Chapter 1
Rehearsals were long and difficult without Gabriella there to sort out the petty arguments and soothe disgruntled feelings. Working with Sharpay was very different to playing opposite Gabriella but Troy persevered knowing that he'd probably never have the opportunity to play lead roles with Gabriella again. It didn't help much that he didn't like or trust Sharpay as a person and acting the part of being her boyfriend was especially difficult and awkward. He enjoyed spending the breaks with Kelsi and Ryan who he'd become much closer friends with since marrying Gabriella. Kelsi had done a wonderful job transposing Gabriella's songs into the right key for Sharpay (though in Troy's opinion they sounded much better before when Gabriella was singing) but the blonde diva was insisting that she jazz up the tempo and turn them into dance numbers. Kelsi stood up for herself and refused backed up by both Troy and Ryan. Unfortunately Sharpay wasn't used to not getting her own way and had taken the matter up with Ms Darbus.
Ms Darbus listened to both sides of the argument and had to agree with Kelsi and the boys. A lot of the emotion in the songs would be lost if they were speeded up the way Sharpay wanted.
Sharpay continued to argue for the changes before storming off the stage.
Troy had to stop himself from bursting out laughing when Ryan suggested that if Sharpay wasn't enough of a professional to play the part and sing the songs as they had been written he would be glad to take her place and that it would be very easy for him to sing most of the songs in the key Kelsi had already transposed them to for Sharpay and he already knew all of the choreography so the substitution wouldn't cause a lot of extra work for any of them.
Troy expressed his willingness to play opposite Ryan stating that they worked well together in rehearsal when he'd been teaching Troy the dances.
Sharpay was left spluttering but Ms Darbus said that it was a possibility but she didn't think East High was quite ready for casting like that and she would give Sharpay one last chance to learn the role before she replaced her, selecting one of the juniors to understudy the role.
"Troy will be away for the next three days so you have until Monday to make a decision Miss Evans. In the meantime I want you both here working on the songs and choreography with Miss Neilson and Mr Evans. I suggest you both make a concerted effort to learn them they way they are supposed to be performed. It is the scriptwriter, songwriter and the choreographers place to make changes to a stage production Miss Evans. Something you will need to accept if you hope to make the stage your profession. I'm afraid I've been too lax about that in the past and have done you no favours. For that I apologise."
Ms Darbus then turned to the junior standing in the wings, "Miss Gold you have five days to learn the part otherwise if Miss Evans does not feel she can take direction like a real actress I will have no choice but to give it to Mr Evans and risk the principle's disapproval" she said handing over a copy of the script and a CD of the songs.
"Personally I think I'd rather work with Ryan than either of those spoilt princesses" Troy whispered to Kelsi and Ryan causing them both to grin.
"And what about the kiss Wildcat?" Kelsi said teasingly.
"It's hard to kiss anyone who's not Gabriella I don't imagine kissing Ryan would be any worse" Troy replied. "I bet MsD would make you write it out anyway if she gave Ryan the part."
"She might not" Ryan warned.
"She would if you asked her too" Troy replied. "She has to be aware it could cause trouble"
-o0o-
"And what if she doesn't? I'm not sure I could kiss you realistically Troy, no offence"
Troy grinned to show no offence was taken then grimaced as he thought about the problem. "We'd have to practice" he said sighing.
"Gabriella's going to love that" Ryan replied sarcastically.
"I'm more worried about Dad and the rest of the school" Troy said. "Gabriella knows the kiss is in the script no matter who plays the part. She's not thrilled about me kissing Sharpay either."
"Are you going to tell her?" Ryan asked.
Troy shrugged "I'll probably tell her about what happened, I won't tell her that it's a real possibility until Darbus makes a decision on Monday because I really don't think it's gonna happen. But I can't really see her being any more upset about me kissing you than she already was about me having to kiss Sharpay" he said as he climbed into his truck. "Do either of you want a lift?" he asked.
