Yes, another chapter in one day. I'm so naughty, I should be doing homework instead. XD Hey, I'm a procrastinator. Whatchya gonna do? Luckily I work good under pressure. In eleventh grade I got the days mixed up that some kind of book of poems involving one theme we had to do for a term project was due, so I had to cram about half of the work into one night and was up till one in the morning finishing it. Still got a good grade. Somewhere in the high ninety's I think, so that has to be good. Don't you guys go doing that to (unless you're good under pressure too. XD). But yes, that is my random a/n for this chapter which probably meant nothing to you guys. So I'll keep you out of suspense and move on with the story! Oh wait, disclaimers and thank you's! xD So for the reviews thank you to digigirl02, Always-Here-Imani, ChaylorTwilightQueen10, lilmissmonique, suckmyanarchy, creativelyyourz, RamandusDaughter, 1angelette, and kadithecutie. Man I really hope there were no typos there. XD And as usual, I do not own HSM.
"RYAN!" Sharpay yelled for the umpteenth time that day.
Ryan moaned. Only one on Sunday afternoon and Sharpay was still giving him a hard time. Why did they agree to live under the same roof, again? Oh yeah, because they were twins and wanted to continue living together after college until at least one of them was married. At this point Ryan couldn't wait for Sharpay to leave. All she had was one minor cold or something and she was treating it like it'd be the end of her life. Not to mention what it was doing to his life. It was the last week of school for East High students and he was doing all the planning he could to make it special...well until finals week ruined everything but what were you going to do? Besides, Ryan had other plans to make. By the first week in July, hopefully earlier, Kelsi would be back in town. Yes, the sister he could actually stand. Ryan would choose her over Sharpay any day. And as of right now it wouldn't even be possible for Ryan to spend time with anyone, not with his sister ordering him around like this.
"RYAN!" she screamed again.
"I'm coming Shar!" Ryan replied a bit louder than he wanted to. He muttered angrily under his breath and picked up a tray of hot soup, bringing it into Sharpay's room. "Here's your soup oh royal sister of mine." He nearly slammed it onto her bed, but remembered that both of them would have a fit of the soup spilled so he actually put it down more carefully than he seemed to.
"Do I detect sarcasm?" Sharpay questioned.
"Sorry Shar, but you've had me up since six a.m. And it's not even a school day." Ryan replied. "I have a life too, you know. I can't nurture you every time you fall ill."
"Yeah well guess what, Zeke's busy as hell today so you have to stay here and help me." Sharpay replied. "It's not my fault I can't control when I get sick either Ry, you know that."
"I'm just saying is all." Ryan replied calmly. Honestly, sometimes he wondered what Zeke saw in her. Sharpay was so high-maintenance and always questioning how she looked, not to mention having a bit of an anger management issue. Ryan hated to think what would happen when it came to having kids. Hopefully Sharpay would adopt, because sometimes it looked as though she could get stressed over little things too easily. Even if one sparkle was out of place on her least favorite dress she'd throw a fit. Ryan shuddered at the thought. But hey, it was Zeke's fiancé and only Ryan's sister. He had no say in their love life. Well, he could object, but overall he had no say.
"So what if you're sick for the rest of the week?" Ryan inquired. "What about all those skits for the Senior Musical everyone had planned? Not to mention final chorus rehearsals?"
"You know, you were forced to some of those meetings for a reason." Sharpay muttered. "Hello, back-up teacher Ryan!"
Now why couldn't she have lost her voice instead of just have a fever? Ryan could only wonder. "I can't work those students like you can Shar. Sure, I'm co-head of the drama department with you, but the whole chorus thing is your area, not mine. I focus on the dancing."
"Yeah well Chorus has no dancing." Sharpay answered. "Just tell me that everything is up to speed for the week so I can plan ahead in case this cold does do me in."
Ryan sighed to himself. Ever the dramatic queen she was. He refrained himself from rolling his eyes as he briefly left the room to pick up a clipboard, which had the schedule of all major events on it. "Ok, I've got the schedule line-up first and the sheet underneath this should be the Senior Musical." he explained. He cleared his throat and started reading everything off, "Tomorrow is more rehearsals for Chprus during free period and a brief meeting to update everyone on the Senior Musical after school. Tuesday your drama class has its in-class final which means one less exam for them during exam week. Then after school it's dress rehearsal for the Senior Musical. There's another dress rehearsal for that Wednesday after school to prepare for the musical itself Thursday evening. Next up during the day Wednesday is a major practice day for your Chorus students followed by their individual exams slash performances Thursday during free period and possibly during lunch if more time is needed. And with Friday being the last official day of school that means celebration for all of our students during classes, or at least our classes. The week after that is all exams and we'll be given further notice during this week which exams we have to watch over and when our offices have to be cleaned out for the summer. Finally that Saturday is Graduation Day for the seniors so since we also have Stella and Sharon graduating we have to inform Gabriella and Chad so they can hand them diplomas."
