I could have never imagined this story would be so popular, and the success of it amazes me. Alerts are finally back up, so I'm posting!
Before I forget to write this, I'm going to be out of town as of tomorrow. All-area band auditions (one level before qualifying for the state band!) start Saturday, and my director is pulling us all up there Friday so we won't have a really early start the day of the auditions. I'm not near ready, but hey, I don't know how prepared the others are. Maybe there's a shot.
Most likely not, though. -giggle-
Anyway, I'll get on with the this chapter (this one is actually going to be a filler leading up to the callbacks).
"Ready for today?" Troy asked Gabriella as she walked up to the coloring table. She looked more excited than Troy had ever seen her, especially since it was just the beginning of the day. It was also the last day of preschool before the children would get out for the holidays.
"Uh-huh," She nodded. "We'll need to hurry with the callbacks, though. My mommy is coming to watch me during the read-off!"
"My daddy got off work to come watch me, too!" Troy grinned. "Don't worry, we'll hurry!"
"That rhymed!" Gabriella giggled.
"Can I join?" Chad asked, coming up to the table. He had just been dropped off by his mother, who was scribbling her signature on the sign-in sheet.
"Sure! I'm coloring a picture for my little sister." Troy replied, showing the other two a picture of a star.
"That looks pretty! I'm coloring this princess in my new coloring book!" Gabriella held up her creation, to show a multi-colored princess sitting on a purple throne.
"Cool," Chad said, picking up an orange marker and drawing what looked like a circle. "I'm going to draw a picture for Taylor."
"A basketball?" Troy asked.
"How'd you guess?" Chad's eyes widened.
"Your picture is round… and orange…" Troy shrugged.
"At least it's not my Lego basketball."
"That's true." Troy laughed.
"Should I make it a good luck card?"
"But Chad, that's a basketball, not a book. Basketball is not Taylor's favorite thing..." Gabriella pointed out.
"Yeah, but… Nevermind." He shrugged and began coloring in the circle.
Over the course of the next few hours, anyone in the classroom couldn't have a conversation without hearing about the events for the day ahead. Sharpay had just now found out about the plan, and was as furious as a four-year-old with an attitude could get.
"I can't believe they are doing this! The callbacks are already on the same day!" Sharpay shrieked.
"But we still have a better song." Ryan comforted his siste.
"'Up On The Housetop' is nothing compared to 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer' if they have picture cards!" Sharpay sat down in her corner and stuck out her bottom lip.
"Sharpay…" Ryan tried to think of more comforting words, but he just couldn't. "We'll get through this." He sighed.
Sharpay groaned and pushed Ryan away.
"I don't need my brother feeling pity for me." She scoffed.
"I-I don't…"
"Just be quiet, Ryan." She rolled her eyes.
"Okay." Ryan shut his mouth, got up, and went to sit with a group of four friends having their snack at the table in the middle of the room.
The last thing Troy, Gabriella, Chad, and Taylor expected was to see Ryan come up to their group, but there he was, coming up to the table.
"Do you mind if I join?" He asked nervously. Besides the strange looks he got from the four, they nodded and he happily sat down. "I'm sorry if my sister has done anything to you guys."
"It's okay. You don't need to apologize for her." Gabriella said, seeing that he was a bit upset at the moment.
"Yeah. You're your own person!" Chad exclaimed, letting bits of cookie crumbs escape his mouth as he spoke.
"Wow, Chad. Where'd you get that from?" Troy asked, wiping a bit of stray snack cookie crumb from his cheek.
"Box of cereal." Chad shrugged, the gang giving him more strange looks.
"Chad's a bit hyper today." Taylor explained to Ryan, who didn't understand much about what was going on.
"Oh, because of the callbacks?" Ryan asked, taken by surprise that Chad might even be a bit interested in the callbacks.
"No, silly!" Chad laughed. "Because of the game!"
"What game? All I know about is the read-off thingy." Ryan hadn't heard of the big basketball game that was to be held. All he knew about was the read-off.
"What game?" The group asked back, shocked he hadn't heard of the basketball game.
"Basketball, of course!" Troy answered.
"Oh. Against the kindergartners?"
"Mmhmm." Troy nodded.
"Well, good luck!" Ryan said, truly meaning it.
"What brings you here?" Taylor blurted out, curious.
"Sharpay's mad at me. But I'm really just tired of her." Ryan explained.
"But the callbacks are today! You two need to be getting along!" Gabriella said with a wide-eyed expression.
"She'll come around and apologize here in a little bit. But I really do want to be all of your friends. I feel bad for everything my sister's done."
"You shouldn't feel bad for something you didn't do." Taylor comforted.
"Yeah, but I do." He shrugged. There was an awkward silence before Chad finally broke it.
"Well, welcome to Team Wildcat!" He said happily.
"Why Wildcat?" Ryan asked.
"Because the girls wanted Leopard, but we didn't like that. We wanted Tiger. Since we couldn't agree, we asked the teacher, and she suggested 'Wildcats'." Troy explained.
"Ooh!" Ryan nodded. He stole a glance at his sister, who was giving him an extremely evil look. The group noticed this, and gave him an encouraging smile.
"Go and make sure she's alright," Gabriella smiled. "We don't mind." Ryan simply nodded and got up, walking towards his sister.
