-1A/N: I would like to thank my three reviewers for their wonderful comments. They made me feel really good. I hope you all continue to read this. Also, I would like to say that I should have four reviews, but the fourth person is my dummy head best friend who thinks that just because she's my friend that she can get away with not reviewing. And to answer a question that was asked, yes, Izzy is a made up character, as is another character that will be introduced in this chapter. This chapter picks up right where the last one left off.
Warnings: This is a slash fic, meaning that it contains boy/boy pairings. If you're not into that, don't read this and don't give me negative comments for it. Also, throughout the story there may be some slightly "grown up" language, which is why this is rated T.
Disclaimer: If I owned High School Musical, Zac Effron would already be mine by now. However, I do not own High School Musical and Zac is not mine. The only characters in this story that are mine are Izzy Katsutphrakis (pronounced "cat-sue-fra-kiss") and "the new girl".
The Life and Times of Ryan Evans
Chapter 2: The New Girl in Town
"What song?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing too bad," Sharpay replied. "Just The New Girl in Town, you know, the song that Amber sings after Tracy joins the Corny Collins Show."
"You want us to be Tammy and Shelley?!" Izzy shouted, not believing what he was hearing.
"Of course" I thought to myself. "You're making us to play girls" I said.
Sharpay grinned devilishly. "Well you are my two favorite girls in the whole wide world."
"I'm touched, Shar" Izzy said. But you know I still hate you for making us do this."
"Yeah, well, I don't care" she said with that annoyingly smug smile she wears whenever she gets what she wants. "So Ryan, you will be doing Tammy's part and Izzy, you will be doing Shelley's part."
We nodded and then Izzy asked, "Which part is which?'
"I'll do air and you'll do hair" I explained. "And then when I sing She's hip" I sang, "You sing-"
"So cool" he finished.
"And then I sing, I'm gonna-"
"we know!" we snapped.
So we quickly finished going over our parts and then sat down and waited for the auditions to start.
"The first auditions will be for the part of Amber Von Tussle" announced Ms. Darbus. "And the first person up is Jessica Reynolds."
"Who?" Sharpay asked me.
"I don't know that name" I told her.
At that moment, a cute brunette girl walked up on the stage. "Which song will you be singing, my dear?" Darbus asked.
"The New Girl in Town" she answered.
Duh. That's the only song Amber has a part in, other than "(The Legend of) Miss Baltimore Crabs", in which she mainly has speaking parts, and "The Nicest Kids in Town", where she just does backup.
"May I please have my friends come up and do the backup with me?" she asked with an adorable pleading smile.
"Of course sweetie." Uh-oh. This was not good. She hadn't even started singing and she was already winning Darbus over.
Jessica then sang her song along with her fellow freshmen friends. I am sad to say that she was incredible. When she finished, Darbus was beaming and Sharpay looked like she was about to explode. I knew exactly why. This was starting to look a lot like last year. If Sharpay lost another show to a new girl, especially someone younger than her, heads would roll. I was beginning to fear for my safety at that point because I knew that if Jessica wasn't Sharpay's victim, I would be.
"Ooo! This should be exciting! Our next person auditioning for Amber is Sharpay Evans!" Ms. Darbus exclaimed with obvious excitement. Thank you Ms. Darbus. On a scale of one to ten, Sharpay's anger had been a seventy-nine. After Darbus's reaction to seeing her name, her anger dropped to about a sixty-two. She was still pissed, but at least I now knew that my head was safe.
Sharpay, Izzy, and I walked up to the stage and sang. I felt great after we finished. We did much better than Jessica and her friends. Ms. Darbus was up and applauding like her life depended on it. With Sharpay's current mood, it probably did, but Darbus didn't know that. Shar's anger level was now closer to her normal level when she's angry, a measly thirty-one out of ten.
It was actually somewhat frightening singing with Shar during the audition. Every time we sang about "the new girl in town", Sharpay would glare at Jessica so hard I was afrid the poor girl was going to drop dead right there. The really scary part was when Sharpay sang about getting her after school. I decided at that point that I wouldn't even leave Sharpay's side even to pee for the rest of the day, at least until we got home, just to make sure that Jessica didn't get killed.
When we were finished, it was time for people to audition for the next role. "Next will be the auditions for our lead, the wonderful Tracy Turnblad" said Ms. Darbus. "The first person up is Gabriella Montez."
As Gabby walked by, I whispered "Good luck". I found out I didn't need to. She sang with that beautiful voice of hers the song "Good Morning Baltimore". It was great. I felt so happy for her as she left the stage.
"Okay, next is… are you also auditioning for Tracy's part, miss Reynolds?" asked Darbus.
"Yes" replied Jessica. "I thought I'd try for my two favorite parts to give me a better chance at getting a part I really want. Although," she added, if I can't get either one of those parts I'd happily take any one that you gave me, Ms. Darbus."
"What a suck up!" Sharpay hissed.
"Right. And you never do anything like that" I said sarcastically. "Now be quiet. She's about to sing."
