A/N: I had this idea when the plot bunnies attacked me. I got the idea of doing a Rylor fic when I read 'Unconventional' by Danny Phantom SG-1. This is my first proper story like this so please let me know what you think of it. It's a 2 parter.

Disclaimer I don't own High School Musical.

'Ryan! Get down here now. Everyone will be arriving soon,' Sharpay yelled up the stairs. It was a well known fact that Ryan was not a big fan of the Wildcats and that the feeling was returned mutually, but it still infuriated Sharpay that here brother didn't make much of an effort when it came to planning social events. He was, after all, going to have to attend, even if it wasn't willingly, just because he was Sharpay's brother.

A mass of blond hair appeared at the top of the stairs. The head and body of a male that belonged to the hair appeared shortly after and slowly started to make his way down the stairs, although not before placing a carefully selected hat on his head that matched his outfit and that also co-ordinated with his twin's. The doorbell rang just before he reached the bottom few steps causing him to jump and promptly fall down them resulting in a loud crash.

'Oh Ryan,' Sharpay tutted whilst rolling her eyes and going to open the door to a throng of Wildcats, not once thinking of her brother lying at the bottom of the stairs in a heap, his hat rolled to one side. She led the Wildcats through to the living room all of them laughing, albeit quietly, at Ryan as he untangled himself, slowing dusting himself off before going to pick up his hat. As he bent down to pick it up, his hand brushed against another. He withdrew his hand and quickly looked up and was surprised at who he saw. Taylor carefully brushed his hat off and gave it back to a still shocked, but slightly blushing, Ryan.

'Come on Tay. Where've you got to?' Gabriella called out.

'Coming,' Taylor called back and headed off to the rest of the gang giving Ryan a sympathetic smile.

Ryan lent against the cool wall and took a deep breath, while replacing his hat back on his head, 'Thanks,' he mumbled. 'God, I'm so stupid. She must think I'm a right idiot,' he thought to himself. 'And a fag,' his brain added as an afterthought. He wasn't gay but people only thought that he was because of the way he dressed and that he also did drama, but most of that was Sharpay's doing. Not that he was complaining because he loved drama and didn't mind how he dresses, especially his hats. Anyway, it made it easier if everyone thought that he was gay; he avoided awkward questions on who he fancied, partly because no-one wanted to speak to him, and he had found that he could easily hide his feelings on who he was crushing on. 'Apart from just then,' Ryan thought furiously, inwardly kicking himself, 'But she did smile at.' Ryan started to smile.

'Ryan! We're about to start to watch a movie. Get in here now and this time, do not fall over,' Sharpay hollered, disturbing Ryan's train of thought. He slowly rose to his feet and made his way to the living room.

'Finally, the fag's decided to show up,' Chad stated, obvious disgust for Ryan dripping into his voice which resulted in him being silenced by an icy glare from Sharpay. No-one got away with criticising Ryan if Sharpay was around. Ryan liked to think it was because she truly did care about him deep down, even if she rarely showed it but it was for her own personal gain; she did not want to be known as the twin sister of the 'gay-boy'.

Ryan sat down in the only available space available on the floor and settled down to watch Hairspray, at least it was a musical, happily noticing that Chad and Taylor did not appear to be as close as they usually were.

Several movies later Sharpay announced that they were going to be playing spin the bottle and so left the room to find a bottle.

'Let's surprise the fag,' whispered Chad cruelly to the other Wildcats because Ryan had fallen asleep through one of the movies and his head was drooping onto his chest.

'RYAN!' They all shouted at him and once again the sudden noise caused him to instantly wake up and jump resulting in him losing hat for the second time that day. His face instantly reddened as he scrambled to sort himself out and get his hat but Chad had grabbed it and was holding it high above his head, forcing Ryan to try and jump to reach it, but he was too short.

'Give it back to him, Chad,' said Taylor quietly but forcefully. Chad dropped his arm and Ryan quickly grabbed his hat and placed it back on his head, noticing as he did so that Taylor had given him another sympathetic smile. She hadn't taken part in the teasing and was Ryan was glad about it.

'I found one,' Sharpay announced as she re-entered the room, completely oblivious as to what had just happened.

All of the Wildcats sat around the bottle and Sharpay spun it. Ryan instantly became bored with the game and zoned out thinking about that day's events, especially those concerning Taylor. He was awakened from his thoughts by everyone shouting his name.

'What?' he questioned, looking up innocently.

'It's your turn,' stated Sharpay, clearly annoyed by her twins complete dumbness and disinterest in the game, 'Truth or dare?'

Before Ryan had even opened his mouth to answer, or even process the question, Troy answered for him declaring that Ryan should do a dare. 'Oh great,' thought Ryan sarcastically to himself. It wasn't like they never had the opportunity to laugh at him; he had provided them with two opportunities that very day.

'I think that he should kiss Taylor,' Gabriella said evilly smirking at her best friend.