"No thanks Troy. Mom's waiting I'll see you tomorrow" Kelsi said kissing his cheek. "Say Hi to Gabriella for me."
"I'll tell her that you're looking after me" Troy promised.
"You know she didn't ask me to" Kelsi protested.
"Yeah but she'll be glad to hear someone's protecting me from the drama monster of East High" Troy joked looking apologetically at Ryan.
"Don't apologise to me Troy. I agree she's behaving like a monster" Ryan said sighing. "Just be grateful that you don't have to live with her. I'm going to be hearing about this all weekend."
"If it gets too much you can escape to my house and hang out" Kelsi offered.
"I might wear out my welcome"
"Don't be silly. You're a friend. I can't promise not to drag you into practicing the songs but you're always welcome."
"You're welcome to come crash with me next week when I get back too" Troy offered.
"Troy if I get the part the last thing we need is for people to hear that I'm spending time alone with you at home while Gabriella's away" Ryan said dryly. "Thanks for the offer though."
Troy laughed "Yeah I suppose you're right" he agreed. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"I thought you were leaving tomorrow?" Kelsi said surprised.
"Yeah right after school. I'm going to try and drive as far as I can tomorrow night then crash in my truck and go the rest of the way in the morning."
"Well take care the last thing I want to do is end up playing a romantic role with my sister" Ryan said pulling a face. "That would be worse than kissing you."
Troy laughed "Don't worry I'll stop and rest when I need to" he reassured them as they walked out together.
The subject came up Friday night as he was walking around the campus with Gabriella.
"How are rehearsals for the musical going?" she asked a little surprised that he hadn't already told her all about them.
Troy groaned "Horrible, I wish you were there to do the musical. Sharing the lead with Sharpay is a nightmare. She's even worse that she was last year." Troy complained "She keeps trying to change the songs and the dance moves and all her lines and she argues constantly with Kelsi and Ryan she wants them to increase her part and make sure she's centre stage for the whole time"
"How are Ryan and Kelsi coping with that? Surely you're not letting her get away with treating your 'little sister' like that." It wasn't a question Gabriella knew that Troy would do anything to protect Kelsi from Sharpay's bitchiness.
"Kelsi's doing okay. She stands up for herself against Sharpay now" Troy said, clearly proud of his friend.
Gabriella smiled and raised her eyebrow questioningly, waiting for him to continue.
"And I refused to sing the songs with Sharpay at all unless she sang them the way Kelsi had written them. Her new song for the ending is amazing. Luckily Ryan agrees with me and Kelsi, the songs are perfect the way they are making them faster would ruin them. So he's choreographed dance moves that don't work the way Sharpay wants to sing the songs and refuses to listen when she wants to make changes." Troy smiled as he talked about his honorary sister, the one person that had wholeheartedly supported their relationship and their marriage right from the start.
"Oh my God! What happened?" Gabriella winced at the thought of the tantrum Sharpay must have thrown at that.
"Sharpay tried to tell Darbus that I was being obstructive and get her to make Ryan swap parts with me" Troy said.
"What did Darbus say to that?" Gabriella asked surprised at the amusement she heard in Troy's voice. She would have thought he'd be annoyed at Sharpay's continued attempts to manipulate him.
Troy smirked "Darbus didn't get the chance to say anything. Ryan was there and he completely refused to play a romantic role paired with his sister. He even suggested to her that his voice would actually be a better match for Sharpay's part than mine and that there wasn't enough time for Kelsi to transpose all the songs again so if he was going to replace one of us he should replace Sharpay instead of me" Troy laughed at the memory. "Of course Darbus refused to even consider it and the whole subject was dropped."
Gabriella giggled and looked at Troy curiously "Would you have agreed to play a romantic role opposite Ryan if Darbus had agreed? What about the kissing scene?" She asked blushing slightly. While she didn't want to watch her husband kissing anyone else she found the idea of two guys kissing hot and Troy's extreme confidence on stage was always a real turn on for her.
