Chuckie and Troy were actually watching the movie. I, however, was watching Troy. I still didn't feel totally comfortable with the whole "being with a guy" thing, but I was sure that Troy wasn't going to rush into anything. Around the time that Harry and Ron are on the train, Troy managed to get his arm around my shoulders. It was like we were 13 on our first date at the movies. I rolled my eyes at his subtlety, although he didn't notice. After an entire train ride of his arm being around my shoulders, I took his hand and pulled myself into him so I was leaning by upper body against his and his arm was around my waist. Ish. It's hard to explain. I could tell he was smiling even though I couldn't see his face. He tightened his hold on me, and I smiled too. I was very comfy sitting there on the couch with Troy. I reclined my head so it was resting on his shoulder, bringing his head into my field of vision. He actually was smiling. I turned to watch the movie. Taylor and Chad were still doing their thing and Chuckie was totally glued to Daniel Radcliffe. Maybe I can be okay with this whole "being with a guy" thing.

Troy seemed to have read my mind because he leaned in and whispered in my ear, "Anything, anytime, anywhere. Whatever you want, Ryan." I smiled again and attempted to convey to him that this was a good plan without knocking our heads together or making a lot of noise. Eventually, I managed to succeed and went back to the movie.

At long, long last, the movie was over and the house lights came back up. (They're pretty sweet like that.) Chad detached from Taylor, clutching his eyes. "Dude, remember when I had corneas?" he asked. Troy and I laughed. I don't think Chad realized he was making the particular Chandler joke he was making, but he went along with it anyways. I was so comfy right there on Troy that I didn't want to move. He seemed to realize this.

"Okay, I'm stuck," Troy said.

"That you are," I said, with every intention of not moving.

"Ah, well, this is comfortable, anyways," he said. He made an attempt at shrugging without throwing me off of himself, and half succeeded.

"You guys might be too adorable," Taylor said.

"We might be too adorable? What kind of question is that?" Troy asked. "Of course, we're too adorable."

"And not conceited at all, obviously," Chad added.

"Not one bit," I said, lazily.

"So, you're not gonna let me get up?" Troy asked.

"Nope," I said. "It's not like you have anywhere to go. It's Sunday, and it's raining."

"It's raining?" Chad asked.

"Duh," I said. "Can't you hear it?" There was a pause while we all listened for the rain and there it was.

"Oh, yeah. It's kind of peaceful," Chad said.

"Could fall asleep right here, I could," I said.

"Oh, come on," Troy said.

"Nah, I probably couldn't," I said. "This one keeps talking." I pointed at Troy. He made a fake upset face and I chuckled. I stretched and rolled off of him onto the floor. "Although, it's not to say that the floor isn't comfy."

"Ha. Troy's comfy like the floor," Chuckie teased.

"Yeah, but have you seen the floor? It looks pretty comfy," Troy said. He got off the couch and stretched as well, managing (somehow) not to step on me. He laid down next to me and sighed. "Yep, it's comfy." Chad laughed.

"I'm hungry," he said.

"You just ate breakfast," Taylor pointed out.

"No, that was a long time ago. Troy, what time is it?" Chad asked.

"Around noon," Troy replied. I will never understand his uncanny ability to know what time it was all the time.

"Right, so therefore it's time for lunch," Chad said.

"But the floor is so comfy," I whined, although it was slightly muffled by the carpet and it came out "mutt the more is mo mumff."

"What?" Troy asked, laughing.

"I said," I said, raising my head off the floor to address him more properly, "mutt the more is mo mumff."

"Oh, that's what I thought," Troy said, standing. I sat up and he pulled me to my feet as well. Chad rolled his eyes. "What?"

"Nothing," Chad said. Troy gave him a look. "Sorry, man, I still don't believe it."

"Would you believe it more if it was you instead of Ryan?" Taylor asked. Chad got that look on his face again.

"Again, why do we have to continue to say things like that?" Chad asked.

"Alright, Chad. Are my boyfriend and I threatening your heterosexuality?" Troy asked.

"No," Chad replied.

"Are we threatening the sanctity of your relationship?" Troy asked.

"No," Chad replied.

"Then what is the problem?" Troy asked.

"I don't know," Chad said. "I'm hungry."

"Big surprise," Taylor said. Chad led the way back into the dining room, where Kelsi was sitting. Troy and I looked at each other and held a silent mini-conference that basically meant that we weren't going to tell her anything.

"Good morning, Kelsi," I said, taking a seat on her side of the table.

"Isn't it afternoon by this point?" Kelsi asked. Troy nodded from across the table.

