CHAPTER TEN

Ryan got used to the idea of not being friends with Kelsi Nielsen, as much as he still wanted to be. It was the same way he ignored his usual longing to fit in. He had realized that Kelsi wasn't allowing herself to get close to people the same way his sister had been stopping him. He wasn't sure why, but he figured she must have her reasons for doing so.

So he made himself forget about Kelsi as much as possible. Still, he found himself thinking about her over the summer—almost missing her. He had never worried so much about one person before. The amount he thought about Kelsi over his summer days at his family's country club began to worry him. Maybe Sharpay had been right about Kelsi distracting him; he just couldn't seem to forget about her. He threw himself into worrying about the club's talent show and trying to ignore his sister's intellectually challenged friends as best as possible, but as hard as he tried to avoid it, his thoughts always came back to her.

School started again all too soon. They would be juniors. Only one more year until they graduated. Ryan found that he was most looking forward to school so that he could see Kelsi again. He wondered how she was doing over their vacation.

Kelsi's break hadn't been as leisurely as Ryan's. Ryan got to spend every day at a fancy country club, being waited on hand and foot even with his sister around. He was treated respect by the people around him, except for Sharpay, and he actually had a fairly good time over his vacation. Kelsi spent every day looking desperately for excuses to get out of the house for a while.

Kelsi had spent as much time as possible at the book store or even just walking around. She couldn't stand being home with her mother every day while her father was at work. She didn't have any friends in Albuquerque, so she didn't have anyone to spend time with. She just wrote a lot of music and tried to focus on anything but how much longer summer was. She didn't think the break could end soon enough. She was relieved to finally be back at East High, despite her lack of friends.

She found that nothing had changed when she got to homeroom on her first morning back. Ryan and Sharpay still sat together on the far side of the room, the jocks still sat talking excitedly about their upcoming season, and Kelsi was still invisible.

Ryan seemed to feel that a lot had changed, particularly when looking at Kelsi. Had she gotten even prettier over the summer? He didn't think it was possible. Her hair was straighter this year and a little shorter. He didn't see how every guy in the room wasn't staring at her. She was already hard at work on another song—he wondered when he'd be able to hear one. The moment she had entered the room, all of the effort Ryan had put into forgetting about Kelsi died away. It had been no use, because he still smiled inside when he saw her. It took him a moment to realize he was checking her out—not that he could help himself. She had, well, grown over the summer, and by that he didn't mean she had gotten taller. Ryan shook his head.

It wouldn't help him to forget about her if he was staring at her constantly. He looked around to the others in the room. Taylor McKessie, who was the brainiest girl in their grade, was rolling her eyes at Chad Danforth and Zeke Baylor as Chad tried to make a basket in the trashcan and Zeke worked to stop him. Ryan couldn't help but agree that the Wildcats were pretty immature, but they were at least having fun, and for that, he envied them, just as he always had. He sighed and turned away.

He focused instead on wondering what the winter musical would be for that year. Anything to stop thinking of Kelsi.