CHAPTER ONE

Ryan's skin stung as Sharpay cleaned out his cuts. "Ouch." He mumbled to himself.

"Sorry." Sharpay said pressing lighter. "Okay," She said when she finished. "You need to throw a shirt on." Ryan nodded and headed for his room from the bathroom. He threw on a white tank, then a button down. He grabbed his messenger bag from his bed side and headed for the front door.

"One of your cuts are showing." Sharpay said to Ryan at their bus stop. Ryan shrugged.

"I'll just say I scratched myself on a tree branch or something like that." Sharpay nodded and groaned. She grabbed her head and leaned against the stop sign with her free arm. "Go to the nurse when we get to school. Tell her you have a headache." She just simply nodded.

"I will Ryan." Finally after waiting for five minutes the bus came in view.

Ms. Darbus' Homeroom

Ryan walked into homeroom after grabbing books from his locker. He sat down in his normal seat and waited for Sharpay. She walked in, but went straight to Ms. Darbus.

"Ms. Darbus, May I go to the nurse?" Sharpay asked in a gloom voice.

"Hurry, the theater is waiting!" Mr. Darbus quickly wrote a pass, and Sharpay left giving Ryan one last glance. "Ryan Evans." Ryan jumped startled and looked up to see Ms. Darbus taking roll. She gave him a confused look, while looking over her glasses.

"Is something wrong?" She asked.

"No, Ms. Darbus. Sorry." She nodded and put her glasses back on her nose. She continued to take roll. Troy and Chad started to talk quietly to each other. Normally, Ryan would ease drop, but he just wasn't in the mood. He felt a tap on his shoulder. He slowly swung around and saw Gabriella. Since the winter musical last year Gabriella and Sharpay became good friends, but Ryan didn't care much for Troy and Chad. "When is the next drama meeting?" She asked in her shy, but friendly voice.

"Next Thursday." Ryan said in his sweet, calming voice.

"Thanks." She said and went back to reading her book. Finally the bell rang.

Ryan grabbed a paper towel and wet it with the faucet. He wiped it on his face cooling himself down. He starred at himself in the mirror thinking.

One of these days we'll tell, but why won't Sharpay let me tell?

He shook away the thoughts and threw away the paper towel. He grabbed his messenger bag and headed for the cafeteria. He walked slowly, while slouching, up the stairs where his drama friends were. He threw his messenger bag on the floor and sat down by Kelsi.

"Bad day?" She asked noticing the water dripping down his face and that he didn't have a tray. He nodded without speaking. Sharpay came over from the railing and looked down at her brother.

"The nurse said I have a bump on the back of my head." She sat down across from him.

"How big is it?" He asked worrying more about his sister now.

"Not big at all. So please don't worry, Ry. My head doesn't hurt anymore." She paused. Everyone at the table was starring dazed and confused. "She made me sleep for three periods. I am fine now, that's all." Ryan just gave a slight nod.

Kelsi was starring at Ryan. She knew that he had to eat something. He was already skinny as it was. She slid her tray over to him. It still had a few chicken nuggets left. He looked at the tray, then at Kelsi.

"No thanks." He said shaking his head and pushing the tray back to her. Sharpay nodded her head when he glanced at her.

"You need to eat." He sighed and grabbed one of her nuggets. He chewed it slowly, and he seemed to cheer up more, more like the drama king. "I told you." Sharpay said smiling at her brother.

Ryan followed Sharpay to the railing. He looked down at all the other kids eating. He looked at the basketball team, Zeke was passing out his cookies to his fellow team mates. Ryan's eyes grew wide and started to shine. Sharpay started to laugh. "I'll get you some." she said already walking towards the stairs. Ryan watched as she walked up to Zeke and gave him a kiss. Zeke smiled and started to talk to her. He handed her three cookies and she headed back up the stairs. She walked back to Ryan and handed him two cookies. "Zeke said to give you two." She looked over at her table. "I'm going to go be with Zeke the rest of lunch." She said to her brother. Ryan nodded and took a big bite out of the chocolate chip cookie.

After Sharpay grabbed her stuff and walked down the stairs like the drama queen, Ryan looked down at the "math" table. Troy was talking with Gabriella and Chad was flirting with Taylor. He smiled at the fact that no one had to just be in one clique anymore. Something caught Ryan's eye. A new student was sitting at the "science" table.

She was short and had very dark, long hair. Ryan really liked tall girls with light, brown hair.

Ryan walked back to the table and looked at everyone. They were all talking about the spring musical that was coming up in three weeks. Kelsi had already written it and the auditions were coming up next Tuesday. Ryan listened in and tried to figure what part would be best for Sharpay and him.

Sharpay gave Zeke one last kiss goodbye and headed for her next class, Biology. She saw Ryan looking through his bag and sat next to him. He laid his text book on the table and looked over at Sharpay.

"Hey." He said with a grin.

"Hey Ry." Sharpay said. She watched as Ryan started to go through his bag again. He pulled out a packet and handed it to her.

"We need to audition for Isabella and Henry."

"Thanks Ryan." She said scanning through it. After she was done she threw it in her book bag and looked beside her. The same new girl was sitting there with Paris. She smiled at the thought that the girl didn't have to pick a clique. Even Sharpay was happy that the cliques were over with. Finally the bell rang and Mr. Callens started to talk about DNA and RNA.

"Does anyone know what it stands for?" He asked looking around the room. Sharpay noticed that the girl was grinning. She must have known the answer, but she wasn't raising her hand.

"Paris." Mr. Callens said. Paris said a long word that Sharpay couldn't understand, but she wasn't caring much about class right now. She noticed that the new girl was gazing right at Ryan. Sharpay just giggled to herself and glanced at Ryan. She then opened her textbook and pretended to work.