Since baseball season had only ended about two weeks ago, no one had been all that interested in making it one of the daily pick up games until today. All the requisite text messages had gone out yesterday and the guys had all been confident they had gotten two teams together. Baseball games were always the hardest, logistically, to plan for so Chad had gone into near hysterics when he realized both teams were without a pitcher.

After 10 minutes of questioning the student populace menacingly (Chad took these games very seriously) it was discovered that neither Ryan nor Rich had been in school that day.

Chad called Rich first and delivered a line of questioning that probably would have gotten him hired by the Spanish Inquisition. It was determined that Rich was legitimately ill with some kind of flu thing that actually had him vomiting mid phone call.

Ryan on the other hand, was proving a bit more difficult to reach. Chad got no answer when he called his cell. It just went directly to voicemail, indicating it probably wasn't even on. Almost immediately after Chad pressed the "end" button on his cell phone, a doomsday-like revelation swept through the assembled crowd.

Someone would have to call Sharpay.

About 7 people shouted 'not me!" at once, and then after five minutes of squabbling it was finally decided that Troy would have to be the one to do the calling. After all, while no one could expect her to be particularly nice, especially if the person was only calling to ask about the location of her brother, at least Troy had the best chance of getting a response because Sharpay was well known to find Troy really, incredibly sexy.

At that moment, Troy cursed his good looks (but of course he could not argue with their unquestionable existance) and reluctantly began scrolling through his (newly re-emasculated) phone for her number. He considered faking the phone call, and then insisting no one was picking up, but he was actually looking forward to today's game, and it wouldn't be the same without Ryan. It was always way more exciting to get a hit off of Ryan, who could actually throw above 80 MPH (though, he had the feeling Ryan only ever did when Troy was at bat) as well as four different pitches.

It all became a moot point, however, when Sharpay's phone went on ringing for the seventh time. He was just about to hang up and suggest maybe they switch to soccer for today when he heard a click on the other end.

"Troy? Why are you calling?" Troy had expected the words, but not the tone. Instead of sounding frustrated at Troy's intrusion on her day of shopping and getting massages, or whatever the hell it was that Sharpay did in her free time, she sounded genuinely confused. Troy also thought she sounded like she was upset about something and immediately Troy felt the need to apologize, but for what he had no idea.

"Umm, hi, Sharpay." He began, not sure how to deal with her unexpected demeanor. "Sorry to be calling or whatever, but we were just wondering where Ryan was." Sharpay was silent on the other end and he then realized he was being kind of rude by not giving her any context for the phone call, as she probably hadn't even known Ryan was supposed to have met them at the baseball field.

"Uh, yeah, sorry. What I mean is he was supposed to meet us after school to play baseball, but he didn't show. Some people said he wasn't in school today, so I just wanted to know what was up." Troy laughed awkwardly, trying to be light in the face of Sharpay's totally uncharacteristic solemnity.

"Oh. Troy. Um-" And then she broke off, and Troy was horrified to realize that he had Sharpay Evans on the phone and she was crying hysterically. He had no idea what to do, except for one voice of reason way in the back of his mind shouting at him frantically the following advice: Yes, Troy, girls this upset are a truly scary thing, but DON'T HANG UP. I know you want to, but that is the cheapest way of getting a one-way ticket on the Douchebag Express. DO NOT HANG UP.

So Troy did not hang up. And after a few more seconds of collecting himself he managed to reign in his alarm enough to realize he should really try to find out what was wrong.

"Uh, Sharpay?" No verbal response. Still lots of crying. "Sharpay! Sharpay, are you alright?" He was actually really freaked out at this point, as he could not imagine anything that would make Sharpay this upset or, really, this willing to act so vulnerable in front of another person.

"What's wrong?" He had to repeat this question several times before he could get Sharpay to respond, and even then her answer came out broken and stilted between sobs.

"Troy…oh, God…Troy, Ryan is – he's missing!"

Troy inhaled sharply. He was hardly able to believe what he had just heard, but he didn't have the heart to force Sharpay to explain. Before he could respond at all, she apologized among even more tears saying she had to go and without another word the line went dead.

Troy returned to the group, where most of them were wearing expressions that showed a mixture of curiosity and impatience. Chad's eyebrows were raised expectantly. Troy had no idea where to even begin, but figuring there was no way to do something like this tactfully, so he figured he might as well just get on with it.

"Well, I'm not too sure what exactly is going on, but Sharpay was crying hysterically and she said that Ryan was missing."

Troy could see that the words were taking their time to process in the minds of his friends. It was just nearly impossible to imagine that something like this could happen to one of their own. Eventually, Chad let the basketball he had tucked under his left arm drop and he went slack jawed.

