"What are you doing here?" I asked my brother, who was supposed to be involved with the legal system at this point. "Where's mom? What about that whole community service thing?"
"Only mom needed to do that, I only need rehab!" Ryan said. You know, two weeks ago being stuck in rehab would be a bad thing. "They let me out for progress, but I have to go back after school for the next millennium. And by the way, what were you doing with that Montez girl?" Ryan asked.
"She has a name! And as it turns out her life isn't so perfect either." I said.
"Anything good for gossip?" He asked.
"Shut up Ryan!" I huffed, he was my brother and all, but he was annoying. I took a really, really deep breath. "Just get on with the story… what about mom?"
"She's going for the whole sob story angle, maybe get the judge to feel sorry for her." He said.
"I highly doubt that, she's used that one about five times too many." I said. It was implied that my dad sued my mom for my custody… again. This was all too typical, but this time dad had a real case going. He was so wrapped up in beating my mom in this little game he had going with my mom that he had forgotten that Ryan and I are turning eighteen in two months and we would be legally allowed to move out with out parental consent. But I doubt that mattered to him, he just wanted to beat my mom out one more time before they didn't have Ryan and I as an excuse to mess with each other anymore.
"Okay students! I see our Mr. Ryan Evans has returned to our class so please make him feel welcomed. Sharpay, would you mind sitting next to Gabriella for the time being?" She asked. I shook my head no and sat down. "Very well then, let us continue with the announcements. I'm sure you have seen the audition sign up sheets every where, auditions for the winter musical will be held tomorrow during free period… we have received some interesting names, Chad Danforth for example." She said.
Half the class turned to look at Chad who sunk down in his chair. "Danforth? Wow, these musicals must be getting pretty desperate since I left." Ryan commented. It got a few laughs and one of the jocks was like 'dude! You just got dissed by a drama nerd!' which both brought justice to drama nerd-kind and worried me. Ryan was usually so with drawn when he was sober, but he wasn't drunk, I can tell you that much, if he was he would be a whole lot less withdrawn. What happened to him during rehab?
Ms. Darbus rolled her eyes. "The musical we will be performing is another original by Kelsi Neilson called Spotlight, It is a complete masterpiece! In fact, I showed the script to one of my friends at the Grand Central theatre (A/N nonexistent as far as I'm concerned) and he allowed up to book the place for opening night! Look out, this may be on of your tickets to fame. They're even selling ticket to a few scouts and VIPs!" I shared and excited look with Gabriella, this was going to be a really big deal.
I looked over at Kelsi, she had sort of come out of her shell, but she was still pretty shy. We actually got along well, we both had that writer's touch, she was great with plotting out a story line, and I helped put it into words. It was like one of those yin and yang things. Plus Ryan used to have a crush on her so he made me come with him to watch her play piano, eventually I worked up enough courage to ask her if I could help, it was awesome, over the summer we composed like, fifteen plays together, some were stupid, and some were awesome. But the point is that we understood each other.
Spotlight was like a cross between West Side Story, Chicago and Rent, a few of my all time favorite musicals. I made her try it out and we fell in love with it, it was about a musician whose contract just expired and she was forced to leave her glamorous life and move to an apartment in New York, and it goes from there. I didn't mind Kelsi taking the credit, because I knew the play, I partially created it, it was like a Broadway dream come true.
Ms. Darbus continued. "Auditions are held tomorrow during free period and I will tell you my decision by the end of the day. Everyone will audition as singles this year and you may choose any song that you would like."
Gabriella leaned over to me. "What song are you doing?" She asked.
"I have no clue… I don't think I even signed up yet. You?" I asked.
"Same here, I haven't even figured out what I'm going to do about my lack of acting skills." She said.
"I could give you a crash course." I said. "Can you be at Troy's house after school?" I asked.
"Well… I guess, besides, I left my favorite lip gloss over there!" She said and we both giggled. So this was what it was like to have a 'BFF' or whatever. God… I hoped that this didn't mean that we had to stay up all night gossiping and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, probably not. Buffy would probably scare Gabriella anyways. But still, it was fun having a friend who understood why I'd want to watch MTV rather than the poker channel.
The bell rang and I went to talk to Ryan. "So they just let you come back to school?" I asked.
"Good behavior gets you a long way." He shrugged. "You still didn't tell me what's with you talking to the Montez girl."
"Gabriella and I have more in common than you think… you know we're both kind of stuck in dysfunctional families with divorces and alcoholics!" I said, reminding myself that I was mad at him.
"Didn't we go over this already?" He asked.
"No, I don't think we did." I snapped.
"Look Sharpay, I'm sorry! How long are you going to hold this against me?" He asked.
I stopped and turned around. "You could have died Ryan." I said seriously.
"But I didn't! That's the point! I'm fine Sharpay!" He said, lifting his hands for dramatic effect.
"Just… don't go back to drinking okay?" I asked quietly.
"Yeah… I promise." He said. I didn't quite fully believe him…. I mean, he's said that a zillion times before, but it helped.
I went to my next class, chemistry. Our teacher, Mr. Hector had us starting our first project of the year, meaning today was the long awaited day where we got to get our lab partners. Mr. Hector had this weird policy that students worked better when they were put in groups that they felt comfortable with, i.e. we got to choose our own lab partners. Ryan was happily paired off with Kelsi leaving me alone and confused.
"Hey Sharpay, want to be partners?" Gabriella asked.
