ACT I

Eleanor Darbus arrived in her classroom bright and early Wednesday morning. Although she'd spent the last two days here at East High, attending boring teacher in-services and preparing her classroom, she felt that today was truly her first day back, for this was the day the students were returning.

Eleanor saw the start of each new school year as an empty stage, full of possibilities. This year in particular was sure to be grand because, after three years of nurturing her little chicks, her homeroom students were finally going to be seniors. Eleanor was looking forward to helping her little birds spread their wings and soar like eagles into their bright futures.

And none of them were likely to soar as high or shine so bright as those wonderful, multi-talented Evans twins. Never in all her 23 years of teaching had Eleanor worked with two such gifted young performers. And now that they were mature seniors, their stars were likely to shine even brighter in the theatrical firmament. In fact, Eleanor had already decided that the Drama Club would stage an additional production this year, a senior showcase of "the Scottish play" in the late spring to bring Ryan and Sharpay's East High acting careers to a spectacular close.

As if her mere thoughts had conjured him up, Ryan Evans suddenly entered her classroom with a friendly "Good morning, Ms. Darbus! Welcome back!"

"Same to you, Ryan," Eleanor said as she took in his appearance. Although Ryan hadn't grown any taller over the summer, his face had lost most of its baby fat, transforming him into the handsome young man she'd always known he'd become. "My, how you've matured! Did you enjoy your summer?"

Ryan smiled dreamily. "OH yeah."

Eleanor recognized that look. "Ah -- young love. I still remember MY seventeenth summer -- hoofing away as a mere chorus girl until the leading man suddenly picked me out to be his."

Eleanor sighed at the happy memory, reminding herself that she still needed to mail Ross a gift for his recent commitment ceremony.

"A chorus girl?" Ryan asked, genuinely interested as only the Evanses truly were. "What show did you do?"

"Brigadoon -- but only a small community theatre production," Eleanor admitted. "Our little shows in Las Cruces were nothing compared to the lavish extravaganzas you and your sister have starred in."

Truth be told, Eleanor felt a twinge of jealousy at the opportunities that the Evans twins had had. Perhaps, if SHE'D had those same opportunities, she might have made it big on Broadway. But, alas, her parents couldn't afford to buy her way into an exclusive performing arts college, so she'd had to attend New Mexico State instead.

Not that she regretted becoming a teacher -- especially when she got to work with such talented students as Ryan and Sharpay Evans.

"So," Ryan asked as his fellow students began trickling into the classroom, "are you teaching freshman Intro to Theatre 7th period again this year?"

"Unfortunately!"

She had spent YEARS trying to convince the East High administration that 7th period electives should be reserved for motivated upperclassmen, not yawning, squirrelly freshmen; yet, as always, her complaints had fallen upon deaf ears.

But her answer seemed to be exactly the one Ryan had wanted to hear, for he grinned excitedly.

"Then can I be your T.A.?" he asked, handing her the registration form.

Eleanor couldn't believe it. "Oh Ryan, that would be a dream come true!"

She took the form and set it down on her desk, adjusting her glasses before starting to fill it out.

"Not only can you help me grade, but I can use your talents for demonstrations. The freshmen are always atrocious at reading scenes aloud. And I usually don't cover much on choreography, since it's only an intro class, but perhaps I can get you to…."

Eleanor trailed off as she stood to hand Ryan his signed form and found that he was no longer standing in front of her desk.

Instead, he was standing over next to the desk of Coach Bolton's son, engaged in an animated conversation with that Danforth boy.

Eleanor might've taken more time to consider this unlikely pairing if, at that moment, Sharpay hadn't entered the classroom, obediently followed by Zeke Baylor, who seemed to have grown a foot taller over the summer.

"Welcome back, Ms. Darbus!"

Sharpay was all smiles as she grabbed a baggie full of cookies from atop the pile of books Zeke was carrying and handed it to her teacher. "These are for you."

Eleanor took them happily as Zeke protested "Hey!"

"Chocolate chip!" Eleanor realized as she eagerly peered into the bag. "My favorite!"