"Yeah, it is," Troy said. I just sighed at his clocklike behavior.

"You're a dork, Troy," Taylor said. Thank you. I was beginning to feel like I was going to have to say it.

"Thanks," Troy said. Chad laughed.

"Apparently Troy already knows," Chad said. "I'm hungry."

"So get down off your doghouse and eat," Kelsi said. I made a bad attempt to stifle a laugh.

"Doghouse?" Chad asked.

"She's implying that you're Snoopy," I explained.

"What?" Chad asked.

"You know, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," I said. "You know, Kristin Chenoweth, Anthony Rapp?" It was evident he had no idea what I was talking about. "Okay. Never mind then. Just eat." I wondered silently as I ate whether Kelsi was actually going to "out" me to the entire school. It'd be a very rude thing to do if she did. But then, I guess, I probably shouldn't have made that deal in the first place. It was kind of stupid, in retrospect. But Kelsi wouldn't do that, would she? That would be really mean.

"Ryan, dude, what'cha thinking about?" Troy asked.

"Some stuff," I said.

"Anything important?" Kelsi asked.

"Not really," I lied. No duh, it's important. Everything is important. Otherwise, I wouldn't care. Kelsi nodded and went back to her food, and I tried to convey to Troy that we needed to talk sometime by ourselves. He nodded, even though I'm pretty sure he had no idea what I was trying to convey.

"So, how about those…" Chuckie began. I looked at him, wondering if he was going to finish his sentence. "…toaster ovens." I had to try really hard not to laugh.

"Yeah, they're a pretty neat invention," Chad said. "You put the bread in, and then it dings, and you take toast out."

"Right, I mean, where does the bread go?" Chuckie asked. I had to try not to laugh again.

"It turns into toast," Troy said.

"Whoa, no way," said Chad. By this time, even I could tell that they were being overly sarcastic.

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it either," said Troy. I just rolled my eyes and ate my sandwich. Sandwiches are the best food in the world. I don't even really care what kind of sandwich, just something two pieces of something with lots of stuff in the middle.

"You guys are so immature," Taylor said, rolling her eyes and eating her sandwich.

"Where's Sharpay?" Kelsi asked suddenly. I looked around the table. I didn't know.

"Uh, she went back to the club," Troy said. "With Zeke."

"Random," Kelsi said. Everyone stared at her. "Well, it's not like they're really gonna do anything."

"Yeah," Chad agreed.

"And you can also put in, like, bagels and stuff," Chuckie said. "And those things that come in a box in your freezer. The timer dings and poof! Cooked food!"

"Yeah, it's amazing," Chad said, losing interest.

"But then there's also, like, those toasters with the rotating tray, so that you put your bread in and it goes through the back of the machine, and the toast comes out the front!" Chuckie continued. I wondered what the sudden interest in toasters was.

"Um, why the sudden interest in toasters?" Troy asked. Can he read my mind? That'd be cool, but also a little creepy. "No, I can't read your mind."

"Okay, that's weird," I said. Chad gave me another "I'll explain it later" look and I dropped it. I also tried not to think about anything too personal. I didn't know what Troy was doing, but he was darn good at it. "But, seriously, why the sudden interest in toasters?"

"They're an amazing invention!" Chuckie protested.

"Yeah, from, like, 1909," Taylor said. "Seriously, what's with the toaster?"

"A toaster oven is identified as the imaginary prize a lesbian receives for 'converting' a sufficient number of heterosexual women," Chuckie said. "It's from Ellen."

"Oh, I love Ellen DeGeneres!" Troy said. "She's so funny. I really liked Finding Nemo."

"I can speak Whale," Chad said. Everyone looked at him. "No, really, I can."

"Sure," Chuckie said. "Anyways, the reference to toaster ovens has become a common joke in the gay community since the episode of Ellen in which it was first introduced."

"Oh, so that's why the toaster ovens," Chad said. "Yeah, that doesn't make any sense."

"It seems to me like I've heard that," Troy said.

"Trying to tell us something, there, Troy?" Chad asked. His voice might have had a hint of warning in it.

"No," Troy said.

"It's on Wikipedia," Chuckie said. "On the page about toasters."

"Okay, if we're done with the toaster talk, I'm done with lunch, and kind of bored," Kelsi said.

"Well, what do you want to, oh Queen Kelsi?" I asked. She frowned at the nickname.

"I need to get home, actually," she said. "My parents will kill me if I stay too long."

"Um, okay," I said. "Do you want me to take you?"

"Actually," Taylor said, "we were just leaving. We can take her."

