Chapter Twenty-Nine – Musically Challenged
(Sharpay)

Sharpay sat down in music class on the far stage right of the soprano section. She was happy to see that her good-for-nothing brother who arrived thirty seconds later had enough sense to sit in the far stage left of the tenor section.

Ms. Darbus walked into the classroom. She shook her head, most likely at the sight of Sharpay and Ryan sitting so far apart. Sharpay looked at Ryan. He was determinedly looking away from her. Although Sharpay had felt bad about driving her brother out of the house the night before, she had gotten over that, and was now thoroughly done with him.

As Ms. Darbus conducted the warm-ups. Sharpay wondered what they would do today. Ms. Darbus told them all to take out the music they had been given on Wednesday. She had taken Kelsi's original work and split it into three parts instead of two. A girl's part, a boy's part, and a second harmony. Sharpay smiled to herself to see her old parts. She would, of course, be singing the melody. Singing harmony was way more trouble than it was worth. That was her partner's role. Sharpay was quite content with melody. Ms. Darbus was not a great accompanist, Sharpay knew that. Ms. Darbus rolled old tapes of Kelsi playing the piano. Sharpay looked at her music and grinned to see that some of the works were not Kelsi's but from great Broadway musicals, like Grease, Hairspray, Wicked, and Rent.

As they all began to sing, Sharpay noticed Ryan singing with the same enthusiasm he usually put into it. Sharpay thought this odd. If Ryan hadn't been singing because she made him, why had he been singing all those years? She made a mental note to ask him, but then remembered that they weren't speaking. She shoved her music into backpack. She didn't need it. She knew all Kelsi's songs by heart, and she had starred as Sandy in Grease, Amber in Hairspray, G(a)linda in Wicked, and Maureen in Rent.

Sharpay took out a small notebook she usually used for Ryan's notes to compose a list of the songs she could sing for her audition. She crumpled the page where she had written songs for herself and Ryan to sing and begin to think, all the while singing. Her final list had no songs on it. She hadn't come up with a single one. She was wracking her brains for any possible songs, and came upon What is This Feeling from Wicked, but as this was sung as a duet, she couldn't see who she could sing it with. Sharpay was definitely musically challenged without a partner.

Chapter Thirty – Zac Efron?
(Ryan)

Ryan got up from music class when the bell rang and headed down the hall to French, silently dreading what was to come next. He sat down next to Kelsi upon arriving.

When the teacher announced that they would be working in pairs again, Ryan was relieved he hadn't taken a seat on Sharpay's side of the room. He and Kelsi took turns asking each other questions in French, and responding in French as well. When the exercise was over, they were told to open their textbooks, because they would be learning a new tense, the Imparfait.

As Ryan conjugated verbs, he couldn't help but wonder why Sharpay looked so happy. She was grinning at him from across the classroom. Ryan scowled and returned his eyes to his paper.

When at last French was finished, Ryan caught up with Gabriella down the hall and walked with her to Physics. They took the same test that Kelsi, Troy and the rest had taken and told them about, and then set to work learning vectors.

"Gabriella, Sharpay is really happy about something, and it's scaring me a little," Ryan said, as Gabriella rummaged for her calculator. She pulled it out of her bag.

"Sharpay's always up to something, you should know that," Gabriella said. Ryan looked at her. It was the first time he had looked directly at her since the day before, and Ryan realized something was missing. He couldn't figure out what it was. Then he realized.

"Where's the necklace?" Ryan said. Gabriella looked down at where it should have been.

"I took it off, because the clasp was getting old, and I didn't want to lose it. Do you know how to do vectors?" said Gabriella. Ryan raised his eyebrows at her, and they both started laughing. "Right, I forgot. So we place them end to end, and we do some 'high-end calculus' and we get the answer as 5." Ryan looked at her paper and back at his, at the textbook and at her.

"What?" he said.

