Chapter One

The hushed whispers of two people could barely be heard as they walked down the nearly empty halls of East High. They walked near each other, heads bowed slightly as they spoke, English accents barely distinguishable above their words.

"I can't do it all by me onesies …"

"O' course you can, all you need to do is ask him if they're going to try out again. I mean, they were really great in Twinkle Town and didn't we like the time off? Not having John and Amy pushing us on about the play?"

"Well…yeah…but why can't you talk to him?"

"Wouldn't it look a tad weird if'n I went up to him and started talking? Yer the one who flirts with him…yer the one who talks to him…"

"I know, but still…I can't…"

"What? Why not…oh I see…you have the davies don't you?"

"What?! That's a load of bilge and you know it!"

"You are! Blimey…never would have imagined you of all people to be frightened of Troy Bolton!"

"I am not!"

"Come on…after all we've seen…Troy Bolton couldn't possibly frighten you."

"He doesn't!"

"I mean, we've seen Jones! We've seen Jack when the rum's run out! We've seen Hector when he's just gotten up in the morning! Nothing is more terrifying than that!"

"I know alright! It's just…he's…and I'm…"

"I know…I know…how about this? I'll talk to Gabriella…if you talk to Troy?"

"Are you sure Ry? I mean, I know how you feel about her and…"

"I'm sure Shar," he held out his hand, "Do we have an accord?"

She smiled up at him and took his hand in hers, "We do."

He smiled down at her before quickly looking up as loud laughter reached their ears. "Well…" he started, English accent dropped, "Here's our chance."

"I guess so…" she agreed.

And with that, Ryan Evans set off, walking determinedly towards the group before him. He ignored Troy, Taylor, and Chad as they stared at him, briefly nodded to Kelsi who smiled to him, before stopping just before Gabriella. "Hey…um…Gabriella…" he started.

"Hey Ryan," she greeted, "What's up?"

"Oh, um…I kinda dozed off a little in history yesterday…do you think I could borrow your notes?"

"Sure," she smiled, digging through her backpack for her previous day's notes, "Here you go."

"Thanks," he replied, smiling, "Give them back after homeroom?"

"Sure," she agreed, turning back to a discussion she was having with Taylor and Kelsi.

Ryan started walking down the hall, turning back to smirk at Sharpay, who merely glared at him. His smirk grew as he gave her a small salute and turned to continue on his way. Once his back was turned, Sharpay began to smile, shaking her head at her brother's antics before taking a deep breath and walking towards Troy.

"Hiya Troy," she stared smiling flirtingly.

He smiled uncomfortably at her, "Hi…Sharpay…"

"So…" she said, dragging it out and twirling her hair in her fingers, "Are you trying out for the play?"

It was their senior year, fall, meaning that it was time for the school's annual play. The plays were usually dramas, which would mean that it would be a comedic sort of musicale, but you never know…ever since Twinkle Town last year, Darbus had been doing things a little differently.

He glanced over at Gabriella who was now fully paying attention to the conversation, "I mean, I know it's single auditions only…" Sharpay continued.

"Um…" He eyed Gabriella who nodded enthusiastically, "I…guess?"

"Great," Sharpay yelped, smiling broadly, but being sure to make it look like it was forced, "So I guess we'll all get to see if you guys can act or if you're only good at singing." She smirked evilly.

"And what if they are?" Chad asked, "You gonna try to sabotage them again?"

Sharpay rolled her eyes, "Oh, well, sorry about that. Old habits are hard to break you know?"

"What? You make it a habit of sabotaging things to get your way?" Chad asked, glaring at her.

"It runs in the family," she said shrugging, "Our uncle made a living on all that jazz…" She smirked at them before laughing, "See ya."

She tossed her hair before walking off briskly down the hall in the same direction as Ryan, "Jeez, Ice Queen has returned," she heard Chad say just before she turned the corner.

IOI

Sharpay and Ryan sat in the front of their history class, Sharpay in front of Ryan while the teacher droned on and on about the past.

"Now, today class, we're going to talk about your own histories," the teacher started, his deep baritone voice reverberating off the walls, "Everyone has their own stories to tell, some more interesting than others, but unique none the less."

Sharpay and Ryan glanced almost worriedly at each other before looking around the class only to see everyone else talking excitedly about getting to tell their stories. Sharpay glanced back at Ryan who merely shrugged. She bit her lip before turning back around to face the teacher, her Ice Queen mask slipping back on flawlessly.

"Now, class. Class!" Mr. Cuemill practically shouted over the ruckus, "We'll start off with you're parents, what they do for a living, where they're from, then yourself…anything interesting that you want to share with the class." He looked around, "Hmmm…Mr. Cross…let's start with you…"

Sharpay sat rigid in her seat, hands twisting and turning in her lap as she listened to her classmates drone on and on about their families. She hoped against hope that the class would take so long that it wouldn't come time for Sharpay or Ryan to talk. She had half expected Chad to talk for the majority of the class, lord knew his ego would allow it…but he hadn't. The only thing he had mentioned was that he lived with his mom who was an editor at a paper and he was born with six toes on one foot…something no one wanted to know about.