Immediately, everyone had a million questions that Troy was in no way able to answer. He did however try his best to convince everyone that running straight over to the Evan's to find out was probably a very bad idea, as it was probably hectic already.

"We have to do something, though. We absolutely need to respect their privacy, but they definitely still need everyone's support." That was Gabriella.

Right then she stood up on the bench she had been sitting on and immediately everyone stopped talking frantically among themselves and gave her their attention. Within 15 minutes she had a group of four or five kids assigned to get the notes and homework for all of Sharpay's classes and she had conducted a rapid-fire discussion with Zeke regarding what kinds of food they could prepare for the family, with specific attention to what cookies Shapay like best (which, thankfully, Zeke was well versed in). She even got various people on their cell phones trying to get in contact with Sharpay's friends from drama club to make sure they knew what was going on and asking if they needed rides so they could get over to the house for moral support. For the first time since they broke up, Troy felt something like regret. Gabi had a heart of fucking twenty-eight karat gold, but she also got shit done like it was no one's business. Whether it was homework or making sure her boyfriend always had his favorite brownies waiting for him after a grueling practice, she did it and she did it with one of the most beautiful smiles in the world. Troy then realized it was probably a little selfish to want someone to be your girlfriend so they could make you brownies, so he just made a mental note that he must absolutely remain friends with her forever.

Eventually the group decided (well, they didn't really decide anything – Gabi told them and they agreed) that at least a few people should head over to the Evans house. Without much commotion, it was unanimously agreed upon that Chad, Gabriella and Zeke would go over. Chad and Gabi because they were the closest to Ryan, and Zeke because he was the closest to Sharpay. However, none of them had their own cars so in the end it was decided that Troy would drive them, as he knew Mrs. and Mr. Evans fairly well from their summer at Lava Springs, as well as having spent significant amounts of time with Mr. Evans after having been accepted at U of A.

Troy was extremely nervous the whole drive over. He could hardly imagine the charming and well-dressed Mrs. Evans going through such a tragedy. She was always smiling and greeting people with kisses on both cheeks and she was always praising Ryan for one thing another and generally just bombarding him with love, and Troy just couldn't fathom someone as glamorous as all that going through something so terrible. And attempting to imagine it was unpleasant enough -- he was not at all looking forward to seeing it first hand.

Gabi had talked endlessly the whole way over, obviously not trusting three boys to have any emotional tact, whatsoever. She had planned for the worst, that being the presence of police officers and the house being taped off, but that must have already happened because there were no police cars. Troy had actually been hoping they would be turned away in the name of not "contaminating a crime scene" or something like that, but when he realized he was going to luck out in that department he changed gears and began hoping the Evans weren't home at all.

Troy took his time parking his truck and when he couldn't maneuver his pick-up even an inch closer to the curb he gave up on stalling and shut off the engine. No one moved to leave.

"Are we sure this is okay?"

Even Gabi looked hesitant at the question Chad had just posed.

"Well, we aren't here to pry for information. Just to offer our support in anyway possible." Confidence bolstered, Gabi opened the door and started making her way up the impossibly long driveway. Slowly, each of them followed her.

Sharpay was the one who answered the door, and immediately Troy wished he could get away. It was Sharpay like he had never seen her before. No make up, hair in a ponytail, and most surprisingly, wearing glasses. Seeing Sharpay so dressed down was a shock, but what really made Troy's throat close up was that she was dressed head to toe in Ryan's clothes. A baseball t-shirt Troy had seen him wear at a game or two and lime green leggings Troy had seen Ryan wearing many times at play practice. It was one thing to see Sharpay so lax in her appearance in a time of stress, but to have her openly displaying such an attachment to another person, even if it was her twin brother, made him really realize that Ryan was gone, and it mostly definitely wasn't some elaborate joke.

"Oh, hi." Sharpay was entirely reserved in her greeting. "I'm sorry if I upset you on the phone, Troy, you didn't have to come." The sincerity in her words kind of gutted him.

Gabi then took over and Troy was immensely grateful. She hugged Sharpay, and she actually hugged Gabriella back.

"You don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to, Sharpay, we just wanted to make sure you were all right," Gabi said as she released Sharpay, and then Zeke took his turn. He hugged her as well, for a little longer than Gabi did and he didn't say anything, just held her tightly and rubbed her back.

Sharpay then started to cry, which brought her mother to the door. Troy was surprised to see she looked exactly the same as the last time he saw her, save for slightly puffy eyes and, instead of her normally conservative attire, she too appeared to be wearing a sweater of Ryan's with a pair of jeans.

