"You have got to be kidding me!" Sharpay Evans groaned to her twin brother. "Some people simply have no class! It is Valentines Day and that girl over there is wearing green."
Ryan Evans could not help but roll his eyes. "Shar, not everyone feels the need to accessorize based on the time of year. Besides, you don't even like Valentines Day."
Sharpay sighed loudly, showing her annoyance once again and flipped her hair over her shoulder. She walked away from her brother without another word.
Ryan laughed softly to himself and turned back to his locker to continue getting his books for his next couple of classes.
"Hey Ry," Gabriella Montez greeted, a genuine smile firmly on her face.
"Hey Gaby, you look happy," Ryan said as he closed his locker and turned to her.
"Well, it's just a great day I guess. How are you?"
"I'm good, nothing special. Just enjoying Shar's annoyance with everyone who doesn't have enough class to wear red or pink on Valentines Day," Ryan responded.
Gabriella laughed lightly and glanced down at her own outfit. "Well I guess I'm safe then."
The two laughed as they turned to walk down the hallway towards their English class.
"So, do you and Troy have any big plans for tonight?" Ryan asked.
Gabriella smiled once again, "Well, not that I know of. I think he might be surprising me."
"Ooh, a surprise date. Sounds like you two will have fun."
Gabriella smiled widely at him and nodded her head in agreement before the two slipped through the door to the classroom and made their way to their assigned seats.
Troy Bolton looked around the cafeteria and spotted his friends in line. Being a senior, he ignored all of the other people in line and joined Ryan and Chad towards the front.
"Hey guys, what's up?" Troy asked as he slipped behind the two.
Chad nodded his head in response and continued to look up the line to see what food was being served.
"Hey Troy," Ryan said. "Not too much is up, but rumor has it that Gaby is pretty excited for your surprise date tonight."
Troy looked at Ryan utterly perplexed. "Gab and I don't have a date tonight."
"You don't? Well, I must be ill informed then," Ryan said, wondering if he should tell Troy that he was expected to take Gabriella out that evening.
"Why would I be surprising her anyway?" Troy continued, mainly to himself, but still looking at Ryan. "Our anniversary? No, our meeting anniversary and our original dating anniversary are in January, our getting back together anniversary is in June, and our month-thing is at the end of the month."
Ryan was now smirking at Troy, amused by his wonderings. The boys got to the food and continued to make their way through the line.
"Do you know what today's date is Troy?" Ryan asked, attempting to be helpful.
"Yeah, of course; it's Tuesday, I have practice and no game."
Ryan laughed, "No, I meant the actual number day."
"Oh," Troy answered and tilted his head as he absentmindedly scooped his food and tried to remember what day it was. "The 14th?"
"Yes, it is February 14th. Are we making any progress here?"
Troy once again went into thought. The three boys paid for their lunches and started their trip between the tables to get to the one that was where they sat everyday. Troy set his tray down and suddenly snapped his head up to look at Ryan.
"Valentine's Day?"
Ryan chuckled. "Bingo buddy."
"Crap," Troy half shouted. "What am I going to do? I have absolutely nothing planned! You guys have to help me!"
Ryan and Chad glanced at each other, both sending a smirk to the other.
"You want my help setting up Valentine's Day for Gabriella?" Chad asked just to make sure.
Troy groaned. "I'm desperate! We have practice right after school and I'm sure she'll be expecting me right afterward. Please?"
Ryan was the first to concede. "Of course we'll help you Troy, but I think we should employ the help of one more person."
"Taylor?" Troy guessed hopefully, although he had a feeling that wasn't who Ryan was talking about.
"No," Ryan answered, "Taylor would tell Gabriella, as would Kelsi and Martha. The only one who really wouldn't is –"
"Please don't say it," Troy begged with his eyes closed.
"You say that name and I'm out!" Chad added.
Ryan winced, but said her name anyway. "Sharpay. Guys, we have to! She has really good ideas with this sort of thing. Plus you have to admit that she has been better this year and you know that she wouldn't tell Gaby."