'I'm not sure that's a good idea. He's a fag,' Taylor blurted out. Ryan took this outburst as an outburst to leave and quickly ran outside, his eyes brimming with tears that were threatening to fall at any moment.

'I'm so stupid,' Ryan said aloud, sinking into a lounger by the side of the pool. He had honestly thought that Taylor had really liked him and he'd been wrong. No-one liked him. He knew that, no matter how hard he tried to pretend otherwise. The only reason that Sharpay even lowered herself enough to speak to him was because he was her twin brother. She was the only reason he had any respect and even that wasn't much but it would have to suffice, at least until he graduated at any rate. With this realisation Ryan let the tears fall, no longer caring who saw him. But Taylor had helped him up when he'd fallen down the stairs earlier & had given him a smile. And then, not so long ago, she hadn't taken part in the teasing and had even got Chad to give him his hat back. But it had all been false hope. Maybe it was part of the Wildcat's grand plan to screw-over the 'gay-boy'. Make him think that he was liked before bringing him down. 'Well if that was the plan, then it's worked,' thought Ryan glumly, feeling worse than he'd ever felt before. He knew that the Wildcats didn't like him and took every opportunity to laugh at him and embarrass him but this new plan was cruel, even for them.

'I'm sorry,' Ryan heard a small voice say, cracking as it did so which he instantly recognised as belonging to Taylor.

'What do you mean?' questioned Ryan, 'For screwing over the fag?'

'No. I, I never meant for that to happen. It just sort of came out accidentally, I wasn't thinking,' pleaded Taylor causing Ryan to look up at her anger evident on his face.

'You clearly were thinking Taylor otherwise you would never have called me a fag. But you know, calling me a fag wasn't what upset me, I get called that and worse everyday at school by Troy and his basketball robots but it was that you actually made me believe that someone could genuinely like me. I thought that you were different but I guess you're just the same.'

'I know what you must be thinking,' Taylor started resulting in a glare from Ryan that could have matched Sharpay's, 'But I only said it in defence because I do like you. Heck, I love you. Why do you think Gabs came up with that dare, because I stupidly told her in the strictest confidence that I fancied you.' Taylor knelt down beside Ryan and looked into his watery blue eyes: 'I do mean that. I do love you.'

It took Ryan several minutes to process the information that Taylor had just given him but when he was completed, he looked back up at her with a small smile on his face: 'You mean that?'

'Absolutely,' Taylor replied and Ryan's smile began to grow as he realised that someone really liked because they wanted to.

'But what about Chad? Aren't you still with him?'

'He told me to leave last night because I didn't want to take our relationship as far he did.'

Ryan continued to smile, however it was broken by Taylor pressing her lips against his. Ryan deepened the kiss and wrapped his arms around her, both bodies becoming tightly pressed together. They were lost in each other, the outside forgotten.

A shout alerted them to attention and they broke apart. Chad was standing there with an extremely pissed off look on his face: 'What are you doing with MY girlfriend, Evans?'

'You told her to leave so she's not your girlfriend anymore, Danforth,' Ryan simply stated while stepping slightly in front of Taylor so as to defend her from Chad.

Chad began to move towards Ryan so as to intimidate him but Ryan just stood his ground and did not rise to the bait that Chad had presented him. Suddenly, Chad's fist connected with Ryan's head causing him to fall to the ground with the shock. Before Ryan got a chance to retaliate let alone process what had happened, Chad had began kicking Ryan in the stomach and pummeling his chest. Taylor was screaming at Chad to stop because he could kill Ryan but Chad didn't seem to care. Somehow Ryan managed to stand up but Chad simply pushed the weakened boy into the pool beside him, a sickening crack ringing out. Chad took this as an invitation to leave. By this time the noises of Taylor's urgent screaming at Chad had alerted the other Wildcats to the activities going on outside.

The scene that awaited them on their arrival to the side of the pool was shocking. The side was covered in blood and Ryan was lying face down in the middle of the pool his blood mixing with the water around him turning it to a misty red colour. Gabriella jumped in and brought him to the side allowing Troy and Zeke to pull him out. Ryan was a mess, he was drenched and covered in blood and his blond hair was barely recognisable as it was matted and also had been dyed red. His head had hit the pool wall as he'd fallen in.

Sharpay hadn't been as quick as the others when heading outside and so she pushed through the small circle of people and screamed when she saw her brother lying there. Kelsi went off to phone for the ambulance, partly because she was feeling ill at the sight and partly because she knew that someone needed to do something useful.

'Help him,' Sharpay shouted at Gabriella as she gently cradled Ryan's head not caring whether she got blood on her new designer clothes. Gabriella climbed out of the pool and felt for a pulse; it was very faint. Ryan wasn't breathing and so Gabriella had to give him mouth to mouth.

'It's not working,' she stated after a few minutes. Both Taylor and Sharpay were crying now and everyone else looked pretty shocked. Ambulance sirens could be heard in the distance so Gabriella felt Ryan's neck.

'There's no pulse.'