"And now…the Evans twins," Mr. Cuemill turned and expectant eye on Sharpay and Ryan…as did the rest of the class. Not much was known about the twins after all…just that they were rich and that they were the Drama Royalty…but not much else.

Sharpay's eyes widened a hair while Ryan cleared his throat behind her. Everyone was staring at her…but she couldn't speak…how could she? What was she supposed to say?

Luckily…or unluckily…Ryan chose that moment to speak, "Uh…um…do you want our parents' jobs…or our parent parent's?"

Sharpay's eyes widened more as she spun to face her brother, glaring at him slightly for his stupidity. "Uh…isn't that the same thing?" she heard Chad ask from somewhere in the classroom.

She looked out; she could already see realization dawning in the eyes of those more academically inclined. She shut her eyes and shook her head slightly, "He means, would you like the jobs of our birth parents…or our adoptive parents?"

The whispers started, everyone in class leaning across the aisles or turning around to whisper at the news…the Evans weren't really Evans!?

"Oh…uh…both…I guess," Mr. Cuemill said, staring at the twins…even he didn't know that the Evans were adopted.

Sharpay sighed as Ryan started to speak, "Uh…well…our birth parents…our dad was a banker…and mom was a bar maid."

"Oh, a bartender," Mr. Cuemill started.

"No, a bar maid," Sharpay clarified, "It was an old fashioned sorta bar."

"Oh…right…" Mr. Cuemill answered, "And…your adoptive parents?"

"Well, John's a lawyer…" Sharpay started.

"…and Amy's a doctor," Ryan finished.

"I didn't know you two were adopted," Gabriella said softly, gazing at them in wonder.

"No one did," Sharpay sneered, "We didn't want anyone to know."

"Why not?" Taylor asked, "It's not like it's a bad thing…lots of people are given up for adoption and…"

Sharpay started to shake her head, staring out the window so no one could see her face. Ryan knew however, he knew it was a sore subject for his sister…it was a sore subject for him as well. "Uh…well, we weren't given up…our parents…they're dead…" he started.

"Dead?" Kelsi squeaked, eyeing the twins with sorrow.

"Yes," Sharpay snapped having gotten control of her emotions, "They're dead, they died."

"How?" Troy asked.

"They were killed," Sharpay said, "In a rai…"

"In a riot," Ryan said quickly, cutting his sister off. He gave her a meaningful look, which she nodded to before turning to face the class again. "We were three? Four maybe."

"And then you were adopted," Mr. Cuemill started, nodding his head.

"But what about your uncle?" Chad asked.

"Our uncle?" Ryan asked sending Sharpay a look, which she replied with a guilty one of her own.

"Yeah, our uncle," Sharpay took over, "We lived with him for a few years…but…he died…"

"We were on a ship," Ryan started, staring at Sharpay to make sure what he was about to say was followed, "And there was a storm…"

"We all fell overboard…and were found by another ship…a cruise ship…" Sharpay continued.

"John and Amy Evans found us," Ryan finished, "But no one found our uncle…"

Sharpay nodded, as did Ryan…it was a good story…close to the truth, "We were about 12, I guess."

"Wow…" Troy said softly just a second before the bell rang.

"Right, uh, well," Mr. Cuemill shouted above the ruckus of students packing up their things, "I want a page long essay summarizing your family history. Just what you told me today, written down."

Before anyone could say anything else, Sharpay and Ryan were out the door heading for the auditorium to practice for the auditions were to be held after school. Troy, Gabriella, Taylor, Chad, and Kelsi gathered just outside the door watching as the twins walked quickly and forcefully down the halls.

A/N – This chappy would have been a lot shorter, I wanted to end it after Sharpay walks away from Troy and the gang, but I really want to get to the pirates soon, so I added a little bit more.

PS A/N - OMG! I can't believe I haven't updated anything in like a month! I created a Harry Potter group for Harry/Luna fictions and spent the better part of the month reading those stories and putting them in the group...other than that I really was trying to update my other stories, the Roswell and YH ones...but then I kept seeing preview of HSM2 and my muse floated back to HSM...I'll still try to update the other stories, but I'll probably end up writing more HSM stories, or the ones listed in my profile that I haven't started yet...anyway, I will be updating a lot more...though by the end of August I have to get ready for school again so the updates might be few but they will be there. I wanted to post this as a little 'I'm Back!' type of thing. I've had this chapter uploaded on my computer for about 60 days but haven't gotten around to posting it up. I just checked the status of it today and saw that there was 1 day left before it was removed so I decided it was about time I got back to lol. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next one is when it really starts to get interesting :)