"I know!" Sharpay said, smiling sweetly before turning to glare at Zeke, who had unceremoniously dropped her books with a thud upon her desk and stomped to the back of the classroom.

Eleanor watched with a smile as the pretty blonde girl took her seat as if it were a throne and not just a battered public school desk.

As a teacher, Eleanor knew it wasn't right to play favorites, but she couldn't help herself -- even though Ryan was probably more talented overall, Eleanor couldn't help but prefer his sister. Sharpay reminded her so much of herself at that age -- beautiful, talented, ready to take on whatever wondrous opportunity might arise in her future.

RRRRRRRINNNNNGGGGG!

Which, at the moment, was merely homeroom.

"Okay, people, let's settle down," Eleanor Darbus said, clapping her hands together for emphasis as the last of the students straggled in to take their seats. She adjusted her glasses, taking in all the fresh young faces that no longer looked quite so young.

Fighting away the tear that formed in the corner of her eye, she pronounced, "And let me be the first to welcome you to your senior year here at East High."

----

"So I was thinking here we'd have the tenors singing counterpoint to the sopranos," Kelsi said, pointing out a section of handwritten music manuscript in her notebook. "What do you think, Ryan?"

Ryan took the notebook from Kelsi for a closer look, humming to himself for a few moments before returning the music to Kelsi with a bright smile. "That's gonna sound great, Kels! Have you played it for Ms. Darbus yet?"

"Not yet," Kelsi admitted with a sheepish smile as she flipped back a couple pages in the spiral-bound notebook.

Ryan marveled at Kelsi's modesty -- he was so used to dealing with Sharpay's ego that he found the composer's humility endearing.

"I wanted to finish all the changes in the second act and present them to her all at once," Kelsi explained. "See, like here, in the entr'acte." She slid the notebook back across the table to Ryan, pointing out a passage at the top of the page. "I rearranged it to feature the lower voices in the orchestra more, since we've got such a strong trombone section in the marching band this year."

Ryan glanced over the scrawled notes, again humming to himself, grinning up at his friend as he finished. "Perfect! Now we just need to do some heavy recruiting in the Marching Wildcats and we're set."

Kelsi grinned knowingly. "Leave that to me. I'm hitting up all the music classes. We're gonna build an awesome orchestra by the time rehearsals for the winter musical start."

"You, my dear, are a genius," Ryan gushed. "I think this year's winter musical will be the best one East High's ever seen."

Kelsi blushed, rolling her eyes. "I don't know about that."

Ryan laughed as he gave the brim of Kelsi's hat a playful tug. "No, it will! The music is fantastic, you're already recruiting for the orchestra, and it's only the first day of school!"

The excitement of the day was going to his head, but he didn't care and gave into it fully. "I do believe this calls for a toast."

Ryan raised his milk carton in salute, arching an eyebrow at Kelsi. "Well, c'mon! Don't leave me hanging!"

Laughing, Kelsi raised her own milk carton. "You're such a dork. What're we toasting?"

"How about...senior year?"

Kelsi lowered her carton, a wistful look on her face. "I've still got another year to go."

"Oh yeah."

Kelsi had spent so much time with Ryan and the Wildcats this summer that Ryan had completely forgotten she was only a junior. "Well, then, let's toast to…the best school year ever."

Kelsi grinned, and the pair "clinked" their cartons together, trying not to giggle as they sipped their milk.

"So, do I get a sneak preview of anything else from your brand-new, world premiere musical?" Ryan smiled winsomely as he chewed on a carrot stick.

Kelsi nodded enthusiastically. "Let me show you the song for the end of Act One. I kinda wrote it with Gabriella in mind, so I really hope she--"

"Dude, where've you been?"

At the sound of Chad's voice, Ryan and Kelsi looked up as one to see him standing next to the drama club table, arms crossed over his chest.

"Eating lunch," Ryan said, as if it were obvious from the emptied plastic baggies lying on the cafeteria table in front of him. Patting the bench next to him, Ryan added, "I saved you a seat."

