Most people wouldn't call Ryan Evans book smart. Nice? Yes. Genuine? Check. Intelligent? Most people thought not. But at the very least, Ryan wasn't half bad at algebra and he certainly knew how to add. Sometimes there were days when he would stare off into space and wonder what his life would be like in ten years and what all the people surrounding him now would mean to him then. And he would get to thinking about life and his existence on earth and he would sometimes, he thought, get close to the answer. But then a hand would come slapping across his face, interrupting his world and he would lose it. Just like that.

In science, when they were learning about Albert Einstein and his formulas, he decided to come up with his own equation—one that defined his high school life. He started to scribble names and numbers down on paper and when he was finished, he looked down at the final result and frowned just a little. Because that little piece of paper said more about him than any picture ever would, and he wasn't sure that he liked what he was seeing.

♪♪♪♪♪♪♪

"Sharpay!" he had run out of Ms. Edward's class straight to his sister's locker, report card in hand. "Look, I got an A. Can you believe it? In math. Math." He smiled brightly at her, hoping she would celebrate with him.

"Look, Ryan, I don't really care. I've got more important things to think about," she had answered gruffly, barely even glancing at him.

And she had turned on her heel and walked away to gab with Lisa Clement about what dress would be glamorous enough to impress Troy Bolton at Spring Semi-formal a month from now.

That was why Sharpay had a negative next to her name:

Ryan's life equals (-Sharpay)

But later that week, when Ryan had come home from baseball practice worn out from all the physical activity and tired of being stretched too thin in all directions, he had found a stuffed animal on his bed. It was a pink poodle and next to it laid an envelope with his name written on it in familiar curvy handwriting. Inside the envelope that smelled vaguely like his sister's perfume, he discovered a short note written on flowerly paper.

To Ryan:

Because you have to deal with being called 'Sharpay's poodle' and because you've never managed to complain about it. At least not in front of me. Congrats on your math grade.

XOXO,

Sharpay

P.S. Because you're an idiot and you probably didn't notice, I made the necklace around the dog's neck.

He had smiled and looked at the beaded necklace then headed straight to her room where he found a matching poodle sitting on Sharpay's dresser. She was sitting on the floor, but she looked up at him and giggled when he entered, "I couldn't resist getting myself one, too."

He had hugged her with as much brotherly affection as he could muster and mentally made a note to add a square to her name in his formula.

Ryan's life equals (-Sharpay)2

Because a negative squared always comes out positive.

AN: Yeah, so that was really lame, but I needed something to get me out of my writer's block and this was the result. I couldn't get the 2 in the "squared" part of Ryan's formula to stay small, so I wrote it kind of weird...just so you understand, in case you were confused. And apparently the FF doesn't like the "equals" sign, so I had to write it out even though it looks ugly and un-mathlike. Um, please review with any constructive criticism. I know my tense was weird, so I need to fix that, but I'm not sure how. By the way, this is not a one shot. There is more coming... unfortunately, hahaha. :) Thanks for reading!