Chapter 21

Ryan and I spent that Saturday night cuddling on the sofa in my living room and watching scary movies on DVD. Not that any of them were really that scary; I guess when you've been in an actual fight for your life against things that should not be, it robs horror movies of their ability to do more than make you giggle.

I awoke at ten the next morning, a loud banging coming from the front door. I tried to roll over and ignore it, but it came again, louder.

"I'm trying to sleep, Sharpay." Ryan mumbled in his sleep.

The thunderous knock came again, and I guessed that whoever it was wasn't going to go away anytime soon.

I left Ryan under his stolen covers and slipped on some boxers before heading downstairs. I looked through the peephole, and sure enough Sharpay and the boys were standing there. How did she manage to knock that loud?

I opened the door and invited them in.

"Oh, did I wake you?" Sharpay asked, after surveying my unclothed state.

"Yeah."

"Well, it's time to do some more planning."

I rolled my eyes, and then stifled a laugh. Joey was staring at me and blushing. Jesse followed his boyfriend's gaze and then cuffed the back of his head.

"Ow. What?"

"Don't get any ideas Teen Wolf Too, you're mine."

Sharpay laughed as she wandered into the living room. "Go get some clothes on, and wake Ryan up." She called.

I sighed and went up stairs. I prodded Ryan until his eyes opened and stayed open. "Your sister's here." I said.

He groaned and nodded. "I thought I heard her gently rapping on your door."

"You call that gentle?"

"For her. There wasn't any screaming."

"Well come on, get up." I said, pulling him into a sitting position.

"I don't suppose there's time for a shower?" He asked with a wink.

"I wish. But she's downstairs with all the kitchen implements and I don't feel like being gutted today."

"I'd say she wouldn't really do it. But she knows it wouldn't kill you."

"Exactly."

I walked to the closet and threw one of Ryan's shirts to him, then put on a blue t-shirt of my own. Ryan buttoned up his shirt, and then took a pair of my jeans out of the closet. We stumbled downstairs a few minutes later.

"I ordered pizza for breakfast boys, hope you're in the mood for extra sausage." Sharpay said as we entered the living room and collapse onto the sofa.

"Mmm… sausage…" Ryan said with a nasty wink at me.

Joey blushed again and Jesse laughed.

Sharpay rolled her eyes. "I wish Gabriella was here to save me from this sausage fest."

"She's still grounded, and if we took her with us to Arizona there'd be a race between her mom and Kelsi's to see who could kill us first." I said.

"So, Sis, did you find out anything new to justify this early morning intrusion?" Ryan asked.

"No. But we need to accept that we may not be able to find out where it is, and we may have to go for it anyway." Sharpay said.

Ryan sighed. "Well we can only go during the new moon. Which means, this week, or in a month."

"I don't think we're going to be ready for anything this week." Jesse said.

"But, we won't have to worry about getting time off from work if we go this week." I said.

"Sharpay, you can get us the time off if we need it, right?" Joey asked.

Sharpay snorted. "Just who do you think you're talking to? Of course I can."

"So nothing came from Arizona State?" Jesse asked, looking at me.

"Nope. I guess you applied too late." Ryan answered for me.

"Okay. If we're going to plan let's plan. To start with, are we even sure it's going to be in the anthropology building at ASU?" I said.

"Where else would it be?" Sharpay asked.

"I don't know. A lab in another building maybe?"

Jessed nodded. "He's right. It's not a big building, they might not keep everything there."

"Is there anyway we can get in touch with the archaeologist who supervised the dig? Maybe pretend that one of you," Joey pointed at Ryan and Sharpay, "is interested in what they may have found?"

Shapray shook her head. "No. I tried that already, she's in Mexico at some Mayan ruins or something."

"So right now all we've got is to break into the building, conduct a room by room search, and hope that not only is the tablet there, but that we find it before security finds us?" I asked.

Jesse and Joey nodded.

"Well, it sounds insane when you say it like that." Sharpay said.

"Sis, it is insane." Ryan said.