"It's just the Pythagorean Theorem. You know, the square root of the sum of the squares of the two legs of the triangle equals the hypotenuse," explained Gabriella.

"Right. I believe you," said Ryan. He took a protractor from the table. "And it's at 45 degrees east of north, right?" Gabriella nodded. At least he knew some things. "So, did Troy say anything to you about the b-ball tryouts? I'm really nervous." Gabriella shook her head as she started the next problem.

"I'm sure you'll do great, Ryan," she said. Ryan saw her frown. She pushed some more buttons on her calculator. "Vector calculator," she explained. Gabriella obviously had a TI-89 titanium. Ryan looked down at his TI-83 Plus. His parents would have bought him anything he wanted, but he liked his old calculator. He had downloaded SuperMario onto it. He never played during class, though. Well, sometimes during French.

Gabriella and Ryan slowly made their way through several more problems and when the bell rang, they packed up their stuff and returned to homeroom. They sat down in their seats. Ryan was determined to ignore Sharpay until he just couldn't anymore.

"What?" he said to her. She had been poking him and saying his name.

"Ryan, would you sing a song with me at auditions?" Sharpay asked.

"No, Shar, I'm not talking to you, remember?" said Ryan.

"But I thought we could sing What Is This Feeling," said Sharpay.

"No, I said. Now drop it," said Ryan. He turned back to Gabriella and Troy, who had just sat down. "So, now that the topic has been brought up, what are you two singing at auditions?"

"Well, since you mention it, I was going to sing Ladies' Choice, from Hairspray," said Troy. Ryan stared.

"That is unbelievable. That is the same song I was going to sing," said Ryan. "But you can have it. Has anyone ever told you that you look kind of like Zac Efron?"

"I get that all the time, actually," said Troy, laughing.

Chapter Thirty-One – Tryouts
(Troy)

When the bell signaling the end of school rang, Troy took Ryan to the locker rooms to change into something suitable for tryouts. Ryan came out from changing in some shorts and a shirt. Troy looked at him. The look needed work, but the tryouts were more important. He showed Ryan into the gym, and gathered his team.

"Okay, guys, it looks like we've got the entire JV team trying out. Remember, you guys have to play your best, too, all right?" said Troy to his team. They all nodded. "Okay, Wildcats on three. 1, 2, 3, Wildcats!" and he broke the huddle. He lined up the JV team, Ryan, and the freshmen, and gave them all the rundown of how it was going to work.

An hour later, Troy had made his final decision. He held his clipboard and walked down the reassembled line of boys. "After much consideration between the team, Coach Bolton, and myself, I have reached my conclusion. Replacing Austin Anderson as starting Guard will be…Ryan Evans," Troy said. The JV team all looked disappointed. The freshmen looked very disappointed as well. Ryan stepped forward from the line. He looked at Troy. "Hey. I didn't pick you because you're my friend. I picked you because you're the best one there is. So, will you do it?"

"Yeah, I'll do it," Ryan agreed. Ryan and Troy high-fived, and Troy's dad brought out a uniform and a practice jersey. The number on them was 3.

"These should fit you," he said. "Stick around after practice and we'll put your name on them." Ryan took it. Troy dismissed the rejected ball players and called his team up.

"Great guys. Really great. We'll just introduce Ryan to the team, throw some lay-ups and call it a night, okay?" said Troy. His team had already been playing for an hour, after all.

When practice was all over, and the boys had all showered and changed back into their jeans, Troy helped Ryan put "Evans" on the back of his jerseys. When they were finished, Ryan hung up the uniform in his new locker. Troy and Ryan left the locker room, and almost ran into Gabriella waiting in the hall with Taylor and Chad, who had evidently told her. She ran up to Ryan and gave him a hug. "Congratulations!" she said. They broke apart, and the five began to walk back down the hall. When they got to door, they realized that it was still raining.

"Hey, Ryan, we were all going to go for pizza, you want to come?" asked Taylor. Ryan looked reluctant.

