AN: So… it's painful for me to admit, but I really do like High School Musical. This is about Kelsi, whom I really do connect with. Everything I wrote is how I have felt, at one point or another. I really hate how Kelsi was really an almost no-existent character, and how she is covered up and then at the end, given a new personality. This is how it should have ended for her. I know it's sad, but it's real life, coming from that forgotten tech girl.
She wishes for many things, but mostly for acceptance. She wants not respect, not kindness, not pity, but friendship. All she wants is the friendship that most seem to earn quickly. She hates the pity the most. It shines in their eyes, their pity for the odd, awkward girl. Pity for the girl that no one seems to be able to befriend. She's too shy, too untouchable. She sometimes wonders if something's wrong with her.
She knows their respect and their kindness. She tries so hard, but sometimes, she's left, stuck in her own terrible world. They forget her, in their own success. She'd like to say that it doesn't bother her. So she does, but it still hurts behind closed doors.
She thinks that she must be a better actress then they all think, because she can hide so well behind all these masks.
After the winter tryouts, she became almost popular. Everyone praised her for her work, except for Sharpay, who was still simmering over the fact she didn't win the lead. She wouldn't lie, she liked the attention. It was nice to be 'loved'. But there was always something missing.
Maybe it wouldn't always be like this, but now, it was all she could feel.
She watches the clouds gather in the west. Rain. She loves the rain. It makes her feel clean. Because, she'll never tell, but she feels dirty, and she can't explain why.
She walks by all those big, fancy houses, and continues on her way, towards home. She could ride the bus, but she'd rather not, since people called her names, and threw things at her. And they steal her sheets of music and tease her, pretending to rip them up. So she walks instead.
She shivers in the breeze, and tugs her scarf more tightly around her neck. She watches the clouds as she walks, and she wishes.
'Next year', she thinks, 'next year…'