Chad let out a snort. "ME eat at the drama geek table? Get serious." Chad pointed to a table down on the first floor -- the JOCK table. "I saved YOU a seat -- why didn't you come eat with us? I thought we were gonna…you know…eat together."

The jock looked around uncomfortably, obviously nervous that someone might overhear their conversation and decide the two boys were more than "just friends". Ryan had noticed Chad doing that a lot today -- every time they spoke in the halls, in fact. Ryan was started to get really annoyed.

He also found it annoying that Chad had referred to them as "drama geeks" -- had Chad learned nothing from their time together? Ryan found it ironic that over the summer Lava Springs, an exclusive country club, had become a sort of melting pot of East High, where jocks, smart kids, and yes, even "drama geeks" could all hang out as one big happy family.

But here it was, only halfway through the first day back at school, and already the barriers were going up again. Looking down at the students below, Ryan noticed that even Gabriella was back sitting with the smart kids, NOT with Troy.

"I thought we were gonna eat together, too," Ryan said, pouting as he stared up at Chad.

"Hey, I know," Kelsi offered helpfully. "Maybe you guys could sit together at…a NEUTRAL table…over there…or something." She pointed to a table in the corner that only had a few kids sitting at one end.

Chad laughed. "Dude, why would I want to sit with a bunch of losers?"

"Thanks for calling me a loser," Ryan snapped back angrily, not sure why Chad being such a jerk all of a sudden.

"I didn't mean you! I want to sit with you. But I wanna sit with my FRIENDS, too. Just sitting with you...that would be…I mean, just the two…people might think…."

Ryan put up his hands. "Okay, okay, I get your point. But you know, I want to sit with MY friends at lunch, too," he said, gesturing towards Kelsi and the other drama club members.

"Then how about a schedule?" Kelsi suggested cheerfully, causing the two boys to stare at her blankly. "You know -- on Mondays and Wednesdays Ryan can sit with you, Chad, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays Chad can sit with you, Ryan…or something..." She trailed off self-consciously.

Chad looked confused. "But what about Fridays?"

"It's just a suggestion -- you guys would have to work out the details amongst yourselves." Kelsi stared down at her chocolate pudding, suddenly intensely interested in it.

Ryan was impressed. "How'd you get so smart, Kels?" he asked.

Kelsi shrugged modestly. "I'm a middle child -- that's what I do."

RRRRRRRINNNNNGGGGG!

Chad looked at Ryan. "You wanna get together after school and…talk about our 'schedule'?"

The glint in Chad's eye told Ryan that there probably wouldn't be a lot of talking going on.

"Sounds good to me," he said as he stood up, grinning meaningfully at Chad as he grabbed the remains of his lunch to toss in the nearby garbage can.

"Okay, cool! Well, I gotta run. I've got Rosten 5th period and he gives detention if you're late -- even on the first day! Catch you later."

Ryan watched Chad rush out, smiling after the retreating boy. He then put his arm around Kelsi's shoulder as they walked together out of the cafeteria.

"Whatever would I do without you, Kels?"

The short girl grinned up at Ryan. "I guess you'd just hafta sing a capella."

----

As Coach Moore lectured at the front of the garage, Troy completed his inventory of the toolboxes and moved on to do the same with the drawers along the wall.

When Troy's dad had first suggested being a T.A. 4th period instead of taking a long lunch like most of his friends, Troy had balked at the idea. But after learning that Gabriella had AP Chem 4th period and Coach Moore was looking for a teacher's aide for auto shop, Troy had changed his mind. After all, being a T.A. would look good on college applications, and tinkering with cars all semester would be a blast.

Besides, this past summer at Lava Springs had made Troy realize how much he enjoyed teaching. Although he hadn't been able to improve Ryan's golf game, Troy still felt his golf lessons had been a success.

Deep down, Troy knew he'd never make it to the NBA, so having a solid back-up plan of becoming a teacher, and maybe even a coach one day, made him a little less afraid of his future.

Meanwhile, he'd have a fun way to pass the time while Gabi was in class.

RRRRRRRINNNNNGGGGG!

As the students rushed out of the garage, Coach Moore walked over to where Troy was working.