"Come on, Ryan, it'll be fun," said Gabriella.

"Okay, I guess I don't have anything better to do besides sit around Troy's house by myself," said Ryan, sighing. He looked at Gabriella, and they both laughed. Troy searched around his pockets for his keys, and then he remembered that they had taken Ryan's car to school. There had been no point in taking separate cars, it just wasted gas. Troy flipped up the hood of his sweatshirt, and went with Gabriella and Ryan to the car. Chad and Taylor promised to meet them at the Pizza Place.

During the drive, Ryan recounted most of the tryouts to Gabriella, and Troy found an umbrella in the glove compartment. As Ryan parked the car, Troy turned to look at Gabriella in the back seat. She smiled at him, and he smiled back, and together they walked into the Pizza Place. Somehow, Chad and Taylor had beaten them there. They were sitting in their usual booth, which a chair had been added to.

"How on earth did you guys beat us here?" asked Troy, sliding into the booth. Gabriella sat next to him, and Ryan took the chair.

"We didn't walk?" said Chad. He looked at Taylor and they both laughed. Troy rolled his eyes. They ordered their pizza and drinks from the waiter, and the topic was changed.

"So, what happens to the involvement fair if it's still raining?" asked Gabriella.

"I don't know. We have it in the gym, I guess. It's never rained before," said Taylor. Troy and Chad looked at her.

"It's never rained before?" asked Chad.

"You know what I mean, oh, never mind," said Taylor. Chad, Troy, and Ryan laughed. Troy looked at Ryan. He really was a good guy.

Chapter Thirty-Two – Sing. Sing a Song.
(Gabriella)

Gabriella ate her vegetable pizza as she listened to the boys talk about their basketball team. When finally one of them stopped to breathe, she jumped in and changed the subject.

"So, I was going to change the subject, but I forgot was I was going to say," she said and laughed.

"Sorry, Gabriella, I didn't realize we were talking about basketball so much, but it's just kind of exciting, now that I'm on the team," said Ryan. Gabriella took a sip of her orange soda.

"That's okay, but can't we talk about something else?" said Taylor.

"We could talk about auditions," suggested Chad. "Those are really exciting."

Everyone laughed. "So Troy's going to sing Ladies' Choice from Hairspray, I hear," said Taylor. "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Zac Efron?"

"See? I get that all the time!" Troy said to Ryan. Ryan laughed. "What are you going to sing, Gabriella?"

"I don't really know a lot of songs. Do you guys have any suggestions?" said Gabriella. She looked at Ryan.

"Well, I was thinking, and you and Troy could sing As Long As You're Mine from Wicked. It's this really beautiful duet," said Ryan.

"But Troy's already doing Ladies' Choice," said Gabriella.

"Why don't you two sing it?" said Troy. Gabriella looked at him. Who on earth was he talking to? Her and Ryan? There was no way.

"Who on earth are you talking to?" said Gabriella.

"You and Ryan. You could sing it. Ryan probably already knows it. He's been in like every musical ever," said Troy. Ryan smirked and nodded. "I'm sure it wouldn't take long for you to learn, and Kelsi could help you." Gabriella looked at Ryan. It wasn't that she minded singing with him, but she didn't really feel comfortable with it, and she was sure Ryan didn't either.

"Well, I think it's a great idea," said Taylor. Ryan and Gabriella looked at each other and shrugged. "We'll see Kelsi tomorrow at the involvement fair. And you guys have to come. If we're going to be there, you're going to be there." Everyone agreed, it was a date. Ryan had to run the drama club's table with Kelsi, and Chad and Troy would run the basketball booth, so they were all going to be there anyway.

As Ryan got gas, Troy and Gabriella sat in the car. "Is it really okay with you if I sing with Ryan?" asked Gabriella.