"That sounds good," Kelsi said. "I'll just go and get my stuff." She left the dining room and we heard her go up the stairs.

"You guys didn't have to do that," I said.

"I know," Taylor said, "but I gotta get home too."

"Thanks," I said.

"Don't mention it," she replied.


20 minutes later, the only kids left at my house were me, Troy, and Chuckie. Troy was Chuckie's ride home, and I didn't really mind him around. It was apparent, if not evident or even obvious, that Chuckie had served as the main, if not only, confidante for Troy, as Kelsi and Chad had been for me. More Kelsi, than Chad, but certainly Chad. We weren't exactly sure what we were going to do for the rest of the day, but I figured we could find something to do, because this was the Evans' Mansion, of course, and if all else failed, we could always watch another movie.

"So what are we gonna do?" I asked the other two boys.

"I don't know," Troy confessed. "Chuckie?"

"No idea," he said. "Usually in the afternoons, I like to sit down with a book."

"Yeah, I don't think it's come to that yet," I said. Reading is not exactly my strong point, unless it's a script or music of some kind.

"Okay, then, smarty-pants, what do you want to do?" Chuckie said, probably more forcefully than he meant to.

"No idea," I said. "Haven't hung with you guys, since, like, the eighth grade."

"There's probably a reason behind that," Troy said. I made a face as if to say "I know".

"I know," I said. Chuckie shuddered at the thought.

"Let's hope that never happens again," I said.

"Let's really, really, really hope that never happens again," Troy said.

"That's beyond weird," Chuckie said.

"Beyond weird?" Troy questioned. Chuckie nodded. "Okay, the talking bird wants to know if–"

"Do not finish that sentence, Troy Bolton! You know that makes me cry," Chuckie said. There were half-formed tears in his eyes. Animorphs is evidently a touchy subject around Chuckie. The whole quote is: "Weird? Weird? The talking bird wants to know if getting information on the location of an alien from a whale, that you've just saved from sharks, by turning into dolphins...You're suggesting that's weird?" It's from Book Four of Animorphs, which the greater power dictating the plot of my life does also not own, because if she did they would have ended better. Anyways…

"It was light-years beyond weird, but the weirdest part is how no one ever mentions it," I said. "And I know…blah, blah, blah, they asked us not to…blah, blah, blah…but it is a little strange."

"Now that you mention it," Troy said, "I don't actually remember them asking us not to talk about it. I think we all just decided we weren't going to talk about it."

"And, yet, here we are, talking about it," Chuckie said.

"Hmm, that is strange. Lucky none of the offending parties are present," I said, laughing. "Can you imagine if Sharpay showed up suddenly?" Chuckie was staring at something right behind me. "She's right behind me isn't she?" Troy laughed, and Chuckie stopped staring.

"No, but that was good," Troy said, slapping five with Chuckie. "So what are we going to do?"

"Well, we could do something besides discussing what we're going to do," I suggested.

"Wonderful suggestion," Troy said. There was a long pause. "And now what do you propose we do?" There was another long pause that was ended when Chuckie suddenly broke out into fits of laughter.

"Are you okay?" I asked him. He managed to nod and somehow otherwise convey that he was completely fine. "What is so funny?"

"Troy and Sharpay's wedding," Chuckie managed to get out. Troy's face went white and completely blank. I think my face probably did the same. Chuckie was still laughing his head off. Eventually, he spoke again. "This is gonna be the funnest thing we've done since eighth grade! Can I please be there when you tell her?" Troy was still too shocked to speak.

"You know, that's really…Troy's call," I said, looking at him. He was still totally blank, as if some invisible switch had been flipped in his brain, rendering him unable to say any words. I tried waving my hand in front of his face, but it didn't help. "Uh, any ideas on, uh, Troy?" I asked Chuckie, who, I thought, might know how to solve his problem.

"Uh, none that I can do," Chuckie said. I rolled my eyes. Oh, great. "No, but really I don't know. This has never happened before."

"Troy? Troy?! Troy! TROY!" I said, clapping in front of his face. He blinked and looked at me. "Troy?"

"Ryan?" Troy asked.

"Oh, nope, I was wrong, this has happened before," Chuckie said. "Not in a while though."

"Troy, are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be okay?" Troy asked.

"Because you were kind of out of it," I said.

"It happens every once in a while," Chuckie explained to me, "whenever someone brings up his and Sharpay's–" He lowered his voice "–wedding." I made a small noise, which should tell you that I was pretty much scared to death of Sharpay's wrath. Maybe that's why I hated Troy, anyways…that's not the point. At the time I was thinking something along the lines of God, he's gorgeous, and of course he was.