"How's it coming, Bolton?" Coach Moore asked.

Troy shrugged. "I'm done with the toolboxes, but I've only just started inventorying the drawers. Do you want me to stay and--"

"No, of course not," Coach Moore interrupted, patting Troy on the back. "It's only the second day of school -- we're not gonna get to any actual cars until at LEAST the middle of next week, so you'll have plenty of time in class to finish up."

Troy smiled, relieved -- he hadn't really wanted to stay and work during his lunch period, but he knew the sorts of sacrifices teachers sometimes had to make and figured teacher's aides had to make the same.

"Dude, c'mon!"

Troy turned to see Chad beckoning him from the doorway.

"The bell rang, like, AGES ago! Do you want all the food to be gone?"

Troy laughed -- Chad was somewhat prone to exaggeration…and to hunger.

"Hey, Danforth," Coach Moore greeted, "we miss you on the team this year. Why didn't you come out for cross country?"

Troy could see that his best friend looked uncomfortable being put on the spot by his ex-coach, so Troy quickly answered for him, "Oh, Chad's real busy this year, right, Chad?"

"Oh…yeah -- real busy," Chad echoed.

"That's too bad," Coach Moore said. "We could really use a strong athlete like you on the team. It's not too late to change your mind, you know."

Chad nodded. "I'll…think about it," he said noncommittally.

"Well, we better get to lunch," Troy said hastily, heading for the door. "See you tomorrow, Coach."

"Yeah…uh…later, Coach," Chad called back as the two boys headed down the hall.

As soon as they were well away from the garage, Chad put his arm around Troy's shoulders. "Thanks for saving me back there, bro."

"Of course -- that's what brothers are for," Troy said. "But now I'm curious -- why DIDN'T you go out for cross country this year?"

Chad shrugged. "I just didn't feel like it. Cross country takes up SO much time, and I just wanted to have some free time this fall…to just…hang out…you know…with--"

"Ryan," Troy finished for him, rolling his eyes. It seemed like Ryan influenced ALL Chad's decisions these days.

Troy couldn't believe that he'd only found out about the two boys last Sunday -- it seemed so obvious now how much Chad and Ryan liked each other.

Like the way Chad was now blushing.

"And I want to have time to hang out with YOU, too," Chad added weakly.

"Yeah, whatever," Troy teased, playfully shoving his friend. "I saw the way you two rushed off together after school yesterday -- you didn't even have time to say goodbye to your oldest, bestest friend," he teased.

"Sorry."

Chad shrugged guiltily, but Troy could see that twinkle in his friend's eye that always appeared when he was thinking of Ryan. "He and I were just kinda--"

Troy put up his hands in protest. "Dude, I don't wanna hear the details," he teased before a thought occurred to him. "Wait a minute -- YOU may not be busy now, but what about Ryan? He won't have much free time once the fall play rehearsals start, right?"

Chad laughed. "It's just a play, dude -- that can't take up too much of his time, right?"

Troy remembered his experiences working with the East High drama club last winter -- lunches singing with Kelsi in the music room, afternoons working on the stage with Ms. Darbus, evenings spent running lines with Gabi, even daylong tech rehearsals on the weekends. Being in the play had been even more time-consuming than when they'd been practicing for the big championship basketball game!

But before Troy could mention any of this, Gabriella suddenly appeared at his side.

"Hey, mister -- long time, no see," she teased.

Troy checked his watch. "Three entire periods," he teased back. "Yeah, it feels like an eternity!"

He put his arm around her shoulders to pull her close and she snuggled up against him. Looking down at her, she looked so beautiful that Troy actually considered kissing her right here in the school hallway, school rules about PDA's be damned.

"Oh puh-lease," Chad groaned, rolling his eyes at the couple.

Troy laughed, suddenly remembering he and Gabi weren't alone.

Turning to Chad, Troy teased, "Careful there, bro -- you're starting to sound like Sharpay."

Chad gasped in horror as Gabriella giggled.

"It's okay, Chad," Gabriella said. "It's common to adopt the verbal mannerisms of the people you hang out with."

