"Ryan." A dollar bill is tossed carelessly at me. "I need mineral water. Nothing flavored. It's too hard on my stomach at this time of morning. Be a love and get it for me." Sharpay didn't even look at me, favoring her adoring public over me. I bit back the impulse that wanted to snap at her to get it herself. Shar's my ticket here at East High. No way am I going to do anything to jeopardize that. I may be her brother, her twin no less, but I don't doubt that from a social standpoint, she'd dump me like a basket of dirty laundry if she felt her image was in question. Even if it meant junking up the reputation she honestly thought I had. So I trek to the cafeteria, feeling my pockets for some extra bills. I'm not so in the mood for a mineral water, but maybe I can grab some of that hot French vanilla from the coffee dispenser. Yeah, that's sounding wickedly good right now. That and one of those chocolate chip banana muffins.
I'm feeling cheerier now as I hurry to the snack line. The warning bell won't ring for another fifteen minutes, so I'll have plenty of time to enjoy my spontaneous breakfast. I pick out an all natural mineral water for my sister, her favorite kind, then cast my eyes toward the muffin display. Oh. No chocolate chip banana to be seen, but plenty of freshly baked blueberry. I can deal with that. I pluck one from its window encased shelf and continue to the coffee. Watching my sixteen ounce paper cup fill to the brim with the cream tan liquid soothes me somehow. I cap it and stick Shar's water in my pocket so as to manage all three items at once. I greet the lunch lady who's acting as cashier today, handing over my two dollars and fifty cents. She seems to be one of the few people in this school who greets me back without any strings attached. At any rate, she's never tried to shove my head in a toilet or toss me into the school dumpsters. I'll take what I can get.
"How's it hanging, Fanny?" a voice whoops as I exit the cafeteria. "Oh, you know, I forgot--it probably isn't." Laughter follows his remark, and I keep walking, hoping my failure to acknowledge Jeremy Straight, one of the top first string players on the basketball team, will cause him to lay off. You'd think I would have figured out by now that this never works. The next thing I know, Jeremy's slipping his slimy tentacle of an arm casually around my shoulder.
"Fanny," he repeated. One of my many prominent nicknames, this one in particular derived from the ever famous musical Annie, with what I guess is to them an amusing twist. Other crowd favorites include Ryanne, Evelyn as opposed to Evans, choir boy, princess for those who are really creative, a few other terms of affection I won't bother to repeat here…as you have probably picked up on by now, I go to school with some real geniuses.
"You didn't have to buy me breakfast, Fanny," Jeremy said in a mock gracious voice as he helped himself to my muffin.
"Step off, Straight," a new voice called out, clearly irritated.
"As soon as I've finished eating, Danforth," Jeremy retorted. Too bad he doesn't live up to his name.
Chad seemed at loss for what to do after that. No surprises there. He rarely does, just send me one of those troubled glances he seems to favor so much when I'm around, as he did now. He chewed his lip for a bit, and then,
"I don't suppose you could be doing something useful."
"Like what?" Jeremy seems completely unconcerned as he finishes off my muffin. Anyone else might have demanded fifty cents from him, good for another muffin, and maybe an extra fifty cents for pain and suffering. I personally like my face the way it is, or I will once the black eye and gashed cheek heal up.
"Like your jump shot."
Jeremy pauses, narrowing his eyes at Chad. "What about it? I say jump and it shoots."
"Not at the regional last week, it didn't." I wonder how far Chad will dare to go. Nevertheless, I can see Jeremy's temper already beginning to flare.
"That's nice of you to notice, considering you spent the majority of the game on the bench," he shot back coolly.
It wasn't quite true, but Chad didn't let up. "You'd be amazed at what people notice from the sidelines," he said evenly.
Jeremy stared hard at Chad, then glanced at his cronies, then back at Chad. I guess he was trying to figure out whether to pound Chad into the floor or let it go. After a long silence, he simply gave Chad a tight smile.
"Okay, Danforth, don't have a seizure," he said. "I'm walking. But first I need something to wash down this delicious remnant of blueberry goodness." His hand shot out, yanking my coffee out of my grip, and before Chad or I could react, he first made to drink it, then feigned a slip so that the liquid seemed to jump from its cup to my face.
The intense burning didn't even register at first, but as the searing coffee settled on my masked wounds, it became a painful reality. I choked, only vaguely aware of Chad trying to leap at Jeremy and someone else intercepting him. A few beats later, I was being steered toward the nearest rest room, and Jeremy and his posse were scurrying from the scene.
The sound of water from a faucet came to me full blast and I yanked my black fedora from my head before frantically trying to drown my face, welcoming the refreshing coolness of it. The stinging didn't cease, but after a minute or two I could open my eyes. At least they had been spared.
"You okay, Ryan?"
I glanced at Troy who had posed the question, to Chad on my other side, who didn't seem to know what to say.
"I'm okay," I answered, "but I don't know about you guys. You just might have made your way on to Jeremy Straight's hit list."
Chad found his voice. "We've been on it for awhile, bro," he reassured me. "Ever since Troy was voted in captain. He always wanted that spot. No worries, you're still at the top." He paused, not sure if he had said something untoward. "Anyways, he'll forget about it by practice."
"Man, you're a mess," Troy observed. The coffee had decided that my shirt didn't deserve to miss out on all the fun. "You got something else you can throw on?"
"Yeah, in my locker," I said. Shar is anal about the two of us keeping a sufficient amount of emergency outfits at hand, on account of the fact that, according to her, we can never be too prepared for a potential fashion emergency. Gee, and I wonder why people are taking numbers for the chance to swing at me. "I'll get it, though," I added hastily. I had some touch up work to do, and it would be just like Troy and Chad to find the small container of blush I'd swiped from Sharpay and make me the bane of their existence for sure. "You guys can head."
"You sure, dude?" Chad asked.
"Yeah. Thanks. But I've got it." Leave already.
"Okay, well…" Troy hesitated. "Look, I'm sorry about Straight. He's a jerk. Even my dad thinks so. But…"
I knew what he wasn't saying: There wasn't much, if anything, anyone could do about him. Or anybody from any team, for that matter. The jocks ruled. Always.
"Hey, is that for the queen?" Chad asked, and I looked down numbly. I had held on to Sharpay's water the whole time. "Good thing nothing happened to it, Ryan. You're guaranteed to have bigger problems than Straight and his creep squad if it had. Here, I'll give it to her if you want."
I tried to chuckle with him, but I don't think it worked too well. But I did take him up on his offer. The two hesitated a bit more before finally departing, and I dared to look at my unveiled face.
"Lovely," I murmured.
The rest room door swung open, and though I didn't know the guy who entered from Adam, he shot me a full on sneer.
"Hey, Barbie. Who let you out of your dream house?"
"Ken did. He decided I could have my driving privileges back."
Wow. I swear I didn't know where that came from, but it caused the guy's sneer to falter a bit.
"Yeah, I'd need my sense of humor too, if I were you," he said, before retreating over to a urinal. I couldn't disagree with him.