"Wedding," Troy said. "Wedding. God, what are we gonna tell Sharpay?"

"About…?" I prompted.

"This," Troy said. "Me. You. Us. Chuckie."

"What does he have to do with it?" I asked.

"Now there's a long story," Chuckie said, laughing. I just put that out of my head, it was between Chuckie, Troy, and God, and it was certainly none of my business. I looked at Troy, who was having a minor silent panic attack with the looming thought of now having to tell Sharpay about his "relationship" with her brother.

"She's not gonna take this well, is she?" Troy asked me. I thought about it. She could be very happy for us, but that didn't sound like her. She was most likely going to be furious.

"I'm sure she'll be…happy…maybe…" I said. "Okay, that's a lie. She's going to be as furious as Kelsi. We're going to have a lot of people on our asses, aren't we now? And by 'we', I mean 'you'," I clarified.

"Gee, thanks," Troy said.

"But it'll all be fine, because Ryan's there to pick you up after Sharpay's done with you," Chuckie laughed.

"Don't laugh," Troy said. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Chuckie asked. "I'm not the one dating her brother."

"Ha," Troy said. I still really wanted to leave that between them, so I wasn't going to say anything. And I was beginning to feel uncomfortable about the whole sitch; Troy and Chuckie discussing whatever they had been in my living room, while I looked on. "That's not exactly true, is it?"

"Well, it isn't now!" Chuckie said. "You've got your loverboy." Nice. They weren't exactly arguing. It was more like they were passing time by chatting about the weather. If that weather happened to be Troy and all the things under the sun that he had possibly ever done in the presence of anyone, ever.

"Well, I wouldn't withhold that particular bit of information from the school's gossip queen," Troy said.

"I wouldn't want you to miss your makeout session with her," Chuckie said. Their statements kept getting farther from each other, and it was clear that they had no idea what they were doing. "Oh, no, wait, that's Zeke. My mistake." That one didn't even make sense.

"Guys, you do realize how ridiculous you sound, right?" I said, because there was a lull as Troy could evidently not come up with anything in return.

"Yeah," they said in unison.

"Just telling you," I said. "Carry on." They didn't say anything else. "Okay. Are you done acting like 12 year olds?"

"Funny you should mention 12 year olds…" Chuckie said, causing Troy to laugh. I wondered what on earth they were talking about.

"It was the summer we were 12, Ry," Troy explained. "That's when it happened." What happened? "Remember? Sharpay and I 'broke up' except for not, and then you came and…it doesn't matter."

"Okay," I said. I honestly couldn't remember, but then I have so many musicals crammed in my brain, I was surprised I could even remember anything anymore. Besides, the summers were not my best times.

"Come to think of it," Chuckie said, "it was five years ago today. That's a coincidence."

"That's a joincidence with a c," Troy said, resulting in laughter again.

"You watch too much TV," I said, jokingly.

"There's not much else to do when you're me," Troy said. "Basketball and Thursday Night Shows."

"You lead a sad little life," Chuckie said. Troy laughed again, and I had the feeling I was missing something, but it didn't really matter to me. Like I said, I wasn't uncomfortable with having Chuckie around. It would have been different if Troy and I had made plans, but we hadn't, and I still wasn't quite settled in this whole Troy thing, and he knew that, which was why he had said that incredibly cheesy line during the movie that had served its purpose nonetheless. "Still playing Minesweeper?"

"Duh," Troy said. Something jogged in my memory, to about five years ago. I was at Troy's house. Why was I at Troy's house? Oh, yeah, we used to go over there a lot. "Minesweeper's the shit." Troy, Chuckie, Chad, and I had been standing on Troy' basketball court after a party with "the people", who were mostly basketball guys and cheerleaders, and me and Sharpay. Had they been together, even then? That seemed slightly implausible. We had been so young, after all.

"You're a dork," Chuckie said.

"I know," Troy said, "but you know you like it."

"Hell yeah," Chuckie said.

"Okay, this has gotten too weird," I said.

"Thank God," Chuckie said. "I was afraid we were going to have to get up and do something to get the point across."

"Yeah," Troy agreed. "It took you that long to realize this is weird?"

"No," I said. "Maybe. Yes. I don't know. I wasn't paying attention the whole time. And you sound really pathetic when you're pretending to argue."

"We know," Troy said, "but you know you like it."

"I do?" I asked.

"Of course," Troy replied confidently. Then he blinked and looked anxious. "Don't you?"

"Uh…" I began. I didn't know the answer. "I don't know."

