dad ecstatic and finally off my case. Jason went to UCLA for basketball, and Kelsi went there for their Dramatic Writing degree. Sharpay headed to New York, for what else, to try for Broadway. And as for Ryan, well, after that night, we kept our friendship the same, we rarely talked about anything important. The last I had heard he had followed Sharpay to New York, to follow his dream of being an actor. Personally, I think he was scared of being alone, so he followed his sister instead.

As much as I'd like to avoid the issue, Ryan had turned my world completely upside down. I thought about him a lot during college, I even dated a few guys who looked similar to him. None of them had those piercing blue eyes, and those relationships never did last long. I never could forget about him. So instead of dating, I focused on school, and my dedication to teaching, something other than sports.

Now, after college, I had a degree in education. Of course, you guys probably think I'm a basketball coach, just like my Dad, and I was really headed in that direction, but one thing stopped me. I really didn't think a school would hire a gay basketball coach.

This led me to option two, I wanted to teach, and I wanted to teach younger kids. I worked in North Carolina for awhile, but eventually I moved back home to Albuquerque, and landed a job teaching the second grade at my old public school. Thankfully the principle didn't have a problem with me being gay, nor did any of the faculty. Basically, I got lucky, and found a school that had an open mind. It didn't hurt that they needed a teacher half way through the semester, due to an early maternity leave either.

So I found myself taking over Mrs. Grant's second grade class in March. I had a class of twenty students, who thanks to Mrs. Grant's strictness for the rules (she made Darbus look like a pushover) were well behaved. Sure I had a few Danforth's as I called the troublemakers, and even two little Sharpay and Taylor wannabes. I adored my class, and every student in it, but one little girl stood out.

She reminded me of Gabriella, shy, quiet, and smart however a little clumsy, but her clothing style mirrored that of Sharpay. Her name was Riley Mitchell and as much as I hate to say it, she was my favorite. I would watch as she would do her homework, during the class free period, and wish I had a daughter like her. Even when she would leave my class to go home, she would wave to me good bye and promise her homework would be done, as if I was worried about it not being done.

Today she came up to me at the beginning of class, and said her Daddy was coming to pick her up after school instead of taking the bus. She asked if she could stay in the classroom while she waited for him. Of course I told her she could. This puts you at the very start of my dilemma.

It was 3:45, and the only student left was Riley. Class had been dismissed fifteen minutes ago, and she and I were practicing math on the chalk board when there was a knock on my door. My voice hitched in my throat as Riley's dad walked through the door. Riley's dad was someone I never thought I'd see again.

Her dad was Ryan Evans.

He was dressed in a white dress shirt tucked into his jeans with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a black tie that was loosened. His hair was a blonde spiked mess on the top of his head and he had on silver rimmed glasses. He looked amazing. Even better than what I hadremembered.

"Daddy!" Riley squealed as she dropped the chalk and ran to him. He picked her up in mid-run and hugged her.

"Did you have a good day honey?" Ryan asked still not noticing me.

"Yes Daddy." She replied, as he put her down. She grabbed his hand and dragged him towards me. He was still smiling down at her as he extended his hand towards me to shake.

"Ryan Ev-" He starred at me in shock. "Troy?"

Crap. There is no turning back now.


A/N: I know I left y'all with a lot of questions. Trust me, they will get answered in the next chapter, well most of them at least. As for comments, constructive critism,and suggestions? For those, you just hit that button below.

Disney-Kid