"Details details. There's always gotta be some kind of rule where family members attending East High have to give away their siblings or relatives diplomas." Sharpay sighed, also causing a few grammatical errors in her speech due to the fever.
"Shar I really think we should go over this later. If you keep thinking too much you're going to get a headache to match that fever." Ryan stated.
"Ryan, are you the one sick in bed?" Sharpay questioned.
Ryan paused for a minute, a bit confused. He was standing, his head wasn't hurting, he was taking care of Sharpay...he hoped that didn't make him the sick sibling. "I...don't think so...."
"Exactly. Therefore, it's my body and I'll do what I want with it." Sharpay retorted.
Ryan sighed, not being given much a choice. "You're the boss."
"Now read me some of those skits for the musical." she ordered.
Ryan rolled his eyes. He turned the page on his clipboard and read from the list. "Well under the comedy portion for the musical we have Johnny and Mason, which will then have their song followed by the triplets..." he paused to try and read off all their names, "....Whose names I can't pronounce because they're in a foreign language."
"Or upside-down." Sharpay muttered.
"Huh?" Ryan asked.
"Nothing. Go on." Sharpay replied.
He turned back to the list, "You know we have a majority of the seniors doing the prom number, and we have Stella and Marco working on the romance portion of the musical which will be followed by Charlotte, Sharon, and Jessica doing their routine to dry the eyes in the house and really get the beat going. And then for a minor skit on what the students think they'll be doing after graduation there'll be Sam, Anthony, Richie, and Ashton with their band..." Ryan paused as his eyes widened. "Oh man, Ashton Kutcher is a student at East High?"
Sharpay hit her head. "No Ryan, that's Ashton Rodriguez!" she raised her voice. "Pay attention to the classes would you?"
"Oh...right...." Ryan nodded slowly, trying to recover from that. Man, one slip-up thinking of his favorite actor in high school and it follows him for life. "Ok so anyway then we're brought back to the present time with everyone portraying their dream last day of school, holding the first half of the seniors which is followed by that musical number with the other half." he continued with the list. "And finally we end it off with introducing the majority of the seniors, or at least the ones who had a part in the show, and make it similar to graduation day but much quicker and simpler with the junior chorus singing in the background."
"Fabulous." Sharpay smiled. "Ryan, everything is perfect and completely under control. I don't think we have a thing to worry about."
"Sure we don't." Ryan nodded. He heard an odd ring coming from his cell phone, indicating that he had a text message. He took it out and read the message. "And now I have to leave." he said quickly, heading for the door.
"What?" Sharpay gasped. "Ryan, I can't be fabulous on my own while I'm sick in bed for the day!"
Ryan turned to his sister. "So take a nap. It'll do you good and help you recover faster." he stated. "I have some place that I need to go."
"Can't it wait?" Sharpay demanded.
"Not really, no." he shook his head. "Shar just trust me on this?"
"Ryan!" she gasped.
"I'll be back in plenty of time to make dinner, I swear." Ryan added quickly. "See you in a few hours!" Not giving her the chance to argue again, he was out.
Sharpay huffed and folded her arms. "Fine Ryan. You wanna be that way? Then leave! Go ahead and leave and get out of my house!"
And conveniently right after that, she could hear the front door close.
~HSM~HSM~HSM~
"Thanks for letting us rehearse here, Troy." Stella said less than an hour later as she and the remainder of the senior chorus sat around the community theater. "We really need the practice for this, especially after Mrs. Baylor had us do the same song for graduation over and over again."
"Again, she's not hitched yet." Sharon muttered from the side.
"Guys it's no problem." Troy grinned. "Besides this gives me the chance to see if the stage can handle a little action."
"Wait, you mean it's going to explode and take us down with it?" Johnny gasped, who was sitting at the edge of the stage. "Dude, I'm gettin off this thing!" He jumped off the edge and nearly ran half way across the room.
"Man I feel sorry for whoever has to sing with him on graduation day with this skit." Sharon muttered.
Charlotte blinked and exchanged glances with Marco. "Uh Sharon...I think you're his partner for that." she stated.
"You said what now?" she gasped. "How do I get stuck with Crazy VonCrazyburg over there?"
