Baby for Sale
Disclaimer: I only own this plot. I do not own High School Musical.
Chapter 1: A Typical Day
"Yes, may I speak to Sharpay Evans? It's about your portfolio; I represent clients interested in contracting for your services."
"Really?!", the young blond woman nearly shrieks into her cell phone. Sharpay is currently standing in a long line which is snaking its way down Broadway. It's a hot August day and this is one of those infamous casting calls where hundreds of aspiring young actors and actresses wait for the chance to be noticed in New York's dog-eat-dog world of theater. She's been in this line for three hours already and it's starting to look like she won't even make it into the building.
"Yes, Miss Evans. This is Thomas Niquist of Niquist and Kohl and I wanted to set up an appointment where you could come in and discuss about our proposal."
Wow, this is one of the owners of the agency. Then, her brow wrinkles in confusion. Why would one of the owners be calling a nobody like me?... Oh well, maybe this is what it's like when you're finally discovered. But hey, I don't remember dropping off my portfolio at an agency called Niquist and Kohl. I've never even heard of them.
"Miss Evans? Are you still there?"
"Oh, yes...sorry about that. It's just ... I don't remember leaving my portfolio with a Niquist and Kohl agency, but I dropped off my portfolio at a lot of agencies. " Light bulbs are going off in Sharpay's head. Everyone's heard stories of young wannabes in big cities, like New York, who are lured into seedy locations with the promise of instant fame and fortune. Sometimes, they end up getting into prostitution or pornography and sometimes, they end up dead.
"Um, where are you located? Is it one of the agencies on Park Avenue?", she asks him. No sleaze could afford the rent on Park Avenue and she'd left her folders at about fifteen talent agencies on Park.
"I believe we bought your portfolio along with many others from a clearinghouse agency. Regardless, my clients are very much interested in a business arrangement with you. And no, Miss Evans. Our offices are located on Wall Street. Look, we're a reputable firm, but we may not be what you're expecting. We are Niquist and Kohl, one of the city's oldest and most prestigious law firms and I would like to set up an appointment to meet with you and discuss a very profitable and worthwhile arraignment. Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to discuss the details over the phone. Would you be available tomorrow morning at nine sharp?"
Well, he doesn't sound like a creepy porno director. Oh, come on, Sharpay, how many creepy porno directors have you heard before, anyway?
"Miss Evans!", Charles Niquist is used to getting what he wants when he wants it --- not waiting for silly little girls to decide whether or not he is the nefarious head of a white slavery ring.
"Okay, Mr. Niquist. I'll be there."
"Wonderful, I'll transfer you over to my assistant; she'll give you the address and directions on the best way to get here."
A few minutes later, just as she finishes the phone call, one of the assistant directors come out to tell them to all go home. The play is cast. Maybe, tomorrow will turn out to be her silver lining.
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An hour and a half later, Sharpay arrives at her apartment in Greenwich Village. A little over a year ago when she and her roommate found this apartment, it seemed like the perfect place to live. She could just see it: the biography special on E! Network where they tour her old apartment and show the world how the famous Sharpay Evans once suffered for her craft. Now, it just seems like the dump it is, the dump she is currently trying to sneak into. Sharpay is creeping silently down the small, dark hallway trying to reach the safety of the stairs. She is right in front of the most dangerous door in the entire building. If she can just make it past here...CREAK!... her foot pushes down on a loose floorboard. The door is instantly ripped open to reveal a flamboyantly dressed woman with over-sized black-rimmed glasses and her dyed ashe-blond hair piled high on her head in a messy bun.
"Miss ... Evans!", she calls dramatically. "How fortuitous that I find you here, my dear. Are you aware of the date, Miss Evans?"
"Um, Tuesday?", Sharpay replies lamely. I know very well what the date is and why can't this crazy old lady just come out and tell me that the rent is overdue.
"Well, in that case, you must realize that your rent is overdue."
