Sarah spent the next day thinking, and when she finally came to a conclusion, rushed into Troy's room to tell him.

"I figured it out." She said. Troy looked up from his computer, then glanced back to his English essay.

"What, pray tell, did you figure out?" He asked.

"I figured out why Ryan and I shouldn't be together." She said.

Troy rolled his eyes. "This is going to be good."

She ignored him, and barreled on. "It all boils down to expectations. It's kind of the same thing you and Gabriella went through. He's a drama geek. An amazingly talented, all together perfect drama geek, but still a drama geek. I, on the other hand, am kind of an athlete. It's a performance sport, but it's still a sport. And I'm related to you, which automatically makes me a jock, as I hang with them. So, the social norms would say that I should be shoving him into lockers, rather than going to a movie with him."

"Yeah, but I thought that East High wasn't like that anymore." Troy said. "I mean, no one minds me and Gabriella, or Taylor and Chad."

"That's because Tay and Gabs are brainiacs." Sarah explained as though Troy were toddler. "It's okay for brains and jocks to hang out now, but no one has really breeched the drama club yet. I mean, even think about you, Troy. You don't really hang out with the drama kids, do you?"

"I hang out with Ryan!" He said indignantly.

"Yes, but Ryan is one out of forty." Sarah pointed out. She peered over at his essay. "Which is what your score is going to be if you don't learn MLA."

"Never mind that, Shakespeare." Troy minimized the window, showing his Wildcats background. "So wait…this is a reason to break up with Ryan?"

"Well, I'm not sure if we would be breaking up." Sarah said, a thoughtful look creasing her face. "I mean, we never really discuss if we were dating in the official sense or not."

"You are." Troy said. "There is no way I'm letting you make out with a boy and not be dating him. You'll become a slut."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Troy." She said. "And even if we were dating, it wouldn't be enough of a reason for me to break up with him. Maybe for someone a bit more shallow, but I am not, among other things," she glared at Troy. "shallow."

"So why did you break up with him?" Troy asked, looking very confused.

Sarah sighed. "Because. I'm not emotionally stable."

"Sarah, you're more stable now than you ever have been." Troy shook his head. "And Ryan was doing you good. I mean, you would come home on cloud nine. You haven't fought with either of our parents since you started school, and you even went back to dancing. If you're not emotionally stable now, you never will be."

"I'm just not ready, Troy." She said. She felt the guilt slithering back into the pit of her stomach.

"But you do like him." Troy said. "Right?"

"Yes." She dropped his gaze, her eyes suddenly burning. "A lot. And I don't want to screw it up. So I'd rather wait."

"Okay." Troy said with a shrug. He returned to his essay, wondering what MLA was.

"Troy?" She said, not having moved from her spot.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Am I doing the right thing?" Her voice was small and unsure, and the last time he had heard it like that was before she started school.

"I don't know." He answered honestly. "Does it feel right?"

"Kinda." She said. "Sometimes. But then, other times, it's just weird. But it's not because of him. Well, it is, but it's just because he's a guy. Not because he's Ryan." She looked back up at him. "Does that make sense?"

"Perfect sense." Troy smiled at her. She returned it, though smaller and sadder. "Listen, Sarah. You have to do what's right for you. You'll hear everyone telling you what they think is right, but it doesn't matter. All that matters is what is right for you."

"Thanks Troy." She smiled and left, and Troy just shook his head. Girls were weird sometimes.

Just as he was wrapping up his essay (having looked up MLA on Google and learned that it was formatting), when his phone rang. "Talk." He said, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Dude, we have to fix things with Sarah and Ryan." Chad's voice filled his ears in a conspiratorial whisper. "This just isn't right. I mean, Ryan? Yeah, he's acting…not like Ryan."

"Thanks Chad, that really clears things up." Troy said with a note of sarcasm strong enough to penetrate Chad's hair.

"Well, he's just acting weird. He doesn't want to play ball, he doesn't want to eat, hell, Sharpay even says he doesn't want to dance." There was a short pause. "Do you realize that this boy's entire world is dancing? It's just what he does."

"I do know him, Chad." Troy said. "But we can't get involved. This is something that they need to work out."

"Dude, come on." Troy could almost see Chad rolling his eyes. "Ryan is girl-illiterate. Freshmen have more experience than he does. And Sarah's just freaking out. She's not thinking straight because her last boyfriend was the reason boys have a bad name. They are not going to figure this out on their own."

"They have to." He said. "Look, Sarah's already rethinking the idea. Just give them time."

"They have two weeks." Chad said. "Seriously, this new Ryan is boring. And Sarah can't be that much fun."

"Not really." Troy said. "But she's helping my GPA."

"That's not important right now." Chad snapped "Our friends love lives are at stake here! Their entire futures!"

"It's rather unlikely that Ryan and Sarah would end up married or anything." Troy pointed out.

"Not true." Chad said. "87 of married couples met in high school."

"Where did you read that?" Troy asked.

"Myspace bulletin." Chad replied. Troy burst out laughing. "What? It's true! It even said so!"

"Chad, anyone can post anything on Myspace." Troy choked out.

"But it has numbers, so it's true." Chad dismissed. "Either way, they have two weeks before I stage another intervention."

"Yes, because the last one worked so well." Troy said, remembering the winter musical debacle vividly.

"Hey, that one only screwed up because we wanted to take it back." Chad argued. "This time it will work, because we won't want to take it back, we'll get it right the first time."

"Sure thing, Chad." Troy rolled his eyes.

"Two weeks." He said, before hanging up.

Troy sighed, setting his phone on his desk. He could smell dinner downstairs and knew that he should be getting ready. He and Gabriella were catching a movie that night. But part of him was still wondering about what Chad had said. Were they really in their own way? Was there no hope of them getting together on their own?

"Two weeks." He said to himself, nodding. With that resolution made, he got up, printing his paper and hurried to get ready.