"Not as insane as the times we've gone down into that nasty sewer." She said.

"Just because we're known for our bad judgment, is no reason to fuck this up." I said, glaring at her.

Sharpay sighed. "Fine. If any of you can think up a way to find out more, I'm all ears."

"Well, someone said that there is summer school there, so we can look around the building during the day. Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll be on display. At least we can rule out where it isn't." Jesse said.

"Yeah, but I'd rather not leave this to luck." I said, thinking of just how little I ever wanted to see the thing in the lake again.

"Well, we have what, four or five more months? If we don't find it on the first trip we can go back until we do." Sharpay said.

Ryan shook his head. "We can maybe pull it off twice. After two break-ins during the new moon the local Oborotni will have the place staked out."

"This would be so much easier if we didn't have to worry about them." Joey said.

"Yeah, yeah it would. But we do." I said.

"Okay. So it's settled then. We go during the first week in July, which means we have a month to do whatever research we can." Sharpay said with a smile.

"I don't remember agreeing to that. But I guess we don't have a choice. Not that we ever do." I said.

The doorbell rang, and I went with Sharpay to get the stack of pizzas, there was one for each of us, and an order of hot wings. I carried the stack into the living room and set it on the coffee table. I handed Ryan the top box, and took one for myself before re-joining him on the sofa. Sharpay took the hot wings, and curled up in my dad's favorite chair, while Joey and Jesse attempted to split a pizza before giving up and each devouring one of their own.

"You're sure I'm not going to start gaining weight?" Joey asked.

Sharpay laughed at him. "Positive."

Ryan spent the entire week at my house. We spent most of our time cuddling and watching DVDs or meeting Jesse and Joey at the coffee house for more hookah. All too soon the week was over, and it was time to return to Lava Springs for work.

The clubhouse was bigger then I remembered it, after the archaeologists had finished with the dig site, the planned expansion had been allowed to be completed. None of us had been there since the night Zeke died, and we all avoided the pool area, except for Gabriella who had to work there. On Gabriella's recommendation Jesse was given Taylor's job from the year before, Joey was relegated to the waiter/caddy position, and I was once again hired as an assistant golf-pro. I didn't think it was possible, but the kids this year were somehow worse than the one's last year. I spent my first day back dodging flying driving wedges. These kids made Mrs. Evans look safe.

I had time for a quick lunch with Ryan, who was fresh out of the spa. His skin was glowing as we ate.

"How do you do that?"

"What?"

"Glow."

He blushed. "Guacamole facial. You should try it."

"With what, chips?" I asked.

He laughed. "Nah, it would need more salt for that."

After that I returned to the edge of the vast golf course, and left Ryan to begin his rehearsals for the midsummer night's talent show. I was just glad Sharpay didn't want me to sing with her this year. I had the kids try putting, hoping that it would be safer; at least the clubs flying at my head were coming slower now.

I closed my eyes and reminded myself why I was doing this. I had a house payment to worry about now, and more bills than any teenager should be saddled with. I was proud I'd managed to get everything paid in time to prevent anything being turned off, thought it had been close on the electric bill twice now. My mom had left me plenty of money, but if I didn't start adding to my savings, it was only a matter of time before it was all gone.

I almost envied Ryan, almost. But I guessed that dodging golf clubs was still better than spending the day rehearsing with Sharpay. Especially since she knew she wouldn't be able to plot her way into having the staff kicked out of the talent show this year. At least he'd been able to convince his sister into using one of Kelsi's pieces.

It was strange being at the country club again. Things were almost like they'd been last year, yet so very different. I wasn't with Gabriella anymore; instead I was engaged to the greatest man in the world. Chad and Taylor weren't here, and I didn't think I'd ever see either of them again. Zeke was dead, in fact he'd died here. Martha was dead. Ryan had been bitten here. I'd been bitten here. Sharpay had been bitten here. Gabriella learned her father was alive here. And yet, despite all the horrible and wonderful things that had happened here, it felt like it had last year, almost.