Chad only looked marginally relieved. "Yeah, well, you two gotta promise me that if I start DRESSING like Sharpay, you'll put me outta my misery."

Troy laughed before turning back to his adorably smart girlfriend. "Care to join us for lunch today? Or are you and Taylor doing something?"

"Nope, I'm free," Gabriella said, smiling at him as they approached the cafeteria. "Taylor's busy organizing the school dance for next Friday."

"So I see," Troy said as they entered the cafeteria.

Being hung from the balcony by two freshmen was a 30-foot banner. Taylor stood below, barking out directions on how to hang it straight.

The banner declared:

"Back to School dance

7-10pm, Friday, Aug. 31

Cost: $5 per person

Sponsored by Student Council"

Troy smiled. "Taylor seems to be enjoying her new StuCo role," he commented.

Gabriella nodded. "She even volunteered to be in charge of the dance. You know, I think this summer was really good for Taylor -- I think organizing the activities at Lava Springs really boosted her self-confidence."

Chad laughed. "Taylor needs more self-confidence like she needs a megaphone."

Troy laughed. Taylor's barked orders were clearly reverberating throughout the entire cafeteria without any amplification, much to the chagrin of the two freshmen, who were obviously trying their best.

"So, Troy," Gabriella said sweetly, looking hopefully up at her boyfriend. "About next Friday...?"

Troy nodded, unable to resist her coy smile and fluttering eyelashes. "Of course we'll go together."

Gabriella simply smiled, happily leaning her head against his shoulder.

"Yo, dude."

Troy was surprised to hear Chad calling to him from the lunch line -- Troy hadn't even noticed that his friend had left his side.

"You gonna flirt or you gonna eat?"

Chad indicated that he was holding a spot for his best friend.

Troy looked down at Gabi, who nodded at him.

"Go ahead," she said, starting to take a step towards her best friend. "I'm gonna go talk to..."

"Taylor?" Troy finished for her, finally starting to realize a bit of how the female mind works.

Gabriella's blush confirmed it.

Troy smiled, adding, "Tell her I can't wait to see the decorations she's got planned."

Troy watched Gabi practically skip over to her best friend, obviously eager to share the news about her upcoming date.

As soon as she was gone, Troy's stomach grumbled. He sauntered over to Chad, thankful his friend had saved him a spot in line.

----

"Dude, why are you even here? YOU don't have detention."

Not that Chad didn't WANT Ryan there -- it was the only thing making detention bearable.

Ryan shrugged. "I'm the TA for Ms. Darbus's last period, so when I saw that you had detention with her after school, I thought I'd stay and keep you company." He smiled winsomely. "You lucky person, you."

Chad chuckled as he struggled to pry open the can of paint with his fingers. "Oh yeah, 'lucky' is totally the word I would use to describe myself right now," he teased, waiting for Ryan to hand him the screwdriver that was sitting nearby.

"Hey, be nice!" Ryan exclaimed, giving Chad's arm a playful smack. "Or maybe I WON'T take you to that awesome brick-oven pizza place before the dance next week."

"Huh?" Chad asked in confusion as he reached across Ryan to grab the screwdriver himself.

"You know." Ryan raised his eyebrows, nodding his head toward Chad meaningfully. "The back-to-school dance next Friday? Don't tell me you haven't seen all the signs around school! I know you aren't THAT clueless!"

Now it was Chad's turn to give his friend a teasing smack. "Oh, and you were telling ME to be nice?!"

The boys shared a laugh as Ryan attempted to hit Chad back, prompting Chad to grab the other boy's wrists in an effort to protect himself. The roughhousing might have escalated further had Ms. Darbus not angrily cleared her throat at the sudden disturbance in her quiet afternoon detention.

"Sorry, Ms. Darbus," Ryan whispered sheepishly.

"Evans...such a troublemaker," Chad teased under his breath, smirking at the other boy. "Here I am, hard at work painting YOUR scenery, and YOU'RE just causing a scene."

"Shut up!" Ryan hissed, unable to suppress his own grin.