"Well maybe if you were a little nicer to him..." Charlotte shrugged.
"And maybe if you weren't so perky all the time..." Sharon retorted.
"Maybe if there wasn't always something to tick someone off or make someone else overly happy..." Marco sang to himself.
"Guys." a voice interrupted.
The teens turned their heads to Robby, who had pretty much been the invisible student most of the time. He was the tallest of the boys in the chorus and was known to wear either baggy clothes for colder days or tight clothes for warmer days or dancing. He looked intimidating at first, but he was really much nicer than he seemed. Now Robby was walking over to the group as some dark dirty blond bangs fell in front of his face.
"Really, shouldn't we just stay calm about everything? Why does there always have to be drama with the six of us?" he asked. He looked at the other five, who were silent. "Look obviously we're not gonna be happy with every result we get. So we might as well learn to work with it all. If you don't like something, make it work."
Troy nodded and grinned at the teenager. He was a lot smarter than anyone gave him credit for. "Well said, Rob."
Robby nodded a thank you to Troy before turning back to the others. "So what do you say? How about we start working on some of those moves Mr. Evans taught us and we'll be prepared for when he comes?" he suggested. "This is all for his sister and to make it a graduation that no one will forget. It's only for the eight of us to know, and no one else. So let's not make this secret a bad kept one. Let's enjoy it while it lasts so we can build everything up to perfection."
The five exchanged glances and seemingly agreed without saying a word. It did make this most sense, after all. And even if Robby wasn't around all the time or if he was known as a quiet boy he would always speak up when it was needed most. He always said what they wanted to hear. They all then turned to look at Stella, mainly the peacemaker of the group herself. She nodded and turned to Robby.
"Robby would you like to lead the dance today?" she inquired.
"Who, me?" he blinked.
"Really." Charlotte nodded. "Sharon and I may be the best dancers here, or so Mr. Ryan says, but you're plenty good yourself. It's your turn to take the spotlight."
"What do you say?" Stella asked. "The honor's all yours today."
Robby nodded to himself as he looked around at his peers. They all seemed to agree and appeared content with the decision. He clapped his hands together quietly. "It'll be my pleasure." he agreed. He stepped closer to the group. "Ok so Marco and Stella how about you guts start off with your portion of the song? We can work on vocals in between doing the main moves. So then I'll follow with Charlotte and after Johnny and Sharon do their thing we'll wrap it up as a group."
Troy smiled as the students seemed to reach an agreement. He had to admit, Ryan and Sharpay certainly taught them well. It brought him back to his days at East High, remembering how he and his friends used to work everything out. It wouldn't be too long now before these students were in his shoes, Troy was sure.
Deciding to leave them to it, at least until Ryan arrived, Troy pulled out his phone and gave Gabriella a call. He knew she'd be home today, since it was technically her day off anyway. He smiled when he heard her answer her phone.
"Hey Wildcat." she greeted.
"Hey Gabs. How's it going?" Troy asked.
"Not bad. I'm watching Dylan right now while Taylor and Chad are out." Gabriella answered.
"Doesn't Chad have a business to run?" Troy raised an eyebrow.
"That's what I thought." Gabriella shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he's going to sell it or something."
"That'll be a sight." Troy said to himself.
"What was that?" Gabriella wondered.
"Nothing." Troy lied quickly.
"Right." she nodded slowly. "So how's it going with everyone at the theater?"
"Great actually. Ryan should be on his way over by now and one of the students is really stepping up." Troy replied. "So I thought I'd see how things were going on your end before we started working out butts off."
"Well don't work yours too hard. You'll need it in eight months." Gabriella giggled.
"I'll be sure to stay in one piece." Troy nodded with a smile. "Bet on it."
"I will." she agreed with a grin. She overheard Dylan in the background crying. "Hold on Troy." she said quickly.
Troy nodded as he heard Gabriella put the phone down for a minute. He could overhear her in the background trying to calm Dylan down. He wondered what happened. Maybe he tripped over something? Did he hit his head? Oh man, what would happen when Troy would have to deal with this? In pretty much over a year now when his own kid would be walking and everything? Dang it! No wait...it was supposed to be a happy occasion. Troy would be just that. Nervous yes, but happy as well. He had to remember that.
"Troy I'm sorry, but I have to go. I think Dylan wants Taylor." Gabriella apologized.
"Wait, he doesn't want Chad anymore?" Troy asked, now lost. Dill couldn't possibly still be hating on Chad could he?
"I don't know." Gabriella admitted. "Call me when you're finished there ok? Love you."
