Author's Note: This is my longest chapter so far! There was a lot to cram in—basically the entire beginning of the year and the beginning of the first movie takes place in this chapter. I also really wanted to focus on how Kelsi felt after Ryan and Sharpay performed their version of What I've Been Looking For.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
That year turned out to be exactly like the last... That is, until after winter break. Before they left for Christmas vacation, Kelsi had presented Ms. Darbus with some of her compositions and asked if she would use them for the winter musical. Ms. Darbus was absolutely delighted to have a student submit an original idea for their production, and agreed immediately. Kelsi had been nervous to show Ms. Darbus her ideas—her grandmother was the only person who had ever seen Kelsi's songs, but Ms. D loved them. Ms. Darbus almost reminded Kelsi of her grandmother. She felt strangely comfortable around the eccentric teacher.
When they returned from winter break, they'd be holding sign-ups for the auditions, and Ms. Darbus would be letting Kelsi help her cast the roles of the main characters. Kelsi knew she would cast Ryan and Sharpay—they were the only ones with real talent. She was anxious to hear Ryan sing one of her songs—a song that had been inspired by him, or rather, the version of Ryan she had composed in her head that she had allowed herself to become so absorbed in... She was pathetic, sometimes.
She was surprised to see a new girl when they returned, though. The girl was Spanish, with brown eyes and long brown hair. She was pretty, and she caught Troy Bolton's attention, which meant Sharpay hated her immediately. Troy took out his cell phone and called the girl—how did he have her number? Kelsi wondered if anyone else noticed, but she doubted it. When the girl's phone went off, Ryan and Sharpay went to check their own. Ms. Darbus confiscated both of their phones, along with Troy's and the new girl's, giving them all detention after school to paint sets for the upcoming musical. Even Chad Danforth got detention for trying to get Troy out of detention, and when Taylor McKessie commented, she got detention as well.
Kelsi didn't worry much about the new girl. She was probably just another airhead or smart girl who she would never talk to.
What Kelsi did worry about was free period the next day. She was anxious to hear people singing her music. She stood on stage with Ms. Darbus as she addressed those wishing to audition. She saw Ryan and Sharpay sitting in the auditorium, knowing they had the leading roles in the bag. Ms. Darbus mentioned that the composer, Kelsi, would be available for rehearsals prior to callbacks. Ryan's mouth fell open slightly. The show had been composed by Kelsi? She had written the song he was about to perform? He felt his heart sunk. Sharpay had changed the song. She had gotten their rehearsal pianist to increase the tempo. Ryan had thought the song was amazing in its original format, but Sharpay disagreed, and again, he lost.
As he eyed the little composer on stage, he wished he had fought a little harder for Sharpay to keep the song as it was.
Then again, he didn't think he could butcher the song any more than the others who auditioned did. It was pretty awful to watch. Half of the singers were flat, there was a dancer who ran off of the stage and crashed, there were interpretive dancers, there was a boy who didn't know the words, there was an opera singer, and one girl even got stage fright and ran away. Kelsi was about to give up. Her show was going to be a failure, all because no one could sing her stupid songs. Her heart sunk.
Finally, Sharpay and Ryan took the stage. "Oh, what key?" Kelsi asked Ryan as he went to take his place with his sister.
"Oh, we had out rehearsal pianist do an arrangement," he told her, smiling to try to apologize. Kelsi sunk back into her seat.
"Oh," she said. Of course, her music hadn't been good enough, just like she wasn't good enough. Sharpay and Ryan didn't want to perform her music the way it was written. Ryan had changed the song that she had written about him. She felt awful.
That wasn't to say that he didn't sing it beautifully. She was impressed by his voice, she just wished they hadn't stripped away the power and emotion of the song to make it catchier and easier to dance to. It was meant to be a beautiful love song, and the message of the lyrics was completely lost in Ryan and Sharpay's upbeat, flashy performance of the show.
She clapped at the end of the song, not wanting them to think she hated them for changing the song, although a part of her sincerely did. That song had been so important to her—that song was her entire romantic dream, and it had been destroyed. She tried to talk to Sharpay about it, but all Sharpay did was yell at her. She felt like she was thrown back in time, getting yelled at by the only people who were supposed to love her always. She was afraid of Sharpay, because Sharpay could make her feel that bad in a way no one else really had since she'd moved to Albuquerque. For the first time in her life, she found herself wanting to give up on music. If Sharpay really thought it was that awful, then what was the point? Kelsi's entire life was just another failure.
What was perhaps even worse than one crushed dream was realizing that her fears about Ryan had been true. He really wasn't the amazing guy she had dreamed about. He was just Sharpay's brother... the one who had changed her song, and by doing so, had changed her. Auditions ended and Kelsi felt worse than she had in a very long time. Ryan could only guess why.
He felt guilty as he followed his sister out of the auditorium. He wished he had stopped to apologize—to compliment the song, even, but no, he hadn't been able to, because his lovely sister was too busy yelling at Kelsi and trashing her hard work.
Kelsi's song had been beautiful and perfect the way it was. The lyrics were amazing and strong, and almost described the way Ryan felt when he looked at Kelsi. Knowing that Kelsi was the one who wrote it made it even better, somehow.
Kelsi never wanted to write another song again. Everyone else had left the auditorium when the new girl, Gabriella Montez, said that she wanted to audition. Ms. Darbus said that it was too late, despite Troy Bolton's offer to accompany her. Ms. Darbus left and Kelsi got up to gather her things. She tripped, scattering all of her scores across the stage—as if the day couldn't get any worse. She was surprised when Troy Bolton started to help her pick up her things. He even encouraged her—he complimented her song, and told her that she shouldn't be afraid of Ryan and Sharpay. He told her that it was her show, and that she was like the playmaker in basketball. She was the one who made everyone else look good. Kelsi felt a little better as Troy told her he looked forward to hearing the rest of the show. Kelsi's heart glowed as she realized why so many girls wanted Troy Bolton.
He was cute—something about the dark hair and the light blue eyes, his charming smile and his charisma... He was nice, and he cared about other people. Kelsi felt that he was a genuinely good guy, despite her past prejudices against men.
She offered to show him and Gabriella how the duet was supposed to sound. She sat at the piano and showed them the music as she played. Troy started singing, and Kelsi thought his voice was amazing. It wasn't perfect, like Ryan's, but it was beautiful. She helped Gabriella join in, and was surprised by how effortlessly beautiful her voice was. It wasn't overdone like Sharpay's—it was just right. The way they sung the duet together was perfect. They had the right chemistry, and they performed it just as Kelsi had imagined it when she wrote it. More than that, they respected the song in its original version and still made it great.
They were all surprised when Ms. Darbus appeared and told the pair that they had a callback. She told Kelsi to help them work on the duet from the second act—another one of her personal favorites that had been inspired by her make-believe Ryan. As much as she loved Ryan's voice and his dancing, she couldn't forgive him for what he and his sister did to her music. Troy and Gabriella gave her hope that maybe, just maybe, something she did would turn out right for a change. Kelsi finally had hope.