Wow. If I thought that Gabriella was great, then Jessica was out of this world. I think that even Nikki Blonsky would be out of a job after someone heard Jessica. It was now very clear that Sharpay no longer had to worry about her part being stolen because Darbus had just found her Tracy. Too bad for Gabriella.
It was my turn soon, just as soon as all the other people trying out for my part finally finished. And then I saw him. Troy Bolton was here to audition. He was going to steal my part! Troy may be the most gorgeous being in the universe, but that doesn't mean I was going to just let him take the part I wanted. If he did better than me, things were going to get really ugly really fast.
"And the last person for the part of Link Larkin is…"
What! Did she just say the last person?! I can't believe that she forgot me!
"Ryan Evans."
Okay, now I'm confused. Had Ms. Darbus just forgotten Troy Bolton? He didn't seem to notice. Good. If he didn't say anything, then Darbus would skip over him and he wouldn't get the part. I would of course feel bad that he didn't get to try out for the part of Link, but I would feel worse if I had to murder Troy for taking my part away from me. So it was better that he wasn't saying anything.
I went up on the stage and performed. I sang "Ladies' Choice", which I realize is kind of an ironic song for me to sing. I would have rather sang "Without Love", but I kind of needed the others in order to do that one. I also might have sang "It Takes Two", but it wouldn't show off my voice enough to be a good audition song.
I thought I did absolutely terrible. I accidentally sang the second verse and had to modify the performance and finish the song without singing the first verse. Luckily, Darbus didn't seem to notice because she stood up, applauded me, and told me how beautifully I had sung.
"Next," said Ms. Darbus, "We will have auditions for the part of Corny Collins. Oh! I t seems we only have one person auditioning for this role.
That wasn't a surprise. Almost every guy in the Drama club tried out for the part of Link. Those who didn't were planning to try out for Seaweed. I wondered who Corny would be.
"Please come to the stage Mr. Bolton."
What? Troy was auditioning to be Corny? I guess it wasn't a mistake that Darbus hadn't called him for Link. I had to wonder why he chose Corny when he was perfect to be Link.
Troy went up and sang "The Nicest Kids in Town". I didn't think he would do that well with the song because his voice was so different than James Marsden's. However, he did wonderfully. He'd be guaranteed the part even if he wasn't the only one who auditioned.
After the applause ended, I stood up to leave.
'"What are you doing?" Izzy asked.
"Leaving" I told him.
"Why?"
"Do you really want to stay hear through the rest of the auditions?" I asked him.
"No, but can we at least wait through the auditions for Seaweed?" he asked.
Oh no. He was doing the puppy dog face. I really hated it when he did that. Even though we weren't dating any more, I still couldn't say no to him whenever he did that. "Fine" I said, sitting back down. After six completely horrendous auditions, I found out why Izzy wanted to wait. "Let's see," Darbus said as she looked at her list, "Last, but certainly not least, we have mister Katsutphrakis."
"You?!" I turned to Izzy.
"Yeah." He grinned sheepishly and got up to sing. He sang "Run and Tell That".
It was amazing. I knew Izzy could sing, but not like that. We sang together a couple of times when we hung out, but screaming "Since U Been Gone" wasn't quite the same as auditioning for a musical. This time, his voice sounded amazing. I also had no idea he was planning to audition. He hadn't been in acting class last year, or in drama club. I found out earlier this year that he was interested in acting. He had taken basic acting over the summer, which was why he had said no when I offered to take him with me and Shar to Lava Springs. He was also taking the advanced acting class with me this year and looking into joining drama club. But I never thought that he would try out for a part in the first show of the year, especially a musical.
He came back and smiled at me and Sharpay's dumbfounded expressions. "Was I that bad?" he asked.
"Where did you learn to sing like that?" Sharpay asked.
"You've heard me sing before" he said.
"No, I've heard you scream before" she replied. "I have not, however, heard you sing so wonderfully before."
"Thanks Sharpay" he said, "It makes me feel really good knowing that the queen of the theater thinks I'm good."
"I know" she said. "Well, I'll see you girls later"
"Bye Shar" I said, pulling Izzy off to the side. "Why didn't you tell me you were auditioning?" I asked him.
"I wanted it to be a surprise" he said.
But I'm your best friend" I said. "You could have at least told me."
"Yeah, but that look on your face was absolutely priceless!" he said while he laughed at me. "Oh, and you better smile," he said with a wink, "'cause look who's coming now."
"Please tell me he doesn't mean what I think he means" I thought to myself as I turned around. Sure enough, Troy Bolton was walking directly toward us.
"Hey guys" he said.
"Hi Troy" Izzy said.
"What? Oh, hi Troy" I said. "Keep your eyes up Ryan!"
"You guys were really great just now" Troy said.
"Thanks" Izzy and I said simultaneously.
"Whoa" Troy said.
"What?" we asked in unison.
"How do you do that?" he asked.
"Do what?" I think we were starting to freak him out now.
"That!" he said.
"What?!" we asked, starting to get annoyed with this.
"That freaky talk at the same time thing" he said.
"Oh" we said.
"It's just because we're bestest friends in the whole wide world." Izzy answered.
Troy still looked somewhat frightened. "Anywho, as I was saying, you guys were great. I didn't even know that you could sing, Izzy."