I dodged another putter. "Okay kids. That's it for today, time to go find your parents." I announced ten minutes early, but I didn't think Fulton would notice, and even if he did I didn't think he'd find it worth taking on the boyfriend of an Evans.

I met Ryan at the Evans's villa after work. I didn't really know why they found it necessary to maintain a second house when they only lived forty-five minutes away, but at least the villa wasn't as imposing as the mansion. I spent the first night there, much to Sharpay's feigned horror, but we felt compelled to return to my house each night for the rest of the week to check and see if anything had arrived from Arizona State for Jesse. Nothing did.

We held another planning meeting at my house that Saturday, three weeks before we'd decided to go. Sharpay had already arranged for the three of us that were working at Lava Springs to get the week of July Fourth off, and we were able to persuade Sharpay that there was no use in showing up before noon. None of them looked too happy when they arrived.

"What's going on guys?" I asked as they came in and sat down.

Ryan came in from the kitchen carrying a large bowl of cereal.

"We might have trouble." Joey said.

Sharpay nodded. "I tried to get in touch with that archaeologist again, but she's dead."

"What?" Ryan asked, taking a seat at my side.

"I found an article from a Mexican paper, most of her team is missing, but they found her body in the ruins."

"Do you guys think someone, well something else is after the tablet?" I asked.

Joey nodded. "Either that or she had a habit of digging in places where she shouldn't."

"Well, if that's all it is, then it's Meli's problem now. But if someone else knows about the tablet…" Sharpay said.

"Who could possibly know about it, Sis?" Ryan asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know. How does the thing in the sewers? Maybe it and Meli aren't the only one's old enough to remember it."

I sighed. "Why can't things ever be easy?"

Ryan draped his arm around my shoulders and looked to Jesse. "What about the university, has anyone broken in?"

Jesse shook his head. "If they did, it didn't make the papers."

"I guess that's something." I said.

"So do we go sooner?" Jesse asked.

Ryan shook his head now. "No. It's getting too close to the full moon, there's no way we won't be found. We'll just have to hope that if someone is after the tablet, they'll have to worry about the local Oborotni too."

"Which either means that they don't, and the tablet will be long gone before we get there, or they do, and we'll be trying to break in at the same time." I said.

"I do have some good news though. I found a floor plan online, for helping new students find their classrooms, and it looks like everything is usually kept in that building, they have some labs and storage rooms in the basement."

"Usually?" Ryan asked.

"Unless they sent it to one of the engineering or science buildings for dating."

"And that means we could still go to all the trouble of breaking in and not find it." I said.

Jesse nodded. "It's a small chance. But it also means that if someone else is looking for it, they might have the same problem."

"Unless they found out where it was from the professor before they killed her." Joey said.

"Okay. So we need to get there as soon as possible, so we'll leave when you guys get off work that Friday, and then we need to watch our backs for whatever else might be looking for this stupid thing." Sharpay said. "Oh, and don't think this excuses any of you from doing the summer talent show." She paused and looked at Jesse. "Except for you, Jesse. Letting you near the stage would be like letting sock puppets back in."

Ryan stifled a laugh. Jesse looked relieved.

"And, I've found the perfect way to make sure the staff doesn't upstage me this year." Sharpay said with a wicked smiled.

I could already guess what it was, but some impulse drove me to ask anyway. "What?"

"You'll all be performing with me of course. We start rehearsing at the mansion tomorrow, eight in the morning, don't be late."

Joey and I both groaned. Ryan patted my back.

The next day was brutal. Sharpay had coerced Kelsi into writing something faster than her normal style, and Ryan had worked out some insane choreography for it. I didn't know how he expected me to do half the stuff he'd come up with, but somehow he managed to walk me through it all, even though I didn't remember half of it by the end of the day.

Sharpay was the real slave driver though, there were exactly two weeks until the night of the show, and she wanted everything to be perfect, or in her words, 'fabulous'. I was reminded of combat training with Jason's dad more than once.