Chad worked in silence for a few moments, aimlessly dragging his paintbrush across the wooden box that he supposed was some piece of scenery for the fall play. Either that, or Darbus was using student slave labor to redecorate her house.

He almost forgot Ryan was sitting in front of him until the other boy gently nudged him with his foot. Chad looked up and met Ryan's gaze, swallowing back the snarky comment he'd planned to make as soon as he saw the other boy smiling at him.

"So..." Ryan began, smiling hopefully. "The dance...?"

Chad nodded. "I'm in. Sounds like fun. So who are you taking?"

Ryan laughed. "Is that a trick question?"

"No," Chad said, not sure what Ryan was talking about. "If we're gonna double-date, I wanna know who you're going with."

Ryan's smile began to fade. "What?" he asked, looking extremely confused.

Chad sighed frustratedly, realizing he was going to have to spell it out for Ryan. "Who are you taking to the dance?"

Ryan looked at Chad warily, and his answer sounded more like a question. "You?"

Now it was Chad's turn to laugh. "Yeah, right. I'm going with Taylor, dude."

Ryan's eyes turned steely, and Chad felt as if the temperature in the theatre had suddenly dropped.

"You're going with Taylor?"

Ryan's voice sounded calm, but Chad almost got the feeling like he was upset about something.

Chad nodded. "I asked her yesterday afternoon. She's all excited about dancing with me after my lessons this summer. Of course, I don't think we'll be doing a lotta foxtrot to Christina, but--"

"I can't believe you!"

The intensity of Ryan's voice made Chad stop mid-sentence.

"Whoa, dude -- is something wrong?"

Ryan let out a bitter laugh. "Is something wrong? IS SOMETHING WRONG?!"

Ryan jutted his chin out as he silently glared at Chad, letting out an angry breath through his nose like a bull that was about to charge.

Chad just stared in confusion at the blond boy, not sure what to say, afraid of pissing off Ryan more.

Finally Ryan shook his head. "Sharpay was right all along," he said coldly before leaping to his feet and starting to walk away.

"Whoa whoa whoa," Chad said, dropping the paintbrush as he dodged around the wooden box to run after Ryan. Chad put a hand on Ryan's shoulder to stop him, but the blond boy angrily wrenched away from his touch.

However, Chad wasn't going to let Ryan dodge his question. "Dude, what do you mean, 'Sharpay was right'?"

Ryan shook his head. "Sharpay told me that I was getting my hopes up for nothing. That it was just a summer fling. That once school started back, a star basketball player was never gonna admit that he actually cared about me."

Ryan sighed before adding quietly under his breath. "I hate it when Sharpay's right."

What the hell?! What was Ryan's problem?

"Dude, I DO care about you. You know that."

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right."

"Evans, I--"

"Mr. Danforth," Ms. Darbus called from across the stage. "Your detention isn't over just--"

"In a minute, Darbus!" Chad snapped at his teacher. He then turned back to Ryan, saying, "What's your deal, Evans? Why are you acting like this?"

Ryan just stared at him for a minute before answering quietly, "I thought we were gonna go to the dance together."

Chad hadn't expected that answer, and his automatic response was to laugh. "Are you serious?"

Ryan turned on his heels and started to march off, but Chad instantly chased after him again.

"Okay, I guess you're serious. But dude, seriously? Go to a dance together? That would be like admitting to EVERYONE that--"

"You like me?" Ryan finished for him. "Yeah. Silly me to think you'd want to do that."

"Dude, you know how much I like you. But I just can't--"

"Mr. Danforth," Ms. Darbus said, suddenly at Chad's side. She grabbed his ear and started pulling him back towards his painting, saying, "This is detention, not stand-around-and-chat-with-your-buddies time."

"But--" Chad began, but his protest died on his lips as he realized Ryan was already gone.

He sighed, feeling confused and guilty for upsetting Ryan.

But there wasn't anything he could do about it at the moment, so he reluctantly picked up his paintbrush. "Yes, Ms. Darbus."

END OF ACT I: TO BE CONTINUED FOLLOWING A BRIEF INTERMISSION ;)