Kelsi Neilson padded lazily into her bedroom and sat down at the keyboard that her parents had given her to keep there. Ready for bed with her hair down and pajamas on, it was time to wind down before she officially hit the sack for the night. Her fingers slid caressingly over the tops of the keys before they settled on a song that she had composed the previous summer.

She sang softly, doing both parts, "Once in a lifetime means there's no second chance, so I believe that you and me should grab it while we can."

Kelsi smiled, thinking of her own once in a lifetime experience that was fast approaching. When school started up again in the fall, she was headed to Julliard, thanks to her compositions. And going with Ryan Evans, no less.

Still grinning softly, she continued to sing the song. She knew every word of it flawlessly, which came as no surprise, seeing as she had written it herself.

However, when she sang the lyrics "every day from right now, we're gonna use our voices to scream out loud" a new thought struck her. Who said that you had to use your voice to be heard? Heaven knew that she didn't, that she never really had. She had always found a way to make herself heard, though, even to get things to go the way that she thought they should. And her tool of choice was almost always her music.

Take this very song for instance, "Everyday." It was one of the best instances in which she had used her music to get things back on the right track and how they should be. With this song she had – with some help from Ryan – gotten Troy and Gabriella back together after a difficult breakup, and even managed the needed task of taking Sharpay down a couple of pegs. All without saying a word to either one of the three.

To say nothing of the fact that it was her music that was getting her into Julliard and Ryan was going for his choreographing skills, neither of which required either one of them "to scream out loud," as some of the others in their group – namely Sharpay – were prone to doing.

Kelsi couldn't help the grin that was spreading across her face, and she didn't even bother to try. Yeah, she definitely preferred to be the playmaker. She could make her plan and then sit back on the sidelines – or behind a piano in her case – and watch it play out, usually just as she had hoped for it to.


Not as strong as I had hoped it would be, but hopefully you enjoyed it anyway. Sorry if it feels OOC. You can take that comment about "Ryan Evans, no less" any way you want to, but as a die-hard Ryelsi shipper, I couldn't help but stick it in there. Reviews would make my day! Thanks, everybody!:)