"Sure. And I'd rather him sing with you than him get roped into doing something with Sharpay," said Troy. Gabriella knew that was true. Ryan got back in the car and drove them back to Troy's house, where they had planned a little party to celebrate the end of the first week of school.

Troy's dad had found an old karaoke machine of Troy's in the attic, and Troy's mom had made snacks. They left the downstairs area in the charge of Gabriella, whom they deemed the most responsible. Ryan dug his iPod out of his backpack and plugged it into the machine.

"Okay, so do you want to hear As Long As You're Mine?" said Ryan. "Or do you want to hear Troy sing Ladies' Choice?" Gabriella smiled.

"I want to hear Troy first, and then it's our turn," she said. Ryan hit enter, and the wonderful music of Hairspray filled the living room. Troy sang along with Zac Efron as Link Larkin. When he was finished, Gabriella could barely contain her giggles. "That was great. You should do it without Zac singing this time." Ryan obliged and put on the karaoke version of Ladies' Choice. When he was finished, Ryan turned it to their duet. He played it once through with lyrics, and then turned them off.

As Gabriella sang this beautiful duet with Ryan, she began to feel things she'd only ever felt once before, when she had first sung karaoke with Troy in Colorado. When the song was finished, Troy clapped very loudly.

"That was terrific. Almost as good as the guys on the CD," he said. Gabriella smiled on the outside, but inside she felt weird. She was in for an interesting night.

Chapter Thirty-Three – Plan B
(Sharpay)

Meanwhile at the Evans mansion, Sharpay was pacing her room. Kelsi had called her earlier that night to inform her that she and Ryan would be staffing the involvement fair the next day and there was no need for her to go. Sharpay figured it would still be raining anyway, but she still liked to meet all her new recruits firsthand. However, she had more important things to deal with.

She sat down at her own glittery pink laptop computer and opened her iTunes application. She scrolled through all her songs, but she couldn't find a single one that she wanted to sing for her audition. Sharpay wasn't the type of girl to sing by herself. Her eyes fell upon her playlist of Disney songs and opened it, hoping there was a perfect song in there. She scanned the entire thing and finally she found it, the one she had been looking for. Kiss the Girl (pop version) by Ashley Tisdale. It was perfect. She played the song through once and decided that this was definitely the song to sing.

She sang it through a couple times to get the feel. What she felt was curious. She wondered what her brother was up to at Troy's house and what song he would be singing.

Sharpay thought about Troy and how close she had been to getting him. If it hadn't been for that meddling Ryan, she thought she would have had him. Sharpay looked at the pictures on her walls. They were mostly of her. There were a few of her and Ryan. And there was one of her and Troy. It had been taken at the Valentine's Dance freshman year, when they had been crowned best couple and the Dance king and queen.

Sharpay thought about herself and Troy. "It just makes sense," she said.

"What makes sense?" Her mother was at the door.

"Nothing, anymore, I guess," Sharpay replied. "What's up?"

"Well, your father and I are going out for the weekend. The staff is here if you need them. Are you sure your brother is okay?" her mother asked.

"Yes, he's at Troy's," Sharpay said. Her mother left, and Sharpay sighed. She had a long weekend ahead of her. And she had to do something about Troy.

A/N: Writing these chapters made me laugh really hard. Troy singing as Zac, and Sharpay singing as Ashley? What could be funnier? For people who have never heard As Long As You're Mine from Wicked, I suggest you go on YouTube and find in, because it's beautiful.

I don't own any of the songs or musicals, or HSM, or SuperMario, or the calculators (even though Ryan has the same calculator as me, and Gabriella has one like my good-for-nothing sister) or iTunes, or anything! Got it? Good.

Thank you guys for reading, and please review! Because, if you review, I won't forget to post the chapter for days on end accidentally next time.

Samantha.

Oh, and I know that someone else already had the jersey number 3, and it wasn't the kid who graduated, but just pretend with me. It's a story, and I really wanted Ryan to have the number 3.