What We Keep Hidden
A High School Musical Fanfiction
by GimmeABeat
Chapter 4: Surprise Auditions
"Just something for you", Sharpay said as she handed Ms. Darbus a crudely decorated container painted in bright red and blue primary colors. Ms. Darbus accepted it with a frown on her face. Then, Sharpay leaned in closer to her and added, "Brandon made it."
A small 'O' appeared on her mouth and the frown changed to a small smile as she placed the container, lovingly, on her desk. Since starting at East High School two and a half years ago, Sharpay had become unusually close to Ms. Darbus and the drama teacher had taken a special interest in the Evans twins and, by extension, Brandon. Due to childcare constraints, Sharpay was forced on occasion to bring Brandon with her to rehearsals and Ms. Darbus had started to think of the charming little boy as a grandson.
The rest of the class trailed in and took their seats as the morning bell rang. Gabriella stood next to her desk in the back of the room and tried to catch Troy's eye. He acknowledged her look with a small smile and sat down in his seat just as Darbus addressed the class.
"I expect we all learned our homeroom manners yesterday, people, correct? If not, we have some dressing rooms that need painting." She stepped up on the raised platform in the front of the classroom. "Now, a few announcements... This morning during free period will be your chance for the musicale auditions, both single and pairs."
Sharpay smiled brightly at this and Troy glanced over at her, taken in by the sincere happiness in her smile. She even clapped her hands together quietly in anticipation as she looked excitedly at Ryan, her partner for the pairs audition.
"I will be in the theater until noon for those of you bold enough to extend the wingspan of your creative spirit."
Chad leaned quietly over Troy's shoulder and whispered, "When's she due back on the mother ship?"
Troy was confused for a second, thinking that Chad was referring to Sharpay, whom he had been watching intently, but he quickly realized to whom his friend was referring and he chuckled slightly at the bad joke.
"Now, today we're going to be discussing the importance of Shakespeare...."
Troy wasn't listening to Darbus; instead he was remembering back to that fateful summer.
"What are you doing?", Sharpay asked in shock as Troy pulled his lips slowly away from hers.
"I'm kissing you, of course."
His smile was as big as her eyes were wide. Chad had only been gone three days before Troy decided it was time to find out about these new feelings he was having for Sharpay.
"But why?"
"Because you're one of my best friends and you're a lot prettier than Chad." He drew in closer to her again and she backed away reflexively. He exhaled deeply. "You smell better, too."
That one made her smile and Sharpay relaxed a little.
"It's just ... well, we're changing, you know? Growing up, that is." She kept watching him with her large doe-like eyes. "You must have noticed." She blushed at this and dipped her head, but didn't respond otherwise. "And so... I thought maybe we could... you know, find stuff out together."
"Stuff?", she asked softly as she raised her head to meet his eyes.
He leaned in closer and their lips met again. This time she kissed him back.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Troy was thinking about what excuse he could come up with so he could watch Sharpay audition for the musicale. He shoved his books into the locker and slammed the door just as Chad walked up.
"What's up?" The frizzy headed guy lightly punched his friend in the shoulder and they started to walk together down the hall. "So, the whole team is hitting the gym during free period. What do you want us to run?"
"I can't make it. I gotta catch up on some homework." He kept nervously putting his hands into and out of his pockets and pushing his sleeves up and then, pulling them back down as they continued through the halls.
"What? Hello... it's only the second day back. I'm not even behind on homework yet. And I've been behind on homework since preschool."
Troy laughed loudly. "That's hilarious. I'll catch you later." With that, he quickly took off, leaving Chad standing alone in the middle of the hall.
"Homework? There's no way."
Chad took off after his friend to find out the truth, but Troy quickly lost him and after taking a convoluted tour of the school, finally arrived backstage at the school auditorium. He quickly hid behind a janitor's cart which he pushed along slowly, trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible.
He hid behind the curtains and peeked out into the auditorium to see Ms. Darbus breeze down to the front with the drama club, including Sharpay and Ryan, trailing behind her. She swept onto the stage and snapped her fingers to gain everyone's attention.
She raised her arms out to her sides to indicate the stage area and announced to her enthralled drama students, "This is where the true expression of the artist is realized." She continued, melodiously, "Where inner truth is revealed through the actor's journey..." Her solo performance was interrupted by the sound of a bell ringing. "Was that a cellphone?", she bellowed into the nearly empty auditorium.
A slight girl, standing to her right, leaned over and said, "No, ma'am. That was the warning bell."
"Ah." Then, she quickly resumed her speech. "Those wishing to audition must understand that time is of the essence. We have many roles to cast and final callbacks will be next week."
While Darbus delivered her information about auditions, Troy had managed to sneak his janitor's cart to the back row of the theater where he could watch, unobserved.
