Apples to Apples
Author's Note: I started this for Avatar a while ago, but stopped writing it because I lost inspiration. When I picked it up again in the beginning of September, I decided that since the characters were too OOC for Avatar, I would just re-write it with new characters. The High School Musical characters fit in perfectly. Be on the lookout for my other HSM stories coming soon!
Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or the board game 'Apples to Apples'...though two of my best friends have the Apples to Apples Party Box.
"Alright, the next word is 'brilliant,'" Chad read. Kelsi looked at her cards. Ryan looked at Kelsi. Beside him, Zeke kicked the blond boy under the table, snapping him back into reality. Ryan quickly glanced at his cards before throwing one down randomly.
"Is that everyone?" Chad checked. He picked up the cards from the middle of the table and began to read them aloud, causing bouts of laughter from everyone except Ryan, who had zoned out again. Chad selected the winning card, but no one claimed it. Zeke kicked Ryan under the table again, this time while rolling his eyes.
"What?" Ryan jumped. He had the feeling everyone was watching him. He was right. Kelsi giggled, making Ryan blush.
"Did you put down Steven Spielberg?" Chad reiterated, frustrated.
"No, I put down Chad," Ryan joked, recovering quickly.
"Chad, brilliant? I don't think so," Troy laughed. Their circle of friends always joked around while they played, sarcastically fitting the players into the adjectives. The joke inspired Ryan.
I'll tell her through the game! He thought, perking up and paying closer attention.
"Crazy," Taylor read from her position on Chad's left.
I could do 'crazy about you' Ryan considered.
"Does crazy about you count?" Chad flirted, beating Ryan to the punch. Ryan's eyes narrowed.
"Maybe," Taylor smiled, pecking her boyfriend on the cheek.
"No PDA's!" Kelsi giggled. The sound had an instant softening effect on Ryan's features. Ignorant of Ryan's struggle, the game continued. Sharpay's card left them without any jokes aside from Chad's growing ego. Taylor quickly put him in his place.
"Your turn, Kelsi," Sharpay announced, passing the box to her left.
"Oh, I like this one," she giggled, glancing at the fidgeting girl beside her.
"What is it?" Troy asked, trying to peer over Gabriella's head.
"Calm," Kelsi read. Everyone followed her gaze to Gabriella and laughed. Unless she was taking notes in class or doing something of an equally important academic nature, the brunette had trouble sitting still.
"My turn!" Gabriella quickly exclaimed, hoping to end the jokes that had turned to her. She pulled out a green card and held it up in front of her, reading the adjective "huge" as she did so.
"Like Chad's ego?" Zeke asked.
"Exactly!" Gabriella agreed.
"Alright, alright, enough with the ego jokes," Chad complained.
"But they're cute," Taylor pouted uncharacteristically, looking at her boyfriend with the classic puppy-dog eyes she knew he couldn't refuse.
"Like me?" he checked, back to his normal mood. Everyone laughed except Ryan and Kelsi, who had finally caught each other staring-at the same moment.
Like Ryan, Kelsi thought, trying to ignore the fact that her thoughts were less sisterly than she would have liked. Contrary to what the others believed, she had never actually viewed Ryan as a brother. She had had a crush on him since the first moment she laid eyes on him in the third grade. Of course, she would never admit that to the others, especially when she worked so hard to make them think her feelings for the budding choreographer were purely plutonic.
Like Kelsi, Ryan thought at the same time, completely comfortable with the romantic nature of his feelings. Sharpay had long since taught him how to act as if he didn't like her in that way, but he wasn't nearly as talented as she was. The boys all knew how much he liked Kelsi, and so did their girlfriends. In fact, the only person who didn't know was Kelsi-and he intended to keep it that way. The talented young composer was Ryan's favorite person to spend time with, so he did everything in his power to keep things normal between them. At least, he always had.
The table was silent around the two teenagers. Taylor and Sharpay shared a smirk. Zeke nudged Ryan; Sharpay waved her hand in front of Kelsi's face. Neither noticed.
"Girl conference!" Taylor announced, snapping Kelsi out of her denial-filled reverie and stealing Sharpay's bubbly voice. The girls stood dutifully.
"Why do they do this? We're playing 'Apples to Apples.' What could they possibly need to conference about?" Chad groaned as the girls scurried into the hall.
"They're girls-they don't need a reason," Zeke pointed out. He slouched in his seat as the door to the hallway slammed shut, ensuring full privacy.
"So when are you going to tell him?" Taylor demanded of Kelsi.
"Tell who what?" Kelsi feigned nervously, glancing about her.
"You know who what," Sharpay accused.
"Huh?" Gabriella had followed the other girls into the hallway, but she had no idea to what they were ambiguously referring. Then, as she glanced between Kelsi and Sharpay, it clicked. "Oh, wait, are we talking about Kelsi's giant crush on Ryan?" She checked.
"Yeah and how she won't tell him even though he likes her back," Sharpay confirmed.
"He doesn't like me," Kelsi insisted. "At least, not like that," she added wistfully.
"Yes, he does," Gabriella argued.
"No, he doesn't," Kelsi defended forcefully, her walls rebuilding quickly.
"Yes, he does," Taylor and Sharpay replied at once. This broke Kelsi's resolve for a few seconds-Taylor and Sharpay had learned to be civil, but the pain of old wounds still kept them on opposite sides of arguments in most cases. If they agreed, it had to mean something.
