This is rated M for language, and adult situations

A/N.

Please let me know if there are any errors or glitches in my fic, regarding to the original movie. I'd be happy to correct them, thank you!

Troy's the good guy. The smart. The funny. The good looking.

Always has been, always will be. Always shared his toys in preschool, brought cool stuff to show and tell in the third grade, got asked out because he could shave his chin when we were fourteen. He made straight A's, shopped at Abercrombie and Fitch, and was always on time for everything.

He was basketball champion for the team Wildcats and was lead in the winter school musical. He dated the smartest hottest girl in our year. His family was wealthy. His parents were together, happy, cute. Even small things that weren't perfect didn't bother him. He didn't care if he drove around a rusty truck, he didn't mind not being voted Home coming Prince, and he wasn't bothered about not having the nicest cell phone. And just for being content and cheerful about his small put backs, he was loved even more by friends, teachers, and parents alike.

His life was like those old T.V shows. Smiling, frozen in bliss, perfect.

We can't all live like that. Being Troy's best friend, I'd be a lying piece of shit to say that I wasn't jealous. Compared to his commercial happy home, mine was a nightmare.

I'm Chad Danforth.

I'm not the leader of anything.

I'm the best friend, the sidekick, the substitute.

It's been that way since I can remember.

My family isn't happy, I don't get good grades, no one notices me on the team except for coming up with our trade mark "Wild Cats Cheer", I don't have a car, I don't have anything nice.

I'm dating Taylor McKessie. She's pretty, and funny, and smart. She says she loves me. I say I do too.

Why I don't tell the truth, I don't know.

I don't love her. She's nice and everything. But she's too uptight, too judgemental, and she gossips constantly. She's cool to hang out with sometimes, but the most we ever do is hold hands. We've been going out for over a year and I'm still not allowed to kiss her.

And she's never been to my house, and she nags me constantly because she wants to meet my parents.

I don't want her to.

My family is, to put it delicately, fucked up.

I'm the third child, and youngest. There's Harper, and Andrea. Twins, three years older than I.

All three of us used to make tents in the den with blankets and chairs and eat Oreos and tell ghost stories with flashlights.

That was a long time ago.

When I was fifteen, Harper was killed in a car accident.

Nothing has been the same since. My mother hasn't worn any other color than black for the last few years. My father lives in his office.

And Andrea snorts cocaine every single day.

And I just play basketball.

I'm known as the go lucky happy guy. Always smiling, joking, and tossing the ball around my legs.

I smile a lot because it's easy. It's easy to look happy. It's easy to make everything a big joke. It's easy to wake up every morning to live a lie.

It's easy to lie.

Everyone knows about my brother, even though I didn't tell anyone. The first few months, people avoided me, unsure what to do or say, afraid of me. Afraid of death. Afraid of those acquainted with death.

And I realized that no one would ever treat me normally unless I went back to being that stupid ass who took nothing seriously.

So, I taught myself to laugh and tease and hop around again. And everyone was relieved that Chad Danforth was back. No one had to be all kind, understanding, and shit.

Troy of course still knew it was tough. He's very sympathetic, and shit but we never talk about it, and we only hang out at his house.

My life was all right before Harper died, we never had all kinds of fancy stuff but my parents worked hard, and we kids were healthy and relatively happy.

But now, I'm almost eighteen, its been almost three years and its still like it happened yesterday. Time heals no wounds, it deepens them. Cuts them even further into it you, marking you for life. Every day, walking in my front door is a nightmare.

The screaming, the violent verbal fights, the tension, the tears.

It's a war zone.

I don't want to explain it to Taylor but she's too fucking dumb.

"It's ok, I'll understand." She said.

But if she did, she wouldn't bitch at me.

Troy can sing, like really well. He was in the school musical, and everyone loved it. I won't lie, it was pretty awesome. He gets lots of attention because he can, he never did it really before and you have to admire the guy for trying something so new.

I wish I could sing. I never thought about it before he did it. Taylor sings a little but she never bothers really including me when she sings along with everyone else. I don't really want to sing with everyone else but it ticks me off that she doesn't even ask. I don't know, maybe I'm just a whiny little shit.

School is really hard too, Darbus is always mad at me. My average is C's and D's. Sometimes I get F's, I always wonder if my parents will care and they never do. My mom just sighs and crosses herself and Dad just drinks his third Scotch.

I learned early, no one cares if you succeed or not. You have to do it all by yourself.

I love basketball, I'm just as good as Troy, but he's the playmaker because he's the Coach's son.

Its not his fault, I don't blame him for having it all together. Its just that I wish it was me.

Another thing, since Troy has been going out with Gabriella, I might as well be the paint of the wall to him. He's always blowing me off to go and hang out with her. We've done double dates a couple times but Taylor gets annoyed but Troy and Gabriella's PDA so now we're all pretty much divided up on Saturday nights.

Don't get me wrong, I like Gabriella, she's really nice. And smart, and makes Troy happy.

But why does he get her? What's so special about Troy? Why does he get Gabriella? Why am I stuck with everything shitty? The bad grades, the horrible family life, the irritating girlfriend, the fucked up stuff?

Why does he get the stuff he wants?

Why?

Why?

God, if someone knows, tell me.

My very first HSM fic! I love Chad and I don't think there's any real angst fic that does him justice.

Leave reviews! This is far from done, I'm just starting out!