"First, you will sing a few bars and I will give you a sense of whether or not the theater is your calling." She paused and lowered her glasses to peer at the prospective actors. "Better to hear it from me than from your friends later." She turned to the diminutive girl with a flourish and said, "Our composer, Kelsi Nielson, will accompany you and be available for rehearsals prior to callbacks." With a sweep of her arms, Ms. Darbus announced in a booming voice, meant to resound all the way to the back row, "Shall we?"
What followed was an embarrassing and often painful parade of the East High's erstwhile thespians, from the curly-haired girl who became emotionally overwhelmed at her own poor singing to the performance artists whom Ms. Darbus recommended seek counseling.
Gabriella had been searching through the entire school for Troy. She had tried the gymnasium first, of course, but he wasn't with the rest of the team. She hadn't even considered looking in the auditorium until the sound of the piano drew her in. And there, to her surprise, was Troy Bolton hiding behind a custodian cart in the rear of the theater.
"Hey!", she exclaimed as she walked up behind him, causing him to jump in surprise. "So you decided to sign up for something?"
"Uh... no. You?"
"No."
"Um... why are you hiding behind a mop?"
What could he tell her? That he was stalking his ex-girlfriend, well, ex-best friend, really, and oh, yeah, she just happened to be the mother of his child. Sharpay went through enough during the last year of middle school. He didn't need to dredge up any of that again.
"Your friends don't know you're here, right?"
Well, that was true. "Right." His plunged his hands back in his pockets which was a true sign to anyone who knew him that he was being evasive.
The auditioning carnage continued up on the stage with Darbus interrupting and dismissing most of the students before they have a chance to finish.
"And for the lead roles of Minnie and Arnold we only have one couple signed up... Sharpay and Ryan, I think it might be useful for you to give us a sense of why we gather in this hallowed hall." She was obviously very proud of her two star dramatists. A high school drama teacher could wait a lifetime for students of the Evans twins' caliber.
Troy automatically ducked down behind the cart again and Gabriella followed his lead. Sharpay and Ryan rose and made their way to the stage while Troy and Gabriella slunk into two seats on the rear row to see better.
To Kelsi's surprise, the Evans' brought their own arrangement recorded on a CD which their assistants placed in the small stereo for them. After an odd warm-up routine, they were ready.
What followed was a peppy, campy, and upbeat version of Kelsi's song. And it was obvious from their performance that the twins were having fun with it and that they definitely had the talent to play at the audition. Gabriella looked worried and Troy looked captivated. This was the first time he'd ever watched Sharpay perform since she had re-invented herself after...
"Are there any last minute sign-ups?"
Gabriella and Troy sneaked out of the auditorium and into the hallway. Suddenly, he had the perfect way to get back into Sharpay's life. "Gabriella, would you audition with me?"
"What?", she asked with disbelief written all over her face. She wanted to get to know him, but to perform in front of all those people... "I-I don't think I could do that."
"It'll be great", Troy told her with great enthusiasm. "You're a fantastic singer. We could do this, Gabriella."
Well, she did want to get to know Troy. "Okay", she said quickly, before she could change her mind. "I'll do it."
They reentered via the performer's entrance which lead them into the backstage of the theater.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Back on the stage, students were so overwhelmed by Sharpay and Ryan's performance that they were feeling quite disheartened, so Ryan decided to cheer them up in his own special way.
"Don't be discouraged. The theater club needs more than singers. It needs fans too. Buy tickets."
Kelsi ran up to Sharpay with an anxious expression on her face. "Oh, actually... If you do the part with that particular song, I imagined it much slow..."
"If we do the part?", Sharpay cut her off. "Kelsi, my sawed-off Sondheim, I've been in many school productions. How many of your compositions have been selected?
"This would be the first."
"Which tells us what?"
"That I need to write more solos?"
"No. It tells us that you do not offer direction, suggestion or commentary. And you should be thankful that me and Ryan can lift your music out of its obscurity. Are we clear?" Sharpay snapped at the small girl so sharply that she physically shrank back and landed on a hard-back chair.
"Yes, ma'am. I mean, Sharpay."
Sharpay lifted the jewel-encrusted microphone to her lips and said, "Nice talking to you."
She flounced away without an ounce of guilt in her light step. For as diminutive and quiet as Kelsi seemed, Sharpay would never forgive her for what happened in eighth grade.
Nervously, Sharpay walked into the office of East Middle School with the sealed envelope in her hand, the envelope from her doctor with a note stating what physical limitations Sharpay was under due to her pregnancy. This would be forwarded on to the PE teacher. Because of her slight frame and the lucky popularity of baby doll tops, even though Sharpay was almost 20 weeks pregnant, it wasn't obvious to anyone who didn't already know. No one in the school knew about the pregnancy except for the principal, school counselor, school nurse and the PE instructor, and of course, her brother, Ryan, and ... well, Troy. She didn't like thinking about him anymore.