Both boys solemnly nodded their heads in agreement. The plan began from there, the three boys glad for the first time that year that they had a separate lunch then everyone else on Tuesdays.
"Shar," Ryan approached her chair in the back of the computer lab cautiously.
"What is it Ry," Sharpay huffed, "I'm obviously in the middle of something."
"Well geez, what are you doing?"
Sharpay motioned to the screen indicating that Ryan should look at it. He stared at it slightly shocked for a moment before turning to his sister. Sharpay had a proud grin on her face that could easily be confused for a smirk.
"What are you doing?" Ryan asked, slightly alarmed.
Sharpay rolled her eyes at him. "Obviously I'm looking at Darbus' dating survey."
"But…but Shar why would you do that?" Ryan involuntarily shivered. "Why would you want to think about Ms. Darbus dating?"
"Because the woman needs to get out of East High!" Sharpay explained in her dramatic way. "You know as well as I do that she spends all of her time here and on our musicals. If she has a boy toy she'll spend her time with him instead. That way she will turn over more of the responsibilities to me and I'll be able to make our final play here at East High the best this school has ever seen."
"And how did you actually find Ms. Darbus' dating survey? That's a little weird."
Sharpay rolled her eyes once again and briefly wondered how her brother could be so dense sometimes when he was such a genius with choreography on stage.
"On her myspace," she said, hoping he could tell how dumb his question was through her voice.
"Darbus has a myspace?" Ryan asked incredulously.
"Of course she does. Now, would you get over it and help me think of who we could have take her out on a date?" Sharpay questioned.
Ryan put his original intent on finding Sharpay aside to appease her request. Once they had both completely finished reading over the survey they decided that their Uncle Hank would be the perfect guy for the job. Sharpay explained that Uncle Hank owed her one anyway so there was no way that he could decline the request.
Once that was settled and a phone call to Uncle Hank was made, assuring that he was in for that night and telling him that he would receive the rest of the details at a later date, Ryan decided it was time to share his request with Sharpay.
Sharpay stood up from the computer with a triumphant smirk on her face. Now all she had to do was write Ms. Darbus a note from a "Secret Admirer" asking her to join him for an evening out that night.
"Wait!" Ryan called quickly before she could take a step away.
"What?" Sharpay questioned, her annoyance evident in both her voice and face.
"Now that I helped you, I need you to help me with something."
"What?" Sharpay asked again, this time adding a small sigh to the end of it for dramatics.
"Well you see…well you can't tell anyone, but Troy kind of forgot that today was Valentine's Day and because he didn't mention anything Gabriella thinks that he has some big surprise planned for the two of them. Only, Troy has absolutely nothing planned at the moment and is slightly freaking out."
"And this has anything to do with me how?"
"Come on Shar, please? I know that they aren't your favorite people, but you would consider them kind of your friends at this point and it'll be a chance for you to plan the perfect Valentine's Day date! I promise I'll take notes of everything that you plan for them so that when you have a boyfriend I can make sure that he takes you on the perfect date!" Ryan tried to give Sharpay a little incentive in the matter.
Sharpay eyed her brother suspiciously. She knew him well enough to know that he was just feeding her what she wanted to hear, but he was her brother and she really did want to plan the perfect date, even if it wasn't for her at the moment.
"Fine, but it is going to be very similar to Uncle Hank and Darbus' date," Sharpay finally agreed.
"Yes, thank you! Now, what are you going to set up for them?" Ryan questioned. A relieved smile made its way to his face once he actually realized that his sister was going to help them.
The two set off out of the classroom, both engrossed in their discussion. Sharpay explicitly explained what Ryan was responsible for and checked a total of four times that he knew exactly what he was to do, finally being satisfied when Ryan took out a notebook and wrote down her instructions word for word on a piece of paper.
When the twins parted ways Ryan looked over his notes and began to divvy the work between himself, Troy and Chad. Knowing that Troy would be rather useless due to his franticness, Ryan assigned most of the more important work between himself and Chad.
