Disclaimer: I own High School Musical… and chickens quack.
It had taken days of wasted hours and worrying, but it was finally free period on Friday, and a huge gathering of students sat in the auditorium, waiting for their chance to audition for the musical. They were a varied array of teenagers, and not just in looks. While some shifted nervously in their seats and glanced at their watches, others sat more confidently in their seats, waiting to wow the crowd and win the part. Finally the bell rang and the drama teacher walked up to the front of the room.
"Welcome to the temple of the arts," Ms. Darbus said, as she looked over the waiting students. "Singles auditions will be first, followed by the pairs," She said, motioning for the students auditioning by themselves to walk up toward the stage. Most of them were good, this was a school of many talents, but there were a few that could make your ears bleed.
After too-many tortuous minutes, it was Nicki's turn, and she walked calmly to the front of the stage next to the piano, certain she would succeed where the others had failed. She sang a few bars of song before finally getting into it. Though she wasn't the best singer, her voice was pretty good, and her performing talents made up for whatever she lacked in her voice.
When she was done, she bowed to the small, collective applause and turned left to swiftly walk offstage. She sat down in her seat, struggling to stay awake through the last few singles auditions before the pairs auditions finally began. She didn't really pay attention to the pairs auditions, preferring to read her magazine than watch the utter lack of talent that was being displayed here.
Finally, Ms. Darbus called Sharpay and Ryan to go on. Their performance crew wheeled their stereo onto the stage and handed them their microphones as they touched up with a bit more glitz and glam. They performed it much like they had performed it the other day, more fast-paced and less true to the song- except Ryan did take a bit of her advice, and ended up being next to Sharpay most of the time. Still, Sharpay did get her way of being the one who got more of the spotlight.
After they bowed to their tumultuous applause and got offstage, the returning lead couple, Troy and Gabriella, auditioned, singing the song the way it was written- sweet, slow and sappy. They finished their song just as the bell signaling the end of free period rang. As students slowly filtered out of the theater, Sharpay sauntered over to Nicki.
"So did you think we did better than Troy and Gabriella?" She asked, glaring at the latter while simultaneously drooling over the former, a feat which to this day no one has ever been able to duplicate.
"I guess," Nicki answered dully. She was tired of Sharpay's jealousy of Gabriella, so she bent down and pretended to tie her shoe, only to get up and subtly move closer to Ryan while Sharpay was busy with her impossible feat. Even if she usually detested him, Nicki would've rather talked to him than Sharpay right then.
"So you took my advice," Nicki whispered to him.
"Yeah, but she still forced me behind her," he whispered back, the both of them trailing after Sharpay unnoticed as they made their way to lunch, and she ranted all about how 'Troy should be going out with me, not that AWFUL Gabriella'.
"I know, but what did you expect? This Sharpay that we're dealing with, remember?"
"How could I forget, I live with her."
"Hello, are you two listening?" Sharpay interrupted, angry at the thought of being ignored.
"Of course we are, Sharpay," Ryan lied quickly, fearful of his sister's wrath. She eyed the both of them warily for a moment before she decided they were telling the truth.
"You better have, now come on, I don't want to be late for lunch," She said as she walked through the doors to the cafeteria.
HSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSM
"Sharpay! Here, I baked these for you," Zeke cried when Sharpay sat down, pushing a batch of cookies into her hand. There were many foods Sharpay could resist, but her weakness was Zeke's cookies. Ever since January, when she had first tried one, she had become addicted to them.
"Thank you," Sharpay said, ignoring Zeke's lovelorn sigh and accepting the cookies. Eyes sparkling, she tore open the bag they were in and pulled one out, breaking off a small piece and shoving into her mouth. "Mmmm," she mumbled through a mouthful of cookie, drifting off into space as she savored her cookie.
Nicki began to put her arm out to grab a cookie, knowing Sharpay wasn't gonna eat all of them, since she was watching her weight, and wouldn't mind if she took just one. Just in time, Ryan saw Nicki reach out to the cookies, and grabbed her wrist to pull her arm away.
"Hey! What was that for?" Nicki asked, annoyed at him. Ryan winced at her formidable glare, but kept his position in saving her life and didn't let go of her wrist.
"Sharpay would kill for those cookies, so if you want to keep your hand, I'd suggest you wouldn't get anywhere near one of those cookies," he warned, glancing at Sharpay, who was digging into the cookies with unrestrained excitement as Zeke watched on google-eyed.
"Chips Adork, you're not serious?" She asked in disbelief. She knew Sharpay was the type of girl who would kill for things, but baked goods were not one of them.
"Yeah, I am," he said seriously, then he rolled up the left sleeve of his shirt and pointed to a big bruise on it, a mottled black and blue and extremely painful-looking. "I got that from attempting to eat one the last time Zeke baked them."
"Wait…. She hit you!"
"Why does that make any difference?" Ryan asked, getting very annoyed at this girl who refused to listen to him.
Suddenly realizing what she had said, Nicki started blushing and stammered out "Well, it's you…. I mean she hits you all of the time, so that doesn't automatically mean she'd hit anyone else!" Ryan snorted and let go of her wrist. She deserves it he thought, slightly angry.
"Fine, take a cookie, see if I care." Ignoring his tone, Nicki went back to trying to take one, but when Sharpay saw her hand out of the corner of her eye, and gave her an I'll-kill-you-if-you-come-one-inch-closer glare- and she probably would've growled if she hadn't had a mouthful of cookies.
Nicki pulled her hand back toward her side.
"Told you so," Ryan smirked at Sharpay's fuming friend.
"Whatever Dorkula" Nicki said, a little annoyed at Ryan for being right.
"Wait, I've been demoted?"
"Excuse me?" Nicki asked, truly having no idea what he was talking about.
"I thought I was a count, but now I'm just Dorkula."
"Like it matters."
"To me it does, I feel like I have superiority over other dorks," Ryan joked, and Nicki just rolled her eyes, stifling giggles.
"If you want to be Count Dorkula, then you are."
"Thank you," he said, then starting when Nicki punched him playfully in the arm. "What was that for?"
"No reason."
"What do you mean, no reason?" he asked, his voice rising.
"Hold up, Count, you've got to appease the commoners or you'll be re-demoted." Ryan sighed.
"Is this how it's always going to be?"
"Of course- this is Nicki Fletcher you're dealing with, remember?"
Author's note: Ok this charpter is shorter than the last but I had fun writing it! R & R plz :)
