Kelsi Neilson groaned into the darkness of her bedroom and rolled over in her bed to check the time on her alarm clock. It was one-thirty in the morning; what in the world had waked her up?!

And then she suddenly noticed, jolting awake as she did so. Her cell phone was ringing. At one-thirty in the morning! She grappled blindly at her side table until she gripped the phone.

Whoever was calling her apparently had no concept of time, nor did they know what sort of a dormant, sleeping beast they had awakened. It was not a good idea to mess with Kelsi once she was snuggled deep within the comfortable cocoon of her blankets.

"This had better be good," she muttered as she squinted at the caller ID.

The name "RYAN EVANS" glared back up at her.

Okay, she had imagined (or was the better word "fantasized?") many a time about Ryan calling her and becoming as interested in her as she was in him, but still… the time…

She sighed a little and answered anyway, deciding that since it was Ryan, she didn't really mind. Besides, considering the hour – which he had to have noticed – she certainly hoped that he was considerate enough to call only because he actually needed something.

"Hello?" Kelsi winced, realizing how out of it she sounded, so she cleared her throat and tried again. "Do you need something, Ryan?"

"Can't you hear him?" Ryan asked, the desperation in his tone coming clearly through even the bad reception of her cellphone. "He won't stop crying!"

"Who?" Kelsi tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes as she turned on a bedside lamp, located her glasses, and slid them on. "I thought the screaming was Sharpay."

"No, not this late; she would usually be out cold by now. It's Sebastian!"

"Really? I thought that he was going to be a quiet baby."

"Yeah, well, so did I, but apparently he's been saving up all of his scream time to use on me in the middle of the night."

"What do you want me to do about it, Ryan?"

"I don't know; maybe just be miserable with me? I only called you because I wasn't really thinking and didn't know what else to do."

"Alright, alright." Kelsi put her head in her hand, swinging her legs over the side of her bed and propping her arm on her knees. "I…" she eased her way onto her feet and stumbled over to her dresser. "I'm going to come over to your house."

"What?"

"I'm coming over to your house." Kelsi repeated. "Where is it?"

"Um…" Ryan rattled off the address, sounding almost as dazed now as she had a minute ago.

And now she was as awake as he was as she answered, "Alright; I'm on my way."

Kelsi hung up on him then, and pulled on some clothes that she wouldn't mind being seen outside the house in. She stuck her cellphone in her pocket, pulled on a pair of tennis shoes, shut off the lamp, and moved to crack open the door of her bedroom. A quick scan showed that her parents and brother were asleep in their rooms, like all normal people were right now. So she slipped quietly out of her room, down the hallway, and out the front door. Kelsi slid into the driver's seat of her car and cringed at the noise of the vehicle starting. She backed out of the driveway and started towards the Evans' mansion.

With any luck she would be back before her parents could realize that she had left at all.

When she made it to the Evans' home, she was relieved to see that Ryan was waiting to let her in, and slightly annoyed to see that Sebastian was silent now.

"Sorry," Ryan whispered as he let her into the house. "He stopped only a couple of minutes after we hung up. I'm really sorry."

Kelsi sighed. "Oh well, that's the way it is with real babies, I guess."

Ryan shrugged and started leading her up the staircase of the house that was dormant except for the two of them. "So, did your parents actually let you out of the house at this hour? I mean, obviously they did, but are they okay with it?"

"Actually… they don't know that I'm here."

Ryan arched his blond eyebrows as he opened the door to a room and whispered, "You snuck out of your house?"

"Only this once, and I'll be home before they even know that I left."

She went into the bedroom and stood in the middle of the room. Ryan waited until she was inside and then followed suit before shutting the door to block the noise of their voices from the rest of the people in the house.

His eyebrows went to new heights. "You mean that this is the first time that you've snuck out of the house? And you're how old? And you did it for me!"

"I did it for Sebastian," Kelsi contradicted, her cheeks flushing. "And the only reason that it's my first time is because I don't have Sharpay around to lead me on ridiculous ventures."

"Or a boyfriend?"

Kelsi nodded, repeating. "Or a boyfriend."

"Why not?" Ryan asked, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Because I'm waiting on someone in particular," she replied, lifting her nose into the air a little.

