Chad was rudely awakened by a loud crashing noise. He immediately swore to hurt the maker of said noise once he registered the pain in his head. He sat up reluctantly and looked around. He was not in his house, but that was okay, he remembered that he was staying the night at Troy's. He couldn't remember how he had got into this particular room though. Actually, he couldn't remember much. Was there a game of Spin the Bottle? Or was it 7 Minutes in Heaven? No, he would've remembered that, he was sure of it. Sighing, he got out of the bed and left the room. He almost tripped over Zeke, who was asleep on the landing. He went into the bathroom and shut the door behind him as quietly as possible, partly for Zeke's sake, and partly for his head's. He splashed his face with cold water, then braced himself for looking in the mirror. What he saw was not what he was expecting. Sure, his face looked as wrecked as he'd thought it would; he had huge bags under his eyes, and someone had drawn glasses on him. But he was also covered in glitter, which had quite clearly come from the red sparkly leotard he was wearing. He was almost definitely sure that he had dressed as a basketball for the party. What the hell was this? He went back into the bedroom and considered his options. His costume was nowhere to be seen, so he couldn't put that back on. Sighing, he decided that he'd just have to wear the leotard and hope that everyone else had got drunk enough to forget that it wasn't his. If he was lucky he could just sneak out without seeing anyone. Of course, with his luck that didn't happen. As he made his way downstairs, he heard talking from the kitchen. He stopped, trying to see into the kitchen through the bannisters. It was Troy and Gabriella, eating cereal at the table as if they'd both had ten hours sleep and were about to go to school. He scowled. Sometimes they were so wholesome it made him feel ill. Maybe if he kept quiet, he could make it out the front door in the hall without disturbing them. Unfortunately, he was not aware of the creaky step at the bottom of the stairs, which let out an enormous groan when he placed his foot on it. Troy came out into the hall and almost did a double-take when he saw Chad.

'Er...morning,' Chad said.

'Hey…' Troy laughed. 'Look who's doing the walk of shame.'

Chad was suddenly seized by anxiety, but he didn't know why. 'What?' he managed to say.

'Oh sure, yeah,' Troy said. 'We had no idea. It's not like Taylor hasn't liked you for like, a whole year, or anything.'

'Taylor likes me?'

'Well yeah! I thought you would've figured that out after last night.' Troy lowered his voice, although Chad wasn't sure why, since Gabriella had almost certainly already heard the rest of their conversation. 'You don't have to pretend, Chad. I know Taylor was wearing that costume last night.'

Chad gaped. There was no way, was there? He didn't even like Taylor! And if she liked him, well, she had a funny way of showing it. But if this wasn't Taylor's costume, whose was it? And how did he end up wearing it?

'I, er...I don't remember much about yesterday,' he said.

'Taylor was really happy about last night,' said Gabriella as she entered the room. 'Do you want me to give you her number?'

'Um...you know, I think I'll do that. More personal, you know?' Chad smiled quickly, hoping that this would be enough for them to let him go.

'When you remember we need to talk about this, tell me details!'

'Troy, no!' Gabriella scolded. 'You...you don't tell him stuff about us, right?'

Chad took advantage of what appeared to be the beginning of an argument and snuck out of the front door. He passed Gabriella's mom, who was curled up asleep on the front lawn, hugging two empty wine bottles and his basketball to her chest. He extracted it from her hold. Chad couldn't wait to get home, where he'd be able to pretend nothing had happened between him and Taylor and he could finally take some aspirin for his head.

Ryan's day usually began with aerobics and a protein shake. Today, however, he woke up with his face pressed against the side of the bath. He opened his eyes slowly, and considered the bathroom ceiling. He had never seen it from this angle before, for obvious reasons. His mouth was dry and his head was spinning. He hauled himself over to the toilet to throw up. His body wasn't used to this kind of treatment, and it was punishing him for it now. He would have probably gone back to sleep on the floor if there hadn't been a persistent knocking at the door.

'Ryan, are you okay in there?' Juana called through the door. Ryan just moaned in response.

'I've got some aspirin for you.'

Ryan shook his head, too tired to get up and not even considering that Juana couldn't see him.

'Come on, I'll make you some breakfast. Something fried.'

'I don't eat-' he began to say, but then he thought better of it. What the hell. If he was going to eat fried food, it was going to be today. He forced himself to stand up and open the door.

'Well good morning,' Juana said.

'What are you making that face for?' asked Ryan. He was too hungover for her games today. He knew he looked bad, but surely nothing justified that kind of look.

'What happened to the costume I made you?'

'I'm wearing it,' Ryan said, rubbing his eyes.

'No you are not!' Juana replied. 'I wouldn't make this trash, what is it even supposed to be?'

Ryan looked down at what he was wearing. Whatever it was was large, squashy and bright orange. Perhaps it was a pumpkin? No, there were lines painted on it.

'I think it's a basketball,' he said. 'I guess it was round at some point.'

'Mind telling me why you're wearing it?' asked Juana, raising an eyebrow.

'I have no idea,' he said.

She shook her head at him. 'Put some proper clothes on and come downstairs,' she said. 'I'll make you some bacon.'

'You got so drunk last night,' said Sharpay as Ryan entered the kitchen. Ryan gave her a withering look. 'Do you even remember what happened?'

No he did not. The last thing he remembered was Troy standing on a table and shouting about how he was going to take off his pants, but his memory was patchy so he could have forgotten about things before that.

'And you remember everything then do you?' he sneered.

'Yes actually,' Sharpay laughed. 'And I'm not going to tell you about it!' She stalked off, snickering.

That sounded bad. Coupled with the different costume he had been wearing, it sounded like there was something he should know… No, it was probably just Sharpay trying to freak him out. Ryan sighed and started to pile bacon on his plate.