Hey guys! Thank you a bunch for even considering reading this story! It means so much to me! This is my second HSm fic, technically my eighteenth fanfic in all. Though about five of them, my sister wrote.
"God, Ryan! Get it right! You messed up again!" I snapped. Ryan nodded tiredly, wiping sweat off his forehead and continued the dance move we were trying to rehearse, except Ryan kept messing up the super easy footwork. It was thwarting.
"Kelsi!" I barked. The scrawny pianist peeked from behind the run-down piano. "Go play measure sixty-three again!"
Kelsi meekly nodded and ducked back down behind the piano, her plaid hat barely visible. The familiar upbeat tinkling of the piano sang out again, and I flourishingly performed my dance moves. Unfortunately, the blaring school bell rang, informing East High that free period was over. Kelsi hurriedly swept all her music sheets into her folder and scurried out of the auditorium before I could gulp down my mineral water. Ryan pulled his messenger bag over his shoulders and headed towards the door. He didn't know, however, that a piece of crisp white paper fluttered out of his opened flap. I scooped it up like a starving vulture and my eyes scanned through the page.
"Ryan," I immediately snapped. Ryan jadedly looked over his shoulder.
"What?" he asked.
"What's this?" I asked, waving the baseball information sheet in his face. He made a sudden movement, as if daring to snatch it from my fingers. I immediately swiped the paper away from his grasp.
"You're joining the baseball team?" I demanded.
"Yeah, so?" asked Ryan, cocking an eyebrow.
"I can't believe this!" I growled. "You're supposed to be fully focused on the upcoming spring musicale! We can't lose to those amateurs again just because you decided to join some stupid sports team!"
"What's wrong with some extra curriculums?" questioned Ryan innocently.
"This!" I jabbed a pink fingernail at the practice hours. "Free period and after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays? Ryan, those times are already reserved for us practicing for the auditions! No way am I going to have another callback and lose!"
"I thought you already got over Troy and Gabriella's spotlight," Ryan said.
"I'm not just talking about those two!" I barked. "Probably more and more new people are going to try going for the lead roles! We need to show them that we and only we are the ones that can handle the responsibility and the talent to have the lead roles! I expect you to be here every single day practicing for the auditions!"
"Not everything's going to live up to your expectations, Sis," Ryan said coolly. He calmly slipped the paper out of my fingers and exited through the door to his next class.
I huffed for breath and screamed. Stupid Ryan! How could he just abandon me in my time of need? Wasn't I always there for him? I didn't bother answering myself, already concluding that Ryan was jealous of my spotlight. It wasn't my fault he kept messing up the footwork and needed to be in the back!
"Shouldn't you treat Ryan nicer?" Kelsi popped up from behind the row of seats, her music scattered on the ground. She obviously was clumsy enough to trip and drop her music, then eavesdrop on me.
"What did you say?" I said, stepping closer to her. Kelsi's macho façade quickly vanished.
"A-all I'm saying is that—is that Ryan's been treating you all the time with kindness and everything, so, so maybe you should too—"
"Kelsi, do I look like Ryan to you?" I demanded. Kelsi shook her head weakly. "I'm not Ryan, and never will I be him. Kelsi, you don't buy things with kindness. Ryan gives me it, and I receive it. There's no need for some stupid second trade!"
I flipped my blond hair over my shoulder and strutted out the auditorium.
"You know, you'll regret it if he's ever gone!" Kelsi yelled. I stopped dead in my tracks and laughed. Why would Ryan leave me? It wasn't like he was going to move away and not be able to come visit anymore. I rolled my eyes and continued to my next class.
(HSM HSM HSM HSM HSM HSM HSM HSM)
"Hey…Shar?" asked Ryan tentatively, his blond head poking from the doorway.
"What is it, Ry?" I drawled, flipping through my magazines in my glittery pink room. What did he want?
"I just wanted to say…sorry for arguing with you," said Ryan. "I mean, I still want to be in the baseball team, but I shouldn't have put up a fight with you."
"Whatever, Ryan," I snapped, now dusting blush on my cheeks. "It's not like I care about your life, it's just that your baseball thing is going to go haywire with mine."
Ryan bit his lip and leaned casually on the doorframe. He struggled to change the subject.
"Sharpay? Ryan? Can you come downstairs, please?" our dad's voice hollered from downstairs. I groaned and flung my glossy magazine across my bed and swaggered out of the room. Ryan quickly caught up to me.
Mother and Daddy were sitting politely on the leather couch in the study, lounging on complete opposite sides of the it. Ryan hesitantly settled in the swivel chair near the computer as I plopped down on the velvet armchair.
"Sharpay, Ryan," began my mother. She swallowed and her eyes darted away from us. I cocked an eyebrow. "Your father and I have been discussing some issues and…before we say anything, this has nothing to do with you."
Ryan frowned quizzically and glanced at me. I raised my eyebrows at Mother.
"We believe that…" began Daddy. "That your mother and I don't…love each other anymore."