Oh...guess she's not so crazy after all.
"Yes ma'am, Mrs. Darbus, I'm well aware of that. "
"Now, don't misunderstand me, Miss Evans. I understand the struggles of the young thespian. Why, when I was in the theater...", she stops her soliloquy in mid-sentence and looks at Sharpay curiously. "But you don't want to hear the ramblings of an old, washed-up actress...", she finishes as she glances at Sharpay sideways while twisting her over-sized faux pearls around her fingers. It would be called hamming it up on a stage, but in a dimly-lit, run-down hallway, it is just odd.
"Oh no, of course not, Mrs. Darbus. I love hearing your stories about Broadway. I mean those were the glory days, weren't they? Not like today, where it's it's all sex and skin", Sharpay says as she smiles and lays it on thickly. Would someone please explain why I haven't gotten discovered yet? I mean, come on, people, this is acting.
Mrs. Darbus' eyes light up like a marquee on opening night. "Oh, that's wonderful. Come right on in, dear", she says as she holds open the door for the young woman. "Have I shown you my clippings from when I was under-study to Elizabeth Taylor. Well, it was Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? , but if you ask me it should have been called Who's Afraid of Liz Taylor?"
She leads a falsely smiling Sharpay into her apartment and closes the door.
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Two hours later, Sharpay slams the door closed as she storms into a nearly dark, freezing cold apartment.
"Kelsi!", she shouts for her roommate as she stalks over to the loudly groaning air conditioner which is blasting away at it's coldest setting. Sharpay quickly turns it off. The old window unit wheezes to a stop with a loud clank and a slow sputter which ends in blessed silence. The poor thing is barely hanging on and with the way Kelsi overuses it, it's not going to make it until the end of summer.
"It's freezing in here! Where are you, Kelsi? I've just had to spend two hours listening to Darbus drone on and on about her glory days in the theater", she says this final part with her nose pinched shut in order to sound more snooty. "This time she made me look at her scrap book. Ya know...Darbus was actually pretty hot looking back in her day."
She walks into the small bedroom; it has two twin sized beds along one wall. One bed is neatly made and the other is completely rumpled since its occupant is still in it, although the entire body is covered by a layer of thick blankets. Sharpay walks over to the rumpled bed and sits down on the edge, near the headboard.
She continues, "I'm not paying half of this power bill, you know. You use way more electricity than I do. It's August out there, Kelsi, and you've got it feeling like February in here.
"But back to my Darbus story... if I have to say brava one more time...but hey, I got us a one week extension on the rent. Pretty good, if I do say so myself."
Noticing that Kelsi still hasn't moved, she says "Why am I talking to myself? Kelsi, it's five o'clock in the afternoon, how can you possibly be asleep? Kelsi? Kelsi? Wake up, my little sawed-off Sondheim."
She reaches up and quickly pulls the covers back to reveal her roommate's...feet. The girl is sleeping upside down in the bed, again.
"Oh, for heaven's sake...", she mumbles before she stalks off into the bathroom. This is definitely a two-shower day.
After her shower she leaves her hair wrapped up in a towel -- turban-style and pulls on a sloppy t-shirt and shorts. Then, she goes about preparing her favorite dinner. After finding the last package of Ramen noodles in the cupboard, she places the still sealed package on the counter top and proceeds to pummel it to smithereens by beating on it with her closed fist. Satisfied that the dry noodles have been properly pulverized, she opens the package and digs through the mashed noodles to find the seasoning packet. Next, she pours the noodles into a bowl and opens the seasoning packet and dumps it on the dry noodles.
Wow, a complete meal for only 29 cents. Wouldn't my home ec teacher be proud?
Sharpay settles down to watch a little television while she munches on her Ramen. Kelsi finally drags herself out of bed while Sharpay is eating and is now hitting the thirty minute mark on her shower.