"Give the boy some time," Chuckie said. "Geez."

"Can we do something more interesting than sitting around discussing ourselves?" Troy asked, now thoroughly bored.

"I don't know about that, but we could play a game," Chuckie said. "That one where you have to answer the questions or something like that."

"You mean 'never have I ever'?" I said.

"Yeah, that one," Chuckie said. "Like 'I Never' but without alcohol."

"Cuz that would be a shame," Troy said.

"You're not still drunk are you?" I asked. "You've been acting weird."

"Don't be silly," Troy said. "I got drunk enough last week to last a month."

"Okay, whatever," I said. "Let's play the stupid game."

"I'll start," Chuckie said. "Never have I ever…um…been in a school musical."

"Nice," Troy commented. "How are we going to keep score?"

"Way ahead of you," Chuckie said, showing us the paper he had set up as a way of scoring.

"Nice," Troy commented again. "My turn. Never have I ever…uh…wow this is hard…uh…wow, there's a lot of stuff I've done."

"Would you just go already?" I said, impatiently.

"Fine," Troy said. "Never have I ever had a sister." I have a sister, and evidently Chuckie also had a sister because we both lost that one.

"Okay, my turn," I said. "Never have I ever been on a basketball team." That was Troy and Chuckie.

"Damn," said Chuckie. "Never have I ever…been to Europe." That's me.

"Never have I ever voluntarily sung with Sharpay," Troy said.

"Are you guys trying to get me out?" I asked them, annoyed. They looked at each other.

"Yeah," they said.

"Okay," I said. "Sounds good. Never have I ever donned a British accent and talked about the clouds."

"So you do remember that day?" Chuckie asked.

"You do that all the time," I pointed out, even though they had done that one the particular day, 5 years ago, in question.

"Yeah, we do," Chuckie said. "Anyways, never have I ever been given some kind of ridiculous nickname by my mother." I laughed, because my mother calls me "Ducky" and I always thought it was funny.

"I am so bad at this," I complained.

"You know you're having fun," Troy said. "Never have I ever seen Hairspray." Damn.

"Fine," I said. "Never have I ever worked at a country club." About 20 minutes later, the game was still going on, and it was my turn again. "God, what else is there? Never have I ever…nope, I've done that…never have I ever wanted to move to Santa Fe and start a restaurant." The both of them stared at me. "I can't think of anything else I haven't done."

"Where the hell did that one come from?" Troy asked.

"RENT, obvi," Chuckie said. I was kind of surprised, even though he was right. "Anyways, you lose."

"I know, I think I was losing three seconds after we started," I said. "I figured I was going to anyways, I don't really know you guys that well."

"And if you're going to lose, you might as well lose in style," Chuckie said. "RENT's the shit."

"Hell, yeah," I said.

"Sure," Troy said.

"'Sure'," I mocked. "Seriously, have you even seen RENT?"

"Yeah," Troy said. "I just don't get the big deal with it. It's kinda sad, actually."

"Well, you're supposed to turn it off after La Vie Boheme," I said. "Then you don't have to see the sad parts."

"Sure," Troy said. He looked contemplative.

"What'cha contemplating, Troy?" I asked.

"I don't know," Troy said. "But, uh, I've gotta get home pretty soon. I said I'd be home by three."

"That's fine," I said. "I'll go back to the club. Wait, did I bring my car here? No. Hmm…" I was thinking out loud.

"Do you need a ride?" Troy asked me. I began to mumble something about calling Sharpay, but Troy cut me off. "Back to the club, it is, then. Come along, Chuckie."

"You guys aren't going to talk about the clouds again, are you?" I asked.

"No," said Chuckie. "It's still raining." I rolled my eyes. We all left the living room and traipsed out to Troy's truck, at which point we all crammed in. When we arrived at the club, I got out and thanked Troy for the ride and waved as they drove away. For some reason, as I walked up to my room, I felt as it I was walking on air. It was the weirdest feeling, but part of me knew it was right. The whole Troy business. It just felt right. And did I mention he's gorgeous?

A/N: Okay, so word. Um, I don't really have much to say, besides I don't own anything, I hoped you liked it, thanks for reading, and please review!!

Oh, and there were a lot of spoilers for the upcoming prequel in this chapter. And I hope you'll read that too when this one is finished. (But don't expect that anytime soon.) I'm getting out of the material I've had written for a while and becoming a lot less confident with everything written, so reviews are very, very, very appreciated. There's probably only one or two more chapters before I'm going to have to get over writer's block. Ugh.

Oh, and longest chapter yet (sorry.)

Samantha.