"What was that about?" She asked, obviously still angry.
"I wanted to talk to someone besides you or Zeke. Is that a problem?" Ryan said plainly. Sharpay, who was at a loss for words, just shrugged and pulled Ryan into going to color with her.
From afar, the group watched. They expected a loud outburst from Sharpay, at the least. What they saw amazed them. Sharpay was being tolerant! She wasn't yelling at her brother!
Now, it could be confirmed. They were in for an interesting afternoon.
Just one hour until the big events began, the class was a buzz of four-year-old voices and activities. Each group was going to do one thing or another to help the cause, whether it be drawing 'Good luck' cards, scrimmaging the basketball team, or helping the readers, or even watching Sharpay and Ryan's callback audition.
They certainly had a good audience. To top it all off, Ms. Shannon had announced that she would wait until after all the big events to announce the best playtime group. The events were going to end about an hour before school let out, which left the preschoolers a bit of time to enjoy their snack before the holidays.
"Are we ready to begin our special day?" Ms. Shannon asked the group.
"Yes!" Cheered the class.
"Then let's go! Get into three lines. One for the Callbacks, one of the Basketball Game, and one for the Read-off." She said happily. The students did as they were told, and separated into lines.
"Good luck." Gabriella whispered to Troy as he went off in line.
"You too." He took once last glance back, giving her a reassuring smile.
The Read-off
Gabriella shifted uncomftorably in her seat. She was as nervous as the first day she had come to East Preschool, and was getting more nervous by the second.
The kindergartners had arrived, them looking brave and grown-up, even though they were just a year older than the others were.
"Welcome, students and parents." The kindergarten teacher came up on stage, giving a smile to the small group that had gathered in the library. Three or four sets of parents (one of which was Gabriella's mother), along with some kindergartners and preschoolers, made up the crowd.
"To begin, we will write down a sentence on the board," The teacher pointed to a dry-erase board behind her. "The two students that were chosen to pair up will read it, and the first person to ring their bell and get the correct answer, gets the point. This will go until one-team reaches thirty points. Now, lets begin!"
There were only three people on the preschool team, and five on the kindergarten team, and Taylor was the first up. A boy from the kindergarten team came up as Taylor took her seat next to the dry-erase board.
The teacher wrote something down, and Taylor instantly put her hand down.
"The cat named Max." Taylor replied enthusiastically.
"Correct." The teacher seemed impressed.
Next up was Kelsi and a girl from the kindergarten class. The girl from the kindergarten class was quick on her bell, and took the point for them. Gabriella then went, bringing her team a victory.
This went on for quite awhile, with Kelsi only losing twice more, Taylor once more, and Gabriella no mistakes.
The score was now 27-27, and Taylor was up.
The Basketball GameTroy paced nervously on the side on the miniature basketball court. He was very nervous right now, but remembering Gabriella's comforting words made him feel so much better.
Like the read-off, the crowd was made up of a few sets of parents and students, one of the parents being Troy's father.
"Good luck, son!" He encouraged.
"Thanks, Dad." Troy replied with a smile that hid his nervousness.
"Are we ready to begin?" Ms. Shannon asked a very giddy audience.
"YES!" Screamed the children, with nods from the parents. The court didn't look much like a basketball court, being half the size of one, along with small plastic basketball nets on the ends of the lines drawn with chalk.
"Okay, lets begin! First team to thirty points, wins!" She said, throwing the basketball in the air, Troy and a bigger kindergartner jumping for the ball. The kindergartners were better than they expected, taking the ball immediately.
That didn't last long. Chad was able to get it back, and score the first basket for the newly formed 'Wildcats' team. It was now 2-0
A wit-testing battle began, with the preschoolers struggling to keep up with the bigger group of kindergartners.
However, the team prevailed, and before long, they were in a 26-26 tie. Just two more baskets.
The CallbacksMs. Darby sat at her place in the small audience, disappointed that not many decided to show up. Only the Evans' twins parents and some students.
"Let's began," She said, looking bored. "Sharpay and Ryan Evans."
Sharpay appeared on stage with a Santa hat and a foot long fake candy cane in her hand. Ryan came on along with her, in a matching Santa hat and red shirt.
She clicked the button on the CD player, and the music began.
"Up on the housetop, click, click, click." Sharpay began, tapping her candy cane to the clicks.
"Out comes good ol' Jolly St. Nick!" Ryan popped out from his crouching spot behind Sharpay, imitating his line.
Somewhere in the room, a watch went off, striking two o' clock. It didn't mean anything besides a disruption to the song to the people in the room, but what they didn't know is that a plan was going into play as the watch alarm rang.
There's the next chapter! E-mail is down while I am writing this, so it'll go up once I know it's back up, since I don't like messing with stories when e-mail is down. You never know what would get messed up!
Anyway, I need to start getting votes on who you guys want to win the Best Playtime Buddy competition (Choose from Troy/Gabriella, Chad/Taylor, Sharpay/Zeke, Kelsi/Jason, and Ryan/Ashley). You know the drill ;) Put your choice in a review, or drop my a PM!
Since the auditions are tomorrow, I won't be able to start back up writing and updating Sunday. So until then, hope you guys have a good weekend. Can you all surprise me when I get back and have my inbox full of Reviews for this story?