There was now only four periods left in the school day and to say Troy was freaking out would be an understatement. He knew he had let Gabriella down too many times already in the short time that he had known her. He couldn't handle hurting her yet again. He didn't want her to think that she wasn't important to him and he didn't want her to think he was blowing off a holiday that she very purposefully hadn't mentioned in a while.
Troy ran a hand through his hair as he sighed and tried to concentrate on getting the correct books and folders out of his locker. As he was reaching for a book he felt two small hands sneak over his eyes.
"Guess who," Gabriella said on a giggle.
"Only the most gorgeous girl at East High I would presume," Troy responded, making a conscious effort to not show his nervousness to her as he turned around to face her. However, when he saw her face, his smile became real.
Gabriella only laughed. "So, how's your day going Wildcat? I haven't seen much of you."
Troy wrapped his arms around her and gave her a tight squeeze. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Well, it just got a whole lot better seeing you again. I've missed you since homeroom."
"Walk me to class?" Gabriella asked as they pulled out of the embrace.
Troy kept one arm around her, wondering to himself how she could make him feel so at ease when just moments before, his mind was abuzz with nervous thoughts of the rest of the day.
"We have class together," Troy reminded her with a smile, "But even if we didn't, it would always be my honor."
"Troy!" Gabriella hissed violently at her boyfriend, "What are we doing here?"
"Uh, it's a nice restaurant?" Troy tried.
"I mean, what are we doing here standing at a table with Ms. Darbus and some old guy we don't know."
Troy looked down and suddenly had to hold his right arm in place with his left hand to keep it from reaching to the back of his neck. If Gabriella saw him scratch his neck, she would know he was nervous and he would be done for.
"Mr. Bolton, Ms. Montez, is there something I can help you with?" Ms. Darbus suddenly interrupted the private conversation.
Gabriella looked to Troy, waiting to hear his explanation.
"I…Um…there must have been a mix up with the reservations. I gave them my name and they brought us to your table."
"Well then, it looks as if you'll be joining us for the evening," the older male commented pleasantly. "There are two extra seats, please make yourselves comfortable. I happen to know that this restaurant is completely booked this evening so unfortunately they wouldn't be able to find you another table."
The man stood up from his side of the booth and moved to sit next to Ms. Darbus so as to give the younger couple the option of sitting next to each other.
Gabriella smiled at the man. "Thank you, I guess we will," she said to him. Gabriella then shot Troy a slight glare before sliding into the empty side of the booth.
Troy followed Gabriella's lead hesitantly and stuck his hand out to the other man.
"Uh, I don't believe we've met sir. I'm Troy Bolton and this is Gabriella Montez," Troy introduced as he gestured to himself and Gabriella respectively.
The man shook Troy's hand and leaned forward to kiss the one Gabriella was holding out to him.
"Wonderful to meet you both, I'm Hank Evans. I must say, both of your names do sound oddly familiar."
"We go to East High," Troy offered.
Hank Evans smiled broadly at the two. "Oh how fantastic! My niece and nephew go there. Perhaps you know them. They're twins, Sharpay and Ryan Evans?"
Troy's heart dropped, sure Gabriella was ready to kill him.
"Yes, we know them." Gabriella smiled back at Hank, not looking at Troy. "Ryan is one of my good friends actually. We both worked at the Evans' country club this past summer."
"Well of course then! I'm sure the kids have mentioned you." Hank picked up two menus that were sitting at the head of the table. "We've already decided what we want, but lucky for you they haven't taken our orders yet."
Halfway through dinner, Troy realized Gabriella was actually enjoying herself which, despite the fact that the conversation of Broadway musicals would not have been his first choice, made him enjoy himself as well. To be honest, it was actually interesting to hear about all of the different musicals Hank and Ms. Darbus had seen. Both had taken many trips to New York to see plays and had also seen Off-Broadway plays closer to home.
"How was The Phantom of the Opera live?" Gabriella asked as she sat forward in her seat. "I saw the movie, but I had a feeling it may not have done it justice."
"Oh, Ms. Montez, you should certainly make a point to sometime. If you would have taken my advanced theater class this semester you would be going to see it in April." Ms. Darbus informed her.