Kelsi...she sleeps all day, stays up all night, uses all the hot water when she showers, runs the power bill up by running the air conditioner at full blast 24/7, eats all her food. How did I ever get saddled with such a bad roommate? Oh yeah, she's been my best friend since, like, third grade, which is why the two of us decided to move here together after two horrible years in college, in the first place. Why it took us two years to figure out that we didn't really want to be accountants as much as our parents did, is still a mystery. So here we are taking New York by storm. Storm...ha...more like an irritating mist that makes it hard to drive, but is too fine to use the windshield wipers. Maybe this thing with Niquist will be the big break I've been waiting for.
Kelsi finishes her shower at the forty-four minute mark. One minute more and Sharpay would have barged in there and turned it off.
"Good morning", Kelsi chirps brightly as she walks into the small living room/dining room/kitchen combination. In a real house you'd call it a great room, but there is nothing great about this room.
"It's after 8:30 at night, Kelsi. I don't understand how you can sleep so much."
"Well, we musicians are renown for keeping late hours." She flops down onto the sofa with a bag of chips and a diet soda.
"Hey, that's my soda, Kels. I was saving it for later", Sharpay complains as she makes a grab for the chip bag.
"Yeah well, it's the last one in the frig, so we'd better get some more", she says casually.
"We? What, we, would that be, Kels? I'm the only one who ever does any shopping around here."
She takes a big swig of soda and retrieves the bag of chips before she replies seriously, "Actually, we should probably talk about that."
Sharpay is surprised by the seriousness of her tone and reaches over to turn off the television.
"You want to talk about grocery shopping?", she asks hopefully, but internally, Sharpay is scared to death about where she thinks this conversation is going.
"No, not really...Look Sharpay, we gave it our best shot, okay? I mean we've done the whole living our dream thing in Greenwich Village, starving for our art, working our tails off to get discovered...But you haven't had a single part in the last three months and I can't even sell a fifteen second jingle for a cell phone commercial. And the only thing that's been discovered is the bottom of my bank account."
"So...what are you saying?", Sharpay asks in a whisper.
"I called my mom yesterday. They're sending me a plane ticket. I'm going back home, Sharpay."
"What!? How can you just give up like that? Kelsi, you single-handedly wrote our high school junior and senior year's musicals. You've got more talent in your little pinkie than most of these jerks have in their entire body."
"Yeah...well, you starred in over seventeen school productions and had the lead in every play since Kindergarten. But what good has that done for you here?"
"I...I...actually, I have an appointment tomorrow. I think it might be something really big. This could be the break I've been waiting for."
"I really hope that's true, Sharpay", Kelsi tells her, sincerely, "but I'm finished. My flight leaves tomorrow at noon. I ... I could give a message to your family...if you like."
"Umm, my parents and I didn't leave things on a very good footing. I don't think they want to hear from me."
"Maybe things have changed. You know 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'", Kelsi says.
"I don't think so. I...I tried to call home about a month ago...You know to just say hi. Anyway, my mom wouldn't talk to me; she hung up on me", Sharpay finishes as she sniffles and wipes away a stray tear.
"Oh, Shar...that really sucks", Kelsi says sympathetically.
"Well, hey. Maybe my thing tomorrow will work out and it's your last night, right? We shouldn't waste it sitting in front of the TV", Sharpay exclaims and pushes those depressing thoughts to the back of her mind --- like how she was supposed to pay for the rent on this place by herself and was Kelsi planning on paying her share of the expenses that were due now before she left and ... stop that! You're supposed to pushing them to the back of your mind, not the front.
Sharpay hops up and starts to move towards the bedroom. She grabs Kelsi's hand as she walks by. "Come on, Kels. Let's make your final night in the Big Apple one to remember. Let's go get ready! We're going to party!"
"Great idea, Shar! And the night's on me, okay? Mom put some spending money in my account."
TBC
A/N: Anybody else out there eat their Ramen noodles dry? I think it's disgusting, but a friend of mine loves it that way, so I added that scene in her honor.