Thankfully Troy either didn't notice her blush or didn't feel it worth mentioning. He shrugged "I don't see why not, so long as you were okay with it. It's not like I'm at all attracted to either of them so there wouldn't be much difference kissing Ryan instead of Sharpay. It might even be easier because I know Ryan isn't ever going to use the fact that the two of us have to kiss on stage to try to break us up or cause trouble. Chances are though Darbus would have had the kiss written out of the script if she gave the role to Ryan anyway. East High is not ready for something like that" he said smirking slightly. "But it's amazing how much easier Ryan is to dance with when he stands in for Sharpay at practice, he's not always trying to angle his body so he's in the spotlight or changing the steps without warning me to make himself look good. I can just relax with him and go through the routine. I really wish you could have played the lead. It's really hard trying to play the role against Sharpay but I guess it's good practice, you're not going to be able to be in any of my theatre projects next year." Troy said trying to be positive so Gabriella wouldn't feel guilty that she'd chosen to do the Freshman Honours Program instead of play the lead in the musical.
Gabriella laughed at the idea of her extremely straight husband playing a gay role in front of the entire high school. "I bet your Dad would've been unhappy if Darbus had let Ryan have the role"
Troy laughed too "Unhappy! He would have gone ballistic. He probably would have thought Darbus had done it on purpose just to embarrass him."
"Well.." Gabriella said thoughtfully, "I'm not saying that would be the only reason Darbus would agree to cast Ryan instead of Sharpay, but I bet she'd get a kick out of Jack's reaction." She started to laugh.
Troy continued to laugh too "Yeah, I would have liked to see the fight the two of them had over that."
"Only if you weren't in the middle of it" Gabriella replied.
"I would hate to do that to Ryan too. Everyone knows I'm married and completely crazy about you but he would have copped a lot of teasing and rumours that he was gay. There are quite a few openly homophobic guys at East High. School's been hard enough for him without starting all that up again."
"Do you think he is gay?" Gabriella asked curiously.
Troy shrugged "He's always denied it. I know he was picked on a lot before we all became friends for dressing like he does, but I think that's mostly just his upbringing and personality."
"But what do you really think?" Gabriella said ignoring the way Troy had clearly tried to avoid answering the question.
Troy looked at his wife. "I think he's my friend. If he is gay and he ever decides to come out and tell us he is gay I'll support him but until he does that I'm going to believe him when he tells me he's straight" he said firmly refusing to engage in speculation. "I think a lot of his feminine traits are just because he's spent his whole life in Sharpay's shadow."
The subject of Ryan and the Musicale were dropped in favour of more personal conversation as they made their way back to Gabriella's dorm, and were not brought up again over the weekend.
Troy wondered a couple of times whether Sharpay would calm down and play the part as it was intended or whether it would be given to the new girl Tiara Gold. Not that it mattered much to him, he'd never spoken with Tiara, she was always hanging around with Sharpay and he was sure she wouldn't be any easier to play opposite.
-o0o-
MsD was running late for Monday afternoon's rehearsal and Ryan decided to start running Troy and Sharpay through the new choreography for the final dance.
"It doesn't work that way Ryan it needs more pep" Sharpay complained. "We should do this. You'd need to play the song just a little faster and..."
"I see you're still not ready to take direction" MrD cut in entering from the backstage area. "Miss Gold are you ready to take the part? Miss Gold?"
"Umm she broke her ankle on Friday" Martha replied.
Kelsi sighed in disappointment, Tiara would have been so much easier to work with than Sharpay (if only because she didn't have the history to expect to get away with behaviour like this) and that's probably why Sharpay hadn't even attempted to tone down her criticism and demands. She knew Tiara wasn't available to take the part from her.
MrD looked at Kelsi and Troy's clearly unhappy faces and made a quick decision. "Ryan are you prepared to take the part?"
Ryan swallowed nervously "Yes Ma'am" he said.