"Jason?" Ryan asked after a barely noticeable pause, a barely noticeable flicker of disappointment across his fair features.

Kelsi snorted, flopping down beside him. "No, definitely not Jason."

"Who then? Zeke? because I'm pretty sure that Zeke is available now, if he's who you're talking about."

"No! Not Zeke!" Kelsi paused in trying not to laugh, asking, "Wait; how do you know that Zeke is 'available now?'"

Thus she saved herself from having to tell him that he was the guy that she was waiting on.

"Well, the only girl that he's interested in is Sharpay, and Sharpay is most definitely interested in someone else."

"Oh?" Kelsi leaned back against the palms of her hands, cocking her head to the side to show that he had caught her attention. "Who is it and should we help them?"

"I'm pretty sure that we've helped more than enough," Ryan declared, almost sourly.

Kelsi felt a shoot of concern as she asked, "Oh?"

"You remember how I called and told you that Sharpay was going to go pick up Sparkle? Well, when she came back, she had Chad with her too. They disappeared into her bedroom and he didn't leave until after supper, since Shar talked him into staying to eat with us. Have you ever known Sharpay's pout to work on Chad before?"

"No," Kelsi answered, wrinkling her nose.

Ryan huffed, "Well, it did today."

"While they were in her room, do you think that they were…" Seeing the look on Ryan's face, Kelsi wisely let the thought trail off, but he answered the question anyway.

"No, I popped my head in her room a few of times just to make sure, but they weren't doing... it. I think they were, I don't know, hanging out and playing house in there because of having Sparkle with them. But I caught them kissing once."

They sat in silence for a second while Kelsi digested this shocking information.

"Chad and Sharpay…" she repeated. What is the world coming to?

"Yeah. I'll admit it; her twin or not her twin, I did not see that one coming."

"I guess our plan worked a little better than we had expected it to, huh?"

Ryan shook his head ruefully. "Yeah, really."

"Hey, wait just a second!" Kelsi had the thought to be miffed with him. "All of this was going on and you didn't call to tell me!?"

Ryan paused before admitting, "I was so startled myself and too busy thinking about Sharpay; I guess it didn't even cross my mind."

It was almost two in the morning and Kelsi was getting loopy, so she decided to have a little bit of fun with him.

She sniffed dramatically, "Well then! Don't I feel special!"

"You are special, Kels."

The seriousness of her tone wiped away every last bit of her playfulness as she turned to look at him. "What did you say?"

"I said that you're special, that I like you. A lot."

"You do?"

"Yeah," Ryan laughed a little, looking as nervous as she had ever seen him. "I do."

"I like you too," she whispered softly, and not just out of courtesy for Ryan's sleeping family members.

Ryan smiled. "Would you maybe… like to go somewhere Friday night… on a date?"

"I'd like that a lot," Kelsi agreed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to stop grinning for the next four hours.

Ryan's smiled broadened and he leaned over, kissing her quickly. The kiss was electrifying, waking her up to where she was in comparison to the conversation that they were having. She did not need the added temptation of already being in Ryan's bedroom in the middle of the night.

She sprung up from the bed. Seeing Ryan's look of concern, seeing that he thought that he had done something wrong, she hurried to reassure him.

"I just now realized what time it is. I need to get home. We've both got school tomorrow, and if by some chance my parents do find out that I left, I'll be dead meat. I just… it would be really nice to stay for a little bit longer, and you're fine, but I've got to get back home now."

Ryan nodded, although Kelsi wasn't sure that her rambling had been enough to convince him that he hadn't done something wrong. He stood up and they walked quietly to the front door together.

He stepped outside to see her off, and before she went to get in her car, while still standing on the Evans' front porch, she rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips.

"Good night, Ryan," she murmured.

He smiled at her, truly reassured now and answered, "'Night, Kels. Thanks for coming over."

"Any time," she replied with a grin. "After all, it was well worth it."

Sorry that it took me so long to post this chapter! I've been distracted with the start of school and some fiction writing. It's the longest chapter yet, though! Reviews would still make my day full of unicorns and rainbows, though! Thanks, everybody!:)