DISCLAIMER: Sadly, I am not fortunate enough to own anything relating to High School Musical. I also do not own Myspace. That Tom is a lucky guy.
Kelsi's night was sleepless. She had heard that expression be misused countless times before, but she could honestly use it in every essence. She laid in bed, begging any higher power that would listen, to allow her some sleep or peace of mind, but no such luck. She could not, for the life of her, shake the image of Sharpay's pleading eyes from her mind for more than a few minutes. The closest thing she had to a dream was a daydream of being back at the Evans' house, finding a burst of courage, and whisking Sharpay away to her crappy car and rescuing her from whatever she was facing.
Despite her exhaustion, Kelsi leaped out of bed at 6:30 AM, when her alarm clock would have normally gone off. She wasn't sure what she was going to say upon seeing Sharpay at school, if anything, but she just wanted to see her, to know she was okay.
The brunette's half-done hair blew around as she stepped off the school bus and into the East High parking lot. She glanced around the Junior/Senior Parking Lot, which she rarely got a chance to park in because her dad had the car during the day, to find no evidence of Sharpay's convertible and prayed to herself that she just wasn't looking hard enough as she walked through the front doors.
While heading to her locker, Kelsi stopped in her tracks and detoured when she saw Ryan standing in the doorway of their homeroom. If there was one thing Kelsi learned in high school, it was that usually, where there's a Ryan, there's a Sharpay.
But not today, of course. Ryan was facing the hallway with an anxious look on his face. So much so, he almost didn't notice Kelsi as she stood a mere inches from him.
"Oh, hey, Kels. Sorry, do you need to get by?" he asked.
Kelsi and Ryan had become fairly good friends despite it being partially her fault that he and Sharpay lost their roles to The Wildcat Superstar and the Freaky Genius Girl. As much as Ryan wanted to be mad at Kelsi, their drama-geek likenesses brought them together, and Kelsi was hoping this could be a bridge to finding out what was going on.
"Nah, just coming to talk to you," Kelsi said, sliding into the empty space next to Ryan, "Everything okay? You look nervous."
Ryan paused, choosing his words carefully. "Just looking for Sharpay. She didn't come home last night," he mustered up a pathetic laugh trying to disguise his worry. "She probably just crashed at a friend's house and forgot to call, I'm just being paranoid."
Kelsi's heart sank. Her own twin didn't even know where she was. Feeling comfortable with Ryan, she decided to speak up. "Could that have anything to do with what sounded like a pretty intense fight between her and your parents yesterday?"
Ryan looked a mixture of confused and scared. "How did you kn -," he managed to get out before his facial expression changed. "That was you at the door," he finished, half questioning, half realizing on his own.
Kelsi nodded. "Ryan, it scared me. I've never seen Sharpay like that, and with the yelling…" Kelsi's voice trailed off and she swallowed hard. "Your parents aren't abusive, are they?"
"No! No! Nothing like that!" Ryan quickly cut her off, and then lowered his voice. "Honestly, Kels, I would tell you, I would have toldsomeone. If not for me, definitely for Sharpay. It was just a fight. A bad one."
Kelsi believed Ryan that there was no physical abuse, but she wasn't about to buy that everything was fine and ordinary. "What fight could be so bad that Sharpay would leave home over it?"
Ryan was about to answer when he stopped. "Why the sudden interest in Sharpay? I thought you didn't even really like her."
Kelsi was slightly taken aback by that question, and even though it wasn't really an accusation, she felt the need to defend herself. "This isn't about Sharpay or how I feel about her," she lied, "It was just a really intimidating situation to walk into, and I've been worried for the both of you."
Ryan gave a silent yet appreciative nod and pulled Kelsi into the back corner of the classroom. The two were speaking in almost whispers at this point as their fellow classmates slowly filtered in.
"Okay, Sharpay would probably kill me if she knew I told anyone this, but I trust you and I know you won't say anything," Ryan said, a rare moment when his bright blue eyes were so serious.
"Of course," Kelsi affirmed, internally itching to know what he was about to divulge.