I felt Ryan stiffen in his chair. I just stared at Daddy, my mind unbelieving.
"We are going to get a divorce." I felt like the whole world just ended.
"What?" whispered Ryan. "What do you mean, divorce? You're not serious, are you?"
Mother looked down guiltily at her hands. Daddy cleared his throat, and then cleared it again.
"Sharpay, sweetie, you…you're going to stay here in Albuquerque."
I gave a sigh of relief. I was afraid that Ryan and I were going to be whisked off to another godforsaken spit on the United States.
"Ryan," Mother said. "I'm going to be moving to Ohio, and you'll come with me."
When the caterpillar thought life was over, it became a butterfly. And when the butterfly thought life was getting better, it immediately got swallowed up by a bird. That's exactly how I felt.
Divorce.
Whoever knew such a simple word that meant nothing to me before would bring my whole glamorous world crashing down?
I just stared.
My mouth was dry, I couldn't speak.
So were my eyes, which somewhat surprise me.
Mom's leaving.
She was going to be gone.
And she was taking Ryan with her.
I felt like a statue, a shell-shock form. My mind ad permanently turned off and I couldn't feel anything. Not my raging emotion as any normal human being would feel nor Ryan's hand clutching my own.
Did I care? Of course not! my mind hissed. Be glad it isn't you who's going away, at least you get to stay here with your glamorous life and school. Now you can have the spotlight all. For. You.
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" The words came spewing out of my mouth before I could react. "How could you? Ripping us apart like that? How…how dare you?" I breathed heavily, but I went on. "We're twins! Twins aren't supposed to be separated! Families aren't supposed to be separated!" I huffed, clutching Ryan's cold hands into my own clammy ones.
"Please, dear," said my mother quietly, her eyes wet and glossy. "Please, just listen to us—"
"Don't you dare even try saying that, Mother!" I snapped. "This isn't for the greater good, this isn't going to help any of us, and this isn't the right decision!" I scoffed and spun on my stiletto heel, marching up the mahogany steps. I slammed the bedroom door behind me and screamed with anger. I hurled my designer purse at the glittery wall and flumped onto my bed, begging my tears to come. They didn't disappoint me.
Why, why, why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? I clenched my teeth to force the bloodcurdling scream back.
How could they do this to me? What were they thinking, forcing Ryan and me to separate like this? I heaved for breath; I felt like part of me, the part where Ryan belonged, was already gone and dead. I already felt incomplete, deserted, alone.
"They're so selfish!" I screamed in my bean pillow. "They only care about themselves! They don't care about how this is going to affect us!"
I clutched the bean pillow and chucked to the nearby dresser. Elizabeth Arden perfume bottles flew off the dresser and broke cleanly on the white carpet, staining the ground with such a strong fragrance it seemed as if exquisite flowers were blooming on the floor. I didn't care about the mess. My mind was whirling with a hurricane of anger, jeers, cries, and memories.
Ryan and I were together forever, and now we're going to be ripped apart without mercy. My mind immediately flashed back to our first school production. It was me that was crying with anxiety. It was Ryan that comforted me, and after that that memory was just another moment of the past. Why didn't I treat him better? Why didn't I appreciate how he was always there for me even when I was what everyone called an Ice Queen? I beat my fists on the carpet like an immature child throwing a nasty tantrum.
A soft tapping sound rang out behind me. Someone was rapping the door.
"GO AWAY!" I screamed, disgusted at how my voice was thick with tears.
"Shar?" whispered Ryan. My eyes widened. I quickly scampered to the mirror and wiped away my trail of mascara and tears with scented tissues. Quickly throwing a blanket over my perfume mess, I hurriedly wrenched the door open. Ryan stood there, his skin now paler than before, his eyes seemed to be bluer with an ocean of tears. Nevertheless, he gave a weak, sad smile.
"How's it going?" he asked simply, as if nothing happened.
I sniffed discreetly and cocked an eyebrow coldly. "How's it going? I'd rather go through the humiliation I almost went through in the Midsummer Night's Talent Show any day than this."
Ryan sighed sadly and gripped my hand. How was it that his fingers were so cold?
"It's not the end of the world, Shar," he said softly.
"Easy for you to say," I scoffed.
"We'll visit each other again, won't we?" he said, a tint of pleading in his voice. "We can phone each other, right?"
"Yeah, like you can do the musical while singing through the phone," I growled. Ryan's face fell, and I felt like I was choking on my tears.
"Some things won't be the same," he said. "But everything's going to be okay."
"How the heck can you say that, Ryan?" I snarled. "Everything's going to be okay. Yeah right! My whole life is going to be ruined because of this idiotic divorce! This is no time to be some pathetic optimistic freak, Ryan! God, you're so stupid!" I shoved him aside and stomped towards the downstairs, muttering to Mom and Daddy about some 'fresh air' as my conscience hurried to catch up.
The summary for this story is from tobyMac's Gone. Even if the song tells a different story, the line is still real.