There were no adults in sight and Kelsi Nielson, a girl she'd seen in class, but rarely spoken with, was sitting at the front desk.
"Hi, I need to give this to the nurse." She nervously cleared her throat and added, "Mrs. McMurtry."
"They're all in a big meeting right now. I'm the only one here, but I'm the student aid", she said quickly. "I could probably help you."
"Well..." Sharpay was fingering the envelope, trying to decide what to do. "I'm late for class already", she said mostly to herself. "You promise to give it directly to Mrs. McMurtry?"
Kelsi nodded solemnly. "Oh, of course... absolutely."
Sharpay smiled slightly as she handed over the envelope and said thank you before quickly leaving the office. Kelsi held that plain, white envelope with Mrs. McMurtry's name clearly written in block print. She held it for a long time and wondered what could possibly be so important that would make the head cheerleader that nervous. And well... she'd never liked cheerleaders anyway. Kelsi picked up the letter opener. What would it hurt just to have a little peek. She quickly sliced open the envelope. There were plenty of blank ones around and she could easily copy that block lettering in Mrs. McMurtry's name when she replaced it. Her eyes grew wide when she saw what the letter said.
Two days later, the entire school knew that Sharpay Evans, Student Council Member, Chorus Member, Head Cheerleader, and honor roll student was pregnant.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
"Any last minute sign-ups?", Ms. Darbus called out one more time to the nearly empty auditorium.
"This is our chance", Troy whispered to Gabriella as he dragged her out with him from their hiding place.
"We'd like to audition, Miss Darbus", Troy called hesitantly.
"Yes?", she spun around and stared with surprise at the young basketball star. "Troy Bolton? Where is your sports posse? Or whatever it's called?"
"Team", he mumbled quietly.
"We take these shows very seriously here at East High, so if this is some sort of dare or a joke..."
"Oh no, ma'am. It's not. We want to audition."
Troy stepped forward and had to pull Gabriella along with him. Kelsi was standing at the piano, gathering up her materials and preparing to leave when she heard them.
"I-I can play for them, Ms. Darbus."
"Very well."
The drama teacher sat back down in her seat in the audience and told them to start. They sang the song beautifully together at Kelsi's much slower pace, rather than the upbeat tempo of Ryan and Sharpay's audition. Ms. Darbus watched with a stony expression on her face, not giving away anything during the entire performance.
"Bolton, Montez... you have a callback. Kelsi, give them the duet from the second act. Work on it with them." Darbus stood majestically from her seat and walked out of the theater without a second thought.
Kelsi excitedly rose and started looking through the sheet music for the correct song. "If you guys want to rehearse, I'm usually here during free period and after school. You can come and rehearse anytime." She handed them the music which they numbly accepted.
What have I got myself into?, Troy thought as a worried look settled on his face.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
"We're home!", Sharpay called into the empty house as she and Brandon entered through the side door which led directly into the kitchen. The house was empty as usual. Ryan was at his tap class and her parents were ... Lord knows where. For all she knew, they could be out of the country. In fact, Sharpay had discovered the best way to find out their schedule was to call her father's secretary and ask her. She could smell the fragrant aroma of a casserole that she knew would be awaiting them in the warming drawer beside the oven. Maria always remembered them, even if her parents didn't.
Brandon ran quickly into the room, obviously searching for something, his little Wiggles backpack jangling up and down with his quick steps. He ran directly over to the small crate in the corner of the kitchen and fell down on his knees to open it up. A small ball of fluff shot out and leaped into his lap, licking all over his face.
Sharpay had to smile at a sight which was both cute and repulsive at the same time.
"Brandon, baby, don't let Boi lick your teeth. That's disgusting. Keep your mouth closed."
By this time, Brandon had fallen onto his back and the tiny Yorkshire terrier was standing on the little boy's chest while continuing to lathe love upon him in the only way a dog could, by drowning him in saliva. Brandon had gotten an extreme case of the giggles because not only was the dog's attention extremely funny to him, but Boi was also managing to tickle the boy's ribs with all four of his little feet.
"Okay, okay... but we really should take him out. Who knows how long the poor thing's been locked up?"
Sharpay helped her son up and they escorted Boi out into the backyard where he quickly took care of his business. Then, she sat back in one of many Adirondack chairs which littered the yard and watched as Brandon and Boi amused each other, chasing back and forth across the large manicured lawn. She never ceased to be amazed at how perfect he was --- from his strong little legs, which never seemed to lose their summer tan to the top of his sandy colored hair, which always seemed to look shaggy no matter what she did. He looked at her at that moment and smiled, his bright blue eyes twinkling in the afternoon light. Troy's eyes, she reminded herself. Troy's unruly hair ... Troy's smile. Brandon was like a little Troy clone, but she couldn't bring herself to blame him for that. After all, you could say many things about Troy Bolton, but ugly was not one of them.