Mrs. Evans immediately conjured a welcoming smile on her face, and though it was tinged with sadness, it made Troy feel really good about having come to visit. He always liked her and he felt a lot better knowing that she wasn't as wrecked as he had feared. It made Troy feel, and he is also pretty sure everyone else as well, that maybe all wasn't lost. That somehow this situation could be fixed.

"It's so thoughtful for you all to have come by." She hugged each one of them in turn, and then took her daughter by the hand and invited them all into the family room. They passed Mr. Evan's study, and Troy can see him looking sterner than ever before while speaking to someone solemnly on the phone.

Once they were all seated, Mrs. Evans immediately began telling all the facts.

"What the police think happened is that Ryan came home from school yesterday and the house was empty. I was out shopping because he had just gotten accepted to NYU and I wanted to make a special dinner and also get him a few presents." This detail was particularly painful to digest. It was hard to think of what should have been such a happy evening turning out to be so distressing. "They know he was at home for at least a few hours because there had been some mail for him on the table that was opened, and some food, and they found his fingerprints on the flatware. From there they are pretty sure he went into the rec-room to play video games. There weren't any signs of a struggle, nor was there a ransom note. Normally that would have led the police to suspect he had simply run away." At this, Mrs. Evans looked truly heart broken and Troy could understand why. He could never imagine Ryan wanting to leave a family that loved him so much, and just the possibility that Ryan could have felt the need to was painful for her.

"The police are hesitant to pursue that, though. After interviewing everyone in the family, as well as the staff here, they find it to be incredibly unlikely. Also, as far as anyway one can tell, nothing is missing from his room." Then she smiled to herself. "Well, it's not as if we'd actually know if any clothes were missing, the boy has enough clothes to dress a nation."

It wasn't really the time for jokes, but it felt good to remember something that was so fundamentally Ryan, so everyone laughed anyway.

"Anyway, the police expect we will receive a ransom any day now. We are actually hoping for it. It seems absurd, but it would really be the easiest solution to this whole mess." They all agreed. Money wasn't an issue for the Evans family, and at least if Ryan had been kidnapped for money, there was a good chance he wouldn't be hurt.

Mrs. Evans allowed them to ask questions for a while, and they, of course, had been absolutely unwavering in their insistence that they would do anything they could to help.

Mrs. Evans was always gracious and thanked them, but assured them the police would handle it. Around the thirty-seventh time, however, a light bulb seemed to go off.

"You know, the police did suggest we ask a few of Ryan's friends to take a look at his room. They thought you might notice something we hadn't."

Both Gabi and Chad immediately started discussing everything they could remember about Ryan's bedroom and before long all four of them were following Mrs. Evans upstairs.

x x x

Ryan had been kidnapped by total morons.

He had woken up about 10 minutes ago, and while he had a huge headache, he was at least able to remain conscious. He was just about to start demanding some answers and, more importantly, some aspirin, when he realized that he could hear his kidnappers conversing one room over.

"What do you mean you THINK you forgot to leave the ransom note?"

"Well, I mean, I just can't recall leaving it anywhere. But it's not in the bag we took. So it must be there, right?"

This was how Ryan came to realize he had actually been kidnapped. Up to this point it had been assumption, but he was somewhat relieved to know that chances were now good he wasn't going to be dismembered. He'd be hardly worth the money without any of his limbs.

With the question of his safety answered well enough to allow him to focus on other things more clearly, he could now thoroughly marvel at the stupidity of his capturers.

"Yes, but it's not going to do us much good if you didn't place it anywhere they would find it. Or anywhere they will find it soon."

Then a new voice cut in. "Yeah, man. We only have a week. My parents get back from Paris next Wednesday."

Ryan balked. He had, apparently, been kidnapped by someone who still lived with his parents. While that spoke volumes about the motivations of at least one of his kidnappers, it also seriously made him want to giggle. Which was not good as he was finding this whole eavesdropping business rather informative (as well as surprisingly entertaining) and he wanted neither the information-gathering nor the amusement to stop.

Sadly, he failed. The longer he tried not to laugh, the more hilarious his kidnappers seemed and in the end he found himself foregoing giggling all together and merely laughing so hard he had actually cried a little bit.

That, of course, was a huge mistake as within seconds there were three enormous people surrounding him, all of them looking like they couldn't imagine anything better than punching him right in the face.

"Uhh…hello."

At this point one of them had begun slapping a clenched fist against his open palm and Ryan couldn't decide if he was more afraid or if he wanted to laugh again. When they still didn't say anything to him and just started moving closer, fear won out and Ryan shut his eyes tightly and braced himself for the worst.