"The internet in our house was down for a couple of days, and my dad fixed it when he got home from his business trip. He went around to all the computers in the house to give them a test run when me and Shar were at school, including our personal laptops. And when he got to hers - Sharpay!"
Kelsi thought that was part of the story until Ryan, without excusing himself, charged toward the front of the room. Kelsi turned around to find Sharpay, who instead of looking frightened like the evening before just appeared sullen and sleep deprived, which Kelsi could relate to. The blue-eyed musician took her seat directly behind where Ryan and Sharpay were talking so she could hopefully overhear some of their dialogue.
"Where did you go last night? You know running away is just going to make Mom and Dad more mad," Ryan said.
"You think I was going to stay at home after everything they said to me? I would have slept in my car if it were the only option." While the 'no nonsense' attitude definitely felt more characteristic of Sharpay, there was definitely still something missing. She sounded defeated in a way. Apathetic to the point where maintaining her well-earned persona didn't really matter anymore.
Ryan felt like there was nothing he could say that would be a decent response, so he fumbled for conversation. "How'd you get a parking spot? It's packed out there."
"I parked out back. Look, I made it to school, I'm safe, and I'll just keep finding ways to avoid Mom and Dad until, oh, say, graduation," Sharpay remarked.
"You do know they're coming here after school to make sure you come home, right? I'm not kidding, Shar, they're pissed," Ryan said, desperately trying to reason with his sister.
"Ugh, whatever, I don't even care!" Sharpay offered up, not convincing any of the 3 of them. The 3rd being Kelsi of course, who was still silently on looking.
The bell sounded, ceasing all conversation as Kelsi tapped her foot anxiously, wanting nothing more than for Ms. Darbus to shut up so she could organize her thoughts in peace.
It felt like hours had passed when the bell finally rang again, students anxiously dashing out of their seats to freedom. Kelsi was one of the first to her feet, however, as she felt an overwhelming need to talk to Sharpay and break the uncomfortable barrier between then since the day before. She had no idea what to say and didn't feel right asking the same things she did of Ryan, so she decided to use the song they were supposed to work on as a conversation starter. Her heart started to race as she tapped the tall, blonde girl on the back of her shoulder.
"Hey, Sharpay!" she said with an unexpected cheer to her voice, "Um, I was wondering if you weren't doing anything during free period if maybe you wanted to meet me in the music room to work on that song."
"Kelsi, don't worry about it, it's fine," Sharpay said quietly, surprising Kelsi into an awkward silence.
"No, really, I don't mind. I even have a few more ideas for lyrics that you can take a look at -"
"Listen, I'm sorry about last night, but everything at home is fine, really. You don't have to pretend to like me. I'm okay."
The hint of sadness in Sharpay's voice during that last sentence was unmistakable and Kelsi felt her heart physically sink as Sharpay half-smiled at her and walked away.
Countless questions raced through Kelsi's mind regarding what was happening, why she was feeling this way, and how she must come off to Sharpay for her to think she was pretending. But before she wrestled with any of those, she decided one more time to try and get Ryan to put at least some of this very confusing puzzle together for her.
"Ryan! Wait!" she exclaimed, stopping him before he faithfully tagged along behind Sharpay. He turned to face her and she continued speaking. "So, you were saying about your dad being on Sharpay's computer…?"
Ryan glanced at the clock and the doorway that Sharpay had just exited through. "Long story short… let's just say my dad found her Myspace page and scrolled down to that little column entitled 'Orientation.'"
Kelsi's eyes grew wide and Ryan's facial expression suggested he expected that very reaction from his female friend.
"So… wait," Kelsi said, processing all of this. "Sharpay is -"
"Shh!" Ryan cut her off in a whisper. "I guess scientists are right when they say that twins more often than not tend to have the same sexual orientation," the blonde boy winked at his friend, who he had come out as gay to early on in their friendship.
Kelsi didn't even know where to begin when she felt compelled to ask one of the new series of countless questions racing around her head when Ryan dashed out the door after his sister, Sharpay, who Kelsi now saw in a totally different light.