The summer of 2004... She and Troy spent nearly every waking moment together, but since they had been playing together since they were small children, no one took any notice. Their experimental kissing at the beginning of the summer had quickly escalated from gentle touching to sexual fondling in a matter of weeks. At the 4th of July celebration, while their families were watching the neighborhood fireworks, Troy and Sharpay were discovering fireworks of their own. That was the first time they performed oral sex on each other.
By the beginning of the last month of summer vacation, they thought they were ready for full blown sexual intercourse.
They met like they did every morning at Troy's house. His dad was at a coach's conference that week and his mom was at work so they were all alone as usual. Where as their previous fumblings had taken place in the tree house, Troy thought that was tacky for their 'first time', so they went to his room. He'd actually gone to the trouble of cleaning it that morning --- well, he stuffed all his dirty clothes in the closet, at least. After a few tentative kisses, they slowly undressed each other and Troy guided her back to lie on the bed.
She was so scared, she couldn't look at him. "W-what about protection?"
"Condoms?" She nodded. "I-I don't have any, but don't worry. I'll ... uh ... pull out before ... you know..." She nodded again.
"'Kay." It was barely above a whisper.
He kissed her again and settled on top; her legs parted automatically when his weight pressed down on her.
Troy shifted a little in preparation.
Sharpay was visibly shaking and had her eyes squeezed tightly shut.
"Shar...", he whispered into the neck. "You're shaking. We don't have to..."
"No", she cut him off. "I-I want to... I really do." She opened her eyes to look at him and nodded encouragingly.
They took the final step.
"Wow...", Troy exhaled as he flopped down on the small twin bed beside her. He glanced over and noticed she hadn't moved. "It ... uh ... was over pretty fast. Sorry... you didn't ... uh ... finish."
"It's okay", she said quickly. Sharpay was staring up at the ceiling, marveling at the constellations so meticulously painted there. Someone, probably Mrs. Bolton, had spent a lot time getting them just right.
"Hey, I didn't hurt you, did I?" Troy propped himself up on one elbow to study her face.
"No." She was quick to assure him. "It was ... different ... is all, but it didn't hurt."
He looked down at her stomach and chest and crinkled his nose. "Umm... sorry about the ... mess." Grabbing a handful of tissues from the box on his nightstand, he started wiping up the pungent, milky substance. Troy looked up when he noticed that she had moved her hand up to her face. She was wiping away a tear and he swallowed hard at the sight.
"Oh, Shar... I'm so sorry. I did hurt you, didn't I?"
To his surprise, she started laughing.
This was just what she needed to break the awkwardness of the situation.
"No, silly. That wasn't a tear. You've ... uh ... got quite a range."
"Ohhhh! God, that's really gross."
"Yeah, it is. I think there's some in my hair too."
"Sharpaaaay?"
She came out of her daydream to find Ryan waving his hand in front of her face, obviously, not for the first time.
"Oh, sorry. When did you get home?"
"Just a few minutes ago. Boy, that must have been a good memory. You had the biggest smile on your face."
A scowl instantly replaced any hint of a residual smile and she stood up quickly, smoothing out her already perfect hair. "I wasn't smiling", she snapped. "And I don't have any good memories about Troy Bolton." Sharpay spun around and marched by him into the house. Calling over her shoulder, "Stay here with Brandon for a few more minutes. I'll fix snack."
Ryan stood there watching her retreating back before puzzling to himself, "I never said anything about Troy Bolton."
TBC
Author Notes:
I'll apologize now for any delays in future updates. This is the first time I've tried to stick so closely to any of the original movies' plotlines. And it's hard to work my plot into that structure. For example, the 'my sawed-off little Sondheim' scene is word-for-word straight from the movie. Yes, Sharpay was being a bitch, so I had to include that flashback to explain why she was being such a bitch. I actually think that worked out well. And in the last chapter, in the scene where Taylor and Gabby are comparing nail beds... the only point to that one was when Taylor said that she didn't really know Troy since she didn't come from the same middle school as him. That was to show that most people don't know or if they know, they don't care that he's the daddy. Remember, boys are dogs and the girl bears all the responsible in a relationship (done with my preaching).
Oh, and I really do think Troy has this nervous twitch with his hands. He puts his hands into and out of his pockets when he's lying --- just watch the movie and you'll see.
And finally, a special shout-out to Bl1SSFuln3ss, who hit the proverbial nail on the head when she made this comment about Gabriella, "she may not admit it and she's a geek on the outside, but she's a cheerleader on the inside."
You said it, sister.