"Troy are you prepared to play the role opposite Ryan?" Ms Darbus asked seriously.
Troy shrugged "To be honest he's easier to work with than Sharpay" he replied.
"Okay people everyone else helping with the sets and costumes. Troy and Ryan with me" Ms Darbus ordered walking towards the offices.
Sharpay screamed and stamped her foot "Ms Darbus you'll ruin the show. No one will come to see a homosexual show" she screeched.
Ms Darbus ignored her.
Entering her office she waved Ryan and Troy to a seat. "Have the two of you really thought about what playing these roles up against each other will mean for you?" she asked seriously.
"I'm more worried about what it will mean for Ryan to be honest" Troy said. "Everyone knows I'm married and I've talked it over with Gabriella and she'll be okay with it."
"I've had some trouble with people thinking I'm gay in the past. There are already a lot of people who believe I am" Ryan said sadly. "I'm not likely to get a girlfriend here at East High and I'll hopefully be on the other side of the country in a couple of months. Successfully playing this role may make the difference between getting into Juilliard or NYU. I want to do it."
"I suppose you want me to have the kiss written out?"
"Of course" Troy replied immediately. "I wanted it written out as soon as Gabriella wasn't going to be playing the part."
Ms Darbus looked towards Ryan. "I would prefer you to write it out" he admitted softly.
"And if I don't remove the kiss from the script are you still prepared to play the roles?" she asked searchingly. "If you have any doubts about your ability to go through with it I need to hear them now."
Ryan nodded looking at Troy.
Troy sighed "Yes I can't imagine kissing Ryan will be much worse than kissing Sharpay would have been."
"You spoke to Gabriella about it?" Ryan asked.
"Only as a hypothetical possibility but she found the idea amusing. Especially the thought of Dad's reaction" Troy said watching MsD for a reaction.
Ms Darbus definitely smirked for a second "Yes I imagine his reaction will be rather explosive" she agreed.
"Is that the reason you were prepared to give Ryan the part?" Troy asked suspiciously. "Because I won't be used as a weapon to hurt my father" he said seriously.
Ms Darbus sighed. "No Troy. I would have preferred Ms Evans to have chosen to act professionally and retain the part, or failing that for Ms Gold or Mrs Bolton to play the role but it didn't work out that way. Either Ryan plays the role or we postpone the production entirely until after graduation and I cannot guarantee all the other actors will be available if I do that" Ms Darbus explained gently. "I will admit I will somewhat enjoy watching your father's reaction but that didn't enter into my reasons for making this decision."
"Good because you won't see his reaction. If I do this I will be telling Mom and Dad tonight" Troy stated.
"Before I make my final decision I want the two of you to run through the kissing scene" Ms Darbus said.
The boys both looked at her in shock. "You didn't make Troy practice that with Sharpay" Ryan exclaimed.
"We both have ample evidence that Troy has plenty of experience kissing girls" Ms Darbus replied dryly. "And I have no reason to believe that Miss Evans would find kissing Mr Bolton distasteful."
Troy blushed remembering the many threats of detention he and Gabriella had received for excessive PDA. "Not really, I've only ever kissed Gabriella" he said surprising Ms Darbus who had thought that he'd been quite a player before meeting Ms Montez.
"I'm sorry to force the issue boys but I really need to know today if I need to postpone the performance" Ms Darbus said apologetically.
"You know I once ate a pair of gym socks rather than kiss someone" Troy said laughing.
Ryan and Ms Darbus both laughed "You don't have to do this" Ryan said to him. "I don't want to cause problems with you and Gabriella."
"You know better than that Ry. If Gabriella had any problem with this I would have said no straight up. She knows that I'll eventually have to stage kiss someone else" Troy said seriously.
"Okay boys enough procrastinating, either you can kiss on demand or you can't. I need to know"
Ryan looked up panicked. Troy knowing that it was his character that would initiate the kiss reached up and cupped Ryan's face closed his eyes and forced himself to lean in to kiss him briefly. "Is that enough?" he asked turning to look at Ms Darbus.