I shrugged. "Sure." I said. I looked around the class room, Taylor seemed unluckily paired off with Chad, who was talking to Jason, who was partnered with Zeke, who was staring at me who was kind of flattered, kind of grossed out.
"Sharpay… hi." Troy said.
I turned and looked over at Troy who was standing, like to feet away from me (how do I not notice these things?). "Oh, hi Troy." I said, trying to stay as cool as possible.
He pulled me to a side. "Look, we never did get a chance to talk about what happened last night." He whispered.
"You and Gabriella broke up, it has nothing to do with me." I said, pulling my arm away.
"You know it does." He said quietly.
"Look, not now Troy, I have to get back to my partner." I made just enough of a show walking over to Gabriella and sitting next to her at the table that I could practically hear Troy's heart beating, at least judging by the shocked expression on his face. In science all we did was start our write up. You know, state the purpose, create a hypothesis, and all that other junk. Gabriella was pretty surprised at my competence and my strange ability to keep up with her while she did her braniac thing.
"So, see you after school?" I asked at the end of the period. Surprisingly Ms. Happy go lucky was actually pretty fun, in a strange way. Gabriella nodded and grabbed her books.
"See you later Shar." She said, using the nick name.
I walked over to my locker. "Okay, why did I have to hear from someone else that Troy and Gabriella broke up?" Ryan asked.
"Because I didn't feel like telling you about it." I said. Ryan did kind of get on my nerves sometimes… like now for instance.
"And I can't believe it was your doing, and you kissed Bolton! And now you're staying with him? I mean I knew they called you the ice queen but this, this is beyond icy." He continued.
"Shut up Ryan." I said, trying to focus on my combo.
"And now being all buddy-buddy with Gabriella and leaving Troy hanging. Congratulations ice queen, you just hit the titanic that is Troy Bolton!" He went on.
It turned sharply and snapped at him. "You're wrong!" I went back to my combo.
"Don't tell me this guy is melting you." I didn't answer, and I finally got my locker opened. "Whoa! Little sis fell for Bolton!" He laughed.
I got my books and slammed my locker. "First of all, its big sis, second of all I did not fall for Troy, and third of all who told you all of this?"
"Okay, big sis, what ever okay? I was joking. And for the record you do seem pretty defensive about this whole thing." He said.
"What? In rehab did they help you get over alcohol by giving you drugs?" I asked.
"I wish, all they did was make me sit in a circle with a bunch of other 'people with my problem' and made me open up or whatever, see how easy it is to get out of?" He asked.
"Just shut up, okay?" I asked.
He shrugged and walked behind me to gym. The rest of the day was barely worth mentioning, nothing happened and everything was quit. I gave Gabriella a ride over to my house and we chilled in the back, the warrant wasn't up yet, but the police let me hang out in the back for some reason. "You have the most awesome backyard ever!" She said.
"I guess… I never really noticed." I confessed. We did some studying for science before I noticed that Gabriella was sneaking glances over to Troy's house next door. "I know it must be weird being here." I said to her.
She quickly turned her head back. "Huh? Oh… yeah. It kind of is you know? Being so close to his house with out him." She said. "It's not that I think we should be together, it's just weird."
I offered her a small smile. "Troy has that effect on people, he can be so stupid, but you still can't help thinking about him." I said. "We were best friends for a pretty long time, I know the feeling." I said.
Gabriella nodded. "Okay, let's move on to acting related issues." She said… not so smoothly changing the subject. I still went with it though, I wanted to change the subject too.
"Okay, your main issue is that you're just saying the words. Use more than your mouth, use your voice, your face, your body… here, think of a lie." I said.
Gabriella thought for a moment. "Troy Bolton is the ugliest creature I've ever laid eyes on." She said with a smile. I agreed, that was a good lie.
"Troy Bolton is the ugliest creature that I've ever laid eyes on." I said, scrunching up my face and crossing my arms.
Gabriella gave me a weird look. "Really?"
"No. But it sounded like I thought so." I said.
Gabriella nodded. "So I don't just say it… I act it?"
"That's why it's called acting." I nodded.
Gabriella looked like she just discovered something. "Troy Bolton… is the ugliest creature I've ever laid eyes upon." She said with a total dose of believability.
"Troy Bolton is the ugliest creature I've ever laid eyes upon."
"Troy Bolton is totally the ugliest creature I've ever laid eyes upon." Gabriella said with attitude.
"Troy Bolton is the ugliest creature I've ever laid eyes upon, and he's a slob." I said, as if it were a competition.
"Troy Bolton is the ugliest creature I've creature I've ever laid eyes upon, and he's a total Justin Timberlake wannabe." She said. I laughed. I admit, that one was good.
"He's not bringing sexy back any time soon." I said between laughs. Gabriella gave me a high five. "And Troy Bolton is-"
"Right behind you." Tory finished for me. DAMMIT! TROY!
We our turned our heads slowly and sure enough, Troy was standing right behind us. And weirdly enough, we couldn't stop laughing.
Okay… here is chapter nine. I hope it doesn't suck that much, I feel like it did for some reason though. So now since I decided to make the play a Kelsi original, I have to look for songs to use for that, since though I love to write, I don't have time to sit and write enough songs for an entire musical. Good news is that since all auditions are single and they can pick any song, it'll make it easier to choose. I'll try to update soon too. Okay… I just looked at my profile and I said that I probably won't update, like every day when I first joined this sight. HA! I guess I didn't anticipate summer vaca.