"Yeah. Love you too." Troy nodded. He hung up his phone as he heard the click on the other end.
~HSM~HSM~HSM~
"Ok Gabriella." Taylor said into her phone about fifteen minutes later. "I'll be there shortly, ok? Give me ten minutes. We're waiting on that final paperwork."
"Ok but Dylan is really asking for you." Gabriella replied uneasily.
Taylor sighed. "Ok, put him on. But then I have to hang up." she caved. Less than a minute later, Taylor was taken aback to hear Dylan crying on the other end. "Dylan what's wrong?" she asked.
"When are you coming back? I wanna go home." he moaned.
"I'll be there soon. I just have to finish up with something." Taylor promised.
"But I want you now. Taylor please." Dylan begged.
"Dylan please wait ten minutes. You have to be patient." Taylor replied. "I'm not right next door. I have to finish up here. You're fine with Gabriella."
"But I want you." Dylan sobbed.
Taylor sighed. What was it going to take to get through to him? Wait a minute.... "How about if you calm down then you can have a cookie before dinner?" she offered. Yeah, that really was a horrible idea. But just this once, if it would keep him quiet.
"Chocolate chip?" he asked hopefully.
"As soon as..." she paused. She couldn't call Chad's home their home. They weren't technically living there. And if she did call it their home then Dylan would think they'd be there to stay. But there was the problem; they weren't. Taylor sighed and moved some hair out of her face. "As soon as we leave Gabriella's house." she finished. "I'll see you soon." She sighed as she hung up her phone and leaned back in the chair of the office.
Chad looked at her, sensing some uneasiness. "Is everything ok?" he asked her.
"More or less." she muttered. "I know Dylan's still young but he has to learn that I can't always be there when he wants me to. I have other obligations."
"Of course you do." Chad nodded. "He just doesn't understand that is all."
"Remind me again why I agreed to this?" Taylor sighed.
Chad put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Because you practically are his mother. You couldn't let him go." he replied.
"Ok now you're scaring me." she scrunched her face. "What do you know about motherhood?"
"Well it all starts when they give-" Chad started.
"Please don't mention the end of that sentence." Taylor cut him off. "I know how it all starts."
"But you asked." Chad said.
"And now I'm changing it to a hypothetical question which means it doesn't have to be answered." she replied.
Chad sighed and folded his arms. "You have an answer for everything." he stated.
Taylor shrugged and smiled. "I try."
"Ah Ms. McKessie there you are." a man smiled as he walked into the room. "I just worked out the last bit of details with Brian in the other room."
Taylor straightened her position in her seat. "And?" she inquired, casually fixing her skirt.
"And everything is all said and done. And I must say, Brian couldn't be happier about his son going to someone else." the man smiled. He handed her the paperwork and left the room.
Taylor smiled as she clutched the paper in her hands. "I think this makes it all worth it." she told Chad, turning to him.
"I'd say it does." Chad grinned as he wrapped an arm around her. "Congratulations, you have a healthy baby boy." he joked.
"Very funny Chad." she rolled her eyes sarcastically. She got out of her seat and stood him down. "But seriously, the next time I hear something like that I want it to be from a real serious doctor and I want it to officially be my own. I actually want to hear that someday." She pointed her finger at his chest and had a serious look in her eyes as she said it. Taylor meant every word; she didn't want to go through the same things again and no matter who it was with, she knew what she wanted.
And obviously Chad knew, too. He stood out of his seat as Taylor poked her finger into his chest. He could see the serious look in her eyes, knowing how much she wanted it. "You will." he promised, gently taking her hand in his own. He had a soft yet serious look in his eyes and his tone indicated that he wouldn't stand in her way again, that it would eventually happen. "Believe me, you will."
Well this chapter had a bit of everyone, don't you think? It had all the six main Wildcats in it and also reminded us of S&Z. There also looked like there were a few hints of R&K, don't you think? That has to be setting up for something. But you know I'm not giving anything away, I'm just saying. And as I was typing this up I also fixed some errors I found in Chapter Seventeen. I know there's probably plenty more in the other chapters but like I said, I will get to them all when I have a chance. But at least now it's one less chapter to worry about. xD Ok so I don't know if I'll be able to get in any more chapters tonight, but like I mentioned in the pervious one, feel free to suggest ideas if you want to read something. But just so you know the definites that will be coming up before the story's end: will Troy and Gabriella decide to have their wedding before the baby is born?; when will Ryan actually get with Kelsi?; and when is Dylan gonna warm up to Chad again so the three of them can actually start to become a kind of family, or at least give hints to it before the epilogue? Ok, me is done now.