"Yes Troy that's perfect" his teacher said smiling. "Do you both think you can do that again on stage in front of your friends?"
Troy shrugged nonchalantly "A kiss like that, sure I just closed my eyes and thought of Gabriella" he said.
Ryan put his hand to his heart and pretended to fall backwards "I'm wounded" he cried. "You cad! You scoundrel!"
Troy laughed at his silliness. Ms Darbus cleared her throat.
"Umm yes MsD I think I can" Ryan said seriously.
The rehearsal ran late as Ryan outlined the minor changes to the choreography which had to be made to adapt the show for two male leads. Troy arrived home late that night and went straight up to talk to Gabriella.
"Hey Troy. You're a little early tonight" Gabriella greeted him questioningly. They'd agreed that Troy wouldn't ring before 10.30 and that Gabriella would take at least a half hour break to talk to him when he called.
"I'm sorry for disturbing your study routine but something came up and I wanted to run it by you before I talk to Mom and Dad" Troy replied.
"What is it? Is everything okay?" Gabriella asked anxiously.
"Don't worry it's not that bad except that Dad's about to go ballistic and I'd rather be able to say I'd talked it over with you first and you were okay with it" Troy tried to reassure her.
"Go Ballistic..." Gabriella said thoughtfully. "MsD gave Ryan the part?" she guessed shocked when she realized what Troy was talking about.
Troy was surprised once again by his wife's perceptiveness. "Yeah! And she wants to leave the kissing scene in too" he said dryly.
Gabriella giggled at the thought "Do you think you'll be able to kiss him?" she asked.
Troy smiled wryly "I already did Gabriella. Darbus wanted us to prove we could do it before she mae a final decision" he said watching the screen carefully to see Gabriella's reaction.
Gabriella looked down. "How did it go?" she asked.
Troy ignored her question. "Gabriella. Are we okay? If you really don't want me to I'll tell Darbus I've had second thoughts" he offered.
"Of course we're okay Troy. I was okay with you stage kissing Sharpay. Ryan's our friend and I trust him a lot more than I trusted her" Gabriella answered smiling.
"I love you Gabriella" Troy said.
"How did the kiss go?" Gabriella asked curiously.
"It wasn't too bad I cupped his face so I knew where to aim then closed my eyes and pretended I was kissing you" Troy explained.
Gabriella grinned. "I love you Troy" she said affectionately.
"Thanks Gabriella I love you" he said then sighed "Now I've got to go and tell Dad."
"He'll hear about it tomorrow anyway" Gabriella said.
"Yeah that's why I have to tell him tonight. I told MsD that I wouldn't let her use this as a weapon in their ongoing fight" Troy said. "I want him to be able to have time to think about how he's going to react to this at school."
"I'm proud of you Troy" Gabriella said blowing him a kiss. "Good luck. I'm sure Jack will be okay with it once he calms down"
"Yeah it's what he says before he calms down that's the problem" Troy grumbled.
Gabriella laughed "Well that's why you're telling him tonight so he doesn't go off at school"
"I better go and get this over with" Troy said sighing again.
"Okay Troy call me later and let me know how it went" Gabriella said smiling.
A/N: This was something I've been playing around with when I was struggling with 'Planning for the Future'. I was attempting to write a humorous oneshot but it will be 5 chapters as I seem to be incapable of not wanting to go into characters thoughts and motives and stuff. It's not quite finished but I've written most of each chapter so it shouldn't take to long.
I hope you enjoy it.
A/N2: Thankyou to Pumpkinking5, Wildcats2016, speedsONEandONLY, fishing, Mrs Wesley-Salvatore, old voldys gone moldy, mimiash2012 and the 2 guests who reviewed the last chapter of 'planning' and inlovewithHP, RYsaJaY, cloudshadow, southernyankee, mimiash2012 and kwright2012 who have followed or favourited me since it was posted.