He heard one of them snap their fingers.

"Oh, hey! I just remembered where I left that stupid ransom note."

Ryan opened his eyes. The focus was off of him and now on the man who had just spoken.

"So where is it?"

"Well, I remember after we got the kid all sedated and everything you told me to just give the house a once over to make sure nothing looked overly disturbed, you know, and make sure no one was home. Well, I went into the room the kid had come out of and he had been playing guitar hero, I guess, 'cause the game was on and I remember I really wanted to play because it was Legends of Rock and that one's my favorite. So, I went in my bag to get my gloves back out, 'cause, you know, fingerprints and everything, and I also took out the note. And then I was just gonna play one game, but then you were like 'Todd, come on, let's go' and I was bummed and I forgot the note."

Now the two others were directing their "I'm gonna punch your lights out" expressions solely at Todd and Ryan would have been relieved he was no longer the object of their wrath, but he was way too busy laughing hysterically.

x x x

The search of Ryan's room hadn't turned up anything. No one was able to decide if anything was missing, and none of his belongings were noticeably out of order.

Since the police had felt Ryan had spent at least a few minutes of his afternoon in the rec room, Mrs. Evans suggested that they look there as well.

They followed her into the room, and Troy immediately tried to get out of the way, just as he had when they were in the Ryan's bedroom. He was the least familiar with the house, having only been there in large groups, which never lent itself to close inspection of the surroundings.

However, in his attempt to clear the way for the others he tripped over a plastic guitar that had been carelessly tossed near the entrance. Luckily, he was able to brace himself on the couch before he truly embarrassed himself by falling flat on his face. The same could not be said for his school bag, however, which he had been hauling around on one arm, thus, it had spilled over when he had lost his balance.

He quickly cleaned up and went back to trying to be invisible in the corner while everyone else circled the room six or seven times trying to pick out things that were amiss. He was disappointed when all three of them decided they couldn't think of a single thing, but privately relieved they could finally leave.

x x x

Troy didn't really want to go to the basketball game at U of A that Friday. The whole experience was specifically tainted by the fact that Mr. Evans had been a huge part of them being able to integrate themselves so fully into the team.

Chad had been near comatose since they had gotten back from the Evan's house yesterday, but he did ask Troy if he would pick him up at the usual time, and though Troy was surprised that Chad still wanted to go, he definitely didn't want to upset his buddy even more than he had been in the past 48 hours.

"Yeah, sure, I don't know if I'm in the party mood, though. I think I'll leave right after the game, do you think you can get a ride home."

"Nah, I'll go home with you. Definitely not in the mood for a party, either. I just wouldn't want to insult Mr. E, by being a no show, you know? He went through all that trouble of making sure I got that scholarship, I want to make sure he knows I 'm taking it seriously."

It was true, the grades of one of the senior's on the team had dropped so severely that he no longer qualified for his scholarship and Mr. Evans had immediately begun championing Chad as a worthy recipient. Both Troy and Mr. Evans knew perfectly well Chad could have gotten it with out the help, or if not that one, then another, but Chad had been sincerely grateful for additional security and he was nothing but dutiful in showing that gratitude.

In the end the team lost, so even though it was college and there was going to be a party anyway, Troy and Chad knew they weren't going to be missing out on anything and they were both back home considerably earlier than their 1am curfews.

x x x

Troy hadn't done his homework in days. No one had, really, at least no one who had been friends with Ryan. It had seemed kind of silly to do derivations when one of their classmates had gone missing and no one even knew why.

The teachers were understanding, but they had suggested, as politely as possible, that everyone try to catch up over the weekend. So, at around 10pm on Saturday evening, when on any other weekend he would have been out with his friends enjoying their last few months together, he pulled out a few folders and opened his math text book.

He only got through one problem, however, because as he was digging around for a sheet of formulas he needed for problem number two he came across a sheet of paper that clearly did not belong with his math papers. It was a piece of computer paper and it had on it only a very short, typed letter.

It began:

WE HAVE YOUR SON.

Author's Notes: Once again I'd love to know what you think! I am having a lot of fun writing this, so I hope people enjoy it. I know this part had some serious bits, but I tried to make up for that...I'd love to hear what you are liking/disliking as it makes writing the next chapters so much easier. As for next time...

What does the rest of the note say? Will Troy go to the police? WILL SHARPAY EVANS EVER BE HER AWESOMELY MEAN SELF EVER AGAIN?!

(As for that last one, I sure as hell hope so)