"You're taking your class to New York?" Troy asked incredulously. He saw Gabriella smirk slightly out of the corner of his eye.
"No Mr. Bolton. I am not taking my class to New York. Quite an extensive field trip, don't you think?" Troy frowned and nodded his head in agreement. Gabriella grabbed his hand under the table and sent him a full smile. "There is an Off-Broadway production of Phantom that is touring the country right now and they will be here in Albuquerque in April."
"Wow, that's awesome!" Troy enthused. He looked over to Gabriella. "We should go see it while they're in town! I'll look up tickets and see if we can still get them. You think we'll be able to Ms. D?"
Ms. Darbus gave him a knowing look. "I believe you should be able to."
"If you run into any trouble, just let me know." Hank offered. "I have great working relationships with most of the theaters in the city. Do you know which one they are performing at?"
The conversation continued on from there, each one adding in personal theater experience as well. After two hours in the restaurant, they had all finished their meals and were getting ready to leave.
"It was so pleasant to have the two of you join us," Hank stated as he helped Ms. Darbus with her coat. "Please tell Ryan and Sharpay that I said hello when you see them."
"Will do Hank," Troy stated as he shook the man's hand, "And thank you for those tips about getting tickets to the shows."
"Yes, thank you very much." Gabriella stated. She too reached out to shake Hank's hand, but he once again leaned down to kiss it.
"Ms. D," Troy stated, flashing his best boyish grin, "Always a pleasure."
Ms. Darbus smiled, but rolled her eyes. "Yes Mr. Bolton, always a pleasure."
"We'll see you in homeroom tomorrow," Gabriella added as she and Troy turned to leave.
Troy and Gabriella walked in silence, holding hands, to Troy's truck. Troy was pleased with how the evening turned out. For being put together so last minute, he had to give Chad and Ryan credit for choosing a great restaurant. He opened the passenger side door for Gabriella and helped her in before jogging around to the driver's side.
As soon as he had pulled his door shut beside him though, he remembered his worries from earlier in the evening.
"Troy! Why did we just eat dinner with Darbus?" Gabriella hissed.
Troy closed his eyes, debating on how to answer. He popped one open and glanced over at Gabriella to gage her expression.
When he saw her smiling with an amused expression written on her face, he popped the other eye opened and turned to look at her fully.
"Gabriella! I thought you were actually mad!" He complained at her.
Now she finally laughed out loud. "That's what I wanted you to think hot-shot! How in the world did that happen? You're lucky I had such a good time or I would be mad!"
Troy sighed and recounted what had happened, during the school day, to her. "So basically," he concluded, "I'm pretty sure it was Chad's fault." He showed her a tight lipped smile, which let her know he wasn't really blaming Chad.
"Troy," Gabriella reached over and slapped him in the chest. "I can't believe you forgot it was Valentine's Day! I didn't realize you were that busy with basketball. You should have just told me though, we could have just went to the park or stayed at one of our houses. You know it wouldn't have mattered!"
"Lesson learned," Troy stated. "Chalk it up to an unforgettable Valentine's?"
Gabriella laughed before leaning over to give him a kiss. "I'm holding you to the Phantom thing too, just so you know."
Troy smiled and leaned his forehead against hers. "Looking forward to it Gabs."
The next day Troy walked into homeroom and looked for two specific faces. He found them talking together at a couple of desks.
Ryan looked up first when Troy reached them and stifled a laugh. "Heard you had a lovely dinner with my uncle last night Troy."
"Ha-ha Evans," Troy voiced in a monotone before smiling. "What the heck did you say to them Chad?"
Chad shrugged. "That I needed tables for four under Evans and Bolton."
Troy shook his head before whacking Chad in the back of the head as he walked past him and to his seat. Once he sat down, he looked up to the front of the room to see if Gabriella was seated yet. When he saw her look back he held up a note card for her to read.
Date tonight? I promise no one over the age of 18 will be there. ; )
Gabriella laughed silently before nodding her head and turning back around.