"Yeah, I love singing, but I haven't been quite comfortable at this school yet to express myself."
"So I guess this means you are comfortable enough now" Troy said.
"You betcha" Izzy said. "So you better watch your back, Troy Bolton, 'cause I'm gonna steal all future shows right from under your feet."
"Really?" Troy said, laughing. "Well I guess I'll do that. Oh! And Ryan, I wanted to talk to you too. Your audition was fab- I mean, it was fantastic. There's no doubt in my mind that you're going to be Link."
"You really think so, Troy?" I said. "Stop acting like a thirteen-year-old girl, you idiot!"
"You were really good too Troy. You're definitely getting the part" I said. "I mean, you would get it even if you weren't the only one who auditioned" I added when I saw that he was about to comment on what I had just said.
"Thanks" Troy said, laughing again.
"Boy I love that smile" I thought.
"So I guess I'll see you guys later" Troy said. "Oh, and at callbacks on Monday, since Darbus for some reason thinks that I still need a callback even though I'm the only one who auditioned."
"Yeah," I said, "she seems to think that she has to do that even though it totally doesn't make sense."
Troy laughed. "I guess it's better than her not being fair at all" he said. "Anyways, I'll see you guys later." He then walked out of the theater.
"What was that?" I asked, turning to Izzy.
"What was what?" he asked innocently.
"You were just flirting with Troy Bolton" I said.
"So? You were even worse. You really think so Troy?" said in a high pitched girly voice while twirling his hair with his finger.
I wasn't that bad" I said.
"Yes you were! You were acting like a thirteen-year-old girl" he said.
So I guess I wasn't the only one who thought that. "Well you're the one who said he didn't like Troy" I said.
"That doesn't mean I don't think he's hot. I just don't want to date him, or kiss him, or anything else like that. Anyways, I know how much you like him and I would never get in the way of your imaginary romance, Ryan. You know that I just naturally flirt with everyone I meet. I can't help it. I mean, do you remember that week last year when Sharpay was convinced that I was head over heels in love with her?"
I laughed. I did remember that week. It was also the week that Izzy and I were going out (yes, we only went out for a week. We broke up because we realized that even though we were perfect for each other as friends, we didn't work as boyfriends). Sharpay had asked me to tell Izzy that she didn't like him, thinking that it would spare his feelings if I told him instead of her. I told her no since I knew that there was no point. She decided that she would have to wait for the right moment and tell him herself. Luckily, she never had to embarrass herself by doing that because later that week she walked in on the two of us in the middle of an intense make out session. This resulted in her becoming comfortable enough around Izzy that they became fairly good friends. It also resulted in me nearly getting my ears screamed off by Sharpay for almost letting her get embarrassed like that.
"Yeah," I told him, "I remember that week."
"So that proves my point" he said. "You have nothing to worry about."
"You're right" I said. "And it's not like he would ever really be interested in either one of us, right?"
"Right. Oh! There's the bell!" Izzy said. "I should get going or I'll be late for science, and you know how weird Mr. Allawayas is about tardies."
"Right. And Ms. Montana wouldn't be extremely happy with me if I was late for English" I said. So we both gathered our stuff and headed off to class, with me wishing that there was even a tiny chance that what I had just said about Troy wasn't true.
But I didn't quite get away before…
"Ryan!" I heard a girl call. Jessica Reynolds was running up to me at full speed, looking extremely excited.
"Hi Jessica" I said as she approached me.
"Hi!" she said. "Today was fun, wasn't it? I wonder what part I'll get."
"Well you better hope it's not Amber, or you might find Sharpay "accidentally" jamming her stiletto in the back of your head" I told her.
She laughed. "Oh you're funny Ryan!" She actually thought I was kidding. "So Ryan," she said, getting a little shy now, "Would you like to go to the mall with me after school today?"
"Did she just ask me out?" I thought. "Jessica," I started to tell her that I couldn't go, but then she cut me off.
"First of all, call me Jessie" she said. "Second it wouldn't be like a date or anything. I know that you're gay, and I get the feeling that you have somebody that you like. Izzy's invited too. You can let me know during drama next period."
Wait, she was in my drama class? I guess I needed to work on being a little bit more observant.
"I'll tell Izzy and I'll think about it." I said.
"Great!" she said. "Well, I'd better let you get to class. Toodles!"
"See you later" I said, and this time when I left, I actually made it to class.
After a painfully boring, period-long discussion about the last chapter we read in Alive, the class finally ended. I hurriedly found Izzy and told him about Jessie's invitation.
"It sounds like fun" he said.
So, just before class started, we told Jessie that we'd go with her. Now I just had to hope that Sharpay didn't kill me for hanging out with "the new girl in town".
End of Chapter 2
A/N: So there's chapter two. Let me know what you thought. I also want to go off topic for a second and say that two nights ago I went to 27 Dresses (because it takes a real man to go to a chick flick) and it was great. I also discovered in that movie that I really like James Marsden. Not only is he a good singer, he is also a really good actor and really good looking. Anyway, let me know what you thought of my story and please, please, PLEASE review.