I Double Dare You!

"let the dare begin"

"Guys, no! That's horrible," Troy said, shaking his head. Jason, Chad, and Zeke (+ a few other guys from the soccer team) all sat in Troy's living room.

"C'mon Troy - you have to!" Chad exclaimed.

"But it's so mean! What if he finds out? I don't want to hurt him," Troy frowned.

"Do you like him or something?" Jason teased. Troy sighed, and forced a smile. The truth is he had thought about him in that sense a few times, but just chose to ignore it. It wasn't a big deal.

"What about Gabi?" Troy asked them.

"We'll tell her. I'm sure she'll be cool with it," Chad shrugged.

"Okay - fine. But if I hurt him, it's on all of our heads. Deal?" Troy looked around. Everyone nodded.

Let the dare begin...

one day earlier -

Ryan sat in the front row of the theater, taking notes. Sharpay sat next to him - doodling in her notebook - she always used Ryan's notes anyways.

Troy sat behind them, with Gabi at his side. Everyone seemed to be nodding out while Ms. Darbus went into one of her theater adventures as a "young woman." Troy just rolled his eyes.

"Mr. Evans?" Ms. Darbus smiled. Ryan looked up, and murmured "Hmm?"

"Perhaps you'd like to enlighten us with a song? Just to get us into the groove this year," she smiled. Ryan looked around, blushing.

"Well - um," he started. "He'll do it!" Sharpay suddenly said. She pushed her brother onto the stage and shoved a microphone at him. "Don't screw this up."

Ryan looked at all the faces watching him - he bit his lip and looked down. The lights went up, and Ryan's stomach turned. Troy looked at Ryan encouragingly, but Ryan never saw him. He always loved it when Ryan sang.

Luckily the bell rang! Saved! "Okay class - see you all Monday," Ms. Darbus said, grabbing her things and leaving the theater. Sharpay was long gone by the time Ryan picked up his bag. As he headed out, Chad purposely pushed Ryan onto his butt. Ryan's bag spilled out all over the floor. "Great," Ryan muttered to himself.

"Hey Ryan," Troy said, picking up some of his papers. Ryan looked up, and blushed to see Troy standing right there. "Hi," Ryan stuttered. Troy laughed a little.

"It was to bad, I was looking forward to hearing you sing," Troy said. His hand brushed Ryan's for a second, and Ryan pulled back. "Really?" Ryan asked. "I thought my singing kinda sucked."

Troy smiled, "No, not at all. Monday, go for it! Oh - and sorry about Chad. He's been acting like a jerk for a while. I don't think he understands people like us-" Troy said. Ryan looked at Troy, raising an eyebrow. Is Troy gay? No way - only in my wildest dreams!

"I better get going. See you dude!" Troy said, waving.

"Thanks!" Ryan called back, but Troy was already gone.

Monday -

By homeroom, Ryan was wiped out. His father had some conference in Paris, and Ryan opted to go with him just to get away from Sharpay and his psychotic mother. He buried his head in his hands, and tried to sleep.

Someone squeezed his side, and made Ryan giggle. He looked up to see Troy standing there. "Good morning, Ry."

"Um - hi, Troy," Ryan blushed, wondering why Troy Bolton of all people touched him. Ryan was sort of at a loss of words, and looked back at the front of the room. He and Troy had never been the most talkative pair.

"Morning, baby," Gabriella smiled, giving Troy a peck on the lips. Troy looked directly at Ryan while Gabriella was hugging him.

"Morning," Troy murmured.

Why is Troy being so nice to me lately? It's sort of weird...

As the day went on, Ryan continually started falling asleep. He went to his locker, and played with it until the thing popped open. He grabbed his English books, and his Mac Book. He closed the locker - and turned to met by a fist crashing across his face.

Ryan went down pretty quick. He rubbed his jaw and looked up to see Mark and Jack standing menacingly above. "Where's our homework?"

"Hello, guys - nice to see you too," Ryan rolled his eyes, getting to his feet.

"Say what slut?" Mark asked, punching him in the gut. Ryan winced a little, and stood up straight again.

"Nice words. Mommy teach you that one too?" Ryan smirked. "Sit!" Jack snapped as he shoved Ryan hard into a locker. Mark kicked him across the face.

"As I was saying - where's our work?" Mark asked, calmer now.

Ryan gasped in pain, "I-I-I-"

"I-I-I- What!?" Jack shouted, yanking Ryan up by his hair.

"I forgot," Ryan stuttered.

"HEY!" someone shouted from down the hall. It sounded like Troy.

"Well see you soon, faggot!" they shouted, hitting Ryan a few more times. Ryan coughed up some blood, and fell forward - into arms. "Ryan?"

he blacked out...

Ryan felt a warm hand clutching his own. "Ryan? Thank god!" Troy exclaimed as his eyes flickered open. "Troy? Ow," he said, clutching his head. There was a bruise on it, and he could tell he had bled before. "Shh," Troy whispered. He grabbed a wet towel, and dabbed it against Ryan's head.

"How long was I out for?" Ryan finally asked, sitting up a little.

"Two hours," nurse Avery said, opening the door to his room.

"That long? Wow, I must've taken a beating!" Ryan exclaimed.

"You're lucky Troy was there, or you could've bled to death."

"Great," Ryan muttered. He looked at Troy thankfully, and Troy just nodded. "Hold still, honey - this is gonna sting a little," she said, dabbing some Hydrogen peroxide onto one of his cuts. Ryan winced in pain, and held in a yelp. Troy put a hand on Ryan's cheek, and rubbed him a little. Even though it was wrong, Ryan relaxed into Troy's soft touch.

"You two better get back to class though. Feel better, sweet heart," she said, giving his leg a little squeeze. Ryan giggled weakly, and Troy helped him up. Once they were gone, Troy was alert.

"Who the hell did this to you?"

"Just some ass-holes. They were looking for their homework," Ryan sighed.

"You do other people's work?" Troy asked, feeling pretty sorry for him.

Ryan just nodded, and sighed again. He stumbled a little, and Troy grabbed him around the waist. Ryan squirmed a little at the feeling.

Ryan, it's okay. I won't bite.

"I don't think Senator Evans is gonna be too happy about this," Troy said to him. Ryan laughed slightly. "Dad's outta town until next weeks. He took me to Paris over the weekend, and now he's in D.C.-"

"Whoa, whoa. Your dad took you to Paris for two days?" Troy asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I know. It was pretty stupid, but any excuse to get away from Sharpay."

Troy grinned. "Yeah, she is..." he started, but felt a little bad.

"Kind of a bitch," Ryan smiled. Troy squeezed him around the waist a little, grinning.

"Sort of."

The day was over, and Ryan went to go find Sharpay. He was still leaning on Troy, who was the one to offer even though Ryan refused...many times. Troy wouldn't have any of it - and Ryan felt a little weird and curious of Troy's intentions. They stopped in front of soccer try-outs. Ryan cocked his head a little at it.

"What's up?" Troy asked. He looked at it too. Everyone Troy thought would sign up, had...even himself.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about doing it..." he said looking a little down.

An idea popped into Troy's head. "Do it! It'd be great!"

"I-I'm not that good."

"So what? No one really is. We need as many people as possible."

Ryan shrugged. "I'll think about it." Troy shrugged, and Ryan looked at it one more time. Something was up with Troy. Something was not right here.

Again, sorry about my last story to all my readers! I hope you liked this one so far though! It gets a lot more interesting...if my opinion is viable. As always,

Au Revoir, friends!

- RedStripe