Unfaithful, In Love

Summary: When Gabriella feels herself drifting away from Troy, she finds herself in the company of Ryan Evans on more than a regular basis. Somehow, her heart...while feeling the sting of her betrayal...beats faster for Ryan, than it's ever done with Troy. Will she be able to figure things out with her heart, or will she find herself in an Unforgivable situation first?

Genre: Romance/School Life

Movie: High School Musical

Pairing: Gabriella/Ryan

Rated: ...M for Mature

A/N: Takes place during the Second Movie!

-x-x-x-

'It's not like I didn't see this coming...' Ryan sighed as he watched Gabriella and Troy run around in the sprinkler, but really, despite his sisters' orders, his eyes followed only Gabriella. The girl was stunning, absolutely beautiful, in ways his sister could never dream of being. For Gabriella, there was beauty on the inside, equal to that on the outside. As the sprinklers were turned off, he watched an irritated Fulton walk out onto the Golf course. His sister truly knew how to turn something beautiful into a complete mess. He removed the binoculars from his face and sighed again, glancing around before leaving his post.

-x-x-x-

Gabriella was all smiles as she made her way to her room, walking around a corner, she grinned brightly at the familiar face making his way down the hall. "Ryan!"

He looked up and looked around, then turned back and smiled, "always so happy...heading to bed now?"

"Yeah, I have to be up early for Water Cardio with the ladies."

"Ah, I've taken a few Water Cardio classes, I consider myself an expert in the art," he smirked, listening to her laugh at his joke.

"Is that right?" She made her way to her room and stopped at the door, "then maybe you should come by and teach ladies sometime, show them a thing or two?"

Somehow, he found himself wanting to follow up with her flippant request, instead, he smiled and shook his head, "afraid my summer is packed already, but if I have some free time, I'll definitely swing by, maybe I could give you some pointers, and you can pass them on to the ladies during those classes you teach." Playfully, he winked and walked away.

Gabriella watched him go, and smiled again before entering her room. A strange feeling in her chest caused her to stop walking, her smile fading and her hand rising to settle over her beating heart. "...no, don't get any weird ideas," she laughed at herself, "Ryan is just a friend, and not even a really close one at that."

-x-x-x-

The next morning, Ryan was in the dining room, not known to the only other occupant in the room, Kelsi Neilson, who was singing softly and writing notes while playing a new song she was composing on the piano. The girl was extremely talented, but entirely too shy. Voices sounded in the kitchen before the door to the dining room swung open and caused him to jump a bit before he scooted further back into his hiding spot behind the bar in the dining area.

"Sounding good Kels,"

Kelsi stopped her song, "thanks, actually, I need to go get ready for the ladies luncheon. Won't exactly be rockin' out but still...you know! I'm so excited about the clubs talent show! I mean, employees get to do a number, and I have ideas for everyone! You guys can sing the lead. Maybe Zeke and Chad could do backup, and everyone could dance-"

"Big time out on that one, uh...my singing career, began and ended with the East High Winter Musical. I'm just here to make a check and to sneak in to the pool after work, that's really it."

"Oh..."

'He really has a way with the ladies,' Ryan shook his head, not knowing how the East High Basketball Captain, had ended up with the stunning, brainy, and kindhearted Gabriella. It honestly baffled him!

"What was that you were playing a minute ago?"

He nodded his head, 'and Gabriella is always there to clean up his messes, in this case, hurting Kelsi's feelings, or bringing her down...' He listened as Kelsi tried to hide the music piece, it was beautiful, and he knew why she wanted to hide it so badly.

"What's this?" Gabriella grabbed the music.

"Well, I was thinking, if you do the show, that...I wanted to be ready...I wrote this for you guys."

Ryan put his head in his hands as they started singing. Kelsi was fine, but listening to Gabriella and Troy had always bothered him. Hell, listening to Gabriella was fine, more than fine! It war Troy he didn't want to hear. He wanted to be the one who was singing with Gabriella. Peering around the bar, he watched the couple sing and move around the Piano as Kelsi played. It didn't shock him in the least when he saw the rest of the staff running in to sing. It merely meant he'd have to wait a bit longer to leave since it would take a while longer to empty out the room now.

A the song ended, he watched the group sign up for the Talent Show and vaguely recalled how important that show was to his sister, and how hard she was going to try and destroy their chances at either winning or competing in general. He lifted the handheld radio up to his mouth a bit and pressed a button, "Goldenthroat, this is Jazz Square. We may have trouble."

By the time everyone was gone, he stood up and left to find his sister relaxing with his mother, a smile found his lips as he moved towards him mom. Where Sharpay was Daddy's Little Princess he was Mommy's Little Ducky. Not the most charming nickname, sure, but favorites are favorites, and he loved his mom. "So, the staff is obviously joining the talent show, saw that coming, but Kelsi already composed a song for them."

"Nothing we can't sing,"

He nodded, "true, and don't get me wrong...Now...it's an amazing song but Kelsi didn't write it for us."

Sharpay gasped.

"Hi mom!" Ryan turned his attention away from his sister, not caring to hear her complain.

"Seaweed scrub darling?"

"Maybe later," he promised, truly intending to take time for a little pampering of his own.

"Ryan, it might be wonderful if Troy participates in our talent show."

Still chewing a slice of cucumber he'd stolen off the plate next to his mother's table, he looked at Sharpay as if she'd lost her mind. "What?! If he sings with Gabriella, then...our whole show is gonna be the Troy and Gabriella show."

"I'm not certain Gabriella is ideally suited to help Troy realize his full potential at Lava Springs."

Not knowing what to say, as anything he says may actually encourage this whole faulty plan of hers, he took a drink of his water and turned his eyes to anything without a mouth.

"Mommy, what time is Daddy gonna be here?"

"We tee off at noon. Join us?"

"Love to!"

Sharpay raised a hand and stopped the woman doing her face mask, standing, she excused herself.

"Dear, you seem a bit down, settle yourself for a seaweed scrub, and tell Mommy what's bothering you."

The same woman who had been doing Sharpay's face, offered him a robe to put over his clothes, which he took before removing his hat. Pulling a towel headband over his head before pulling it up to hold his hair out of his eyes, he relaxed in the chair beside Boi, Sharpay's dog. Cucumbers found his eyes, and he let himself relax as the seaweed scrub was applied to his face.

"So Ducky, what seems to be causing you such turmoil?"

"I'll tell you, but don't let it get out to Sharpay, she's got a way of breaking the things I like."

"Oh, like that limited addition baseball bat that was signed by the Cranston baseball champions! I still don't know how it ended up with sweet little Boi."

He had an idea, and it had blonde wavy hair and an itch to destroy lives. He looked at the dog who had chewed up bat that he had gotten signed himself. "A girl I like is working here...for a Summer job. She's in a relationship though...and Sharpay hates her...passionately so. But she's beautiful, nice, and smart, and she sings too...she actually...was the one who got the lead in the Winter Musical."

"Oh, you mean that Gabriella girl!" Darby removed the cucumbers from her eyes and placed them on the table next to her, "Ducky darling, if you like her, and I don't mean anything fleeting...if you truly like her, and maybe something more...then tell her, and show her. Relationship or not, she's in high school, and probably has only ever had one boyfriend, no one at that age knows what love is, and sometimes the only way you can find love, is to go out looking for it. For all you know, she and you may be meant to be..." She smiled, "You're both singing the same song, but different verses. Since she knows the song already, the only way you'll catch her attention, is to try a different song."

-x-x-x-

Me: Here is chapter...oh, I was totally going to post this with my IY/HSM fic, lol. Anyways, first chapter of this story, tell me what you think!