In honor of the DVD release of HSM 3, I'm posting the first in a series of oneshots depicting the main characters right before the start of High School Musical. The stories will be somewhat connected, but this isn't a traditional chapter fic. I just wanted to explore what each of the main characters were thinking before Gabriella came into their lives (and supposedly, you know, changed East High forever. You can be the judge of the validity of that claim on your own).

Enjoy!

--Brandi

Disclaimer: I own an I Heart Chad pillow and a Corbin Bleu keychain, but not the actual character. My Chad does not belong in a Disney movie, anyway.

Chad Danforth

New Year's Day 2006

11:16 a.m.

When Zeke called to make sure I got home okay, I told him I didn't remember much about last night.

The thing is, I remember it perfectly. I'm just going to choose to forget what happened.

Yeah, right. Easier said than done. It's not every day a guy like me fools around with an Evans.

Sharpay hosted a huge party. I don't think she invited me specifically, but the basketball team was planning to go. I wasn't about to sit home alone on New Year's Eve, so I decided to catch a ride with Zeke and the guys. Troy's still on vacation with his parents, so I didn't even have my wingman.

But the party managed not to suck. The Evanses hired a caterer, and a deejay, and we had one entire floor to ourselves. I don't even think her parents were home.

I'm not into dancing. I can dance, I just don't. I could tell that a few girls were eyeing me, hoping I'd ask them. But I wasn't in the mood.

Sometime in between standing in the corner talking to random people who wandered over, and drinking several cups of the punch, I realized it had been spiked pretty strongly. Normally I stay away from that stuff, ya know, because of basketball. But last night I decided, what the heck.

Big mistake. I started talking to Sharpay's brother Ryan, and he kept fidgeting with his hat. I think I was trying to give him a play-by-play of our last game or something, but he's a theater geek, so I guess he didn't care very much. I found myself being abandoned mid-sentence when Ryan spotted some girl I don't know very well, Kelsi, and screamed her name. She came over, said something about "Let's go dance," and that was the last I saw of Ryan.

I went looking for the bathroom, and instead I stumbled into a room that was full of…pink. The walls, the floor, the couch, everything. I figured this was Sharpay's hangout. Unless it was Ryan's.

I walked around, staring at all the awards lining the walls. They all had Sharpay's name. Guess she's a really good actress. I wouldn't know. You couldn't pay me to go to one of East High's shows.

I heard giggling, and tried to head for the door, but I tripped over, uh, probably my own feet, and landed headfirst on one of her feather-covered bean bag chairs. Sharpay entered the room and saw me getting up.

"What are you doing here? Get outta my sanctuary!"

I tried to apologize, but then she started giggling again. "You have a feather in your hair." She came over and plucked it out, then ran it along her bottom lip.

I think Sharpay had had a few more glasses of punch than me. Either way, she was definitely sending signals. I think. It's all a bit hazy.

"You and Troy are best buddies, aren't you?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

"I wish he coulda come to my party." She pouted. "But I guess you're the next best thing, right?"

What? We ignored each other at school. She stuck with her drama geeks and I stuck with the jocks. And all of a sudden, she's coming onto me? What?

"I think I should go," I mumbled.

Sharpay shrugged. "Okay. You do that. Buh-bye." She continued to giggle.

"Will you stop that!" I think I got a little too cranky, because she grabbed my shirt as I walked by.

"No one orders me around," she said, but she wasn't angry, just playful. My head was swimming. She smelled really good, and she had this fruity gloss on her lips that she kept licking, and the next thing I knew, she pushed me down onto the feather-beanbag-thing.

"You're actually kinda hot," Sharpay giggled as she pulled my shirt over my head. "Built, too." She ran her hand along my stomach until her fingers reached my belt.

And I need to stop there, because thinking about the rest just makes me sick. Let's just say that we both got to have a little fun, but that it didn't get past, uh, the point of no return.

When we both realized it was a good idea to stop (or maybe she stopped me, I really have no idea, it all happened so fast), I threw my clothes on and scrambled out of there as fast as I could.

Once I hit the porch, I breathed in a few sobering breaths of the chilly night air. Then I jogged all the way home, and the next thing I remember was waking up this morning with a killer hangover and Zeke calling my cell.

I can only hope Sharpay doesn't tell anyone. Oh, crap. She told her brother, I know it. Those two are totally joined at the hip. They're like, crazy connected. He probably read her mind the second she came back out of that room. Shit.

I rummaged around in my desk, and found the school directory. I quickly flipped to the E section and dialed Sharpay's number, praying she'd be the one to pick up.

"The Fabulous Sharpay Evans," she answered her phone. What a pretentious freak.

"Hi, this is Chad Danforth."

"Why are you calling me?"

I swallowed and somehow my voice came out sounding confident. "I just wanted to make sure that we're on the same page about last night."

Sharpay hesitated, and I could practically hear her weighing her options. Finally, she said, "I'm on the page where you showed up at my party for five minutes and then left."

I couldn't believe my luck. "Right. We didn't even see each other."

"Well duh, why would we? We do not associate with one another."

"No, we don't."

"Goodbye, Mr. Danforth."

"Happy New Year, Ms. Evans."

Sharpay sounded taken aback at the sentiment. "Happy New Year."

I heard her click the phone off, and I fell back onto my bed, completely relieved. I really dodged a bullet there.

No one can ever know what happened last night. No one. Ever. I am going to completely ignore the entire theater department this year. In fact, I'm not even going to enter the auditorium if I can help it. I can't risk all those actor types finding out. Sharpay may have been understanding this morning, but she is devious. I can't afford to get on her bad side, under any circumstances.

If I do, I'm totally screwed.