"No he doesn't," Kelsi countered quietly, shaking off the ideas that had infiltrated her logic. She chose to hold fast to her head's message instead of giving in to her heart's demands. Sharpay thought for a moment about the look on her brother's face before they had left the. The twins had been sitting directly across from each other, allowing for the perfect observations. As she analyzed Ryan's reactions to various words and comments, she began to understand where he was coming from.
"Ugh, I give up. I'm tired of arguing with you about this," Sharpay ceded, pulling into the deepest reserves of her acting lessons. She had a strong feeling that Ryan was approaching his breaking point...all she had to do was wait it out. And maybe give it a little push. Of course, the other girls didn't know this. They stared at Sharpay incredulously-it wasn't like her to give up a fight. Sharpay winked to Taylor, successfully concealing her message.
"Good," Kelsi nodded, accepting Sharpay's comment at face value. "And I'm not telling him," Kelsi paused, staring into the souls of her friends. "And neither are any of you."
"Fine," they agreed reluctantly, each finding a loophole in Kelsi's demands. The young composer really needed to learn to be more specific.
Meanwhile, the boys were still sitting around their half of the table.
"So..." Zeke insinuated, elbowing Ryan playfully once the girls were safely outside.
"So...what?" Ryan asked. Unlike Kelsi, Ryan was genuinely oblivious.
"You and small person were checking each other out back there," Chad said slyly.
"She was?" Ryan noticeably did not attempt to cover for the fact that he had been checking her out.
"Yeah-are you going to tell her?" Before Ryan had the opportunity to answer Troy's question, the door burst open and the girls reentered. Walking to her seat, Kelsi trained her eyes on the ground. She refused to meet the eyes that followed her to her seat, knowing the effect he would have on her after their conversation in the dim hall.
"Finally! You're done!" Chad cheered, throwing his hands up in mock celebration. "Now can we please go back to the game?"
"My turn," Troy announced, pulling out the top card. "The next word is..."
Twenty minutes later, the gang was well into their next round, and Ryan had all but lost hope.
"Why does Zeke win?" Chad protested.
"Because Zeke put down ninja," Troy explained. "Nothing beats ninja." He pushed the box to Ryan, who took a deep yoga breath before pulling a green card from the middle of the pile.
Please let it be a good card, he prayed silently, his mouth clamped shut by fear. He turned the card up in his hand and his eyes widened, first from shock, and then from joy. It was exactly what he had been hoping to get.
"Ryan," Zeke whispered, jabbing the blond boy with his elbow lightly. No response. "Ryan," Zeke repeated, jabbing him harder. Zeke groaned and resorted to kicking Ryan's shin under the table. When Ryan finally looked up, he instantly looked at Kelsi. Sharpay glared across the table at Zeke, silently warning him of the dangerous consequences that would come from interfering.
As Kelsi's chocolate-brown eyes met Ryan's sky blue pair, all her denial dissolved. She could no longer keep at bay her crush on Ryan. All eyes watched Ryan, waiting for him to read the card, waiting for the moment they had anticipated for months. After this, there would be no turning back.
"Incredible," Ryan whispered, his voice just a fraction of what it usually was. Ryan smiled, and Kelsi mirrored his actions.
"Incredible," she repeated, matching his low volume and awed tone. Noticing that the game was paused indefinitely, the group followed Sharpay's clear evacuation instructions.
"They're gone," Kelsi noticed. Ryan nodded.
Now or never Ryan thought to himself, pushing his chair away from the table.
Those girls are so dead Kelsi thought simultaneously, watching her crush walk around the table, past the chairs in which their friends had sat mere moments before. As he reached Kelsi, he sat on the table, one leg swinging off the edge and the other staying on the ground.
"Incredible," he whispered again, holding it out to her as thought it were her prize. "Kelsi. Kelsi is incredible."
Kelsi looked at her small pile of green cards, representing her victories from earlier rounds. Her cheeks were tinted pink as she reached into the pile, pulling out the first card she had won.
"Amazing," she read. She looked up; her eyes met his again. "Ryan is amazing." Ryan shook his head, returning to his normal vernacular.
"I'm only half as amazing as you," he flirted. She was so touched by his words and his sincerity that a single tear rolled down her cheek. He instantly reached his hand out, cupping her cheek with his palm as the pad of his thumb wiped the tear away. She placed a hand on top of his.
Ryan paused, mid-motion. Kelsi slowly rose from her seat, standing before him. The hand on Kelsi's cheek guided her to him, pulling their faces closer until, at last, their eyes closed and their lips met. At first, the contact was gentle. Their lips brushed lightly, barely touching. The intensity built as Ryan pushed off the table, holding Kelsi's waist with his free hand as soon as he was steady. Kelsi wrapped her free arm around his neck, pulling closer to him in the process.
Finally, their kiss ended. They leaned their foreheads together as they opened their eyes, enjoying the magical connection.
"Did you two kiss yet?" Chad called from the other side of the door, breaking the spell. Ryan rolled his eyes. He grabbed Kelsi's hand and pulled her to the door. Before they left the tiny room, however, Ryan readjusted their position. He released Kelsi's hand and instead wrapped his arm around her waist. Kelsi gasped as he pulled her close. He leaned in, his warm breath tickling her ear.
"We'll finish this later."